Goleta Closed - 1 Million Gallon Sewage Spill

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

Would you paddle out at donkey gulch right now!?

If there were waves, yes.

 

[Fishyhb]

Pipeline and wet utility contractor here, some municipality are vary proactive on maintaining sewer systems and some have the wait and see mentality. updates to existing infrastructure are incredibly costly and many smaller city owned utilities end up on the Wait and see side of things. That’s why many utilities are operated by private Companies at the additional costs to the consumer and less liability for the city/county. In this instance it was reported as a forced main which is usually extremely costly to diagnose before failure unless it was an above ground main. But issues like this near a waterway should usually be monitored better than they are in my experience and boarder on negligence by the operator. Hope this gets resolved quickly.

 

[Senor Sopa]

Down here, the local reservoir can't be filled because the dam hasn't been maintained. Instead, they just let the water run into the ocean then blame the drought after 100 trillion gallons of rain over the past 2 years. At this point, I assume most of the tax money for maintenance is diverted to pensions and consultants. An interesting thought experiment is to ask yourself what the USA would look like if it was going through the same cycle as the late-stage USSR.

Thus, the local water districts will be raising their rates. Lake Hodges is our cheapest source of water. Now we have to buy more expensive water. Oh, did I forget that we also have the 50 year old county infrastructure to fixt?

LOL, NPSP already knew this via my weekly Encinitas news letter

 

[Senor Sopa]

Pipeline and wet utility contractor here, some municipality are vary proactive on maintaining sewer systems and some have the wait and see mentality. updates to existing infrastructure are incredibly costly and many smaller city owned utilities end up on the Wait and see side of things. That’s why many utilities are operated by private Companies at the additional costs to the consumer and less liability for the city/county. In this instance it was reported as a forced main which is usually extremely costly to diagnose before failure unless it was an above ground main. But issues like this near a waterway should usually be monitored better than they are in my experience and boarder on negligence by the operator. Hope this gets resolved quickly.

Please name some of the cities on both sides of this.

 

[PRCD]

Thus, the local water districts will be raising their rates. Lake Hodges is our cheapest source of water. Now we have to buy more expensive water. Oh, did I forget that we also have the 50 year old county infrastructure to fixt?

LOL, NPSP already knew this via my weekly Encinitas news letter

California has become a hilarious contradiction of delusional technological utopianism and infrastructure crumbling back to 19th century levels. You can get internet piped down from low earth orbit (as if you needed this) but might soon need water brought in from a truck and pumped into your above-ground tank like in Mexico.

 

[ElOgro]

California has become a hilarious contradiction of delusional technological utopianism and infrastructure crumbling back to 19th century levels. You can get internet piped down from low earth orbit (as if you needed this) but might soon need water brought in from a truck and pumped into your above-ground tank like in Mexico.

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

View attachment 173743
You say that like it’s a bad thing.

They hate it when it's pumping Uncle. Drinking water pumped in. Southern Hemi pumped in.

 

[Chocki]

California has become a hilarious contradiction of delusional technological utopianism and infrastructure crumbling back to 19th century levels. You can get internet piped down from low earth orbit (as if you needed this) but might soon need water brought in from a truck and pumped into your above-ground tank like in Mexico.

Californians Are Going To Be Drinking Thier Own **** Now

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/12/20/california-drinking-water-wastewater-sewage/

forum.surfer.com

 

[npsp]

Pipeline and wet utility contractor here, some municipality are vary proactive on maintaining sewer systems and some have the wait and see mentality. updates to existing infrastructure are incredibly costly and many smaller city owned utilities end up on the Wait and see side of things. That’s why many utilities are operated by private Companies at the additional costs to the consumer and less liability for the city/county. In this instance it was reported as a forced main which is usually extremely costly to diagnose before failure unless it was an above ground main. But issues like this near a waterway should usually be monitored better than they are in my experience and boarder on negligence by the operator. Hope this gets resolved quickly.

There are two types of asset management: pro-active preventative maintenance and run to fail. As Fishyhb notes above, many utilities do not have the budget for a proactive plan so they run to fail then free up emergency funds get state help, etc.... This is the worst way to operate and provides the lowest level of service to the rate payer.
As noted above by Fishyhb, investor owned utilities like American Water, California Water or Veolia operate at a higher cost to the customer but tend to have better asset management because they need to turn a profit based on their contract with the municipality/district.
I've sold pumps 30 years ago to many utilities that are still in operation and I have sold pumps 5 years ago to other utilities that have already had to be replaced. Take care of things and they last.

