I just got back from a quick trip to Fiesta Island, as well as City Hall, to check out the gross gelatinous blobs that reporter Rob Davis has been keeping you apprised of throughout the day.
First, I stopped by Fiesta Island, where the … stuff … originally washed up. I chatted with some of the organizers of the Thunderboat racing tournament (they’re leasing a part of Fiesta Island for the weekend where the gunk washed up) who wanted to be sure that I wasn’t there to do a hit piece on their event.
“What side of the issue are you on?” they asked me.
I told them I didn’t think there was really two sides to the issue. You can’t really be pro-crap washing up on the beach, now can you?
After a bit more inquisition, I was led to this blackened pile of something that was still lingering on the bayfront. I was told that Environmental Services had been down there in the morning and had cleaned up most of the gunk already.
Determined to find more grossness, to try to get to the bottom of what exactly is in the city’s water, I headed down to City Hall, where City Councilwoman Donna Frye was waiting with a gift bag full of it:
Donna opened up the bag and the several other bags inside of it, which were keeping the wretched smell in check:
And then, we saw this, which according to Frye isn’t even the worst of it:
So what is this pile of goo? To me it looked like two blackened lungs with oil leaking out, a morbid reminder to your children not to smoke cigarettes.
What’s your guess? E-mail me at sam.hodgson@voiceofsandiego.org. If anyone’s got any good insights we’ll post them on the blog.