11 replies to this topic

[bburton]

Black and white infrared photos taken along the Trinity River north of downtown Fort Worth.

[bburton]

Two more:

[Brian Luenser]

Not to taint Bruce's beautiful Trinity pics with junk, but was a convenient place to put this.

I know it is a little cool this morning, but ICE in Trinity?

What the heck is this white stuff? Have never seen it before. Foam? Why?

[Joshw]

Weird. Maybe some trash was thrown in the river?

[John S.]

The Trinity River's water is the sum of whatever runs into it. Our neighbors to the east were shocked to recently discover a creek contaminated with pigs' blood was running into their portion of the Trinity. Storm water runoffs still introduce phosphates and nitrogen from yard fertilizers as well as automotive oils and fluids from street surfaces. As bad as some of that may be, it is nothing compared to the old days when anything and everything you can think of was dumped or allowed to flow into the Trinity.

For that reason alone, I'd never consider any fish coming out of the Trinity to be fit for human consumption. I occasionally walk up to the river spillway near the new Health Sciences building for Tarrant College and it's amazing to see the variety of flotsam (alternately spelled "floatsam" in some sources) swirling around in the eddies and pools alongside the spillway. There's still a long way to go before our future "town lake" will live up to the hype as far as water quality is concerned.

[pelligrini]

For that reason alone, I'd never consider any fish coming out of the Trinity to be fit for human consumption.

The Texas Department of State Health Services doesn't think so either:
http://www.dshs.stat...id&ItemID=59262
http://www.dshs.stat...id&ItemID=59265

There used to be a possession ban for a lot of the Trinity, mostly due to high chloridane levels in the fishes.

[Joshw]

I love hanging out by the Trinity, but I certainly won't get into it. Let alone eat something from it.

[Brian Luenser]

I have stated before that I bet the Trinity is safer than most of the water you have been swimming in your lifetime, including any lake and particularly swimming pools. (Chlorine is for sure a poison even if it is necessary to kill bacteria.)

I would not make a point to drink water out of any river but if I had to drink water out of river, I would start with the Trinity. (Up-stream from Dallas). Would I swim in the Trinity. Yes. Have. Will... as long as they keep testing it and show me it is safe to swim in.

Some of the worst rivers to drink water out of are in Colorado. Decades of strip mining, particularly for Silver where they have used arsenic, leaves the state with unacceptable levels of about everything. Water in Texas is some of the best. I am in the water purification business. Though we make our filters in Fort Worth, about 4% of our sales are in Texas. Our water is just too good. We sell most of our systems in California (see, industrial solvents) and New York. (See 150 year old lead water pipes) I have paid 300 bucks twice in the last 2 years to have my Fort Worth water tested by a top notch laboratory. (Dry ice on 7 samples, FEDEX Red) It is the safest water I have seen, I believe. (I still use a filter as my water has too much iron and sulfur in it to taste good.) Anybody interested in my complete water analysis only needs to e-mail me for a PDF of their report from my address.

I am looking forward to tubing the Trinity again this summer. (rather than just taking photos of others having fun.)
If you take off a shirt that has been dry-cleaned to swim in the Trinity, you are WAY better off. There are bigger environmental hazards about every where you look. Start in your home.

[David Love]

Looks like foam bubbles, happens when you have a lot of runoff, I've seen it in a lot of rivers, not sure if you can associate it with water quality or not.

[Volare]

The City is adding a Ozone system to the water treatment plant that should take care of those sulfur issues. So says my buddy who designed the thing.

[Brian Luenser]

Silly little river video I took yesterday. Watch the end, this guy is pretty good.

[Cowtown Mike]

Nice clip. When the music started, I thought it was going to be dueling banjos.