Cistern: Finished! Approved!

Yesterday January 29, 2010 the implementation of the cistern design as previously posted on this blog was inspected and approved by the City of Marco Island!

This follows the approval by Collier County's office of the Florida Department of Health.

And better than the required governmental approval, the cistern works better than expected!

Hence, We Be Done! Proving once again that the process of going from Concept to Design to Implementation works. And more importantly, that it is the CITIZENS, and not government, that are the true stewards of our environment.

Here are the final images:

And the cistern capturing rain water (January 1, 2010):

Summary

The 1,400 gallon cistern (yes, 1,400 gallons) was filled twice in 30 days - twice since January 1, 2010 – the dry season. In the rainy season, it will get filled probably every 2-3 days.

The cistern system supplied a measured 1.5 gallons of water per minute to the sprinklers.

The entire installation requires no electricity or maintenance.

Total net-cost for the cistern:

Thanking the following:

• Councilors Recker, Kiester, Forcht and Councilor-Elect Batte for their individual and continual support
  
• Director Roney Joel for saving us untold hours by suggesting the specific valve denoted in the original design
  
• Entire Marco Island City Council for voting to abate the City Fee (though a fee was still required and now the task of getting a reimbursement)
  
• Collier County's Florida Department of Health
  
• Cain's Bobcat Service for doing the installation based on the design and for the expected last minute adjustments and for having to deal with a dreamer …
  

Going Forward:

For those residents that do convert to cisterns, the City should allow the septage to be pumped into the sewer lines. Assuming the septage is being pumped into the lines at least one lift station away from the plant, there is no reason whatsoever the City cant give an incentive to those of us that actually act on protecting the environment. Querying the EPA reveals that the EPA does NOT object to this process – an effort undertaken when informed that the septage could not be pumped into the sewer lines because the EPA claims that this process is illegal (no sense querying the FDEP – they don't find anything illegal).

The City should publish specific steps to help the citizens, especially the elderly, know exactly what steps to follow.

The City should eliminate the need for that truly silly overflow valve.

The City Council should establish an independent agency/board comprised of 2-3 non-syndicate citizens to pursue cistern and other environmental initiatives for the residents. Normally, these initiatives would come from local government as is the case in nearly all other communities in the country. But since we have no such function here, let's establish an independent one. This body must report to the Council and must NOT go through any City staff management. Though there are several staff members with truly invaluable experience and knowledge, they can be consulted.

Lastly, in the next few days a grant will become available for application. In speaking with the director of this soon-to-come grant, the cistern idea is "a great idea" and "the kind of initiative we will support". There is no doubt that the entire cost to convert to a cistern will be covered by this grant. So as to avoid how the "Staff" aborted the last grant opportunity, the City Council can use the above noted agency/board to pursue this wonderful opportunity for the residents.

Good luck.

Notes on the pictures:
Pic1:I decided to have them sealed so as to practically eliminate debris, insects, small animals or the syndicate infiltrating the cistern. Both downspouts capture not more than 25% of the rain that hits the roof of a 2,200 square foot house. As noted in the video, a 30 minute moderate rain storm filled 25% of the cistern from these two downspouts - or approximately 350 gallons.

Pic3: Before the line was put in place. The cistern is a MEASURED 1,400 gallons and NOT the 900 as speculated by the City then repeated as if fact. Hence, blanket statements about capacity should not be made ...

Pic4: Works by narrowing then expanding the existing diameter of the flow, which as the ancient Romans proved, creates a vacuum. This vacuum sucks the water out of the cistern. The black hose leads directly into the cistern, the opening of which is just inches from the bottom of the cistern.

Pic7: From the you-cant-make-this-up category. The CITY asked: "So what happens when the cistern is filled?" I answered: the gutters overflow. Cant have that! (which of course happens all the time). So the CITY required that this overflow valve be installed so when the cistern becomes full from too much rainwater, the excess water does not overflow the gutters and water goes on the lawn, but the water comes out of this valve and goes ... on the lawn. It was installed where the septic tank outflow was originally that fed the drain field.

Pic 8: Hose feeding the Mazzei valve drops down to about an inch from the bottom of the cistern. If you look carefully you can see through the water in the cistern - the water is perfectly clear and clean. This water is NOT city water - it is 100% rain water from the rain of 1/25/2010.

Syndicate Directing the Herded Sheep ...

Per the Supervisor of Elections ...

The strategy of picking only one candidate appears to be at play, said Deputy Supervisor of Elections Tim Durham.

"It's an effective strategy," he said.

Larry Magel, who received the most votes overall, was frequently the only candidate selected in precincts 191, 194 and 195. Those are the precincts along the water, including Hideaway Beach, where he lives, and several condominiums, where his supporters suggested that voters only select Magel.

