Where We Left Off...

It's only fair: The Surf Gods cheated us last year. What we looked forward to as a possibly Epic Winter thanks to La Nina, turned out to be another Cleveland disappointment, with The Lake freezing over, almost as if it was some kind of sadistic X-mas present intended to make one feel even worse about being a Clevelander.

If that's possible.

But now strange things seem to be happening for a late February. The Lake ice, which we might expect to be with us well into March, seems to be melting and breaking-up.




Is it possible? Surf for March? We at The Sewer Pipe won't make any grand predictions: Stick your weather models up your ass, NOAA; don't you know the End Times are near?

But we will offer a sacrifice this Saturday at the 4th Annual Smash Day, by burning alive the current issue of Surfer Magazine, in the hope that it will appease the mighty Lake Gods, and bring us what we have longed for for so long, that it all seems like a half-remembered dream.

Some scenes from not the last session, but the last session that we here at The Sewer Pipe didn't throw the film straight from light table and into the garbage can. We've been saving them for you, just in case by this time you might have forgotten what a fun day at The Sewer Pipe was like:

That Should Heat Up The Lake

Posted: 02/05/2011
Last Updated: 4 hours and 18 minutes ago

• By: Associated Press

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich - A Canadian agency on Friday approved sending a shipment of 16 scrapped power generators with radioactive contents across three of the Great Lakes, turning aside objections that the risk of an accidental spill was too great.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said it would grant a transport license to Bruce Power Inc., which plans to send the generators -- each the size of a school bus -- to Sweden for recycling. The company says the shipment will be safe and its plan is ecologically sound.

"We always believed this was the right thing to do to reduce our environmental footprint and we are pleased the soundness of our case has been verified," said Duncan Hawthorne, president and CEO of the company, which is based in Kincardine, Ontario.

Bruce Power said previously the shipment would take place this spring. On Friday, the company said it would discuss future steps after obtaining permission from all governments with jurisdiction over portions of its route, including the U.S., the United Kingdom, Denmark and Norway.

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a coalition representing more than 70 mayors in the region, said it was disappointed and would consider its options for continuing to fight the shipment.

"We feel this sets a very bad and dangerous precedent for the future, especially with the amount of nuclear power around the Great Lakes," said David Ullrich, the group's director.

The shipment would depart from a port on Lake Huron's Owen Sound and traverse Lakes Erie and Ontario, plus the St. Lawrence River, before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

Each of the 100-ton generators has about 4,200 metal tubes that contained hot water, which created steam that powered electricity-producing turbines. Thirty-two of the boilers were taken out of service in the 1990s.

Bruce Power last year awarded a $37 million contract to Studsvik, a Swedish company, to melt down the generators and sell the metal as scrap. About 90 percent of the material can be recycled; the rest will be too radioactive and will be returned for permanent storage.

The company plans two shipments of 16 generators each.

Bruce Power says each generator has less than an ounce of radioactive material and would be welded shut to prevent leaks.

The nuclear safety commission said the company's plan complies with international regulations and poses "negligible" risk to human health and the environment.

Ullrich said the panel's risk assessment was based on assumptions most favorable to the shipment and did not appear to consider dangers in the St. Lawrence River, where water levels are lower than in the Great Lakes. Two vessels spilled oil in the river last summer after running aground, he said.

Lake Erie - As boring below as it is above