Kat and Tim King of Land2c Landscape Architecture tame a slippery slope with flowing, private spaces and beautiful tableaux.

A BUSY, URBAN family of four that loves the outdoors and camping but not necessarily gardening already had remodeled its 1920s vintage Queen Anne home three times before undertaking a garden renovation. But creating that garden oasis on a property as vertical as they come was quite a project.

The back garden, with its fabulous views out to the city and Puget Sound, falls sharply away from the back of the old, three-story house. How to create a seamless transition between indoors and out, let alone a garden inviting enough to lure family and friends to descend all those steps?

Designers Kat and Tim King of Land2c Landscape Architecture were up to the vision and the job. But not without a major excavation, safety considerations like replacement and widening of steps, a new irrigation system, night lighting and lots of carefully considered plantings. We needed to create a new topography by berming the slope originally it was flat and then a big drop-off, explains Tim.

Tim is a landscape architect who specializes in crafting a smooth flow between house and garden. Kat focuses on color, plantings and decorative garden elements. She chose and placed every plant in the garden, except for the stately old sequoia that sold the family on the property in the first place. Lit up at night, the rough-barked old giant holds pride of place among a bevy of new plantings burgeoning up around it.

But first, masses of blackberries needed to be removed at the bottom of the garden to carve out level space for a stone patio, a fire pit, benches and Adirondack chairs. This is now the familys favorite spot to hang out. Leslie, the mom, speaks for the whole family when she says, We love camping, and when were down in the garden around the fire pit, it almost feels like were out camping.

The garden was designed to be looked down upon from the deck high above, with three arbors, art and a dramatically curving stone pathway. It works equally well as a space to stroll, hang out and enjoy the feeling of being submerged in the plantings. Its a place apart, quiet, private and enlivened by the familys five chickens, often let loose to peck their way around the garden.

The chickens are housed in a cleverly designed tansu of a chicken coop tucked beneath the steps down into the garden. Designed by Tim, and built by Bob Taylor (of Robert M. Taylor Construction), the coop is partially constructed of windows repurposed from one of the previous home remodels. There are built-in drawers for straw and food storage. The chickens have their own jungle gym, with perches and ramps to keep them busy when they arent out scouring the garden.

Luckily from both the chicken and the maintenance standpoints, Kat chose sturdy shrubs, ground covers and grasses to update, unify and simplify the garden. She planted them in generously scaled masses for great effect from above.

I dont like to see bare soil, she explains. At ground level, black mondo grass consorts with golden creeping Jenny and Sedum Angelina. The flowers of star jasmine cover the arbors and scent the garden, along with sweeps of lavender. Plantings of Japanese forest grass and the orange sedge Carex testacea run between stands of oak leaf hydrangea and Mount Vernon English laurel. And I love every evergreen fern there is, Kat says.

Leslie loves shades of green, so Kat included plenty of feather reed grass; laced the old fence with trumpet vines; and planted a big-leafed, spreading fatsia in the shade beneath the sequoia. Originally, Leslie wasnt much of a gardener. The easy-care beauty of her new garden has changed her mind.

I used to be scared of gardening, of killing plants, but now I love caring for them, she says.

After all the stonework (done by Rich Landscaping in Redmond) and hauling in 20 yards of good soil, Leslie, husband Justin, his mother and Kat did all the planting.

Justin and I wanted to take it from there, says Leslie. Now we take care of the garden.

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Landscapers are Kings of the hill on Queen Anne - The Seattle Times

Keene Lake at the base of Spruce Hill in Keene, reappeared for several days after Tropical Storm Irene ripped through the area in 2011.(Provided photo Joe Hackett)

After witnessing the incredible power and natural force ofheavy rains, blizzards, floods and electrical storms, I can empathize with residentsof Texas and other southern states who have recently weathered the great damage natural events can deliver in the blink of an eye.

Tropical Storm Irene was the most memorable storm to ravage theAdirondack region in recent times. The heavy rains and winds in excess of 60 to 70 miles per hour certainly left a mark and scoured the mountaintops.

Ive witnessed a variety of violent weather events like this over the years, but the Adirondacks still remains a relatively safe and stable environment for the most part. Ive seen considerable damage from blowdowns, ice storms and high winds.

