Recovery.Gov Project Tracker

[KitemanSA]

Eventually, they'll come after you for being self reliant, like they did this woman.

http://www.infowars.com/city-cites-inte ... rid-woman/

This is just unacceptable. The woman needs to launch legal action. If she can't afford it, she needs to set up a legal fund people can contribute to. Have to nip this petty tyranny in the bud.

What does she do with her sewage? I get my sewage free when I pay my water bill. What is the other side of the story?

[ladajo]

Flywheel based hybrid power systems are currently in use in endurance racing, ie Le Mans etc.

Link to one supplier, a spin off of the Williams F1 team:

http://www.williamshybridpower.com/appl ... technology

Thanks Northstar! Interesting read.

There really is a huge world out there for improved efficiency with regenerative capture. It is mind boggling to me how much we could save with across the board implementation.
Think about building elevators alone.

[JohnFul]

What does she do with her sewage? I get my sewage free when I pay my water bill. What is the other side of the story?

It's called a "septic system". About 15% of homes in the US have them. It's actually quite prevalent in rural areas.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-impr ... /sewer.htm

[mvanwink5]

Most likely she uses a composter type system due to limited water as her water is only supplied by rain and recycled water (as I understand it). Here is an example of a waterless toilet:
http://www.composting-toilet-store.com/ ... t_s/70.htm

[93143]

I see what you're saying but I respectfully disagree. The debate is over when a person's argument is shown to be untenable or impotent, and they don't offer new arguments without the same issues.

This may be true in some cases. I was overly absolute earlier. But in the scenario you describe, it had better be pretty clear that that's what's going on, because it's easy to think it is when it's not, especially when you're frustrated with someone who doesn't think the same way you do.

And we're back to my original objection: Just because you think your opponent's position is untenable and worthy of ridicule doesn't mean it is.

Furthermore, even if your opponent is wrong, that doesn't mean you're right - Galileo was a Copernican, and a great scientist, but he was also an obnoxious blowhard, and he treated the Ptolemaic and Keplerian models with equal contempt...

[KitemanSA]

It's called a "septic system". About 15% of homes in the US have them. It's actually quite prevalent in rural areas.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-impr ... /sewer.htm

Are you stating this from knowledge or are you guessing? After all, most municipalities with a city water system also have city sewers and ban private septic systems.

[KitemanSA]

Most likely she uses a composter type system due to limited water as her water is only supplied by rain and recycled water (as I understand it). Here is an example of a waterless toilet:
http://www.composting-toilet-store.com/ ... t_s/70.htm

Since you say "most likely" I understand this to be a guess. However, your guess is not the other side of the story.

[mvanwink5]

I understand this to be a guess.

I have no idea what she is doing as I see no details, perhaps you or someone else have those details. It was intended only to show that there are commercial alternatives to using the public sewer system that conserves (uses no) water. There has been serious effort to develop these systems for "sustainable" living and proponents can get quite shirty about objections to their composting toilets. With all the medications being flushed into our natural water systems (antibiotics, estrogens, cleaners, and God knows what) via our water based sewer systems, I can see there is a major cause for sustainability concerns. I don't know enough to have an inclination as to what the answer is, just enough to know that there are real issues.

[Tom Ligon]

Composting toilets are sold to the environmentally conscious. If that is her motivation, it is a reasonable guess that she uses one. With the news reports on which we are working so sketchy, we just idly guess. People on-scene could readily find out.

She may just be cheap. If she is using municipal sewer without paying for water, she is circumventing a sewer tax on the water.

A lot of people in suburban areas built before sewer and water went in may retain wells and septic systems. I recall times when water systems have failed when these wells have been pressed into service providing water for their communities.

Our country place uses well, rain barrels, septic, some solar, a generator, and grid power (installed at my wife's insistence when I went to CA to work for EMC2). The guy who reads our meter must wonder why they bother ... he has to drive an extra mile or so, and open a gate, to read a meter for a bill that averages $6 a month.

[DeltaV]

Abundant fusion power would allow the possibility of special-purpose "mass spectrometers" that plasma-fy all waste products and sort them into their constituent elements. Reactive ones like chlorine and sodium would require special treatment at the collection points (in the Na and Cl case, they could be reacted to produce table salt). Seems doable once the power is available.

[Tom Ligon]

Abundant fusion power would allow the possibility of special-purpose "mass spectrometers" that plasma-fy all waste products and sort them into their constituent elements. Reactive ones like chlorine and sodium would require special treatment at the collection points (in the Na and Cl case, they could be reacted to produce table salt). Seems doable once the power is available.

Seems like overkill (on Earth) but one can certainly picture it. Earth has some pretty good recycling programs of its own, so I would expect this would be reserved for residual waste that natural processes can't handle.

I've predicted that sort of recycling for space colonies, though.

In either environment, I would expect to see it first as a materials production method.

[JohnFul]

Are you stating this from knowledge or are you guessing? After all, most municipalities with a city water system also have city sewers and ban private septic systems.

From knowledge. This is especially prevalent in the southern US. In the Cape Coral Florida area alone, there are 50 or more septic system contractors/services companies. Clearly these folks would not be in business very long if septic systems were banned in the area.

http://www.yellowpages.com/cape-coral-fl/septic-systems

[JohnFul]

I specifically live in Georgia, in the state's second largest metropolitan area where many home owners have septic systems. Ref: http://www.dca.state.ga.us/intra_nonpub ... alReqs.pdf (state guide for municipalities on the subject)

Page 3

"If your community is like the typical Georgia city or county, many new and
existing developments use on-site septic systems for sewerage treatment."

[happyjack27]

I see what you're saying but I respectfully disagree. The debate is over when a person's argument is shown to be untenable or impotent, and they don't offer new arguments without the same issues.

This may be true in some cases. I was overly absolute earlier. But in the scenario you describe, it had better be pretty clear that that's what's going on, because it's easy to think it is when it's not, especially when you're frustrated with someone who doesn't think the same way you do.

And we're back to my original objection: Just because you think your opponent's position is untenable and worthy of ridicule doesn't mean it is.

Furthermore, even if your opponent is wrong, that doesn't mean you're right - Galileo was a Copernican, and a great scientist, but he was also an obnoxious blowhard, and he treated the Ptolemaic and Keplerian models with equal contempt...

those are true, but they are not relevant; i'm not making an argument that those things would be objections to.

[KitemanSA]

Are you stating this from knowledge or are you guessing? After all, most municipalities with a city water system also have city sewers and ban private septic systems.

From knowledge. This is especially prevalent in the southern US. In the Cape Coral Florida area alone, there are 50 or more septic system contractors/services companies. Clearly these folks would not be in business very long if septic systems were banned in the area.

http://www.yellowpages.com/cape-coral-fl/septic-systems

Do you know that SHE has a septic system or are you guessing?