Thrity million gallons of partially treated poo were spilt leaked into the surf off Huntington Saturday. Two days later, all the media has to show for it is a three paragraph article in the LA Times and a piece in the OC Register titled “Sewage leak restricts beaches”.

Update: I’ve since found 9 more articles. Note to self: click “See all related articles”

Thirty million gallons don’t exactly register with me as a “leak”. I equate the word “leak” with something that happens to relatively small amounts of liquid contained by say, a garden hose or a strofoam cup. Another strange choice of vocabulary in the article is the word ‘restricted’. Does anyone know if the yellow signs on the beach read restricted or do they read closed? Also, when the cops were kicking everyone out of the water were they saying the beach was restricted or closed? I’m curious.

The article goes on to say, “Workers diverted about 30 million gallons of the waste out of a secondary pipe so the leak could be repaired.”

Whoa… Diverted? Diverted where? Into a bucket? Into another pipe? Does this mean there isn’t 30 million gallons of poo in the ocean? Or does it mean the sewage was dumped into the ocean, much like what happend in Oahu recently?

Just when you thought the spin couldn’t get any better, it gets better. According to Jennifer Cabral OCSD spokeswoman, “There was no spill. This is a contained situation”.

Contained is a good word. ‘Contained’ implies that 30 million gallons of partially treated poo are not floating freelance around 5 miles of OC lineup. ‘Contained’ makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. ‘Contained’ makes me want to paddle out right now.

The article ends by stating that we can use the sandy beaches, but the water is off limits. I suppose this is why the title reads ‘restricts’ and not ‘closes’. The WATER is closed, but the SAND is open for tourism. This makes me feel much better, because I love the feel of poo soaked sand between my toes.

I’m a bit dissappointed by the coverage this spill leak has gotten, so I’ve prepared a few sample questions for the OC Register in case there is another sewage spill leak:

• Was there something wrong with the pipe that could be wrong with other pipes? (Oahu has 6 other pipes with the same problem as the one that burst in March.)
• How close to the beach was the failure? Update: Sewage was diverted to a pipe that discharged 1 mile offshore. Swell today could bring that sewage inshore.
• How much was the sewage treated? 80%? 20%?
• Has anyone in the water at the time reported getting ill? UPDATE: According to this article from sunday’s LA Times no one had reported getting ill at the time.
• Does the OCSD feel a spill leak so close to the summer time tourist season would hurt the local economy?

Update: While there is much more coverage on this than I innitially thought, the OCR’s article from Sunday still reaks.

Update to the Update: It seems that the pipe was closed because a leak was found, but none of the 9 articles I found are asking how long the leak has been around or how bad the leak was.