Ship Shape Sewage

Toilet in the cabin.

For those of you wondering how sewage is handled on a ship, and I know there is at least one, or maybe a half of you out there, here is some information specific at least to a cruise up the Danube, at least on the Viking ship, Delling, (who was a Norse god known as the "father of the day," or "bringer of the dawn"). I suspect this information is true for all river cruises, at least those in Europe.

Read more here:

http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/PollutionPrevention/Sewage/Pages/Default.aspx

Sadly, Hungary, Austria and The Czech Republic are not included here.

http://www.noonsite.com/Members/val/R2009-01-16-1

http://www.rya.org.uk/infoadvice/boatingabroad/pages/holdingtanks.aspx

https://www.gov.uk/prevent-pollution-and-reduce-harmful-emissions-at-sea

www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk/.../3_-_Operational_management_of_river_cruise_ships.pdf

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www.ebcd.org/pdf/presentation/215-Mr._Grammerstorf.pdf

I consulted our ship's Program Director Marek S., who, if he thought I was nuts, and I wouldn't blame him if he did, did not give it away in the least, and was very helpful.

Readers, the flushage is NOT going into the river! Like modern trains, and some lakeside houses around the world, the flush part is handled by a vacuum system. Here, it is held in a tank on board ship and disembarks into the city systems, a watery passenger as it were, at docking. In our case, however, only to big cities like Budapest, Vienna and Nuremberg, as needed.

I had first gone on a wheelhouse tour to ask about this, but the crew referred me to Mr. S.. There just wasn't the language to convey the specifics I guess, or so it seemed, although English was spoken and was very clear on the various technical aspects of wheelhouse equipment. Perhaps it was the polite Hungarian way of saying they really didn't want to get onto this particular topic with a crazy American woman.

View over the Second-in-Commands shoulder, who was piloting, showing the contours of the river.

Monitoring view of the ship's water system and tank levels. Didn't take good notes, so this is fresh water or ballast water.

This is the point where I asked for the crew member to bring up the sewage tank screen to show tank levels and got the broken English.

We docked at night in Nuremberg, which was the end of the on-the-water part of the trip. I don't know if things then flowed into the city. Or in Vienna, or Budapest for that matter. I was off touring much of the time rather than watching the ship's discharging. Although we missed the bus one day, so saw crates of beautiful potatoes and apples come on board. 

But here is a shot of a compartment open on the ship's hull. Not at all sure what I was seeing, those ports with plugs and all.

Then, on another ship that was docked, I saw this blue hose hooking up to something that looked like a city utility. But I think it was only water.

To be continued sometime......

Budapest Sewers for a Change of Pace!

Sewage is worldwide, and with traveling, especially when all to report from our own home sewer situation has already been reported on for the moment, it is time to expand our sewer horizons to other parts of the world!

The reason I show you the Budapest Opera House to locate us in Budapest, Hungary, instead of pastries or something, or even perhaps the world famous Parliament Building, is because our sewer saga would fit nicely into an operatic setting, you know, lots of angst and drama....just imagine the shrill voices, shrieks and loud protests with discordant violins! But in English, of course. And sewer talk around pastries is not very pleasant, despite where they end up.

I will give you a few examples of manhole covers I have found, but as what lies beneath them, sewage, electrical, cable, other services of an unknown nature, unless you read Hungarian, your guess is as good as mine.

Fortunately, there is an English page for the current sewer system (note, do we Americans respond to courteously to web crawlers from other countries in their native tongues?):

http://www.fcsm.hu/en/services/drainage_of_wastewater_and_rainwater/sewer_network_operation/

When you find yourself in Budapest, you can also think sludge!

Here is a tidy history of the development of sewers in Buda and Pest!
http://v.fcsmzrt.hu/en/company_information/the_history_of_the_sewage_of_budapest/general_sewerage

Here is a tour, "Making a sanitary sewer the first destination on a 5 day road trip was perhaps not the most sensible of decisions."
http://www.thewinch.net/?p=3522

Happy reading!

PS - not sure why some images don't show a thumbnail on this page, but the wireless is a bit buggy on this ship. Click the missing link image to see the larger image, it is there.

WWTF Project Costs to Date 6/60/14

Correction! The date is 6/30/14. Months these days feel like they contain 60 days....

It is part of the BOS agenda for Tuesday, September 16, the "Fiscal Year 2013-14 Year-end Financial Status Report" for the Los Osos Wastewater Project.

You can see those costs off this link:
http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/3817/TG9zIE9zb3MgUHJvamVjdCBDb3N0IEVzdGltYXRlcyBwYWdlIG9ubHkgMTMtMTQucGRm/12/n/33628.doc

The project moves forward; the sewer gets closer and closer, lo, these many bygone years, to the "flush and forget" stage. I can almost imagine the blowback talking points to my statement from those who have hated the sewer idea from the beginning, but now fully embrace the return-water as a valuable resource that I dare not be flippant about. Take a break folks, lighten up. This is the reality; most of us will simply flush and forget, and allow the professionals to requisition the recycled water, as conditioned by the California Coastal Commission, to the proper and appropriate destinations. I will imagine that reality instead, professionals in charge, as they have been since 2007, January 1, following a tragic and expensively fallow, year-plus hiatus.