Quite possibly, the greatest threat Ive encountered in the wild came from a natural source. It was theresult of a severe electrical storm that shattered and toppled several massive white pines in close proximity to our camp. As the storm intensified, we huddled in a lean-to in order to minimize the riskof falling limbs and toppling trees.

The incident occurred early in my career, while I was hosting a couple for a weekend of camping and climbing in the Dix Range. After summiting several peaks including East Dix, South Dix and Hough on the first day, we settled in for the night at a shelter near Dix Pond. As rains intensified, we watched a small stream near our shelter turn into a loud, frothing, whitewater torrent.

We shifted nervously as the stream breached its banks and flooded thesurrounding woods. The noise of boulders rolling down the stream-bed nearly drowned out the roaring waters as the rumbling vibrations rattled the floor of the structure.

Although the rain eventually let up, the trails remained full of water and footing was treacherous. Our trip back to Elk Lake ended up being a full-day affair Ill never forget.

However, after speaking with my relatives in Victoria, Texas, recently, the experience in the Dix Range was simply a walk in the park by comparison. They suffered through three sleepless nights in the dark, without water to drink or a house to sleep in.

The storm that had stagnated over Victoria for 24 straight hours deposited more than 8 feet of water on the city. The once vibrant city has been reduced to a vast wasteland, with boats providing the only traffic on roads that remain flooded.

It reminded me of the frantic hours that were spent with friends and family cleaning up in the aftermath of Irene in 2011.

In comparison with the devastation brought on by Hurricane Harvey, Irene was a mere spring shower. However, it certainly didnt seem so at the time.

On the morning after Irene, I traveled from Ray Brook to Elizabethtown to help out with recovery efforts in Elizabethtown. During the ride over through the Cascades and over Spruce Hill,the damage rapidly became apparent.

Roads had washed away and bridges were out. The historic Keene Lake reappeared at the foot of Spruce Hill. The storm transformed the entire landscape leaving wide scars on the surrounding hillsides and rerouting many miles of rivers and streams.

The results left no doubt about the forces of nature.

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Destructive forces of nature - The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

HELENA, Mont. The main building of an historic, backcountry chalet in Glacier National Park in northern Montana burned in a wildfire Thursday evening.

The two-story Sperry Chalet was lost despite efforts by firefighters to protect it and save it, fire officials said.

The firefighters, supported by 3 helicopters, made a valiant stand to save the structure but were unsuccessful in saving the main Sperry Chalet, according to a statement posted on a federal fire website.

No one was hurt, and firefighters were working to save other buildings of the chalet. The chalet had been closed since Aug. 15 because of the fire.

The Sperry Chalet was built in 1913 by the Great Northern Railway, the St. Paul railroad founded by James J. Hill and later led by his son, Louis W. Hill.

The Hills and the Great Northern worked to promote Glacier National Park as a tourist destination served by the railroads route from the Twin Cities to Seattle. The Sperry Chalet and other buildings constructed in Glacier by the Great Northern were modeled on Swiss architecture as part of a plan to portray the park as Americas Switzerland.

The chalet was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Elsewhere in Montana, a wind-driven wildfire ripped through parched forest and grasslands in southeastern Montana, threatening 35 homes and structures and forcing the evacuation of an undetermined number of residents scattered in the area, officials said Thursday.

The fire that started in the Custer National Forest about 35 miles northwest of Broadus on Wednesday burned at least 47 square miles in a single day.

Authorities issued evacuation orders for the ranches and houses that dot the landscape in the direction the fire is heading. It is unclear how many people are affected by the order, but fire officials say 35 homes and other structures are threatened.

Its growing exponentially, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Mark Jacobson. A lot of those people are sparse and spread out.

Its one of 45 fires that ignited Wednesday in Montana, where more than 90 percent of the land is in moderate to exceptional drought. Many of the new ignitions were caused by lightning strikes from a passing thunderstorm that carried little rain.

Unrelenting wind gusts caused the fire to spread too fast for crews to establish containment lines initially, and crews focused on protecting the buildings in the fires path.

Wind gusts and low humidity hampered firefighting efforts again on Thursday.

A 20-person crew and equipment arrived Thursday to help the 70 people working on the fire, but firefighting resources are stretched and are being diverted to catch new fires before they spread, Jacobson said.

