Polluted River Covers Brazilian Town with Foam

Reuters ^ | 7/4/2003 | N/A

[Kenny Bunk]

Relax guys, my espresso machine does this allatime. Have they tried sprinkling cinnamon on it?

[optik_b]

Fighting the foam
City sanitary workers cross the bridge over the Tiete River in Pirapora do Bom Jesus, Brazil, 50 miles west of Sao Paulo, on July 5. Water is sprayed from nozzles underneath the bridge in an attempt to keep down the foam, which is generated by a mixture of chemical detergents and organic pollutants. The population of Pirapora de Bom Jesus, downriver from Sao Paolo, South America's largest city, has registered a 161 percent increase in cases of respiratory ailments since 1999

[Calvin Locke]

...chemical detergents and organic pollutants.

Oh, chemical detergents. IIRC, the capital expense for powedered detergent towers is pretty high, not to mention
phosphate problems. (Hence, two strong factors in Europe moving to liquid, low/non phosphate detergents.)

So, organic pollutants. Sounds like agriculture to me. I'd suggest inviting Robert Mugabe to run the country.
He has experience with annoying agriculture problems.