Sewer Ransomware!

I had no idea that this could happen, yet here it is:

https://www.mswmag.com/online_exclusives/2018/10/news-briefs-north-carolina-utility-working-with-feds-to-fight-ransomware-attack?utm_source=campaigner&utm_campaign=181025&utm_content=newsletter&cmp=1&utm_medium=email

https://www.securityinfowatch.com/news/12433630/nc-water-utility-suffers-ransomware-attack

The burning question of course, is are we vulnerable?

Mount Everest Fouled By Poop!

When you have no outhouses, when you have frozen ground, and when you have people on a mountain for long periods of time, you have a problem. Twelve tons of poop has befouled the once pristine Mount Everest and there are severe logistical problems to the removal of said poop. (I could have used other nouns I guess to describe this stuff, but some of those words are either worse than poop in their descriptiveness or they are too X-rated for a blog such as this.) The links below provide some fascinating insights to what happens when you can't flush and forget.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yset_chr_syc_oracle&p=poop+videos+mount+everest#id=1&vid=951540fbbf86bf72bee1b5b71c97bd76&action=click

https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2018/10/mount-everest-treating-waste-on-top-of-the-world?utm_source=campaigner&utm_campaign=181015&utm_content=newsletter&cmp=1&utm_medium=email

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/05/health/mount-everest-biogas-project/index.html

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yset_chr_syc_oracle&p=poop+videos+mount+everest#id=7&vid=b33b5089774fc1f044e23bc0b9f65822&action=view

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yset_chr_syc_oracle&p=poop+videos+mount+everest#id=14&vid=85ed3ea2863a2413f2ac107eba0f1e92&action=view

Bayridge's Stale Sludge

A sewer story close to home for a change! Many in town know that there were residential areas that had their own collection system that fed into group septic tanks and leach fields. Bayridge Estates was one of those places. Well, Bayridge hooked up to the sewer of course, but then there was the issue of emptying those giant, group septic tanks, 12 of them! 

Two of the twelve were emptied by our own late, great Al, of Al's Septic Service. (RIP Al, you are still missed!) The tanks were to be emptied one or two a year until all 12 had been vacuumed and sterilized just like our home tanks had to be. But after two, Al realized this process wasn't making economic sense for his company, so he bowed out.

The LOCSD staff had to find a replacement. Nine companies were contacted, and nine turned the LOCSD down. Seven more companies, which were out of the area, were contacted. Five, same story. The problem? The sludge had EXPIRED!! (Who knew this could happen?) This stuff is now considered HAZARDOUS WASTE!! (Well, some of us could figure out that when it was fresh, just saying'!)

Two out-of-the-area companies responded, one with a vague hourly bid, transporting the mess to Rancho Cucamonga, California; and the other, to an unspecified place for $110,000.

This all made for a fascinating presentation at our last Utilities Advisory Committee meeting held on Wednesday, October 17. Sad for all of us, Bayridge has only $33,206 in reserves now, and will have a whopping $41,693.40 at the close of the 2017-2018 budget.

To read the ghastly, but riveting, details, go to this link: https://www.losososcsd.org/files/6b6466775/Item+4+Bayridge+Estates+Septic+Tanks+Decommission+Process.pdf

You guys not in attendance missed a great event! But stay tuned. There is no ending to this sludge saga just yet!

Snapcrap!

Yes, you read that right, SnapC-R-A-P, not "chat," an app created and launched last week by Sean Miller. It alerts San Francisco's Public Works Department that a citizen using the app on their smartphone has found a pile of excrement on a sidewalk that needs to be cleaned up. The app (only currently available for iOS users) uses GPS to locate the pile (human or otherwise) and alert clean-up crews where to find it. Users get to keep track of their complaints, too!

"City officials have taken steps in recent years to combat the persistent problem of human waste on streets, including placing public toilets in 12 neighborhoods and, most recently, forming a team of five public works staffers — dubbed the poop patrol — who soon will begin combing neighborhoods and steam-cleaning areas where waste is found." http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-snapcrap-20181008-story.html

Another link with a video:
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Snapcrap-App-Developer-Hopes-to-Help-Clean-Up-San-Francisco-Streets-495076441.html

Los Osos has a poop problem too, some human. But the bulk of poop left around is supplied by dogs with lazy owners who fail to pick up after them. I don't think an app would help our situation any, but our town would be a lot nicer if we could fix the open air waste problem, especially since we finally have a sewer to fix the below ground poop and pee problem caused by septic tank density.

I do know that some LO citizens DO pick up the doo-doo left by shameless dog owners, and a hearty THANK-YOU goes out to each one of you.

