Wipes Wreak Ruin!

"New York, New York a helluva town!" And now, in the sewers, it's a hellish town—due to—yes, WIPES! They do not break down and must be removed from the screens in the city's wastewater treatment plants. These undissolvable blobs have more than doubled since 2008 and have cost the city $18 million since 2010, although there are other costs not enumerated for other wipe-related repairs. These cloth-like items include baby wipes, medicated wipes (hemorrhoids), "feminine" wipes, and the everyday (post-evacuation) clean-up kind.

New York has either gained much additional population, residents are either having more kids, more posterior medical issues or have become more religious (cleanliness is next to godliness). Please have a look off of the link below. You will see on the right side of that page what that glop looks like. (Fortunately, it is a smallish photo and the colorful results of wipeage have been washed away.)

http://www.amny.com/news/wet-wipes-clogging-nyc-plumbing-and-sewer-systems-1.11153775

This has been a problem in many places, including Los Osos' Bayridge Estates. So, future sewer users of Los Osos, wake up! When we have our spiffy new plant in place, we need to keep potential problems we might cause at the forefront of our minds in the bathroom. There is a solution to this problem and in case you didn't get to the to the end of the linked article, here is a video that explains what that is: Heinie Giene!

Speak Up To Stop Sewer Sludge Spreading!

A copy and paste message from David Broadwater: (I'll admit I personally am confused - wastewater has to be SO CLEAN to be used on crops - how does this get a pass?)

SPECIAL REQUEST FROM THE CENTER FOR SLUDGE INFORMATION

From: David Broadwater, CSI   To: SLO County Citizens, re:  Sewage Sludge Spreading on County Farms Planned Stop Draft Ordinance CEQA/EIR Process - Please Help SLO County is proposing an ordinance allowing sewage sludge land application on agricultural lands growing food for human consumption, feed for animals and used for grazing livestock.  The proposed ordinance permits the spreading of excessively contaminated sewage sludge and massive increases in soil contamination with toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, pathogenic and hormone-disrupting pollutants. The draft ordinance does not comply with County Board of Supervisors directions to County Staff about the type of ordinance which should be constructed to permit sewage sludge land application on SLO County lands.  The failures of the draft ordinance to conform with those directions render it unqualified for the CEQA/EIR review the County has initiated. The CEQA/EIR process currently underway must be halted. Please contact CSI for a copy of the letter sent to various County decision-makers, and consider joining CSI in recommending cessation of the CEQA/EIR process on this grossly deficient and dangerous draft ordinance.  The tools for doing so (email addresses) are below.  This will not be easy - the train's left the station and it's gaining momentum.  Your help is essential.  Please forward this email to others who may be interested. The conflicts with BofS directions are listed on the first page.  CSI's recommendations for CEQA/EIR cessation and starting with a correct ordinance appear on page two, followed by a brief background.  The remaining pages (19 total) present detailed documentation substantiating the inconsistencies of this draft ordinance with BofS directions.  While that section of the letter is long, and perhaps tedious, it is necessary to make an irrefutable case that the CEQA/EIR process should be halted immediately.   Thank you, David Broadwater Center for Sludge Information   CONTACT: csi@thegrid.net

Brussels Sewer Museum Reopens!

There are only two sewer museums in the world and one that has been closed for over a year, the Brussels one, has reopened! Remember to visit on your next European tour!

Here is a quote from the first article about it which is linked below:

"This is a hostile environment with putrid stenches, numerous hazards including illicit disposal of toxic substances or those of insects, rats and pathogenic micro-organisms."

On the up-side, there is a gift shop which has rat dolls. (I would hope that they carry Poop costumes as well!)

Oh heck, we in Los Osos all have giant containers of hostile contents right in our own yards. Only during septic tank pumping do we get a fuller experience of what is contained therein. Can't wait for our sewer hook-up so I can say goodbye to that giant kettle of crap!

http://www.xpats.com/bowels-city-we-visit-brussels-reopened-sewer-museum

http://www.xpats.com/brussels-sewers-museum-reopens-its-doors-public

Toilet Golf

Yes, it is still very slow in the sewer news department, but it is time once again to turn one's mind from public works projects to—yes—THE HOLIDAYS; so a slight segue from sewers is permissible I believe. 

Somehow, this early, one can say •that word• (THE HOLIDAYS) and not go straight into panic mode the way one would on say, December 22, and you have not yet thought about cards, let alone gifts for anyone, and all that you have in the fridge is a box of freezer-burned mac'n'cheese from Budget Gourmet. Hey, maybe you have managed a list by this point, but you know that you have forgotten someone, like maybe your boss.

