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Paul brings up an interesting point. All large towns along the Willamette discharge treated wastewater into the Willamette. Now, sewage can be treated and -- theoretically -- cooled so that it is equivalent to spring-water. But that's expensive. How much are people in Portland, Salem, or Eugene willing to pay in order to treat the wastewater that their society generates?

So far wastewater treatment fees have not allowed treatment plants to install the very expensive equipment that would turn sewage into drinking-quality water, let alone cool it to spring-water temperature quality. There is no "easy" answer here; everything costs real money. I'm curious: how much are people, as individuals, willing to pay on a monthly basis in wastewater treatment fees?

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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I have swum in the Willamette as far north as Independence. I would swim at Portland, though I would be careful not to swallow much water.

There are two kinds of pollution that I would worry about. The first is biological -- disease organisms. Since the 1960s sewage discharges have been treated and disinfected. The level of treatment is reasonably good, and I have little fear of catching cholera or hepatitis from the Willamette. (However, riverside livestock pastures and animals like geese and nutria do contribute a lot of fecal coliform bacteria to the Willamette.) The second kind of pollution of concern is chemical: mercury, pesticides, spilled oils, and so forth. I would worry about drinking Willamette river water at Portland, but not so much about a few swimming trips. Incidental exposure is just not the risk that chronic and continual exposure would be.

Of course, for aquatic organisms things like the oxygen content of the water and the acidity of the river are also important -- but for human exposure they're not such a concern in the case of the Willamette.

-- Don

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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