By Sergey Nivens @Adobe Stock
UPDATE 5.28.24: Things still aren’t looking great for Olympic swimming events in the Seine this summer. France 24 reports:
The Paris Games are set to open on July 26 with a boat parade on the Seine — the first time a Summer Olympics has begun outside the athletics stadium — under plans that are widely seen as high-risk.
The Seine is also set to host the open-water swimming and triathlon during the July 26-August 11 Games, providing that pollution can be reduced to safe levels by the time athletes arrive in just over 60 days.
Officials have consistently warned that heavy rainstorms before or during the Games could overwhelm the Paris sewerage system, leading to discharges of untreated fecal matter into the waterway.
The latest available data — as collected by water charity Surfrider in the middle of May — showed levels of the E.Coli bacteria more than four times the authorised level.
E.Coli is a key indicator of the presence of human waste.
Paris authorities and Olympic organisers insist that new infrastructure, including a wastewater treatment plant and a rainwater storage facility, will be in operation by the time the Olympics begin.
Originally posted on March 1, 2024.
It May Be a Cold Day in Hell Before that Happens
After having spent 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) upgrading sewage and storm-water treatment facilities in the Paris region to improve the water quality of the Seine as well as its major tributary, the Marne, French authorities are still in a race against time, As the WSJ reports. The Seine is set to be used for open theater swimming and the triathlon during the summer Olympics (26 July-11August).
From the Associated Press:
French President Emmanuel Macron boldly promised to swim in the River Seine being cleaned up for the Paris Olympics as he toured the new complex that will house athletes on Thursday.
Macron cited pollution-reduction in the Seine as one of the Games’ positive long-term impacts. He noted “extraordinary” public-funded investments being poured into making the river — largely off limits to bathers since 1923 — swimmable again.
But three test events in the Seine last year had to be cancelled because of elevated readings of E.Coli, a bacteria found in human waste, and heavy rainfall prior to the Olympics could result in the events being cancelled, organisers concede…
The Seine will play a central role during the Paris Olympics, with national sports teams set to sail down the historic waterway during a spectacular opening ceremony being planned for July 26.
Perhaps it is best that the French president does not keep his promise, continues the WSJ quoting Reuters:
Tens of thousands of dead fish floated through Paris for a second day on Friday after rainstorms flooded the city’s sewage system, poisoning the River Seine.
Barge dwellers complained of the stench and said the fish, including some pollution-resistant eel species, fully covered the river in some places downstream from the city centre.
Philippe Galy, the city’s chief of environment protection, said cleaners had already collected 17 tonnes of dead fish. A city expert estimated between 250 and 400 tonnes of fish could have died between Paris and the river mouth on the Channel.
Admittedly, there have been great environmental strides made in combatting water pollution. The challenge, however, in the U.S. and California specifically is to persuade environmentalists, dares James Freeman, to support needed construction of water infrastructure and sensible management of reservoirs.
