http://www.asecular.com/~scott/misc/toilet.htm
http://studioq.com/blog/tag/german-oddities
Go figure.......
Friday, November 28, 2014
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.......
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
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
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Product That Defies Everything Your Mother Taught You To NOT Talk About!
OK, I usually, no never really, push a product on this blog. You can see that I have no advertisers over on the sides. I won't even mention the product.......HOWEVER, I have seen the YouTube videos below and just can't help but share! Why do we need sewers or septic tanks, or composting toilets—well, you KNOW the answer to that! This product could be helpful with the...product. Anyway, check out the videos below (perhaps you have seen one of these two versions—?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaQ1CdISw8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemT0NnUmc0
—but have you seen the blooper reel??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9LrUEK97AA
Even MORE HILARIOUS!!
Anyway, it's Black Friday, time for the faithful to go shopping, and if you needed a sewer-ish gift.......well, here you go!! (No, I did not mean...that.) But to get into the spirit, you might like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9TTz3R5SmI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaQ1CdISw8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemT0NnUmc0
—but have you seen the blooper reel??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9LrUEK97AA
Even MORE HILARIOUS!!
Anyway, it's Black Friday, time for the faithful to go shopping, and if you needed a sewer-ish gift.......well, here you go!! (No, I did not mean...that.) But to get into the spirit, you might like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9TTz3R5SmI
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
A Happy Sewer Ending!
A sewer Thanksgiving for one woman and her accidentally flushed heirloom ring! Thanks to persistent sewer workers for recovering the ring!
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/nov/25/heirloom-ring-flushed-sewer-workers-retrieve-it/
Happy Thanksgiving to all Los Osos Sewer Saga blog readers! American readers, keep that turkey grease out of your drains! Your waste treatment, whatever the type, will THANK YOU!
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/nov/25/heirloom-ring-flushed-sewer-workers-retrieve-it/
Happy Thanksgiving to all Los Osos Sewer Saga blog readers! American readers, keep that turkey grease out of your drains! Your waste treatment, whatever the type, will THANK YOU!
Monday, November 24, 2014
Parallel Sewer Universe in Massachusetts, Almost
I wondered if Los Osos was the only small town with a split personality about views on types of sewer systems, you know, Gravity or Step/Steg. So I went on a hunt to see what else was out there. I was surprised to find a sandy seaside East Coast town with some similarities to Los Osos called "Orleans" in Massachusetts. They also needed to clean up the water due to septic tank contamination. It is very interesting as to what they did. But first a little background on the similarities. For one, we both have had estuaries to worry about!
The Massachusetts area called Orleans was first settled in 1693 by Pilgrims from the Plymouth colony. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo first encountered the Chumash Indians living in the Los Osos area in 1542. But Los Osos was not on a real map until 1769 when Gaspar de Portolà led a Spanish group of explorers and found bears and named the area Los Osos. But that both settlements are pretty old, is the point. Different Native Americans were decimated by white guys, Wampanoag for Orleans and Chumash for Los Osos. The Wampanoag were famous in white history for bring food for the settlers on the first Thanksgiving, but things went downhill after that. The Spaniards wiped out the bears, one source of food for the Chumash, so maybe I am thinking there is conflict in the very air of these towns. But the level of conflict doesn't belong on the same scale. Different they are by leagues altogether!
For similarities: In 1898, the French cable company brought a 3200 mile long transatlantic cable to Orleans. Los Osos has the Los Osos Cable Landing Station with three major lines coming in that cover Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Guam and the first one landed in 1995 with upgrades since. Lynn, Massachusetts seems to be the new spot for cable landings of the modern sort, but you get the similarity drift, good cable landing points!
Famous people lived in these two towns as well, Victor A. Vyssotsky, mathematician and computer scientist for Orleans, and Gumby creator Art Clokey for Los Osos. (Hmmmm, the suspicious might already see a portend as to how town problems might be tackled. But that would not be me, I'm just the reporter here.)
There are some differences of course. In 2010, Orleans had only 5,890 year around residents while Los Osos had 14,276. There is a summer seasonal population in Orleans estimated to be 20,000+ however. Orleans has a total area of 22.7 square miles, of which 14.1 square miles is land and 8.5 square miles or 37.59%, is water. Los Osos has 12.8 square miles, 99.84% of it land, and 0.16% of it water. Orleans median income of $42,594. Los Osos has a median income of $57,683.
