Damn Disks

Anyone with a bit of interest in the Merrimack river has read about the sewerage treatment plant in Hooksett, New Hampshire that released 4 - 8 million bacteria collecting disks into the Merrimack River on March 7th. The disks have deposited themselves along the shoreline of the Merrimack all the way through New Hampshire and Massachusetts to the coast. Some of them are turning up as far away as Cape Cod. Volunteers have been lining up to clean them up but there still seems to be a question of who is going to pay.


This weekend I took a little walk down to the Merrimack where I usually launch my kayak in Methuen and as soon as I looked down the disk in the picture above was staring back at me. It was pretty muddy down there so I didn't perform full survey of the beach but I am willing to bet I would have found a lot more had I looked. I have a feeling we are going to be finding these disks washing up on the shores for years to come.

The experts say there is no more bacteria on these disks that regular trash you would find in the river but they recommend using plastic gloves when handling them and if your skin does come in contact with the disks you should wash your hands for 20 seconds.