Boss Hogg’s Mosquito Magnets
- Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 10:25
- Krusty Konservative
- 879 views
- 24 comments
So I guess people want a little more from me. Yesterday, I had a little fun with a typo that Culver made. It made me laugh, but “anonymous” writes, “Here’s hoping Krusty has something more interesting tomorrow than a typo. Does he get paid to do this?”
First, I don’t get paid to do this. Second, be careful what you ask for.
Don’t Let the Rain hit the Ground!
“This issue is too urgent to wait for a legislative solution,” said Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids. “This issue is so important we need to ask all Iowans to participate.”
What is Boss Hogg talking about? Rain Barrels.
I call them mosquito magnets. I’m surprised that Culver didn’t use millions of dollars in I-Jobs money to buy people some huge plastic barrels. They cost $100 bucks a pop.
Does anyone really think that 1000 rain barrels would have prevented any of the devastation in Cedar Rapids? I don’t. It was a 500 year flood, 1000 rain barrels would just be a breeding ground for mosquitos.
But what about the snow? Heck they dump it into the river. Oh No!!!
Branstad Gets his Gay On
Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register posted a story stating, “Terry Branstad indicated in an interview last week that he supports gay adoptions and civil unions.” I wonder if Jason rushed out and filled out an absentee for Branstad.
The only problem is that Branstad didn’t really say those things. I will admit that he gave a terrible interview with Todd Dorman, but when you look at what he said, he never endorsed civil unions. I think you might be able to say that he did endorse gay adoption, and Vander Plaats rightly noted that Branstad signed a bill allowing that when governor many moons ago.
Here is what I don’t get. Instead of pointing out that Todd Dorman asks questions like a (insert Rahm Emanuel phrase here), the Branstad campaign issues a statement that does nothing to calm down social conservatives. Bad move on their part.
Here are the questions that Dorman Asked:
What is it about gay and lesbian marriage that you’re not comfortable with?
This is the most straight forward question that Dorman asked. Good job out of him, but it really doesn’t ask anything.
What do you say to a gay couple with a child who wants that same stability?
So just being married gives a family stability? I read in the newspaper everyday about dysfunctional families. You know fathers that beat their wives and the like. This is a terrible question. K’mon Todd.
How about civil union rights? Is that something that you’re…take the word marriage out of it?
TEB didn’t really answer the question.
I also don’t know how many of these bad interviews I can take. I also don’t know how many $hitty questions from Todd Dorman I can take. Come on dude, don’t ask questions like a (insert Rahm Emanuel phrase here).
About the Author
Krusty Konservative has written 225 stories on this site.
Herschel Krustofski is the pseudonym for the anonymous author of Krusty Konservative, a blog which focuses on Iowa Politics. Created in February of 2006, Krusty Konservative is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Iowa blogosphere. Since its conception, Krusty Konservative has never shied from tackling controversial issues, and providing insight to the inner workings of Republican politics in Iowa.
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The group advocating the use of these rain barrels happen to be selling barrels at $100.00 a pop. Who said Dims can’t be good entrepreneurs. At least they’re not advocating a government program to buy rain barrels for everyone. Oh, wait, don’t give them any ideas.
Much more entertaining today. Thank you. You need to read the WCCO (when did CCO become an Iowa news source?? I remember being awakened to WCCO’s singing Norwegians at 6 AM when I lived in the Cities) article more carefully, though. It is a pretty good indication that more government regulation is on the way. Beyond rain barrels. The point of the article was about reducing runoff to prevent flooding. Expect more regulation of building and other things that don’t allow water to seep into the ground.
Upon doing a little googling about rain barrels I find a way to make your own for under $10.00 but lo and behold, there are municipalities giving away these things.
It doesn’t sound very practical however, as this article also states that one inch of rain on 1,000 square feet of roof can produce 6,000 gallons of rainwater.
Some guy just called the Mickelson show and asked what color is best for these barrels. Mickelson settled on camo but they’re missing the boat.
You turn this into a contest to see who has created the most artistic barrel.
Remember all those painted cows in Chicago and other painted animals in other cities. CR can have the most beautiful rain barrel contest.
I should have known better than to trust the numbers of an environmental wacko. I find in another place that the number is closer to 600 gallons of water on a 1,000 sq. ft. roof.
That would mean for my house, I would need (23) 55 gallon barrels to accomodate a 1 in. rain. In order to produce a flood, I’m sure we’re talking about much more than a 1 in. rain.
These people also probably believe in global warming.
Moats are a far better answer.
This was the most revealing part of the interview:
I asked Branstad how he would cut government. He said he’s still looking for ideas but did mention reforming the state’s mental health system and rolling back Medicaid, which has been expanded to cover more people, including children. He said state employees should pay for their health insurance like private sector employees.
He also questioned why the state has expanded its public school responsibilities to include early childhood education.
Promising to cut state government by 15 percent is a cornerstone of Branstad’s campaign, yet he admits he has no idea how he’ll do that. Cutting kids off pre-school at Medicaid won’t be nearly enough to get there.
oops. Looks like my cursor jumped. So sorry. I meant it takes more than a 1 in. rain to produce a flood.
I like the idea of the barrel painting contest. =)
I have to agree that it’s not very logical thinking if you think that rain barrels would have prevented any of the flooding in Ceder Rapids.
It helps if you think of surface water runoff as traffic. Let’s say that the Westbound lanes at the intersection of Hickman & 86th have a measured traffic of 10,000 vehicles per day. Now if you take that as an hourly average, it’s only about 400 vehicles per hour, which isn’t too bad….HOWEVER the thing about traffic is that you don’t design for the daily average at any one time, you design for the peak flow. During the morning or evening rush, those lanes might see 50 to 60 percent of their total daily flow just in two hours.
