John Lansing

YouTube video by thecityoftoronto What is a combined sewer overflow (CSO)

This 25 second video with visuals is the ultimate TLDR on the subject of combined sewer overflows.

The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and th… In the sweltering summer of 1858 the stink of sewage fr…

This is also a good book which covers the development of what may be considered the first major combined sanitary storm sewer.

Constructed Wetlands and Sustainable Development This book explains how with careful planning and design, the functions and performance of constructed wetlands can provide a huge range of benefits to humans and the environment. It documents the curr...

Here’s one I have in my reading list.

“When we consider the immense value of night soil as a manure, it is quite astounding that so little attention is paid to preserve it. The quantity is immense which is carried down by the drain in London to the River Thames, serving no other purpose than to pollute is waters.” Justus von Liebig 1842

Willamette River:

As a kid living in a single family house, I remember birds flying into the windows all the time (lots of bird feeders nearby). This is something I never expected again in living multifamily construction, including high-rise, until living in a building directly across from a park with a stream.

Innotech’s tilt and turn windows are just fantastic.

Were these projects in Portland by any chance? I feel like screens are rare west of the Cascades.

Sanitary Reform in Victorian Britain, Volume 1 xiv to prevent the ravages of cholera and like discases, no one was really sure wha caused cholera until Robert Koch identified the cholera bacillus in 1883.** And as Michael Worbovs has shown, even around the germ theory of disease whist has often been posited as transformative for medical science, there was uneven acceptance: new ideas were usually accommodated within existing paradigms, which they may have influenced but did not explode." In the area of water analy. sis in the second half of the nineteenth century, Christopher Hamlin has shown the ways chemists cultivated their authority to pronounce water either safe ot unsafe for drinking, at the same time that they battled amongst themselves ovct what analytic process to use and how to interpret the results.? Sanitary reform was no less contested in practice than in theory, as is abundantly clear from the history of the sewage question' in all its ramifications. Certainly the construction of comprehensive sewerage systems faced opposition from those who opposed sanitary reform on political principle - anti-centraliz-ers and others who objected to the state dictating sanitary policies and practices - but opposition was rife among reforming interests as well. A vocal minority maintained that using water to dispose of wastes diluted the valuable fertilizing properties of human excrement; for this reason, a dry-conservancy method of disposal, using earth or ash as a deodorizer, was preferred." Among those who favoured the water-carriage disposal of waste, there was still disagreement over how to treat sewage effluent at the end of the line in order to preserve the health of the rivers into which it discharged. Sewage farming, chemical precipitation, artificial filtration and biological filtration were all tried in various combinations.

“no one was really sure what caused cholera until Robert Koch identified the cholera bacillus in 1883…even around the germ theory of disease which has often been posited as transformative for medical science, there was uneven acceptance: new ideas were usually accommodated within existing paradigms”

In vegetated tracks, the vegetation system initially stores the accumulating rainwater until it is saturated. Any water that runs off beyond this point enters the sewer system or groundwater. When the track drainage is connected to the municipal sewer network, it is subjected to only a small amount of runoff compared to non-vegetated tracks. This usually only occurs during prolonged or intense rainfall. The absorbed and stored rainwater is primarily released back into the air through evaporation (plant transpiration and evaporation from the vegetation layer). This increases the humidity and generates evaporative cooling. The water storage capacity of the vegetated systems depends on the specific vegetation system. Abb. 2: Sedumgleis (Photo Kappis, IASP) Fig. 3: Grassed track (Photo Schreiter, IASP) Depending on the vegetation used (grass or sedum), the vegetation layer differs in thickness and composition. Sedum tracks are characterized by a thin vegetation layer of 68 cm. For grass tracks, this should be at least 15 cm, depending on the location. Green tracks enable an average water retention of the total annual precipitation falling on a green track of 50% for sedum tracks and 70% for grass tracks [3], [4]. This means that approximately 50% or 70% of the annual precipitation per m? of track vegetation is retained and evaporates again. Assuming an average precipitation of 790 l/m/a [5] in Germany, a track vegetation system retains approximately 400-550 l of rainwater per mª annually

