The Clean Water Plant (CWP) in Three Rivers experienced a discharge of biosolids from the treated storage tank via a “foam over” in the early morning hours of Wednesday (April 4).
According to a news release from CWP Director James Baker, the discharge volume was estimated at 600 gallons.
The discharge entered the St. Joseph River through the storm drains in Lincoln Street.
CWP crews responded immediately to stop the discharge and to clean the street.
Water samples will be taken from the river to ensure that there has been no impact to the environment. Due to the dilution factor of the St. Joseph River, which flowed at a rate of 1.5 billion gallons per day during the discharge, there is very little threat to the environment.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has been notified.
Source: News release from James Baker, Clean Water Plant director
I think I’m going to add this article and title to my collection articles with similarly hilarious titles…..
“Clean Water Plant in TR Experiences Biosolids Discharge”…….and it’s still called the Clean Water Plant…. that’s fricken priceless.
Definition of Irony: A 40% increase in sewer rates to pipe waste 8 miles to the North only to have some of it floated back to us down river for free.
The good news is that in that stretch of river we have both Crappie and Crappy…both are regulated by the state but only one has a daily catch limit…..use LOT’s of tartar sauce on the other species though.
I wonder if they will add this to the “Not so Pure-Michigan” website.
I’m glad you enjoyed the headline. Frankly, I didn’t realize how clever I was in writing it until you brought the phrasing to my attention. Thanks for the chuckle!
Bruce Snook
River Country Journal
Thank you for being such a good sport Bruce. Love the articles and the site. Keep up the great work!!!!
What’s the difference between a foam over and a spill?
When does circulation become spin?
Ernie,
OK, you ask what’s the difference between a foam over and a spill. I’ll give you one man’s interpretation both the right wing industrialists perspective and one analogy from the left also..
OK, first the right wing industrialist analogy. Say your 9 gallons per mile SUV backs in to one of those cute little plastic highway construction cones and it bursts in to flames. You as a driver narrowly escape with your life, but all of the “Obama Sucks” bumper stickers in the back that you were on the way to deliver to tomorrow’s Tea Party rally, go up in smoke along with your two chihuahua’s in the pet carrier in the back and have to now be renamed “regular” and “extra crispy”. You as the driver in all common sense, and anguish would call that event a tragic “car fire”. However, if you were the ultra conservative defense attorney or the spokesperson for the manufacturer of said automobile….in your responsibility to insure the well being of the company’s employees, stockholders, etc…..you might label the outcome of those unfortunate series of incidents as a “thermal event” (interestingly enough, Democrats might call that Karma, but I digress). But its all the same kinda wordsmithing….I think.
OK, Ernie, you tend to lean a bit the left at times so I’ll use an analogy that you might relate to a smidge better. You know the frothy cream foam with the chocolate sprinkles they put on your mocha double decaff vanilla cappuccino?. OK, so if your driving down the road using your crotch for the cup holder because the other 27 cup holders in your Prius Hybrid are full of “Romney Blows” campaign buttons, as you’re driving along at a comfortable 33 mph in a posted 35 mph speed limit, and you have to make a slow predictable stop with your slightly overfilled cup whose frothy contents hang in the balance.….The ensuing leak of surface foam stain splashed from your Barackacino on your khaki’s might be considered more of a “foam over”.
However, if you were attempting to contain that same cup in the aforementioned crotch cup holder while exceeding the sound barrier ever so slightly, and a deer darted out in front of you at the same time your driver’s side front tire hit a cavernous pot hole. The involuntary “clench and squeeze” on your fragile coffee cup….spewing its hot molten java, foam and chocolate sprinkles all over your…..lap….ouch!!! That may be a more extreme case of what one might characterize as a “spill”. But either way, bottom line, its the same cup a joe….either way, you got some khaki’s to clean, and sometimes if its bad enough, you may walk funny for awhile & may need a trip to the doctor and may be picking chocolate sprinkles out of various places for awhile.
What I find interesting is that the title of the article calls this event “biosolids” yet the article itself calls it a “foam over”. Now granted I’m betting 6 hours after our annual village chili cook off the contents of what we convey to TR thru our 8 mile pipeline will contain a fair amount of both “foam” and “biosolids”, but intuitively I think it’s as different as having soap suds floating on the surface of the water as compared to say the bar of soap that tends to sink to the bottom of the tub….but that’s just me.
….and Ernie…you asked the difference between circulation and spin–since no one has stepped up, I’ll try to answer that..
“Circulation” is used to describe how many subscribers there are to a given news publication, whereas “spin” is often used to characterize that news publication’s contents.