Another raw sewage spill

Another raw sewage spill. Actually, the 17 MILLION gallons were intentionally diverted to an offshore outfall over an 8 hour period because of problems in the treatment plant . . .

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/13/us/santa-monica-sewage-spill/index.html

In related news, two pleasure craft were sighted offshore during the time period of the spill, resulting in forced inspections, and legal citations for not having pollution placards prominently displayed!

Just kidding on the last part, but it seems to be the sign of the times . . . . .

I built a few gas holders at that plant. For the most part its one of the more modern plants around. The amount of pure garbage that comes down the line is staggering.

Yes, some people either have no idea, or just flat out don't care at all about the problems they are causing.
When visiting (for an extended stay due to a mechanical issue) a marina in Campbell River (mid point of Vancouver Island), they had a much needed "secondary" bathroom (washroom, head, etc.) closed for a period of time. Why? Someone (or more than one) kept putting adult diapers down the toilet. This toilet also had to pump the waste up to the shore before it could enter the sewer system. They were getting tired of servicing it every few days!! not to mention the expense and mess.
Slow, the irony of your post (especially the "made up" part) is not lost on me. At times it appears to be almost that bad.

Rough calculation: there are just over 1 million boats registered in California. Being generous, 1/5 are large enough to have a head, and 5% of those are cruised regularly, 1/4 of the year. Each discharges 10 gallons of sewage every day cruised. That is 25,000 gallons in a day average. Or it takes 2 years to discharge as much as 17,000,000 gallons.

DDW said:

Rough calculation: there are just over 1 million boats registered in California. Being generous, 1/5 are large enough to have a head, and 5% of those are cruised regularly, 1/4 of the year. Each discharges 10 gallons of sewage every day cruised. That is 25,000 gallons in a day average. Or it takes 2 years to discharge as much as 17,000,000 gallons.

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And in the environmentalist capital of the world.

RonR said:

I built a few gas holders at that plant. For the most part its one of the more modern plants around. The amount of pure garbage that comes down the line is staggering.

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I believe that! I too have seen the amount of "stuff" that is flushed down toilets . . . . however, further research hasn't revealed any sign that the plant is being fined, or otherwise penalized . . . but if I had a boat with only one head, and it got stopped up, and I used a bucket to poo in, then dumped it overboard when it got full . . . . guess who would get fined?

Boats dumping raw sewage is wrong, no doubt.

But, let's not pretend that that is where the environmental problems with raw sewage come from when every major city in the world have sewage treatment systems designed to dump raw sewage into the water as their back up plan, when something malfunctions, or more comes in than they can process (and do so to the tune of billions of gallons of raw sewage dumped in every year).

Speeding in your car is wrong. But there is a lot of difference in the guy who is speed 1 mph over the speed limit, and the guy who is doing 35mph over.

But, the other stuff can be worse. When I was in college, I worked construction part time. One of the jobs we did was replacing a broken pipe in a pharmaceutical company. We were warned to be careful doing it as the liquid coming from that pipe, and going into the sewage system, was concentrated acid.

I agree that boaters should do their best to minimize what they "discharge" into the ocean and in a "perfect world" it would be nothing except relatively "clean" water.
However, let's face facts, the total discharge of all boaters is a very, very small portion of the water pollution issue. The largest contributors should be greatly improved first, as that is where the "biggest bang" comes from. Failure to do that and then "clamp down" on boaters is "just an effort to appear" to be doing something, probably for "political" reasons (re-election hopes?).

firehoser75 said:

I agree that boaters should do their best to minimize what they "discharge" into the ocean and in a "perfect world" it would be nothing except relatively "clean" water.
However, let's face facts, the total discharge of all boaters is a very, very small portion of the water pollution issue. The largest contributors should be greatly improved first, as that is where the "biggest bang" comes from. Failure to do that and then "clamp down" on boaters is "just an effort to appear" to be doing something, probably for "political" reasons (re-election hopes?).

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The last thing any politician wants to do, is clamp down on a violator, whose anger could result in their not being re-elected. Better to shoot for smaller targets to look like you're doing something, without making anyone important mad.