Oysters May Be an Aphrodisiac, but Not When Contaminated by Raw Sewage

At least 24 people have fallen ill in recent weeks after consuming Chesapeake Bay oysters that were contaminated by raw sewage.

The sicknesses occurred after state officials reportedly failed to alert the public of a sewage spill in southern St. Mary's County, Maryland, near where the oysters were collected.

The St. Mary's County Metropolitan Commission raised an alarm after surging tides reportedly caused 25,000 gallons of sewage waste to leak into a nearby river tributary at the end of October. The commission stated that this leakage was reported to a number of utility companies, as well as the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).

However, while these utility companies informed their customers about the contaminated oysters, the MDE reportedly did not take any action for at least two weeks, until an oyster-based illness was first reported. The MDE stated that it then shut down sections of the river that had been contaminated.

The shutdown appeared to come too late, though, as by that point, many contaminated oysters had already been consumed. At least two dozen people have ended up getting sick from the bad shellfish.

The shellfish in question had come from an oyster aquaculture farm just north of where the majority of the sewage spill was reported. The farm refrigerated, handled, and sold about 10,000 oysters in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

Potomac Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks stated that the MDE's error in not informing the public was "inexcusable."

"People are sick because MDE failed to do its job," Naujoks said.

The MDE stated that this was the first such incident brought to its attention, adding it will enhance its communication methods to ensure future outbreaks will not occur.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time something of this nature has happened," MDE spokesman Jay Apperson told The Baltimore Sun. "We are now working on improving our coordination within programs, through retraining and building redundancies into our process as a safeguard to prevent this from happening in the future."

Apperson added that the information on the oysters was not properly passed onto the correct MDE office that would've been in charge of closing down shellfish supply lines. He stated that the agency didn't become aware of the outbreak until Virginia state officials informed them of a case in their state.

The contamination also came as the state of Maryland reportedly had its lowest levels of environmental regulation enforcement in two decades.

At least three other similar spills have been reported in the same area over the past few years, according to the Sun. This includes two overflows that occurred just this past summer.

However, state officials did not deem those spills to have a significant impact on the shellfish population.

Beyond the MDE, the St. Mary's County Metropolitan Commission has also been subject to penalties after being held responsible for a number of overflows in the past decade. This includes at least a dozen cases from 2011 to 2015.

In this case, though, it appears the shellfish are clean once again, as MDE tested the river this past Saturday and stated that the water was safe for oyster hunting.

Officials added that any remaining affected oysters would have flushed out any toxins by this point.

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for comment.