No kidding, especially when the herd got the following directive:

Recently, I was surprised when several people approached me to say they were voting for Magel, but thought they were required to vote for three candidates. This is not the case. You may vote for one, two or three candidates. But if you want to be assured that Magel can work for you, vote only Larry Magel and pass on "The Slate."

Jack Patterson
Marco Island

There you have it ...

Cistern Passes County Inspection ...

The prototype cistern based on the hydrostatic design (as previously made public in these pages) just passed the county's health inspection.

Good news!

We used another novel technique - decontamination of the tank did not require toxic chemicals!

Pending a few minor operational adjustments, and no new surprises - like the one we received last week from the City requiring that the gutters leading to the cistern not overflow (???) - we should be done in days for a full operational go-ahead.

Will advise.

Also ...

This author has identified an exciting and lucrative grant program. In speaking with the grant administrator, it seems that the ENTIRE cost of a cistern conversion will be covered!!

This grant will be available for application in February 2010.

After the election, the independent/non-sectarian city councilors will be advised of the grant with the hope that this new grant opportunity is not stillborn or contaminated (no pun intended) by the city --- like the last one.

In all, good news for cistern conversions, protecting the environment, saving water and saving $!

And ...

Thanking once again the Florida Department of Health, the FDH at Collier County, City Councilors Kiester, Forcht, Recker, et al ... and Cains Bobcat Service (the contractor) for doing the work.

Hope for America, Lesson for Marco Island

With the election yesterday of Scott Brown as US senator of Massachusetts, all Americans can once again reaffirm that they have the power, will and foresight to make the necessary changes even in the most unlikely circumstances.

A senate seat "held" for five decades by the most liberal senator in the last five decades, in a state comprised of 75% democrats, ultra-liberals, socialists, communists and near-Trotsky's was readily handed to a seeming no one with diametrical opposite views.

As the pundits and talking heads will regurgitate for the next while, the reasons are vast. But as related to Marco Island, perhaps one should take stock of just two of these reasons.

First, the uber-priority in the hell-bent battle to pass socialized medicine above all else was an indication that politics and ideology took priority over all else. The real priority of honestly addressing the crisis of having over 20 million unemployed Americans was but a purpose by which to perpetrate anti-capitalist, anti-democratic agendas. Since honest Americans know that working to earn a living takes priority over political and ideological beliefs, the voters demanded a reprioritization of their representatives.

Secondly, even ardent supporters of socialized everything were disgusted by the means by which nationalized-socialized medicine was being put forth. Back room meetings cloaked in secrecy, special deals for unions (this author being a member of one), outright bribery, public denigration of those that dared oppose the zeitgeist and the marginalization of those with an opinion were the common tactics of the ruling national syndicate. Obama-Reid-Pelosi and their minions spared no one, spat on the Constitution and thereby on every American. To this, even their philosophical brethren said enough.

And in these two reasons alone, there manifests the ever perennial hope which is America, in that as long as We the People exercise our rights even through intimidation, there will forever be that shinny city on the hill.

And herein lies the lesson to Marco Island.

Marco Island's ongoing election for city council presents the same opportunity, the same makeup and the same chance at redemption as the brave souls in Massachusetts took and correctly used yesterday.

Here too there is a syndicate, the Syndicate, which has dictated for all too long the workings of the City.

Enough is enough. Even if you agree with the underlying motivation of the Syndicate to commercialize everything, to facilitate the realtors, cheap tourist traps, gaudy overpriced and overrated food-like places, to make Collier Boulevard into a Vegas strip-light, you must by now be repulsed by their tactics.

Backroom deals, coordinating their puppet councilors through intermediaries so as to ambush the public in city council meetings, infesting every "committee" knowing they are but fronts to screen councilors that are too lazy or incompetent or corrupt to do their own work, public slurs and obscenities directed at people volunteering to serve on a school board, lying about the water utility, about the septic tanks, about the STRP, about the cost of cisterns, even the shady secret deal with the local school board pol to build some commercial faux power generating facility on a piece of land that is clearly earmarked as SCHOOL SITE while putting forth the blatant propaganda readily parroted by their puppets on the city council about some "endangered" species … is enough to caused systemic nausea.

Even if you agree with what the Syndicate wants to facilitate, vote your conscience and stop this putrefaction of the City government by voting against the Syndicate slate candidate, what they do and how they do it.

Marco Island has an opportunity to vote for people that will work in the open, who are beholden to only one special interest named "We The People", that will not scurry in the dark for special deals and understand that all issues are best resolved in the open. Even if you don't agree with the non-slate independent candidates of Messrs. Batte, Forscht and Kiester, vote for them for God knows the City of Marco Island needs an open honest form of government at all levels – just as the national ruling body got the message and a much deserved flush.

As the people of the commonwealth of Massachusetts did, stop the sleaze, vote out the Syndicate, discuss your goals in public, and the entire island populace will be the better for it.

Election Recommendations

Amendments:
Vote NO on all amendments.

