Latest / Privycast / Cesspits and Septic Systems

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Cesspits and Septic Systems · Privycast

0:00
>> Speaker A: The last thing that I want as
0:03
a adjective attached to
0:06
that experience is seepage. I guess it's a
0:09
noun. My part of speeches have gotten screwed up,
0:12
but seepage is
0:14
bad.
0:20
Welcome back to privy. Privy is
0:23
a podcast about bathrooms
0:26
recorded from my home
0:29
bathroom. I'm your host, hunter
0:32
hoover, and I love bathrooms.
0:35
Welcome back, everyone. I'm so glad you're here. Hopefully,
0:38
uh, you survived pranking
0:40
season. If you had someone
0:44
light, uh, turds on fire on your door post,
0:46
that's not my fault. Um, I explicitly told
0:49
everybody not to do so.
0:51
>> Speaker B: Uh, so hopefully, they
0:54
heeded my warning there.
0:56
>> Speaker A: Um, yeah. Oh, shoot. I
0:59
got a text in a supply drop here. I
1:02
forgot the seltzer. I'm
1:05
going to have to grip and rip it here in a minute, so I'm going to need the
1:08
seltzer for that. You know what I'm saying?
1:12
As we start a new month here, um, the month
1:15
of April, I wanted to
1:17
just review the goals of the
1:20
rating and review system. So
1:23
the primary driving
1:26
force of the rating and review is in
1:28
the turn of the new year.
1:30
>> Speaker B: We wanted to do something to, um.
1:33
>> Speaker A: Help give back to those in some small
1:36
way who had gone before us. And as
1:39
we sat down to try to figure out, well, what do we do for that? Um,
1:42
what's a worthy cause? And there's plenty of them out there. And
1:45
I'm not saying that we pick.
1:46
>> Speaker B: The only thing that's worthy, but
1:49
I kind of landed on this notion and.
1:51
>> Speaker A: Connected to one of our sayings, thanks
1:54
to, um, Sam Bagenstaff.
1:56
>> Speaker B: Shout out to Sam, friend of the show here, um,
1:59
former guest, uh, is.
2:01
>> Speaker A: That we need to keep pooping in the free world.
2:04
>> Speaker B: Um, and something that came up was.
2:06
>> Speaker A: That the free world was not always free.
2:09
And you've heard me say this at.
2:10
>> Speaker B: The end of episodes, but I wanted.
2:12
>> Speaker A: To hit you at the beginning of this episode. Hopefully, you didn't.
2:15
>> Speaker B: Just plus ten buy it or plus 30 buy it,
2:18
or whatever your podcatcher does. Um, to
2:20
say that, please go leave.
2:23
>> Speaker A: Us a rating and review, um, for every one of
2:26
those we get. We are going to be donating some money
2:29
to the wounded warriors project.
2:30
>> Speaker B: I think we're up to about, um.
2:32
>> Speaker A: Almost $50 total for the
2:35
year.
2:35
>> Speaker B: Two, uh, thousand and 23 here, um.
2:37
>> Speaker A: Which ain't bad, but
2:40
we could really.
2:41
>> Speaker B: Get those ratings and reviews.
2:43
>> Speaker A: If you've already rated or reviewed the.
2:45
>> Speaker B: Show, share the show and tell others to do so.
2:48
>> Speaker A: We would love for those to go.
2:50
>> Speaker B: Up, um, and so we can get.
2:52
>> Speaker A: Some money sent that way.
2:52
>> Speaker B: The other thing that it does is.
2:54
>> Speaker A: When you rate and review the show, especially if you pick that five star.
2:57
>> Speaker B: Option, it helps others find the show.
2:59
>> Speaker A: I don't know how that works, but that's what I'm told. So
3:02
that's the goal here.
3:03
>> Speaker B: That's why at the end, I always.
3:05
>> Speaker A: Hit you with, hey, rate and review and all that stuff. And I
3:08
might not do that as.
3:09
>> Speaker B: Extensively this episode since I did it.
3:11
>> Speaker A: Here at the front. And I want to
3:14
note, so my
3:17
buddy, um, I can't
3:20
remember. Yeah. So
3:23
when I was growing up, I
3:26
used to get, um,
3:30
these Arizona teas. They were half
3:32
mango tea, half mango.
3:35
>> Speaker B: Juice, half iced tea. And I used to get one of.
3:37
>> Speaker A: Those with my dad. We would go mowing, and when we were done, we would
3:40
stop at the glacier gateway gas station in Vaughn,
3:43
Montana. Uh, and I would get myself
3:45
a.
3:47
>> Speaker B: Mango, uh, half and half iced tea from Arizona.
3:50
>> Speaker A: And sometime around 2011, just kind of.
3:53
Arizona quit not producing them. Um,
3:56
but they quit making those as readily available.
3:59
>> Speaker B: And I thought they were kind of gone forever. And I had
4:01
resolved myself to that.
