Sell Poop For A Pile Of Loot!

Yes, I am a tad off the Los Osos sewer topic here. Yes, I could do a fancy lariat maneuver to capture a rationale for writing about this, but I will leave that to your fertile imagination readers!

There was a recycled article in our Trib. today from the Washington Post. Apparently the treatment of a very serious human bacterial infection is to introduce the healthy poop of a non-infected individual into the infected person's gut. Screened individuals donate poop, sometimes five working days a week, making $40 a pop with frequency bonuses for up to $13,000 a year! You will have to read the article to see how this is done, and who qualifies on both ends of this .

Anyway, the Post's article has a nifty poop chart showing you the size of poop in relation to the number of ill patients treated! Fortunately, for more squeamish viewers, the containers of "product" shown in the article are kept frozen, so the frost coating pretty much makes the content of the bottles indistinguishable from that of a hearty bean soup.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/01/29/you-can-earn-13000-a-year-selling-your-poop/

Sewage To Brewage!

I wish I had coined that stellar phrase! Anyway, this is for real...in Portland Oregon anyway! This summer more than a dozen home brewers in Washington County Oregon will be making beer from water recycled from sewage in a water re-use experiment! The water will first be filtered through a high purity water system, then it will be given to the brewmeisters to create their specialty home brews. 

If only we could figure out how to do that here in Los Osos, we could be the coolest sewer spot in California! And our beloved dive bar, the Merrimaker, would be Wikipedia-ized in a whole new way! AND, so-to-speak, we would be re-recycling used water right back into our nifty new sewer plant (heh-heh)!

Check out the video here!
http://www.texomashomepage.com/story/d/story/turning-sewer-water-into-beer/40028/2ebTpUVOskilsgXtI7K4MQ

Wednesday, February 25, Save The Date!

I hope that the County won't mind if I do a copy and paste here off the LOWWP website, but this is the latest on the upcoming Town Hall!

Los Osos Wastewater Project Public Forum on February 25, 2015 (4 - 5 pm, or  6 - 7 pm)

at the Los Osos Middle School (1555 El Moro Avenue, Los Osos, CA 93402)

All is quiet on the streets of Los Osos and construction of the Water Recycling Facility is nearing the halfway point. Please join us on Wednesday, February 25th, to learn about the project status and begin planning for your 2016 sewer lateral connections.  Location is at the Los Osos Middle School. Learn about upcoming workshops for grants and loans for low income residents, as well as, green options for re-purposing septic systems.

Licensed Contractors Take Note!

Licensed septic pumpers, plumbers, general contractors, electricians, landscape contractors, architects, landscape architects, grading contractors, and civil engineers


———Slo Green Build has a seminar for you! 

The Los Osos Wastewater Project Focus Group!

Thursday, January 29 from 6:30 - 8:30 P.M.

SLO Grange Hall—2880 Broad Street, San Luis Obispo

Topics Include: • Re-purposing septic tanks in Los Osos • Tank sanitation • Permit process • Site assessment

I got this info from an E-mail and could not find anything about this on their website, so call the office for more information, you must RSVP:

(805) 286-0072

I hope that this will be well attended by the above list of people. 

We in the PZ will need your help in 2016!

Upcoming Sewer Town Hall Announced!

LOCAC, or the Los Osos Community Advisory Council, met Thursday night at the South Bay Community Center as it does almost monthly. County Supervisor Bruce Gibson, was in attendance as he is almost monthly. During his report to the Council and audience, he announced that there would be a sewer project Town Hall meeting on February 25, place and time to be announced. Topics will include the set up arrangements for financial assistance, and presentations, notably one by SLO Green Build on septic tank decommissioning.

Gibson took a tour of the facility Wednesday with state Senator Feinstein's staff and they all saw that a lot of vertical progress had been made, particularly when you are standing in the bottom of an oxidation-ditch!

The target date for substantial completion is March of 2016, although it could be completed earlier. So It is now time to begin the education for all of us, how those in need will get financial assistance and how we will know what to expect in our tank decommissioning.

