Re: failing sewage treatment plants.  One of the other things that tourists
don't want to get on vacation is "the crud" or more specifically Norovirus.
My wife and I had the misfortune to discover we had been snorkeling in
dilute sewage afterwards.  She got mighty sick for a few days.  Not one of
those great memories of our trip to French Polynesia.  Honolulu used to have
no treatment for their sewage and they would put up red flags on the beach
when the trade winds stopped blowing all the sewage out away from Oahu.  The
locals knew what the red flags meant but nobody would tell the tourists.  I
think this has changed since the early 1970's when I observed it.  But it
pays to know what you are swimming in when you go looking for shells.  The
shells do tend to grow bigger near the outfalls. Bert

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of mike
gray
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 5:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The reefs

Andy Rindsberg wrote:
>>>Negative population growth? Averting one's eyes and maintaining a
>
> Buddha-like calm? Writing an angry note to the Times? Hakuna matata?
Signing
> the Kyoto accord?
>
> Mike Gray responded,
>
>>Futile. Maybe some serious eco-terrorism?
>
>
> What a pity that conscientious people have to live with their
consciences...
>
> The younger generation pays a lot of attention to blogs. Show "before and
> after" pics of the dying reefs and the developed beaches, add a brief
> commentary with links to conservation organizations etc., and link to
other
> nature-oriented bloggers. State positively what can still be done.
>
> City Hall pays attention to dollar signs. How many tourists want to see a
> dead reef or a muddy beach?

The Palm Beach Post and the (Ft Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel have
both covered these issues extensively. The state of Florida is
providing free lab work to folks monitoring turbidity and
measuring nitrogen/ammonia/etc in the effluent. Harbor Branch is
providing gridding systems to assure that monitoring is
accurate. Palm Beach County has offered to pay half the cost of
getting the treatment plant into compliance. But the cities of
Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, who are served by the plant,
refuse to even admit that there is a problem.

There are thousands of pages of federal and state regulations,
standards, guidelines, restrictions, blah, blah....

There is no enforcement mechanism for any of them.

What the tourists want is a toilet to flush and a renourished
beach to lie on.

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