One huge difference though, was not having a Regional Quality Water Board demanding water clean-up on a schedule. Bigger still, they figured this out by themselves, that they HAD to clean up the water! And another difference, a very telling one as to meeting demeanor, at their sewer meetings, the sheriff did not have to be called.... Here is a news article on a sewer meeting held in 2012: http://www.wickedlocal.com/x928642180/New-path-for-Orleans-wastewater/?Start=1 Of course there was some dissension, and it sounds suspiciously plucked out of the Los Osos playbook, you can read about it here: http://www.orleanswateralliance.org/planning/. But again, no sheriff had to be called. Is it simply the cultural differences between the two states that dictates the tenor of the meetings? A sense of entitlement that Californians might have to yell their opinions over and over and over? Or does California just house more sewer nuts with bad manners?
OK, now for the real sewery part! They have done a side-by-side technology study for their sewer issues and the whole report seems to have been done without thousands of pages of "citizen input!" Unimaginable in Los Osos! The side-by-side study can be found here: http://www.town.orleans.ma.us/sites/orleansma/files/file/file/selectmenpp-6-20-12.pdf Unlike the Step/Steg on-lot costs NOT outlined in the Los Osos' commissioned Ripley Report, Dana Ripley being the Step/Steg "guru"according to the Recall Board, the on-lot costs have been painted in realistic numbers and it is not a pretty picture.
Here is a quote from a respected journal,
(If you want to read the 30-year history of Orleans water issues up to 2012, click here. They had municipal water problems starting in the 60s due to pollution, ours got recognized in the 70s when we could no longer use the upper aquifer for drinking water anymore, due to nitrate contamination.)
Anyway, they are chugging along but not done yet, much like us. They are years behind where we are now, but somehow, reading about this town and how they operate, we might all be getting our sewers at the same time. I couldn't find a history of lawsuits for Orleans like the one that has caused our projects so much lost time and extra money and made our issues so painfully ugly. The environmental activists in the area have threatened lawsuits against the EPA for not protecting the environment which is 180º away from the Los Osos "environmental activist's" actual lawsuits, arguing that we aren't polluting. You can read about those here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/us/18nitrogen.html
http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20110128/News/301289384
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/11/26/pollution_in_cape_cod_waters_sparks_debate/
You can read about Orlean's latest meeting here: http://www.town.orleans.ma.us/sites/orleansma/files/wqap_10_22_draft_summary.pdf
Orleans may have been one of the Cape Cod towns that refused federal money to build a sewer in the 60s and 70s; many of them did, fearing growth. What they got was growth anyway, and we followed that same pathway to pollution. It is interesting to find a town much like ours, facing many of the water quality issues that we have. What's really interesting though, is their mild and civilized response to those issues, so different from the fireworks-spouting Los Osos. Why that is remains a mystery.
The Massachusetts area called Orleans was first settled in 1693 by Pilgrims from the Plymouth colony. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo first encountered the Chumash Indians living in the Los Osos area in 1542. But Los Osos was not on a real map until 1769 when Gaspar de Portolà led a Spanish group of explorers and found bears and named the area Los Osos. But that both settlements are pretty old, is the point. Different Native Americans were decimated by white guys, Wampanoag for Orleans and Chumash for Los Osos. The Wampanoag were famous in white history for bring food for the settlers on the first Thanksgiving, but things went downhill after that. The Spaniards wiped out the bears, one source of food for the Chumash, so maybe I am thinking there is conflict in the very air of these towns. But the level of conflict doesn't belong on the same scale. Different they are by leagues altogether!
For similarities: In 1898, the French cable company brought a 3200 mile long transatlantic cable to Orleans. Los Osos has the Los Osos Cable Landing Station with three major lines coming in that cover Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Guam and the first one landed in 1995 with upgrades since. Lynn, Massachusetts seems to be the new spot for cable landings of the modern sort, but you get the similarity drift, good cable landing points!
Famous people lived in these two towns as well, Victor A. Vyssotsky, mathematician and computer scientist for Orleans, and Gumby creator Art Clokey for Los Osos. (Hmmmm, the suspicious might already see a portend as to how town problems might be tackled. But that would not be me, I'm just the reporter here.)
There are some differences of course. In 2010, Orleans had only 5,890 year around residents while Los Osos had 14,276. There is a summer seasonal population in Orleans estimated to be 20,000+ however. Orleans has a total area of 22.7 square miles, of which 14.1 square miles is land and 8.5 square miles or 37.59%, is water. Los Osos has 12.8 square miles, 99.84% of it land, and 0.16% of it water. Orleans median income of $42,594. Los Osos has a median income of $57,683.
One huge difference though, was not having a Regional Quality Water Board demanding water clean-up on a schedule. Bigger still, they figured this out by themselves, that they HAD to clean up the water! And another difference, a very telling one as to meeting demeanor, at their sewer meetings, the sheriff did not have to be called.... Here is a news article on a sewer meeting held in 2012: http://www.wickedlocal.com/x928642180/New-path-for-Orleans-wastewater/?Start=1 Of course there was some dissension, and it sounds suspiciously plucked out of the Los Osos playbook, you can read about it here: http://www.orleanswateralliance.org/planning/. But again, no sheriff had to be called. Is it simply the cultural differences between the two states that dictates the tenor of the meetings? A sense of entitlement that Californians might have to yell their opinions over and over and over? Or does California just house more sewer nuts with bad manners?
