Paean To Sewers!

I just now ran across this fun tribute to sewers and what they mean to us - have a read:
https://www.indivisible.us/i-love-my-sewer/

(Wish I had written it!)

Latest News From Our Sewer Laterals!

I attended the Basin Management Committee meeting on Wednesday, September 20. Mark Hutchinson, Deputy Director of the Resources Group in the county's Public Work's Department, filled in for Bruce Gibson on the committee, and gave a report on how our sewer lateral connections are going. Very well, as it turns out! 282 are all that are left to connect, and of that, about 85 are on a low income program that has not yet worked its way all the way through the federal agency that is funding them. So less than 200 are left to hook up! How to address this issue of the mystery non-hook-ups will be before the Board of Supes in the second week of November. That will be a meeting worth watching. I plan to tune in!

200+ Year Old Sewer Plant!

Have a look! https://www.dcwater.com/wastewater-collection-history

Check out the size of this thing! https://www.dcwater.com/projects

Awesome nitrogen removal via a new technique, the DEMON® process! https://www.dcwater.com/projects/filtrate-treatment-facilities

Combined sewage used to flow into the waterways during heavy rainstorms (as opposed to ours sinking into the ground atop our drinking water!) https://www.dcwater.com/projects/tunnel-dewatering-pump-station-and-enhanced-clarification-facility

Have a look at their gorgeous annual report! https://www.dcwater.com/sites/default/files/2016annual_1.24.17_lo.pdf

The scope of this thing is just amazing!! I am super happy at finding this website through a random tweet!

Manhole Cover Marketing

Some enterprising Los Osian could follow the idea from the street artist collective in Berlin, named Raubdruckerin (translation: pirate printer). They are printing sewer covers (and other public metal fixtures) onto organic cotton T-shirts, using eco-friendly paint. if you wanted to buy one or some, they have been a little bit too successful; they are almost sold out as of this writing. More on the way however!

http://mentalfloss.com/article/84044/berlin-artists-create-graphic-designs-public-street-fixtures

https://craftingagreenworld.com/2016/08/01/raubdruckerin-prints-t-shirts-from-manhole-covers/

https://raubdruckerin.de/t-shirts

Seriously, this could mean money in someone's enterprising pocketbook. Plus an affirmation of our sewer reputation which like it or not, has not vanished into the poop pail of history, and maybe it shouldn't; you know the aphorism about "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it".....However, if anyone tries this, please do not get squashed by a passing motorist!

Poop In Paso

The Tribune has posted a report about a private sewer line in Paso Robles that popped. Poop poured into the street and down into a storm drain. Enquiring minds want to know what caused the failure! 

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article171245587.html

Nighttime, When Nature Calls While Camping

My teenage camping experiences, actually, my only camping experiences, involved backpacking in the Sierras. Once we even had the benefit of a burro to carry stuff. Tents - who needed those (!) - we had sleeping bags on a tarp, on top of some piney duff where we could find it! The bathroom was anyplace away from water sources and the trails, and required a small spade and a (by then, semi-squashed) roll of toilet paper.

Flash forward to 2017. I have not re-camped anyplace since those days. If I did, I would stay in a campground with a camper of some sort or type (I am just not up to sleeping on the ground at a place that took hours of an uphill climb to find anymore.) The stumbling block to even the campground however, has been where to potty in the middle of the night. Whaaat, I can hear you saying?

Imagine that you had a couple of beers around the campfire (if you had built one of those if it was even allowed, and marshmallows having been left behind as a far younger age-appropriate treat). Or how about a couple of beers (or a Martini?) at the rustic wooden picnic table where you are eating your pop-up food, expanded from tiny chunks in a foil package, add water and heat. You get sleepy and crawl into your sleeping bag in your camper. Two hours later, your bladder registers full. Really full. And you know you have to stumble a block or more to the potties. In the dark. Wild things rustling around (in black and white outfits perhaps, or with teeth in any color fur ensemble). You will never get back to sleep upon return from that fear-fraught trek.  The solution to this uncomfortable scenario is pictured below. A portable potty or to be fancy, pinky raised in the air, a Toilette Portative, with it's own little tent..........

.........with two zippered flaps for escaping fumes, one on top, and one in the back.

And the whole thing folds up into the little round bag! Impressionnant!!!!