It's easy to wonder why most of the world struggles with clean water until you realize every township in the Western world basically has the equivalent of world class manufacturing floor run by a handful of elite microbiologists.
It's pretty formulaic. Head to Amazon and get a copy of Metcalf & Eddy and start treating wastewater.
The real issue is that wastewater treatment is energy intense. It takes a lot of horses to keep the smelly water bubbling, and the heavy sludge circulating where it needs to get to.
Removing emerging contaminants like PFAs is even more energy intense, requiring heavy pumps to push water through filters.
But it's money well spent if you value a clean environment.
Now consider the lakehouse your family enjoys in the summer - where does the wastewater go? Does it go to a septic system? Is it short circuiting straight into the lake?
The core technology is pretty much set in stone already. I wonder when software development finally reached stability like this where there is no major advancement left anymore.
> The core technology is pretty much set in stone already. I wonder when software development finally reached stability like this where there is no major advancement left anymore.
Software people have embraced what I like to call the "useless side-grade."
Once there's no major advancement left anymore, people will sell random differences as major advancements, and we'll churn by rewriting everything in the next new framework, forever.
I've been trying to point this out to my colleagues repeatedly, somebody posted a react discussion about new suspense APIs, the only response I could summon was
New septic systems are basically mini treatment plants. The amount of equipment it needs are pretty wild. They also (at least in NJ) need twice yearly inspections by professionals.
This is how it is where I live. My “septic” is a self-contained wastewater treatment plant that must be inspected semi-annually and actively maintained. The effluent is technically potable. It uses about 25% of my total electrical consumption.
Our septic is gravity fed on a small hill. It is very basic, and we do not need multiple inspections per year. Are you sure these aren’t County required inspections? I live in Hunterdon County and never heard of it.
That said I know it depends on your land conditions and geography.
I think the inspection requirement is fairly new, and only kicks in with new systems. That being said, at this house the water table is quite high. The well serving the house is only about 90 ft deep.
The one at the house I lived at a year ago was essentially a big container in the ground, having been there about a decade+ just doing its thing. We just had to be real careful not to use bleach/sodium percarbonate/etc so not to kill everything living in it. This is in Colorado.
It's easy to wonder why most of the world struggles with clean water until you realize every township in the Western world basically has the equivalent of world class manufacturing floor run by a handful of elite microbiologists.