Surfing Sewers

I surf a place called Sewer Peak in Santa Cruz relatively regularly. And a buddy moved to Santa Monica recently near a place called Shit Pipe. And a quick search online finds many other surf spots with similar names. Nice.

Often times the names originate from an outfall pipe buried in a jetty or one that dumps into the surf (or used to). And if you walk down San Francisco's Ocean Beach you'll find a couple of outfall pipes for wastewater overflow during heavy rains. Right onto the beach and into the surf lineup.

Everything used to go into the ocean. Growing up in San Diego, I would regularly find used medical waste on the beach. It used to be taken for granted that water was going to be clean, but its unclear if that was just ignorance. Today it's generally recommended that you wait a couple of days before getting into the water after a big storm, unless you want a nice sinus infection or worse.

The Thin Green Line blog has a nice thread on SF Swimming in Sewage; interesting how reporting has evolved. A tiny, almost throwaway post without much new info or research churned out a bunch of context from the crowd that creates a compelling article from the seed of the story.

San Francisco is pretty advanced in its approach to wastewater. But we can always do better. Having worked in energy efficiency for years, I can see a similar effort needed for water efficiency. Big rains cause peak demand on the wastewater systems; we need to raise awareness to not use appliances during peak times, same as we do for electricity. Water appliances include showers, toilets, dishwashers, clotheswashers and any faucet.

So the next time there's a big rain, please put off that load of laundry or dishes, or shower in the morning if the forecast is for clearer weather. Every gallon out of ths system gives it more time to clean up what's in it, so it doesn't regurgitate it onto the beach. And who wants that really?