We have a lot of other fires that are popping up all around this fire, he said. The situation is rapidly evolving. Theyre doing their best with what they have.

Montana officials plan to nearly triple the number of National Guard troops deployed to fight fires by the end of the weekend. Those 350 soldiers will work on fire lines, firefighting aircraft and provide security in fire zones, Adjutant Gen. Matthew Quinn said.

With personnel and equipment scarce across the nation, those troops could free up other firefighters to focus on keeping small blazes from turning into large ones, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director John Tubbs said.

We need people on the ground fighting fire and weve asked the Montana Guard to step up, he said.

So far this year, more than 1,500 fires have burned 937 square miles in Montana as the state suffers a drought that intensifies each week. The fires have already drained the states firefighting reserve fund and an emergency fund, and there is no end in sight for the hot, dry weather that the fires are feeding on.

In northern Montana, a wildfire burning between Havre and the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation has destroyed five cabins, five other structures and is threatening another 130 buildings, Hill County officials said.

Residents in the area have been notified that they may have to evacuate if the 17-square-mile spreads. It was uncontained as of Thursday afternoon.

In western Montana, fire crews continued to hold the line against a blaze that was threatening Seeley Lake. More than 1,000 homes and businesses in the town are under evacuation orders.

Link:
Wildfire torches Glacier National Park chalet built by James J. Hill - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

Dozens of people endured hellish heat Thursday morning in front of the bright, orange arch of Los Angeles iconic Angels Flight, for what many of them called a short, yet significant train ride to local history heaven.

The ride was amazing! It felt great, a perspiring L.A. Mayor Eric Garctti told a crowd of reporters after he and City Councilman Jose Huizar rode the first car of the morning up downtowns Bunker Hill.

On a hot day like today, its a perfect day to ride Angels Flight, he added. Theres a couple of historic bumps. The historic bumps are part of it. But it felt very safe, very secure.

The funky little funicular that carried Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to the top of downtown L.A. in the movie La La Land reopened to the general public Thursday morning. Dubbed the worlds shortest public railroad, Angels Flight will resume doing what it first did on New Years Eve 1901, ferrying riders up and down the citys stunningly steep Bunker Hill. A round trip cost a penny back then. It will now cost a $1 per round trip, or .50 cents with a TAP card.

For Whittier resident Ron Cherryholmes, the railway carries a special place in his heart and blood: his great-, great-, great-grandfather Col. J.W. Eddy built Angels Flight, which operates by using the counterbalancing weights of its cars to pull one up while the other descends.

Its a landmark, Cherryholmes said. People always link Los Angeles with it. Were so honored to be a part of it.

The railway has long made its mark as part of downtown Los Angeles historic landscape, even being mentioned in John Fantes American classic Ask the Dust. But its own journey has been one of stops and gos.

It closed in 1969 for a decades-long redevelopment project that saw Bunker Hills mansions replaced by high-rise office buildings, hotels, luxury apartments and museums.

Four years after it reopened in 1996 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It was closed again in 2001, however, after a failure of the counterbalancing system caused a crash that killed one rider and injured several others. The railway finally reopened in 2010, only to be closed three years later after riders had to be rescued by firefighters. No one was hurt, but a subsequent investigation revealed numerous safety flaws, and the state Public Utilities Commission shut the railway down.

Thursdays reopening came about with a little push from the film La La Land. Stone and Gosling climbed aboard it for a scene that depicted a romantic nighttime ride.

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By the time the Oscar-nominated film was released last year, officials were considering plans to reopen Angels Flight. But the movie seemed to give them added incentive. While it was closed, the public had to use an adjacent steep, smelly, trash-strewn stairway.

La La Land was the last straw, laughed local historian and preservation activist Richard Schave. It was like, OK, we have to get a yes on this now.

Schave and his wife, Kim Cooper, had launched a popular petition drive to reopen the railway after an ugly graffiti attack damaged its two antique rail cars in 2015.

That sentiment was repeated again and again among riders, who said it was Angels Flight that solidified their love affair with the City of Angels.

Donovan Sinohue of Yorba Linda was so excited to ride Angels Flight he dressed in an early 20th century white period suit. His great-, great- grandfather worked to pave the streets of Los Angeles. His grandfather, a World War II vet and Native American code talker, worked with the Los Angeles Unified School District and his father worked for the Department of Transportation. Sinohue works in the citys election division. He said he worked to get the word out about Angels Flight opening because of his own history with Los Angeles. He said he was honored to have a small part in a big operation.

