I laughed; Pete laughed. He to me, "I didn't know they had electric toilets in South Lake Tahoe." We could turn out all kinds of jokes on that one. But really, what kind of sewage treatment facility would be so outdated. Again, are we living in the "Dark" Ages.
From http://powerlines.seattle.gov/tag/power-outages/ Dec. 8, 2009, "With more storms in the forecast, stay safe by avoiding downed power lines or branches hanging in wires." Common sense you say. Pete says, "Instead of making improvements to the technology, people are so used to power outages, they're told to fend for themselves."
This is the age of technology - we can protect people; we just aren't using the technology that's available.
"Effects of storms linger in W.Va., Va." from the "Chicago Tribune," http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/dp-wv--stormoutages1227dec27,0,7424064.story Dec. 27, 2009, "24,000 customers in both states were without power as of Sunday night." "The power failure was the result of a massive winter storm more than a week ago" - Christmas and no power for a week. With Pete's system, either each home has it's own power system, or a group of homes have a larger power system where lines are underground.
Again from the "Chicago Tribune,"
Dec. 25, click here power outages "probably caused by ice" disabled the wastewater pumping stations out of two Iowa towns and into the Maquoketa River.
Pete says that means that when it's not pushed outward by the pumps, "the effluent reverses direction and flows back, (in this case) and into the river." Pete's system can be applied anywhere power is needed, including a sewage treatment plant - no more raw sewage floating downstream.
Later that day, an electrical transformer failed in Iowa City, causing about 20,000 gallons of untreated water to flow over a farm field. That is not fertilizer for crops, maybe in some places in the world but not in this country.
"ComEd set to install "smart meters' article," from the "Chicago Tribune," click here "All customers will see a $5-a-year increase starting in 2010 to fund the $69 million program"with the installation of 131,000 meters," by next summer.
What do these meters accomplish? ComEd says, "The meters will allow customers to see their usage on a daily basis," and allow them, "to make power adjustments to reduce their bill." The customer must reduce their own bill; the utility will not reduce the customer's bill. Is that logical? Is that fair?
Essential public services must remain open 24/7 while extraordinary fuel costs build. Hospitals and emergency services must have fuel-powered backup generators, the cost of which must be built into their services. All businesses also can run on this technology - go off the grid and stay open when others are down, now without the cost of fuel to power a back-up generator. Compare this to the times before modern medicine or emergency services, people lived by their wits - in those days there were no utility companies.
We have lived with utility companies for so long, we forget that they are an industry constructed for the sole purpose of turning a technology into a profit-maker. Now we have new developments in electric power technology"other industries will be developed to support it. This is the process of progress where an old science gives way to better technology - a kind of evolution.
An entirely new set of support industries will develop to promote and provide for new technology, to include new jobs where none existed before.
"It isn't exactly a beach day at the Jersey shore" - from the "Philadelphia Inquirer," Dec. 19. click here 11,000 Atlantic City Electric customers were without power due to "a whipping steady snow" - Winter storm stories may seem similar but their familiarity is no comfort to people living the story.
"Squirrel knocks out power to thousands," from the "LA Times." click here Pete hears this and laughs, "They have an outage and need to blame someone - an innocent squirrel, "may have been nibbling' they say."
"Squirrel brings down Hollywood," I say. They can pinpoint the location: "the intersection of Scenic Avenue and Beachwood Drive," effecting 2,400 homes, and this was in the Hollywood Hills in the summertime. Can't blame the weather; can blame antiquated technology.
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