Joe Tarica's Column On Septic Systems!

Do NOT miss this look at septic systems in today's Tribune! Joe Tarica has written a hilarious column on the topic - here is the link:

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/joetopia/article101118407.html

My favorite quote,

"If you’ve never had the pleasure of storing human waste in your yard, let me tell you, you’re missing out."

Read it and laugh, weep, or feel recognized, as these events might have happened to you while living in Los Osos as it did to Joe. Thanks Joe, great column!

Food (And Water) For Thought on Diablo

Cape Cod, another oceanside community built on sand, has had some rather bad news from the Silent Spring Institute about its water supply. The institute found a high level of antibiotics and PFOS, a chemical used in stain-resistant and non-stick coatings, and fire-fighting foams.

"Although Cape Cod is particularly vulnerable to contamination due to the prevalence of septic systems and its shallow sandy aquifer, the study has national implications. A quarter of U.S. households use septic systems or small community systems to process wastewater, and about 40% of Americans rely on groundwater for drinking supplies."*

Uhhhhh, that would be us!! 

There are currently no regulations in the U.S. on the contaminants listed above (and so many others) as there is in Europe. The solution put forward to the problem in Cape Cod was to "(divert) treated water from septic systems and centralized plants away from drinking water supplies." Of course, we are doing just the opposite.

Today at the BOS, the first feelers were put forward on using the desalinated water from the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant, piping it both to South County and Los Osos. All five supervisors voted yes, let's pursue this. 

Water fresh out of the ocean has a monumentally higher dilution rate from contaminants than does our confined aquifers into which we are returning our recycled sewer water.** 

The usual naysayers were there at the podium for Public Comment on the issue, railing against even exploring the idea of importing Diablo's desal water to Los Osos. But then, they were key in stoping a sewer project, losing a $134 million low interest loan, delaying water conservation, and making the County come up with a second sewer idea for Los Osos at $29 million MORE than the LOCSD's project that they trashed. 

How long will our drought be? What contaminants are in our drinking water? At what concentration are they? At what rate are they increasing? These are all important questions. 

What solutions do the sewer nuts propose this time? Actually, all I have heard is a mumbled mouthing from the heads planted deep in our fine Baywood sands. It sounds like they think that we can live completely on the water from the aquifers directly beneath us—yet, yet, they complain that the Basin Plan—the plan that will manage this water supply of ours—does NOT take into account any plans for a prolonged drought!

So....who do you want to listen to this time around Los Osians? The sewer nuts of old, or more reasonable minds that know that one El Nino, should it be a water-plentiful one next year, will NOT fix our problem; that no amount of conservation will save us; that there is no possible way to know the timeline on the next drought or even how long the current one will last; that there is no way to predict exactly what global warming will do to both us and the animals and plants in the environment in which we all live. Do we want to be prepared or simply avoid thinking about it until we can't live here at all anymore?


Please read the report generated in 2006 by the LOCSD about the constituents already in our water, some of which are not regulated.
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/Document%20Library/UPPER%20AQUIFER%20CHARACTERIZATION.pdf

* Please read this source article:
http://www.wateronline.com/doc/contaminants-cods-drinking-water-silent-spring-institute-finds-0001

** "The Institute found that treated water from both septic systems and sewage treatment plants contain similar levels of contaminants. The systems effectively remove some chemicals, such as caffeine and acetaminophen (Tylenol); others pass through largely unchanged, including sulfamethoxazole and TCEP, a chlorinated flame retardant."

Michigan's Septic Tank Slip-Up

We are not Michigan here in Los Osos of course, but septic tanks around a body of water bode badly for them too a new study finds.

Check this out:
http://www.wateronline.com/doc/septic-tanks-aren-tkeeping-poo-rivers-lakes-0001?sectionCode=TOC&templateCode=Single&user=2124006&source=nl:43697&utm_source=et_10759433&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WOL_2015-08-25&utm_term=8B6151B5-326C-4D25-A47F-7FA24BE85D17&utm_content=Do%2bSeptic%2bTanks%2bPollute%2bFreshwater%253f

Septic Hell

Well! An article coming in from a news feed, which in the avalanche of E-mail I get, I oddly chanced to open on my phone days ago (most of these go unopened, depending on the stuff-to-do load), the link to which I almost lost six times, has turned into a delightful discovery! Someone as sewer crazed as I, but unfortunately trapped in that special hell of septic tanks run amok, has written about it, and in a most entertaining way! This person lives in Stinson Beach.

