
Free of New York’s Sludge Train, an Alabama Town Is Still Steaming - wglb
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/nyregion/poop-train-alabama.html
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newnewpdro
Are there any other cities in the USA shipping their human waste to other
states?

Also, couldn't they better contain the train cars and vent through activated
charcoal liners to reduce the odor?

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cjrp
This really surprised me, in the UK sewage gets treated and then the sludge is
used for fertiliser while the water is released into rivers. Shipping it
across the country seems quite wasteful.

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jonhendry18
Maybe they'll institute zoning regulations. The lack of them is why the town
was chosen to park the poop train.

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lotsofpulp
It's an unfortunate mindset that people would choose to harm other people just
because their city didn't happen to have an ordinance about an edge case that
doesn't come about often, especially one that they were currently being
litigated against, so they know they're actively harming people.

As a responsible member of the community and just being a decent person in
general, it is everyone's responsibility to think about the effect of their
actions on others, but I guess that's not how you "win" in life.

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humanrebar
In other words, in a chain of events several _people_ decided not to follow
the golden rule here. They wouldn't have done this in _their_ neighborhood.
They're the reason this happened.

You can't really build airtight legislation and regulation enforcing decency.
There is some evidence that you violate the golden rule when you try.

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nimish
You can totally write regulations that require the consent of the community
before doing things like this. It's hard to write them to not have side
effects, but it's doable.

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bryananderson
A town of <1000 people simply cannot craft city ordinances with all the edge
cases that a city of >8500000 can. That is not a reasonable request, and it is
not a license for the city of >8500000 to take advantage of the town of <1000.

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nimish
That's true, but it's the cost this town paid for not wanting regulations at
all. They have literally no zoning regs and are now crying that someone took
advantage of them. They shouldn't have been so naive.

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humanrebar
In the context of a small town, you don't craft airtight zoning regulations
because if Harold is being a bad neighbor, you go work it out with Harold. If
he's still being a jerk, you ask his friends to help you talk to him.

I don't think it's fair to blame the town for expecting people to be
considerate and decent. Blaming them is like blaming consumers for not reading
a EULA.

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nimish
Nah, it's not like there aren't a million towns out there with adequate
regulations they could have just copied. Or they could have made that "contact
Harold if he's being an jerk" have legal teeth: community review boards and
the like. Or zoning, like most towns have.

You don't need perfectly airtight zoning regulations if draft them right: just
ask SF residents where the rights of existing residents are almost too strong.

This is a southern town so I strongly suspect the anti-regulation rhetoric won
out and now they paid the price.

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Symbiote
With the whole of New York behind this, can't they just build a couple of
miles of new track to provide a new route to the landfill which bypasses the
town?

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jacobush
By the time construction is finished, the sludge has moved on to some other
lowest bidder.

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stuaxo
Why the "poop train" shit train makes more sense, no need to be polite.

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thomyorkie
What a headline

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nasredin
I can just picture a NYC man with the most smug smirk on his face. He is the
NYT reporter who penned this masterpiece.