OK, now for the real sewery part! They have done a side-by-side technology study for their sewer issues and the whole report seems to have been done without thousands of pages of "citizen input!" Unimaginable in Los Osos! The side-by-side study can be found here: http://www.town.orleans.ma.us/sites/orleansma/files/file/file/selectmenpp-6-20-12.pdf Unlike the Step/Steg on-lot costs NOT outlined in the Los Osos' commissioned Ripley Report, Dana Ripley being the Step/Steg "guru"according to the Recall Board, the on-lot costs have been painted in realistic numbers and it is not a pretty picture.
Here is a quote from a respected journal,
WEF Manual of Practice No. FD-12 (1)
The use of existing septic tanks has seldom been successful. Because of age, poor construction, poor installation, or homeowner abuse, existing septic tanks have proven to be one of the most significant sources of infiltration and inflow in effluent sewer systems. Unless a particular tank is known to be well-designed and manufactured, installed by a reputable installer, and effectively tested for water-tightness, it is better to replace the tank than risk it becoming a significant source of infiltration and inflow.
(1) Source: Water Environment Federation, Alternative Sewer Systems, 2nd Edition, 2008This is what was missing from our Step/Steg report. The expected life of a Step tank is 25 years, making almost all of the tanks in Los Osos in need of replacement. The last 1100 homes in the Prohibition Zone were built before 1987, so only tanks that had been replaced recently were likely to pass an inspection. And the homeowner, NOT the project, would pay the on-lot costs! That is how the community was fooled into thinking that Step/Steg was cheaper. Orleans has no such deception, so they are seeing what really is cost effective for their town. Of course, the County gave us costs for Step/Steg, but they were not believed by Step/Steg supporters.
(If you want to read the 30-year history of Orleans water issues up to 2012, click here. They had municipal water problems starting in the 60s due to pollution, ours got recognized in the 70s when we could no longer use the upper aquifer for drinking water anymore, due to nitrate contamination.)
Anyway, they are chugging along but not done yet, much like us. They are years behind where we are now, but somehow, reading about this town and how they operate, we might all be getting our sewers at the same time. I couldn't find a history of lawsuits for Orleans like the one that has caused our projects so much lost time and extra money and made our issues so painfully ugly. The environmental activists in the area have threatened lawsuits against the EPA for not protecting the environment which is 180º away from the Los Osos "environmental activist's" actual lawsuits, arguing that we aren't polluting. You can read about those here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/us/18nitrogen.html
http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20110128/News/301289384
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/11/26/pollution_in_cape_cod_waters_sparks_debate/
You can read about Orlean's latest meeting here: http://www.town.orleans.ma.us/sites/orleansma/files/wqap_10_22_draft_summary.pdf
Orleans may have been one of the Cape Cod towns that refused federal money to build a sewer in the 60s and 70s; many of them did, fearing growth. What they got was growth anyway, and we followed that same pathway to pollution. It is interesting to find a town much like ours, facing many of the water quality issues that we have. What's really interesting though, is their mild and civilized response to those issues, so different from the fireworks-spouting Los Osos. Why that is remains a mystery.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
San Diego to Make Wastewater Into Drinking Water
I found this on a feed today and thought I'd pass it on to sewer readers here! Los Osos is so dinky compared to San Diego, and San Diego certainly isn't the first city or biggest water entity to do this, but it is a bit of education for all of us water watchers big and small to stick in our brain pans for future reference somewhere.
San Diego to Make Wastewater Into Drinking Water | La Jolla, CA Patch
San Diego to Make Wastewater Into Drinking Water | La Jolla, CA Patch
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Today Is World Toilet Day!
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
On the surface, it seems like a big whoop, some slapstick goof on the utilitarian porcelain fixture we use daily, (unless we happen to be roughing out in the sticks when a hole in the ground is the only option). It's a joke to finagle another day off of work! It's about toilet cleaning, a bane to housewives according to advertising, and it sounds like a way to sell more greeting cards, "Give Your Potty A Hug Today" on the cover, "It's your birthday Asshole!" on the inside. One of those quasi-affectionate "bro" type of cards that beer drinking buds might stick on a gag b-day gift 6-pack of laxatives.
But no, it is none of these. It is about sanitation, and 2.5 BILLION lack what we take for granted, clean and safe toilets.
http://www.unwater.org/worldtoiletday
http://worldtoilet.org
http://www.wateraid.org/us/get-involved/world-toilet-day
http://www.planusa.org/content2909175
We who have squabbled over having a sewer really ought to get our heads out of the muck and see what one third of the world has to deal with, daily; disease, rape and humiliation.
