Like other modern city-dwellers, we pay Tallinna Vesi each month to pipe in fresh water and take away our black and grey water.
But as it turns out, the main sewage pipe of our eight-unit building from 1910 has never been connected to the grid like the other houses on our street. It seems hard to believe, but the pipe goes somewhere...then peters out below the ground.
Apart from this making the property, one would think, the most nitrogen-rich in all of Tallinn -- perhaps we should look into growing crops and mining saltpetre here -- it's now clear that dribbling effluent is unsustainable in the long term.
No, there isn't much of a smell, at least that my non-pregnant nose can detect. My wife says it is bad. We live on the lowest level, and water is not going down as well. Flushables are not flushing as well as they ought. The situation has been declining for months.
Tallinna Vesi has been the very model of what is known locally as JOKK -- "legally speaking, everything is in the clear".
From January 4-12, they closed the sidewalk with signs, and dug a big hole. It all looked proper, like they knew what they were doing. Then, on the evening of the 11th, they filled in the hole and paved it over. Alas, they had not connected their pipe to ours, not had they told our apartment association: "OK, we're ready for you to hook up your end of the pipe."
Now they shrug their shoulders. Say they've done their part -- installed the pipe to the property line.
They don't want our sh*t, but we're going to give them some.
* i
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Per Sam Cook's "Don't know much about history, Don't know much about biology, Don't know much about a science book, Don't know much about the French I took...", but I do know that sh*t flows down hill. I do know that most municipalities in this country provide a sewer lateral from the main sewer trunk to the private property line. From there on it is the property owner's responsibility to continue that lateral to where it connects to the building waste tree. The inconsistency here,sadly enough, is that even though the municipality provides the lateral to the property line initially if that lateral ever fails then it is the property owners responsibility to provide the fix from the building to the sewer trunk line. As I found out when the David Terrace property sewer failed and it was 300 feet to the trunk, through three other property yards.
I don't know what Tallinn did and covered up, but I would interpret that they might have tapped a trunk and brought a lateral to the property. Seems that someone would have communicated about what was going on, even to the extent of where the building sewer exits the building. Unless from the street there was but only option and is where they dug and covered. Reminds me of the Soviet era joke of a crew digging holes and right behind them was a crew filling the holes again, just to show people were busy working.
I would doubt if the sewage was dumped into a French drain it would still be functioning since 1910. So therefore it is going into some system that is having problems, like a collapsing lateral, depending on the material used. The PVC pipes today are really great for resisting collapse, having tight joints to prevent roots, as well as providing slick flow. And is partly the reason for tearing down 305 and 307, 1930 vintage buildings, and replacing with new construction.
Not to raise concerns, but your building needs to address the problem, especially since you have seven units of sewage build up above you that if where it now goes slowly stops going at all will be coming out of your commode and other drains that would function in the reverse direction, Then you really would be up Sh*t creek.
Why not have your building owner/super hire someone with a sewer camera to see where that sh*t is going on and at the same time beep where that sewer goes. I would also serve the building owner with a certified notice that they are liable for your damages should that sewer back into your space. You are down hill, after all.
I didn't mention it in the original post, but the building's driveway was a public street before the war. Some of the settekaevs -- don't know what they're called in the US, a damning thing for a translator to say, but basically you lift the manhole cover and look down to see if it is full of sh*t -- still belong to the city.
The city got tired of responding to our semi-weekly calls to have them drained (it wasn't an issue the year before).
I'm going to have to see a drawing or map before I write more. No one has considered a camera, if there is such a thing here, but we will consider it!
Sounds like you might have a collection tank that one time led to a working distribution field (Septic system, like at the lake house). Hence the periodic pumping out that the city does, especially if the distribution field has failed , which they do if paved over and/or sh*t clogs the field. Here as towns expand and sewer infrastructure eventually follows municipalities dictate that septic systems be abandoned and the buildings connected to the sewer. At property owner's expense, of course. Still since you appear to be the last stop before that sh*t exits the building I would push for the building ownership to remedy that problem better sooner than later..
Anyway, the septic system at the lake, has also been mostly paved over and is doomed to failure. The system needs air to work properly, and as time goes on the collection tank will need more frequent pumping. Per the health department that approves and checks design as well as inspects the installation for septic systems replacement of distribution lines is not allowed. Hence space for a reserve field was provided in the event of the initial field failing. So keep that in mind if you become part owner. A savvy home inspector would notice the pave-over. A new field at the lake will not come cheap.
You're right on, I think.
It turns out the project manager of Tallinna Vesi's little dig and fill has re-labelled the plan of the property to show that the collection tank is our property, not the city's. Pretty sneaky.
We still won some time and got them to pump out the tank again. While we are submitting our claim for damages, which has to be reviewed by the water company in ten days.
Meanwhile, the hasty asphalt job where they dug the hole has collapsed.
Post a Comment