Stinson Beach, a pricy, swanky community north of San Francisco, actually isn't so different from Los Osos. Tidal flats, off the beaten path, some parts beautifully fixed up, others not so much....I just took a Google Earth drive through it. It is greener. But not more beautiful. They built on their sandpit and ours is pristine. And Montaña de Oro is so breathtaking.... I could go on, but all two of you readers already know about that I'd bet.

Take a look at these blog quotes about Stinson Beach and see if you see any similarities to Los Osos:

“……a deliberate decision by the community of Stinson Beach to control population growth by declining to modernise their system of waste disposal.” 

“The simple answer is that through the process of community meetings and a bond vote in a special election, the residents of Stinson Beach rejected over 10 different sewer plans and chose the alternative of onsite systems.” 

"… which also happens to be a place where the sandy soil makes for an operating environment not ideal for septic systems – and increases the likelihood that they will fail?" *** (I know, I know, WE have MAGIC sand, not that ordinary kind! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!)

http://californiacoastdweller.com/a-new-page-that-does-not-move/ 

Do have a look at these particularly entertaining posts!

http://californiacoastdweller.com/2015/04/30/1668/

http://californiacoastdweller.com/2015/03/30/1596/

Catch them all here:

http://californiacoastdweller.com/tag/stinson-beach-septic-problems/

Recent improvements to the public beach part of Stinson are described here:

http://www.ptreyeslight.com/article/golden-gate-hears-concerns-over-stinson-beach-septic-overhaul

A Stanford Study can be found here:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/may/septic-wastewater-sea-052010.html

The colossal question is—why is their Regional Water Quality Control Board AND the Coastal Commission not all over them they way that they were with us? Maybe because they are only polluting the ocean, and we.....wee wee right into our water supply which sits below our septic tanks? But then, they have a population of a mere 632....and we a robust 14,200.

I checked out their water supply and I found that their situation is quite a bit different from ours:

The Stinson Beach water supply is provided by two types of sources: surface water and ground water. Surface water is supplied by the Fitzhenry, Black Rock, and Stinson Gulch Creeks. Ground water is supplied by Steep Ravine, Alder Grove, Ranch, and Highlands Wells, which operate intermittently. The collected raw water is piped to the Laurel Treatment Facility. The water is then processed by our New Pall Membrane Filters which consist of two parallel units, each rated at 100 gallons per minute. Sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) is added after filtration for disinfection purposes.

http://stinson-beach-cwd.dst.ca.us/quality.html 

Happy Reading!!

Septic Tankville

I was at Loomis Tank Centers in Arroyo Grande today looking at tanks to capture water from the roof drain spouts. (They are very nice there and very, very helpful.) But my attention was quicky diverted to—yes, septic tanks! Unless you saw Don Bearden's tank that he parked in the front of his house several years back, pre-collection system choosing in our sewer project, you really wouldn't know how gigantic these things are as you don't really get to see what is in your own yard because it is buried. Thankfully.

Anyway, have a look! These are sparkly clean, never having experienced what there purpose in life is to be, so they smell nice too. Really! I stood right next to them!

The teeny one, 350 gallons. Kinda looks like that atom bomb, Fat Man, the inner 7-piece Duralumin sphere part.

Next, a nice HDPE model, happy to accommodate 750 gallons.

Taking on the aspect of a truncated  centipede, we have the lovely 1500 gallon model that measures 16 feet long. Link to a photo of a 16 foot great white shark.

And here is a 16 foot fiberglass model, unassembled.

Well, that is my field trip for today. I've been slacking on writing over here. I do apologize; been busy!

(Selfie with a septic!)

Pompeii's Sewers, Latrines, Cesspits......

Archeologists spend three days in Rome discussing Pompeii's sewer discoveries! Fishbones, goose egg shells, dates! 

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/pompeii-sewers-reveal-how-romans-lived-dined-n248896

Then it has been recently discovered that Pompeii had upstairs toilets, just like modern homes do!

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50459474/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/much-doo-doo-about-nothing-pompeii-had-upstairs-toilets#.VGcSTr7eYmU

There are way too many ads on this next link, but there is a brief history of toilets that are worth a click through, some types of which I have shown you in the past.

http://www.livescience.com/16710-years-gallery-world-toilets.html

I guess our old toilets will resurface someday in the dumps of the world and be a learning experience and a curiosity too, the way Pompeii's findings are for us today.  But our septic tanks will be pumped and cleaned before we either fill them with rocks or repurpose them prior to sewer hook-up. The future will be deprived of what I suspect would have been found (besides what you would expect, molded and petrified)—some plastic figurines that today's children sent on a watery voyage beneath the pee.