Birthing Our WWTF

I was noodling around for who knows what and found the website (linked below) from one of HDR's sub-consultants who had worked on our sewer plant. I though the slideshow of gorgeous photos that they had at the top of their Los Osos sewer page was outstanding and deserved some recognition here - so have a look at some of the very beginnings of our facility from the Mimiaga Engineering Group and who knew that there is a checkerboard at the bottom of the secondary clarifiers!

http://www.mimiagaengineeringgroup.com/portfolio-type/county-of-san-luis-obispolos-osos-water-recycling-facility/

Toilet Audios

Yes, there is such a thing as a collection of toilet flushes - have a listen - actually, there are many minutes of listening. One wonders if these sounds have found their way into some other application - like a sewer video perhaps?  :-D 💩

https://www.soundsnap.com/tags/toilet_flush

Scattered off this link are various sewer sounds mixed in with sewing machines and then video game sounds (go figure....):
https://www.soundsnap.com/search/audio/sewer/score?page=1

Poop-Bots

I got a little behind (ha-ha!) on reading the New York Times (we get an actual paper delivery three days a week, and pixel version daily on Kindle - where I am also late to read stuff). I had been in LA and the stack of paper had piled up on the dining table threatening dinner plates. Realizing another weekend boatload starts up again tomorrow, I was racing through the old news tonight. But I did an abrupt stop on the section "WeekendArts1," where the word  "poop-bots" froze my scanning eyes. The article was called "Dream a Little Dream. I Dare You." Page one, just below the fold, was an article on a Netflix TV show, "Maniac." The sentence reads, "Tiny wheeled 'poop bots' trudge the sidewalks cleaning up dog waste."* Well, this sewer blogger wasn't going to let a blog topic like that go to waste (ha-ha!), so here is what I found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rsYF9mIgDU

https://discordbots.org/bot/381409327673638923

https://poop-bot.github.io/

https://boingboing.net/2017/08/02/scatological-robots.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfhyB6VCMDQ


* New York Times, Friday, September 21, 2018

Fecal-Philiac Or Fecal-Phobic

Stinson Beach! Always a pleasure to share one of the well-written posts over here from the California Coastal Dweller!!

http://californiacoastdweller.com/2013/12/07/septic-tank-arguments-could-stinson-beach-be-the-fecal-philiac-pole-opposite-malibus-fecal-phobic-choice-of-sanitation/

I wrote those words above 2014 and never posted the blog blurb! So I thought it was high time to revisit Stinson Beach and see if they had solved their septic tank problem - just as we had! 

Well, they did, but not quite with the same solution. I found an article off the Orenco website on Stinson Beach! (Remember our old friends at Orenco—at every...single...meeting they could possibly attend???) Orenco may have struck out in Los Osos rather badly, but they hit the gold mine in Stinson Beach!

https://www.orenco.com/Portals/0/Documents/Article%20PDFs/Aug.pdf?ver=2018-08-02-145028-373

Lipstick On A WWTF With A Camera

Photographer Paul Cockrell has done the impossible, making wastewater treatment plants into works of art with his camera. Have a look:

https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2016/11/beautifying_wastewater_treatment_plants_one_photo_at_a_time?ref=related_sidebar

An interesting side note, Mr. Cockrell used to work as a water/wastewater design engineer for HDR. Guess who managed the construction on our WWTF? HDR!

https://www.hdrinc.com/sites/default/files/2017-05/hdr-extreme-sewer-makeover.pdf

I have to give credit to our own San Luis Obispo County photographers for their beautiful shots of our rather picturesque WWTF that we have seen in their drone shots and drone time-lapse videos. (Our setting for a sewer beats most too of course.)

5-G In London Sewers!

Sewer pipes do double duty.....yes, there is a pun in there - but sewer parts and products to go therein so easily lend themselves to that sort of thing, don't they?

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/londons-sewers-set-for-5g-makeover/10035631.article?blocktitle=News-Feed&contentID=13612

http://www.rebresearch.com/blog/sewer-jokes-and-song/

💩

Red Tide, Blue Green Algae

"Thirty percent of the population uses septic systems."

New York Times, September 30, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/opinion/sunday/red-tide-florida-tourism.html

Ugh. If you want to see a close up of dead fish on a Florida beach, read the article linked above. Be glad there is no smell component to an online article.

Did you know that "More fertilizer is consumed in Florida than any other state but California, Illinois and Texas." Fertilizer, both commercial and people-made, is a big problem as the blue-green algae thrives on it. The blue-green algae kills the fish, just like the red tide. Hence the stench! Check the tides before you book your vacation.