SLO Green Build was tasked with developing a program to reuse our septic tanks for rain water catchment, so hopefully we will see what that is in February.

Mark you calendars!

Nothing To Report, But Mites Are Fun To Contemplate!

Here we are, more than halfway through January 2015 and there is so little to report on our sewer project! Sure, there is the County's Monthly Report, and the Recycled Water Report from Cleath-Harris, and you can see from a distance off Los Osos Valley Road the heavy equipment behind the cemetery doing something. It isn't time yet for the next "sewer tour" of the treatment plant's construction, and the pump houses look like more like cute, little cottages every week. I almost expect elves to pop out to fetch the mail. So.....idle minds, as mine has been, sometimes stray onto other topics.

The February 2015 edition of National Geographic has a head-turner mite article! Page-sized photographic blowups of these microscopic, horror movie stars, a dozen of which could polka on the head of a pin, are given true-life stories that will give you unpleasant dreams for weeks, possibly months! They are roaming the pores of your chins and noses as you read this, eating by day, and at night, they come out at night to....no, no—I can't really say what they do on a family sewer blog. 

They might be visually appealing if you like the rubbery tusk look with crusty skin, but frankly, by comparison, dog ticks are the adorable ones, the monster in the "Alien" movie series was a soigné dresser.

Don't you feel special now either! Mites live everywhere. Fruit bat eyeballs, stink bug glands, snake lungs, hummingbird nostrils, and those are just the places I'm willing to write about.

Anyway, if you want to see them, you can just Google "face mites." Or pick up a copy of National Geographic if you want a full-color, double paged spread, looking into a mite maw. 

But I digress. The point of all of this is the curious fact that these personal cranial travelers do not wee-wee or poo-poo! After an egg hatches, the baby mite will grow and molt, getting larger each time. Once adults, they live a few weeks, fill up with excreta and—croak! No exit holes for that stuff anywhere at all! These guys have no need for a sewer, just a proper burial! Think of that while you wash your face, sending millions of grossly stuffed mite corpses into the swirling stew of your septic tank below. (Burial at pee!) I have more I can say here, but I think I am done.


(Do not despair readers. I will make every effort to stay on topic next post.)

Another Project Accomplishment!

Check out the new report on the County's Los Osos Wastewater Website! This was a requirement of the Regional Water Quality Control Board: Before any recycled water from the project can be applied to the ground in Los Osos, a baseline report of what the quality of the water is, must first be established. Testing had gone on for years, from 1982 to 2006 (when the Tri-W project was stopped due to Measure B and the recall election). Testing picked up again in 2012 and will continue through eternity perhaps.

Read the Baseline Groundwater Monitoring Water Quality Report, dated October, 2014! http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/document+library/Baseline+Groundwater+Quality+Report+Dec+2014.pdf

Human Coprolites Reveal Diet

Our climate in Los Osos is not conducive to leaving a fossilized record of what we humans ate, processed and pooped, either at present, or from thousands of years ago. While we have the wind needed to bury and dry such products in the sand, it is far a too moist a wind, as evidenced by the trailing mosses and lichens decorating our native oak trees.

Today's Tribune features an article on a retired Cal Poly biology professor studying the petrified poop of two different cultures on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island from 5 AD to 1170 AD. It is a fascinating read and you will find it off this link, along with a picture of said fossilized poop with a measuring device!

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/01/09/3434945_raul-cano-cal-poly-puerto-rico.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1

Oh, that such a record could be pulled from the sands of Los Osos long after we are gone! Think of the value in the history of consumption of Carlock's cookies and organic kale that will be lost to future scientists! And should that record be somehow preserved in our magic sand for future sociologists, (or entombed, in forgotten septic "caskets"), no one will be able to tell from the fecal fossils which side of the sewer controversy that anyone was on. Food for thought readers, food for thought.

PS—If you are needing a visual of just what we are talking about here, click on this link: coprolite. 

Wringing Water From A T*rd...

