The Washington Post was nice enough to change the headline to Battling America’s Dirty secret
Climate Change Raises The Risk From Failing Sewage Systems
To Catherine Coleman Flowers, this is “holy groundâ€: the place where her ancestors were enslaved and her parents fought for civil rights and she came of age. Here, amid the rich, dark earth and emerald farm fields, she is home.
Yet this ground also harbors a threat, one that will worsen as the planet warms.
For decades, the people of this rural county 30 miles south of Montgomery have struggled with waste. Municipal sewage systems do not extend to this farming community, and many residents cannot afford septic systems; their waste flows directly into ditches or streams. Even those with septic tanks find that they often fail in the dense, waterlogged soil. On rainy days, toilets won’t flush and foul effluent burbles up into bathtubs and sinks.
The untreated waste and warm, wet weather breed illnesses rarely seen in developed nations. Visitors to the county — doctors, politicians, a United Nations human rights expert — have expressed shock that such conditions exist in the 21st century in the world’s richest country.
This is America’s “dirty secret,†Flowers said.
See, this would be what is called a real environmental issue, one which harms the environment and citizens.
Flowers, who was named a MacArthur “genius†in October, is working on a new kind of septic system. Instead of flushing waste, the system she envisions filters, cleans and recycles it. Instead of sending raw sewage into the soil, it turns it into water for use in washing machines, and into nutrients for fertilizer, and perhaps even energy for homes.
She should be encouraged to continue her work, and rewarded if she can make it come to fruition. It’s not there yet, but, it is definitely something that is worth doing, is it not? Yes, it is. I’ll dare say, if government wants to invest in private research, this is worthwhile.
But, she hasn’t made it happen yet, and there is a lot of SJW in the article, a lot of organizing and such, and very little on actually working to make this system happen. Perhaps Flowers is actually working on it. If so, there is nothing really on it. Anyhow, finally, deep, deep into this
Meanwhile, climate change is making existing deficiencies worse. Rising sea levels have elevated the water table in coastal areas, shrinking the depth of leach fields and increasing contamination. Days of extreme rainfall — which have doubled in the Southeast as a consequence of warming — stymie septic systems.
Studies suggest that if climate change continues unabated, septic systems will be less able to filter toxic nitrates and fecal bacteria from wastewater. According to Mejia, warming in the Southeast has doubled the length of the infectious season for parasites such as hookworm, whose larvae hatch in warm, moist soils and infiltrate humans through bare feet.
“Climate change is like a magnifying glass for everything,†Flowers said. It exacerbates neglect, widens inequality and exposes problems once hidden.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to not build barely above the water table, when the sea heights have been going up for 20,000 years.
Flowers has made it her mission to ensure that other Americans do not look away. She advised Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on legislation to improve surveillance and treatment of “diseases of poverty,†such as hookworm. She served on the task force that developed President-elect Joe Biden’s climate plan, advocating for environmental justice and improvements in sewage management. Her memoir, “Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret,†was published last month. Meanwhile, she has brought every powerful person she can find to Lowndes County: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty Philip Alston, actress Jane Fonda, and pastor and activist William J. Barber II.
I’m getting the idea that this is all about Big Government politics, and that she’s not really doing a damned thing to bring her idea to fruition. That is a straight shame, because this climate cult garbage ends up overshadowing real environmental concerns.
You can tell what her priorities are by the fact she went to Sen. Cory Booger the preeminent expert “Dr” in charge of handing out money to leftists. You go girl! In a few years you too can be a black millionaire bitching about “inequality” in the former US.
Why do rich moolinyams constantly gripe about how “unequal” shit is? Hell, if I was watching TV from outer space I’d figure there are 40 million mools in America and every one is making a fukin’ commercial, that all lawyers/judges/doctors were black and they all live in multi million dollar homes in Cali.
Wonder who this “Kevin” voted for…
https://twitter.com/i/status/1338902219471646721
Unity people.
Lolgf
While my septic system isn’t set up this way, there are several places around here where the toilet empties into the septic tank, but the ‘grey water’ from washing machines and sinks is discharged directly into a drainage ditch.
This was an episode in the TV series “Bull”. Leftist activists can’t even be original about their “dreams”.
Teach never fails to blame the victims
His solution is for them to move to higher ground
Perhaps Vail ? Or Aspen? It is almost like our capitalism system has failed these people
Any wonder why rural areas are losing population and going to the cities where they at least have hygienic sewerage ?
This MacArthur “genius†needs to do some research. There are many septic systems on the market that don’t use a tank, are designed for poor soil conditions and filter waste water just as efficiently as a septic tank system. The problem she sees isn’t because there is a lack of alternative septic systems, it’s because these places were built decades ago when acceptable septic systems were simply allowed to release sewage into ditches and streams. Any new build will be required to have soil tests done and a proper septic system installed. Instead of wasting time reinventing the wheel maybe she should work on funding to help her community upgrade their existing systems.
Teach and his minions attack Ms Flowers for trying to help rural America. Perhaps the “genius” Nighthawk could contact Ms Flowers and offer her his sewage “expertise”?
It sounds as if it’s an easy fix that the so-called experts have overlooked!
Of course Ms Flowers is Black AND a woman so what could she possibly know?
We’re beginning to think that Teach and his minions have NO real concern for rural America but are mostly interested in government control (by white conservatives, of course).
We live in Walker county, Texas and built our home about 6 years ago. The soil is black gumbo and not good for drain fields.
So, Texas insists that a self-contained septic system be installed.
It consists of 3 concrete tanks that process sewage with microbes and the water is then released via sprinklers into a pasture.
We have been here for six years, the system is inspected every 6 months and there is no pollution.
This is not new technology as I was aware that it existed, though not as efficient now, back in the 80’s used by people building on the Rimrocks north of Billings, MT where the ground was sandstone.