Posted by Water-Flows-Downhill, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Apr 6, 2012 at 11:08 am

> The water/dye mix was not expected to flow out in the direction

> of the drain, Broussard said.

You pour water into any portion of a building's sewer/waste disposal system, and under most conditions that water will end up in the City's sewer system. If water is spilled, or poured, outside of a building, then there is a high likelihood that it will end up in a storm drain (at least here in Palo Alto).

So .. what's going on here? Unless the contractor had made provisions to collect all of the water he released (with dye), then it had to end up in one of the two waste water collection systems.

Posted by Civil Engineer, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Apr 6, 2012 at 1:17 pm

Water-Flows-Downhill writes:

> So .. what's going on here? Unless the contractor had made provisions to collect all of the water he released (with dye), then it had to end up in one of the two waste water collection systems.

Read the article again. Waste and storm water collection systems are separate. Waste water gets treated by our treatment plant, storm water flows directly to the bay. The dye should not have been in the storm water system if contractor was working on waste system. Either the contractor made a mistake and used the dye on storm system, or both systems are cross connected near that area.

Posted by jody, a resident of the Fairmeadow neighborhood, on Apr 7, 2012 at 9:11 pm

smart people probably don't write here. they must be appalled by hatred of poor people and other races. they don't want to give their precious time to a racist forum. smart people.