John Lansing

Update

Come see the building meme with the capitol core building

Screenshot from website Teledyne website showing portable automatic samplers

Equipment for collecting samples (seen in photo above) is pretty inexpensive and is a critical tool that all water utilities or health departments should be using for disease outbreaks.

Bob Heine, a technician at WG Malden, installs a flow meter into Penn State’s sewage network. IMAGE: MICHAEL SHREVE, PENN STATE

Wastewater surveillance is an especially effective measure for asymptomatic diseases or where access to infected persons is limited or restricted. It’s as simple as collecting samples and sending it to a lab.

Wastewater sampling flowchart Image shows a sample collected somewhere between the waste, water, treatment planned, and a building. The sample is transported to Storage where the sample can be processed and analyzed. Authors of the study: Eline F.de Jonge, Céline M.Peterse, Jaap M. Koelewijn, Anne-Merel R. van der Drift, Rudolf F.H.J. van der Beek, Erwin Nagelkerke, Willemijn J. Lodder

Paper titled “Non-intrusive wastewater surveillance for monitoring of a residential building for COVID-19 cases” Abstract: Wastewater-based surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 has been used for the early warning of transmission or objective trending of the population-level disease prevalence. Here, we describe a new use-case of conducting targeted wastewater surveillance to complement clinical testing for case identification in a small community at risk of COVID-19 transmission. On 2 July 2020, a cluster of COVID-19 cases in two unrelated households residing on different floors in the same stack of an apartment building was reported in Singapore. After cases were conveyed to healthcare facilities and six healthy household contacts were quarantined in their respective apartments, wastewater surveillance was implemented for the entire residential block SARS-CoV-2 was subsequently detected in wastewaters in an increasing frequency and concentration, despite the absence of confirmed COVID-19 cases, suggesting the presence of fresh case/s in the building. Phone interviews of six residents in quarantine revealed that no one was symptomatic (fever/respiratory illness). However, when nasopharyngeal swabs from six quarantined residents were tested by PCR tests, one was positive for SARS-CoV-2. The positive case reported episodes of diarrhea and the case's stool sample was also positive for SARS-CoV-2, explaining the SARS-CoV-2 spikes observed in wastewaters. After the case was conveyed to a healthcare facility, wastewaters continued to yield positive signals for five days, though with a decreasing intensity. This was attributed to the retum of recovered cases, who had continued to shed the virus. Our findings demonstrate the utility of wastewater surveillance as a non-intrusive tool to monitor high-risk COVID-19 premises, which is able to trigger individual tests for case detection, highlighting a new use-case for wastewater testing.

Wastewater surveillance was rapidly deployed globally at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which provided information to public health authorities on the amount of people infected and their location for targeted action at a local level.

There’s a method for remotely tracking disease spread without ever accessing a site. Sewage contains troves of information and a water sample collected from a city owned manhole downstream of a building or neighborhood can be analyzed to determine levels of bacteria, viruses, and pharmaceuticals. 🧵

It’s shame new construction has slowed so soon after parking minimums were eliminated. I’m just glad Donald Shoup got to see it happen.

My post was just ironic but with a hint of truth. It’s true that Europe has suburbanization issues, but it’s also common for the new developments to exceed the historic areas in many of the categories listed above. I still think these new developments generally lack good shops though.

inadequate food
inadequate ventilation
inadequate privacy
inadequate restrooms

they are warehousing people in inhumane conditions

European cities became what they are today by doing the inverse of this.

“OUR city isn’t [insert name of American sprawling suburb here].”

*proceeds to rip up pavement and put trees, beautiful apartment buildings, cafes on quiet streets, protected bike lanes and 15 minute cities everywhere*

Drawings of the original pump system Ladislao Reti’s paper

Before electrons took over, the impeller was powered directly by fine Italian cuisine.

Cutaway of a pump impeller

Visual reference for the non-pump-understanders out there.

Stage from opening ceremony, showing giant tubes of paint pouring into the impeller

Milan Winter Olympics kicked off on a stage shaped like a giant centrifugal pump, the primary pump type used for pressurizing water systems today. The centrifugal pump was invented by Italian engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini in 1475.

