Despite $1.5 billion for cleaning, Paris Olympics controversy around River Seine continues
France is spending $1.5 billion to clean up the Seine in Paris ahead of the 2024 Olympics.
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$1.5 billion spent to propel swimming events at Paris 2024 Olympics (Source: Instagram/X)
Swimming in Paris’s long-polluted Seine has been off-limits for over a century. Now, with Olympic swimming events on tap for the river, the city has poured $1.5 billion (1.4 billion euros) into a cleanup effort. The need for clinical attention could skyrocket while the Games are on. Hence, Paris Games organizers are keeping a close eye on the Paris 2024 Olympics Athletes listing.
The La Défense Arena’s Olympic swimming pool hosted the melee events for a few days of the Paris 2024 Olympics. Thereafter, the Seine River should host triathlon and marathon swimming races.
British-Irish swimmer Daniel Wiffen stacked up gold for the 800-meter Freestyle – Final between 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET yesterday. Before that, Summer McIntosh won the 400m Individual Medley event earlier. All such events would come under peril if the water quality degrades around the area; not just the Seine basin. Hence, such prolific efforts.
Why is the Seine so dirty?
There’s obviously a rampant pocket of wild conspiracy theories. One is that this is in retaliation (by Paris organizers) for the 2008 Beijing Games where Michael Phelps and team overtook France. But a more sane theory that does not originate from theorists on the web is that freshwater and sewage water do not mix.
As the Games get underway in Paris, officials are keeping a close eye on the quality of the water. Athletes could experience health effects if they swim in a river with a higher-than-acceptable level of E. coli or other bacteria. Swim training for the Triathlon has already been scrapped twice, causing havoc among camps and streamers.
Like many old cities around the globe, Paris has a combined sewerage network. The pipes can become overwhelmed and untreated sewage flows into the river instead of going to a treatment plant. Dr. Nicole Iovine, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Florida Health in Gainesville, has some idea on what. These could mean bacteria, viruses or parasites are getting into the water. Even if the mixture gets diluted over time, the quality of the expectant freshwater is anything but fresh.
What has been done to clean it up?
In preparation for the Paris games, the city built a giant basin to capture excess rainwater and keep untreated waste out of the river. There were also some extensive citywide repairs on the sewerage system before the Paris 2024 Olympics commenced. Metin Duran, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Villanova University is an expert on stormwater management. And he disagrees.
The persistent rain, which dampened the opening ceremonies and at one point gave way to a heat advisory, worked against the basin. An AP analysis of weather data suggests Paris 2024 already has had 80-something rainy days this year. Duran says the basin gets overwhelming pressure with such heavy and more frequent rains of climate change, along with runoffs. So no stormwater analyst would call a ‘basin’ a permanent solution.
What’s next for the Olympics? Is Swimming safe?
No, it is not, just yet. Paris canceled a dress rehearsal media availability of the opening ceremony on July 2 — three weeks before Paris 2024 Olympics opener. Natural basins around the area could only offer so much. Opening weekend Olympic rain filled 20% of the basin, so subsequent contamination likely came from upstream runoff, city officials said. Just as Duran said — volume and runoffs can overwhelm the structure.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has come up with bucks to spare, and an ambitious hail mary plan. The mammoth subterranean tank – their Hail Mary against this week’s rain – connects directly to the sewer lines. It can subsequently hold and pass 13 million gallons of wastewater onto a treatment plant. The artificial ‘basin’ covers more than any naturally occurring beveled crevasse could.
Per SFGate (›sfgate.com/olympics/article) and Wall Street Journal, the Mayor went for a dip and reported the water feels cleaner for now. Many stormwater experts have called this a faux publicity swim, but reports suggest it is true. Reports say the fecal bacteria-less levels are now proper enough to allow swimming but barely. Los Angeles, the host city for the 2028 Games, could learn a lesson and work toward more green space next.
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