City Sewer ?? Whats that ? Private septic.

The pipe is insulated and has a heat tape on it. It's too cold to do any good. Just a waste of electricity.

No room to pour anything down the drain.

Pipe in the ground is insulated and heat taped. Can't dig much deeper or you're into the water table.

The insulated pipe also has blue 2" styrofoam over it prior to burial.

This is the first time it's ever frozen.

K : Always pump prior to vacation. If frozen, get a _hit stick from Shorty and it will thaw in several hours, since it's just the top layer that's frozen. Don't ask how I know - ok I tell you. Arizona doctors who don't listen .

Oh , my GOD!!!! Please tell me your Septic Tank is made out of Concrete and not LOGS!!

9er; I doubt that the crib itself is frozen, just the pipe leading in. I'll bet you were happy with that guy.

CB:

At over $500 per yard for concrete no one has a concrete septic tank on the west side of the Alaska Range.

I was thinking of those Pre-cast Concrete Septic Tanks. I would look at it purely from the Health and Safety aspect, I.E. protecting the well water from contamination, that would be the way to go.

A 1,000 gallon one compartment tank would weigh in at around 8,700 lbs.

I know for a fact that there are grants for new Septic Systems. I am pretty sure that a grant would pay for the whole thing .

It would be another 8700 to get it here

And the Grant would probably cover the whole thing !!

I think if that was the case the city here would have done it long ago.

What they should do, is get a Grant Writer to seek out this funding for a project like that. I remember when the CDBG funding announcement was sent out. We were all asked what projects we thought would be worth submitting for possible grant money. There was 3 proposals. I submitted the idea for 2 Stand-by Natural Gas electric generators for the Town Water Wells. Of those three proposals that were submitted , mine was the only one that year to be approved. It was a project that came to total over $43,000.

It can be done, it just takes patience to work through all the paperwork that needs to be submitted.

People here who do have manufactured tanks all have two piece fiberglass ones. They run about 16k installed

You're a hoot!! lol

How about you find me a grant to get me a wind generator and all the bells and whistles that go with it to run my store and home here?

Wolfwoman:


1. Are you located in a place that has a lot of wind ?

2. Near a Main Highway ?

3. Near any High Voltage Powerlines ??

If you are , you might be able to work out a deal with a Wind Energy Company to place a Wind Turbine on your property. Depending on how the lease agreement is written, you could get enough money in yearly lease payments to cover your yearly electric bill.

Now, as to a private Wind Turbine, there are grants available to place one of these Turbines on a person's property. New York has Grants for them, I don't see why Alaska would not have something similar available too.

White17:

Does the McGrath Public Works Department have a Pipe Steamer ? That would melt that frozen clog within 30 minutes.

No they don't but one of the miners in town might. I have borrowed a hot water jet pump that self feeds down the pipe. I just need some warmer temps before crawling under the house to get started.


Ya know those huge wind turbines that are being constructed all over the place now ? Don't those things require electricity to get started ? If so, how much does it take to start one relative to how much they produce? Might be a net loss in the long run.

No, they don't require electricity to work. They produce electricity when they are turning. Requires an average of 5 MPH constant wind to turn the Turbine blades. They have a shutoff when the wind is over 55 MPH . I don't know how they would assemble them up North. The concrete pad or foundation that they would sit on, runs around 40 feet in diameter and depending the size of the Tower and the soil conditions, the thickness of the concrete pad can run anywhere from 7 feet to 15 feet.

Note: the foundation thickness listed above would be for a Commercial Wind Turbine that would generate 1.5 to 2 Mega Watts

That's a lot of mud. Soils would be a huge problem in many places up here.

Sounds like you better make another T.P. furnace instead of flushing. That one you made last year at your main line cabin looked to be working well.
Of course you might need to extend the stack if your gonna use it inside. Then again, at those temps, you might not want to lose the BTU's.

CB they did a study here a couple years ago and the wind blows a lot the end result was the wind turbines were not cost effective to put in. We are however seeing a few private individuals putting them in for their home two to be exact. The cash they had to put into them was somewhere in the 25-35K range. To much for me that's for sure
Now down on the AK peninsula they have one village that has put in a couple two or three of the things and it has helped not sure they are using them for all their electric needs or not

Good idea Barry. I can route the stack into the bathroom fan.

Yes yes and yes. How do I find these people?