Steven Luftman and Karen Smalley, a couple from Central Los Angeles historic Carthay neighborhood, said they appreciated the citys efforts in preserving Angels Flight. Luftman, a Los Angeles native, said he hadnt been on Angels Flight for 20 years.

This kind of historic romantic old L.A. is why I was drawn to coming here from New York 20 years ago, Smalley added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

See more here:
LA's iconic Angels Flight railway climbs Bunker Hill once again - LA Daily News

NEW DELHI: The government has stated that safety standards in the cleaning of sewer and septic tanks are alarmingly low across the country in the wake of 10 people falling prey to cleaning sewers in a month in the capital.

A review of the "Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013" (MS Act) has found that there is no information available about the cases lodged for engaging sanitation workers in "hazardous cleaning". Engaging sanitation workers without safety equipment is barred by the MS Act.

Without any official data from states, Union social justice ministry has said that 70 cases of deaths of persons in sewers and septic tanks have come to their notice from activists and press reports.

While the ministry took up these incidents with the states, there were no report from their side about action against those responsible except in one or two cases.

Importantly, six states have reported figures of "sewerage deaths" in the context of having paid the compensation to victim families which the SC had made mandatory through a judgement in 2014.

Tamil Nadu has reported 144 deaths, Punjab 18, Karnataka 57, UP 37 and Kerala 12. However, even these figures are not exhaustive and may be just the tip of the iceberg.

See the rest here:
'Sewer deaths rampant, states refuse to report' - Times of India

Bit by bit, homeowners' land in Plantersville is being saved from forced tax sales.

Theresa White came to the predominantly Gullah community of Jackson Village in the Plantersville area of Georgetown County on Monday, Aug. 28, with a big check - and four smaller pieces of paper that mean a lot.

She's executive director and founder of the Pan-African Family Empowerment Network at St. Helena Island in Beaufort County.

White has been to Plantersville before, helping save the homes of seven families by paying taxes and fees for those who would otherwise lose their property to forced tax sales. The total amount she broughtAug. 28 was $10,870.30.

Shell be back again Saturday, Sept. 2, when she joins the Rev. Ben Grate and others for a protest rally against similar tax sales and a $250 annual sewer assessment fee that is to be paid every year for 20 years.

Unwanted project

When White met with three of the four people whose property her group redeemed from the forced tax sale, they each said they didnt need and didnt want the sewer project that they said was forced on them.

Aug. 28 was a rainy day as White traveled about 150 miles from Beaufort to Grate's home in Jackson Village.

That community, along with Annie Village, St. Pauls and Bromell Town all part of Plantersville are in an area where the Georgetown County Water and Sewer District put in a sewer system a few years ago.

A process starting about 2006 was designed to bring a sewer system to an area that the GCWSD and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said had failing septic tank systems. They were so bad, a DHEC report asserted at the time, that two of those traditional Gullah "village" areas were in danger of imminent health hazards.

People opposed to the sewer system and to development were vocal during a series of meetings in 2006 and 2007 about both the sewer project and county-wide zoning.

Several plantation owners and others pooled their money and paid for repairs or replacements to about 20 individual failing septic systems.

Over time, the GCWSD through its meetings and mailings to property owners secured signatures on agreements that gave it a go-ahead for the project.

Since that time, however, many landowners said they didnt know what they were agreeing to when they signed documents. Others say they never signed and didnt think they should have to pay for a sewer system they didnt need and didnt want.

Just repaired the septic system

Truman Morant grew up in Plantersville, and has been living in a house on property belonging to his dad for 10 years.

I had just had mine (septic tank) redone. I spent about $1,200 for repairs, Morant said. About one or two years later, they said you have to tie in to the sewer system.

He couldnt pay the $3,600 connection fee at once, so $150 per month was added to his water bill.

Morant, his wife, fivechildren and one grandchild live in the home.

Because of tough financial situations, almost $4,000 in taxes, sewer assessment and fees were due.

The property was getting ready to go to the tax sale, he said.

When the public meetings were held a decade ago, he wasnt able to attend because of his work at the container plant for International Paper Co. His wife and dad went to the meetings.