....not blood, and not a turnip, although that root vegetable might have some use in this process if they were processed first though through an alimentary canal, human will do. (Sorry, I just couldn't bring myself to write "t*rd" with four letters, although I have certainly used that word in speech.)

I was watching PBS tonight and they had a news segment on a new water making/electricity generating contraption created by Janicki Bioenergy based in Seattle, Washington. I couldn't find the link off the PBS.org/newsroom site for some reason, but googled my way to Bill Gates' blog where he explains this himself, and introduces you to the Omniprocessor. See the video off the link below, as his foundation is funding this as part of the mission to bring proper sanitation to third world countries. (Sadly, too late for our little Bangladesh-by-the-Bay...)

http://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Omniprocessor-From-Poop-to-Potable

This is a good bit of information for anyone wanting a better sewer education, and if you are reading this blog, let's assume that you are up for that! Cheers, with a virtual glass of Omniprocessored water!

More Time To Get Your Act Together....

....for those of you who have not yet retrofitted your house's plumbing fixtures! Off the agenda for next Tuesday's Board of Supes Meeting:

0. Consent Agenda - Public Works Items:
   11. Submittal of a resolution extending rebates for the Water Conservation Program for the Los Osos Wastewater Project, Los Osos. District 2. 

http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/Proposal.html?select=4220

You know this will be a golden opportunity for an angry Los Osos resident or two to scold the County on not having done more, and faster. Tune in to see the show starting at 9:00 a.m. next Tuesday; you can stream the video or listen to the audio off the link on this page:

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/clerk/BoardofSupervisors/Live_and_archived_meetings_online.htm

You also will find off the first link above, a document of the project costs. You can see what has been spent and what is left in the pot. But first place a towel in your mouth if you are prone to teeth gnashing over how expensive putting this thing out of town has been.

County Update—November 2014

It's out! The latest Los Osos Wastewater Project report! Read all about our latest sewer news at this link:

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+Nov2014.pdf

The photos are really beautiful, they look like art, not construction.

U.S. Government Sewer Statistics

Happy New Year Readers! 2015 is here and we are closer to modern sewage in our little burg!

Here is a serendipitous find that is fun to share! Who knew these statistics were tabulated?

https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/sewage.html

In 1990, these are the number of homes in California served by septic tanks or cesspools,
1,092,174 9.8%. Los Osos is among them, but not for long now; we are climbing out of the dark ages!

Happy flushing in 2015!

Only In Los Osos

Yes, this is strange, but not for Los Osos. How many other towns would commemorate their sewer project with a bar of soap? 

Only Los Osos would let something as creative as this emerge from a sewer project. Talk about making lemonade from lemons, here is—the Big Dig Soap! Yes, there are other commemorative bars; Ivory Soap did a 100-year special retro wrapper for its 100 year anniversary in 1979; there was John F. Kennedy Honey Fitz presidential yacht commemorative soaps; and a boxed set by Anona of King George V and Queen Mary circa 1935. None are remotely as cool as this one though!

Think about it though, "sewer" soap makes such good sense! We were all grimy from the months of trench digging and we NEEDED that soap!

I just learned about this from a friend who said that it was available at Volumes of Pleasure Book Shoppe in Los Osos. In fact, the soap was made especially for them. I do not know how long this soap has been available as I normally just stick with the books when I am in there. As of Saturday there were only two bars left! I do hope that more will be more forthcoming, as it is handmade, smells really delicious, comes in a very sweet and clever wrapper, and of course makes the most unique gift for those in the know. And it is a unconventional conversation starter for those who aren't. 

Please call (805) 528-5565 to check for availability! (I would tell you about how foamy it is on the skin, but I can't bear to use it in case there are no more for sale!)

Sewer Science For the New Year Holiday!

I ran across this article on sewer sociology tonight and had to share! The link will download a pdf and it is a fun read on sewer use for the New Year holiday! Who knew that there was such a thing as sewer sociology?

Sewer Sociology - Water Environment Federation

We had a great year of sewer milestones in our little corner of the planet, Los Osos. May next year hold as many, as it brings us closer to our own hook-ups to this town's big step into the sanitary 21st century.