Read this page for some toilet facts:
http://globaldimension.org.uk/calendar/event/4572
On the surface, it seems like a big whoop, some slapstick goof on the utilitarian porcelain fixture we use daily, (unless we happen to be roughing out in the sticks when a hole in the ground is the only option). It's a joke to finagle another day off of work! It's about toilet cleaning, a bane to housewives according to advertising, and it sounds like a way to sell more greeting cards, "Give Your Potty A Hug Today" on the cover, "It's your birthday Asshole!" on the inside. One of those quasi-affectionate "bro" type of cards that beer drinking buds might stick on a gag b-day gift 6-pack of laxatives.
But no, it is none of these. It is about sanitation, and 2.5 BILLION lack what we take for granted, clean and safe toilets.
http://www.unwater.org/worldtoiletday
http://worldtoilet.org
http://www.wateraid.org/us/get-involved/world-toilet-day
http://www.planusa.org/content2909175
We who have squabbled over having a sewer really ought to get our heads out of the muck and see what one third of the world has to deal with, daily; disease, rape and humiliation.
Read this page for some toilet facts:
http://globaldimension.org.uk/calendar/event/4572
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Los Osos Items - BOS Tuesday, November 25
These items were posted today, Tuesday, November 18:
AGENDA BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Consent Agenda - Public Works Items:
- 23. Submittal of a resolution authorizing execution of notice of completion and acceptance of construction for the 2013–14 Asphalt Overlay, South Bay Boulevard from Los Osos Valley Road to Santa Ysabel Avenue in Los Osos. District 2.
- Hearings:
- 42. Hearing to consider an amendment to the Building and Construction Ordinance, Title 19 of the County Code, changing the requirements for retrofitting of plumbing fixtures in connection with additions, remodels, and new development of residential, commercial and other structures within the Los Osos Groundwater Basin. District 2.
- 43. Hearing for an amendment to the Health and Sanitation Ordinance, Title 8 of the County Code, changing the requirements for sellers of real property within the Los Osos Groundwater Basin to retrofit plumbing fixtures with water-efficient fixtures at time of sale. District 2.
When the links to the support documents become available, I will post them.
Note: see links above, posted November 19, 2014.
Note: see links above, posted November 19, 2014.
ISJ - Water Board Conniption Correction
The Interlocutory Stipulated Judgement, or the “ISJ” as it is acronym-ed, is our Los Osos water basin’s long-awaited fate cradled in the protective and silent arms of the court. As with anything pertaining to water in Los Osos, its creation has been fraught with angst, speculation and criticism. The final document of this judgement, to be called The Basin Plan, is still only in draft form after this whole thing was launched by a lawsuit 2004. Updates have been given sporadically to the Los Osos public and various agencies over the years. Needless to say at this point, our to-be-cleaned-and-reused “sewer water” plays a large part in this watery vision that floats out somewhere after 2016 on into infinity.
Much was made about the update of the ISJ that the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board had requested for their September 25-26, 2014 meeting. The usual-suspects-in-the-sewer-complaint-department were out in full force, not only at that meeting, but to complain about what happened at the RWQCB meeting at the following Los Osos CSD meeting, the following LOCAC meeting, and of course, at the September 30 Board of Supervisors meeting. They were furious at the County for not attending the meeting, they were furious at our CSD for having no representative there to give an explanation of the ISJ, they were furious at our District 2 Supervisor for not being at that meeting as well! Just FURIOUS!
(I will confess, it was a relief to get a new topic for those perennial complainers to yammer about. I wish I could have been at the RWQCB meeting myself, but I was out of the country.)
So, curious to know about what actually happened at that RWQCB meeting that I missed without the political spin, I have been looking daily for the minutes from that meeting. (This was at the same meeting where the CDOs were lifted from the 38 property owners.) Today I hit the jackpot!
Here is a photo of how the Water Board described that part of the meeting in their minutes:
See the minutes in person here:
OR,
You can hear this part of the meeting for yourself off this link:
You would never have known that it was a hair-on-fire moment from the politely cloaked froth and spittle soft-balled by the Usual Suspects at that meeting. The cloaking of course came off in the other meetings where the Usual Suspects felt more comfortable to project their true personas, finely crafted from years of rage and imagined authority. It was particularly hilarious to hear their supplications to the almighty Water Board for them step in and get this ISJ on track, helpfully offering up all sorts of regulatory sounding tools that the Water Board does not possess. These same persons cursed and vilified this very same Water Board over the Cease and Desist Orders they issued a few years back which they claimed were put in place to force residents to vote for an assessment to pay for a sewer! The overused but apt word “schizophrenic” comes to mind.