4:03
>> Speaker A: Know, whenever I'm in Winco or whenever I stop
4:06
into a gas station, I always peek just in the
4:09
hopes that maybe I'm going to track one down. And
4:12
I haven't recently, but a
4:15
couple.
4:15
>> Speaker B: Weeks back, we were at an
4:18
Awana grand prix.
4:19
>> Speaker A: Uh, if you follow privy on social.
4:21
>> Speaker B: You saw, um, our race car,
4:24
uh.
4:25
>> Speaker A: For the grand prix. Um, we had the toilet on the back
4:27
representing there. And
4:30
my buddy Titus, again, another former guest of
4:33
the show, friend of the.
4:34
>> Speaker B: Show, Titus comes in with an
4:36
Arizona.
4:37
>> Speaker A: Mango half and half iced tea, and.
4:39
>> Speaker B: I almost lost my mind.
4:41
>> Speaker A: It's probably been twelve years since I've.
4:43
>> Speaker B: Sucked on this sweet nectar.
4:45
>> Speaker A: Um, I borderline stole this thing from
4:47
him.
4:48
>> Speaker B: I essentially sobstoried him until
4:51
he either.
4:52
>> Speaker A: Was sick of hearing it and just.
4:54
>> Speaker B: Gave it to me out of pity.
4:55
>> Speaker A: Or out of sheer. I'm done talking to this
4:58
guy Titus, a rad dude hooked me up with a
5:01
couple more.
5:01
>> Speaker B: I've already downed one, but
5:04
that first.
5:05
>> Speaker A: One, I'm confident, was outdated. And I'm not
5:08
saying this to disparage Titus, because it was his drink, and
5:11
I talked him out of it. But, man,
5:14
it really flew through me. Um, now, I felt
5:17
fine, it tasted delicious,
5:20
and I would do it again in a heartbeat. But
5:24
let the record show, uh, I.
5:26
>> Speaker B: Think it was about two years expired.
5:28
>> Speaker A: Which then I thought maybe they did
5:30
discontinue these, and that's why these are so
5:33
expired now. Uh, but it turns out
5:36
that's not the case. Arizona is still making this
5:39
beverage. Uh, the trick is you have to buy it off
5:42
Amazon. You can't buy it from Arizona directly.
5:44
>> Speaker B: Or apparently from most gas stations,
5:47
except.
5:47
>> Speaker A: For some tiny little gas station
5:50
convenience store in, I think, sweet home
5:53
Montana. Um, or, sorry, sweet
5:56
home Oregon.
5:59
Anyway, it's just, you know,
6:02
they're so
6:06
I, oh gosh, I went hog wild.
6:08
>> Speaker B: I'm too deep on these.
6:10
>> Speaker A: I'm fixing to buy myself a case off Amazon. Just pull
6:13
the trigger on it. You know what I'm saying?
6:15
Something that gets brought up a lot when I tell people
6:18
that I make a podcast about bathrooms is like,
6:21
well, what do you talk about? And something that
6:24
gets talked about a lot when we start talking
6:27
about bathrooms is how we're going
6:30
to deal with all that stuff. I
6:33
mean, nowadays the
6:36
things people eat truly are heinous and they're the
6:38
byproducts, and the byproducts are not much better.
6:41
I ate 18 peeps
6:44
today. My family and I did a peeps.
6:47
>> Speaker B: Taste testing of all the seasonal flavor of
6:50
peeps.
6:51
>> Speaker A: Um, and I did consume 18 peeps.
6:54
>> Speaker B: In about a five minute setting.
6:56
>> Speaker A: And I did feel absolutely terrible
6:59
afterwards.
7:00
>> Speaker B: Um, I'm here to tell you
7:02
definitively.
7:03
>> Speaker A: That the tropical peeps are a no fly.
7:06
I was literally crying. The tropical
7:09
peeps were so disturbing. But,
7:12
uh, I think my favorite was either just like
7:15
Dr. Pepper or cake. The fruit ones are a
7:17
miss for me, the fruit ones are a miss.
7:20
But imagine the types of byproducts I'm making
7:23
having eaten 18 peeps in one setting.
7:27
Most folks who live in an
7:30
urban.
7:30
>> Speaker B: Area or suburban setting have
7:33
their bathroom.
7:34
>> Speaker A: Hooked to a sewer line. And we have talked
7:37
at length about sewer systems. They're
7:39
great. Uh, I was listening to a podcast this
7:42
week.
7:42
>> Speaker B: They actually covered a topic that we've.
7:45
>> Speaker A: Already covered on the show, um, the
7:48
great stink, uh, of London.
7:50
And they were talking about how revolutionary
7:53
the sewer system and, um, Basil
7:56
get, I think was the guy's name who put that sewer
7:59
system in and revolutionized.
8:00
>> Speaker B: And helped deal with cholera in the area.
8:03
>> Speaker A: Sewers are really good.
