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The other problem with the points system is that it is weighted heavily toward repeat violators who have previously been fined. But unless the state actually fines someone for the previous spills, which it hasn't, they don't count against them when enforcers total up negative points for a current spill. Take what happened at Long Creek pump station in the western part of the county, for instance. Between 1997 and 1999, there were 14 spills totaling 1.1 million gallons of raw sewage from the area around the Long Creek pump station. Because the state didn't fine them for any of these spills, when 3.7 million more gallons were spilled from there into Lake Wylie in 2000, that spill, one of the biggest in the state that year, didn't garner enough negative points to warrant a fine, although CMU's Long Creek pump station had a long, sordid history of sewage spills.

For Lisenby, the Catawba Riverkeeper, the state of the enforcement system can be summed up in three words.

"It's a joke," she says.

It's official: playing in raw sewage

is OK for kids

County health officials, county environmental staff, and utility representatives tell CL that the seriousness of the situation isn't what it would appear. Sewage spills aren't as dangerous to the public as they may seem, they say.

CMU spokesperson Vic Simpson says that nature cleans up spills to creeks and lakes because the moving water quickly dilutes and disperses the human waste.

"Typically, it is not something that causes a public health threat," says Simpson. "How often do people have direct contact around sewer lines anyway?"

Quite often, says UNCC biology professor James Oliver, the director of the biotechnology program at the university. Flushing the creek, as CMU did after the Morning Dale Drive spill, helps to dilute the bacteria and pollutants, but it won't kill the bacteria, and may merely push it downstream, Oliver says.

"It is still going to be there," Oliver said. "It gets into the grass and dirt. It is not just going to wash away. It seems that there should be some notification, and rapid notification, to the people around the spill."

Oliver said that in cases like these, the state policy of informing the public with a press release sent to the media -- information that most of the time isn't reported because there are so many spills -- is not adequate.

Dr. Stephen Keener is the medical director for the county health department, which sometimes consults with MCWQP (which, of course, is also a county agency) on more serious spills. Like Simpson, Keener says he isn't particularly worried about the health impact of the spills.

"These spills are a concern, but not a major one," said Keener. "I don't think anyone would want to stay around the creek (after a spill). It stinks. It is not a problem to get in and wade in it. An open cut would not be a concern. You have to actually ingest the water to cause a disease. If we had a goal of surface creeks and streams clean enough to drink from, then obviously it would be a bad thing if our community depended on this water for drinking, but we don't. It is aesthetically undesirable, but it is not a health threat in our community."

"It is too," says Barney Kane, a professor of environmental health at East Carolina State University. "Ask him if he would get in and wade in it. It is somewhat stunning that the health director is not more concerned. Why do they insist that pools be chlorinated? Duh."

Kane would know. While working in a shellfish sanitation public health program in Florida, he contracted bacillary dysentery (shigellosis) from incidental contact with the waters of Scipio Creek, which received the poorly treated wastewater from Apalachicola.

"Children who play in a stream overtly contaminated with raw sewage are at elevated risk of disease," said Kane. "If they are found doing so, they should wash themselves thoroughly with soap and water. Simply sucking on one's thumb after dipping it in such water could result in disease."

Joel Hansel, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s regional expert for human health criterion, agrees.

"Recreating in a creek with raw sewage would not be one of the things that you'd want to do to find out what would happen," said Hansel. "If it has been dry and hot and doesn't smell bad or look bad, kids will go in it without knowing it is there. It's an issue when the spill goes on this long as far as human health implications."