This is what happens with stormwater runoff. If you get small storms, the ground in the watershed soaks up most of the rain, and the rest gets sent downstream at a leisurely pace; but when a real gullywasher hits the percentage of the flow soaked up by the ground & other open areas (detention basins, street gutters, etc.) falls dramatically, and you see a big surge flow into the river in a small time frame. This peak flow creates flooding, and it’s amazing how much extra flow you have to deal with if the storm delivers 4.3″ of rainfall versus an even 4″. And that’s before you get into the whole “intensity” factor, which measures the rate of rainfall (inches per hour). Hard & heavy storms cause more flooding than slow & steady storms, even if their total rainfall amount ends up equal.
My opinion on the drive to get rain barrels installed: It’s a good idea, but don’t count on them to stop any flooding. Yes, you will retain SOME rainwater in the barrels, but unless EVERY barrel is going to be completely empty at the beginning of each rain event (I’d guess that they’ll all be half full at least), you don’t even get to use the full 100 gallons per barrel of available capacity – more like 50 gallons at best. And rain barrels typically only retain roof runoff – what about all that parking lot runoff? And don’t forget the runoff from ag land upstream from the flood zone. Hell, don’t forget all those new floodwalls and levees installed along the river, which manage to exacerbate the flooding & push the problem downstream to the next guy. Rain barrels should be encouraged to cut down on water consumption for watering yards & gardens, but anyone who thinks that they’ll make more of a difference to flooding than trying to bail water from the Titanic’s engine room with a teaspoon is seriously mistaken.
Another thing to think about: Repeated rainfall like we saw in the late spring/summer of ‘93 can also cause flooding. If you get several 2″ rain events on consecutive days, the percentage of the flow that runs off will be larger on each day, because the ground in the drainage area becomes more saturated with each rain. So runoff from a 6″ rain event that occurs after a dry week is less than what happens when you had several 1/2″ or 1″ storms preceeding the big rain event.
Considering that 1 million gallons of rainwater is what would go over the Coralville Reservoir spillway in a minute in a flooding situation…..Robb Hogg is truly an idiot for thinking that it would prevent flooding in Cedar Rapids.
Also considering the fact that the problem right now isn’t rainwater…but its snowpack. So, unless Robb has a way to get rid of all the snow drifts…this is just more feel-good liberal ridiculousness.
Searching the internet to learn about rain barrels is quite interesting. You are so right–they serve a function but it is collect water to use for gardening, etc.
I do fine an interesting gadget called a “pillow” (http://www.simplyrainbarrels.com/rain-tank-systems/original-rainwater-pillow.html)
Why wouldn’t this idea work to make a similar device in the shape of huge long tubes that could be laid along the foundations of homes and as they fill up, they also serve as sandbags to protect the house (or other building) from flooding. You wouldn’t have to fill the sandbags and handle them.
HawkCR1: Maybe we could use blowtorches to vaporize the water in all those snowdrifts? Then, not only would we not have to worry about all that snowmelt runoff, but the resulting water vapor increase in the atmosphere would rachet up the greenhouse effect & cause global temps to tick upwards…..and relieve us of the need to deal with all this snowfall in the future.
It’s a good plan. I saw Wile E. Coyote do it once in a cartoon, and I’m sure that we could figure out a way that doesn’t involve having a boulder crush us like what happened to that poor coyote.
THIS OLD HOUSE (or the spin-off) did one of those pillow thingies just this past week. Didn’t look to practical to me; big, taking an awful lot of space, expensive to install, and complicated for the average yuppy dipstick to operate and maintain.
Probably no mosquitos tho.
Just saw an interesting piece of machinery on KCCI. It melts huge amounts of snow but the problem is the water goes into the drainage system.
Well thats not so bad right now DVFO….the problem will come once the temps stay above 40 every day….but getting rid of whatever excess snow now that can be possible isn’t a bad thing at all right now.
I didn’t see that piece on the melting machinery, but it would be a nice thing to have IF the temperature stays fairly warm right now, and if the downstream legs of the drainage system they’re dumping it into has good positive slope. If the temp drops a bit and that water slows down in a pipe or a channel, then BAM – it starts to freeze and you’ve got the beginning of an icejam.
Of course, that’s not even looking at the energy consumed by that melting process. How much propane/gasoline/kerosene will it take for that thing to melt drifts? And considering the budget crunches of our municipalities, can they afford to run this thing instead of preparing the drainage system to take the onslaught of water that’s coming when the melt starts.
DVFO, did they mention if that piece of machinery is manufactured by The ACME Corporation? Because that might be a sign that things will end badly if you use it.
It was called a Snow Dragon http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/
They said it takes less fuel to run this than the trucks it would take to haul away the snow.
Yeah..watch the video on the KCCI website, Russ…. A $250,000 investment that might be able to help reduce the risk of millions in damage caused by potential flooding….sounds like a damn wise investment to me.
It is interesting working through their website. They must have 3 models.
Michigan makes them, too. http://www.michiganmelters.com/index.htm
Just nitpicking here, but it’s only a $250,000 investment if the machine runs itself. Figure in the labor & you’re going to see a LOT bigger cost, especially if they run it enough to make a difference in thaw flooding.
Don’t get me wrong: These machines are a big help when you’re considering the logistics of where you’re going to take the snow that you’re removing from parking lots and streets. But unless you’re going to run them 24/7 AND melt snow out in the fields upstream from the flooding area, then the melt runoff you’re preventing from using them is no more than a bucket of water in the ocean.
And as far as the claim that these machines cost less than trucking away the snow goes? I’m going to assume that this claim came from the machine’s brochure….which was written by people who make money from selling these machines. Is it true? I don’t know until someone “shows me their work”.