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> Bautista Corona said city workers have collected 6,000 tons of trash from storm drains over the last three years through a program that specifically targets b

> Bautista Corona said city workers have collected 6,000 tons of trash from storm drains over the last three years through a program that specifically targets big items like couches and refrigerators. Good griefs. That is a new one for me. I would not expect to see couches & refrigerators dumped into manholes anywhere.

genocidicbunny 3y ago
They're not being dumped down a manhole. More than likely, things like that are being dumped into the larger open storm drain canals. And often storm drains run along the courses of creeks or rivers that have been covered up/paved over, so it's more like throwing your garbage into the nearby river.
toast0 3y ago
Probably not so much forcing couches and refrigerators through the drains on streets, but tossing them into the typically open air channels where storm water flows on its way from street drains to rivers or the shore. Some places have combined sewers where storm water drains into the same underground channes and pipes as sanitary sewage; it would be hard to dump couches and refrigerators there. But that's usually seen in cities with very old infrastructure: combined sewers don't make sense when you have sewage treatment plants. During a storm you have a lot more flow, and you'll exceed the capacity of your treatment plant and have to let untreated water through. Even in separate sewers, you have higher flow in the rainy season; utility sewer pipes aren't usually sealed at connections, so if there's a lot of ground water, it leaks into the pipes and flows through; the change in volume during a storm is usually not that fast, but flow rates during the rainy season will be significantly higher than the dry season. Sounds like Tijuana has separate sewers, but lots of unauthorized connections from indoor plumbing to the storm sewers.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 3y ago
  Living in the SF Bay Area, I have witnessed people pumping flood water into the sanitary sewer. There are some low-lying spots where the storm drains can fail to keep up with the storms, and people get desperate when their homes are flooding.
  - m-ee 3y ago
    During large storms sewage does end up in the bay and ocean. SF county has pretty active monitoring and you can view hotspots in almost real time. San Mateo samples weekly and their warnings follow a moving average so their don’t swim warnings are delayed. Linda Mar is pretty consistently borderline or unsafe by county standards, bad news for the tech bro kooks on here. Personally I just try to not touch the creek water and hope for the best.
  - jccooper 3y ago
    It's code in SF to send stormwater to the regular sewer.
    - fshbbdssbbgdd 3y ago
      In SF they hVe a combined system so there’s not alternative. In peninsula there are separate storm drains in the streets. Better in theory! But they don’t permit a direct connection from your French drain’s sump pump into the storm system. So some people pump into their household sewer instead.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]

genocidicbunny 3y ago

They're not being dumped down a manhole. More than likely, things like that are being dumped into the larger open storm drain canals. And often storm drains run along the courses of creeks or rivers that have been covered up/paved over, so it's more like throwing your garbage into the nearby river.

toast0 3y ago

Probably not so much forcing couches and refrigerators through the drains on streets, but tossing them into the typically open air channels where storm water flows on its way from street drains to rivers or the shore. Some places have combined sewers where storm water drains into the same underground channes and pipes as sanitary sewage; it would be hard to dump couches and refrigerators there. But that's usually seen in cities with very old infrastructure: combined sewers don't make sense when you have sewage treatment plants. During a storm you have a lot more flow, and you'll exceed the capacity of your treatment plant and have to let untreated water through. Even in separate sewers, you have higher flow in the rainy season; utility sewer pipes aren't usually sealed at connections, so if there's a lot of ground water, it leaks into the pipes and flows through; the change in volume during a storm is usually not that fast, but flow rates during the rainy season will be significantly higher than the dry season. Sounds like Tijuana has separate sewers, but lots of unauthorized connections from indoor plumbing to the storm sewers.

fshbbdssbbgdd 3y ago
Living in the SF Bay Area, I have witnessed people pumping flood water into the sanitary sewer. There are some low-lying spots where the storm drains can fail to keep up with the storms, and people get desperate when their homes are flooding.
- m-ee 3y ago
  During large storms sewage does end up in the bay and ocean. SF county has pretty active monitoring and you can view hotspots in almost real time. San Mateo samples weekly and their warnings follow a moving average so their don’t swim warnings are delayed. Linda Mar is pretty consistently borderline or unsafe by county standards, bad news for the tech bro kooks on here. Personally I just try to not touch the creek water and hope for the best.
- jccooper 3y ago
  It's code in SF to send stormwater to the regular sewer.
  - fshbbdssbbgdd 3y ago
    In SF they hVe a combined system so there’s not alternative. In peninsula there are separate storm drains in the streets. Better in theory! But they don’t permit a direct connection from your French drain’s sump pump into the storm system. So some people pump into their household sewer instead.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]