Mississippi Meringue

More about that walk yesterday.  As you can see, I'm downstream from downtown Minneapolis.  I'm on that stretch of river between the two locks.  I saw a lot of whitish brown goop floating on the river. Looks like meringue topping on a pie.  Mississippi Meringue.  That's what I'll call it. I have no idea what that stuff is, chemically speaking.  I know I may pick up trash, but what's really important is the quality of the water itself. Can we swim in it, can we eat the fish from it, how are the fish and wildlife doing?  What do we need to do better?

You can get some of those answers in the State of the River publication that is a joint effort of the National Park Service and the Friends of the Mississippi.  It's available on the web at http://stateoftheriver.com/  

I'm going to get through that whole report at some point.

I was following a trash pool that was floating upstream when I noticed the pill container (far left).  I can see it is still full.  Not surprisingly, I pick up quite a few pill containers out of the river, but this one is out of my reach. Page 42 of the State of the River addresses the problem of pharmaceuticals going in the river. Basically don't throw your left over drugs down the drain or in the toilet.  Our treatment plant is not designed to treat for those.  Crush them up and put them in some dirt or cat litter or coffee grounds and seal them in a bag?  That's what I've heard, but are there better methods.  Ideally if there were a place to take them to like a Target Pharmacy for a take back program that would be even better. Here is what the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency recommends.  
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/living-green/living-green-citizen/household-hazardous-waste/disposing-of-unwanted-medications.html

Floating on top of that nice thick green carpet is a bottle with something inside.  Is that another message in a bottle for me?  Out of reach.  I'll check back in the future and see if it's washed closer to shore.