Yes, a flow rate roughly 8 times higher than the typical showerhead.

And going without a permit incentivizes low skill work, which undermines public health and safety in buildings.

UPC is best for water supply whereas IPC is best for drainage. Both codes need a full overhaul.

Correction: I highlighted the wrong row in the NYC code above, which pertains to showers with multiple heads (same size nonetheless). The IPC doesn’t differentiate and lists them all in the same row. This doesn’t change the context of anything above but just wanted to point this out.

From a hydraulic standpoint, an 80% filling height will achieve the highest velocities. Storm drains can be designed without pneumatic pressures in mind since there are no indoor drain openings requiring a trap with a water seal to prevent sewer gases from passing through.

Just another small proposal I’ll be submitting for the upcoming code cycle.

Uniform Plumbing Code - Wikipedia

This isn’t just an issue in NYC - the oversized shower drain requirement is in the UPC as well (yellow). Proposals to reduce the minimum drain size to match that of the shower have been voted down in the past. The thing is, even a 1.5 inch drain is oversized. A 1.25 inch would actually be better.

Self-siphonage is impossible with the film flow characteristic of showers and bathtubs.

Self-siphonage is not really a concern for either size drains, as I explain here. Smaller drains are actually better for clearing out solids in the drain to prevent blockages (increasing the scouring force).

Graphic showing the filling height in the horizontal drain

US plumbing codes are based on the maximum filling height not exceeding 50% of the horizontal drain, allowing the upper 50% for airflow to balance with atmospheric pressure. After plugging a few values into the Colebrook-White formula, you can see this flow only reaches 22% of the filling height.

Screenshot collage of stills from Kramer’s shower episode of Seinfeld

Even the language is outdated. “5.7 gpm or less”? You can’t buy showerheads with flows greater than 2.5 gpm, since the 1992 EPAct went into effect, at least not legally.

Screenshot from IPC showing 1.5 inches for showers below 5.7 gpm

2 inch drains for showers vs 1.5 inch for bathtubs is the inverse of what you would expect, since bathtubs can drain at flows above 15 gpm whereas a shower will drain at a much lower flow, matching the flow of the showerhead ~1.8 gpm.

Screenshot from NYC Plumbing Code, showing 2 inch drains for showers with less than 5.7 gpm

As explained in the video, 1.5 inch drainage piping is permitted for bathtubs whereas showers require 2 inch. Want to switch from a bathtub for a shower to make the bathroom accessible? Not without a more extensive renovation project or an oversized drain. You can see how this incentives oversizing.

YouTube video by HydroNYC Smooth tub-to-shower conversion #nyc

The 2 inch shower drain requirement is staggeringly excessive and the NYC Plumbing Code goes out of the way to deviate from the adopted model code to maintain this traditional requirement.

The Legacy of Sewers-Rethinking Sanitation in a Resource-Constrained World From the invention of the water closet to the rise of centralised sewer networks, the UK's 19th-century drainage systems shaped global patterns of water use, sanitation access, and nutrient management. But in a rapidly urbanising and resource-constrained world, those historical defaults are showing their limits. This session offers a deep dive into the legacy of circular sanitation and the environmental consequences of wastewater infrastructure. It will explore how early design choices continue to influence modern plumbing, and why it's time to rethink the systems we've inherited-through the lens of equity, resilience, and regenerative practice. The conversation sets the stage for a day focused on inclusive design, community-led innovation, and cross-sector strategies for delivering safe sanitation in diverse contexts. # Thursday 25 June © 9:00 AM - 9:30 AM (30 minutes) • World Stage Speakers John Lansing Director of Plumbing Standards Research and Development at Center for Building in North America John Lansing is the Director of Plumbing Standards Research and Development at the Center for Building in North America and recently a visiting scholar at Heriot-Watt University. He has 13 years of experience in consulting engineering designing plumbing systems for buildings and has been involved in revising building codes and standards for nearly a decade. John currently serves on technical committees with the International Code Council, The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, and the Australian Building Codes Board.

Session details here

Photo of an event announcement banner from the World Plumbing Council with a headshot of the post author

Headed back to the UK for the World Plumbing Conference in June!

Ah yes, the Alberta Tar Sands Bioregion