8:04
>> Speaker B: They're great.
8:05
>> Speaker A: But the other alternative to a sewer system
8:10
and being hooked to that local
8:13
infrastructure is to
8:15
have a septic system
8:18
often featuring a tank on your
8:20
property for your toilets.
8:24
It has taken us a long time to
8:27
get to today's septic systems.
8:30
The septic system technology that we have.
8:32
>> Speaker B: In place today, it's pretty good.
8:35
>> Speaker A: Uh, but the history of it,
8:39
and we're going to look at the history.
8:40
>> Speaker B: Of septic systems, the history of our
8:43
septic systems is wrapped up in the.
8:46
>> Speaker A: History of cess pits.
8:49
>> Speaker B: The trouble is, the definition of
8:51
a.
8:52
>> Speaker A: Cess pit, besides being my
8:55
friend's bedroom.
8:57
>> Speaker B: Every time, dude, every time I went.
8:59
>> Speaker A: Everybody had this friend growing up where you
9:01
went over to their house and you go in their room and it's like,
9:04
do you have a floor? I can't find it.
9:08
It's missing under the litany of trash and
9:11
Legos. So besides
9:14
that friend's bedroom floor,
9:17
a cesspit is somewhat
9:19
like both a
9:22
specific term, but is also used in a general
9:25
sense to describe a swath of
9:28
things. Early reports
9:31
say that settlements in
9:33
Mesopotamia,
9:35
in Ur and
9:38
Babylon, had a localized cesspit
9:41
as early as 3500 BC.
9:44
>> Speaker B: Now, these may
9:46
have, may have been connected to homes via
9:49
rudimentary plumbing, via.
9:51
>> Speaker A: A brick like, brick lined,
9:54
essentially trough where they would rinse the
9:56
water down to help it flow towards this common
9:59
collecting area. While they
10:02
still often emptied their skeet into the street,
10:05
or they would carry it outside the city and dump it.
10:08
>> Speaker B: Into a common dumping space, the act.
10:11
>> Speaker A: Of burying it, often dumping it into.
10:13
>> Speaker B: A pre dug pit closer, was a.
10:16
>> Speaker A: Kind of a growing trend. Like as people
10:19
began to want to go outside the town
10:21
less, or had less
10:24
free time to just be digging.
10:29
>> Speaker B: Had more free time to just dig a pit closer and go
10:32
in there.
10:33
>> Speaker A: Um, we see these cess pits start to pop
10:35
up.
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>> Speaker B: The reason that, again, that they did.
10:40
>> Speaker A: This is if you had to spend time
10:43
carrying the bucket of brown slosh.
10:46
>> Speaker B: Outside of town, and you know that.
10:49
>> Speaker A: The low man on the totem pole is getting that. I don't think I can
10:52
use that phrase anymore. The low man on the
10:54
non cultural definitive
10:57
poll. Um, yeah,
11:00
we're not going to talk about what that poll is. Uh, but the
11:03
low man on that, he would be the one that's
11:06
carrying.
11:06
>> Speaker B: The sloshy stank outside the
11:09
city to dump it.
11:11
>> Speaker A: And you're wasting work
11:14
time, you're wasting farming and agricultural
11:16
time and other such precious time that you could be
11:19
doing other things.
11:21
>> Speaker B: As such, the cesspit was
11:24
likely originally.
11:26
>> Speaker A: An attempt to bring the dumping closer.
11:28
>> Speaker B: To the living quarters, thus saving time.
11:30
>> Speaker A: And we talked about this when we.
11:32
>> Speaker B: Talked about porta potties.
11:34
>> Speaker A: A lot of early Porta potties began to be
11:37
installed as a way for,
11:40
um, industries to cut down
11:43
on the.
11:44
>> Speaker B: Downtime of people who had to leave.
11:46
>> Speaker A: The work site to go use a bathroom somewhere.
11:49
>> Speaker B: They put porta potties in, so that.
11:51
>> Speaker A: Way these workers wouldn't have to waste all their time walking back
11:54
and forth. It
11:57
really shuts down the notion of the boss makes a dollar,
12:00
and I make a dime. That's why I had Shaz on company.
12:02
>> Speaker B: Time, you know what I'm saying?
12:03
>> Speaker A: But they caught on, and they
12:06
were trying to install these pits and these porta
12:09
potties. It's the same idea. It
12:12
was also likely like, these cesspits were probably also
12:15
like, you go out of your house, and you look down, it's like,
12:18
oh, man, tony's eating too
12:21
much corn again. How do you know?
12:22
>> Speaker B: Because Tony's turds are just laying in.
12:25
>> Speaker A: The street, and you're like, I have got
12:28
to be seeing Tony's turds less.
12:30
>> Speaker B: Uh, there has to be a way.
12:32
>> Speaker A: For me to see Tony's turds less every day. There
12:35
must be a way. And so they
12:37
begun to dig cesspits.
