Torrential Aftermath: Garbage

Ah, those things we take for granted!

Like trash collection.

I don't think I have ever been as happy to see a garbage truck as I was this morning. The local sanitation service missed its usual pickup last week. Officially the company's vehicles were unable to run their routes in the aftermath of the torrential rains and resulting floods this region experienced last week.

We're still recovering from all that, here in Colorado. We will be for months to come.

But the garbage truck came this morning.

As I have noted here before, we escaped the worst of this natural disaster in my town. We're about six miles east of Boulder, as the crow flies, and 10-12 miles south of Longmont and Lyons, where the worst of it is.

So if all we have to fret about is a few bags of garbage piling up in the garage, well – boo-hoo-hoo for us, yuhknow?

Not too far from here people are more concerned about insurance claims, and FEMA claims, and mucking out flooded homes and businesses.

And then there are genuine hazards like water contaminated by raw sewage. I haven't heard much about that, but it's always a possibility.

An item in this morning's paper said that ordinarily, the local wastewater treatment facility handles about 12 million gallons of sewage a day. That's up to about 50 million a day since this madness began last week. So the system is strained, far beyond its capacity. "At this point, it's the number one priority," said one city official. "We're working on it 24/7." But, he added, the massive inundation has to run its course.

So we're keeping things in perspective. But it's nice to reduce the pile of garbage.