Bush's HHS director toured Alaska's rural area: “This is just unacceptable,”

[rainbow4321]

Go to the link, click on "interesting reading" and pick the Honey Bucket article.
Guess we won't see GOV. Palin doing any photo ops in this part of HER state anytime soon.

http://www.palinsalaska.com/


July 31, 2008
A member of President Bush’s Cabinet walked away from a tour of a Western Alaska village with a better understanding of the problems that leave Alaska Natives riddled with health problems.

“This is just unacceptable,” said Mike Leavitt, who heads the Department of Health and Human Services, as he stared at a festering sewage lagoon on the edge of Kwethluk, a Yup’ik village of about 750.

Frothy, olive-colored “Honeybucket Lake,” as residents call it, is where the village dumps its feces because, like dozens of rural Alaska communities, it lacks flush toilets and running water.

George Guy, the village corporation’s business manager, described the poverty that stems from few jobs and said the village deserves the same amenities as the rest of the country, including flush toilets and tap water. “Maybe you can relay the message to President Bush that we live in a Third World country,” Guy said.

[Barack_America]

1. But I'm sure that Palin requested some of her coveted earmarks to help such communities, right?

And I'm sure that she donated some of that "Bridge to Nowhere" money to help such communities, right?

:sarcasm:

[rainbow4321]

4. Looks like Obama people were on the ground in rural Alaska

http://www.thetundradrums.com/news/story/3083

Barack Obama campaign officials, calling rural Alaska important to the presidential election, were in Barrow on Wednesday to launch a tour of the state’s off-road communities.

The effort is designed to generate support for Obama and let rural voters know that he cares about their issues, organizers said.

Presidential candidates have traditionally overlooked Alaska. The state has few electoral votes and leans Republican.

But change could be afoot. The state’s Republican foundations have been rocked by numerous FBI investigations, shaking voter confidence in the party. Also, Obama’s presumed opponent, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, has angered Alaska Republicans in the past by opposing some of their bedrock efforts, such as drilling oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Here’s the schedule after Barrow:

Aug. 23 – Kotzebue and Dillingham

Aug. 25-26 – Nome

Aug. 25-27 – Bethel, Kwethluk, Akiak, Akiachak

Aug. 29 – Kodiak

Sept. 2 – Haines

[intheflow]

8. Man-o-man!

Obama's team doesn't miss a beat! This is exactly the right move in response to Palin.

[rainbow4321]

10. More on Palin's Alaska

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6968096&mesg_id=6968096

[intheflow]

15. Those are some disturbing articles.

Thanks for posting all these, r4321.

[rainbow4321]

25. You're welcome.

Let's hear Palin and her cronies cry "sexism!! sexism! if/when real Alaskan issues are brought up..not that the MSM question her about them, though!

[MiniMe]

19. It doesn't look like it is in response to Palin

August 23 was before Palin was announced. This was already in the works. All this is part of Dean's 50 state strategy. But yes, the Obama team is on top of things.

[intheflow]

21. Thanks for pointing that out.

I completely missed the dateline. But y'know, that just makes Team Obama even more impressive to me. :)

[Hekate]

11. 50-state strategy! We may not get their 3 EC votes, but voters will become aware! nt

[MiniMe]

20. But it may make Alaska closer, which is a statement in itself

[roguevalley]

26. all great places. my nephew, wife and baby are in Nome for a

few. too bad its too late to be there for the workers. He's Obama all the way.

[FloridaJudy]

5. Pay no attention to the lake of sewage

Look! That church has a bright shiny new indoor soccer field! http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/business/23megachurch.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[MagickMuffin]

2. They could be using composting toilets

A composting toilet is any system that converts human waste into an organic compost and usable soil, through the natural breakdown of organic matter into its essential minerals. Micro and macro organisms do this over time, working through various stages of oxidation and sometimes localized pockets of anaerobic breakdown.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet

At least this could be a start.

I remember going to my grandparents as a kid and having to use an outhouse, they were just getting indoor plumbing, but it wasn't quite finished, so everyone had to use the outhouse. It was a strange.

I've even pooped outdoors, where I would dig a hole to poo in and then cover it up.