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

Californians Are Going To Be Drinking Thier Own **** Now

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/12/20/california-drinking-water-wastewater-sewage/

forum.surfer.com

 

[PRCD]

Californians Are Going To Be Drinking Thier Own **** Now

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/12/20/california-drinking-water-wastewater-sewage/

forum.surfer.com

Thanks. I thought I already was drinking my ****. The other question is, how are pipes sending my **** to/from me doing? Are they ok, or will I need Bill Gates' new combination toilet/cremator to locally process my sewage in the future?

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

Californians Are Going To Be Drinking Thier Own **** Now

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/12/20/california-drinking-water-wastewater-sewage/

forum.surfer.com

I usually pay extra for that.

 

[hammies]

California has become a hilarious contradiction of delusional technological utopianism and infrastructure crumbling back to 19th century levels. You can get internet piped down from low earth orbit (as if you needed this) but might soon need water brought in from a truck and pumped into your above-ground tank like in Mexico.

Like every jurisdiction everywhere, they pay for capital projects up front and never ever pay for long-term maintenance.

 

[Fishyhb]

Please name some of the cities on both sides of this.

Long Beach water district dose a great job of inspecting and maintaining infrastructure so doses dwp those are two with incredibly old infrastructure that are vary proactive these operators have to Decided between impacting traffic for months to years to replace or repair quickly when a issue appears I feel that they do well with that Predicament other places like oc public works and a city like Huntington Beach do a pretty poor job of inspecting and replacing failing infrastructure. Sewer inspections and Lining are cheep insurance when you our a coastal community but they fail to do it.

 

[npsp]

Special service districts tend to have better asset management programs than municipal public works departments. SSDs only operate the specific utility and revenue from rates go to that utility. Water and sewer generate revenue that is supposed to go the maintenance and operation of that specific utility. Unfortunately, that revenue gets siphoned off to cover the costs of non-revenue generating services. This results in deferred maintenance that turns into an emergency situation.

In another life I had an ongoing pump spare parts quote to the City of San Diego (for budgeting purposes) that was in the high 6 figures. Over 4 years, not one part on that quote was purchased. Over that same time, I sold them several new pumps totaling in the 7 figures to replace pumps that failed due to lack of maintenance. As a commissioned sales person, it was not bad. As a rate payer I was not happy.

 

[npsp]

Like every jurisdiction everywhere, they pay for capital projects up front and never ever pay for long-term maintenance.

This is a double whammy because most capitol projects go to the low bidder. This means the contractor is trying to cut every corner to make it under the budget they are working from and the utility gets stuck with what the contractor can get away with. This results in high op-ex that the utility cannot cover so maintenance is deferred and they run to fail.
When I give presentations to engineers or public agencies, I focus on the importance of a higher on one time cap-ex for a lifetime of lower op-ex. Lifecycle cost analysis is critical to deciding what equipment to buy but is ignored in favor of a low upfront cost.

 

[One-Off]

Thanks. I thought I already was drinking my ****. The other question is, how are pipes sending my **** to/from me doing? Are they ok, or will I need Bill Gates' new combination toilet/cremator to locally process my sewage in the future?

Don't know exactly what you are talkng about here (cremator?) but boats have used macerators forever. Maybe that would be a good thing to add to toilets? It sure would help prevent local clogs (household). Might make mass reclamation easier?

 

[npsp]

Don't know exactly what you are talkng about here (cremator?) but boats have used macerators forever. Maybe that would be a good thing to add to toilets? It sure would help prevent local clogs (household). Might make mass reclamation easier?

Cremator may be correct as poo is a good source of renewable energy. You still need to burn it but it's decomposition would emit GHGs anyways, so, win win.

Flushable wipes may be capable of being flushed, but they do not breakdown like tissue and result in huge clogs. This combined with more people eating at home and washing record amounts of fats, oils and grease down the drain has had an adverse effect on sewer collection systems. The grinder/macerator companies are having a booming business cycle.

Do your local collections operator a solid and only flush toilet tissue and, limit the amount of fats, oils and grease you put down the drain.

 

[PRCD]

Cremator may be correct as poo is a good source of renewable energy. You still need to burn it but it's decomposition would emit GHGs anyways, so, win win.

Gates' new toilet sucks all the water out and incinerates poo. Of course, he also wants to reduce the population of the planet below 2 billion. Combine these requirements with MAiD and you've got an adjacent market for the toilet. I'm kidding, if you want me to be.

I'll stand by to listen to SCREE! defending Gates with, "CONSPIRACY THEORY!"

 

[hammies]

So in Goleta the poop was flowing into the ocean 6 days before they closed the beach. I suspect a lot of people were at the local walk-in clinics with ear infections and such.