My father and sister are (now) also facing the possibility of a tax sale of their property, he said.

Morant was greatly relieved Aug. 28 when White brought a check for $3,789.30.

Thank you, Jesus, because I didnt have the money to pay it, he said. "Me hearing about this (payment) was the best thing I heard.

Because of the heavy rain on Aug. 28 and other factors, White didnt reach Plantersville until about 6:30 p.m.

She met the people her PAFEN group was helping and then on Aug. 29, she went to the Georgetown County Treasurers Office to pay the four bills.

Didnt sign

Jamie Moore, 41, is a single mom with three children who has lived in her house for almost her whole life.

I didnt have a failing septic tank, Moore said. I actually stood in the way to keep them from digging a hole, because I didnt need sewer.

Moore said she keeps hearing about "majority rules, but believes she shouldn't have been forced into this situation.

The land is in my sisters name. She still hasnt signed a paper," said Moore, adding that her sister was serving in the military service in Colorado at the time the GCWSD agreements were in the mail.

My uncle Earle went down there, and told them they couldnt put it there, Moore said. "The water and sewer bill comes to her. Three years ago, the house caught on fire. They condemned the house."

Despite the condemnation, the sewer bill still comes.

I can pay $100 a year to clean out my septic tank. I cannot pay for the sewer," Moore said. "I didnt tell them to put sewer there. I didnt need it. My septic is working fine."

My question is, how can they put something on another persons property?

Moore is grateful for the help from donors who made the checks through PAFEN available. The amount White brought to redeem Moore's home was $2,610.30.

When asked, what about next years taxes and fees?, Moore said My sister is going to try to get it removed.

Didnt know about assessment

Rochelle Grate and her husband and child have been in their home in Jackson Village for 11 years. She grew up in Plantersville.

My septic tank is fine," Rochelle Grate said. "I just had gotten it when the sewer lines were put in.

She went to the meetings in the community about the sewer project.

At the time, we had a grant. They said it was necessary because of drainage and everything, Rochelle Grate said. "I didnt find out about the $250 (annual) assessment until they started putting stickers on the door.

That was a notice that the house was subject to being sold because of the unpaid fees and taxes.

I thought it was something where they made a mistake,Rochelle Grate said. I didnt hear about the sewer fee until the first part of the year when they started saying they were going to sell my home. There was no way I could pay that amount of money.

White brought a check for $2,052.30 to redeem Rochelle Grates property and keep it from going to a tax sale.

My husband is disabled so we didnt pay taxes. The water is in with the in-laws. But yet, still, I have to pay sewer, Rochelle Grate said. Going forward, Im going to have to deal with it the best way I can. Ill see if I can figure something out.

Another homeowner, Joseph Enoch, wasnt able to be there to meet White. The taxes and fees her organization paid on his behalf totaled $2,418.20.

Record day

This is the most weve done in one day, White said Aug. 28.

Not only was that important for the for these homeowners, but it was also the fourth anniversary of when her group was organized.

The Pan-African Family Empowerment Network was founded to commemorate two major events the March on Washington (Aug. 28, 1963) and a 1992 Pan African event in Savannah, Georgia.

People from all over the world came to that event.

That was the first time I ever heard the word Gullah, White said. We never knew that word when I was growing up. We were familiar with Geechee.

Whites been working in Beaufort, Colleton and now Georgetown counties to help people facing loss of their homes because of taxes and fees.

Previously, shes made two other trips to help save or redeem land for three others in the Plantersville area.

Overall, PAFEN has helped save more than $2.5 million of property at their assessed values.

We are going to help people in other places, she said.

Evelyn Bromell, who also lives in the Plantersville area, is going to be helping the organization with fund raising efforts.

White said they will keep the GoFundMe account but are looking for other ways to raise money.

Protest rally

The Rev. Ben Grate, White and others will be speaking and sharing with community members at a protest rally Saturday, Sept. 2, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The rally will be held at the Plantersville community park on Jackson Village Road, next to the Plantersville Community Center at 1458 Exodus Road.

Along with flyers in the community, Grates contacted people who live in other states about the rally, asking them to come to Plantersville on Sept. 2.

Grate led a protest in July 2016 on the steps of the State Capitol in Columbia about the sewer project, and he will update people at the rally on efforts to protest the sewer assessment, zoning and other difficulties.