The County's Latest Mailer!

All about water conservation of course! Mine arrived Thursday, September 11. Blue on the tiny map mean low-flow fixtures have been installed. There are still yellow spots needing to go blue. I am one of them. All done (showers, toilets, bathroom faucets, a new HE washer—check) but for one lousy tap. I need to call a second plumber to see how to reduce the flow, the first plumber tried but couldn't. My solution is to eat out more and to use paper plates. Less dishes to wash that way, (it is in the kitchen).

CDOs on Regional Water Board Agenda!

Find relevant links here for the September 25, 2014 meeting:

Agenda link—see Item 13, "Enforcement"
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2014/Sepember/agenda_files/agenda_sep2014%20a.htm

Relevant documents page, off which are numerous links.
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2014/Sepember/item13/index.shtml

To cut to the chase, the Enforcement Staff's recommendations are thus:

1. The County has not yet completed the community system, and while we are confident that it will, this outcome is not guaranteed.
   
2. The main requirement of the orders, hooking up to the sewer when it becomes available, cannot yet be complied with. This requirement should stay in place until the system is available.
   
3. Even when the system is available, there may be dischargers in the prohibition zone who are reluctant or refuse to hook up. Leaving these orders in place maintains a disincentive for order recipients to continue violating the prohibition after construction of the sewer system. 

We ALL should have gotten CDOs OR NOVs to begin with. In other words, we all should have been treated equally. While I disagreed many times with the frantic fight against these orders, as in real life, they didn't amount to much unless one chose to react that way about them (think of all of those who simply signed that paper and moved on), the unfairness to not be treated equally, I think, we can all agree on.

There are just as many NOV holders, probably more actually, who may not comply with hooking up to the sewer when it is available, so point 3 just seems to be a way to cut costs or something on a CDO holder who does not comply. In other words, maybe the Board would have to start from scratch with a non-compliant NOV holder, but it wouldn't with a CDO holder? Again, it just looks like playing unfavorites. 

So, IMHO, I believe the Board should adopt the resolution offered which TERMINATES these orders!
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2014/Sepember/item13/item13_att2.pdf

Coast Starlight Sewage Update

As we wait until 2016 for our very own wastewater treatment facility, here is another sewage narrative to keep you entertained!

So...in case you were wondering, and I know 99.9% of you were not and that's OK, what happens to the collected sewage, hand wash water and shower water on trains, after you flush or the water goes down the drain? It is stored in a holding tank, then off-loaded from this yellow-capped pipe shown in the pix below (click the images for larger views).

The train attendant that I asked wondered about my question and I said that I wrote a sewer blog. He kept his poker face straight, but the passengers around him did not. I won't elaborate. None of them lived in Los Osos, I'm just sure of that.

Anyway, earlier in the trip, I got some shots of strange, green kitty litter-looking stuff on a neighboring track:

Now there were several blobs of this green stuff over a couple of miles. Trains no longer dump excreta on the tracks as they once did, so it couldn't be human-use kitty litter. But how about some granular stuff for oil spills? So I found webpage and the product comes in industrial sized quantities too! http://www.bradyid.com/bradyid/pdpv/GS-10.html No idea if that is what this stuff was. Perhaps instead a variety of railway mold?

Following the moldy thread, read the text on the link below and click on the link "Alien Sludge" for a photo that does not look like this one above, but worth viewing anyway. The dialogue describing it is pertinent. http://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/1evhg7/alien_sludge_found_near_railroad_tracks/  I did find a desiccated opossum head that looked like a dried fig lying on the platform in Salinas....where I shot the yellow-capped pipe while the train was being repaired for five hours.

Salinas BTW, has a sewer system, here's the proof:

On another track altogether, you might enjoy another sort of train, one that RUNS on sewage.

http://www.treehugger.com/cars/poo-poo-train-runs-on-the-weight-of-sewage.html

Seitz Explains Measure B News - Zombie Precautions Not Needed

A new feature of LOCSD meetings is the District's legal counsel explaining what HE is working on. I won't go down the long list of his jobs (I was really amazed at the work performed in just one month) but will update us all here in sewer-land on the dreaded Measure B and why it appeared on the LOCSD Closes Session agenda on September 4, 2014. 

"Housekeeping" said Mike Seitz. So, even though there will be a "case management" meeting on Monday, September 8, in court, it really won't amount to much. The Measure B suit from the Regional Water Quality Control Board was suspended by the bankruptcy, and as we have seen, the bankruptcy appears month after month on the LOCSD closed session agendas, as the many leftover bits and pieces need to be swept up and disposed of. In this case, "injunctive relief" is the bit to be put to rest in the dustbin of sewer history.

Let us all hope that this goes as expected with our long dead Measure B. Zombies can be vanquished in a variety of methods according to which movie you wish to cite. Experts vary in their opinions. But substantial structural destruction to any part of the brain seems to do the trick. Substantial destruction to District finances from this folly might finally be put to rest as well.