More Poo

This can happen. Your water, if you are in a city, or what is defined as a community water system by the EPA, is tested at specific points for bacteriological contamination. A community of 10,000 is sampled 10 times per month at selected sites. Let's say a contractor crosses a sewage line to a drinking water line and the system uses lots of chlorine. And let's say the sample point is about one mile from where the poo water mixes in with the drinking water. The chlorine may disinfect the water one that one mile journey. But let's say you live one-quarter mile (a little more than one-half a kilometer) away from the mixed lines. They may not be disinfected there. Ow.

This brings up a complaint about my field. I really like sewage treatment. Making almost drinking water out of sewage to me is an accomplishment. and fun--even if it gives me a somewhat twisted sense of humor. This field has one of the highest hazard rates of any field tracked by OSHA. When you enter the field you are normally sick within the first three weeks, until you build up enough antibodies as you come in contact with every disease that is infecting your community. One in every ten workers (it is down from one in every three about twenty years ago) has a parasitic organism in their lower intestinal tract. (I go through routine cleanses with wormwood and other such things annually, just to be sure.) You have very real possibility of blood-borne contamination from sharps (cleaning bar screens and fixing sewer lines puts you near used hypodermic needles, razors, broken glass, etc.) or from just getting splashed. I am experienced and still every now and then get a face full of goo. Ask my wife, my eye has turned red and swollen on more than one occasion from an inadvertent splash. Lord help you if you are a mouth breather. If you fall into an A-Basin, you normally drown and if not, the infections kill you.

The field cannot attract new workers. Can't imagine why after my description last paragraph. Most of us with skills are over 50. I mean look at all the fringe benefits. all the corn you can eat. and the pay is way less than a good salesman or an auto mechanic. and we all have experienced how easy it is to pick up chicks when you smell like a manly cesspit. The biggest issue is pay. A master treatment operator in Texas gets $14.50/hour, in CA $28/hour. Not much when you have the health of a community in your hands.

rojo