Hes also filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over the sewer project. He will share information about his complaint during the rally.

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Gullah Lives: PAFEN saves three more Plantersville properties - South Strand news

Floodwaters carry harmful bacteria and other disease agents from overflowing sewer and septic systems and farmyards as well as toxic spills from manufacturing sites. Hazardous objects and displaced wildlifecan hide in floodwaters. Hazards can float indebris piles, too, including rafts of fire ants. Heed public warnings wherever you are working, including boil water notices.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials urge volunteers to wear protective clothing, including rubber boots and gloves, to limit exposure to bacteria and other infectious diseases, such as typhoid.Avoid putting your hands near your face when working.

And don't poke the fire ant pile, since that will trigger a swarm.

In addition, be sure the main power source to anyhome or business is turned off to limit risk of electrocution, particularly if the building flooded above theelectrical outlets. An electrician should evaluate whether wires and plugs need to be replaced before turning the power back on.

If you need more information on how to clean and disinfect a home or business, consult reliable sources, such as theFEMA website.

Sources: Environmental Protection Agency, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas A&M University and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

What do you want to know? Email your question for Insight Denton to pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.

FEATURED PHOTO: Menion Brock and Michelle Green clean up their home, damaged by floodwaters of Tropical Storm Harvey, in the Parkway Forest subdivision of Houston. AP File Photo

Originally posted here:
Insight Denton: I'm headed to Houston to help clean up. Just how dirty is that flood water? - Denton Record Chronicle

Four years ago, Parliament passed a law that bans human beings from manually cleaning sewers and septic tanks. However, as the increasing number of fatalities of sanitation workers in sewers across India makes clear, this law is honoured more in the breach.

In the national capital Delhi alone, 10 people died in four separate incidents between July 15 and August 20 after they were sent without any safety equipment to clean sewers and tanks. Of them, some died when they jumped in to rescue fellow workers who had collapsed inside after inhaling toxic gases.

There is no political will to implement the law, said Bezwada Wilson, national convener of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a human rights organisation that has been campaigning for the complete eradication of manual scavenging. It is not only in Delhi, it has been so in the entire country. Nobody seems concerned about the dignity of the underprivileged ones who get the dirty job done risking their lives.

Wilson pointed out that there is still no official national database for such deaths. Data collected by the Safai Karmachari Andolan revealed that this year alone, across India, at least 90 workers lost their lives an average of 11 people a month while cleaning sewers, drains and septic tanks.

Following the deaths of sanitation workers in the national capital over July and August, the Delhi government announced that all sewer cleaning would henceforth only be done using machines. But it is yet to draw up an action plan for this proposal, whose implementation is likely to face a number of challenges. Besides the apathy that Wilson referred to, Delhis drains, sewers and storm water drains are managed by multiple authorities who, in turn, outsource sewer cleaning work to several third-party contractors making it difficult to monitor them.

Section 7 of The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, prohibits persons from being engaged or employed for the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. However, the Act is silent about alternative methods to get the job done. In December 2013, the Government of India came up with the Rules for this law that mention the mechanical equipment and devices that should be used for this work. The Rules also lay down guidelines for emergency situations that might demand human intervention in the cleaning process.

However, the Rules do not define what would constitute an emergency situation. Human rights activists say that this ambiguity is often exploited by contractors to hire people for hazardous cleaning work. This works out to be cheaper than buying or hiring machines for the contractors, but is risky for the workers.

Delhi has a multi-level drainage system that is handled by different agencies. While the smaller colony drains come under the jurisdiction of the municipal corporations, the sewer network comes under the Delhi Jal Board, the storm water drains on the main roads and sewer systems inside government premises are maintained by the Public Works Department, and the canal-sized drains are maintained by the Delhi governments Department of Irrigation and Flood Control.

To clean drains under their jurisdiction, municipal agencies employ both nala beldaars (designated drain cleaners on their payrolls) and contract labourers. On paper, the work is fully mechanised. But things differ on the ground.

Cleaning of municipal drains often requires manual intervention as most contractors do not have the necessary machines, said Rajendra Mewati, leader of a sanitation workers union in the city. They do not hesitate to ask sanitation workers to clean the filth manually and the poor men seldom reject the work as they see some extra money coming.