You’d have thought that the Water Board was either weeping profusely or sharpening hatchets for an attack on County offices from the Usual Suspects' interpretations on how the Water Board felt during the subsequent, other meetings. It did neither.
Water Board Section Manager Harvey Packard thought the reason given for the lack of response by the ISJ participants to the Water Board’s request for information, “confidentiality,” was a smoke screen. I have my own assessment: giving any free proprietary information in public to the Complaint Department would be tantamount to providing fire bombs for one’s own imminent destruction in a hideously painful and prolonged way.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Toilet to Tap for Now, Sort Of
Los Osos has been in the past, and will be again, in the who-knows-when distant future, dependent on virtually untreated, pristine groundwater that is neither over pumped nor contaminated, courtesy of our future sewer system: That is, the once-clean water we now send our nitrate-laden pee and a tincture of poop into, our Upper Aquifer water. Those constituents, and every other chemical that we put into that water by way of our septic tanks, be it of shampoo, residues of birth control pills or caffeine,* have contaminated the water, which, up until the 1970s, we used to be able to drink straight. We can’t just blow off this water source, we need to clean out the nitrates and dilute the lesser-volumed gunk, and use it again. The way this will happen is with our soon-to-be sewer plant stopping the inflow of said contaminants. Once our septic tanks are stopped, the water will slowly clear.
There are two ways that being able to use this Upper Aquifer water will occur:
Meanwhile, there are five key wells that are being used to test the Upper Aquifer water for its nitrate contamination factor. It is very important to test over time what is happening to the nitrate levels, in fact it is mandated in the current sewer project.
The first testing was done in conjunctions with the Tri-W sewer project in 2002. That testing ended in 2006 when that sewer project was stopped and the CSD went bankrupt, and then the project was taken away from the CSD in 2007. So there is a gap in the record from 2007-2011 after which the County's wastewater project started up the testing again as ordered by the Regional Water Quality Control Board's Monitoring and Reporting Program, Order No. R3-2011-0001. They test more wells than the 5 used for this purpose. These five wells were chosen because they have the highest degree of sensitivity for nitrates. Any changes, up or down, will be most obvious here. A new 5-year drop of data will be available to show the nitrate trends by 2016, but they might be apparent even before then.
So for now, until we have a reliably clean water supply that will support our current population and the one at buildout if it should occur, we are going, in a somewhat circuitous way, the toilet to tap routine. Cheers!
*If in a mood to geek out, you might enjoy this report from 2006. If not, read page 20 (if opened in Acrobat) to cut to the chase:
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/Document%20Library/UPPER%20AQUIFER%20CHARACTERIZATION.pdf
There are two ways that being able to use this Upper Aquifer water will occur:
Right now, the LOCSD Water Company is final testing a system that is denitrifying a portion of this upper aquifer water water and blending it with the pristine but diminishing-in-quantity of Lower Aquifer water, so that it meets all drinking water standards. I believe Golden State Water Company is either going to, or is already blending, upper aquifer water with Lower Aquifer water to stretch out the supply of the Lower Aquifer, just as the LOCSD is doing, the aquifer experiencing seawater intrusion.
Many years from now, the lack of septic effluent going into that Upper Aquifer and the rainfall that penetrates to that level, will clean out the pollutants and that water can be used untreated, once again, for drinking.
Meanwhile, there are five key wells that are being used to test the Upper Aquifer water for its nitrate contamination factor. It is very important to test over time what is happening to the nitrate levels, in fact it is mandated in the current sewer project.
The first testing was done in conjunctions with the Tri-W sewer project in 2002. That testing ended in 2006 when that sewer project was stopped and the CSD went bankrupt, and then the project was taken away from the CSD in 2007. So there is a gap in the record from 2007-2011 after which the County's wastewater project started up the testing again as ordered by the Regional Water Quality Control Board's Monitoring and Reporting Program, Order No. R3-2011-0001. They test more wells than the 5 used for this purpose. These five wells were chosen because they have the highest degree of sensitivity for nitrates. Any changes, up or down, will be most obvious here. A new 5-year drop of data will be available to show the nitrate trends by 2016, but they might be apparent even before then.
So for now, until we have a reliably clean water supply that will support our current population and the one at buildout if it should occur, we are going, in a somewhat circuitous way, the toilet to tap routine. Cheers!
*If in a mood to geek out, you might enjoy this report from 2006. If not, read page 20 (if opened in Acrobat) to cut to the chase:
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/Document%20Library/UPPER%20AQUIFER%20CHARACTERIZATION.pdf
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.
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.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Well, It Isn't Just Us After All.....
