Big Island Sickness

Over 140 people who were at Big Island on Lake Minnetonka during the 4th of July have reported getting violently ill. Officials thought it was a bad case of e-coli, but they have yet to confirm it. Symptoms include projectile vomiting, extreme diarrhea, cramping, etc.

I realize that a few people getting sick from this “party on the water” is not unusual at all. I myself spent a few times out there when I was a younger fella too. But over 140 people is very odd. In the newspaper today, the Star Tribune is reporting that officials now think a large boat parked there and unloaded its portable toilet contents into the water.

YUCK!!!

Same thing happened last year, really sounds like a place I would want to party.

New name…Big Poop Island..

Who would guess swimming in nasty pissy poop water would get you sick.

Large boat? What about the 500 people using the lake as a bathroom and puking in it all while the rest partied right side x side

Says the Druken party goer to the party barge Captain;

Hey whats this button for?

onestout wrote:

Same thing happened last year, really sounds like a place I would want to party.

Besides the occasion poop water…it’s probably one of the best “scenic” spots in the state if you get my drift. I’ve been there many of times over the years but never the forth. Cruising Tonka is actually a lot of fun.

sounds like a fun place.

If you don’t know what’s good.

What happens on Big Island, stays on Big….. Oh, never mind.

-J.

To everyone that thinks the river is dirty and gross……I present Big Island.

ClownColor wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>onestout wrote:</div>
Same thing happened last year, really sounds like a place I would want to party.

Besides the occasion poop water…it’s probably one of the best “scenic” spots in the state if you get my drift. I’ve been there many of times over the years but never the forth. Cruising Tonka is actually a lot of fun.

Oh I get your drift and I must Agree. I have seen some really crazy things while fishing Minnetonka for many years. I have seen more nude woman on Minnetonka over the years than you could find on a large nude beach.

There’s nothing sexier than a good looking woman in a bikini, or less, launching and loading a boat all by herself looking like a dam pro, and I’ve seen it couple times on Tonka.

There’s some good bending and flexing going on there.

Bless them all

Does the poopy pissy water have any effect on AIS? Does it kill any of them, or does it act more like fertilizer?

onestout wrote:

Same thing happened last year, really sounds like a place I would want to party.

That’s not entirely true. While a few people do get sick as a result of being out there and swimming in or ingesting urine water every year, the amount of people sick this year is unprecedented. I just saw on the news that the count is up to 172 people and they still haven’t identified the bacteria even after testing for 22 common strains. E. coli is usually the culprit. Not this time.

maybe it was spawn water and everyone is pregnant

You would think they would put inspectors out there to monitor everyone’s drain holes

WS

Does anyone else recall that study that a couple of U masters or PhD students did a few years back that got a lot of media play? They tested samples of Lake Pissatonka’s water and found the DNA of dozens of individuals in each sample.

They said that that DNA could only come from “bodily fluids”. Yeah. Yummy.

Someone published an estimate that detailed how many hundreds of thousands of gallons of urine would have to be dumped into the lake to get that much DNA to appear in each little water sample. It wasn’t good.

Bring your waders when you launch in Pissatonka. No telling what you could pick up from that lagoon.

Grouse

It’s not just dudes either, lots of chicks have no problem dropping trow and letting her fly. Especially off pontoons. Looks like a guy watering his lawn with his thumb over the hose, kinda sloppy form. That must get all over everything.

Excelsior beach is closed because of water contamination. Could be a larger sewer issue. An issue in the upper lake would flow right near big island on the way downstream.

Good to know. We’re headed up there in August. Hope that stuff is gone by then. Not swimming but fishing. We still get wet, though. Don’t need to bring any of the home…

My wife and I were fishing at Big Island a week prior to folks getting sick. It was mid morning and the Island was peaceful and quiet, no luck with catching anything around the island but we did see a few very large fish floating/ dead right around the island. Im pretty sure the dead fish are unrelated to all those folks getting sick but we did comment to each other about seeing the dead fish as we both found it a bit odd. Im glad we didn’t go for a swim off the boat that morning.

In Utah, we get some toxic summer algae blooms. They can make one very ill.

I know they didn’t find ecoli but it wouldn’t surprise me if the larger boats dumped their heads overboard or folks were just going #2 in the water. Think about it….the number of folks that invade that area each weekend, a fair amount must have to go doody. With the drinking going on the water would be yellow we’re it not for the already green algae tinged water

I’m getting some what sick just reading these posts.

Rochester has a blue-green algae bloom at Foster-Ahrens Lake right now. And health officials are warning dog owners not to let the dogs drink the water….what about all those kids using the beach?

Two Harbors’ Burlington Bay and Agate Bay beaches get close quite often due to waste water pollution every summer and that’s Lake Superior, so from big to small none are what can be considered safe at times.

New tourism slogan:
Come to Minnesota and swim in our sewers.

You couldn’t pay me to fish or swim in the septic tank that is Lake Minnetonka. That number of yuppie city folk in one area makes me sick to my stomach without swimming in the urine.

buckybadger wrote:

That number of yuppie city folk in one area makes me sick to my stomach

Make sweeping judgments much?

crappie55369 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
That number of yuppie city folk in one area makes me sick to my stomach

Make sweeping judgments much?

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you weren’t one of the ~1000 people $hitting and urinating in the water then swimming in it during the past week……and wondering why you got sick?

Minnetonka is surrounded by a metropolis and to say it’s polluted is an understatement. Those rich green lawns piled with fertilizer up to water’s edge, 40′ boats of intoxicated people, or thousands of people littering the water with trash and bodily fluids while they “party” waist deep are just a few examples of why the place has no appeal to me.

To each their own. If I offended you, my bad?

buckybadger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>crappie55369 wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
That number of yuppie city folk in one area makes me sick to my stomach

Make sweeping judgments much?

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you weren’t one of the ~1000 people $hitting and urinating in the water then swimming in it during the past week……and wondering why you got sick?

Minnetonka is surrounded by a metropolis and to say it’s polluted is an understatement. Those rich green lawns piled with fertilizer up to water’s edge, 40′ boats of intoxicated people, or thousands of people littering the water with trash and bodily fluids while they “party” waist deep are just a few examples of why the place has no appeal to me.

To each their own. If I offended you, my bad?

Oh I hear ya. I’m not a fan of many of the activities, people, or lawn practices of those on and around the lake. Just remember we ain’t all that way around here