It was not surprising that the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire in 1969.  It had long been used to dump the wastes from manufacturing plants lining the river.  Since that day, the people who lived there decided that things had to change.  Over the years, sensible disposal plants have been built, clean-up of the debris dumped into it has been accomplished and fish have returned to the Cuyahoga.  Before that fire, people had to live with the miasma from the open air toilet flowing past them.

This is a story that replicates the cleaning up of the Raritan River in New Jersey.  It had a similar history.  I remember rowing in the river and seeing the noxious garbage that had been dumped upstream from a factory going downstream with the current past my single scull.  Over the years, sensible disposal plants and practices were installed and the Raritan now has fish able to live and prosper in those waters. I "caught a crab" causing an oar to over turn me. I can attest to the filth and stench in New Jersey's Cuyahoga, although it lacked the dramatic fire.

But, the practices of dumping of garbage into our oceans continue for all the world lives on the water's edge.  The easiest way of throwing your garbage away is to dump in the nearest stream that leads to the ocean.  Here in South Florida, the usual and continuing practice is to just dump factory wastes and toilets into the water which becomes a polluted and a disgraceful advertisement for human ignorance.  We know most animals do not mess up their nests because it does not make sense to do so.  But, we have soiled our nests and used the waterways to carry the evidence down stream.

Opposing forces are at work here.  The PUBLIC wants the waterways to be clean but some Manufacturers want to easily get rid of their wastes and not be made accountable for soiling our waterways.  It is a slow process to teach the factory owners to properly treat their wastes and NOT use the rivers to get rid of them.  The public's interests are that WE would like our rivers, streams and oceans to be as they once were - places, where we all could benefit by their cleanliness.  We should not make our messes in places where others would like to frolic and play.

Our Condo pays a sewerage tax each month.  We pay for clean water to be delivered to us in pipes that are not tainted.  I would say that we have done a pretty good job. But upstream, the practice still persists by the selfish and the ignorant that dump their garbage instead of treating it properly.  Our waterways are still used as toilets by people who should know better. Tourists from around the world are attracted by our beaches but there are days they have to play in the sand because an alarm sounds and they are not allowed in the water.