NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/misc/consumer/22463

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-24 | 2.6 KB

Xref: sparky misc.consumers:22463 misc.consumers.house:17314 misc.kids:33291
Path: sparky!uunet!uunet.ca!ecicrl!clewis
From: [e-mail] (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,misc.consumers.house,misc.kids
Subject: Re: Emptying Water System in Unused House
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 24 Jan 93 05:26:06 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: misc.consumers
Distribution: usa
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 43

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Daniel Burstein) writes:
>>Antifreeze (a glycol ether) is biodegradable and can be broken down by the
>>local municipal water treatment plant (when reasonably well diluted).

>umm, well, let's see now.  you pour one gallon of antifreeze (we'll forget
>the percentage figures here) into the [storm] sewer.  A small amount (say, 1/2/
>inch) of rain occurs.  that single sewer inlet drains an area of 100*20
>feet, or 2,000 sq ft.

>volume of rain water draining into that single point is 2,000 ft *0.5
>inch, or roughly (don't have slide rule handy) 80 cubic feet.

>one gallon is about 0.13 cubic feet, so you have a 1/750 dilution, just
>based on that one single spot.  by the time it actually gets anywhere near
>the final dumsite, of course, dilution is far greater....  (unless of
>course it was something thick that didn't come apart)

This is all well and good.  But what if it doesn't rain?  And your
calculations only work if the ground doesn't absorb any of the rain.

While one person dumping a gallon of antifreeze down the storm sewer
probably won't matter, especially considering the rest of the gunk
that gets there too - pesticide/herbicide/fertilizer runoff, road salt,
oil, pulverized tire rubber etc, why make it worse than it is already?
Already, many urban and suburban streams are really just open sewers -
no fish, no aquatic plants, just slimes and algaes and nasty chemicals.
But in many cases, they could even support sport fishing if less gunk
was tossed into them.

Many storm sewers are simply open pipes into nearby streams.  No treatment,
no settling ponds, nothing.  They're primarily intended *just* for
rain runoff.

If your local municipality recommends the sanitary sewer, it can't be
that much trouble to dump it down the toilet.

Around here, some garages participate in a recycling program.  So I
just save it up in old antifreeze bottles, and carry it to the local
garage's used antifreeze tank...
--
Chris Lewis; [e-mail]; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541
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