Word: swamping
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...foggy afternoon in tiny Arcata, Calif., strollers ambling through coastal marshland seem caught in the colors of an impressionist canvas. As they walk past, sandpipers and pelicans patrol the edge of Humboldt Bay. Just inland, a freshwater swamp is alive with thousands of mallard, teal and pintail ducks. Egrets and herons poke among islands of leathery bulrush. Joggers are framed against fields of daisies and Queen Anne's lace. One walker, former City Councilman Sam Pennisi, proudly points to a sewage pipe spewing dark water into the bay. "This," he tells a visitor, "is what home-rule democracy...
...Wildlife Sanctuary sounds like the Whole Earth catalog gone bonkers, listen carefully. Sewage and wetlands wildlife, like each other when the sewage is free of industrial metals, Arcata has found. Since this is the case in most small and midsize American cities, combining them is technically easy. The swamp substitutes for some of the high-cost stages of sewage treatment. But take caution from weary Arcatans: skip the politics. The city's sewage saga sounds more like Gilbert and Sullivan than John Muir's diaries...
...said, 'Oh my God!' " He recalls, "We rushed to the site, tramping around in the mud." Their solution: filter the postoxidation pond water through a man-made wetland before piping it into the bay. The process is called polishing. Algae and other potentially harmful microbes cling naturally to swamp plant roots, starting a food chain. Filter-feeding organisms in the marsh water eat them...
...know," he laughs. "Maybe there's some kind of swamp thing in there somewhere...
...last week, the 23rd Super Bowl--XXIII to Latin students--seemed ready to sink in the swamp of current events. Riot-torn Miami, not Joe Robbie Stadium and its ensemble of players and coaches, drew front-page headlines this week...