California's Water Crisis. Why?

Any kind of a flush system using holding tanks or a septic field is still water-based. What about a true composting toilet that produces only a small amount of...'bran flakes' in a year? My understanding is that they need to be cleaned out once or twice a year, depending on use, and use a heater to evaporate most of the uh...materials. These would save vast quantities of drinking water, and greatly reduce the pollutants for all the downstream organisms.

 

And how do you retrofit?

My parent's house is built on a concrete slab.

 

Yes, retrofit can be an issue. It's a fairly large box that needs to be installed either under the bathroom or outside of it, and not all municipalities - or homeowners and neighbours, for that matter - are keen on them. I didn't say the solution would be simple or work for everyone, but I think they could make a big difference overall.

 

Plumbers have been resistant to any changes. Waterless urinals use no water, do not smell and are easy to keep clean. Some solar-assisted composting toilets are excellent. Liquids evaporate up a vent pipe, solids are removed as needed (once or twice year) - only problem are heavy metals and salts from the human diet.

Smart home builders install a gray water valve. Toilet discharge goes to the community sewer or septic tank. All other liquids (shower, sinks, wash water) goes to a properly designed sump to allow for infiltration and percolation. Homes are designed to minimize residential and landscape water use.

Many National Parks and National Forest areas now issue a heavy gauge aluminum zip lock bag for you to bring your solid (human) waste back with you. Contents are placed in a sewage or composting toilet system. Less soil disturbance, no concentration of human waste, urine readily evaporates. Boat trips on wild and scenic rivers are expected to bring out all human waste - solid and liquid. McMurdo Sound Antarctica has 37 categories of recyclables and does an excellent job bringing out refuse. At present McMurdo pumps human waste into the Antarctic ocean. We have a long way to go to be responsible residents of Earth.

 

And you can add comment as to how this is managed in such a system? Can microbes or insects help in this area?

 

my employer installed 4 of them about a year ago, give or take. they were in for about 3-4 months and removed. they REEKED!!... we are a 24/7 operation and although being cleaned 4 times a day, 7 days a week, it still did not help...

maybe my fellow employees are slobs, but we tried it, and it failed.

 

DaveinWa, if it's any consolation, plumbing was one of the many areas of my training when I was in the military and your guys aren't slobs.

Just had my system redone and the guys where great. (the plumbers)

Have observed that there seems to be an over ridding sense of self importance here when it comes to ones occupation. If you aren't of a certain profession, people have a tendency to think you are beneath them.

 

California has most excellent reasons for a Desal plant to supply the coastal cities and allow the inland water to be properly balanced between farms and environmental sustainability. Additionally the Solar resources are great.

There is absolutely no fundamental shortage requiring Florida to need a Desal plant, but for the extremely extravagant use of water. Unfortunately, a whole generation of my contemporaries consider any retraints on using any resource to be a political issue. (As if electing someone can solve this - Quite a loony notion.) Continous education is the only hope. Unfortunately, the PC Environment Forum is not where most of the uneducated hang out at.

 

not flooding. avo trees do best on sloping hillsides.
drip is not an option with the sandy soil.
my 400 trees are irrigated w/ one sprinkler at each tree.
because of avo tree's root structure, you need a 20' diameter spray.
generally, not much lost to evaporation as the heads are close to surface and under the shade and canopy protection.
as far as i know, this is the only option.

 

Water Shortage declared in San Diego.

We managed to cut 7% over last year but it went up and now we're only at 3% less than last year.

I'm sure whatever they do it will be across the board. How much you've *already* conserved won't matter. It will be one size fits all.

I hope at last we'll see some movement towards water reclamation and desalination and a temporary moratorium on large developments.

"Sanders' goal is to get San Diegans to reduce they amount of water they use by about 10 percent. He has previously promoted the "20 Gallon Challenge," which calls on all San Diego County residents to reduce the amount of water they use by 20 gallons a day."

"Also, Monday The City Council put off sending out a notice to San Diego water customers about a pending rate increase.

The 8.5 percent increase, slated to take effect Jan. 1, is needed to cover the higher cost of imported water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, according to city staff.

