"Sewage Blending"

That's the term waste treatment plants use when referring to the practice of releasing partially treated waste into waterways during rainy weather and large snow melts. The restrictions on the practice have been loosened by a Bush administration EPA policy change, who claim that not doing it actually results in bigger problems.

That's like saying if you don't drink yourself blind, you'll just shoot heroin. So while we're blowing five kagillion dollars in Iraq every day and sending remote control trucks to Mars, the EPA is finding ways to make it even more convenient for all of us to get E. coli, Giardia and salmonella. Environmental Protection, indeed.

According to the article in today's Chicago Tribune, sewage spills into Lake Michigan were responsible for 130 beach closings in Chicago and 178 in Lake County last summer. Proponents of the practice say it helps limit waste backups into property and worse spills during bad weather, and the only way to fix the problem is to spend billions of dollars on upgrades. Hmmmm...

Now, I know this is a very complex issue (I encourage you to read the article, because there is a lot to consider), and there's a lot of science that I'll never understand going on here. But aren't we smart enough to build systems that can handle these situations without having to release even partially treated sewage back into our own water supply? Bleh. I mean, we got guys that can make a plane disappear fer fuck's sake!