That is a bunch of Sh#%!

That is a bunch of Sh#%!

“Sounds like a lot of crap to me!” said the XO. 

“Did you know that their building has had sewage actually back up all over their floor last night?”

“This is the sixth time this has happened to those guys in that building.  Can we move them to another building?”

Question: Why wasn’t that recommended or offered to us the first time it happened?  Is this the first indication of an issue of sewage or drainage problems here at “The Great Place”?

Well, the one building (newly renovated) housing officers had non-working toilets and an overflow.  But wait!  There is more!  They also had two non-working showers for several days a few weeks ago.  That required a couple days of “warranty” work and the result was there was a coke bottle found in the sewage line. 

What was the first accusation?  “Which one of your guys put a coke bottle down the drain?”  First response:  “Are you kidding me?  You don’t let us off post, we can’t buy a coke bottle product (they are all cans) and how would we fit a bottle into the sewer lines if we wanted to?”

Do sewage problems seem unique?  During the “Great Flood” at the “Great Place” during the summer there were about 10 inches of rainfall in 24 hours.  The airfield (it has a runway and they recently poured about 90 concrete parking pads for helicopters) is called “Longhorn”.  They also poured concrete pads for portable maintenance hangars which are about 8 inches above the ground.  That flooded the whole place and rose above the poured pads, floated away the portable toilets and destroyed $500,000.00 of aviation equipment.  Who would have thought that you would build a maintenance hangar and pad and not lift it above the flood zone?  The area drains into a local small river visible when flying, but who would’a, could’a or should’a known it would be in a flood plain? 

But wait!  There is MORE!  The sewage system which flows downhill and the lowest spot is between the two airfields (the other is called “Short Horn”).  The Bachelor Quarters (see first post or two) all use this sewage system and is used by both male and female officers.  The inoculations for small pox (a live virus) required changing bandages daily as the pus drained and eventually scabbed over.  It was considered okay to flush these bandages down the drain as a suitable method of disposing of biological waste (they have changed the method to placing the bandages into a plastic baggie and when full throwing your plastic bag in the trash.  In California this is all considered biological waste and must be placed in red bags and they are then disposed of by companies who have a license to dispose of medical waste).  But we are in Texas!

The rain, rain, rain came down, down, down in rising, rushing riv’lets…and filled the sewer line completely.  The tops blew off of the two lowest manhole covers (probably because the sewer line joined and blocked up backwards) and it was all red, white and brown.  White smallpox bandages, red and white feminine products and of course the brown remains of the previous weeks meals.  It was cleaned up and the covers restored.

In their efforts to fix the latest problem at the barracks they apparently accidentally aggravated the problem.  It was cleaned and then it would reclog and be cleaned and then reclog and now…they are going to fix it tomorrow. The Soldiers have been moved to another barracks and the last DFAC in the row has been closed.

“I don’t know why they are so surprised.  They knew this sewer line was collapsed before Christmas!” allegedly said the first plumber today.

I have owned a little rental property in my days and as a land lord you are liable for everything.  But here in the “Great Place” there isn’t a rental management company to talk about the rights of tenants; there are no lawyers looking for a tort and there is little evidence remaining of a small chocolate river down at the last barracks at the end of HQ Road.