"San Luis Obispo County Supervisors approved a contract to install some new equipment at the Los Osos Wastewater Treatment Plant; gizmos designed to better control the pressure inside the plant’s discharge lines and extend their useful lives."
Read all about it here in the Estero Bay News!
https://esterobaynews.com/news/new-regulators-slated-at-los-osos-treatment-plant/
(I am a fangirl of Neil Farrell who has written another super article!)
How did I not know about this? I was noodling around looking for reference items for my sewer book that I am slowly plodding along on, and in googling for the habitat of this moth (yes, the moth is sewer related) ------
-------- I found this: https://flushitblog.wordpress.com/ !!!!!!!!!!
Here is a whole, new, wonderful world of sewers! I, and I hope you - my one reader (are you still there?) will take a look and enjoy the many, fascinating postings here!
I tried to find out something about the author, but probably on purpose, and I do understand why (how many of us write about this instead of the latest TikTok phenom I wonder....), I only found this:
About me: I am the current chair of the Environmental Protection Technology program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. For my PhD I looked at how pollutants and nutrients from fertilizers and manure traveled through farm soils with tile drainage. Well, one thing led to another.
Yes, I surely get that "one thing led to another" thing...
I was shocked to find this posting today from
Municipal Sewer & Water Magazine!
"Federal Agencies Release Cyber Incident Response Guide for Water/Wastewater Systems"
But then I realized that a dinky outpost like our sewer (and our three dinky water companies) probably would not be the most likely places to waste attack resources and I felt better.
Well, one can read all about it here:
The four stages of the incident response lifecycle are:
* Preparation
* Detection and analysis
* Containment, eradication and recovery
* Post-incident activities
The government website to get the detailed scoop is here:
Read about it, and note the photo of the leach field piping - I photo that I have never seen!
"In this case study from Los Osos, California, a decentralized solution from Delta Treatment Systems addresses saltwater intrusion while facilitating aquifer recharge."
https://downloads.regulations.gov/FWS-R8-ES-2019-0025-0004/attachment_7.pdf
I nabbed this image below from Google Earth, which is flipped from the image above:
Have a look at the Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility in the City of Spokane, Washington!
Our plant is dinky compared to this plant for an obvious reason: Los Osos population - 14,465; Spokane population - 228,989.
And maybe I am prejudiced, but I think our plant is a lot cooler! Have you visited our plant's page lately? If not, here you go:
I hope some enterprising person will do a video of ours someday....
"The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the City agency that brought national attention to your sewers using slogans like “No one deals with more crap than I do” and “Your #2 is my #1,” is now debuting a rap song!"
Have a look - Tetrads! I am lax in not bringing you more of these, they are out there!
My favorite though is Tardigrades! (Catchy tune to augment the video!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH3ABle9k7A
I don't think I did a link to the wastewater variety from TPO though. So in case I didn't - here it is!
This is what I found in the handy publication yesterday, "Municipal Sewer & Water." I subscribe. You might want to as well.
Yup, I am too lazy to write at the moment, I have Pleurisy! Straight out of a 19th century novel! Not sewer related however. I do have more photos to post and will soon!
Most readers, meaning all of you in world-flung countries that never heard of Los Osos and aren't actually "reading" anyway - probably never heard of the push to do a "natural," cheaper, Arcata-like, wastewater treatment marsh in place of the state-of-the-art Tri-W project. To the two of you that actually read this (I am assuming one devoted but departed reader is no longer reading - there was three of you!), I recall that when I was running to be a director on the Los Osos Community Services District in 2006 that I got a call from a local on that topic (phone number in the "book" and never shied away from random calls). I explained the difference in rainfall between Los Osos and Arcata (44.4" per year). Los Osos' average is 15.77" per year (yes, stats will vary - 8" to 32" and lots of up and down - especially down - years in-between). Arcata was the "ideal," but not remotely possible for Los Osos due to lack of precipitation.
Well, the upshot is, Arcata is having to institute a "Wastewater Treatment Facility Improvement Project" to the tune of $54 million for Phase 1. PHASE 1! Read all about it here: https://www.madriverunion.com/articles/the-big-wastewater-plant-upgrade-is-underway/
Nothing is cheap. I always recall the cry, "We Delay, We Pay," in 2005 on numerous signs around town the I first arrived. Boy, was that ever true....
