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As annoying as Mark Cubas is, he may have done the city of San Antonio a favor by forcing their hand to at least attempt to better clean that water.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/env...k.825912f.html
Web Posted: 06/11/2006 12:00 AM CDT
David Uhler
Express-News Staff Writer
Civic boosters cried foul and vowed to push Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban into the San Antonio River after he dissed the River Walk as an "ugly-ass, muddy-watered thing" during the NBA playoffs against the Spurs.
The high-volume war of words, however, may have obscured a painful truth: Is Cuban right?
Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, but the fact remains that the San Antonio River as it courses through the city is a murky channel that isn't particularly clean.
Far from the picture-perfect image of a gin-clear Hill Country stream, our downtown waterway is an urban river. As a result, it has many problems commonly associated with city dwelling, along with a couple that aren't.
Such as a pair of rhinoceroses.
The rhinos frolic in a canal that flows from the San Antonio Zoo directly into the river. Researchers have discovered that the animals and others in the zoo contribute 19 percent of the fecal coliform found in the river. Zoo officials said they plan to move the rhinos into a new exhibit with a self-contained water system next year. But other pollutants remain.
One-third of the fecal coliform comes from birds and other wildlife. Broken sewer links account for 23 percent, domestic pets another 10 percent.
Fecal coliform itself isn't necessarily dangerous, but it is an indicator that other risks might be lurking.
"If the levels of fecal coliform rise above a certain point, then the chances increase that you will come in contact with a true pathogen, like a virus or some other bacteria or an amoeba," said Steve Lusk, superintendent of environmental services at the San Antonio River Authority.
Federal pollution guidelines measure bacterial pollution based on the number of fecal colonies found in 100 milliliters of water. An average of 200 is considered standard.
On most days, levels in the upper section of the San Antonio River — including the River Walk — are below that level. After it rains, however, counts can range from 9,000 to 52,000, with some samples testing as high as 520,000, Lusk said.
Even water below the federal standard, however, can be hazardous.
"There's nothing that's 100 percent safe," Lusk said. "This is not a swimming pool."
Cuban made his comments about the River Walk during a radio show interview and on his Web site at blogmaverick.com.
"The River Walk is nasty," Cuban wrote in his Web log. "I know it. Everyone who lives in San Antonio knows it. I said it.
"I just know that on crowded nights, everyone who walks that thing is afraid to death some drunk is going to stumble by and knock them into the water. It's that nasty."
Others share Cuban's opinion, to varying degrees.
Brian Windhorst, an NBA beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, was a little more charitable in his own blog when he wrote, "the River Walk is nice, relaxing and festive.
"No," Windhorst continued, "the water isn't clean nor is it anything like a genuine river, but it is still totally cool."
Cuban might not even be the river's harshest critic. Jon Sanders, a longtime resident of the Alamo City, sent a letter to the editor of the San Antonio Express-News and wondered why the city doesn't have "a filtration system for the cesspool running through downtown."
"It's hard to see at night, but you can still smell it," Sanders wrote. "I avoid entertaining guests from out of town during the day because it's such an eyesore. It's like inviting people over for dinner and forgetting to clean the bathroom."
Another reason for the river's look is that unlike some Hill Country rivers that are lined by limestone and gravel, the San Antonio has a mud bottom. In the River Walk section, propellers from tourist boats stir the sediment, contributing to the water's muddy look. The river's typically slow flow also promotes the growth of algae, which can smell.
Smell and appearance issues aside, is the river dangerous?
Dr. Fernando Guerra, director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, said the only precautions necessary for people who come in direct contact with (i.e. fall into) the river would be a rigorous and meticulous scrub and rinse. Those who swallow water from the river, however, might want to seek medical attention since they could suffer vomiting and diarrhea.
Anyone who goes for an intentional dip on the River Walk might want to consider another painful proposition: Swimming in the river violates a city ordinance and could result in a fine of up to $200.
As annoying as Mark Cubas is, he may have done the city of San Antonio a favor by forcing their hand to at least attempt to better clean that water.
disgusting.
So if they clean it up will he take credit for it on his blog?
Fecal contamination is standard for all streams and rivers, especially after rains.. ...you guys realize that virtually everything you eat has fecal contamination, right?
shhh cosmic, youll be done scarin da people.
It Is A ing River!!!
A River.
River.
ing A!
Anything less than a pure artesian spring is unacceptable.
If we could get rid of the rhino and shopping carts I think we'd be halfway to artesian spring.
So taking a piss in it is no longer acceptable? =(
If you want swimming-pool clear water, you'll have to make the SA river, in the tourist area, a closed, isolated system with heavy, non-stop filtration and sterilization, just like a swimming pool or backyard pond. Removing only fecal matter is hardly the answer. Algae of all sorts feeds on any nutrients in the water.
Cuban, you prick-dork, in the whole ing world, which city river is transparent and "inviting" as a snow-fed or artesian-fed stream?
I know the Thames and the Seine, while both have been vastly improved in recent decades, are not crystal clear. I don't remember seeing to the bottom of the Comal River while tubing. Is the Dallas prickmeister ing at London and Paris or New Braunfels?
I thought it was actually a pair of hippos that are frolicking in the river.
i've seen 2 hippos at the zoo frolick in theire own river stream.
and I've seen like 6 rhinos at the zoo idling in dust.
wonder if thats a typo.
HEB is more dangerous than the river...
Robert Choate, a government nutrition consultant, once stated that
there was more protein in the INSECTS in some breakfast cereal than
in the cereals themselves.
Current regulations include :
As many as 10% of the beans in a sample of coffe can be infested
or damaged by insects.
250 Milliliters (about a cup) of orange juice is allowed to
contain ten fruit fly eggs, but only two maggots.
Apple butter can have 5 insects per 100 grams (about 25 in a 16
ounce jar), but little insects like mites, aphids, thrips, and
scale insects don't count toward that limit. The cleanest apples
are sold whole, and the wormy ones are made into apple butter.
Wheat can average "9 milligrams of rodent excreta pellets and/or
pellet fragments per kilogram.
Peanut butter can have 50 insect fragments per 100 grams (as many
as 620 in the 40 ounce jar of Skippy's Super Chunk) or one rodent
hair per 100 grams.
Curry powder can contain 100 insect fragments per 25 grams. Most
es are rife with insects before they reach the market; the
FDA acknowledges there isn't much that American e importers
can do about the matter. (But "no live insects are permitted,"
an American e Trade Association spokesman insisted.)
100 grams of tomato juice can contain two DROSOPHILA maggots,
five eggs and one maggot, or ten eggs and no maggot.
Frozen Brussels sprouts can have 40 aphids or thrips per 100
grams, that amounts to about 200 vermin in a 1 pound package.
"Foreign matter" as applied to food contaminants can also include
metal shavings or lubricants from the canning or processing
equipment.
if by some miracle all the fecal matter were removed form the river.
that would seriously it up. it;s a living river fer christs sake.
Damn, I really didn't need to read that while eating a sandwich.
Ignorance is bliss.
No my grandma always gets mad at me, because I don't eat any leftovers that are more than a day old, bread more than 5 days after I bought it, milk if the exp date is the same day, etc. She always says "you have no idea what you eat when you dine out" I say, I know, as long as I don't know I'm fine.
I just came back from Italy. It can't be any worse than the water in Venice. The river around there looked and smelled pretty bad.
I would have prefered never knowing,
F Cuban already!
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