Let's hope they have a better outcome than we did with our 35-year delay! They are battling over a $7.59 million project that would clean up .6 to 2.7 million gallons a day (cheap, cheap, CHEAP!!!! compared to our $183 million project for 1.2 million gallons a day ). They had a recall election to stop the project. Sound familiar? Maybe this is just to painful to read:
http://www.elkharttruth.com/hometown/elkhart/2014/11/11/Controversial-sewer-plant-project-scrapped-by-new-Ontwa-Township-board.html
http://www.elkharttruth.com/hometown/elkhart/2014/11/11/Controversial-sewer-plant-project-scrapped-by-new-Ontwa-Township-board.html
Sunday, November 09, 2014
Nice to Know Where It Goes
When living in a different place for a while, this sewer blogger wants to know a bit about the local sewage treatment! I found several sanitation districts for Fort Collins, Colorado! Boxelder Sanitation District, Fort Collins, Fort Collins-Loveland District, South Fort Collins Sanitation District, Cherry Hills Sanitation District, Wellington and Windsor. Some had some nifty webpages and others did not.
This is a sanitation district with oxidation ditches! Just like we will have!
Not to be too incredulous about anything, but just read page 2 off this link below, first paragraph, second to the last sentence. Guess no one from Los Osos was in attendance, or the treatment plant would still be in the "discovery phase" with warring factions of "citizen wastewater experts." If this was Los Osos, the groundwater would be going putrid, the grandkids will be grandparents by the time this was resolved. Yet, four years later in this town, the plant was finished. Wow.
Fun newsletters that will no doubt hair-on-fire some readers; deceit! social engineering! manipulation!!:
For sewer geeks, you can find all sorts of fun stuff off this page:
And if you want to click on the link to the pdf off this page, I am presently in the Cherry Hills District:
Friday, November 07, 2014
While Los Osos Fiddled, Seawater Intruded
Yesterday the Los Osos CSD posted their next meeting's agenda and the long awaited Seawater Intrusion Monitoring Report for Zones D and E (the lower part of the aquifer) is on that agenda. The D and E zones of our 5-level aquifer mentioned in the report are where our main well for drinking water has been pumping. Monitoring wells are placed along a specific route to be able to calculate the movement of Seawater Intrusion (SWI) toward this drinking water well and the news is not good.
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/2014%20Agenda%20Packet/11.13.14%20Agenda%20Packet/Agenda%20Item%2012A%202014%20Seawater%20Intrusion%20Monitoring%20Report.pdf
Zone D: The old rate of seawater intrusion was estimated to be 60 feet/year between 1985-2005. Since 2005 to the present, the new estimate is 200-250 feet of advancement per year. In 5 years, that main well could become unusable, or only useable with very expensive equipment.
Zone E: In 2013 the Palisades well was modified to not draw any water from this depth, and the SWI is fortunately no longer showing there. However, the estimated increase between 1985 and 2004 was 54 feet a year and, from 2004 to the present, it jumped to 100-125 feet a year. Good thing we stopped.
Why am I writing about this water stuff here? How is this connected to a sewer, this is a sewer blog! Well, pun intended, all of the water we have to use for everything, drinking, washing, watering our yards AND flushing, is located beneath our feet in Los Osos. The quantity of water is affected by rain or drought of course, but the quality issues, in the form of nitrate contamination (a result of flushing), increased to such a point in the 1970s that we could no longer use the water from the upper aquifer, shallow wells as we once did.* We now must rely on the lower aquifer's wells. And the lower wells are being over-pumped, so they are sucking in saltwater from the ocean, thus contaminating the water for our purposes, or as they say in the water business, "beneficial use."
Toilet flushing is only the surface reason that I am writing here.
Many deniers of the nitrate problem in our groundwater, state "the Water Board got it all wrong, we really don't need a sewer, our septic tanks are NOT the problem, the problem is really seawater intrusion!" These people have failed to connect the dots or simply do not want to believe the results of the testing done. To pretend that the nitrates are from some underground, buried forest, or from cows out in valley ag area, is just twisting your head into the Los Osos sand.
Why are we so concerned about nitrates? If you can't use a HUGE supply of the water you have because of nitrate contamination, you are damaging another part of your supply because you are over pumping it.
So, what can fix our water problem?
1. We are getting a sewer finally, that is one big, no HUGE, step to bringing down the nitrates. eventually. The reclaimed water going back in the ground at Broderson will take 20-30 years. The septics will be gone and no longer contaminating. Eventually, the water in the upper and lower aquifers will be fit and safe to use.
2. One idea has been importing water. But we don't want the expense of importing water, especially when drought winnows down the supply of water anywhere that we might get it. So forget that for now, hopefully forever.
3. At present, desalinating water from the ocean is hugely expensive and must go through a rigorous and time consuming permitting process from the California Coastal Commission. So forget that for now too. Maybe someday.
