wastewater – Geeky Girl Engineer

Manure Slinger

Posted on September 20, 2019 by geek

One of the things I like about my job is that there is never a dull moment, and I never know what I am going to be doing next. Will I be reading a toxicology assessment? Will I be tracking down a CASRN? Will I be trying to explain in plain English some highly complex scientific issue? Will I be doing a statistical analysis? Will I be trying to figure if some hazardous chemical may or may not be associated with some particle source of contamination? Will I be trying to cleanup a database that has 11 (11!) different valid and invalid synonyms for cis-1,2-dichloroethene? It changes everyday.

A couple of weeks ago though set a new level for “ok this is different.” There was an urgent request from a big wig where I work to do some quick calculations on biosolids. If you don’t know what biosolids are, they are essentially treated sewage sludge. Wastewater treatment plants, which treat domestic wastewater (i.e. the stuff that goes down your sink and toilet), generally have three types of streams that exit the plant. The first is wastewater effluent, which is treated water that is clean and can be released into a river or lake, or if it treated enough can be used to water golf courses or things like that. The second is the sludge. The sludge is generally water with some solids. Sludge is treated, watery poop. It depends on the wastewater treatment plant as to how much treatment and how watery the sludge is. Some sludge is dewatered and composted on site, such that by the time it leaves the plant, it is pretty much just compost. Some is treated less. It depends on the state and the degree of treatment as to what happens to the biosolids. The states have different regulations to the final disposition of the biosolids. Biosolids can be incinerated, landfilled, or land-disposed. The third stream that leaves the wastewater treatment plant is only a stream in an engineering sense. It is non-degradable solid stuff that is screened out as soon as the wastewater enters the plant. This includes condoms, “flushable” wipes, rags, and all the other weird stuff people flush down the toilet or down the drain because out of sight is out of mind. Seriously though why on earth do so many people think condoms are flushable? All that human-made stuff (ok stuff made by humans but not made by the human gastrointestinal track) that people flush down the toilet (because the police came busting in?) or pour down the sink (because clearly you are not thinking about how much your are going to have to pay the plumber to clear you’re drains?) is screened out and sent straight to the landfill or incinerator. This stuff plus the fat and grease people put down the drains are what forms fatbergs.

It is the land-disposal of the second stream of biosolids that was involved in the urgent calculations I needed to do. Essentially, if the biosolids are highly treated at the wastewater treatment, composted at high temperatures for a long enough period of time, and tested for certain contaminants, mainly heavy metals, as required by law, and the state allows it, then they can be used as fertilizer on land. This is not a new concept. For hundreds of years, night soil, as it was called then, was collected and used as fertilizer. It wasn’t even treated. The composting at the wastewater treatment plant, if done correctly, should kill the pathogens in the poop. The controversial question though is whether or not the biosolids contain chemical contaminants that would not be removed by composting. That is a whole other subject.

My task though was to do some calculations on scenarios involving biosolids. While I am familiar with the concept of biosolids and their final disposition, I needed to do some research on their physical properties. Turns out, finding an average density for biosolids is much easier said than done. The internet gave me answers that were all over the map. The other part of my calculations required me to make some assumptions about how the biosolids were transported to fields or farms if they are land applied. I had never actually considered until that moment how watery, treated poop is transported. As weird as I am considering I travel to visit landfills, wastewater treatment plants, and rail yards and considering how I eagerly read books about poop, I never really considered the transport of biosolids. [I cannot stress enough how much I loved Rose George’s The Big Necessity.] Time was of the essence, we needed some sort of estimate for the question presented, so I grabbed what seemed like reasonable numbers for the physical properties of biosolids and how they transported, and I did my best to calculate with some sort of reasonable confidence the numbers that would answer the question being asked by the big wig. I actually rather enjoyed this rather unusual request. I learned at least a little bit about the details of biosolids.

This week though, the same question came up. I was asked to confirm my calculations, but I was given more time to consider the question. Thus, I had been considering the question for a couple of weeks, and I had had time to ask colleagues as to good sources of information on biosolids. I was able to devote more time to finding good estimates for the information I needed. In the course of my research, I learned to my great joy that biosolids and regular manure are often (normally?) land applied using an invention called a manure slinger. I swear this is true. Humans invented a device called a manure slinger, and in the grand tradition of engineering inventions, it does exactly what its name implies: it slings manure. I hope you can understand my joy that this exists. It is similar to my joy when I discovered that humans had invented a fish cannon that true to its name is a cannon that shoots fish. Engineers aren’t really that creative in the naming department. Heat exchangers exchange heat. Catalytic converters use a catalyst to convert one thing to another. [In the case of your car, it uses a catalyst to convert harmful gases to less harmful gases.] Circuit breakers break an electrical circuit. This leads to my new favorite invention, the manure slinger which slings manure. Do an internet search on manure slinger. You will find photos and videos of them. Videos of a manure slinger slinging manure brought me even more joy. Yes, I am weird, but if you have ever visited my website before, you should know that by now.

Now I was armed with good experimental information on the physical properties of biosolids and with very good information as to how they were transported and land applied. I redid my initial calculations checking my work and with far more confidence in the answer. I could prepare an answer for management to send to the big wig with as much confidence as could be expected on the somewhat unusual question being asked. Further, today I was asked to help prepare communication material regarding the question that had been asked about biosolids. To my even greater joy, than simply learning that manure slingers exist, I was able to write (I swear) scientific information for the communication material that involved the phrase manure slinger numerous times in a paragraph. I have no idea if the communication material will ever see the light of day, and if it does, if the communication people or management will be fuddy duddies and remove the phrase manure slinger and substitute with something far more mundane sounding, but at least initially, I had the joy of writing a completely serious, scientific paragraph using phrase manure slinger. It was a great way to end the week.

Whitechapel Fatberg

Posted on May 25, 2018 by geek

I was able to complete my quest today, the reason I came to London at this time. I saw the Whitechapel Fatberg at the Museum of London. I realize this is not the normal type of thing people go on vacation and fly across an ocean to see, but anyone who reads my blog at all should know I am not normal. London sewer workers coined the term fatberg to describe a giant, congealed mass of fat and oil that also has wet wipes, diapers, and other rubbish people put down the drain and shouldn’t. [Important education moment for those who do not know. Those “flushable” wipes are not flushable. Sure, they are flushable in that they will flush down your toilet, but they are not flushable in that they will not break down in the sewer system or at the wastewater treatment plant. Neither will diapers, condoms, and all the other stuff people flush or put down drain pipes.]

In 2017, London sewer workers found the enormous Fatberg in Whitechapel. It weighed 130 tons and was 250 meters long. Some of it they removed with power jet sprayers to then vacuum out, but much of it was so hard, they had to remove it with pick axes and shovels. It took nine weeks to remove the Fatberg. According to information at the museum display, some of the fatberg was converted to biodiesel, and the rest was turned into renewal energy and fertilizer at the wastewater treatment plant.

They had two pieces of the fatberg on display. One of the samples has crumbled into smaller pieces. In the large piece, there is some sort of plastic wrapper sticking out of it. They also x-rayed the pieces because why not.

Small pieces of the Fatberg

Large piece of the Fatberg

X-rays of the Fatberg

Engineering Responsibility

Posted on April 8, 2018 by geek

A couple of weeks ago I took a day long class on urban stormwater design. It was a class designed for Professional Engineers and others who needed to earn some continuing education credit. It was taught by two Professional Engineers. Urban stormwater design is something I am in general familiar with but not anywhere close to an expert, so I thought this would be a worthwhile, intriguing class by which I could also earn needed continuing education credit.

The class subject was the important topic of urban stormwater, specifically in older cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, where much of the city has combined sewer systems. Combined sewers are systems where both stormwater and sanitary wastewater (i.e. the discharge from household and business sinks, toilets, showers, etc.) go into the same set of pipes and eventually to a wastewater treatment plant. When it is not raining, this type of system works fairly well because it is mainly just the wastewater reaching the treatment plant. When there is precipitation, this type of system can cause problems because the amount of flow can overwhelm the treatment plant. If the plant is not big enough, or if there is not enough storage capacity to hold the wastewater until the treatment plant can treat it, then this results in raw, untreated wastewater (i.e. poop) being discharged to whatever body of water is downstream of the plant. The discharge of untreated wastewater is illegal under the Clean Water Act and is considered a permit violation under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program.

The class covered ways that cities can try to prevent overwhelming the plant and thus permit violations. This can range from the more obvious, and often most expensive, ways of building more and bigger wastewater treatment plants and/or storage capacity to hold the wastewater until the plant can treat it, to the more innovative and sometimes lower cost of green infrastructure. Green roofs can absorb some of the stormwater, and thus reducing the amount of stormwater going into the sewers. Tiny little parks and green bump-outs into the street which trap perhaps an inch of rain can also help, especially when many of them are built around the city. In the area where I live, many redesigned streets have a green median which sinks below street level or have a depressed area with plants next to a wide sidewalk. The idea with these areas is to allow some of the stormwater to sink into the ground and also to simply hold some of the stormwater during the storm. This evens out the flow going into the sewers.

During this class, one of the instructors showed various models that he and his company had run for an older city to solve a problem where a particular neighborhood kept having the basements flood with sewage. The city had a combined sewer, and in that area, the pipes could not handle all the flow during the storm, and this would lead to sewage backing up into people’s basements. Quite obviously, the people living there did not like raw sewage flooding their basement every couple of years. Who would? So the instructor demonstrated how complex the issue was with maps that showed if you added extra capacity in this tiny area, it would solve the problem for this tiny part of the neighborhood. However, if you spent more money and built more capacity for a larger area, it would solve the issue for more of the neighborhood but ironically would make it worse for this other part of the neighborhood. His point was to show how the problem was complex, and it was not just a matter of adding more pipes.

However, in every single one of his models, the extra pipes to handle the extra flow had one or more outfalls to the river that flowed next to the neighborhood. The pipes were intended to connect to the combined sewer system, but to alleviate the extra flow that caused the flooding in people’s basements, they modeled adding extra outfalls where the raw sewage, instead of going into people’s basements, would instead go into the river next to the river. Now, I am sure most people would think, well, I would rather it go into the river than into my basement. However consider if you live in that area, you would still be dealing with raw sewage in the area, just maybe not in your basement. An improvement, but still a problem. The instructor said they were designing for a storm size that would happen about every five years. To be clear, dumping raw wastewater into a river ever five years is illegal. I was incredulous that they were actually designing the system to dump raw sewage into the river. I asked him why didn’t the design include a new interceptor (a giant pipe that generally conveys the flow for long distances to a plant), or some other large storage area until the system could handle the extra flow and convey it to the treatment plant. He cited cost. Cost is not a reason to violate the law. In fact cities that dump raw sewage can fined, so there’s a cost. [I don’t work in this area. I don’t know how often cities are fined for this, but I do know the idea is not to take money from them but to get them to spend the money so violations don’t occur. Use the money to build more wastewater treatment plant capacity, etc.]

I questioned the instructor about this. It is one thing to have an old system that dumped raw sewage into a river and then to keep building pipes and plants such that the city reduced or eliminated any discharge of raw sewage. It is an entirely other thing to actually design “improvements” to your system to do that. To be clear, sewage flooding into people’s basements is obviously a serious problem that the city needed to solve. But solving it to only create another problem is not a true solution. I kept asking him why didn’t the solution include a new interceptor or storage. A couple of the other people taking the class asked questions of a similar nature. Finally the instructor seemed to be tired of the questions and not being able to answer them to our satisfaction, and he said “I don’t know guys, I’m just the modeler.” He is a Professional Engineer. I accept that the reason he was teaching this part of the class is that he in an expert in modeling stormwater. I do not accept that because he was just doing the modeling, he had no responsibility for the solution that he was modeling. At some point, he should have asked what kind of solution was he modeling if by design it would lead to permit violations every five years or so. Part of the responsibility of being a Professional Engineer is knowing that is a not a solution. Part of being an engineer is planning for every contingency you possibly can. Part of being an engineer is knowing the law. That means you can’t shrink responsibility by simply saying that’s not my part. I just did this tiny area. Go talk to the other guy. Nope. You can’t do that. A Professional Engineer takes responsibility for the design. That’s your job. Find a solution that solves the problem you were asked to solve but does not create other problems.

This Toilet Given to the Glory of God

Posted on November 11, 2015 by geek

Years ago, I lived in Austin and went to a historic Episcopal church. The parish house needed major renovation, and when the parishioners were surveyed for what they wanted from the renovation, more and better bathrooms was at the top of the list. Considering how few and far between the bathrooms were, this request was predictable. Like others, I donated money to support the renovations, and the new parish house was wonderful, and the multitudes of new and bigger bathrooms were glorious and much appreciated.

My current DC area Episcopal church is also historic with a parish house needing major renovations. Once again I find myself being asked by my church to donate money to support renovations. The space is small and not used efficiently partially because the parish house is an old house. It has this tiny little ancient elevator that scares me. Also like my former church, at or near the top of everyone’s wish list is more and bigger bathrooms.

As I’ve contemplated how much money I want to and can give, I’ve also thought about what I’d like to sponsor if I had enough money to request something being acknowledged as being sponsored by me. I don’t actually know if anything in the renovations will be designated as being sponsored, but churches do that all the time with big donations. The church has brass plaques on all the pews, stained glass windows, and other items.

So I’ve thought about it just because it’s fun. The same way I think about if I died famous what would I’d like dedicated to me. I’ve already decided should I die famous that it will be written into my will that if anyone tries to name a freeway after me, my estate will sue them for defamation and pain and suffering, and I’ll come back to haunt them. A park or library would be lovely, but a freeway would be an insult.

I realized what I’d like to sponsor at my church. I want to sponsor the new toilets. I want a plaque next to a toilet that reads “This toilet donated in glory of God by GGE.” As much as the vast majority of people don’t want to think about toilets, when there are not enough, or they are not working, they are all you think about. I speak for all women when I say public places never have enough of them, and we spend too much time in line to use one. [More of my Opinions on public restroom design.] We have all sorts of euphemisms to avoid having to say the word toilet, and God forbid someone should mention the words urine or feces or urination or defecation in polite company. I’ve spent years in the lab analyzing urine and spent part of my career in wastewater treatment and conveyance. I could speak for hours on bodily human waste.

The truth is the toilet is one of the greatest inventions of all times. It effectively and efficiently takes human waste away to where it can be treated and not spread disease. Toilets prevent smelly and dangerous gases from the waste from coming inside. Humans no longer walk outside avoiding streams of human waste and falls from above from people emptying their chamber pots. Because of toilets and sanitary sewers and treatment plants, most of us do not have to worry about cholera, typhoid, Guinea worm, and many other diseases.

Be thankful that you have a toilet. When my church’s renovations are over, I know all the members of the parish will be grateful we have more of them.

“These toilets given to the glory of God and in appreciation of the past, present, and future people who ensure bodily human waste is removed from this premises and properly treated, by an environmental engineer who understands a toilet’s importance.”

Man Swims the Gowanus Canal

Posted on October 18, 2015 by geek

I was planning to come to New York for the weekend, and by pure chance this was the weekend Christopher Swain announced he was going to attempt to swim the Gowanus Canal again. He tried in April but the threat of rain and then actual lightning, which caused the New York Police Department (NYPD) to order him out of the canal, prevented him from swimming the entire length. This time he was successful. He said he did it to raise awareness of the pollution of the Gowanus Canal. When being interviewed by reporters, he said he was concerned this would be perceived as a stunt. He said they would actually be collecting data that would be given to school kids, so they could help solve the problems affecting the Gowanus.

As an environmentalist, I appreciate him bringing awareness to the plight of the Gowanus. I even appreciate him wanting to bring awareness to school kids. Honestly though, as an environmental engineer, who works in the field of cleaning up hazardous waste sites, I can’t see what he is doing as anything other than a stunt. I seriously can’t think of any information he could gather that couldn’t be gathered from a person in a boat, a person who would not be exposing herself or himself to the risk that Mr. Swain is. At one point, Mr. Swain stopped swimming to collect data and told anyone listening that the water had a temperature of 64ºF and had a pH of 7.5. He started by saying “for the scientists out there” and then said he wished he had studied science harder or something to that effect. First, both those two pieces of data could easily be collected from a boat. Second, neither of those pieces of data tell me anything about the state of the Gowanus. The temperature just reflects that it is fall, and a pH of 7.5 is close to neutral and what is expected for a body of water. [Yes, thermal pollution, where water that is too hot is released into a body of water, is a thing that can affect water bodies because hot water has less oxygen, and the reduced oxygen would affect any wildlife in the water, but it is not a concern for the Gownaus.]

Also, I fail to see what school kids are going to do to help solve the problem. I completely agree in bringing awareness of environmental issues to children, but it is environmental professionals and perhaps community organizers who are going to solve the pollution problem with the Gowanus. The Gowanus has two main issues. First, it has hazardous pollution from years past that needs to be cleaned up. This is where the US EPA and Superfund comes in. Hazardous waste includes PCBs, heavy metals, and whatever other fun chemicals might be polluting the canal. Second, it has wastewater pollution from the past and current that needs to be cleaned up. New York City, like many old cites, has a combined wastewater system. This means that wastewater, the stuff that flows from your toilet and sink drain, and stormwater, the stuff from street drains, flows to the same destination. When it is not raining, it is not an issue. The wastewater all flows to various wastewater treatment plants where it is treated before being released to a river or ocean. During rain events, there can be a problem because the wastewater treatment plant may not be able to handle all the water flowing to it. In this case, untreated wastewater is generally directed to some location (technical term is outfall) where it enters a body of water, like the Gowanus. This is actually the main immediate risk to Mr. Swain. Most of the hazardous pollution is in the sediment at the bottom of the canal, and drinking one mouthful of the Gowanus water probably will not kill you, in terms of the hazardous chemicals, or at least not immediately. [DO NOT TRY THIS. THIS IS AN EDUCATED GUESS.] However, because of the untreated wastewater that flows into the Gowanus, the canal has a lovely concoction of viruses, bacteria, and who knows what other pathogens having their own little party. This would be my more immediate concern for him or anyone else who might accidentally ingest Gowanus Canal water, getting an infection of who knows what pathogen. [According to news reports I’ve seen, after the swim, he stated that he swallowed three mouthfuls. My advice is to go see a medical doctor.] It is also not clear to me if there is other pollution concerns to Gowanus, like outfalls from nearby business or stormwater from the nearby area that may contain things they shouldn’t.

The Gowanus Canal absolutely needs to be cleaned up, and regulatory authorities and the community are already working on it. It may not be proceeding at the speed Mr. Swain and the community would like. I completely understand that. Cleanups, such as the Gowanus Canal, take time and money. It takes professionals, the regulatory authorities, the groups being regulated, and the community to determine the best path forward. Unfortunately, it generally takes patience also. My completely biased opinion is that not enough money is dedicated by politicians to cleaning up all the different pollution in this country. Hence even more patience is needed. One final note, in all the news reports, Mr. Swain and the reporters keep making reference to the Gowanus Canal being a Superfund site. It is, but the issue of untreated wastewater being released into the canal and causing, in my opinion, the more immediate risk to him or anyone else who wants to go for a dip, does not normally fall under Superfund regulation. Superfund (aka CERCLA) regulates hazardous waste, and pathogens are not hazardous waste. However, when the U.S. EPA finalized the Record of Decision for the Gowanus Canal Superfund site, they did require the City to build two very large tunnels to capture combined sewer overflow during rain events. [Edited to correct my statements regarding Superfund and the untreated wastewater contamination.]

Christopher Swain being interviewed before his swim

Mr. Swain and his support crew paddled to the start of the Gowanus Canal before he entered the water.

Christopher Swain swimming with his support crew behind him

Christopher Swain swimming the Gowanus Canal in a dry suit.

He takes measurements of the water.

After he reached the 3rd Street bridge, the NYPD provided an escort (either the water wasn’t deep enough or the bridges prevented it before).

Mr. Swain and escorts nearly at the end of the Gowanus Canal, just after the Gowanus Expressway bridge.

Newtown Creek

Posted on September 7, 2015 by geek

Manhattan skyline behind Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

Newtown Creek is a natural creek that now resembles more of an industrial waterway and serves as a divider between Brooklyn and Queens in New York. I recently got a boat tour of it through Open House NY with superb guides from Newtown Creek Alliance and was able to see all the industrial facilities that are on it as well as a few places where its natural state is peaking through. Newtown Creek is heavily polluted because of New York City’s combined sanitary wastewater and stormwater system, which has led to untreated wastewater flowing into the creek during heavy rain events, and also industrial pollution, which has led to it being a Superfund site. A trip down Newtown Creek is almost history lesson down NYC’s past with some historic sites still visible like an old Standard Oil building. More modern parts of NYC also lie on the creek, most famously the newly redesigned and rebuilt Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and its eight stainless steel digester eggs.

Brooklyn Queens Expressway

cement plant

DEP boat

Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and DEP offices

Fuel tanks and barge

LPG (or possibly methane) tanks

mud flats

Recycling facility

Sailboats at entrance to Newtown Creek

old Standard Oil facility

swing bridge

Tanks

Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

Sewage outfall with birds on boom line

Gowanus Canal

Posted on November 12, 2014 by geek

Last month while in New York, I spent some time walking around Gowanus Canal because I’m an environmental engineer, and I couldn’t resist an opportunity to visit a body of water, infamous for being incredibly polluted. The Gowanus Canal is a Superfund site due to contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic contaminants (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, and metals. However, the Gowanus Canal is also polluted with more ordinary pollutants such as bacteria from untreated wastewater from combined sewer overflow outfalls and other urban pollutants from surface runoff (and possibly illegal outfalls). The area residents are understandably pushing to get the canal cleaned up quickly, and the cleanup is a joint effort between the city, state, and federal government. The area around the canal is an interesting mixture of industrial, art galleries, and up and coming residential. It is actually a nice area. There is a Whole Foods Market next to the canal that has a nice little canal walk on the property, which features signs that say “This is the greenest supermarket in New York State. No smoking, please.” I will take them at their word about being the greenest supermarket, as I did notice solar panels and wind turbines in the parking lot. However I still had to laugh at the irony of the sign. On the bright side, the Gowanus Canal is not so polluted that should someone smoke near it, it is not in danger of catching on fire, like the Cuyahoga River did in 1969. While I was walking along the canal, I spotted a small boat with two people who seemed to be monitoring the water and also two people in a canoe. I guess the canal is safe to canoe on, if you just make sure you don’t touch the water to your skin and most definitely don’t let any get into your mouth, nose, eyes, or any other orifices. The canal does not look that polluted. There are areas with floating trash, but there are very few places where I saw a sheen. When I was there it did not smell either, but evidently especially in summer, it can smell. However, it is a good example of how appearance is not a good way to tell if something is polluted. If you want to read more about the Gowanus Canal, this article in Popular Science is pretty interesting.

Northern end of the Gowanus Canal

Bridge on northern end

Carroll Street Bridge

Stormwater discharge warning sign

A wooden dolphin that had a book attached to the top as some sort of art or memorial

View from the Third Street Bridge

Survey boat

Third Street bridge

People actually canoe on the Gowanus Canal

Barge sitting on the canal

Fourth Street Basin, next to the Whole Foods Market, with some sort of art in the sculpture in the water

Gowanus Canal southern end

Gowanus Expressway

Liquid storage tanks

When an engineer gets to comment on building maintenance

Posted on August 6, 2014 by geek

One nice thing about where I work is that we get to fill out surveys about how we like the building we work in and comment on it. I have my doubts about how much they act on the survey results, or how much they pay attention to the comments if an employee bothers to give comments, but hey, it’s a great place to vent. I actually for the most part like my building. It is relatively new and doesn’t have the problems that many older buildings that my employer has has. It is kept clean and and looks nice. One big problem I have with it is the same that I have with almost every other office building: the temperature is set at a temperature that is comfortable for men not women. By about 11 am, once the HVAC has fully gotten the ambient air to the set point (as opposed to earlier in the day when it is ramping up after having been off during the night), the vast majority of women are walking around in sweaters, jackets, or blankets that all of us keep at our desk. [Spoiler: When I rule the world, I will dictate two things. Office buildings will be set at temperatures that are comfortable to women, not men. Also, public restrooms will be designed better. In particular, the stalls will be longer so that women don’t have to climb on the toilet to close the stall door. Truthfully there are many things that need to be improved in public restrooms, most of which I and many other people have covered is this somewhat comical, somewhat serious past blog post.] However, the building I work in has some of the worst plumbing issues I have ever seen, especially for a building that is less than ten years old. Ironically it has LEED certification, but whoever certifies it appears to ignore the obvious water wasting issues it has, as I detail below. I’ve decided to share below the comments I gave in the building survey, not because it will really accomplish anything, just as a way to vent and possibly to serve as a warning why if you let an engineer comment on a building with design and maintenance issues, you may get more than you wanted. Thus, my full comments are as follows.

With all the dual flush toilets, only one flush button actually works. With some toilets it is the half flush button, with some the full flush button. However whether or not the working button is actually whichever button it appears to be is unclear, or if they have possibly all been disabled and all converted to full flush. They constantly run. Almost every time I enter a restroom, I have to push the flush button on at least one toilet to get it to stop running. The restroom auto soap and water sinks are like sink roulette. Which sink will give me soap? Which sink will not continuously squirt soap at me? Which sink will give me water? It takes forever to get repairs done on issues in the pantry/kitchens. It took them two weeks or so to put a new aerator in the sink faucet. A part that can be bought at any time at Home Depot. It is not special. Maintenance blames pantry sink issues on reasons that are not the problem. On numerous occasions, water has come bubbling up from the drain pipes into the sink. Sometimes so much water has bubbled up that the sink has overflowed with disgusting brown wastewater. Then maintenance posts signs saying not to put coffee grounds down the drain as that caused issue. While coffee grounds will cause a sink with a bad garbage disposal to not allow the sink to drain (and putting coffee grounds down the drain is a bad idea), it will not cause water to flow up from pipes below. (I’m a chemical engineer I can prove this with fluid dynamics equations!) There is obviously some issue with the drain pipes below our floor, which any competent plumber or chemical engineer could tell you.

While there was no place to attach photos or videos, below is a photo of the backed up kitchen sink and video of it overflowing.

My office's pantry/kitchen sink when it was backed up and overflowing with wastewater. Photo was taken 1/8/2013.

My office’s pantry/kitchen sink when it was backed up and overflowing with wastewater. Photo and below video was taken 1/8/2013.

Blue Lagoon

Posted on May 14, 2014 by geek

Day 1 in Iceland. I think I got about 20 minutes sleep on the plane. We drove to the western edge of the Reykjanes Peninsula to see the lighthouses in Garður. Then it was on to Iceland’s most visited tourist attraction the Blue Lagoon. Some genius turned what was a pool formed by wastewater from a geothermal power plant into a rather expensive, somewhat posh hot pot to which all tourists flock. It is really cool though. The water color is this gorgeous, cloudy sky blue. Also, they give excellent massages while you lay on a float in the lagoon. When you’ve been on a plane for six hours with no sleep, walking around a wonderfully heated pool and then getting a massage is quite frankly, a great cure for your exhaustion. Walking around the lagoon is great exfoliation for your feet, and they have buckets of silica from the lagoon to rub on your face for a facial. From a geology standpoint, the pool is really neat because you can walk through micro heat spots, not to mention to entire heated by geothermal heat thing. In some areas the pool is warm and in some areas, the pool is hot. The lagoon was also a great place for me to play with my new GoPro camera, which can be used underwater.

The area around the lagoon is bizarrely pretty. It is dark craggily, sharp volcanic rock that is covered with this lush, soft in appearance, green plant. I am guess the green is actually lichen or a moss, but I need someone to educate me on what it actually it.

Power plant which caused the Blue Lagoon to form

Blue Lagoon

Bridge over Blue Lagoon

I’d be curious to know if this bridge is ever not slippery

Not often you see a lifeguard dressed like that

Rock edge of Blue Lagoon

Precipitate on rocks

Surrounding terrain

Lichen? Moss? It covers the volcanic rock

Las Vegas Wash

Posted on December 3, 2012 by geek

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I think of Las Vegas, I think of the Strip, casinos, shows, and desert. The only wildlife I think of is that of the human variety, generally in an inebriated form. Thus, on my recent trip to Las Vegas, I was surprised to learn about the Las Vegas Wash. It is the lowest part of the valley in which the Las Vegas metropolitan area sits. All storm water and urban runoff in the area drains to it, and it eventually drains to Lake Mead. The Wash has been increasingly eroded due to the increased flow into it from the increased Las Vegas metropolitan area urban runoff. In the past decade or so, the LVWCC has constructed numerous structures to reduce erosion in the Wash and increase the wetlands in it. Structures such as this.

And this weir.

They have also been removing non-native plants and planting native plants. None of which I can identify in the photos below.

Plants that can amazingly grow in the desert that is Las Vegas.

All of this has created a very pretty area, which is really nice to hike along, assuming the weather is nice. It has some lovely views of the nearby mountains.

And beautiful sunsets.

In some places, it allows some nice views of the Las Vegas Strip.

Next time you are in Las Vegas, if you like the outdoors and want to get away from the Strip, I highly recommend checking the Las Vegas Wash out. In a later post, I will be posting photos of the wildlife I saw on it.