City of Dallas dumps thousands of gallons of medical waste into White Rock Creek

[CasperITL]

That's how this story by Steve Blow should read.....

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/colum...-city-hall.ece

Instead the story is about a retired Jesuit priest(he got married) who plants trees as a hobby. I know EXACTLY why his saplings were yanked from the ground just north of Forest near Medical City.

It's probably my fault.

You see, during every large flooding event the sanitary sewer located next to the White Rock Creek Trail blows. Thing explodes, sending thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage, poop, medical waste from Medical City into White Rock Creek. The manhole cover there has been broken for years, spraying nasty stuff all over the place. Which is what happened last week.

I called 311 about it after the rain. A friend of mine, a runner, mentioned it on the city park facebook site too:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=3&theater

Thus set into motion the catholic priest getting busted for his trees. Kiss of death.

The priest and his wife watered those trees a few evenings a week out of their minivan. They used little 5 gallon buckets and watered one at a time, each tree. They parked out on the street, so each bucket of water required a 100 foot walk or more between the van and the tree. Over and over again. When it was 110 degrees in the evening and everyone else was hiding inside...they were out there watering. One. Tree. At. A. Time. To let that guy water, religiously, all summer, only to come along and yank most of his trees is just obscene. Not as obscene as not reporting the real reason the trees were just recently discovered. They are innocent victims of a blown manhole cover.

The city says that the trees will get in the way of a planned trail expansion. I don't believe that. The city already widened the trail in this area in 2009. The trees will not be in the way.

Pretty awesome that the city forgot to mention why the trees were just now discovered. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome! The sewage is still all over the ground there. The city spread out a little dirt to cover up the turds and toilet paper but the smell still goes right up your nose.

[txdore]

I agree, that's awful.

But I don't think a manhole will keep sewage from overflowing. Sounds like a capacity or stoppage issue.

[xen0blue]

It's extremely misleading to say it's being "dumped" when it's just an overflowing sewer. That's like saying the levees in new orleans were "deliberately overrun" during hurricane katrina

[TexasVines]

the slaughter house was just an overflowing sewer as well according to the response from the owners and the city knew about the issue for a month or more, but now that a private business that has been for there for 4 or 5 decades, and probably longer than any complaining resident has come close to living in the area, has been vilified and will possibly be run of the area because it no longer fits in with the urban poverty plantation plan there will be no further reporting on the issue

never mind that dallas itself has used the river as a toilet for years......but that seems to fit in with the "plan" for the area

[CasperITL]

But I don't think a manhole will keep sewage from overflowing.

It should. A sanitary sewer manhole cover like that is supposed to be sealed. Last year they did quite a bit of flushing in the system using large black plastic pipes. When the work was finished, they never sealed the manhole cover back properly.

"Dumping" whether intentional or unintentional is still "dumping". Otherwise, a company like Columbia Packing in Oak Cliff would have a valid defense for waste getting into Cedar Creek.