EP merit Badge

We live in a stable but fairly fragile state. Emergencies happen all the time and all over the world. Those that think we are immune are living in a Hurricane Katrina denial fantasy.

I used to joke about people living in areas that are devastated annually with floods. I also had quips (that I thought were humorous) about tornadoes being caused by mobile homes communities. I even remember a comedian joking about famines in the desert, but not anymore. Our weather is changing whether we like it or not, and the world is growing much smaller in the sense that we get natural disasters piped into our homes nightly.

Being and Eagle Scout myself, I thought it would be cool to share some of my EP wisdom with the rest of you.

Lucky Peak

I recall just hearing about a huge meteorite that just missed the earth. I used to joke about having beach front property for when California slips off into the Pacific in the next big earthquake. Haiti should be a wake up call, and the firestorm in Columbia Village of a few years  back brings it a bit closer to home. An East coast freak ice storm early this fall had some of my extended family stuck without most city services for six days. I also responded to the Challis Idaho earthquake a few decades ago, where two children died from a falling building facade, the fear was that there would be many miners stuck in mine shafts.

At Levco, we build with the thought of earthquake in mind, but the codes are far less stringent than say, California. Idaho has the honor of being the state which is the 6th most earthquake active state in the US.

I'm Not Making it Up

Here in Ada County, we have the Department of Emergency Management. They have lots of good information and links to other sites that speak to being prepared. The essence is that although our government says it is, and will be prepared it doesn’t take much to overload the system. We need to be equipped with the proper knowledge and materials to successfully navigate those first few days on our own.

Things to be familiar with their operation:

Scout's Honor

Your husband (or the mechanical one of the household) may not be there, or may be incapacitated in the moment of need.

1. Water shut off.
2. Gas Shut off.
3. Electrical shutoff.
4. Emergency meeting location.
5. Location of your emergency stash of supplies.

Things to be aware of:

When failures of a massive proportion occur, the government services are often affected too.

Are cell phones going to work? Maybe.

I recall that there was an estimate that the downtown streets would be covered in 6′ of rubble, Fires and floods are always a possibility and flood too. Lucky Peak … Hope it holds!

What to stash:

Auto Safety

Containers of stored water & food, a heat source and fuel for it, blankets, shelter, battery operated radio, flashlights, shovel, money, a weapon, first aid kit, and personal medications. The list goes on the important thing is to have the basics. It could happen at any time of year.

Automotive Preparedness:

Think about an automotive problem that leaves you stranded. There might not be a knight in shining armor out there for you. On-Star helps, but I like to say that taking a road trip off the beaten path is like doing a raft trip…If you don’t have it with you when you leave, odds are you won’t have it when you need it.

Every year, we hear about those that get stuck in storms. There once were some city guys that got stuck on horseback in the middle of winter, they killed and gutted their horses to protect themselves from the cold night. I now call horses “flat lander sleeping bags.” There are GPS units that are getting folks in trouble too. Turns out the shortest way between two places may be an impossible road for your transportation means in the given weather conditions.

My best advice is to keep your wits about you and be prepared within reason. Your best resource is your clear, calm brain, which is much more likely to perform properly when dealing with a crisis, any sort of an emergency or survival situation, rather than to reacting to one. Oh, and remember, “You don’t have to be a Boy Scout to be prepared”.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove and replace them at once.

Things Not to Flush

I was just going about my normal morning routine when I noticed that my wife had left some dried house plant leaves floating in the toilet. This got me thinking, what should not be flushed, and why? I recalled taking this toilet off a few years ago because water was coming from the base, I couldn’t tell what the obstruction was at the flange at the time, but I assumed it was part of the construction debris. It turned out that it, too, was a large leaf. I guess old habits are hard to break.

I had also received a complaint from a client that had clogged his toilet after taking his first good dump. The assertion was that we had flushed construction debris, and that had made his poop get stuck. After removing the toilet there was nothing but poop to remove. Perhaps we should have flushed it a few times prior to it’s inaugural use.

Not too many years ago, the Boise River was the destination for all untreated sewage We now have state of the art system that still ends up ultimately discharging into the Boise River. This brings me to my point.

Boise River

NOTHING except human waste and toilet paper should be flushed or sent down the drain, and this is why.

Whatever gets flushed is mixed with a small amount of water and slips down past a P-Trap. It then goes merrily along pipes that are only 2″ – 3″  in diameter  and often at a grade of only 1/4″ per foot that feed into into the main drain. This pipe can be anywhere from 3″-4″ and can go for 80′-100′ in some cases. It’s a straight shot under the back yard or, in one case, around the house, with several 90 degree turns and out to the front of the home.

Depending upon the age of your home, the sewer pipes could be made of a number of products that are no longer approved for use. This list include those made of orange-burg, terracotta, and cast iron; Only ABS and PVC are allowed now. These older homes are full of rough edges and root penetrations that are just looking for something to hang up, and can easily obstruct the flow. Leaves, hair, and feminine products are the perfect set up for a clog.

