Beliefs, Preferences and Delusions
Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 9:14 am
I have been here for years, and never had a journal. I'm not much for journaling, or any form of diary, really. But I wanted a space to more fully explore what I currently think.
I say currently, because this is constantly changing, an currently, my beliefs are so far removed from mainstream that labels are at best, misapplied.
So I will start with infrastructure and environmentalism, a few topics I have touched on, but not fleshed out in other threads.
I work in telecom engineering. I am not an engineer. But for 13 years, if a patch of woods became a housing development, or an office building between Seattle and Canada, it went through my 4 person department. If a drunk driver hits a pole, I track the replacement, If a backhoe digs up a cable, I track where, and how, and using what materials, we fixed it.
Right now, and for the last 25 years or so, we in the PNW have been replacing culverts with larger culverts, to make for better salmon habitat. Larger culverts means slower water when salmon swim upstream to get it on. Details are available here:http://www.psp.wa.gov/vitalsigns/in-chi ... ndance.php another, up close look at how one of these projects go after the PR is written is available here:http://ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/2013/09/be ... almon.html (BTW an excellent read for those interested in the practical aspects of food production.)
What this means to me, is that a road and sidewalk will be trenched open, and all underground utilities will be reworked in the area. Culverts have priority of placement, then everyone else tries to fit. Mostly, this is a long, drawn out inter bureaucratic CF, with public works trying to keep a schedule and force changes, among utilities that are... unenthusiastic.
An we have good reason to be. The Half Billion tax dollars or so we've spent on these projects, doesn't include the costs utilities incur. That's right, the telecom company picks up the bill for the telecom work, the power company picks up the bill for the power work, etc. and those cost are not optional. This is just a cost of doing business, and really, we just pass it on to customers, like everyone else.
But sometimes, it goes wrong. A few years back, an enthusiastic backhoe operator ripped up almost 50k copper lines and 2k fiber lines, in Redmond. Lots of outages, lasting up to a week or so. And that's still a bed of lawsuits. But usually, it's just road construction that blocks traffic all summer on some road we all learn not to use.
So let me talk about a specific job. Willows Creek, I just had to prep this area, so it's fresh in mind. Willows creek is what in my childhood would have been called a ditch. but now, it's habitat. The watershed is a housing development and a parking lot, and it runs through two 12 inch culverts to cross Willows road, then continue to the Samammish river. I like this project because it runs along Puget Power Trail, a local bike trail that is even on Google maps streetview, if anyone is curious. Just Google "9840 Willows Rd, Redmond, WA 98052" and click on the map to see where I'm talking about. Ask yourself if this is where we should be spending salmon recovery money, if the goal was more salmon. Just how many more anything is going to grow in the runoff from the parking lots and housing developments?
Crossing these culverts, running down this street, is a good sized run of our cables, almost 10k copper lines, and 2k fiber optic lines. We cross over the culvert, and under the side walk. Currently, there is about a foot between the top of the culvert and the surface, but they want a bigger culvert. If we can't dodge this project, it'll cost us at least a million dollars. That's a million dollars to slightly degrade our network. Our only benefit from this is continuing to have a path to get to our customers. And it's worth it.
But that million dollars isn't even in the Half Billion tax dollars number, nor the costs other utilities will pay in the same project. or any of the other projects. That Half Billion (so far!) is just the public works part of the spending. We have restored lots of ditches to habitat for invasive species, and that kind of quality doesn't come cheap.
And all of this is why I'm not impressed by environmentalism. It sounds good. And it's a good cause. But when you get past the PR and BS, it is just people shaming each other on FB, and an excuse to redirect resources away from better uses.
And it's why I am not concerned when Jacob talks about CC and infrastructure. Sure, rising sea levels are going to cause problems, but when they do, eventually, people will just stop building down there. And infrastructure doesn't just get built, then we get the benefits forever. It ages, gets replaced, reworked, constantly. and maintenance is more expensive than building new, on a unit level. so just abandoning a section of any system will save some expense. But really, I don't think it will be a problem. Currently, we are seeing unbanification at a remarkable pace, but I don't think that will last, but that's another post.
