Ahh picturesque Anchorage, Alaska! Surrounded by beautiful mountains, teeming with wildlife, and right next to a giant toilet bowl. Wait, what?

As adults, most of us do not like to get caught up in fantasy. We don't put lost teeth under our pillows and we know who leaves the presents under the tree. But there is a little pretend story we tell ourselves every time we put something nasty down the drain.

It just disappears, right? I mean, of course, some government someone somewhere --the EPA or the DEC or the FBI or whoever-- must be keeping an eye on things to make sure nothing bad happens. But in general, for most of us, it's out of sight, out of mind.

That's the way of thinking that keeps us from coming up with a better long-term plan to deal with the tons of pollution we dump in Cook Inlet every day. Think doo in the snow is gross? Try this: salty, oily run-off from city streets, runway de-icer and tons of filtered and chlorinated sewer discharge. Now imagine it marinating your halibut steaks.

This is our approach to waste water here. It has not changed much in 30 years.

Let us take a little trip down the drain. What you flush travels through a series of pipes until it reaches the waste water treatment plant at Point Woronzof. When it gets there, it goes through what is called "primary treatment." A big screen filters larger solids. Then the water goes to big basins, where floating material is skimmed off, and sludge is removed from the bottom. All that stuff gets incinerated. Heavy grit and incineration ash goes to the landfill. As one of the guys at the plant explained it to me, you got your "floaties," your "sinkies" and your "lurkers."

Sewage marinated halibut steaks! I bet your mouth is simply watering at the very thought. Or is it your eyes that are watering?

I know what some of you anti-regulation guys are thinking. "Oh c'mon they took the turds out and treated it with chlorine so how bad can it be?"

What lurks once you get rid of all that floats and sinks? Water soluble pollutants like detergents and chemicals, particles of decomposing human waste and bacteria. That "effluent," as it is called, gets chlorinated and heads out into the inlet. The liquid is relatively clear, but it has more decomposing material in it than what is being discharged almost everywhere else in America. Piping it into Cook Inlet is legal thanks to a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency we've been getting renewed for the last three decades. We're in another renewal process right now.

In other words just because you can't see it does not mean it is not there. Sure it LOOKS clean but in reality it is simply chock full of chemicals, excreted pharmaceuticals, and estrogen from birth control pills. Yes you heard me ESTROGEN! And that estrogen is absorbed by the fish which is then eaten by the families of these fishermen.

Personally I have refused to eat fish caught in and around Anchorage for almost twenty years. I like my fish the old fashioned way, sewage free and delicious. Not filled with anti-depressants and man-boob causing estrogen.

We have treated our inlet like a cesspool for almost a hundred years now, isn't it time that we started to take responsibility for ourselves? Or at the very least, our poop?

(You can read the rest of Julia O'Malley's very informative article by clicking the title.)

Update: Dennis Zaki read my post and sent me this.

Alaska Timelapses from Dennis Zaki on Vimeo.

It just goes to show that even our polluted waterways are freaking beautiful. Too bad they are not as healthy as they look.

Dan "Get your hand off my ass" Sullivan cut necessary city programs to save money to hire a lawyer in legal battle against whales.

(I would like it to be noted that I really thought before using this picture. But when I googled Mayor Sullivan, guess which picture popped up? What can I say? It is the iconic Mayor Dan Sullivan picture.)

Mayor Dan Sullivan has hired a Seattle attorney to help the city negotiate the way through a pending federal designation of critical habitat for Cook Inlet's beluga whales.

Federal scientists say Cook Inlet's belugas are a genetically distinct species that doesn't intermingle with other beluga populations in Alaska. The Inlet's whales were estimated to number about 1,300 in the early 1980s, but the population plummeted to around 350 in the late 1990s.

Scientists blamed the drop on subsistence hunts, but Native hunters voluntarily curtailed their harvests in 1999 and the population hasn't rebounded as biologists had hoped. The fisheries service listed the whales as endangered in 2008, and a few weeks ago proposed designating more than 3,000 square miles of Cook Inlet as critical habitat for the whales. That area would comprise all of upper Cook Inlet, the coastal areas of western Cook Inlet and most of Kachemak Bay.

I have spent many a wonderful evening in Anchorage down by Point Woronzof watching the Belugas frolic in the Inlet. It is a very peaceful experience.

I especially remember taking a two year old girl, whose family my wife was a nanny for, and watching her face light up as she watched the white shapes popping to the surface before slipping back under the murky waves. "Uga's! Uga's!" She exclaimed and giggled every time she spotted one.

How can anybody who has watched these amazing creatures NOT want to protect their fragile habitat?

Sullivan announced Stelle's hiring during a noon luncheon with Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey and Talis Colberg, mayor of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. All three mayors said the critical habitat designation could have big negative effects on government projects and activities in and near the Inlet, as well as fisheries and oil and gas development. They said they want to present a united front to oppose it and limit its effects.

Gee who knew the Three Stooges could be so evil?

Sullivan and Carey, especially, said they want the state to pay for what Sullivan estimated would be "several millions of dollars" of new science research on the whales. That work couldn't be done in time to help much with the debate over what areas should be designated critical habitat, but would be useful in future lawsuits, Sullivan acknowledged.

So let me see if I have this straight. The science, done by the Federal scientists, is not the kind of science that these guys like. So they want to pay millions of dollars to hire their own "scientists" to conduct the kind of "science" that one gets, when one is willing to pay millions of dollars, in order to continue treating Cook Inlet like a giant toilet bowl? (Yes in Anchorage our shit literally gets dumped right into the Inlet.)

Supporters of the designation say it wouldn't cripple development in Cook Inlet, but would require it to be done more responsibly. Science studies and monitoring already have shown the Inlet's belugas need the endangered species listing and its protection, they say.

The mayor's office said Stelle's firm, K&L Gates, has an Anchorage office and is already retained under a $50,000 contract with the city's legal department. The cost of paying for Stelle's time under that contract likely will be shared by city agencies most likely to be affected by the designation, including the Port of Anchorage, the water and wastewater utility, solid waste services and project management and engineering, Sullivan's aides said.

Gee what a competent mayor we have. Apparently our city is so broke that he felt he had to cut $175,000 from our libraries and arts programs, but not so broke that he cannot justify providing a $50,000 retainer for lawyer to fight for the right to continue dumping toxic substances and raw sewage into the habitat of these beautiful creatures.



"You better lawyer up, Moby! Mayor Dan "We don't need no stinking libraries" Sullivan is taking your ass to court!"

When is the next election?