12:40
>> Speaker B: As a means to still.
12:43
>> Speaker A: Tony still can eat the same amount of corn, but now he dumps
12:46
it in the cesspit or drops it right in the cesspit
12:49
via the bungholio itself.
12:52
What's interesting is the history
12:55
of cesspits and septic systems.
12:58
It kind of skips over the Greeks and the Romans
13:01
in a huge way. Like,
13:03
even though the Greeks and the Romans are often touted as
13:06
having huge advances in sanitation,
13:10
their advances are more related to
13:12
plumbing and not septic systems.
13:16
After the fall of the Roman Empire.
13:18
>> Speaker B: Humanity went through both irregular
13:21
dark ages.
13:22
>> Speaker A: And what is called the sanitary dark Ages.
13:25
We've talked about this time period a lot.
13:28
Um, people were
13:30
pouring turds in the streets and rivers.
13:33
>> Speaker B: The care for water system was not.
13:35
>> Speaker A: Of high value, and as such, disease spread.
13:38
Cholera was on the rise. Things
13:41
got so bad, especially throughout Europe, we
13:44
noted the great stink that
13:46
eventually the need for change was
13:49
evident. We can't just keep
13:52
dumping this stuff in the street, Tony.
13:56
The river's not an answer either.
14:00
The question became,
14:03
how many people have to contract and die
14:06
from cholera? And how bad do the streets and rivers
14:09
have to smell before we make a change?
14:13
My answer is zero, and
14:15
not bad at all.
14:18
Before the big sewer system rehaul in.
14:21
>> Speaker B: France in the early 15 hundreds,
14:24
King Francois.
14:26
>> Speaker A: King Francois ordered
14:28
homeowners to build cesspools
14:31
on their properties to begin depositing
14:34
waste into. Now, I want to
14:37
note, it
14:40
just says waste. So, like, obviously, they're going to pee and
14:43
poop into these pits, but they would also dump all sorts of crap
14:46
in there. Broken pottery, broken dishes,
14:49
trash, animal byproducts,
14:52
bones. They tossed everything in there.
14:54
Medical waste.
14:58
These pits and these pools were truly
15:01
heinous
15:04
as the cities grew. And the goal of these
15:06
cesspools and the cesspits that derived
15:09
from them, um, was
15:12
they were designed to cut down on the
15:15
waste on the surface and.
15:16
>> Speaker B: The waste on the rivers.
15:17
>> Speaker A: Now, there's a couple problems that
15:20
came from this. Oh, yes. The
15:23
supply drop has arrived.
15:28
Oh, what do we got
15:31
here? Tangerine, la.
15:34
Oh, yeah.
15:36
>> Speaker B: As the cities grew, emptying
15:39
waste into.
15:39
>> Speaker A: The streets and rivers was too much of a burden.
15:42
And the time it took to do the
15:45
chamber pot hallway, I mean, at this point, you're probably just dumping it
15:48
into a wheelbarrow to get it out of town.
15:51
It's not efficient. And so cesspits and cesspools
15:54
began to be used and dug all
15:57
throughout Europe in the 15 hundreds.
16:00
These cess pits were usually
16:02
cylindrical pits.
16:04
>> Speaker B: Dug in the ground and were sometimes
16:07
lined with brickerstone.
16:09
>> Speaker A: Now, the brickerstone was to
16:12
help with waste
16:14
management because it would allow water.
16:16
>> Speaker B: To pass through the brick and stone.
16:19
>> Speaker A: Into the ground below. Now,
16:21
uh.
16:25
>> Speaker B: This is a concern, because.
16:27
>> Speaker A: While this means that they have to be emptied
16:30
out less often,
16:33
if Tony's.
16:35
>> Speaker B: Corn turds are just letting that
16:38
corn.
16:38
>> Speaker A: Turd water seep into the groundwater
16:41
supply, if they have a
16:44
well nearby, you can see where the
16:47
cholera friends.
16:48
>> Speaker B: The cholera friends are just going to be right
16:50
back.
16:52
>> Speaker A: We have not moved too far away.
16:56
Some had a bottom which was open to
16:59
dirt.
16:59
>> Speaker B: Others were lined with
17:02
a, uh, material.
17:03
>> Speaker A: That took on a type of soak.
17:05
>> Speaker B: Pit system in which the materials would.
17:07
>> Speaker A: Be broken down and the water would seep out.
17:09
>> Speaker B: This was more common in most,
17:12
uh, outside of cities.
17:15
>> Speaker A: Inside of cities, they often
17:17
had them.
17:18
>> Speaker B: Completely lined and they didn't soak down
17:21
as well.
17:22
>> Speaker A: They actually filled up.
17:25
The thing about storage here, um,
17:29
if any of y'all have an iPhone, you
17:31
know that your cloud
17:34
storage is probably full. If you got Google
17:37
Drive, you know that your Google Drive storage is
17:40
about full if you've ever bought an
17:42
Amazon fire tablet. You know what I don't understand?
