MSD warns public to avoid part of Meramec River

[semble]

American Water has an water intake just across the river from the output for MSD's fenton plant. Yum.

I heard today it was going to be up to 3 months before they get the plant back online??

[Haris122]

Well levee designation aside, I fished at Butler Lake today, and aside from an even more generous peppering of trash than usual (which is saying something), it didn't seem to smell any different than usual. So that's a bright spot. Fishing didn't seem to be much affected for the better since the floods (1 fish for me personally, and 1 for 1 of my fishing buddies in about 4+ hours), so probably not many made it in there I'm guessing.

[Haris122]

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I heard today it was going to be up to 3 months before they get the plant back online??

Crap. What kind of damage is 4+ months worth of raw sewage effluent going to do to the fish population in the lower Meramec?

[Greasy B]

It wil probably increase growth. 

[Mitch f]

2 hours ago, Haris122 said:

Crap. What kind of damage is 4+ months worth of raw sewage effluent going to do to the fish population in the lower Meramec?

There has been an MSD warning sign on a feeder creek to the Meramec off of Gravois for as long as I can remember.....doubt the water quality is much different now

[Haris122]

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There has been an MSD warning sign on a feeder creek to the Meramec off of Gravois for as long as I can remember.....doubt the water quality is much different now

Yeah, I actually don't live too far from that I think. Gravois creek is the name  I believe, but I think that actually dumps into the mississippi, or river des peres, not the meramec. And supposedly it's not constantly carrying untreated sewage, just in high water events, yet most of the time it tends to be a relatively small creek that's pretty dry in a lot of the stretches I see. Now an entire municipal sewer districts worth directly, for several months, that seems like it should have some negative effects on them.

 

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It wil probably increase growth. 

Would some stretch of hot weather (not entirely impossible if it lasts until May to fix) cause the extra load of bacteria to use up so much oxygen that most of this stretch ends up with a serious fish kill though? Especially in backwaters and slower current areas where that stuff might accumulate over the months it takes to fix the plant?

[SpoonDog]

Not sure anyone knows the answer to that.  From what I've read the sewage treatment point runs about 6.75 million gallons of turds a day - about 10 cfs.  Meramec @ Valley Park is around 1950 cfs right now, so we're talking about a very poopy drop in a pretty big bucket.  My guess is it won't have much impact. 

 

[Haris122]

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From what I've read the sewage treatment point runs about 6.75 million gallons of turds a day - about 10 cfs.  Meramec @ Valley Park is around 1950 cfs right now, so we're talking about a very poopy drop in a pretty big bucket.  My guess is it won't have much impact. 

I guess when you put it that way, it really doesn't seem like much of an impact.

[jdmidwest]

It will flush out soon in the next big rain.

[MOPanfisher]

You are correct, the next rain might just "wipe" it clean.