It would be the fifth price increase in two years."

That doesn't include money for recycling or desalination. That will cost extra.

 

That's 20 gallons per household, not per person.

So a single person would cut back 20 gallons. And a family of 5 would cut back 20 gallons. And if you've already cut back every year.....another 20 gallons.

Bathing only on Saturday? Only one flush per day? Paperplates and plastic utensils? Throw away your clothes when they get dirty?

 

“I grew up around a great many uneducated people who loved to put down those who held degrees as if it eased their own self esteem issues about not having a higher education. In fact, I was one of them for quite some time.â€

F8L, it’s unfortunate you casually dismiss opinions of others that are not as informed or educated as you in regards to Ecology/Biodiversity and land trust Internship. Now you are putting down people you feel have a lesser degree of knowledge than yourself.

I personally find it insulting when you talk about learning and education and chastise those with similar interest who are willing to learn but with a differing view.

All things considered, you claim to be an student (but pretend to be an expert) in Ecology/Biodiversity yet you are clueless when it comes to avocados and irrigation of such in your own state? Considering California is the leading producer of the avocado just shows how narrow minded you really are when it comes to knowledge and opinions in general.

Surrounding and immersing ones self with people of similar beliefs and knowledge has a tendency to diminish ones ability to see things from an-other person’s perspective and leads to ignorance, narrow mindedness and arrogance.

Considering you are a student and Intern doesn’t make you an expert. Even experts disagree on interdisciplinary topics and have a tendency to inflate ones own ego-credentials when trying to impress and or prove a point.

Science is not exact, people disprove theories every day. This isn't to say you aren't right in some of your observations. But when push comes to shove, its' the person with the most gold who gets his or her way at the end of the day.

I agree that "Continous education is the only hope."

I guess I missed the part about being funny!

I guess it's the part of valuing of opinion that hits a nerve. "They do, myself included, place a difference level of value upon the opinions of those educated in a different field..." Aren't we all in this together?

 

Politics is the art of governance. One essential function of government is allocation of limited resources, thus water policies are deeply and essentially political. It could be otherwise only if everyone had unlimited access to water. Technology may make that possible someday, but it's not the case now.

 

It's your choice off words and how you respond to others that gives the preception that it does. Its not just you, their are others in the community (myself included) that do it. It's like Mr. Sanctimonious, my first impression wasn't good, but the more I thought about it, the more I had to agree he was right in a lot of regards.

This effect isn't limited to you. It pertains to most disciplines and supposed educated professionals having a sense of superiority and slamming or trying to discredit people that might disagee, even within their given field.

We are on a big rock flying through space, alot of what happens is because it does what it wants. We are here for a short period of time and we get caught up in the past vs the future. Being creative, we come up with new tools, ideas ect. as time goes by, some say hey, that was a great concept lets improve upon it! Others come along and disagree and say it's garbage and wreckes every thing, needs to be stopped and now we are doomed.

In stead of cooperation you have conflict.

We need to manage what we have to further sustain life and progress. Yes we do need to change some things that some consider wrong. But it is through education, not turning back, but moving ahead that is going to take us some where.

I don't buy alot of the hype on global any-thing, most people have an agenda come hell or high water it's their way or no way. So they start group think and the process becomes paralyzed, or turns into conflict and makes it impossible for every one else in between.

Back to the flying rock. It is in a constant state of change and man can only guess why! But it is pure speculation. It isn't an exact science! Has man had an effect? Most likely. Can man improve upon what he has built, most definitely! But the rock still flies into unchartered space and does what it wants. And this is where science and common sense collide.

My point is, instead of dwelling on past events and damage, we need to look at what where we are, what we have, get the facts, make a decision and improve as we go along.

I see you through the sames eyes as I did Mr. Sanctimonious, the difference is he doesn't threaten with banishment! Enough ranting! I will now bite my tongue a little harder.

 

as previously stated, i "stump" a section of trees in my grove. those trees then do not require any (or very little) water in the first 12 months.
the second 12 months requires the normal amount of water.
they grow back like normal trees.
they don't produce fruit until the end of the second 12 months.



above: an illegal stumping avo trees