17:45
Old Jeffrey Bezos has a
17:48
flipjillion dollars, and
17:51
he can't figure out how to.
17:52
>> Speaker B: Make a dang fire tablet that doesn't.
17:55
>> Speaker A: Have 2GB of storage on it.
17:58
>> Speaker B: It's like, we'll buy my memory card.
18:00
>> Speaker A: Well, then the freaking housing on the Amazon fire
18:03
tablets is butt, and it screws
18:06
up the housing of the
18:08
memory.
18:09
>> Speaker B: Card 100% of the time.
18:11
>> Speaker A: Uh, I have bought my children, collectively.
18:14
>> Speaker B: Five fire tablets, and only one of.
18:17
>> Speaker A: Them has never had a problem housing the memory
18:20
card. You tell me, Jeffrey.
18:23
I've got four switches in my home.
18:25
>> Speaker B: They all have a memory card in them.
18:27
>> Speaker A: And the folks at Nintendo figured out how to let me
18:30
put a memory card in it and not have it screw up within a year.
18:33
So you tell me. But the
18:36
problem with storage, uh, I'm off track. I
18:38
got angry at Bezos. Story of my
18:41
life. But, um, the
18:44
point is, if you have storage, it
18:47
will fill up. That's 100% guarantee. It's
18:50
only a matter of time. Like, if you give it long enough,
18:53
the potty shots and the stupid videos of me
18:56
eating crap are going to fill up your
18:58
storage. Storage is
19:01
temporary. Now,
19:04
these cesspits were usually dug about 3ft across
19:07
and six to 10ft deep. Um,
19:10
that's a shallow grave for a
19:13
short man. This
19:16
said smaller cess pits could hold about
19:19
250 gallons. Um,
19:22
and that's solid and liquid gallons
19:25
and larger sized ones were dug to hold up
19:28
to 500 gallons. That's a lot of poop and
19:31
pee and just general garbage being
19:33
removed from people's lives.
19:37
And again, these European, these 15
19:40
hundreds.
19:40
>> Speaker B: European cesspit users,
19:43
they didn't understand something.
19:45
>> Speaker A: That we all know. You don't flush things that
19:48
can't be flushed. They would dump
19:50
all sorts of junk into these cesspits. Family
19:53
trash, broken housewares, non body function
19:56
related trash. In short,
19:59
these pits filled up pretty quick.
20:03
>> Speaker B: Like, quicker than you would want.
20:06
>> Speaker A: It is estimated, a single cesspool for
20:09
homes in Europe and America where these.
20:11
>> Speaker B: Were primarily used, needed, emptied about
20:14
every six weeks.
20:15
>> Speaker A: Again, you could, based on
20:18
the build of your pit, have a certain amount.
20:20
>> Speaker B: Of liquid that seeps into the soil.
20:22
>> Speaker A: And you might get yourself an extra week or two.
20:27
Also, I should note
20:30
that the dietary
20:32
toll that was probably being taken on.
20:35
>> Speaker B: These pits was much less back then.
20:38
>> Speaker A: We are just garbage people and we eat garbage.
20:41
>> Speaker B: And our bodies have learned
20:44
how to.
20:47
>> Speaker A: Process what is essentially raw nuclear waste at
20:50
this point in our food. I think of Mr.
20:53
Domini sharing on his trip to Ecuador,
20:56
where
21:00
he's eating this fruit that is so sweet and.
21:03
>> Speaker B: So good, and it's better for him.
21:06
Here we are.
21:07
>> Speaker A: Did I happen to mention I ate 18 peeps today?
21:12
And you could, based on the build of your pit, have a certain
21:15
amount.
21:15
>> Speaker B: Of liquid that seeps out.
21:16
>> Speaker A: I like to think that these people who had these cess
21:19
pits and these.
21:20
>> Speaker B: Cess pools were kind of like these people that are
21:23
smacking their vape on the streets.
21:25
>> Speaker A: They got these guys that are just so dang addicted
21:28
to vape, and they got to be always sucking on
21:31
their cotton candy nonsense. And
21:34
what's funny to me is the dudes that got the
21:36
rigs, and they're like, oh, uh, I built my rig.
21:39
Oh, I got a new. That's what I
21:42
think of when I.
21:43
>> Speaker B: Think of these people with.
21:46
>> Speaker A: I put in the extra thin bricks, so I get
21:48
an extra four inches on my. You know what I'm saying?
21:51
They got their cesspit rigs.
21:54
More shallow cesspools can have
21:57
bacteria, which actually help cleanse the
22:00
liquids, and that might seep into the ground.
22:02
>> Speaker B: Hey, that's fun.
22:03
>> Speaker A: Little symbiotic relationship there.