Happy New Year in 2015 and Happy Flushing too (sustainably, of course, considering the drought....)!!

Do NOT Try This at Home!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IukS5pU8X7A

Use "Time Dust" and you could wind up in a different time zone. Not necessarily one of your own choosing. You could even wind up at the beginning of the sewer wars here in Los Osos! 

"Time Dust" a green, granular substance much like bubble bath crystals, and it uses a watery vortex as a time portal. I don't know if it works equally as well in a 1.6 , 1.28  gallon or lower water volume flushes.

But maybe it is worth a try. Could we learn from our mistakes and get it right back in the 80s if we had it to do over? Think about it!

(Full confession, my dear friend's son Avi Wilk plays the character, "Bobby Jones.")

Twisted Sister

A long time ago I worked at a place that put people into business for themselves. You'd buy a membership and then got access to a bunch of business plans and a ton of products to sell at below wholesale costs.

Said "Sister" of the heavy metal band in the title above, ran the Coaching and Sales Department for the company where I worked, but in another state. I guess the band thing didn't work out (there were a lot of ex's from that group for some reason).

I know you are thinking, why do I bring up this non-sewer story, THIS is a sewer blog! Well, there is a strange parallel going on in this county right now of a former "band" member going on to another job, only strangely looking just like how they did on the original stage, doing the same stuff but with a twist. And it is very, very sewer related. Please be patient, the twist will unfold.

I guess I should add that this ex-band member of Twisted Sister still looked the heavy metal dude when he'd bop over to California to check in with the mothership where I worked. He still looked like the guy on stage, just older and doing a slightly different job. When you are on stage, you are promoting yourself, in his case it was heavy metal music, and concert and CD sales for Twisted Sister. In Coaching and Sales, he was brandishing his heavy metal chops to rev up the troops to sell, sell, sell, both the business that we all worked for, and of course, more products.

In this parallel and far more gripping sewer story is an ex-Director of the LOCSD, and the spate of her performances in other towns to rev up the troops to sell, sell, sell you on HER ideas of "the facts." Another "twisted sister" as it were, and the facts are screwy. 

You might know to whom I refer. She's be hard to miss as visible at meetings around the County as she is, etc.. She is also a regular contributor at a SLO County online "news" venue.

The latest "twist" she promotes is the alleged removal of records from the offices of the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District (SSLOCSD). And she wants an audit of the Sanitation District's reserves, they have gone missing! Could there have been wrong doing, she asks?! She is upset that District files were kept at a contractor's office, they are property of the District and should have been stored there! Engineers and staff charged $42 to $108 an hour for basically filing! The invoices totaled $15,000!

Unbelievable, especially if you know what happened when she was a director at the LOCSD during its "sewer days." How can these amounts from another District, not her own, matter so much when money evaporated from the LOCSD on her watch? If she lived elsewhere and was looking in at Los Osos would she have noticed it then? Twisty!

Let's start with the idea that $15,000 is an outrageous amount of money. According to the Sun Bulletin in an article dated  I-18-06 by Abraham Hyatt titled, OSOS CSD BILLS PILE UP, WITH MORE TO COME: 

The most expensive invoice came from the law firm Van Blarcom, Leibold, McClendon, and Mann.  

It shows the district owes more than $57,000 for work mostly done by John McClendon, the district's interim legal counsel, from Sept. 30 through Oct. 31. 

Another law firm, Burke, Williams, and Sorensen -- which the district hired Nov. 23 -- charged more than $22,000 for one week's worth of work at the end of that month. 

The district's own financial records show that a third law firm, Shipsey and Seitz, which the district had used before the election, had been paid nearly $37,000 between November and December as well. 

District interim general manager Dan Bleskey and his company Willdan have also submitted a bill for about $58,000 worth of work for an unknown period of time. 

The district's general manager, Bruce Buel, is on paid administrative leave and continues to collect a $94,000-a-year paycheck.