The cleaning of bigger drains and sewers that are maintained by state government agencies is mostly outsourced to contractors.

Wilson said that here too, mechanisation remains on paper. While equipment like jetting and suction machines and safety gear for sanitation workers in case of emergency situations remain there as mandatory on paper, they fail to materialise on the ground, he said.

In the four incidents reported in Delhi over July and August in which 10 workers died, the sanitation workers were found to be doing their jobs without any safety gear. While the employers in two of the cases were private individuals, the police found it difficult to pin responsibility in the other two cases. In these cases, three people died while cleaning a sewer line in South Delhis Lajpat Nagar, which is maintained by the Delhi Jal Board, and one worker died while cleaning a sewer in the premises of the Lok Nayak Hospital in Central Delhi that is maintained by the Public Works Department. Cases of negligence causing death were registered in all cases, but the contractors in the Lajpat Nagar and Lok Nayak Hospital cases are absconding. Delhi Police officials said that the government agencies in these two cases tried to absolve themselves of responsibility claiming they had no knowledge of how contractors were getting the cleaning work done. The police finally arrested a junior Delhi Jal Board engineer and a storekeeper at Lok Nayak Hospital in connection with these cases even as the search for the absconding contractors continues.

These cases have brought to light how the hazardous process of sewer and drain cleaning in the city remains largely unmonitored, said a senior government official who did not wish to be identified. The agencies are now mulling over preparing lists of authorised contractors and training them on the mechanised process. So far, there is no such organised list and no record of action taken against errant contractors. No one was bothered until these cases happened.

For its mechanisation plan, the Delhi government is looking at a model Hyderabad adopted earlier this year in which the citys municipal water supply and sewerage board tied up with the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and provided a group of sanitation workers with small sewer jetting machines, and trained them how to use them. These machines use high pressure jets to clear obstructions in drains and sewers. The people who have been trained, many of whom have manually cleaned drains for years, now oversee the sewer cleaning process in their areas.

We are considering the Hyderabad plan, Delhi Water Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said on Monday. This weekend, teams from Hyderabad were invited to Delhi and we had long discussions on the matter. Just give us some time, we are chalking out a scientific action plan.

But on August 22, a day after Delhi announced 100% mechanisation of sewer and drain cleaning work, the government seemed to backtrack on its mechanisation proposal a little. There are areas where machines cannot reach, said Water Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam. In cases where human intervention is required, Delhi Jal Board officials will supervise the work. Workers will be sent in only after equipping them with safety gear.

This did not go down well with human rights activists.

In an age when machines are being sent to Mars, how can any government agency claim that there are areas in the city in which sewer cleaning machines cannot be sent, asked Wilson.

However, while speaking to Scroll.in on Monday, Gautam shared new plans through which the Delhi government plans to ensure that machines, and not people, cleaned the citys sewers.

Smaller machines and longer suction pipes will be arranged for congested areas, and all future tenders of sewer cleaning shall be floated keeping such requirements in mind, he said. We are aiming at making sewer cleaning in Delhi a 100% mechanised and organised process in which all parties involved will be registered and proper accountability is established at each stage.

Wilson pointed out that smaller machines have been around for a while now and could have been used earlier too. Everything comes back to the question of political will, he emphasised. It is sad that it took them so many deaths to wake up.

But even if the government succeeds in ensuring that machines are brought in for cleaning work, will they necessarily work in all situations?

This brings the focus to the larger issue of garbage that clogs up big and small drains and sewers across the country.

A senior Public Works Department official pointed out that storm water drains in Delhi are clogged with solid waste such as construction material and plastic. He said suction machines fail to work in these conditions, which inevitably demand manual intervention. It is a failure at multiple levels in which multiple agencies play their roles, the official said. A 100% mechanisation plan will never materialise unless such inefficiencies are addressed.

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Can Delhi really implement its plan to fully mechanise drain and sewer cleaning? - Scroll.in

Mike Gleason Daily News Staff @MGleason_MDN

BELLINGHAM - The town has revised a proposed project that would bring sewer service to the Wethersfield neighborhood, and will look to speak to residents in the coming months.

The Board of Selectmen decided the narrow the scope of the project after seeking feedback from those who live on certain streets within the neighborhood.