Sewer's Farm Road

http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/doc/4000000030541157

Yeah, I know.....how do they mean "sewer?" One who sews with needle and thread, or are they honoring a construction which one flushes into, which happens to be on a farm road - a sewer plant shoved out of town maybe (sound familiar Los Osians)? The town apparently named Abinger Bottom 😐........and it is in the Mole Valley, you know, underground tunnels. Well, this is yet another British Mystery! Perhaps a future someone in the know will leave a clarifying comment?

The Woeful World Of Wipes

Yes, it's been a while. I have been very engaged in writing on the local Los Osos Nextdoor which includes parts of Morro Bay. They are going through a sewer war, and I have been providing some Los Osos sewer background of what they don't want to do, namely, vote NO and change locations.

Happily, they did pass their 218 vote Tuesday evening to move on ahead with their WRF, Water Recycling Facility. Note the wording difference; ours was/is called the Los Osos Waste Water Project, LOWWP. We are recycling water too, but we sound a little more old school. Well, since our plant started back in the cave man days, I guess it would, but these days recycled water is a lot more hip of a term than "waste water." It sure sounds better anyway. The idea of wasting water is firmly brain ingrained as a no-no in Los Osos. But I digress.

I subscribe to a newsletter from the wastewater industry, TPO, for Treatment Plant Operator. Since I have written on wipes in the past, I thought I would update you all (who are not in the industry) on how the problem has been combatted in this modern age. So have a look and get educated. This grinder thinger doodle looks to be able to take care of even the false teeth that occasionally wind up at wastewater treatment plants—I mean water reclamation plants!
https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2018/09/wipes-arent-going-away_sc_003ey?utm_source=campaigner&utm_campaign=180912&utm_content=newsletter&cmp=1&utm_medium=email

Jolly Video Of The LOWWP Being Built!

I was sticking my nose one again into the Nextdoor posts on the Morro Bay Sewer..... well, the word "debacle" sure does not fit the low key sewer battle they are having - maybe I can use the work "skirmish?" This is nothing like what possessed and emanated from the sewer followers over here. Fortunately.

But I digress. I was researching something to include in a post and I ran across a video that I had never seen before! It is just delightful, toe-tappingly so! It is early on in the sewer building process, so not much is built, but it is really worth a viewing! I have no idea who the creator of the video, the Mimiaga Engineering Group * is, so now I have to look them up.

Click this link, not the image:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyq3GNtLU1s

Note: Farmland.

* Oh! There we are, right on their Home Page! They were a sub-consultant to HDR, one of our main contractors. LOVE the video guys!!

Cayucos Sanitary Plant

Does anyone (besides me) see anything unintentionally hilarious in this screen capture?

Sewer Salmon!

OK. it is not quite sewer salmon, but the alliteration made such a good headline! What it really is, is salmon being raised in the treated wastewater from the Bangor, Maine WWTF. The salmon are the draw to get people to visit, and in the process, the plant gets to show off what a glorious transformation it can do to poopy water! Read the story here:

https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2018/07/effluent-raised-salmon-gets-community-involved-in-wastewater-treatment?utm_source=StreamSend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&utm_campaign=180725

BTW, one can find great stuff in TPO magazine!

Sewer Socialism

OK, this is a bit off topic, but it did involve sewers! 

Quote, "Milwaukee Socialists sought to reform the legacy of the Industrial Revolution on the local level by cleaning up neighborhoods and factories with new sanitation systems....."

(Learn about something that you never heard of! It may come in handy if you get on "Jeopardy.")

https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-043/?action=more_essay

Alligator Swimming In Treatment Plant Pond

Our Los Osos sewer news is slower than frozen pancake batter these days, but fortunately other treatment plants have more exciting goings on! The Mineral Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant in Clearfield County Pennsylvania has a guest swimmer! Have a look at this video (and never mind the prologue ad - mine was for a law firm specializing in debt cases, a guy had his car towed, was going to have a problem getting to work, and got zero sympathy from the tow truck driver).

https://wjactv.com/news/local/gator-hunt-animal-seen-swimming-in-sewage-treatment-plant

Los Osos Park Septic Tank

Fun Fact: Well, it is gone now, likely filled in with slurry, but the Los Osos Community Park, when built, was outfitted with restrooms that flushed into an 800 gallon septic tank! I was researching something else at County offices today and ran into that tidbit. You never know where something sewery will pop up when researching any aspect of Los Osos!

San Francisco's Poop Problem

You can't say I never bring you horrible stories!

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/state/california/article214320174.html

Who collected this stuff is what I want to know, and I suppose WHY, too.