The government is looking at your poop....

[kage69]

I thought soshulism meant free?!

Yeah, it sounds like he resents paying sewage fees. I poke fun at this concept certain Americans have, where they expect a free ride yet as a group they denounce free rides as socialism.

 

[IronWing]

Yeah, it sounds like he resents paying sewage fees. I poke fun at this concept certain Americans have, where they expect a free ride yet as a group they denounce free rides as socialism.

He has a point. Sewage fees are calculated based on total water usage*, not discharge to the sewer system so rate payers are charged sewage fees for water that went to yard watering. There is really no other way to calculate a fair rate as sewers aren't metered.

* Where I live the sewage rate is based on total January-February water use and is then applied to all months. The rationale is that outside watering use is lowest during that period of the year. With the prolonged drought, Winter watering is way up so sewage rates are applied more heavily to water that never reaches a sewer.

 

[kage69]

I can see it now, someone invents a practical way to meter municipal sewage lines. In response people in certain areas start to divert their sewage water to the strawberries (or elsewhere) to save a buck.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I can see it now, someone invents a practical way to meter municipal sewage lines. In response people in certain areas start to divert their sewage water to the strawberries (or elsewhere) to save a buck.

Alabama, ahead of the curve!

60 Minutes investigates: Americans fighting for access to sewage disposal

Bill Whitaker reports from Alabama, where a public health crisis has, by some estimates, left more than half the impoverished, rural residents in one county with raw sewage running onto their property.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[ch33zw1z]

He has a point. Sewage fees are calculated based on total water usage*, not discharge to the sewer system so rate payers are charged sewage fees for water that went to yard watering. There is really no other way to calculate a fair rate as sewers aren't metered.

* Where I live the sewage rate is based on total January-February water use and is then applied to all months. The rationale is that outside watering use is lowest during that period of the year. With the prolonged drought, Winter watering is way up so sewage rates are applied more heavily to water that never reaches a sewer.

Sure, clean water and dirty water disposal aren't free though. Until they find a way to charge for water disposal by the gallon, it will stay that way.

 

[hal2kilo]

I can see it now, someone invents a practical way to meter municipal sewage lines. In response people in certain areas start to divert their sewage water to the strawberries (or elsewhere) to save a buck.

It's called night soil.

 

[kage69]

It's called night soil.

Well it was called that, but now goes by the way more catchy term "fecal sludge."

I saw a show not too long ago on building off grid homes that were earth friendly. These people had an additional basement just for power equipment and these huge polymer tanks. It was a septic system turned fertilizer production setup, where over the course of months sewage was staged in these tanks, which also contained red worms. I think the final tank may have used heat, but what came out for the garden looked like something you'd spend money on at Lowes.

Gray water system for watering things, heat pumps, solar and wind power, high capacity below ground water storage. Very cool, lots of ideas for when I do something similar.

 

[kage69]

Alabama, ahead of the curve!

60 Minutes investigates: Americans fighting for access to sewage disposal

Bill Whitaker reports from Alabama, where a public health crisis has, by some estimates, left more than half the impoverished, rural residents in one county with raw sewage running onto their property.

www.cbsnews.com

To be fair, that's just saying to hell with a septic system completely.

Night soil was used by multiple cultures throughout history as an immediate soil amendment, one of the reasons parasites were so common.