I couldn't believe it either, but here it is: https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2023/05/news-briefs-soldiers-compete-in-water-purification-rodeo?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Article%20Title%20%0ANews%20Briefs%3A%20Soldiers%20Compete%20in%20Water%20Purification%20Rodeo%0A%20End%20Article%20Title&utm_campaign=TPO230526
10,000 people voted for a LEGO sewer set to recreate the horrors of sewage waste. I know, I couldn't believe it either. Here you go:
And be sure not to miss this link!
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/d5c2a435-8082-40f6-a76c-697b14ae7317
Yeah, it has been a while. But this website below was linked off a NY Times article I just read:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance
and of course, our dinky sewer plant is to small to be listed -
but one servicing a population of 47,000 is. Not hard to figure out which one.
Be careful. I'm signing up for my 4th jab, being old and overweight, with asthma.
I was at the LOCAC meeting, 7:00 p.m., July 22, 2021 when Julie Tacker brought up Sea Pines Golf Resort's lost sewer bill being discussed at Tuesdays Board of Supes meeting! Thank you for the tip Julie! The bill, $238,958.59, was somehow lost and they were never charged! Ouch! I'm glad that they will get a payment plan, but that is a lot of golf games, beer, and hamburgers that will need to be sold! I will help them out with hamburgers, but I prefer Martinis! I haven't played golf since high school. However, if they put in a miniature golf course......!
Here are the intriguing documents!
https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/134043
https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/134047
https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/agendaitem/details/13481
https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/134045
I got this email notification from the Regional Water Quality Control Board on July 1 at 4:40 p.m. and it gave me the link below. Look at the top, tentative order:
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_decisions/tentative_orders/
You can go to the first link (to the Notice of Public Hearing) and read about the opportunity to make a public comment here:
"DRAFT ORDER NO. R3-2021-0049 FOR TERMINATION OF ORDER NO. 93-82, WATER RECLAMATION REQUIREMNTS FOR BSR, A GENRAL PARTNERSHIP, SEA PINES GOLF COURSE, SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY (PRIMARY USER OF RECYCLED WATER)"
This is all sort of hilarious, not just because of the typo, but because,
"Order No. 93-82 is no longer needed because the Monarch Grove Reclamation Facility is no longer in existence and does not produce recycled water."
August 27, 2019 the County had a valve turning ceremony to give Sea Pines water recycled from the sewer plant. Oh well, better late than never I guess! I wrote about it here: http://losewersaga.blogspot.com/2019/08/valve-turning-ceremony-today.html
Here is the draft order:
And here is the draft staff report - by far the most interesting part of this!
In that report, we have a discrepancy as to when the recycled water was delivered:
"On June 10, 2019, the Los Osos Water Recycling Facility began delivery of the recycled water to the Sea Pines Golf Course for irrigation."
Hmmmmmm.
Hot off the pixel press today!
Page 17 of 335 of the Basin Management Committee's packet!
"Enforcement: A list of properties that were not connected were transferred to County Code Enforcement and Notice of Violations were issued last year in Feb. 2019. That list was about 70 properties. As of 5/12/2021, the sewer service area has a 99.4% connection status with a total of 36 properties not yet connected. Of those, one is not required to connect because there is no structure (demolished), 18 have expired building permits, and the rest have an open Code Enforcement case. The County has assigned staff in code enforcement to Los Osos. Expired permits did not receive a Code Enforcement case because those properties have their own noticing process through the Building Department which, if not corrected, could result in a Notice of Violation."
I was cleaning out my email In Box and came across a sewer news magazine I subscribe to. Well, this ad was just about the last thing anyone would want to see before they go to bed. Hope you read it well in between meals! Or use it as a diet aid, actually!
(Sorry.)
Yes, there really is such a thing, as well there should be!
Here are some videos!
Brussels has one too, although it looks to be more sanitized and not a smelly as the one in Paris looking at the reviews.
https://sewermuseum.brussels/en/accueil-english/the-museum/
Enjoy!
What a GREAT idea! Wouldn't it be fun if we could turn our sewage into snow? Have a three minute snowboard run flying down the Broderson before it all melted? One can dream!
