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glatt · 10-17-2014, 08:44 AM

Today I learned that a lot of people were drinking sewage contaminated water back in the 70s in Crater Lake National Park.

My parents are there right now, and their posts on Facebook brought back memories of me getting sick shortly after visiting the park in 1975 at age 8. I was the only one in the family to drink from the water fountain at the visitor center on our short visit, and my parents saw a sign shortly after that that the water there was bad. I got violently ill, which sucks when you are camping, and my parents took me to a methadone clinic to get checked out, where we were told I had the flu. I have memories of hanging out in a tent for a few days and just being miserable while my brothers and sisters played in a lake.

Anyway, I wanted to see if there was any official record to this family lore, and is there ever. A Google search brings up a lot: Apparently raw sewage was contaminating the spring that was the water source for the national park. Manholes were overflowing below the visitor center and human turds were on the ground just uphill from the spring. Around 100,000 people were exposed to the contaminated water that summer. After weeks of mismanaging the problem and turf wars between various government agencies, they closed the park only a few days after our visit to try to fix the water problem. There were around 1,000 reported cases of people getting sick from drinking the sewage, and a handful of people actually contracted hepatitis. There was a lot of legal wrangling with settlements being paid out to people who got sick and the federal government settled with a lodge owner to compensate him for the settlements he had to pay out.

I guess the lesson is don't get your drinking water from a source downhill from your sewer.

10-17-2014, 08:44 AM	#156
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	Today I learned that a lot of people were drinking sewage contaminated water back in the 70s in Crater Lake National Park. My parents are there right now, and their posts on Facebook brought back memories of me getting sick shortly after visiting the park in 1975 at age 8. I was the only one in the family to drink from the water fountain at the visitor center on our short visit, and my parents saw a sign shortly after that that the water there was bad. I got violently ill, which sucks when you are camping, and my parents took me to a methadone clinic to get checked out, where we were told I had the flu. I have memories of hanging out in a tent for a few days and just being miserable while my brothers and sisters played in a lake. Anyway, I wanted to see if there was any official record to this family lore, and is there ever. A Google search brings up a lot: Apparently raw sewage was contaminating the spring that was the water source for the national park. Manholes were overflowing below the visitor center and human turds were on the ground just uphill from the spring. Around 100,000 people were exposed to the contaminated water that summer. After weeks of mismanaging the problem and turf wars between various government agencies, they closed the park only a few days after our visit to try to fix the water problem. There were around 1,000 reported cases of people getting sick from drinking the sewage, and a handful of people actually contracted hepatitis. There was a lot of legal wrangling with settlements being paid out to people who got sick and the federal government settled with a lodge owner to compensate him for the settlements he had to pay out. I guess the lesson is don't get your drinking water from a source downhill from your sewer.