Bit of a howler the other night, and we lost sleep when the drains started to bubble like a mad scientists chemistry lab, So first thing the following morning I was out checking the septic tank. Despite being pumped less than four days ago, it was close to overflowing. So on went the pump.
Further investigation showed a large puddle on the top of the septic field. So all the extra rain we’ve been having has saturated the soil and leaked back into the tank, backing up the system and causing the bubbling. The drains were close to overflowing. After two hours pumping things had returned to normal. Drains working properly again.
The only other damage was one pane of glass in my greenhouse. I’ll have to hire some scaffolding so I can replace it, and put in some flexible polythene vents at the same time. I’ve also got to fix a roof that is so holey that it must have been made on Sunday.
Of course if you’re on mains sewers, the overflows are downstream and overload the sewage treatment plants which back up and force all the extra water into the storm drains. All the extra water has to go somewhere, which is why it is not advisable to play around in flooded rivers. With our setup, the effect is more immediate, and we have an extra soakaway which is well over two hundred metres from the nearest drainage ditch. So no (extra) sewerage in the local trout streams. At least not from our property.
This is one of the issues with rural living. You just have to man up and do the job in front of you.
This was only to be expected of course, and things should ease off in 2024 as the stratosphere finishes dumping all the excess water vapour back into the oceans from whence it came. The flooding is nothing to do with humanity, well, apart from the idiocy of building on flood plains, Oh and believing it’s all down to an atmospheric trace gas, then wasting public funds on big silly bird killers and solar arrays north of the 48th parallel.
What we really need is cheap energy sources and effective waste disposal systems. From the standpoint of electrical engineering, a sound energy mix would be SMR nuclear for baseline and gas turbine stations for variable load. Easy to synch into the grid and flexible enough to cope with the highs and lows of variable demand. As for drainage, there are some massive tunneling operations underway deep under various cities.
As for the ‘Green dream’, it does seem to have turned into a bit of a nightmare. Electric Vehicles proving more costly, from both a monetary and environmental standpoint, with insurance rates going through the roof and resale values through the floor. Not to mention many northern alternative energy projects, including the latest Norwegian offshore wind farm being in serious financial difficulties. I can’t help but feel that the whole low carbon thing is a disaster bordering on farce, and not a farce that would raise a smile. The purely political 2030 ‘Zero carbon’ targets are slipping further and further into the mists the closer we try to get.
However, I’ve said all this before about EV’s and ‘renewables’. They are toys for the gullible and have limited facility. Nothing I have seen to date, and I do try to keep up with the latest developments in technology, has persuaded me otherwise.
In the meantime, the rain is falling, and I have to keep a weather eye out on the drains. Time for tea methinks.
The Bill Sticker Alternative 