Sport Today

[ Picture of a depressed-looking middle-aged man in a wetsuit on
  blackened concrete steps with a grey, cold ocean behind him ]

This photograph was taken at Aberavon Bay, near Port Talbot, on the coast
of South Wales.  The towers in the background belong to the docks, which
lead up to the British Steel plant, which in turn nestles against British
Petroleum's Baglan Bay petrochemical works.  In the foreground, sitting on
the grey, slimy cement, is the surfer Paul Gill who, for a living, sells
surfing clothes, takes surfing clothes, and makes surfboards.  Mr Gill is
a zealot, as you have to be to surf at Aberavon Bay.

For, although the waves are very good at Aberavon - sometimes 12 feet high
during winter storms - the water is absolutely ***.  Sewage from Port
Talbot is piped into the coastal water.  The Baglan Bay BP works discharge
zinc, copper, chromium, acetone, methyl-ethyl ketone, and a compendium of
other chemicals.  And the effluent from the British Steel works also does
its bit.

To push for tighter controls, local surfers have set up Surfers Against
Sewage.  Last November five activists, wearing gas masks and carrying a
coffin, marched to the Baglan Bay BP works, where they were hustled inside
to meet an emollient environmental health officer.  Now the group says it
has elicited some promises from Welsh Water plc.

But the conditions at Aberavon Bay are still terrible.  Surfers talk of
riding the waves accompanied by faeces, ***s, tampons, evil-smelling
algae, and grey foamy stuff with black bits in it.  Some have emerged from
the wtare covered in oil, like Shetland cormorants.  Others get stomach
upsets, swollen glands, cuts that turn ***.  Chris French, who works at
a surf shop in Swansea, once went into the water with a blister which
proceeded to burst.  "Soon my foot began to swell, then it puffed up all
the way to the knee, and I had to have an operation where they sort of dug
out the inside of the leg and all this squid-like material piled up on the
surgeon's table".

Today French is fully recovered.  But he is still fool enough to surf at
Aberavon Bay.

[ followups to alt.tasteless ]

--
-- Jack Campin -- Room 1.36, Department of Computing & Electrical Engineering,
   Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS

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For, although the waves are very good at Aberavon - sometimes 12 feet high
during winter storms - the water is absolutely ***.  Sewage from Port
Talbot is piped into the coastal water.  The Baglan Bay BP works discharge
zinc, copper, chromium, acetone, methyl-ethyl ketone, and a compendium of
other chemicals.  And the effluent from the British Steel works also does
its bit.

In the United States the business lobbiests refer to this situation
as ideal for businesses to remain competitive in a global
marketplace.

my $.04
ron

Ed the Shred  

: ...what became of the 1992 report of
: the status of the Columbia River?

: Ed the Shred  

Good question. I would like to hear some discussion on this.
Last I heard the conditions were less than suitable for public
swimming beaches.

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Conrad Rimmer              *  "Small Craft Advisory" - means get

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