Town Administrator Denis Fraine said the board had opted to remove Wethersfield Road and Kathy Drive from the project, citing resident disinterest. Town officials had noted that, as those areas are less dense, the cost for adding sewer there would be higher per household.

Though officials had also considered cutting Monique Drive, Fraine said those residents had shown enough of an interest that the street was retained within the project.

Fraine said there will be an informational meeting for the neighborhood as a whole at Bellinghan High School on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.

Selectmen Chairman Michael Soter said the meeting would discuss the scope of the project, project the betterment costs for neighborhood houses and gauge support for the work.

"To me, the pulse of the neighborhood is very 50-50," he said, noting the project will not pass if there is no local groundswell. "It's up to the people to decide, not the Board of Selectmen."

Soter said residents of the neighborhood had approached him in the past, asking the town to consider sewers in Wethersfield. The lot sizes in the neighborhood are small, he said, and septic systems cut into the usable portion of residents' plots. He said, beyond that, a sewer hookup generally makes a house more valuable to potential buyers.

A proposed Taunton Street rebuild forced the issue, Soter said. As the main sewer line would be under that road, the sewer expansion would either have to take place during that project, or be put on hold for years.

Mike Gleason can be reached at 508-634-7546 or mgleason@wickedlocal.com. For news throughout the day, follow him on Twitter @MGleason_MDN.

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Bellingham board revises scope of sewer expansion - Milford Daily News

Athens City Council voted Monday to approve an ordinance finalizing an agreement between the city and Athens County for the city to provide sewer-collection and treatment services to a portion of the county southwest of Athens thats currently plagued with failing septic systems.

Embedded in the agreement is a requirement that no more than 4 percent of the 1,500 equivalent single-family units (ESFU) taps in the area of the sewer district expansion (roughly defined as the Athens-to-Albany corridor, though including spurs from that area) will be for commercial uses, and no more than 1 percent of those taps will be for industrial uses.

Any additional taps beyond (those limits for the 1,500 ESFUs) must be subject to a separate future agreement between the county and the city, the agreement reads.

City Engineer Andy Stone explained that the sewer-expansion project on the countys part is meant to solve a pollution problem that exists right now and is a significant public-health and environmental concern. The project has been on the countys radar for over 20 years, after the Ohio EPA sent a notice in 1995 detailing environmental concerns related to the use of septic-tank systems in rural areas southwest of the city of Athens that were seeing substantial residential growth, specifically in subdivision development.

The Athens City-County Health Department has called failing septic systems in that area, and other parts of the county, one of the biggest public-health issues facing the county. Since 1995, the county Commissioners have been moving by fits and starts toward a plan to install a central sanitary sewer collection system.

Its not an economic development project to where we (the city) are looking to promote a bunch of growth out there, Stone clarified. The city is concerned about too much growth out there versus in the city, because the city has an income tax and would prefer to have economic development inside the city limits. Were not going to be party to a sewage system thats going to incentivize business to move outside the city.

County Commissioner Lenny Eliason said in a brief interview Wednesday morning a public meeting will be held the last week of September on the sewer expansion project. At that meeting, he said, the Commissioners expect to reach a decision on whether or not to proceed with the rest of the project. An engineering firm for the county already has designed 60 percent of the project, and the Commissioners are awaiting further information from the federal government on how much of the project will be grant-funded. The Commissioners are hoping for a 60 percent loan/40 percent grant split for the $20 million project. The loan/grant split is a key piece of information for the commissioners as they are concerned about the projects affordability for residents. They previously set a benchmark that the per-month sewer bill rate for homeowners in the project area should not exceed $79.

The county will pay for extension of sanitary sewer lines from three separate points in the city of Athens sewer lines.

Other regulations spelled out in the city-county agreement include:

If the sewage being treated by the city coming from the county expansion exceeds 2.1 million gallons per day on nine separate occasions per year, the city can direct the county to design and construct additional treatment facilities.

The county will pay a $3,000 per equivalent single-family-home capacity fee.

Stone stressed that the city wants to help improve sewer services in the region, but must protect its own interests.

Its a project to address an existing pollution problem to protect the environment, he said. Thats our number one concern. Right now, Margarets Creek and the Hocking River are really suffering pollution from failing septic systems.

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Commercial/industrial taps limited in county sewer project - Athens NEWS