Water discolored

[jamaicarob]

i was there when it happened, did not swim in it, no odor, i was on the beach at 7 a.m. the next morning, all gone, soon come

[Rob]

Kylake,

If you are truly interested, please contact the professionals at the links I posted.

Rob

[booger]

This phenomenon occurs many places. My wife grew up in Oracabessa, St. Mary, east of Ocho Rios. When ever it would rain heavily "river come down". Why people assume or insist upon believing the worst, without any and despite contrary evidence, never ceases to amaze me.

A simple google search provides several articles on this Ras, so not sure why you are amazed.

Here is an incredibly boring read:


http://coastecology.org/wp-content/u...oral-Reefs.pdf

And an older newspaper article:


http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...llution--again

If you read this and had no knowledge that the treatment plant was upgraded why would you think different. The power of the internet to influence one's thinking is remarkable.

When I saw the tannic water in early December it had a reddish hue to it. Maybe this is how Bloody Bay got it's name and it had nothing to do with whaling.

[rjonsun]

Workers at the wastewater treatment plant in Negril are the people that informed me that Montego Bay employees sample the plant weekly.
Also, consider this story. The wastewater treatment plant I work at is about a mile from the source of the stream we discharge into. We actually double the flow of the stream where we discharge. During high flows when our plant actually overflows we take fecal coliform readings above and below our outfall. Normally we are not allowed to put any chlorine into the stream, but during high flow events we are allowed and chlorinate the daylights out of our overflow. Fecal samples taken upstream of our plant often range in the 5000 to 8000 count. Mind you, this is only run off from roads and yards with in a mile of the plant. Because we chlorinate so heavily during these times, our downstream fecal counts are always lower than upstream. So runoff anywhere in the world will cause high fecal counts. That is why the Jersey shore will occasionally close beaches, not from the wastewater treatment plants but from run off from the streets.
When I checked the outfall of the Negril plant, my estimate would be that it was less than 1\20 of the river flow.
Regards,
Bob

[Ras Walleye]

There you go with facts again :-)

[lee]

I would like to pipe in here, I have been coming to Negril since 1989. In 2007 I began coming about 3-4 times a year. I never saw this brown water at any time until 2 -3 years ago when it happened 2 or 3 times each week I was there every visit. My observation therefore is it would seem brown water floating into the beach area has nothing to do with heavy rain.

Thanks Rob, for links to the different departments in Jamaica for handling water resources. I did mean to circle back on this much sooner when it was actually happening but life got busy and before responding I wanted to thoroughly read the links and embedded links you provided.

In the first link (NWC) I can see a brief mission and that the closest office to Negril is in Sav with the western division office in Mobay. I can also see what is stated they test for but with no mention of how often, nor any public notices of test results from such testing.

In the second link (WRA) a brief mission statement in the water quality management section there is an embedded link for Groundwater Pollution Risk Mapping
http://www.wra.gov.jm/dynaweb.dti?dy...apage=riskmaps
Currently though the map is incomplete (their statement) and appears to be just Kingston area currently.
Again it may be there but I saw no links pertaining to how often, nor any public notices from test results. I do know rjonsun has first hand information on test schedule at the plant and I do not dispute anything he found out first hand.

On the NEPA link I see a nice mission statement, State of the Environment Report (2010). Media releases for 2013 are probably the most interesting pertaining to the subject of this thread with expanded enforcement funded in part by TEF (Tourism Enhancement Fund).
Westmorland had 96 enforcement actions taken which was almost triple of other parishes other than St. Andrew that had 120 but no mention of what the actions were about or who they were served on or what resolution was obtained. Unfortunately there is no mention of exactly how the TEF funding is being used for water quality testing or results and schedules for testing or where/when they are done. At least I was not able to find them listed and again I do not dispute what rjonsun found out about testing at one specific site the treatment plant.

Last link was from 2009 for proposed standards to be followed.

The only reason I ever brought this up was for the same assumed reason of the taxi threads, concern for health and safety of tourist.

Without documented test results and public notices I have to say when the river overspills and the water looks tannic (but could easily contain fecal or other unsafe matter because of many reasons including a sewage treatment plant upstream) I would personally stay out of the water if nothing more than erring on the side of caution.
Also testing at the plant is fine but testing where the river discharges into the sea would be of more value in determining any possible unsafe contamination that might pose a health risk to swimmers. Seems like the TEF money could be well spent doing so, if the TEF mission is to promote and protect tourist and at the same time protecting the Jamaican families that live there.

Of course this can happen anywhere not just Jamaica and Negril specifically. I read in the news that because of the heavy rain this weekend and the expected runoff they are warning people in certain areas of California to stay out of the ocean because of possible contamination. The difference is the officials there are publicly warning caution.
I don’t live in Negril and you and other members of this board do. If testing at the river discharge into the sea and public notices are being done then I stand corrected.

[patty_k]

natural ocean tides can also cause river water to flow into the sea.

[dash]

Sorry, it was me

[M&G Montreal]

Wow. We're getting re-runs! Didn't we have a major thread on this a few weeks back? Same story. Same rumours!

[Rob]

M&G - that is because it is the exact same thread - it was brought back up from March 1st... almost 30 days ago was the last post in this thread...