I went out Thursday eve,
it was great but then cost me 4 days in bed !
(and not in a good way, on the upside i probably lost 3kg).
It was of course a day of heavy rain and then onshore (W) wind,
I believe Ricketts is fairly storm drain free (is it ?) but the wind had shifted Southery
so I went to Dendy St. where 2-3 other regulars were out.
(I wonder if they were affected?)
Anyway, where is less polluted for S / SW and North of Mentone Bay?
Where are all the storm drains? everywhere along the shorelength I guess?
Never a good place to be after rain. I went for a swim on the weekend but piked it when I saw the poo coloured water. The new indoor pool in Benteligh was much cleaner (and warmer).
I've sent a request to both MWC and EPA about our concern and asked if they can provide a list of local beaches that are drain free and where the current drains are located. Lets see how that goes.
With regards to MWC, sometimes they need to use the storm water drains to release pressure to ensure no pack flow happens in our homes and buildings. This will not stop and has been presented on TV over a number of summers.
Also note it's not just drians. Any water outflow can cause the same affect (e.g. Paterson river, Mordy creek). If the water's brown think twice.
As I recall, the bad places are where the water flows out, and where it comes back to shore.
Apparently Port Melbourne and Sandridge are clean because the Yarra water blasts out into the bay, then comes back in at Elwood.
A better bet would be to look at the EPA beach readings, but they only updates them a few times a week in summer. They do not go out after a big rain event and do updated readings (I asked).
An even better bet is to a) don't go in after big rain storms, and b) keep your mouth shut.
Getting sick is related to the quantity of exposure. Just being in the water won't make you sick. You have to swallow a fair bit of it or have open wounds.
BTW I just had a quick look at the list of drains in the documents. No way is that a complete list. It's also not very precise. The Abbott St drain is more than 300m away from the end of Abbott St. There's 5-6 drains in Mentone that get no mention at all.
