(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Reaction Guidelines for Water, pt. 1 Sewage -- Strike for the Planet week 164 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-22 You can make a difference to the hurt being caused by climate chaos and the great extinction event in your town or your city! How? Reuse, repurpose, and recycle this information. You can push your local politicians to act. It will make a difference! This is the letter for week 164 of a weekly climate strike that went on for 4 years in front of San Francisco City Hall, beginning early March 2019. For more context, see this story. For an annotated table of contents of the topics for all the strike letters, see this story. Meanwhile… STRIKE FOR THE PLANET For when San Francisco runs out of water Reaction Guidelines for Water, pt. 1: Sewage This resource is for dealing with sewage when SF runs out of water. The goal is to reduce the incidence of cholera, dysentery, leptospirosis, vibrio, hepatitis A, amoebas, cryptosporidiosis, giardia and other water-borne pathogens by focusing on sewage from: Houses, apartments, and condos Multistory, mixed use, industrial, and government buildings Public spaces Animals Ships, ferries, container vessels, tugboats, and other marine vessels Mobile homes, campers, and cars Airplanes Glossary of terms used biodigester — an anerobic digestion process that produces methane and fertilizer from waste blackwater — wastewater from toilets, primarily urine, feces, and toilet paper. blackwater recycling — recycling blackwater to grey- or potable water and byproducts compost — a mixture to fertilize and improve soil, created by decomposing organic matter in high temperature environments sufficient to kill off pathogens composting toilet — toilets that use minimal to no water and turn human waste into compost excreta — human waste including urine and feces greywater — domestic wastewater without fecal contamination, from sinks, showers, washing machines, etc. potable — water that is safe to drink toilet to tap — recycling that turns blackwater into potable water 1. Houses, apartments, and condos All dwellings must be immediately retrofitted or required to have two separate waste disposal systems: one for greywater which does not get mixed with excreta and does not get “disposed” of, and another for blackwater. All human excreta must be routed into a blackwater composting system. For short periods (very short), excreta can be kept in each dwelling in a covered bucket that the city (that’s you) picks up every day or so for removal to municipal waste composting sites. Permanently, all excreta needs to go into a blackwater composting system. Such systems can be individual- or building-owned composting toilets or larger blackwater systems. Compost produced by individuals, buildings, or neighborhoods is collected by the city or used by individuals and communities in non-food growing planted areas. 2. Multistory, mixed use, industrial, and government buildings In a megadrought, don’t count on precipitation. Any of this category of building that doesn’t already have a water recycling system in place must become a net zero water user. That means installing a composting toilet system in the building, either as individual toilets, as a system per floor, as a system by sector, or as a system for the whole building. Salesforce Tower has a blackwater recycling system that takes the building’s blackwater and recycles it into non-potable uses, such as toilet flushing and irrigation. Upgrading a system like theirs into “toilet to tap” is much simpler and less expensive than remaking their entire system with composting toilets. The third option is for everyone to pack out their waste, as you do when backpacking, and then composting it at home. 3. For Public spaces The City needs to set up, all over SF, an army of composting toilets. Fortunately, preliminary studies for this, specific to SF, have already been done — in 2010 and 2011 — thanks to the work of Eric Brooks. Please dig out those papers and minutes for specifics. 4. Animals Dog waste can be added to properly maintained compost, or can be utilized to create energy and produce fertilizer. Cat waste, just like cats, can also be composted but is a little more finicky. Both can be run through a biodigester to produce energy. Horse, cow, chicken, goat, etc. waste can be used in composts and to create energy and fertilizer (as can human waste). 5. Ships, ferries, container vessels, tugboats, and other marine vessels Blackwater waste is collected into sealed containers and added to municipal composting sites when docked, or the vessel can install composting toilets and sell the compost when completed. 6. Mobile homes, campers, and cars Blackwater waste can be collected as per #5 above and added to municipal composting sites when needed, or the vehicle can install a composting toilet and sell the compost when completed. 7. Airplanes Blackwater waste is collected as per #5 above and added to municipal composting sites when landed, or the plane can install composting toilets and sell the compost when completed. Reacting is so much easier to justify than acting. And, if you react well enough, maybe people won’t notice that timely action by you could have saved a lot of pain, suffering and the need for heroic reaction. FOOTNOTES 1. How to deal with greywater will be covered in Water, pt. 2 . 2. See the Strike letter for week 110. Also see Mark Boyer. “San Francisco Working on Plan To Install Composting Public Toilets”. InHabitat. 19 December 2011. https://inhabitat.com/san-francisco-working-on-plan-to-install-composting-public-toilets/composting-toilet-san-francisco/ for one of the many stories published at the time. 3. Nic Fleming. “From stools to fuels: the street lamp that runs on dog do”. The Guardian. 1 January 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/01/stools-to-fuels-street-lamp-runs-on-dog-poo-bio-energy-waste- . [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/22/2212283/-Reaction-Guidelines-for-Water-pt-1-Sewage-Strike-for-the-Planet-week-164?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/