250k gallons of sewage spill into Los Angeles River, prompting beach closures | Hacker News Reader

250k gallons of sewage spill into Los Angeles River, prompting beach closures

cnn.com

56 pointsLinuxBender15 comments

Remember the Exxon Valdez spill years ago, and the big push everyone made to hold them accountable with fines and demanding cleanup action? I understand this case is not exactly oil spill level, it's very common on beaches even on the east coast, but the casual way it's received now is also the same way most environmental offenses go too.

Pretty crazy how far more significant environmental offenses happen globally, how even if a fine is paid, it's only the rain washing it down river that makes it seem forgotten, yet we're still blaming increasing cancer rates and deaths on diet and exercise, and thinking that amassing huge amounts of personal wealth is going to somehow insulate us from the same peril as everyone else... For the record, Steve Jobs, the extremely wealthy CEO of Apple... Died of cancer.

Companies and individuals that pollute should be held to higher standards.

You think the Steve Jobs, worth more than a billion dollars, died of cancer due to exposure to toxic waste?

Companies get away with exposing us to a lot more harm than just toxic waste, e.g., tire and break dust is everywhere; cheap plastic packaging on everything we eat and drink.

Whether he died or not is irrelevant. He GOT cancer and I think OP’s suggestion that it was environmental is plausible. That he was rich is only significant because he DIED from the cancer, but he died because he refused modern medicine and thought he could diet the cancer away.

Perhaps fruits and vegetables contaminated with microplastics were a factor.

In the 1980's in Santa Cruz to the north in the vicinity of The Boardwalk, this was a regular occurrence. You would have to check first to see if there was nastiness to decide if you wanted to freeze your bits in ice cold Pacific water. (Cold water: A wetsuit isn't all that much help. I recommend a dry suit year round if you surf the Pacific in N. America.)

I guess those times are gone because there's monitoring and better waste management now, except just after major storms when there's always a risk of discharge.

The signs are still up at the boardwalk. I think I’ve seen them in the “don’t swim” state.

Based on personal experience with California planning commissions and septic contractors, I’m guessing this will be fixed shortly after the greens take up arms and capture a few nuclear missile silos for the the new nation of the Free Pacific States.

Alternatively, people could, I don’t know, take Sewage Systems 101, or maybe read a book before getting licensed or setting up regulations.

Edit: If you’d like to learn more about a literal shit slide slowly working its way down to the Santa Cruz beaches, read up on all the political maneuvering around re-certifiying septic systems in the CZU burn scar.

Well shit, tourists can still get their free hepatitis.

And here I thought home-ownership in Santa Cruz was all about NIMBY's who might as well have been transplanted from Irvine, CA hating anything to do with the UC.

A dry suit in Santa Cruz? LOL!

> Cold water: A wetsuit isn't all that much help

There's something wrong with your wetsuit.

Have you swam in the Pacific in NorCal? It gets really cold most parts of the year. A 5/6 just won't cut it. An 8/9 might be getting there.

I see people swimming without wetsuits at aquatic Park in SF every week. I've worked with people who have done the alcatraz swim in a 3 mil wetsuit or less.

I guess some people are just built different. I could never :'( .

Upper 40s there right? That's within the design range for a 5/4, a 6/5 if you're lighter.

Wow, I live pretty close to Downey and not far from Long Beach. Sounds like someone really screwed something up.

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