BajaNomad

Todos Santos Stinks

CaboRon - 5-15-2008 at 07:40 AM

We are going into the second week of no fishing and no surfing in Todos Santos.

Here is a post in the BTO :

" Sewage Treatment Pond Failure - Sometime between 9 AM, May 6 and the afternoon of May 7, 2008 the Todos Santos sewage evaporation pond (aka the “Kakamo”) broke through its dune barrier and overflowed on to the beach and into the Pacific ocean. At any given time, the Kakamo holds somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000 gallons of raw sewage. The entire contents emptied onto about four acres of beach, and it has been reported that untreated sewage has washed up as far south as the La Poza estuary and as far north as the El Posito Bocana north of Camino Internacional.

Sewage continues to be pumped into the pond space and is now flowing directly onto the beach. This event has created a serious health hazard and people and animals should stay away from this area. Also, the possibility of contaminated fish and sea food coming from our waters is now very real.

The Kakamo was built almost forty years ago, and the current level of development in our community has far outstripped its capacity. Officials in La Paz have been aware of this problem for at least three years, and a new sewage treatment plant was promised "

" It Is Not A Sewage Treatment Pond. - It is an open cesspool on the dune holding raw untreated sewage pumped directly from the pump house at the end of lower La Cachora. For more than 15 years there have been promises of a sewer treatment plant."

I tried to take a sunset walk on the beach last night and was turned back by the stench.

So, the trucks are rolling from dawn to dusk removing contaminated sand from the beach ... and I am afraid to follow the trucks to see where they dump their loads.

The Magic continues .... and the gov is still trying to attract big builders to our fair pueblo ....

I have no solution .... do you have any ideas ?

CaboRon

oldlady - 5-15-2008 at 07:47 AM

Kaopectate

Acuity - 5-15-2008 at 12:11 PM

I'd be interested to see what Mr. Salas (THE big developer in TS) who committed to have built the new treatment plant built last year (so he could have the grey water for his new golf course) has to say.

But then he doesn't live in TS...

Cypress - 5-15-2008 at 01:09 PM

It's looking like somebody's poop is beginning to stink.:)Who would have thought??:?:

Gadget - 5-15-2008 at 06:20 PM

My brother is there right now. Has been surfing La Pastora last couple of days. Say water qual is OK. But then we surfed Baja Malibu BCN for most of our youth, some of the dirtiest water to be found. :no:

Mitigation

CaboRon - 5-16-2008 at 07:20 AM

I notice that the dump trucks are bringing in fill and leaving empty ... so they must have finished removing the contaminated soil and are now rebuilding the beach and the sewage pond.

CaboRon