Below is an excerpt from the Tribune published 3-10-06 from an article by Abraham Hyatt titled, LOS OSOS EXPECTS TO SPEND MOST OF STATE LOAN:

For instance, Bleskey testified that the district's three legal firms have billed $110,000, $97,000, and $50,000 respectively for a recent one-month period. It's unclear what month the bills encompassed, or which firms filed which amounts.

Read more here: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=1104AC754F7DCA30&p_docnum=4&s_orderid=NB0114121709421801597&s_dlid=DL0114121709435002785&s_ecproduct=DOC&s_ecprodtype=NORENEW&s_trackval=&s_siteloc=SO&s_referrer=&s_username=sewercrazed&s_accountid=AC0109090823263613430&s_upgradeable=no#storylink=cpy

And on the topic of missing reserves, well, the bankruptcy of the LOCSD proved that there was noting left, but here is a jpg of page 10 out of the 2005-2006 audit (click for larger image). Look at the expenditures vs. the revenues:

Where was her concern when the monies she and her board had control over vanished? Were these numbers just too large to contemplate, so they didn't register?

As for boxes disappearing, boxes of LOCSD documents disappeared into the trunks of cars on or about October 4, 2005 according to eye witnesses (landing in Gail Mc Pherson's living room it was later revealed). How's that for keeping watch over your own District's files?

Because you have done the things that you accuse others of doing, do you feel that lends credibility to your claims? If so, that is really, really twisted.

Only In Los Osos

Really, you must take a look! Photo credit: Ann Calhoun!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis9KwjafRJNjeqGSdUZfDvhjYaxXY9-ISLMj85E9SnKu6fAljiJ6W5mkq-S_SxvLyVJanN76uHoOVo4IB-Tz_N0woWjnNZBBukIJ-zNJ2LJDAKOWzr1cvc1HVmfo9P70TYhbuVcA/s1600-h/019%25255B3%25255D.jpg

Off her blog:
http://calhounscannon.blogspot.com/2014/12/reason-29482023094891-why-i-love-los.html

County's LOWWP Update - October 2014

Newly posted, the latest Los Osos sewer update!! Take a look!! Particularly look at the photo called, "Rebar and forms for oxidation ditch walls." Could be a set from a sci-fi movie!! It's just awesome!!!

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+Oct+2014.pdf

German Toilets!

I was in Germany this past summer, but being mostly on a cruise ship on the Danube with normal plumbing to my American eyes, and only using a small sampling of German (and Hungarian, Austrian, Czech Republic, British) relief facilities on shore excursions to notable venues (not all of them touristy), or at airports, I never encountered this!

http://www.asecular.com/~scott/misc/toilet.htm

http://studioq.com/blog/tag/german-oddities

Go figure.......

The Power Of Poo!!

Relatives were recently in Newcastle, England and posted a photo that they took at a science museum there. When I saw the phrase on a sign on the wall, "Power of Poo," I had to look this up! Here are some links to what I found on that topic:

http://fuelcellsworks.com/news/2013/09/13/newcastle-university-announces-first-trial-of-a-hydrogen-microbial-electrolysis-cell-mec/

http://inhabitat.com/scientists-use-microbes-to-turn-poo-into-hydrogen/

http://inhabitat.com/poop-fueled-batteries-may-be-available-for-home-use-in-5-years/

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-news/bright-sparks-northumbrian-water-using-4399410

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2004-07-15/poo-power-offers-museum-solid-return/2009774

Now, it probably isn't at all cost effective to rig something like this up for our up-and-coming sewage facility, and it would take an institution of higher learning to instigate this process as a project for students. I'm not sure Cal Poly would be interested, although with all the excrement created by the ag area's critters, it might make for a useful experiment! Los Osos has after all, been the subject of projects by students (and this is just a sampling):

http://www.planning.calpoly.edu/sites/planning.wcms.calpoly.edu/files/images/Los%20Osos%20Strategic%20Design%20Plan%202012.pdf

http://mustangnews.net/studentsdiscoverartifactsinarcheologicaldiginlososos/

Read this one for sure, third paragraph down:
http://www.calstate.edu/cce/annualreport/2012/san-luis-obispo.shtml