Polluted River Covers Brazilian Town with Foam

Reuters ^ | 7/4/2003 | N/A

[a_Turk]

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - A river polluted with waste from Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo covered the streets of a small colonial town with a thick layer of snow-like foam that emits harmful acidic gas on Friday.

A Town Hall official contacted by Reuters said the foam had been affecting Pirapora do Bom Jesus for about a month, but a clogged clear-water channel made the foam levels rise especially high, blocking bridges across the river Tiete which runs through the town and nearby streets.

"It is all a dreadful consequence of Sao Paulo city's pollution," said Mare Brasilio, a Town Hall spokeswoman. "The sulphydric gas caused by the foam provokes respiratory problems among children and elderly people."

Globo Television showed footage of cars being unable to cross the bridges early in the morning, and a bus forcing its way through the white foam that practically covered its body.

The foam lay in private courtyards and was blowing in the wind like snow, sticking to the roofs and television antennas.

The Sao Paulo state governor traveled to the city to discuss how to solve the problem, which apparently derived from interaction between Tiete water, polluted with human and industrial waste, and the water from the local reservoir.

[a_Turk]

A resident walks over a river polluted with waste from Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo, with foam covering a bridge and several streets of the small colonial town of Bom Jesus do Pirapora with a thick layer of snow-like material that emits harmful acidic gas, July 4, 2003.


Pollution from a river laden with waste from Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo covers some of the streets of the small colonial town of Bom Jesus do Pirapora with a thick layer of snow-like foam that emits harmful acidic gas, July 4, 2003. A Town Hall official contacted by Reuters said the foam had been affecting Bom Jesus do Pirapora for about a month, but a clogged clear-water channel made the foam levels rise especially high, blocking bridges across the river Tiete, which runs through the town and nearby streets. (BRAZIL OUT, NO SALES) REUTERS/Daniel Pera-Ag O Globo

[a_Turk]

WOW ping..

[optimistically_conservative]

OK, there's an environmental problem that needs fixing.

[Slyfox]

Looks like another Democratic Snow Job to me.

[Slyfox]

[LasVegasMac]

I saw the video on the news - unreal.

What was that river that caught fire back in Ohio - Penn??

LVM

[Prodigal Son]

Holy Moly!

[Puddleglum]

Gag - it's the frothy scum from a sewage tratment plant, times 1,000,000.

[RightWhale]

Should we assume the greenies, the enviros, the Sierra Club, and ecotopes will be congregating in Sao Paolo to assist with the cleanup instead of parading in protest of mystical problems in some Euro or US city this weekend?

[lawdude]

"...with a thick layer of snow-like foam that emits harmful acidic gas on Friday. "

And what does it emit on Saturday through Thursday?

[a_Turk]

That was the Cuyahoga (crooked) river in Cleveland ca. 1968..

[a_Turk]

>> Should we assume the greenies, the enviros, the Sierra Club, and ecotopes will be congregating in Sao Paolo to assist with the cleanup

Doubt it.. They may be crazy, but they ain't stupid :))

[Calvin Locke]

...harmful acidic gas

BFD. Nature does the same thing. When the Blues (Bluefish) are running, they chase Poagies (aka Menhaden) in to coves,
where they suck up all the 02 in the water and die.

The fumes from resulting decomposition peel the paint off of neighboring structures.

[mewzilla]

Holy surfactants, Batman!

[Rate_Determining_Step]

QUICK!!! CALL WOODY HARLESON!

What was that news thing about 4th of July BBQs destroying the planet?

[Mortimer Snavely]

Blehhh...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Never seen that before!

[oldvike]

Yikes!

[aristotleman]

And you thought that the sea of marmara was polluted :-)