Well, to get a head start this year, I'm offering up an idea—at least for your friends who like golf! I get all sorts of strange stuff in my E-mail Inboxes, but this one item really caught my eye: toilet golf! I clicked on the link in the E-mail a second time about an hour later and the item was GONE! But a quick Google search landed many offerings!

Happy shopping!

Opensky

Brookstone

Oriental Trading

Bed Bath and Beyond

ebay

Bug Poop and Bee Vomit

You can already tell by the title of this thing that it is pretty quiet on the Los Osos sewer front if I am resorting to sensationalistic tricks to keep readership over here - all two or three of you anyway if that qualifies as a readership. (I suspect the hits I get are just bots from Russia looking for spam opportunities.) You probably have better things to do, and so should I. However, I ran across a fascinating story on a feed that I get and it was startling to say the least. Who really thought deeply about where honey comes from? (I could segue over to honey huts from here, but I will restrain myself, although that could make an interesting topic for the next post, things being SO quiet and all.)

WARNING: To go beyond this point you may never look at honey the same, and may never eat it again either.

OK, here goes, we'll ease gently into this reveal: baby birds are probably not conflicted by this vomit thing, as the thing that keeps you alive is rarely questioned (sewer malcontents listen up!). Cows upchuck grass to chew it some more to make it digestible. Some women pre-chew food before giving it to their babies. Honey, the regular non-staff-of-life stuff we stir into our tea or squirt from a plastic bear onto our toast, is really bee upchuck ("...100,000 vomits"* to make a pound of honey). Maybe we sort of knew that about honey - we did take a biology class along the road somewhere, right, bees gathering nectar/honeycombs, etc.? (We know that eating crispy coconut shrimp is just eating dressed up ocean bugs, right?)

Here's the really disgusting part though: some honey is made from the poop of scale insects!

Read on for a fascinating tale in honey manufacturing - you may as well; going down the page this far you are probably already thinking about tossing that golden jar into the recycle bin, and I'll bet I've ruined coconut shrimp too. Sorry about that, but you were warned.

* http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/your-new-favorite-honey-is-made-out-of-bug-poop-and-bee-vomit

Pooh!

A kindred soul in sewer blog writing from Stinson Beach, California has thoughtful, brilliantly written monthly columns, far different than these frequent Sewer Saga slap dashes to keep my two or three readers up to date. Please visit http://californiacoastdweller.com or Pooh! as the title proclaims, and rummage around for some good sewer reads! One of my favorites is this one: http://californiacoastdweller.com/2015/03/30/1596/

It is comforting to know in some strange alternate universe sort of way that Los Osos is not alone in its 35-year denial of sewage contamination if still alone in the belief from back in the bad old days that we had "magic sand," thereby eliminating the need to treat waste differently than septic tanks, cramed eight to twelve per acre as they are. That I think is still unique.

Well, we now face millions in payments, not just for our spiffy new sewer plant which will be online next year, but for all the water infrastructure changes that we will also have to pay for due to wrecking our water supply that is pooled beneath our town. I'm sure some day I will stop being dazed by this amazing lack of connecting the dots between leach fields and the water supply beneath them. These changes must be made, cost what they may as there is no alternate water supply.

The average income in Stinson Beach is $100,000, considerably less* than that in Los Osos. Once SB is sewered, there will not be a mass exodus from those unable to afford their homes. The exodus from Los Osos, long predicted by the sewer deniers when it was $29 million cheaper than now and earlier, costing far less than that, will likely come to pass. People with rentals are raising rents right now and homes that are big time fixer uppers are selling for quite generous prices. Well, at least those forced out will have a lucrative goodbye, I guess that is the rather sad upside. I just doubt that all of these people are the ones responsible for causing this economic disaster. The ones that are will never admit it and they will continue to live here.

*Correction! Oops - meant to say MORE there! Thanks for the catch gentle reader!

Broadwater On Sludge

I attended the Water Resources Advisory Committee meeting last Wednesday and the first speaker at public comment was David Broadwater. He had a handout on sewage sludge (see below - wish I could give you a single pdf - but those aren't uploadable on blogger.com. Click each picture for a larger size). He has spoken and written on the topic for many years which you can see if you google "Broadwater" and "sewage sludge." 