Treatment Plant

Our flushed debris and waste then goes on through the maze of city pipes, commingling with your neighbors’ debris via a gravity system, to one of two sewage treatment plants that are scattered about the city. At the plant, there are all sorts of processes the waste goes through – including screens, settling tanks, and pressurized filtration. These are designed to pull the junk out and eventually clean the water, then return it back into the Boise River. Here is a link to the Boise City Works promotional video You can also take a tour and admire the many learning opportunities for related field trips.

Here is a partial list of stuff that has been recovered from our system according to Dave Baccaa who oversees the camera operations for the system: jewelry, money, plastic wrappers gold fish (lots of gold fish), and even an iguana.

WTH, an iguana?

Vince Trimboli, the system’s public information person says “One of the biggest problems is FOG: Fats, Oils, and Greases. This is fairly easily controlled at restaurants with grease traps, but the residential contribution is a huge problem. Much like atherosclerosis, grease coats the pipes, narrowing their ability to carry sewage away from the home. It becomes white and hard and is difficult to clean out. It even extends into the city sewer system.

Another huge problem is flushed medicine, and all sorts of other things that are not human excrement being flushed. We have 2 very cool methods of disposing of stuff in Ada County. First of all we have a free hazardous waste disposal spot at the landfill. They also have mobile pick up sites placed regularly around the city. Next, we have this medicine drop off program at all of the local law enforcement agencies. It is a no-questions-asked safe place to drop them off.

FUN FACT:

Q: Name the day and time when the sewer system regularly gets the largest volume of flushed water annually?

A: Half time during the Super Bowl.

The New Weigh Station

As a contractor that boasts of our Green Remodeling techniques, Levco is conscious and aware of our environmental impact. One of our 4 pillars of Green Remodeling is resource conservation. Through our process of remodeling your home, lots of debris is generated. What we can’t easily recycle or reused goes off to the Ada County Landfill. 

As a kid, there is nothing much more fun than getting to go to the landfill, My memories of going down to the Berkeley landfill as a child are vivid: old guys scouring the stuff looking for things to reuse, occasionally picking up some jewel of a discarded trinket, being nearly overwhelmed with the thundering trucks and occasional story of someone backing over the edge. As a teenager, I had the fortune of driving my father’s international dump truck there. Although they’re less friendly and we have lost the freedom to take stuff away, I think Landfills have come a long way in the last half century.

TV Country

I now have a construction hydraulic dump trailer (which I purchased right after I fell out of my flat bed unit). I get to/have to, go to the dump rather frequently. Being a regular has its perks. For one, I have a charge account, and I’ve also gotten to know the ladies of the dump pretty well. (No I didn’t just say that). I recently referred to the dump shack and was corrected…”you mean the Scale House”. OK they have some pride, that is a good thing. It triggeres a memory of when dump truck drivers changed their profession to”Sanitary Engineers”

The Berkeley Landfill now has a transfer stations where stuff is sorted and recycled or re-purposed, and dumping is done by weight. The material is transferred out to different places for disposal or reuse and recycling. Perhaps that is where we are headed? We seem to have plenty of acreage, but then all good things must come to an end I suppose.

Here in Boise, we have several cool things being done now but it is not as refined a system as those in other parts of the country. I have listed them among my vendors and am pleased to be working with them pretty well recently.

Wood Recycling

Some cool things:

1. We have a Hazardous Waste Disposal Site that is open Fridays and Saturdays. You just drive up and they take the stuff  out of the vehicle for you. A little known fact is that they have separated some things for resale… The ultimate in reuse!
2. We just implemented a system that will charge based upon weight of the load, but that is still a year out. At the moment, they are still charging by volume and “collecting statistics” for now.
3. Power is generated by collecting gasses from rotting debris
4. Wood that is separated is being chewed up and resold for bio mass heating. In other words it is burned in fancy furnaces for industrial heaters.
5. TV,s refrigerators, and other environmentally hazardous things are separated for safe reclaiming.
6. You’re allowed to have an account to charge your dumps.

The Happy Dumper

Because I’m a regular at the dump, I also have a cool computer chip in my windshield that is read upon landing on the scale. I get to use the industrial scale ( that the big blue dump trucks use) and I get to tell the computer what type of trash I have and how much, in cubic yards. Then I get to go dump, and skip the civilian line on the way out too. Eventually, it should be even faster. I also get, or have to go (depending upon your perspective) to the North Cell – a huge place where the big trucks don’t mix with the civilian population. Everything is huge there. I dare not share these photos. They could be TOP SECRET. Actually, I could not have done the immensity justice. Truthfully, I was so busy dumping and getting out of there while the earth below me was trembling and gigantic devices were roaming around. With tremendous squadrons, probably thousands of birds, keeping an eye on all the activity, I wouldn’t dare pause to snap a photo. I could be crushed like a bug or taken away!

Upon leaving the site, I weigh out again and also get to go in a separate line and back to the job site I go. All in all, I would say that over the past 20 years, my experiences have been ranged from frustration and anger to pleasantly surprised. Recently, I have had nothing but nice things to say. As long as Les Schwab continues to provide free flat repair, and my 4 wheel drive gets me unstuck in inclement weather, I am essentially a happy dumper.