Metadish, Fresh from NYC

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Apparently a near catastrophe was barely averted during the 2003 blackout when a sewage treatment facility in Harlem failed to maintain proper backup generators and nearly created an explosion of a giant fireball of sewage that would have nearly covered up the prevailing odor of urine that permeates the city during the hot, summertime months.

Under the deal, the DEP admitted that it failed to maintain backup
generators at a sewage treatment plant in Red Hook, Brooklyn - causing
some 30 million gallons of raw sewage to dump into the East River
during the August 2003 blackout.

But records also show that DEP screwups at another plant, the North
River Wastewater Treatment Plant between 137th and 145th Sts. on the
Hudson River in Harlem, nearly caused a huge fireball that could have
threatened nearby homes.

"We have been advised," wrote U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia in a memo to
the court last month, "that this situation created the risk of a
catastrophic explosion near a residential neighborhood."

Garcia’s investigators concluded that when the blackout hit, the lack
of working generators at North River caused a flame that safely burns
methane gas at the plant to go out, much like a pilot light going out
inside a boiler.

With the burner extinguished, methane gas slowly built up - creating a
time bomb that was defused only after "a DEP employee, at considerable
risk to himself," lit an old broomstick and reignited the burner,
records show.

Let’s just say that I’m really glad I second guessed my decision to take a swim in the East River to cool off during the blackout.  Between the dumping of the 30 million gallons of raw sewage and the considerable risk of a gigantic sewage fireball, I feel much safer knowing that our fate was decided by an employee who "lit an old broomstick and reignited the burner", way to go DEP. 

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