Beach Looks like a Disaster Zone

(Photos above: Burns Ditch watershed and photos taken on O.D. beach 9/15/08)

Legions of people will be needed on Saturday, September 20 to help clean Ogden Dunes' beach after 10 inches of rain brought garbage, wrecked motor boats, docks, bottles of motor oil, propane tanks, and much, much more down Burns Ditch this weekend. As you can see from the photos above, there is also a great degree of organic matter that washed down from the Ditch. (Click on the photos to enlarge them for better viewing.)

A worldwide beach clean up was already planned for 9:30 a.m. and the deluge of additional garbage will make it even more necessary. Volunteers should meet at Tamarack Beach. Gloves and trash bags have been provided by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, but you may want to bring your own gloves just in case we run out.

Parents are urged to keep their children from walking on the beach without shoes while the beach is in this state.

Considering the unique rain event the area experienced, none of this should be surprising. What you may not know is the reason why this happens.

First of all, Burns Ditch drains a watershed that is more than 331 square miles (see watershed map at the top). Burns Ditch is like a funnel that takes all of the stormwater from all of the area rivers and streams such as Coffee Creek, Salt Creek, the east branch of the Little Calumet River; as well as the west branch of the Little Calumet River all the way to Griffith, and all of its tributaries, such as Deep River. This is combined with the fact that the Town received notification this weekend that both Valparaiso and Chesterton had to bypass their sewage treatment plants, also known as Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO's) and Sanitary System Overflows (SSO's) because they were overwhelmed with stormwater.

More information on CSO's and SSO's may be found on the following previous blog article posted after the Town experienced a similar beach garbage event on January 7, 2008: http://odeab.blogspot.com/2008/01/town-and-water-company-ask-for-cso.html

Show your love for our beach and Lake Michigan this Saturday. Set aside a few hours of time to help out and join us at 9:30 a.m. If you can confirm your participation, please send Susan MiHalo an email right away at spsmodin@verizon.net so she can make sure she has enough supplies.