Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Virginia Tops the List of Grossest States

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Some outfit terming itself Zippia, the career expert, has published a ranking of the “grossest states” in America — and Virginia finds itself atop the list, followed by our neighbors to the south, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The methodology for this (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek exercise combined metrics for dirty air, trash, the spread of the flu, and the prevalence of Google searches for mayonnaise recipes and Crocs.

Zippia measured dirty air using a metric employed by AirFiltersDelivered. But that source ranks Virginia as having the 9th cleanest air in the country. Count me as amused but confused.

Trash was measured not by roadside litter by the percentage of each state’s land taken up by landfills. It is true that Virginia has a lot of landfills — in which, I hasten to add, the trash is BURIED — but Zippia’s link connects to an EPA page about greenhouse gases.

As for mayonnaise recipes and Crocs, well, maybe Zippia has a point.

So, I’m wondering… if Bacon’s Rebellion readers were compiling a list of grossest states, what metrics would they suggest?

— JAB

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17 responses to “Virginia Tops the List of Grossest States”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    One of the lesser recognized aspects of “cleaner water”, i.e. well functioning sewage treatment plants is this:

    https://indianriverna.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/biosolids1-1024×768.jpg

    Yep. You think your poop just magically disappears in a thingamabob but nope, it’s still poop but now “processed” but still needs to go somewhere:

    And yep, it goes right on top of that legendary “pristine” farmland!

    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/ZVj36XijgQFoYVZ_cP9zqqGf5AGjE61_4bcQDhdyzB09qxhJbkU5EOaTz0pyuUAMQiocM8zCrxzfzR4dnB2u6qPR3jghcRQKeqYh5NvpmTMJZMZO1Ks

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Uh, NutriGreen — the composted waste from treatment plants — is NOT suitable for farmland because of heavy metals, for one.

      That may be animal and/or septic tank compost since the contents of septic systems are generally known

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        Might want to check the literature….

        ” ABOUT BIOSOLIDS AND INDUSTRIAL RESIDUALS Biosolids and industrial residuals are nutrient-rich mate-rials left over at the end of sewage treatment or a man-ufacturing process. If they meet regulatory standards, these materials are can be applied to farm and forest land as agricultural fertilizers. Biosolids and industrial re-siduals contain pathogens and chemical compounds and elements that may pose risks to human health and the environment. To minimize these risks, they are sub-ject to federal and state regulations.”

        http://jlarc.virginia.gov/pdfs/reports/Rpt497.pdf

        Besides, what would one think they did with it if not that?

        ” About 60 percent of sewage sludge in the United States was used for land application in 2002. In Virginia, biosolids were applied to about 50,000 acres in 2006. By comparison, untreated animal manure was applied to nearly 400,000 acres.2″

        http://www.virginiaplaces.org/waste/biosolids.html#:~:text=About%2060%20percent%20of%20sewage,applied%20to%20nearly%20400%2C000%20acres.

        I can tell, this is MUCH “grosser” than folks thought!

        1. Bruce Majors Avatar
          Bruce Majors

          If only we could return to the ancient ways before the industrial revolution, when we prayed to our ancestors and their spirits took the waste off to Hades.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Like I said, religion has issues when dealing with realities. The reality is that we do poop and too many of us have no clue what happens to it after we poop.

            Gone! Magic!

            😉

    2. Bruce Majors Avatar
      Bruce Majors

      I thought they shipped it to that island that that Congressman was afraid was going to tip over?

  2. tmtfairfax Avatar
    tmtfairfax

    Aren’t there public health reasons why human feces cannot be used as fertilizer unlike animal feces?

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Biosolids (formerly sewage sludge) are not untreated feces.

      Class A biosolids are very highly treated and can be land-applied as fertilizer with minimal restrictions. It is considered pathogen-free. Class A biosolids can be packaged and sold to the public as fertilizer.

      Class B biosolids have received less treatment and are not considered pathogen-free, but can still be land applied as fertilizer but with restrictions, such as no public access to the land for a certain time period following application of sludge, and other limitations.

      Done properly land application of biosolids is a perfectly legitimate method for disposing of the solids/sludge from wastewater treatment plants. The stuff has to go somewhere.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        Exactly. The interesting thing is how many folks don’t know this.

        Country folks know it cuz they have septic drainfields.

        But city folks often don’t know or realize the solids no longer go into the river unless it’s animal poop.

        This is an example of how people actually DO impact the environment.

        When the country was first inhabited by small numbers of native americans – pee and poop were not a problem – lots of land and not many people. In other words, the natural carrying capacity of the land.

        But you put a whole bunch of people on land – and the poop overwhelms it if it’s not dealt with.

        The Potomac (and most urban rivers) was a cesspool before the advent of modern sewage treatment because the poop went directly into the river. Now, it’s “extracted” and has to be disposed of NOT in the river.

        But many who do not live in rural have little idea what actually happens to their poop.

  3. Bruce Majors Avatar
    Bruce Majors

    I worked in Manhattan for part of a summer, and in exchange for low pay lived in the rent controlled apartment my employer’s wife had had before she married him and had moved into his suburban house. A one bedroom in a small building (one apartment on each floor) at 70th and Lexington.

    Even though living “rent free” in my own Upper East side apartment, with a separate tiny bedroom and living room, spoiled me forever from living in New York without a lot of money, it was also the case that when I walked, as I did every day, to my job in the NYU area 50+ blocks away, my face and my skin were always covered with grit and oil just from what was blowing on the New York streets. Had to take a shower as soon as I got home.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      but what happened to your poop?

  4. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Roadside litter definitely; Texas would take No. 1. In their case, geography and weather combines with a penchant for the sound of busting beer bottles hitting the street. The mostly wide open spaces and wind work to decorate any trees and fences with plastic shopping bags.

    1. Bruce Majors Avatar
      Bruce Majors

      Might be border areas in general. One of more more liberal Democratic friends – she flew to DC for the women’s march against Trump – was once lived for a few years in Sierra Vista, Arizona. I was more of a purist platform plank libertarian then, and we would have heated arguments about open borders and free immigration. Pre-Trump, when she was an Obama voter and Hillary supporter, she was against open borders, since she saw trash left all over Arizona by illegal aliens crossing the border (she was a full-time volunteer at the environmental preserve, Ramsey Canyon), and also felt people (including I suspect in particular women, the elderly, and elderly women) were threatened by people wandering through their yards and ranches at night as these people crossed the border.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        A tad unfair. The southern border states lack something we have — trees and undergrowth. It’s hides a multitude of crap. We all look like a bad episode of “Hoarders”. Theirs is just more visible.

        But the plastic shopping bag is the pits. The NC beach communities that banned them had the right idea.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          yup. Every year, before volunteers clean them, our ditches look like this:

          https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wvnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/a7/ea7563a4-6d72-5930-ba72-6c4a01348919/5ad2628034d1e.image.jpg?resize=1396%2C924

  5. CJBova Avatar
    CJBova

    The amount of cyanobacteria in state drainage ditches and waterways.

    Number of stormwater retention ponds that have to be cleaned after 20 years and removed material has to treated as hazardous waste.

  6. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    How we deal with these issues is, in many respects, the essence of governance.

    In another words – if people really do have their own “free will”, and that free will means discarding litter, or poop in any way they wish, as their “right” , then who are we to restrict their liberties?

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