22:06
Hey, that's for all the kids in science
22:09
class. I'm not going to define
22:11
symbiotic relationship. I'm just going to say it, which
22:14
is always helpful. But
22:17
even then, solids don't completely
22:20
break down, and there usually ends
22:23
up with a layer of human nasty sludge at the
22:26
bottom. Gunk, if you will.
22:30
Cesspools could also be negatively affected by
22:33
freezing in rainwater.
22:35
>> Speaker B: You know, it starts to rain, and.
22:36
>> Speaker A: It'S like, cover the cesspool, because we're going to have to empty it three weeks
22:39
sooner. As was noted,
22:41
cesspools attached to homes
22:44
may need emptied as often as every six
22:47
weeks. That's pretty frequent.
22:50
>> Speaker B: Like, I don't even wash my car every six weeks.
22:54
Larger cesspits, often where pools
22:57
were dumped.
22:58
>> Speaker A: Or emptied into, would need emptied every eight to ten weeks.
23:01
That's a lot of human waste. It's a lot of emptying.
23:05
In the words of Mike row, it's a dirty
23:07
job, but someone's got to do it.
23:10
And in this case, the
23:13
folks doing those dirty jobs were called gong
23:16
farmers.
23:18
>> Speaker B: In Tudor England, the term gong
23:20
farmer.
23:21
>> Speaker A: Began to be used to describe the men and young
23:24
boys who often assisted them, who had
23:27
the astute pleasure of.
23:29
>> Speaker B: Digging out privy pits and emptying out.
23:31
>> Speaker A: Cesspools and cess pits. What a
23:34
job. I don't know
23:37
if there were unions back then, but I feel like this is one of those
23:40
jobs where I understand why a union
23:43
might exist for it.
23:44
>> Speaker B: You know what I'm saying?
23:46
>> Speaker A: Gong farmers didn't have complex
23:49
vacuum suction. They they
23:52
walking around with a Luigi ghost
23:54
vacuum to suck up the turds.
23:58
High tech storage containers were not a thing.
24:00
They had a shovel, hard work, and hopefully a really nice pair
24:03
of boots. But you know
24:06
what, moron? Gong farmers. Another episode. This is not
24:09
their episode. As fascinating as they may
24:12
be. The cesspits needed
24:15
emptied, and the gong farmers were the men who rose to the
24:18
task. But even with the help
24:21
of these.
24:21
>> Speaker B: Heroes, things were stinky.
24:24
>> Speaker A: And there was also the problem of as we have mentioned
24:27
before, seepage, like
24:29
anytime in my experience, in my humble
24:32
experience of pushing 30
24:35
years on this green earth, when I am
24:38
interacting with.
24:39
>> Speaker B: Human Ralph, reek or otherwise,
24:42
the last.
24:42
>> Speaker A: Thing that I want as a
24:45
adjective attached to that experience
24:48
is seepage. I guess it's a noun. My part
24:51
of speeches have gotten screwed up, but
24:55
seepage is bad. In every
24:57
instance, when talking about poop,
25:00
seepage is always bad.
25:03
There was no regulation, and this led
25:06
to a number of problems.
25:09
First, Wells,
25:12
you know, where you get drinking water, would be dug too
25:15
close.
25:15
>> Speaker B: To cesspits, and you would think that.
25:17
>> Speaker A: This would be a no brainer.
25:20
It would be easy to cess out. I get it because of the
25:23
cess pits. It's funny,
25:26
but like, you dig two pits, one pit, you're going to
25:29
dump human crap into like everything
25:32
you just ate, it reeks, it smells of death.
25:35
You're going to dump all that in this pit and
25:38
then just matters of just feet away,
25:41
you're going to dig a well where you will draw all of your drinking
25:44
water and your bathing water and all like,
25:46
come on,
25:49
maybe build them farther apart, you know what I'm
25:52
saying? And uh, I think the
25:54
problem is you would have to build them significantly
25:57
farther apart to avoid contamination. That's the
26:00
trouble. Before reforms
26:03
began to be made of
26:05
cesspools and cess pits in Baltimore,
26:08
it was reported that the city
26:11
smelled like a billion pole cats.
26:14
>> Speaker B: Now, I've never smelled a pole cat.
26:18
>> Speaker A: But I have smelled a regular cat.
26:21
And I'll tell you what, they
26:27
one imagine a pole cat, you know what I'm saying?
26:31
Low man on the pole cat
26:35
smelled like a billion pole cats.
26:37
>> Speaker B: It was said of Chicago, the smell.
26:39
>> Speaker A: Could knock you down. And
26:42
so reforms needed to be made, and
26:45
reforms began to be made in the 18
26:47
hundreds. The cesspits had to
26:50
have more sturdy.
26:51
>> Speaker B: Walls of stone or concrete to reduce
26:53
seepage.
26:55
>> Speaker A: I do a lot of reduced seepage in my day to day. Just saying.
26:58
But usually concrete isn't involved in the
27:01
process.
