Leaking electricity costs money

Standby power, also called vampire power, phantom load, or leaking electricity, refers to the electric power consumed by electronic appliances while they are switched off or in a standby mode. A very common “electricity vampire” is a power adapter which has no power-off switch. While this consumption of power may be used to provide useful functions for appliances such as remote controls and digital clocks to the user, most power consumed by non-operational devices is considered wasted. Advocates of energy conservation sometimes use the term “ wall warts” to describe devices that stay plugged in and using power without performing a useful purpose.    Source: Widipedia

Highland Hills Golf Club, Wardsville

 

Highland Hills Golf Club was last operated by Jason Pole & Jon Pole from 1997-2002.  
It was then sold to it’s present owner, Neil Osland of Gainesville, Florida

Submitted by Jamie Pole.

Conserve Water; Save Money

Wasting water not only increases the costs to run your treatment plant and pumping stations, which you are paying for in your user fees, but it also wastes a valuable resource.

 

 . Do install water-saving toilets when upgrading your bathrooms, which use less than one-third as much water as conventional toilets.

 . Do install water-saving showerheads and taps.

. Do reduce water waste (run clothes or dishwashers only with full loads).

. Do fix leaky faucets or toilets. A simple toilet float can hang up and result in over 8000 litres per day of wasted water.

 

Public Works, Municipality of Southwest Middlesex

Wardsville is Invited to West Lorne for a sneak peak

West Lorne, Ontario — The Arts & Cookery Bank’s board of directors invites you to take a sneak peek inside the future site of The Bank, located at 242 Graham Road (the old Bank of Montreal), from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, 2008 and leave your fingerprints all over the building!

 

The idea is to create a cultural hub that will encourage, highlight, coordinate, and promote our local talent and resources.  The focus is food and photography!  What a combination.  And Wardsville is a partner.  Come to West Lorne and find out what the project is all about. June 7, 2008  from 12 -4 p.m.

Goals:

• Promote the value of a rural lifestyle by providing a photographic gallery that makes a pictorial statement of the community’s past, captures and showcases the community’s present and visually imagines the community’s future.
• Inspire interest in the local food economy by offering hands-on cooking experiences that concentrate on traditional local culture and cuisine.
• Build community capacity to support our unique heritage by building collaborative relationships among individuals, groups, institutions, organizations that are involved in the cultural, heritage and tourism sectors.

 

The Bank: The restored building will house the “heart and soul” exhibits – family and cultural – in a permanent photographic collection and feature rotating exhibits that showcase the work of both amateur and professional photographers. In addition, digital, multi-media displays will be integrated into the gallery space. Designed as flexible space, the first floor – “The Great Hall” – will also be appropriate for a sit down brunch, luncheon or dinner, or seating for classes, lectures or discussions.

The Cookery: This new addition will provide space to “cook up ideas” for both culinary experiences and for digital photography classes. Because of the flexible design, this area will serve as multi-use space, including hands-on cooking experiences, demonstrations and catering as well as the digital photography lab.

The Reception: The Bank and The Cookery will be linked by a reception area offering an accessible entrance so all visitors enter through the same door. The reception area will house two accessible washrooms, an office and storage space, as well as the elevator offering access to The Bank.

The Photographic and Teaching Gardens: The remaining outside grounds will be utilized as an interpretive architectural/structural photography showcase area and as space for a teaching garden.

Do the Thames River a favour…

Divert Other Water Wastes

. Don’t hook-up your sump pump, floor drains, eaves troughs, etc. to your sewer outlet

Read your sewer by-law.

Dispose of Chemicals and fuels at Approved Waste Sites

. Don’t put oil, gasoline, paint, varnishes, paint thinners, solvents, photographic chemicals, weed or insect killers, etc. down a drain. They can poison your Clarifier Tank, the whole collection system and treatment plant and possibly the Thames River.

 

Don’t get paranoid but:

These hazardous chemicals can be traced back to the individual Clarifier Tanks.

 

Toxic crap must no longer be disposed of irresponsibly.  The stuff is NOT “out of sight; out of mind”. We’re drinking it!

Mary Simpson

Wardsville’s Napier-Reid Extended Aeration Treatment Plant

The effluent from the Wardsville sewage collection system flows to an Extended Aeration Treatment Plant. This plant is composed of the following major components:

 

Aeration Basin

The effluent enters a large concrete basin that has air diffusers at the bottom to continually supply air to the tank. Present in the tank are microorganisms that use the air to live on while they consume the contaminants in the sewage. The level of contaminants in the sewage is measured by the BOD. The influent sewage BOD is around 140 mg/l. When the discharge leaves the plant, it is typically less than 10 mg/l.

Clarifier

As the sewage leaves the aeration basin, it goes into a clarifier, where the solids and microorganisms settle out. A chemical called alum is added to aid in the settling of the solids and to help remove phosphates.

Filter

The filter is a final polishing step, required to get the phosphates down to a very low level. The influent sewage phosphates of 5 mg/l are typically reduced to less than 1 mg/l in the plant discharge. Reduction in phosphates is important because excess phosphate in the river causes algae growth.

Post Aeration Tank

After leaving the filter the effluent is aerated again to ensure that there is sufficient oxygen to support marine life once it is discharged to the river.

