Escherichia-coli: Amount at Texas Beach higher than Pony Pasture?
Richmond.com’s Alix Bryan recently wrote and article detailing which Richmond river spots are safer from Escherichia-coli, which is the full name for E-coli. Among the notes, does Texas Beach have a higher likelihood than other swimming spots to have high levels of bacteria? There are a handful of places in the James River Park where you can see the combined […]
Richmond.com’s Alix Bryan recently wrote and article detailing which Richmond river spots are safer from Escherichia-coli, which is the full name for E-coli. Among the notes, does Texas Beach have a higher likelihood than other swimming spots to have high levels of bacteria?
There are a handful of places in the James River Park where you can see the combined sewer overflow pipes, and at least a couple have signs with some explanation of the engineering of the CSO. One huge one can be found along the Floodwall Walk on the south bank of the river in downtown Richmond and there is another sign in the Main Area of the JRPS:
For two-thirds of the 20th century the James River was polluted with sewage and street run off. About 1970, a pipeline was constructed along the shore to capture these two problems and carry them to a sewage treatment plant three miles down stream from here. Water quality improved a lot.
You can walk on top of this Combined Stormwater-and-sanitary-sewer overflow pipe where it runs even with the rocks at the 22nd Street entrance.
Because the water was made cleaner a public park was created. You are in it.
A road was built along the pipe to maintain it and that became the first trail. You are standing on it.
To keep the pipes from exploding, overflow valves were constructed. The three foot diameter pipe could not handle all the street run off during rain storms. As a result, a mix of sewage and storm water entered the river periodically.
To really clean up the river, a much bigger CSO pipe was added. Ten feet in diameter, it collects almost all of the overflow from the small pipe. It is 30 feet underground and runs parallel to the original pipe.
The entire system begins with an underground tank to collect the first rush of water off the streets. The concrete top of this tank is directly behind you. The curved vent pipes that look like something on an ocean liner release air pressure as the tank fills.
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