Submitted by Neal Chism

Today, I was able to do a trash cleaning mission, number 34, and the second one of the year, between the weather systems. Everything but my name came back to the marina wet today. Nothing like putting on fresh dry socks.

The trash flows on the river are still behaving in a rational manner.  Several soccer balls, some nice fishing equipment – used, and the normal cache of styrofoam and plastic bottles. However it was necessary to call Puget Soundkeeper Alliance regarding a discharge into the Waterway. The Seattle Public Utility (SPU) Spill Response team did come over to the beach in question, a good distance north of the Diagonal Avenue Park, to check out the chocolate goo that was that was discharging into the waterway.   It didn't look like sewage, but may have been oily, and my estimate of 60 gallons per minute still stands.  I don't know when it started, however my records show the last time I visited this beach was on 1/9/10. So that date at least puts a boundary on the discharge start, as I would have noticed this stuff on that day too.

The SPU team once again arrived on scene very quickly, right at noon, and they went down to the waters' edge and had a good look for themselves. It is good to see a man who loves his work. I saw the SPU responder bend down and sample the sandy gooey mix at the pipe’s end by hand, and I saw him sniff this goo that was now on his finger tips. I am not sure if he tasted it as I had to turn my head when he started the sniffing business. He seemed hopeful about finding the source so I went on to other things.