Does anyone know how quickly a river can "clean" itself? According an article today's Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/3fe3xxx):

DC Water officials estimate that 200 million gallons of rain mixed with raw sewage overwhelmed pumping stations and poured into waterways around the city during the downpour from Hurricane Irene. The sewer overflow contributed to a flood of wastewater into rivers and streams over the weekend.

Hey, the question mark at the end of my title got truncated and titles can't be edited. Sorry for any heart attacks!

It is surprisingly quickly, specially with the river moving as fast as it has been. By now the river should be in good shape. Just pray for no rain the day before the race.

Haha, wow - talk about crying "Wolf"!

...and the answer is "Yes".

My friend is a water quality engineer at WASA - I'll ask and let you all know.

Thats all well and good, but how do we get all the geese to stop pooping in the river?!

http://www.wvmwqa.org/WV_Web_Docs/Other%20Docs%20of%20Interest/Wildlife%20Pollution%20Article.pdf

Maybe it was flushed out by the storm surge, or grossed out by the sewage, but a Sea Serpent was spotted in the Potomac the day after Irena:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10150355137430126&set=a.122460410125.135574.714070125&type=1&theater

if we got no heavy rain from here on out it will probably be fine, 2 weeks of no runoff and the river will clean everything out, its really just eh first few days after a big rainstorm where things get dicy, at least that is what i have heard at race meetings for other races near rivers

Just tough it out.

You probably won't get sick until 'after' the race anyway.

Brad.

No Swim at Nations - email from organizers went out today.