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Garbage fouls site of sailing, windsurfing at 2016 Olympics

Garbage fouls site of sailing, windsurfing at 2016 Olympics

We're still more than two years out from the Olympics, but the Rio-isn't-ready stories are flying faster Usain Bolt on a Red Bull latte. No, London won't be getting the Games back, but short of that, everything else is apparently on the table to get these Olympics off the ground.

Now comes word that Guanabera Bay, future site of sailing and windsurfing events, is a trash-strewn nightmare, a dumpsite for 80 to 100 tons of Rio de Janeiro's trash each day. Add to that the fact that only about 40 percent of sewage is treated, with the remainder going straight into the water system, and you've got the foundation for an epic public health/public relations/public image nightmare.

The local government has said it will clean up the bay, but to local residents, this is more of the same news. Brazil has spent more than a billion dollars in the past two decades trying to clean up the bay, with little if any progress to show for it. There are plenty of photos of the environmental devastation here, though fair warning: some include aerial shots of gag-inducing amounts of sewage floating in waterways.

The problem with sewage in the waterways is that it disproportionately affects those least able to fight it: the poor and impoverished. The Global Post notes that state authorities in April cut the water cleanup budget by 95 percent, from more than $1 billion to $51 million. Gone are sewage treatment centers, left are boats and fences to contain debris.

Plus, there are the corpses. Lars Grael, who won two sailing medals for Brazil, has observed at least four human bodies floating in the sewage-infested waters during his training. He termed the bay “dark, brown and stinking,” and indicated that Olympic organizers should move the water events to a resort hours away.

Rio officials have disregarded such ideas. They said the bay will be cleaned by the Games, a claim that leaves local environmental experts scoffing.

“The government could deploy aircraft carriers to collect the bay’s garbage and the problem would not be solved,” Mario Moscatelli, a Brazilian biologist, told the New York Times. “The bay is still a latrine. It’s an insult to Rio’s people to say it will be clean for the Olympics.”

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Jay Busbee

is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter.