Categories
Just Shelley

The story of the check valve

There’s a story behind this older post. Bit long, but might be fun if you have nothing else going on.

Municipal size check valve with engineer standing in front for perspective
Our place in O’Fallon was in the unincorporated county area, which means it’s a hit or miss what kind of service you get. Originally, the homes in the subdivision had septic tanks, but our plot couldn’t be developed until there was a sewer line, because of the steep hill in back.
When the O’Fallon gravity line was added, our house was barely in range, and they took the lateral sewer line to the manhole, and terminated it in the manhole.

Now, terminating a lateral sewer line in a manhole is a bit of a no-no, but since we were at the start of the line, they thought it would be OK.
The problem is, Lake St. Louis, next door, grew too fast and there were issues with its sewer. So they drilled a _force_ main from Lake St. Louis and terminated it at the manhole for our gravity main.

This is engineering insanity, and actually illegal in most of the country. But such is the quality of sewer management in St. Charles county, Missouri.

What would happen is every time it rained over a certain amount, typically about 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches in a 24 hour period, the water seeping into the force main would overwhelm the man hole and would force the flow back to the next outlet.

Our house.

So when it rained, we couldn’t use our toilets, and if it rained enough, raw sewage would back up into our shower and bath.

I was polite about complaints at first, but then got tired. So, every time this would happen, I would call O’Fallon and tell them we had a sewage backup. They’re required by law to come out to check it out, and it also gets recorded as a sewage backup for the environmental powers that be.

I wasn’t a squeaky wheel…I was a full out bitch. There wasn’t anyone in the sanitation department of two different systems that I didn’t contact by email, or in person.

Water District 2 (force main) blew me off, but O’Fallon took it seriously. The assistant supervisor explored options everywhere for what they could use to protect our lateral sewer line.

In the end, they had the company that developed the check valves you see here, develop a custom made one just for the end of our lateral line in the manhole.

When they installed it, the force main was shut down temporarily and two crews came out: one for the manhole to install the device, and one further down to send fresh air into the manhole.

It installed in about 10 minutes. That was it. And it worked beautifully.

From then on, no matter how much rain, no backup. And we could continue using our toilets, since even when the valve closes, it could still expel liquids out.

When we sold the house, the day before closing, we stayed in a hotel because everything was packed up. That night was one hell of a storm—over 5 inches of rain fell. When we got to the house, the sanitation crew was out washing down our neighbor’s yard because the sewage had overflowed into their yard. It was a mess.

The neighbor across the street came over and said for the first time, they had backup into their house and into their washing machine in the basement. He knew about our previous problems, and he and a couple of other neighbors thought our place would be destroyed by the sewage, and right before closing.

Nope. Not a drop. Clean as a whistle.

These things look simple. No whirring lights, no gadgetry, just plain rubber. But they are brilliant.

And if your wheels don’t squeak nothing good will happen.

 

Categories
Places

Growth isn’t always good

I moved to Savannah from Missouri a couple of years ago. The city I moved from, O’Fallon, is the fastest growing city in Missouri. It shows, and not in a positive way.

We had little in the way of parks, few sidewalks, no bus system, and wall-to-wall stores and shopping centers (and offices). The roads are a mess, and the water/sewer utilities are a disaster.

One of the more famous parks, the Katy Trail which uses the old railroad system to create a walking and biking trail that crosses the state, was damaged when the county decided that heck yes, a developer can build mega-priced homes on the cliffs overlooking the trail.

It’s not a pleasant place to be solely because the county and the city value growth over quality of life.

So take it to heart when I warn you that growth isn’t always a positive thing.

Housing is an issue already in Savannah, as is strains on the necessary utilities to support a growing community. Savannah is already constrained by being bordered by an immovable object, Fort Stewart—not to mention the rivers, flood plains, and marshes. And I’ve heard many folks complain of too much development around already overcrowded roads and freeways. Big big houses on tiny matchbook sized lots, and all of it too expensive for the average citizen.

Savannah is not considered a good place to retire because of lack of adequate medical care.

The real question is: what does Savannah want to be when it grows up?

Does it want to be a major port with lot after lot full of containers and warehouses? Does it want to be an industry hub? Or does it want to be a quaint tourist town with lovely homes and parks and waterfront activities? How about being a new Hollywood or artsy academic center with SCAD?

All of these aren’t mutually exclusive…but it takes care and caution and planning to do it right. What I’m seeing now is less careful planning, and more of what happened to O’Fallon in Missouri. And once you’ve done the damage, there’s no going back.

Categories
Political

Putin: Russia’s Trump

Whatever we want to say about Putin from this moment forward, let’s all agree to no longer use the word ‘shrewd’ to describe him. Because his invasion of Ukraine was anything but shrewd.

Categories
Critters Legal, Laws, and Regs

Feld Entertainment Circus Elephants Finally Find a Home

Take equal parts dealing with Trump as President and then COVID and you have an explanation for why I didn’t notice that there was a piece of outstandingly good news beginning in 2020.

The Feld Entertainment/Ringling Brothers elephants I had written about in the past have finally found a good and loving home in a sanctuary in northern Florida.

For years I followed the animal welfare court cases related to Feld Entertainment’s indifferent and callous care of the elephants in the organization’s famous circus. I had though of writing a book on the longest of the court cases, Animal Welfare Institute (formerly ASPCA) vs. Feld Entertainment. Even today, one of my most popular web pages is a PDF listing incidents with elephants in circuses in North America.

When Kenneth Feld retired the Ringling Brothers Circus, and the circus elephants, they were out of sight out of mind but we all knew their care would continue to be indifferent, their future dismal.

Now, the elephants run free at the White Oak sanctuary, in a lovely home with lakes and forests and they’re no longer chained up for days at a time on cold concrete.

Though Feld Entertainment is attempting to paint themselves in the best light with this move, they sold the elephants to the sanctuary; they did not give the elephants to the sanctuary. I suspect the reason why is equal parts Feld’s daughters telling him to move on and the cost and upkeep of the elephants when Feld Entertainment was hit by COVID losses. Regardless of the underlying reasons behind it all, we can celebrate the fact that Feld no longer has elephants and the elephants, and we, can all move on to something better.

 

Categories
Photography

Out of this world…Pics

I posted a selection of my off-world photos on Facebook and thought I’d post here, too. After all, these pages could use a little color.

Most of the moon and solar photos were taken with a Nikon P900, a camera that is pure delight to use. I used a special filter for the solar shots to keep my camera, and my eye, from getting fried.

The eclipse photos were from the total eclipse in 2017 when I was living in St. Louis. Note that one points out a coronal ejection that was happening at the time of totality.

And the fuzzy orange photo is of Mars, taken with a fairly inexpensive telescope.

Half Moon

Sun and spots


Eclipse

solar eclipse partial

eclipse almost complete

 

coronal ejection

Tower and moon

Tower Moon

Tower Moon 1
 

Mars

Mars