I say currently, because this is constantly changing, an currently, my beliefs are so far removed from mainstream that labels are at best, misapplied.
So I will start with infrastructure and environmentalism, a few topics I have touched on, but not fleshed out in other threads.
I work in telecom engineering. I am not an engineer. But for 13 years, if a patch of woods became a housing development, or an office building between Seattle and Canada, it went through my 4 person department. If a drunk driver hits a pole, I track the replacement, If a backhoe digs up a cable, I track where, and how, and using what materials, we fixed it.
Right now, and for the last 25 years or so, we in the PNW have been replacing culverts with larger culverts, to make for better salmon habitat. Larger culverts means slower water when salmon swim upstream to get it on. Details are available here:http://www.psp.wa.gov/vitalsigns/in-chi ... ndance.php another, up close look at how one of these projects go after the PR is written is available here:http://ebeyfarm.blogspot.com/2013/09/be ... almon.html (BTW an excellent read for those interested in the practical aspects of food production.)
What this means to me, is that a road and sidewalk will be trenched open, and all underground utilities will be reworked in the area. Culverts have priority of placement, then everyone else tries to fit. Mostly, this is a long, drawn out inter bureaucratic CF, with public works trying to keep a schedule and force changes, among utilities that are... unenthusiastic.
An we have good reason to be. The Half Billion tax dollars or so we've spent on these projects, doesn't include the costs utilities incur. That's right, the telecom company picks up the bill for the telecom work, the power company picks up the bill for the power work, etc. and those cost are not optional. This is just a cost of doing business, and really, we just pass it on to customers, like everyone else.
But sometimes, it goes wrong. A few years back, an enthusiastic backhoe operator ripped up almost 50k copper lines and 2k fiber lines, in Redmond. Lots of outages, lasting up to a week or so. And that's still a bed of lawsuits. But usually, it's just road construction that blocks traffic all summer on some road we all learn not to use.
So let me talk about a specific job. Willows Creek, I just had to prep this area, so it's fresh in mind. Willows creek is what in my childhood would have been called a ditch. but now, it's habitat. The watershed is a housing development and a parking lot, and it runs through two 12 inch culverts to cross Willows road, then continue to the Samammish river. I like this project because it runs along Puget Power Trail, a local bike trail that is even on Google maps streetview, if anyone is curious. Just Google "9840 Willows Rd, Redmond, WA 98052" and click on the map to see where I'm talking about. Ask yourself if this is where we should be spending salmon recovery money, if the goal was more salmon. Just how many more anything is going to grow in the runoff from the parking lots and housing developments?
Crossing these culverts, running down this street, is a good sized run of our cables, almost 10k copper lines, and 2k fiber optic lines. We cross over the culvert, and under the side walk. Currently, there is about a foot between the top of the culvert and the surface, but they want a bigger culvert. If we can't dodge this project, it'll cost us at least a million dollars. That's a million dollars to slightly degrade our network. Our only benefit from this is continuing to have a path to get to our customers. And it's worth it.
But that million dollars isn't even in the Half Billion tax dollars number, nor the costs other utilities will pay in the same project. or any of the other projects. That Half Billion (so far!) is just the public works part of the spending. We have restored lots of ditches to habitat for invasive species, and that kind of quality doesn't come cheap.
And all of this is why I'm not impressed by environmentalism. It sounds good. And it's a good cause. But when you get past the PR and BS, it is just people shaming each other on FB, and an excuse to redirect resources away from better uses.
And it's why I am not concerned when Jacob talks about CC and infrastructure. Sure, rising sea levels are going to cause problems, but when they do, eventually, people will just stop building down there. And infrastructure doesn't just get built, then we get the benefits forever. It ages, gets replaced, reworked, constantly. and maintenance is more expensive than building new, on a unit level. so just abandoning a section of any system will save some expense. But really, I don't think it will be a problem. Currently, we are seeing unbanification at a remarkable pace, but I don't think that will last, but that's another post.