Justification: The wording on the ballot is NOT the wording that will be used to amend the city charter.

Candidates:
Recommend:
Joe Batte
Ted Forcht
Chuck Kiester

Justification: Independent, honest, fiscally conservative, environmentally conscious, not part of a special interest group, listen to all residents, open-minded, want to lead, novel ideas, understand multi-dimensional dynamics by which to expand local economy, vision.

Do Not Recommend: The remaining candidate
Justification: He is part of a slate of existing councilors and pols that are syndicated to controlling all aspects of government for the benefit of special commercial interests. This slate has controlled the City of Marco Island too long and has led to divisiveness, personal attacks (the comment to the previous blog post but one example) and has led the city to near fiscal bankruptcy. Let's have for once a city council where the majority is not directed by the syndicate.

How to Complete the Ballot:

• Use a black or blue pen.
  
• You must affix postage.
  
• Put ballot in Security Sleeve.
  
• Sign, date, print address on reverse of mailing envelope.
  
• Print Name on reverse of mailing envelope under Voters certificate.
  
• Mail as soon as possible.
  

What to Name City Hall

If you are from the Rob Popoff School of Protecting, Respecting and Tolerating the Rights of Others Exercising their 1^st Amendment Right of Free Speech:
The City of Marco Island Marxist Hall

If you are from the sludge the oozes behind closed-doors and arranges for surprise items to be voted on and then show up by "coincidence" to speak supporting the unscheduled item:
The Syndicate Puppet Factory

If you still believe that the STRP was put in motion because septic tanks were polluting the waterways:
The Patterson "There Be Fecal" Emporium

After the feds prosecute for violating the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act:
They All Worked or Laboured Here before They Got Indicted

So exactly why did several councilors claim that Charlie Crist personally told them that the City will get a sewer system "whether the citizens wanted it or not" at about the same time that the partner of a city councilor was appointed to Crist's Commissioner of the Florida Elections Commission:
The Syndicate-to-Crist Good 'Ol Boy Club Meeting Hall

In memory of he who publicly boasted to deleting emails about city business from citizens he did not like (and unlike his colleague not getting prosecuted) and lying about having photographs of people planting asbestos:
E. Glenn Tucker et. Al.

And to prove that there is consistency and that rules are always applied uniformly, the Syndicate will ensure that their ilk and those in the now defunct Celebrate Marco show up to support the following name, and when African-Americans or Hispanics or Orientals or anyone who is one of "those people" stand up to decry the name, they are escorted out of the building because after all the individual for whom city hall is to be named is "not here to defend himself":
William Joseph Simmons Memorial Building

Named after the ONLY two idiots stupid enough to put themselves at risk by repeatedly measuring toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide in the air, hydrogen sulfide and sulfuric acid in the waters and stupidly believing that the Crist-FDEP-Tucker-Minozzi-Popoff-Trotter cabal would act or vote to at least temporarily stop damaging the health of people and the environment, and for believing that anyone else could give a flying F$%&!@K:
Godfrey Davies and Mario Sanchez Hall for the Naively Dim-witted

If you want to know who paid for it:
Quality Enterprise Park

To commemorate he who contributed the parking to very same City Hall being named while being stupid enough to solicit a "patient" (presumably not a mental one) while said patient was recording him:
Andrew Guidry Halfway House

If you want to give it an apt name:
District 9

If you want to give it an honest name based on who really runs the place:
Syndicate Hall

… but seriously,

If you are an American that values free speech and those that speak the truth:
The Robert Glaub Democracy Citizens Centre

EPA: City Water has 3 Contaminants Above Federal Health Limits

From an 2008 EPA report: 3 contaminants below legal limits, but above health guidelines

Marco Island, Florida. Serves 27,470 people.

Contaminant	Average result		Maximum result	Health limit
Lead (total)	0.22 ppb		1	0.20
Radium-226	0.78 pCi/L		1.10	0.05
Thallium (total)	0.17 ppb		2	0.50

 

Source: New York Times: http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters/contaminants/fl/collier/fl5110183-city-of-marco-island

Cistern In Action

Rare, once-in-a-lifetime video of INSIDE a newly converted septic-tank to cistern.



Note the volume of water! Turn up the speakers so you can hear the narration and sound effects.

This video was taken on January 1, 2010. The rain lasted for approximately 15 minutes and filed approximately 25% of the cistern - a 1,000+ gallon cistern by the way (for those that are believing another syndicate-posed urban legend that septic-cisterns are only 750 gallons). And this volume of water from ONLY approximately 1/4 of the volume of coming off the roof!

What a waste of water if one were to simply let this water run-off into the swales or the waterways.

A SUGGESTION: perhaps the City of Marco Island can instead of mandating the destruction of septic tanks to fuel the STRP, why not save water, save the environment, and save money for the residents and mandate cisterns?