Posted on 06/02/2018 11:22:11 AM PDT by dynachrome
not really an option
Good pun! (Not an oxymoron — really.)
“Here in Washington state they tax you to have a rain barrel!”
And next door, in BC, they subsidize rain barrels and cisterns.
You are correct but I gave up fighting autocorrect.
Maybe the Governor could just issue an executive order for the algae not to bloom.
BECAUSE WE SAID SO, PEASANT!
LOL
Fair enough. Computers are too frustrating to argue with.
Speaking of Victoria and Seattle - Seattle is spending billions of dollars to prevent rain-water runoff from going directly into Puget Sound. With the small amounts of oil, fertilizer, etc. that get mixed in.
Victoria - just to the north, still dumps most of its raw sewage into the water. Although to be fair, the Strait of Juan de Fuca(?) has a lot more water flowing and mixing which dilutes it fairly quickly compared to Puget Sound. The stuff is screened for debris and solid waste.
But still - it just seems odd that we are treating rain water - and you guys get to dump raw sewage!
Words of wisdom, still.
You can more easily live without power than water. You’re right though, to run a water plant that serves a community, you need power.
I worked for a utilities plant for a long time, providing both power and water. The power part was a lot more interesting, but the water part, I always thought was much more crucial. You have to provide your customers with potable water. You have a gazillion tests you have to run on the water every year, and even something as (relatively) minor as a positive coliform test always worried the heck out of me (always tested negative for e coli, thank goodness).
Mine was a groundwater system-deep rock wells, averaging about 400 ft below ground and in a well-confined aquifer. Another major concern was wellhead protection-making sure your groundwater within your pumping zone remained uncontaminated.
Being retired is a big relief. But it’s still ingrained in me how important it is to have safe drinking water.
Oh, and the rain barrels and cisterns are being subsidized, as part of a much larger program of curtailing rain-water runoff.
“In some states like Colorado, people go to jail for collecting rain from their roof. It doesn’t belong to you, says the government!”
Who does it belong to? I ask so I’d know who to sue for water damage and wear and tear to my roof.
I hate overbearing government control! Their reasoning is that the water goes into the water table below ground and belongs to them. Your home interferes with that process, and you cannot intercept and keep that rainwater. Stupid reasoning. I've been corrected that Colorado rescinded that law (I remember reading about people being jailed in the past). But other states still think stupidly.
Next thing you know, they'll tell you your kids don't belong to you, that you're a temporary caretaker.. um, never mind, they're working on that.
I believe it, because life always comes down to the basics, and who controls them.
“... as part of a much larger program of curtailing rain-water runoff.”
That’s what I don’t get with Washington State - we are spending all this money on runoff, but then penalize people for trying to catch some of it. And in some years we even have issues with water supply at the end of the summer. Of course I suppose the rain barrels are empty by then so it doesn’t help much.
Heck - there can’t be that many barrels out there to make any perceptible difference either way I would think. You guys subsidize them to make the greenies feel good, and we tax them so the government can make some free money.
Farmers along the Klamath River in southern Oregon have had a long history of water rights disputes favoring the Indians under the “first in time, first in right” doctrine. Water shut-offs left farmland fallow, flows so low they caused a mass fish die-off, recurring toxic algae blooms that fouled reservoirs, and salmon population declines that closed 700 miles of coastline to fishing. Could this similar situation be happening all over the state?
That was my whole point. It doesn’t have to make sense — either way there’s more government involvement & that’s motivation enough.
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