It certainly sounds bad, doesn't it? Until you take it within the context of any number of factors. First, there the outflow area is at least a mile off shore, beyoun the reef lines at a depth of 20-odd feet, at the edge of a shoal line that drops away very quickly to well over 125 feet over the next 1/2 mile. In addition to this, not mentioned in this rather brief sketch of the process, pumping is done at times of the day and night to take advantage of tides and prevailing off shore currents. Effluent is not streaming out of the end of a pipe onshore 24 hours per day. It is beiung pumped a mile or more offshore, beyond a barrier (albeit broken) reef system, and being dispersed by tides and currents through several hundred million gallons of moving salt water. Even then, what is being pumped offshore is a relatively small portion of Bermuda's total waste product. Perhaps the nearest equivalent would be of a child wetting in a public swimming pool--with probably a great parts per million of concentration There are certainly certain conditions of tide, eddies of current and sea state conditions that could describe the return onshore of some small portion of this waste....but in all of the years and all of the days that I've spend on Bermuda's south shore beaches neither I nor anyone I know has ever encountered it.

In past years, the problem along Bermuda's south shore beaches was globules of black oil washing ashore (use Lestoil or ordinary salad oil to remove it from clothing and feet). These oil 'blobs' were usually the result of ships pumping their bilges at sea (rather than oil spills), and being carried by offshore currents and eddies onto Bermuda's beaches. But in recent years, much more stringent international controls on the discharge of unfiltered bilge water has resulted in greatly decreased oily residue washing ashore on Bermuda.

One of my favorite recollection about Bermuda is that in decades past, cruise ships approaching Bermuda would dump their garbage overboard, well away from Bermuda, in deep water before making their final approaches to Bermuda. Occasionally, someone onboard would forget or there would be some sort of delay and this would be done closer inshore. The occasional result of this was that the garbage would attract sharks that might be feeding off of and well outside the extensive northern barrier reef system. Occasionally one of these poor hapless sharks would follow in the wake of one of the cruise ship, through the reef, along the channel and into either Saint George Harbour or the Great Sound and Hamilton Harbour. I recall a morning in 1976 sitting on our balcony at the old Bermudiana Hotel, watching a Marine Police patrol boat speed up behind a cruise ship enterring Hamilton Harbour (a beautiful sight to behold...but it looked as if the Marine Police were going to pull the Captain over to the side of the channel and ask to see his license and registration) and police with rifle, begin shooting at the water---eventually killing and recovering the poor hapless shark (to the amusement and applause of cruise ship passengers watching from the fantail) who was just trying to get in line early for the luncheon buffet on the Lido deck.