Yes, it has been a while since I have posted - sorry about that! I think I am in too many groups tasked with too many jobs. Optional tasks, such as this fun, sewer blog, are pushed off to that mythical future that rarely arrives. I am supposed to be doing something else now, but am playing hooky from that, this article was TOO good to not pass on!
So have a look. Wipes (well, some anyway, Kimberly-Clark Corporation's Cottonelle brand), the bane of many a wastewater plant, must now meet flushability standards of the International Water Services Flushability Group!
Sidenote: trying not to laugh here, there is a FLUSHABILITY group? Let me join! It sounds like great fun!
I sure don't know how I missed this one, but the Estero Bay News caught it!
Neil Farrell, someone who was very generous with his time, information, and photos for my book on Los Osos—and that is an excellent writer and that I can't thank enough— wrote a fascinating article on the topic!
Have a look: https://esterobaynews.com/ban-extended-on-human-wastes-as-fertilizer/
(I LOVE the Estero Bay News!)
Just a quick update to an earlier post (January 4) on the floating solar panels for our Water Reclamation Facility, which I always prefer calling our WWTF (Wastewater Treatment Facility) - it just sounds more apropos for a sewer blog (and there are two "o"s and two "p"s in that word I just noticed - well, never mind)!
Anyway, the solar panels passed for our plant without a hitch on the Consent Calendar of the Board of Supervisors last Tuesday, January 26! It was not pulled and all Supes voted YES!!
Now, on to the wombats. I subscribe to an online science magazine and this article popped up yesterday. Did you know that the squarer the poop, the healthier the wombat? Well, take a look those of you interested in such things! It is not something we will encounter here, but I wonder if there are any square coprolites unearthed anywhere - I'll bet no one has looked.
Too fun!!
https://www.tpomag.com/tags/bug-of-the-month
Wastewater aficionados, do not miss this, these guys are cute!
Coming right up on the Regional Water Quality Board's agenda for their Friday, January 29 meeting! Here is a link to that agenda:
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2021/01_jan_28/index.html
Waste Discharge Requirements
10. Consideration of Order No. R3-2021-0007, Termination of Order 00-12, General Waste Discharge Requirements for Residential On-Site Wastewater Systems Within the Bayview Heights and Martin Tract Areas of Los Osos, San Luis Obispo County.
[James Bishop, 805/542-4628, James.Bishop@waterboards.ca.gov, Harvey Packard, 805/542-4639, Harvey.Packard@waterboards.ca.gov]
Here is a link to the order:
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2021/01_jan_28/item10_att1.pdf
Here is a link to the staff report:
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2021/01_jan_28/item10_stfrpt.pdf
Sounds like the cost of flushing is now just around the bend for the non Prohibition Zone residents on septic tanks.
FINALLY! Something new to post about OUR sewer!!! Floating solar panels are on the agenda for Tuesday's Board of Supes meeting!! (And not the floaters in a letter ascribed to Roger Briggs of the Water Board so many, many years ago as a comment on the perils of a ponding system for wastewater treatment....)
Here is the agenda:
https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/129235
It is item 31 on the Consent Agenda - Public Works Items:
"Submittal of a resolution to approve power purchase agreement, site lease agreement and consent and non-disturbance agreement with Floating Solar Solutions SLO County I, LLC; approve an application for partial release, subordination or consent with the United States Department of Agriculture for the Los Osos Water Recycling Facility in Los Osos; request to waive the Contract for Services Policy; and find the project exempt from Section 21000 et seq. of the California Public Resources Code (CEQA). District 2"
It is on the Consent Agenda which goes quickly if no one pulls the item (fingers, toes crossed that this does not happen).
Here are all the links to the documents, the map is particularly lovely:
https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/128315
A quote from the link above:
"The floating solar installation will provide three major benefits to the LOWRF and the wastewater ratepayers: reducing energy costs by offsetting consumption, improving recycled water quality, and reducing water loss from evaporation."
https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/agendaitem/details/12735
https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/128308
This was originally discussed in 2017. It is a real bonus to have this better solar version happen since we could not get the regular kind way back when the plant was being designed. We can flush and think "energy" as panels float serenely on the pond. And they will save over four acre feet of water per year which won't evaporate!