27:02
>> Speaker B: But now with less seepage,
27:05
you also.
27:06
>> Speaker A: Had to remove the liquid waste from the tanks more
27:09
often.
27:09
>> Speaker B: The tanks would fill up faster.
27:11
>> Speaker A: You're low on storage,
27:15
it is estimated to give you an idea that a large
27:18
city in Europe would need to have about,
27:21
need to have
27:25
emptied about 100
27:27
cesspits per night. The
27:30
gong farmers are in business.
27:34
But with the rise of sewers in cities and
27:37
sewer reforms which we have talked about,
27:40
cess pits and cesspools and privy pits
27:43
were filled, abandoned
27:46
for the up and coming sewage systems.
27:50
There were still cess pits being used.
27:52
>> Speaker B: In the 19 hundreds within some of these cities.
27:55
>> Speaker A: And I got a note. It was not uncommon for
27:58
in the heat of the day, for them to.
28:01
>> Speaker B: Toss especially coals and ashes, and for
28:04
these cesspits to catch fire like you.
28:06
>> Speaker A: Would have burning pits of crap.
28:11
It was not a good thing
28:14
with further technology developing.
28:18
For those of you who don't know, I'm a Bible nerd.
28:21
Um,
28:24
when Jesus talks a lot about hell and
28:27
Gehenna, there was a valley outside of the city
28:30
where they would dump their waste.
28:33
And sometimes it caught fire in the
28:36
heat. And so you can see the picture here
28:39
like this cesspit. It's hell, it stinks, it's
28:42
awful, it's contaminated, it's got disease, it's hot,
28:45
it's burning.
28:48
But with further technology developing
28:50
and when.
28:51
>> Speaker B: Sewer hookups would be too costly,
28:54
many.
28:55
>> Speaker A: Municipalities allow for and have
28:58
installed septic tanks.
29:01
Septic tanks, much like their cesspit
29:04
predecessors.
29:05
>> Speaker B: Are underground tanks, often made
29:08
of concrete.
29:09
>> Speaker A: Fiberglass or plastic, or a
29:12
combination of these where sewage flows
29:14
into for treatment.
29:16
>> Speaker B: Now the primary
29:19
difference between a septic.
29:20
>> Speaker A: Tank and a cesspit is, and this is a very
29:23
important difference, a
29:26
septic tank is closed
29:28
because it's a tank and not a hole in the
29:31
ground. That's an important distinction
29:34
to make. Another important distinction is
29:36
septic tanks should not have
29:38
seepage. Huh? And again, we
29:41
are pro, no seepage here. The
29:44
primary treatment system inside of a.
29:47
>> Speaker B: Septic tank seeks to break down the.
29:49
>> Speaker A: Solid materials for more efficient
29:53
disposal. Uh, may I
29:55
say, they're like onsite sewage treatment
29:58
facilities inside of this tank,
30:01
buried under the ground on the property.
30:05
The treated liquids are often then drained
30:08
into a septic drain field.
30:11
Septic.
30:12
>> Speaker B: The term, quote, septic is
30:15
the term.
30:15
>> Speaker A: For the bacterial environment that breaks down
30:19
the human waste inside the tank.
30:22
Now it should be noted you
30:25
can't completely liquidize everything.
30:28
And this buildup is called fecal sludge
30:31
or septage. And much like
30:34
the cesspits of old, it needs removed. You got
30:37
to get the septage out of the septic
30:40
tank. And so much like again,
30:43
Luigi Mario slurping up ghosts.
30:45
>> Speaker B: We have special crap vacuums which come.
30:47
>> Speaker A: And slurp up the septage. It's
30:50
great. Technology has made our lives
30:53
better. Again, septic
30:56
tanks can hold up to 2000
30:58
gallons.
31:00
>> Speaker B: They often have two chambers, and when.
31:03
>> Speaker A: One is filled, it spills over into the other,
31:06
which causes that tank to let out liquid
31:09
into the septic drain field.
31:11
It's a really cool system. Um, it's kind of like a closed
31:14
system. But the thing is,
31:18
septic systems need maintenance. Like, you
31:21
can't just install one and walk away and think, well, 20
31:24
years later, this thing is going to be just fine.
31:27
They need maintenance. The maintenance
31:30
of a septic system is often the responsibility of the
31:33
resident or property owner. And some
31:35
forms of abuse or neglect.
31:37
>> Speaker B: Include excessive disposal of cooking oils.
31:40
>> Speaker A: Don't dump oil and grease down. If you have a
31:42
septic tank, it.
31:45
>> Speaker B: Is for poopy products only.
31:48
>> Speaker A: These are hard for the septic
31:51
system, uh, inside the tank
31:54
to break down.
31:57
Flushing non biodegradable waste items such as
32:00
cigarette butts, cotton bud swabs,
32:02
menstrual hygiene products.
32:05
>> Speaker B: Like, don't flush that.
