Sewage Facts & Fiction

[ptosis]

.. inadequately treated sewage that exceed lawful limits for harmful bacteria and cancer-causing pesticides, and spilling raw or partially treated sewage from its collection system.


SewageKing

[timkona]

Re: Sewage Facts & Fiction

At least you guys have public sewer in Ewa Beach.

Look at the reef along Alii Drive in Kona, and you can tell that over half the homes have cesspool for waste. It's leaching into the ocean and the effects are pretty obvious.

The big reason why we can't convert all those cesspools to the public sewer that run's right down Alii Drive is because lot's of those homeowners don't have the money to pay for it. You know the old saying "Lack of money is the root of all evil".

The big irony of Environmentalism is that it costs a lot of money, and those who would wave the flag of environmentalism the hardest often have the least amount of money.

If you really want to save the planet, trade in the smoky old clunker for a brand new Hybrid vehicle. "But we can't afford a new car" "And we are environmentalists too"

Yeah Right

[Miulang]

Re: Sewage Facts & Fiction

Public sewers and current technology used at treatment plants can't take medical byproducts out of the drinking water, though. When you take a prescription drug, for instance, your body excretes some of it and it gets into the drinking water.

The pharmaceutical and personal care products, or PPCPs, are being flushed into rivers from sewage treatment plants or leaching into groundwater from septic systems. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, researchers have found these substances, called "emerging contaminants," almost everywhere they have looked for them...

In many cases, the compounds enter the water when people excrete them or wash them away in the shower. But some are flushed or washed down the drain when people discard outdated or unused drugs. So a number of American states and localities around the country have started discouraging pharmacies, hospitals, nursing homes and residents from disposing of drugs this way. Some are setting up "pharmaceutical take-back locations" in drugstores or even police stations. Others are adding pharmaceuticals to the list of hazardous household waste, like leftover paint or insecticides, periodically collected for safe disposal, often by incineration.

...In guidelines issued in February, three federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, advised people with leftover medicines to flush them down the drain "only if the accompanying patient information specifically instructs it is safe to do so." Otherwise, the guidelines say, they should dispose of them in the trash (mixed with "an undesirable substance" like kitty litter to discourage drug-seeking Dumpster divers) or by taking them to designated take-back locations....

Worries about water-borne chemicals flared last summer when researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey said they had discovered "intersex fish" in the Potomac River in the Eastern United States and its tributaries. The fish, smallmouth and largemouth bass, were male but nevertheless carried immature eggs.

Scientists who worked on the project said they did not know what was causing the situation, or even if it was a new phenomenon. But the discovery renewed fears that hormone residues or chemicals that mimic them might be affecting creatures that live in the water.

Miulang

[joshuatree]

Re: Sewage Facts & Fiction

At least you guys have public sewer in Ewa Beach.

Look at the reef along Alii Drive in Kona, and you can tell that over half the homes have cesspool for waste. It's leaching into the ocean and the effects are pretty obvious.

The big reason why we can't convert all those cesspools to the public sewer that run's right down Alii Drive is because lot's of those homeowners don't have the money to pay for it. You know the old saying "Lack of money is the root of all evil".

The big irony of Environmentalism is that it costs a lot of money, and those who would wave the flag of environmentalism the hardest often have the least amount of money.

If you really want to save the planet, trade in the smoky old clunker for a brand new Hybrid vehicle. "But we can't afford a new car" "And we are environmentalists too"

Yeah Right

I would assume can't afford a public sewer because the homes are all so spaced out that to build a public sewer would require a great length, therefore exceeding the price threshold of the homeowners? Another example of problems with low density planning.

As for hybrids, you don't need hybrids to be environmentally friendly. People just need to stop driving big old SUVs for the image and the so called ability it provides to carry stuff. I say so called because most SUV drivers don't haul anything but themselves. Anyone remember the Geo Metro? The 3 cylinder model could bring about 58 MPG. Of course, this is back in the day with the scewed EPA ratings but even adjusted, that would still mean 40-50s. And it didn't have no fancy hybrid tech.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Sewage Facts & Fiction

Look at the reef along Alii Drive in Kona, and you can tell that over half the homes have cesspool for waste. It's leaching into the ocean and the effects are pretty obvious.

The big reason why we can't convert all those cesspools to the public sewer that run's right down Alii Drive is because lot's of those homeowners don't have the money to pay for it. You know the old saying "Lack of money is the root of all evil".

The big irony of Environmentalism is that it costs a lot of money, and those who would wave the flag of environmentalism the hardest often have the least amount of money.

If you really want to save the planet, trade in the smoky old clunker for a brand new Hybrid vehicle. "But we can't afford a new car" "And we are environmentalists too"

Yeah Right

Tim has a point, and I agree. It might seem like living out in the countryside instead of in the big city would be a lower-impact lifestyle. But in the city you've got sewers... out in the country you have a cesspool. In the city there are power lines everywhere so you can use electricity for heating, which could be generated using a non-fossil-fuel source... in the country (like out Puna way) you're off the grid and you burn natural gas. In the city you can live just a mile from the grocery store... in the country your grocery trip is probably ten miles or more. So which lifestyle is lower-impact?

Infrastructure costs money.

In another thread folks were talking about the closure of rural hospitals, and the dilemma of how to get good medical care when you live in the boonies. Guess what, that's another infrastructure cost too. And if we, as a society, make a choice to insist that even the remotest rural areas must have access to high quality medical care, then we are building a lot of infrastructure for the benefit of only a few people, and we need to be aware that that's the fiscal and environmental consequence of that social-welfare choice.

We shouldn't spend huge amounts of societal resources (read: tax dollars) to help people who have made a deliberate choice to put themselves in a position where their needs demand a large public expenditure. If you choose to build a house way the hell out in the middle of nowhere, the county is probably not going to run water and sewer lines all the way out there just for you, and the power and phone companies probably won't either. And good luck with getting a quick response if you need to make a 911 emergency call. The lack of all those services is one of the costs you are paying for not going along with the social contract, which asks you to be reasonable and to behave in a certain way, for example, to live in places that society is willing to provide public services to.

When we make public policy decisions about what level of service to provide to rural areas, we are implicitly making environmental land use decisions at the same time. We can't hope to limit sprawl on the one hand, if on the other hand we offer full levels of public infrastructure to whoever wants it, wherever they want it.

[Miulang]

Re: Sewage Facts & Fiction

The State and the EPA have already issued policies regarding the conversion of large capacity septic systems (for two or more households) as of 2000. Hawai'i has more septic systems installed than anywhere else in the US.

Miulang

P.S. I seriously doubt anyone would consider the Kihei/Wailea or Lahaina areas on Maui "rural"

[timkona]

Re: Sewage Facts & Fiction

Many properties on Big Island are simply not in compliance with the law. It's a joke.

This is a real good example of federal law that places a monetary burden upon someone, and yet the law itself comes with no funding mechanism. The Feds are notorious for this kind of lawmaking.