Karon Beach Mucky Sea

[chuppachops]

Hi, anyone notice the horrible patches of black/brown surf on karon beach this past week? only in certain bits of the beach mostly around karon roundabout. looked disgusting , a little bit like oil or mud/coffee colour...

was just wondering what it was.

[ScubaBuddha]

My experience has been this occurs after heavy rains. If it's a storm with heavy rain for long periods of time, the entire sea seems to be brown. When we have localized squalls, like we have been having almost everyday, these brown patches will appear around river and storm sewer outlets.

[Wellington]

My experience has been this occurs after heavy rains. If it's a storm with heavy rain for long periods of time, the entire sea seems to be brown. When we have localized squalls, like we have been having almost everyday, these brown patches will appear around river and storm sewer outlets.

Exactly right. We have the same at Kata, principally where the klong emerges from behind the beach, soon goes away. The klong changes from it's usual green to brown too.

[garyh]

You can also get something like that from coral spawn, seen it off the coast of Austalia, looks bad but breaks down and goes away on a few days.

[Macx]

Five, six years ago, it used to be only Patong Beach that gets this stuff. Karon was usually the cleanest, even cleaner than Kata (from what I remember). Too bad.

Has anyone sent water samples to the lab? (Not counting your honest gov officials, of course)

[pgrin]

These foamy brown areas in the water are algae blooms. They pop up in small areas of surf and are usually less then 20 meters wide. They move down the beach with the tide and the wind. I see people swimming in these areas but I would not. This id different from the total brownouts caused by klong run off. There is very little live coral along the beaches of Phuket.

P

[MisterMan]

Five, six years ago, it used to be only Patong Beach that gets this stuff. Karon was usually the cleanest, even cleaner than Kata (from what I remember). Too bad.

Has anyone sent water samples to the lab? (Not counting your honest gov officials, of course)

How does one do that? WHat lab?

[chuppachops]

These foamy brown areas in the water are algae blooms. They pop up in small areas of surf and are usually less then 20 meters wide. They move down the beach with the tide and the wind. I see people swimming in these areas but I would not. This id different from the total brownouts caused by klong run off. There is very little live coral along the beaches of Phuket.

P

This sounds exactly right, the patches seemed to move about and be in a different part every day. now it seems they have gone altogether. I checked there was no run off into the water where this happened. and they were about 20 meters wide too. thanks for the replies

[ScubaBuddha]

These foamy brown areas in the water are algae blooms. They pop up in small areas of surf and are usually less then 20 meters wide. They move down the beach with the tide and the wind. I see people swimming in these areas but I would not. This id different from the total brownouts caused by klong run off. There is very little live coral along the beaches of Phuket.

P

I think it is very possible the polluted water runoff is what is causing these algea blooms. I have heard that being a problem in other areas, so we could be seeing two different things being caused by the same thing..klong, or creek run off. Muddy rain water in one case, and polluted water in the other. In both cases the water can drift due to wind and currents making it appear to not originally come from the klong.

[chuppachops]

Well whatever it was it looked bloody horrible, and there was people playing in it too!! uurgh

[surfer]

dear ='chuppachops'

I was in the water nearby at both Kata and Karon and made a point of taking a close look…

It is runoff from the Klongs/ catchments, streets, septic (and yes bio septic) overflow and what passes in Phuket as storm water. I am extremely confident to say that this runoff is typically made up of some or all of the following in reasonable quantities;

- Animal waste such as faeces (a lot of street dogs)

- Oil from motors

- Oil and grease (from cooking)

- detergents

- Human waste such as faeces

- rain water

- organic material

A few years ago I recall a rumour (and I state rumour) that the big hotel on Kata beach releases it’s sewerage treatment in the low season either because the rain water forces it to or hoping that it wont be to controversial in the low season. I know for a fact that most big developments use the stormwater drains as overflow systems for the septic tanks and that few would use any leach field or green buffer concept. I recall reading it as “public waste system” on the M&E drawings.

I surf at Kalim and there are days when the waves look really fun at the Kalim side of Patong beach but having been in the water there once in a low season I will never enter the water of Patong Beach ever again. It takes a few showers for the greasy feel and septic smell to go. Still get some bad water at Kalim but not quite as bad and not as frequent as Patong.

I have seen the pictures and heard the storeys of the days that Patong was clean and lovely like Karon (was just after the tsunami…). It is a sure thinkg that one day in 1-10 years the critical mass will take it’s toll on other west coast beaches and they will also be stinking inlets like Patong. Or maybe there will be real non financially driven public action ?!?!

[ScubaBuddha]

dear ='chuppachops'

I was in the water nearby at both Kata and Karon and made a point of taking a close look…

It is runoff from the Klongs/ catchments, streets, septic (and yes bio septic) overflow and what passes in Phuket as storm water. I am extremely confident to say that this runoff is typically made up of some or all of the following in reasonable quantities;

- Animal waste such as faeces (a lot of street dogs)

- Oil from motors

- Oil and grease (from cooking)

- detergents

- Human waste such as faeces

- rain water

- organic material

A few years ago I recall a rumour (and I state rumour) that the big hotel on Kata beach releases it's sewerage treatment in the low season either because the rain water forces it to or hoping that it wont be to controversial in the low season. I know for a fact that most big developments use the stormwater drains as overflow systems for the septic tanks and that few would use any leach field or green buffer concept. I recall reading it as "public waste system" on the M&E drawings.

I surf at Kalim and there are days when the waves look really fun at the Kalim side of Patong beach but having been in the water there once in a low season I will never enter the water of Patong Beach ever again. It takes a few showers for the greasy feel and septic smell to go. Still get some bad water at Kalim but not quite as bad and not as frequent as Patong.

I have seen the pictures and heard the storeys of the days that Patong was clean and lovely like Karon (was just after the tsunami…). It is a sure thinkg that one day in 1-10 years the critical mass will take it's toll on other west coast beaches and they will also be stinking inlets like Patong. Or maybe there will be real non financially driven public action ?!?!

Usually I'm the one frustrated at how things are here compaired to the west. Saddly the situation you described with sewage overflow is not confined to Thailand. In the supposed greenest state, California, for example, beaches are often closed due to the exact same thing, and the sad thing is it is often legal. Thank you corporate America.