UV Chamber

Just before being discharged, the effluent passes through a bank of Ultraviolet (UV) lights that kill any remaining bacteria, including E-coli. The effluent is then piped out to the Thames River.

Municipality of Southwest Middlesex.

http://www.southwestmiddlesex.ca/PDF_documents/WardsvilleSewerManual.PDF

 

 

 

How we operate the sewage system

Let’s save taxes by operating the sewage system responsibly.

 

Your clarifier Tank is an integral part of your communities sewage treatment system and should be treated accordingly. The following is a list of Do’s and Don’ts that apply to any sewage collection system treatment plant. The best practice is not to dispose of anything, with the exception of toilet tissue and mild detergents, that hasn’t first been digested.

Dispose of Solids Appropriately

. Don’t put cigarette butts, paper towels, sanitary tampons, condoms, disposable diapers, kitty litter, coffee grounds, similar non-biodegradables or anything plastic down your drain or toilet. Dispose of them in your regular garbage.

. Don’t put cooking oils and grease down the drain. They can clog the pipes in your house and the rest of the system.

. Do compost kitchen waste instead of using a garburator. Using an in-sink garburator can increase the solids in your Clarifier tank by 40-50%, increasing the pump out costs for everyone. Please inform Public Works if you presently have a garburator installed so that solids accumulation in your tank can be monitored.

 

Information from the
Southwest Middlesex Web-site

 

 

 

 

 

Letter to LFP Editor re: Thames (part two)

So why am I writing you?  This isn’t a trip down nostalgia lane. No, I don’t think so.

 

I give you a challenge…every time we have a really big rain fall in Southwestern Ontario, look into how much untreated effluent is discharged into the Thames River because London does not have the storage for rain water and effluent.  Storm sewers are connected to sewers.  The London Free Press has printed notices from the city of London on what it had to discharge. Millions of Gallons.  Shameful.

I guess, Paul if you live in London you don’t care….but does that make you accountable or not?

 

The Upper Thames released their Upper Thames River report Card in February/08 which was pretty good. I have asked for a Lower Thames Report card but have not been answered.  Is a report in process or is the health of the Lower Thames too precarious to study?  

Now, I am not blaming the whole issue on London. My farm background has educated me in the role of fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides. As well in the last 40 years there has been so much farm drainage put in that all of the above has to drain to the river.

Our sewage treatment plant in Wardsville is being reviewed…and by God if it’s not working properly than I will pay to have it rectified.

 

Where do you stand?

 

Please have a look into how much effluent goes down the river from London. You’ll be surprised. Especially after a big rain.

 

If you could get back to me, on a report from Lower Thames Conservation I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Keep up the great work.

 

Letter to LFP re: Thames River (part one)

Hello Paul

Kudos to you and Randy for having the balls to do a series of articles on the lowly Thames River, la Tranche  or Askunessippi,

 

My earliest memories of the Thames is dip netting for pickerel with my Dad in the early 60”s. It was a wonderful day with huge dip net set up and camp fire with hot dog roast to end a perfect family day. I don’t know if it was legal or not back then but at 8 who cared. I was fishing with my Dad.

 

 At 12 it was a different scenario….skinny dipping with a hand full of my favorite girl friends.  We had traversed the “bush” one hot July day from one farm to another and ended up having a skinny dip in the cool waters of the Thames. To our horror, one of our Dads had a Piper Cub and buzzed by us 50 feet off the river surface “hollering” out the plane window to “get home”. Thank God we had already climbed out of the muddy river and put our clothes back on.  There would have been hell to pay.

 

In later years, the lure of the Thames River waned but in 1989 I ended up living again very close to its muddy banks. In one of those hot sweltering summer days. I thought I would take my kids for a dip in those familiar waters  - a nostalgic attempt at showing “the kids” what mom used to do.  We wore shoes, for the Thames River bottom has a lot of clay and silt and it’s not that great a feeling with that mud squishing between your toes. My 6 and 8 year old were in awe that we went for a swim. It was great fun….until the dead pig floated by.

 I have had many other fishing episodes with my husband in later years. But had trouble eating the pickerel out of the water. All I could envision was the amount of effluent that ends up in the water. I guess you might be able to guess that I live down stream from London and thousands of acres of farm land.

 

 

So why am I writing you?  This isn’t a trip down nostalgia lane. No, I don’t think so.

I give you a challenge…every time we have a really big rainfall in Southwestern Ontario, look into how much untreated effluent is discharged into the Thames River.   

 

Denise Corneil

1852 Longwoods Road

Wardsville, Ontario

519-693-7002

Feedback from a Shunpiker

We did the “Shunpikers Tour” yesterday. Unfortunately it started to rain at
around 10 AM and lots of it. Luckily, we took in the Uncle Ben’s house museum
on our way up. We were one of the first visitors there and it spitted a
little rain. Further to Wallaceburg, the rain got heavier and stopped us from
walking down town. We took a tour through the museum and watched the wonderful
play.

 

From there to Wardsville. They had it all set up nicely, but the
weather stopped pretty well all people from going to the museum and other
activities. The women did a very good job on their baked goods, but the
coffee was very weak. All in all, it was still a successful tour, but the
weather stopped people from roaming around in the different towns. Hopefully
better next year.

 

Tiny van Pinxteren