Better than the waste going into the lake.

Of course running water would be ideal.

[Gregorian]

7. I hadn't thought about Alaskan septic before. I'll bet they have a bad situation.

There's a good chance they don't have perking soils. It's probably frozen or some other horrible situation that requires a complete sewage system.

And to think that my friend just got a job at a sewage facility, and it is like a nuclear plant in complexity. And here we don't give a crap about those who don't have the cash. Hey, maybe it's the lack of taxes in the region.

But yeah, composting toilets would at least be a huge temporary solution, if not permanent.

What bothers me so much is how huge a gap there is between the haves and the have-nots. Incredible. It's the hypocrisy again.

[Hekate]

12. Alaska sits on perma-frost, afaik, which means below the surface it's always frozen...

Of course when the perma-frost finally defrosts we're into another realm of global warming hell, but that's for later. Right now they need intelligent government help to bring them out of their Third World Nation status as regards things like clean water and sewage.

Hekate

[Ichingcarpenter]

18. Greenland and the northern latitudes of Scandinavia don't have this problem

This is Native Alaskan neglect......... Racism

[Hekate]

22. My point exactly. I just don't know the engineering specifics for dealing with their climate.

If Clivus Multrum composting toilets would work there, fabulous. If a municipal sewage system would work without the pipes freezing solid, go for it. Their *governor* should use some of that oil money to get the job done, and if not, the US government should step in.

So proud to be a murkin today.

Hekate

:argh:

[Ichingcarpenter]

23. My x wife spent 3 years in Greenland

running a social center for Inuits troubled teens.

I know what I am talking about. There is no excuse.

[Hekate]

24. I completely agree there's no excuse. nt

[MagickMuffin]

13. My best friend worked at a water treatment plant

We use to visit him on the job. It was fascinating to say the least.

He would take us on a tour and explain the process. The first station was the worst, where the solids were separated from the liquids, smelly doesn't even begin to describe it.

But the other stages were a lot more pleasant. Again very fascinating process.

[RC]

14. Water treatment or sewage treatment?

The description is of a sewage treatment plant.

[MagickMuffin]

17. Trinity River Authority calls itself "wastewater" treatment plant

With a treatment plant located in Grand Prairie, and more than 200 miles of pipeline, TRA’s Central Regional Wastewater Treatment System was named as the best large wastewater treatment plant in 1995 in the state of Texas by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission and as the best large plant in 1995 in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 6, a five-state area.

The system provides services for a population of over one million people. The Central Regional Wastewater System provides wastewater transportation and treatment services to all of Arlington, Bedford, Carrollton, Colleyville, Coppell, the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Euless, Farmers Branch, Grand Prairie, Irving and Mansfield, and portions of Addison, Cedar Hill, Dallas, Duncanville, Fort Worth, Grapevine, Hurst, Keller, North Richland Hills and Southlake.

With the ability to treat 162 million gallons of wastewater per day, this regional treatment facility is one of the largest and best-operated plants in the state of Texas. This project’s staff works with state-of-the-art technology throughout the wastewater treatment process to produce a high quality discharge that helps protect the Trinity River’s water quality.

So, no matter how you want to define it, it is a waste water treatment plant.

[Gregorian]

16. Oops. Water treatment. That's the phrase I was looking for.

I've been admonished once already for using the "s" word.

I had a friend who did maintenance on the San Jose plant. Back in the mid seventies, yes he was very young for that job, he took me through the facilities. As a mechanical type I was in heaven. I still have engine parts from that place to this day. Huge engines. Fifty feet long. Monsters.

Coliform. I'm dumping my septic directly onto the ground at the moment. I have a septic designed, but not installed. I have a hundred acres so it's not really an issue. But... We're really turned this planet into something complex. To the max.

[roguevalley]

27. hepatitis is epidemic up here. so is TB

[MagickMuffin]

3. I got duped

[FrenchieCat]

6. I love this issue orientated research!

Keep up the good work!

REC!

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. She's not Racist! She just doesn't give a shit about Native Alaskans

I had a 72 Inuit woman stay at my house in the 80s in Washington state.

She told me the horrors her clan faced from Alaskan settlers