In begrünten Gleisen speichert das Vegetationssystem zunächst das anfallende Nieder-schlagswasser bis zu seiner Sättigung. Das darüber hinaus abfließende Wasser gelangt in die Kanalisation bzw. ins Grundwasser. Bei Anschluss der Gleisentwässerung an das kommunale Abwassernetz wird dieses im Vergleich zum nicht begrünten Gleis nur mit einem geringen Abfluss belastet. Dieser erfolgt in der Regel erst bei Niederschlägen längerer Dauer oder größerer Intensität. Das aufgenommene und gespeicherte Nieder-schlagswasser wird überwiegend durch Verdunstung (Transpiration der Pflanzen und Evaporation aus der Vegetationstragschicht) wieder an die Luft abgegeben. Hierbei wird die Luftfeuchte erhöht und Verdunstungskühle erzeugt. Die Wasserspeicherkapazität der Begrünungssysteme ist abhängig vom Vegetationssystem. Abb. 2: Sedumgleis (Foto Kappis, IASP) Abb. 3: Rasengleis (Foto Schreiter, IASP) Je nach eingesetzter Vegetation (Rasen oder Sedum) unterscheidet sich die Vegetations-tragschicht in Schichtdicke und Zusammensetzung. Sedumgleise sind gekennzeichnet durch eine geringmächtige Vegetationstragschicht von 6 - 8 cm. Bei Rasengleisen sollte diese - standortabhängig - mindestens 15 cm betragen. Grüne Gleise ermöglichen eine durchschnittliche Wasserrückhaltung der jährlichen Ge-samtniederschlagsmenge, die auf ein Grünes Gleis treffen, in Höhe von 50 % bei Sedumgleisen und 70 % bei Rasengleisen [3], [4]. Das heißt, etwa 50 % bzw. 70 % der jährlichen Niederschlagsmenge je m? Gleisbegrü-nung werden gebunden und wieder verdunstet. Bei Zugrundelegen einer durchschnittlichen Niederschlagsmenge von 790 |/m⅖a [5] in Deutschland, hält ein Begrünungssystem im Gleis jährlich ca. 400 - 550 | Niederschlagswasser je m? zurück.

There’s more info on this as well as the sedum vs grass in the paper cited within the one I linked to above (link here). www.gruengleisnetzwerk.de/images/downl...

No, but I’d be interested to know this.

Link to study here.

Grassytrams are an effective urban stormwater management strategy, converting impervious areas into a green zone that eliminates 50%-70% of runoff.

This caught my eye too. This may be for another fixture connection or possibly an oddly small test port.

You bet!

Maybe somebody can take me on a tour or show me the plans. 👀

These are the questions we should be asking!

IPC Code and Commentary here as well.

2018 UPC ITM

If you want to read through a plumbing code with commentary and additional graphics and photos, both IAPMO and ICC publish these. The one published by IAPMO is free though. epubs.iapmo.org/2018/UPCITM/

This installation is in accordance with the British Columbia Plumbing Code, which is based on the National Plumbing Code of Canada. It’s very similar to the UPC and IPC model plumbing codes in the US and incorporates much of the foundational research from NIST.

This appears to be a 10 inch (200 mm) sanitary drain which I can say with assurance, based on existing flow data for similar buildings, that this will never reach more than 15% of capacity.

Despite 3 and 5 year code cycles, both US and Canadian plumbing codes are extremely antiquated, particularly in regards to sanitary drainage systems. This leads to more expensive and poorly performing plumbing.

Plumbing in multifamily buildings encompasses a set of complex systems, with stunning qualities of materials and labor associated with the design and installation.

This first phase includes 1400 homes.

These towers look out into Vancouver’s skyline, the English Bay, and the North Shore Mountains, and are sandwiched between Kitsilano and the West End, some of the most walkable neighborhoods in the Pacific Northwest.

The first batch of homes are going to drop next year in the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation).

The offensive thing I’ve ever done to a crow was only share half my bag of hazelnuts and keep the rest for myself.

These guys have hit me with far worse though.

One of my niche phobias is walking under one of these while it’s raining and have a large drop of water, richly infused with diverse colonies of bacteria and fungi, hit me in the face.

A 25 unit apartment building will house hundreds, maybe even thousands of people over its 50-100 year lifespan, which is why it’s insane that we let a small contingent of change-averse busybodies block new housing.