32:09
>> Speaker A: The number of times I would see.
32:10
>> Speaker B: Kids flush nonsense at my previous custodial
32:13
job.
32:14
>> Speaker A: Quit flushing that stuff. Don't flush food
32:17
waste. Quit flushing
32:20
chemicals.
32:20
>> Speaker B: Like, too much of those chemicals kills.
32:23
>> Speaker A: The bacteria needed in the septic tank.
32:26
>> Speaker B: For the system to operate properly.
32:27
>> Speaker A: If you have a septic system, make sure that your cleaning
32:30
products are septic system safe.
32:35
Some water softeners can actually
32:39
dilute the wastewater and make it less
32:42
effective. Roots from trees
32:45
can poke through the septic system.
32:48
Dear Lord, what a problem that would be.
32:51
Playgrounds and storage buildings cause damage to
32:54
a tank, like the weight pushing down on them. If you build
32:57
them on top of.
32:58
>> Speaker B: It, could crush the tank process.
33:00
>> Speaker A: Excessive water entering the system may overload.
33:03
>> Speaker B: It and cause it to fail.
33:05
>> Speaker A: High rainfall makes it back up
33:09
over time. Biofilms develop on the pipes
33:12
of the drainage field, which lead to blockage
33:15
and referred to as biomat failure.
33:17
You do not want blockage.
33:20
>> Speaker B: It's not a perfect system.
33:21
>> Speaker A: Septic systems are good, but they're not perfect. And they have a
33:24
rich history, often
33:28
composed of no fiery pits of
33:30
crap.
33:33
>> Speaker B: If your septic system gets blocked up.
33:36
>> Speaker A: If it hasn't been treated, it can go
33:38
reverse. And, uh,
33:41
trust me, I know something.
33:43
>> Speaker B: About when septic systems go reverse.
33:45
>> Speaker A: I shared on the episode where I quit being a
33:48
janitor. What happens when the septic
33:51
system goes reverso? It explodes
33:54
portions of the septic system into your
33:56
domicile. You don't want it. Trust me, I
33:59
stepped in it. You don't want it. It smells awful,
34:02
and it is a biohazard.
34:06
Septic systems make up about
34:08
20% of home waste management in the
34:11
United States, and most of these
34:14
exist in rural communities where access
34:16
to sewer infrastructure
34:19
does not exist or would be too costly
34:22
to the municipalities or the residents of
34:25
the area to install.
34:28
>> Speaker B: And so we can be thankful for.
34:30
>> Speaker A: Septic systems first, that they
34:33
are not the cesspits of old.
34:36
I think we can also be thankful for
34:39
sewage and sewer lines.
34:42
We can be thankful for vacuums.
34:46
>> Speaker B: Because.
34:47
>> Speaker A: Thanks to very good vacuums, we don't have to
34:49
get waste deep in crap to fix these
34:52
problems. As often. I say as
34:55
often because I'm sure it still happens some.
34:59
Check your septic friends. Make sure you do those
35:02
inspections. This
35:05
brings us to the end of another episode. Thank you so
35:08
much for being here. Uh, it truly does mean a lot
35:11
that you would listen to me talk about septic systems
35:14
and cesspits for so long. I have a
35:16
blast researching this stuff and sharing it with you. I hope you have a
35:19
blast.
35:20
>> Speaker B: If you do have a blast, share the show.
35:22
>> Speaker A: Just post it on social media, send it to a friend, say, hey, listen
35:25
to this guy is a ding dong, but
35:28
he's my ding. No, wait. Uh,
35:31
I'm not going to tell you to leave a rating and review. We already did that at the top of
35:34
the show. But follow us on social media. We are at
35:36
Privycast. Send, uh, us an email.
35:39
Privycast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from
35:42
you.
35:42
>> Speaker B: Episode comments, suggestions, concerns,
35:45
pictures.
35:48
>> Speaker A: Um, feel free to tag the show. If you got crazy stuff
35:51
that you're finding out in the wild about bathrooms, feel
35:54
free to just add that privycast.
35:56
>> Speaker B: Hashtag privycast on any of those.
35:58
>> Speaker A: Um, just that way the show can. It's
36:01
easier for me to see the things that you all are seeing.
36:04
Uh, and we'll just kind of help build that community.
36:08
We figure out what to call the people who listen
36:11
to this. The privy heads.
36:14
Yeah, it's a work in progress.
36:16
>> Speaker B: We'll sort that out.
36:17
>> Speaker A: If you have thoughts on what we should be called, um,
36:19
feel free to include that in your email.
36:22
As always, we want to thank Kevin McLeod and
36:25
Pottington bear for the use of their music. Thanks,
36:27
Kevin and Pottington. This has been another
36:30
episode of Privy. Thank you so much for joining us.
36:33
Keep pooping in the free world. Wash your butthole.
36:36
And as always,
36:39
don't forget to flush.
36:41
>> Speaker B: It's.