The obvious answer then for now, not 30 years from now, is by using the water we do have in the most conserving and reusing ways possible. And why have we done so little about this?
There are of course no logical answers to that question.
At least the remedies are obvious. Having the impetus to make water conservation rules, educating the public on how to abide by the rules (thereby saving water), retrofitting and replacing water wasting fixtures (saving water). The current and past sewer projects do/were going to do, this.
And how do you make this happen? MONEY! And where have we found the money to do these projects, or tried to anyway? SEWER PROJECTS! Water conservation as well as clean-up have been the goals.
So this is where the infuriating illogic comes in. Addressing the water issues was paramount, but what happened to that sewer that could have helped?—a myriad lawsuits over the years, to the old County project, to the Tri-W project. This caused delay, delay, delay. The false reliance on Measure B, the recall, and then the bankruptcy. Delay, delay, delay. All of the endless TAC meetings and tinkering of the County's project at the Planning Commission and Coastal Commission. Delay, delay, delay. But then, for the Los Osos Sustainability Group, all of this STILL wasn't enough, a month before the County was to start digging in 2012, they wanted the project stopped, the permit pulled, until their pet water remedies were inserted into the project! What is even remotely water helpful about that, the months more tinkering that this would have taken, never mind the huge costs? Stopping a project at its start—again. Fortunately, the Coastal Commission wasn't fooled and the project started.
"We Delay, We Pay," was the old slogan to try to keep one of the sewer projects moving forward. Now it has an unhappy echo into the deep well of money that we will need for fixing the water problems we so cavalierly forgot in our rush to stop a sewer or make it "the perfect sewer." Well, for the record, we got neither. The longer we waited, the worse it all got, both the water problems and the sewer costs. In 1987 it was $48.9 million to build a sewer and is now $183 million. The water problem remedies: $33,775,000 for no buildout, and $19,450,000 MORE for buildout, according to the Basin Plan which will be the water-fix blueprint next year.
So, be prepared to see water rate increases. Be prepared to float a bond. If the CSD and its district engineering firm is lucky and nimble on getting grants, hooray. But we have nothing but our own actions to ponder as to how we got into this precarious situation. Can we for once learn from these mistakes and move forward with our well-studied and clearly defined projects? Let's try. No, let's just DO IT.
* A nitrate removal system to make upper aquifer water useable has just been put into place and will soon begin operation. Read the LOCSD Staff report about this here:
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/2014%20Agenda%20Packet/11.13.14%20Agenda%20Packet/Agenda%20Item%2011H%20Prop%2084%20Nitrate%20Removal%20Project.pdf
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/2014%20Agenda%20Packet/11.13.14%20Agenda%20Packet/Agenda%20Item%2012A%202014%20Seawater%20Intrusion%20Monitoring%20Report.pdf
Zone D: The old rate of seawater intrusion was estimated to be 60 feet/year between 1985-2005. Since 2005 to the present, the new estimate is 200-250 feet of advancement per year. In 5 years, that main well could become unusable, or only useable with very expensive equipment.
Zone E: In 2013 the Palisades well was modified to not draw any water from this depth, and the SWI is fortunately no longer showing there. However, the estimated increase between 1985 and 2004 was 54 feet a year and, from 2004 to the present, it jumped to 100-125 feet a year. Good thing we stopped.
Why am I writing about this water stuff here? How is this connected to a sewer, this is a sewer blog! Well, pun intended, all of the water we have to use for everything, drinking, washing, watering our yards AND flushing, is located beneath our feet in Los Osos. The quantity of water is affected by rain or drought of course, but the quality issues, in the form of nitrate contamination (a result of flushing), increased to such a point in the 1970s that we could no longer use the water from the upper aquifer, shallow wells as we once did.* We now must rely on the lower aquifer's wells. And the lower wells are being over-pumped, so they are sucking in saltwater from the ocean, thus contaminating the water for our purposes, or as they say in the water business, "beneficial use."
Toilet flushing is only the surface reason that I am writing here.
Many deniers of the nitrate problem in our groundwater, state "the Water Board got it all wrong, we really don't need a sewer, our septic tanks are NOT the problem, the problem is really seawater intrusion!" These people have failed to connect the dots or simply do not want to believe the results of the testing done. To pretend that the nitrates are from some underground, buried forest, or from cows out in valley ag area, is just twisting your head into the Los Osos sand.
Why are we so concerned about nitrates? If you can't use a HUGE supply of the water you have because of nitrate contamination, you are damaging another part of your supply because you are over pumping it.
So, what can fix our water problem?
1. We are getting a sewer finally, that is one big, no HUGE, step to bringing down the nitrates. eventually. The reclaimed water going back in the ground at Broderson will take 20-30 years. The septics will be gone and no longer contaminating. Eventually, the water in the upper and lower aquifers will be fit and safe to use.
