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The DOCTOR

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Posts posted by The DOCTOR

  1. Hi Gang.....

    I regulated, issued/denied permits and inspected subsurface wastewater disposal systems of all kinds and in all types of terrain in WA state for many years, in wet parts and dry parts of the state, in mountains, rock, gravel, clay, mixtures of all soils, and by rivers and lakes. I participated in state rulemaking for these systems in the mid-1970s, and subsequent changes over 30 years, including mound systems,  bio-digesters, evaporative lagoons, and proprietary designs. What sewage disposal, on-site, all boils down to is the fact that the ground in any area can only absorb up to the point of saturation. It also is  equally about not polluting your well, groundwater and other nearby bodies of water, or putting feces on the surface of the ground and spreading disease. Probably should have put that first. Public Health is number one priority for me. The most practical way to begin on new onsite septic or other system construction is to dig a six foot hole (think backhoe at our age)  in the area you would propose to put your waste water, do it during the rainy season if time permits, and wait until the next day to see if it fills all or partially with groundwater, or is fed by a spring. Riberas and Floresta are notorious for being saturated that sometimes stink all to be damned in the rainy season, and I am so glad I found that out, by asking around to the neighbors before I bought into the realtor's hype.  Anyway, I will address "floating septic tanks" next. A concrete tank will float almost as fast as a plastic one, just like a concrete swimming pool will pop out of the ground if the water table rises underneath, so the issue of plastic versus concrete tank- floating is largely moot. I will next address "pan evaporation rate" versus "net precipitation".  Airports and other places that have weather stations will know how much rain falls in what months AND they will know how much evaporation takes place during the same period. Annually and monthly. This information is used for lots of reasons, including farming,  flying, construction planning, engineering, etc.  So why this MAY be a factor for your project is that if the net precipitation exceeds the pan evaporation rate, and the precipitation cannot be diverted from your proposed disposal area, you will experience saturation of the area and the stinky mess I referred to above at places near the lake heading out of Chapala toward Ajijic. I suspect lower AJ may have problems too, but have not been door to door there.  If you live in a micro climate with a net precip vs pan-evap rate that will get rid of say 1,2 or 3 feet of water per year just from evaporation, then you are in luck and can plan to incorporate hydrophylic, salt-tolerant grasses like Russian Rye and others that are local and which a yard and garden store can supply you to suck up effluent from your drainfield (referred to above as pipes with holes for drainage) and this will increase your successful design and prevent flooding crap into your yard or garden/lanscape plantings. If you do go with a concrete tank, keep it as shallow as possible given your house plumbing outlet(s) and be sure to put access risers (not shown on this schematic) over the access covers to allow for pumping, repairs and checking sludge accumulating in the bottom of the tank sections. You can also check the inlet and outlet baffle T's to see that they are still there and are secure. Another important design feature for wet areas especially, but all drainfields or leachbeds is a 4" outside-diameter alternating valve to let wastewater flow into a section of the drainage absorption area that is relatively dried out and "rested" This allows soil microorganisms that feed on nitrogen and other septage components, as well as bugs and worms that love to eat our nutrient rich waste, to gobble up the goodies that would otherwise both eventually seal the bottom and sidewalls of the wet parts of the drainage area, and also cut short the lifespan of your system. A typical strategy would be to alternate every 6 to 12 months, giving the micro-organisms time to work underground. The access covers can be made of concrete or plastic and must be child-proof. Bolts can be fitted to do this. The alternating valve should be several feet at least from the tank outlet and have a fitted cap at ground level, again childproof/;tamperproof, and installed so that you can still mow over if you have a lawn. Drawings for 4" alternating valves can be had by any engineer, or you can draw your own up and hand it to your contractor. It is not rocket science.

    I wish you all good luck, good health, and a life without living in your own or someone else's Poop. Preserve your health and that of others and the environment we all share.

    Schematic_of_a_septic_tank_2.png

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  2. Good news.

    La Avenida not only is open for liquor, beer, ice and wine sales, but delivers on motorcycle to your home.

    cell phone: 33 34 63 79 30

    Alma usually answers the phone personally and I have never waited more than 20 minutes. Usually less.

    Know what you want, in Spanish, before calling if you are able. Google translate might be useful.

    I live in Chapala, so it may take longer since the store is not far from my home.

  3. Gringo Hombre said, in pertinent part:

    We negotiated the details of the lease, not the fact that I forced the change to the obvious correct currency involved, that happend to be in my favor because as  businessman I had done the research. Are car leases at the Guad. airport in US dollars? Do you negotiate buying a used car here in US dollars? Are business rentals here in US dollars? I am not talking legality, just pointing out that this has snowballed into accepted practice here because newbies see it as "the way things are". Would Mexicans accept this in a home rental lease? Please. This board is for trying to help each other here, but some seem to be OK with the perpetuation of this practice and even normalizing it. I am not blaming the landlords, they are looking out for themselves, as should we, the renters. 

    I say "AMEN, Thank heavens for business sense and common sense."

    • Thanks 1
  4. Dear Amigos,

    I have read the comments since I stopped actively being a part of what started out

    as a discussion of Coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS and relevant information.

    I would like to express congratulations to MAINECOONS for remaining steadily

    non-dogmatic and civil. There are several others as well, and I am sure that MAINECOONS

    could list them faster than me, from memory. 

    As for the way this topic changed, I guess it was inevitable since many people obviously

    just wanted a place to vent and show the world on this web-board who they really were.

