Greg Sparks slipped into his wet suit and sat on the edge of The Boathouse dock, letting his feet and legs dangle in the Savannah River. He took a breath, gave a push and submerged.
When he came up for air, he let the water run over his face, not thinking twice about the water running into his open mouth.
River samples this month showing elevated bacteria levels near the city's storm drains haven't affected his training schedule, he said. And he's not alone.
More than 40 athletes participated in a 7 a.m. river swim Saturday in preparation for the Sept. 26 ESi Ironman 70.3.
"Our feeling is if it's really that big of an issue, there'd be some signs out telling us not to swim," Sparks said.
While water samples again tested positive Tuesday for fecal coliform, a form of E. coli, athletes training for the upcoming Ironman are unmoved. Because the danger is mostly at the base of the storm drains, city environmental officials said swimmers have no reason to worry.
"As long as they stay away from the immediate vicinity of the outlets of the storm drains, they should be fine," said Garrett Weiss, the manager of the city's stormwater and environmental section.
Weiss said two components go into hazards associated with contamination -- concentration and flow rate. With the vastness of the Savannah River, contamination at storm drains does little to the water miles out in the current.
Like smoke coming off a fire, the densest and thickest contamination is at the source, Weiss said.
Adding to common risks associated with swimming in natural bodies of water, Tuesday's samples confirmed that Second Street might have a sewage problem affecting the river.
Weiss said the samples showed no E. coli near storm drains at Forsythe Street but a high concentration of contamination near Second Street. More tests are scheduled for early next week.
Ironman participant Holly Harper said she won't change anything about her training schedule other than maybe adding nose plugs to her outfit. Maybe.
"If they could show it was out in the current where we swim, I might hesitate a little bit," Harper said. "Even then I don't know. People aren't overly concerned right now."
Brian Patterson, a founder of local triathlon club TriAugusta, said his group will still hold weekly swims in the river to prepare for September's race.
His group is keeping athletes up to date with the newest sample results and keeping members informed through Facebook posts on the TriAugusta page, he said.
But for now, TriAugusta swimmers can still be spotted bobbing in the Savannah River at 7 a.m. on Saturdays as usual, he said.
Comments
Not a problem. There is a barrier that seperates the main channel from the water at the sides. BTW why would a swimmer swim against the current at the main channel, instead of staying at the sides where the water is calm? I guess it is safe to swim tin the sh!* infected waters, but please folks, no smoking (drinking is encouraged) during the event. We are only concerned about your health. And to really prepare, you need to eat a lot of eggs sunny side up.
I don't care if Garrett Weis has to low crawl through the storm drains until he finds where the sewage is being dumped into it, this dumping of sewer lines into the storm drains has to stop. This is a serious matter and the Ironman should be postponed until the problem is fixed.
Do these swimmers have to swim anywhere near where the shi? plant dumps it's output? Why not swim in Clarks Hill lake instead??
This event isn't held at Clarks Hill because there really isn't anyplace to hold the Bike/Run legs, the downtown area's traffic can be controlled more easily and there are more support facilities IE: hotels, restaurants. From a Swim standpoint it would make more sense to hold it on the Lake. I just don't see in this day and age how hard it is to track this down seems like this would be about a 2 week job to locate and correct. Have they even started looking or are they still sending in samples and waiting for them to return?
Riverman- think wells. Think animals. Think rain.
There has always been E. coli, or fecal contamination, in river water where there is animals and humans around the river.
The Lake is flat out NASTY, but it's not supposed to be a swimming pool. There's giardia, trichinomas, and E.coli in the Lake, but people have been swimming in it since it was built. It's dirty. Always has been, always will be.
We know for sure that we have giardia in our backyard pond, thanks to koi fish, the dogs, cats, raccoons, possums, skunks, snakes, and squirrels, and it wouldn't surprise me if we had trich and E. coli in it too.
Chlorine is your friend, Riverman.
Corgimom, I don't care if you wash and gargle with Chlorox, the river is not supposed to have raw sewage being dumped into it via city storm drains. It has been plainly stated that there are sewer lines connected to the storm drain system that they haven't found yet. Find um.
It's illegal to dump sewage in the river.
Contamination is showing with the water samples taken. The bacterial count from those two drains is described as being "too numerous to count" and it's running into the river where the Ironman will be.
"Our feeling is if it's really that big of an issue, there'd be some signs out telling us not to swim," Sparks said.
Do you really want to trust your health to someone else?
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