We do not need to worry in Los Osos on what is to become of our biosolids; they will be trucked far, far away as there is no safe place to put them here however non-industrial the composition. Below is a link to an interesting paper on this topic.

https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/59468/5.3.Schaefer.pdf?sequence=1

CDBG Funds To Los Osos Wastewater Project

Tuesday, November 10, off the Board of Supe's agenda:

Hearings

6. Hearing to consider a resolution approving and authorizing submittal of proposed amendments to the Urban County of San Luis Obispo Program Year 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014 Action Plans for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds as requested: 1) by the City of Arroyo Grande to create a new project, and 2) by the County of San Luis Obispo to eliminate a project while reallocating funds to an existing project. All Districts. 

Here is a link to the documents:
http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/Proposal.html?select=5317

Why is this important to Los Osos? Los Osos was not supposed to get any of these funds! The money was supposed to go to an organization called Central Coast Seniors in Oceano. It was to have been spent to rehabilitate their asphalt parking lot. However, to do that with this money, they would have had to pay prevailing wage to the workers and be subjected to the level of regulatory oversight required by CDBG  program, thus making the project impossible for the amount of money of the awarded funds.

So:

WHEREAS, the County of San Luis Obispo Department of Planning and Building request the amendment of the 2014 Action Plan to reallocate $15,000 from the “Street and Parking Improvements Projects” by the Central Coast Senior Center to the “Los Osos Wastewater Connections Project” by the County of San Luis Obispo Department of Public Works; 

The Supes are responding to the need for getting more money to those in need in Los Osos; this money could have gone elsewhere. Thanks Supes!

November 5 Financial Aid Meeting - Sewer Laterals-Septic Decommissioning!!

I expect that you got your postcard in the mail - so this is just a reminder that the sewer meeting is Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. at South Bay Community Center!

If you are unable to attend the meeting, please see this page for information:

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/PW/LOWWP.htm

A Bounty Of Biosolids!

The City of San Luis Obispo has an upcoming meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 3. On the 272-page agenda is an item on biosolids, the city's. They have a budgeted line item of $206,000 for fiscal year 2015-16 and $210,000 for fiscal year 2016-17. Now, they do have an output of 4.5 million gallons per day, which is quite a bit over our 1 million gallons per day at buildout and so the resultant biosolids and associated costs will be proportionally less for us when our plant is up and running. But it is fun to look at these costs and locations for transport—to get a heads up, more or less (or maybe it is bottoms down).

Here is a copy and paste of a small smattering of what is in their meeting packet for this item:

Other Agencies

Below is a brief description of what other agencies are doing with their biosolids. The City

generates more biosolids than many agencies because of its size and the treatment processes used

to attain the high level of water quality required to meet the WRRF’s discharge requirements.

Presently the City pays $44.23/ton for hauling and composting.

Cambria – $47.50/ton. Biosolids are hauled to Liberty Composting in the San Joaquin Valley,

composted, and then marketed for a variety of uses.

City of Morro Bay - $46.00/ton. Biosolids are hauled by McCarthy Farms in the San Joaquin

Valley, composted, and then marketed for a variety of uses.

South San Luis Obispo Sanitary District - $36.50/ton. Biosolids are hauled by Engel and Gray,

Inc., composted, and then marketed for a variety of uses.

City of Paso Robles – $7.19/ton. Biosolids are hauled to the City-owned landfill and used as

alternative daily cover.

Pismo Beach - $48.68/ton. Biosolids are hauled by Engel and Gray, Inc., composted, and then

marketed for a variety of uses.

Here is a link to the agenda:

http://www.slocity.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=7185

(Look for item six, then click the header link for the support documents.)

Engel and Gray, Inc. was always the facility discussed for our output, and the sewer disruptors (I am running out of descriptors for these people) flailed arms and spittle and warned of looming disaster should Engel and Gray close its doors to us. But as we can see, there are other facilities available, so I am officially putting that alarmist, pot-stirring fear to rest in the compost heap. And I will also add, that I am sure that we will have a very high quantity of output, guaged by the amount of unprocessed biosolids that are frequently flung from the mouths of the sewer detractors at the various meetings in Los Osos.

Toilet to Tap in 24 Hours!

Yes, this could well be our future too.....someday when it is cheap enough for a small operation like ours!

http://patch.com/california/brentwood/could-toilet-water-be-new-drinking-water-0?utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=health%20%26%20fitness&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_content=article-mostrecent

http://www.westbasin.org/files/press-releases/record-year-in-water-recycling.pdf

http://www.westbasin.org