    ---------------------SO.................Way to go, MAINECOONS. and the rest who resisted the tidal wave

    of extraneous jibberjabber and ad hominem insults. If I ever meet any of the constructive folks

    after this virus passes, I would like that.

    I know I said I was done with this topic after 2 days of comments, but the urge to say thanks

    to some of you was too much for me, and likewise the desire to give others a "Time Out" was

    also a motivating factor.

    Keep it civil and intelligent, always.

    Adios

    • Like 2
  5. Good news for some of you:

     

    This will conclude my postings on this topic. I have raised an issue, and in two days  it has been discussed to

    my satisfaction. I took the temperature of the community online here. A very diverse group, and generally speaking,

    quite well informed. To those who are locked into their cynicism and name-calling habits, I wish the best for you.

    You are slowly stressing yourself to the limit. It harms your body and mind. Take a breath, and as my grandmother used to say,

    " Taste your words carefully before you spit them at people."  Wise words.

    To those who are well informed, non-dogmatic and civil, I say good job, keep it up, cause you will live a happier life.

     

    I am pleased that as of yesterday an on-site test for the deadly virus, developed by Abbott laboratories, has hit the

    market and the US will have tested 5 million people by the end of this month, just under 2 weeks. We have now tested

    a little over 3 million in the USA, and will begin to establish sentinel populations ( in public health we used sentinel flocks or animals),

    to check the prevalence of the virus in the population at large. This is good news; good public health. Some states will begin to restart

    some operations today and over the next week. Others will follow, monitored and controlled by data and state, local, and

    federal officials.

    One final question to all of you: Will Mexico test 1, 2 or even 5% of their population in the next month, using labs and field testing, to see what

    measures need to be taken to protect all of us here ?  If the new test, lab tests, and subsequent tests, cannot be obtained and administered

    quickly, both randomly and targeted, by the Mexican central government throughout the states here, we may see a CV19 wave hit like the one

    that hit my state of WA, and the one that is still breaking in New Jersey, New York and elsewhere.

     

    ADIOS for now, and hope to hear from some of you, perhaps on another posting    :)  !!

    • Like 3
  6. Go Solar said:

    "Testing must be broad based to get a true reading of incidence and geographic spread.      You don't need to test everyone, but you need to test a sample, of everyone.   This is basic science and statistics.

    Testing only the symptomatic and at-risk people, is useless for getting a real reading.    

    However, it appears that the powers-that-be, in most countries, really do not want a "real reading".... "

    -------------------------------------------------

     

    This is true, in most countries. And one wonders if the idea is to skew the death rate upward or downward, or lack of test kits.

    Seems like panic is the order of the day with people here at Lakeside. I have been referred to a few times as a "TROLL"

    by people who have no factual basis, so I assume they are acting out of Fear, Anger, and Grief somehow to my initial post..

    As to a previous comments about calculating rates, if you test the sickest of the sick, you will have

    a higher death rate than if you test the whole population. (See Go Solar's comment above.)   Basic statistics. And public health 101.

    Also, the PRS test picks up genetic material from pieces of material in the body that are not

    what came out of WUHAN China, so be wary of those who worship this test as the final word on COVID-19.

    A positive result from an appropriately validated serology test that detects IgM is likely to indicate that someone currently has or has recently had the virus. Serology can yield a negative test result in infected patients (e.g., if antibody has not yet developed in response to the virus) or may be falsely positive (e.g., if antibody to a coronavirus other than the pandemic novel strain is present). 

    In short, what you can detect with PRS includes other strains of the Coronavirus family. That is not to say

    that using this test is bad. Used over a large population, it can be very useful. Few countries have done this,

    but the ones that have yield far lower death rates than we have heard on TV.

    The models that have, and are, being used to predict death rates have been sadly wrong, including Dr. Fauci's.

    Dont take my word for it, look up the quotes going back to early January. Including Fauci's.

    There have been enough erroneous predictions based on bad science that have us all scrambling to stay alive at all costs. Sad.

    Everyone is doing their best, I think, but the models have been demonstrably wrong. I feel bad for MD's and 

    decision makers in this time of misinformation and disinformation put out as gospel by news outlets.

    FYI to the concerned citizens above,  my first nickname was " The Doctor " , and it

    comes from my office co-workers beginning in the 1970's, because I was always reading and liked to

    do research into public health issues that were emerging as time passed. I subscribed to MMWR, and

    read it every time I had a spare minute. I have also been called, "Batman", "Poolman", 

    "Spiderman", and " The Safety Guy" by my whimsical workmates over the years. Whatever. I just picked a name

    that was not my own when I signed up less than 24 hours ago, for privacy.

    Seems like you guys took this subject pretty seriously. It is a good one to discuss, from all angles.

    So I hope that clears that up. I am a retired environmental health lawyer with a master's degree in health management and

    I managed environmental health programs in Washington State before retiring from government, after which

    I became a public health consultant and later moved down here.

    So here we are.

    Sleep well, and try to remain positive, not paranoid. People have been dying from flu complications for a long time.

    And people have also been dying from fear induced cortisol and elevated BP, which many seem to have, these days.

    • Like 3
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  7. If we are all tested, using the current protocol, most of us would be positive for Coronavirus, since it

    is such a large family of viruses.

    I wonder if the world is getting a false count due to inadequate testing.

    Since we are only testing the sickest people, the death rate is naturally going to be higher

    than if everone were tested, using serology.

    • Like 1
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