2. One idea has been importing water. But we don't want the expense of importing water, especially when drought winnows down the supply of water anywhere that we might get it. So forget that for now, hopefully forever.
3. At present, desalinating water from the ocean is hugely expensive and must go through a rigorous and time consuming permitting process from the California Coastal Commission. So forget that for now too. Maybe someday.
The obvious answer then for now, not 30 years from now, is by using the water we do have in the most conserving and reusing ways possible. And why have we done so little about this?
There are of course no logical answers to that question.
At least the remedies are obvious. Having the impetus to make water conservation rules, educating the public on how to abide by the rules (thereby saving water), retrofitting and replacing water wasting fixtures (saving water). The current and past sewer projects do/were going to do, this.
And how do you make this happen? MONEY! And where have we found the money to do these projects, or tried to anyway? SEWER PROJECTS! Water conservation as well as clean-up have been the goals.
So this is where the infuriating illogic comes in. Addressing the water issues was paramount, but what happened to that sewer that could have helped?—a myriad lawsuits over the years, to the old County project, to the Tri-W project. This caused delay, delay, delay. The false reliance on Measure B, the recall, and then the bankruptcy. Delay, delay, delay. All of the endless TAC meetings and tinkering of the County's project at the Planning Commission and Coastal Commission. Delay, delay, delay. But then, for the Los Osos Sustainability Group, all of this STILL wasn't enough, a month before the County was to start digging in 2012, they wanted the project stopped, the permit pulled, until their pet water remedies were inserted into the project! What is even remotely water helpful about that, the months more tinkering that this would have taken, never mind the huge costs? Stopping a project at its start—again. Fortunately, the Coastal Commission wasn't fooled and the project started.
"We Delay, We Pay," was the old slogan to try to keep one of the sewer projects moving forward. Now it has an unhappy echo into the deep well of money that we will need for fixing the water problems we so cavalierly forgot in our rush to stop a sewer or make it "the perfect sewer." Well, for the record, we got neither. The longer we waited, the worse it all got, both the water problems and the sewer costs. In 1987 it was $48.9 million to build a sewer and is now $183 million. The water problem remedies: $33,775,000 for no buildout, and $19,450,000 MORE for buildout, according to the Basin Plan which will be the water-fix blueprint next year.
So, be prepared to see water rate increases. Be prepared to float a bond. If the CSD and its district engineering firm is lucky and nimble on getting grants, hooray. But we have nothing but our own actions to ponder as to how we got into this precarious situation. Can we for once learn from these mistakes and move forward with our well-studied and clearly defined projects? Let's try. No, let's just DO IT.
* A nitrate removal system to make upper aquifer water useable has just been put into place and will soon begin operation. Read the LOCSD Staff report about this here:
http://www.losososcsd.org/Library/2014%20Agenda%20Packet/11.13.14%20Agenda%20Packet/Agenda%20Item%2011H%20Prop%2084%20Nitrate%20Removal%20Project.pdf
Wednesday, November 05, 2014
County LOWWP Update for September 2014
Read all about it! The photos are beautiful!
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+Sept+2014.pdf
Here is a quote about the treatment plant:
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PW/LOWWP/PM+Monthly+Update+Sept+2014.pdf
Here is a quote about the treatment plant:
After flows have increased sufficiently during the start-up phase to allow for commissioning and final testing, the contract substantial completion date is 10/27/16.
Tuesday, November 04, 2014
Useful Sewer Rats
Alas, we won't have rats in the Los Osos sewer, useful or otherwise, and we possibly don't have any Kangaroo Rats left here anymore either, but it is an interesting rat story nonetheless off the link below. There is a pretty cute rat featured. Much smaller than what I saw in Brooklyn some years back. I think it is a rat model, not an actual sewer rat.
http://fbresearch.org/sewer-rats-helping-science/
Follow the link to the NY Times out of the above story for another winsome rat photo accompanying a very interesting story about deadly germs and viruses. A slightly more convincing rat photo, but I'm still not buying the photo was taken in New York, but maybe in a small town upstate?
Scroll down on the link below to see a real looking New York rat. Or maybe don't if you are not fond of rather frightening wildlife....this one is NOT cute.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/city-vs-city/1016461-what-city-has-worst-rat-problems-2.html
http://fbresearch.org/sewer-rats-helping-science/
Follow the link to the NY Times out of the above story for another winsome rat photo accompanying a very interesting story about deadly germs and viruses. A slightly more convincing rat photo, but I'm still not buying the photo was taken in New York, but maybe in a small town upstate?
Scroll down on the link below to see a real looking New York rat. Or maybe don't if you are not fond of rather frightening wildlife....this one is NOT cute.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/city-vs-city/1016461-what-city-has-worst-rat-problems-2.html
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