Here comes stupid

I have 2 questions about LI.

1) are homes on LI, on average oil burning rather than gas burning

and

2) what exactly is a cess pool and do all homes have them? I am pretty sure it is some kind of sewage system, but...what is the deal with it? are their any towns with sewage systems like what I currently enjoy ( ) in Brooklyn?

TIA. and forgive me.

Re: Here comes stupid

Posted by Ophelia

I have 2 questions about LI.

1) are homes on LI, on average
and

2) what exactly is a cess pool and do all homes have them? I am pretty sure it is some kind of sewage system, but...what is the deal with it? are their any towns with sewage systems like what I currently enjoy ( ) in Brooklyn?

TIA. and forgive me.

Re: Here comes stupid

I can only guess that more houses have oil than gas but I have no proof.

as far as a cesspool...its where your house waste water goes into, where the solids stay and break down and the water seeps into the ground. some of them are made of cinder blocks but the new oned are made of a poured concrete in a form that looks kind of like a bee hive.

Some places on LI have sewers...I grew up in North Babylon and we had sewers.

Re: Here comes stupid

1. Id say depends on the neighborhood. Where I grew up everyone had oil. Where I live now, all the houses pretty much have natural gas.

2. like what people above said, its where the poop goes (amongst other things!). Id say that most of nassau has sewers as does western suffolk. Eastern suffolk is mostly cesspools, with some developments having sewers.

Re: Here comes stupid

1. doesn't it depend on the age of the house. all the old houses we looked at have oil. that what we have found in nassau.

2. does nassau have cesspools?? eta: duh i just read meaghan's response

Message edited 1/9/2008 1:02:58 PM.

Re: Here comes stupid

Message edited 1/9/2008 1:06:45 PM.

Re: Here comes stupid

double post

Message edited 1/9/2008 1:06:29 PM.

Re: Here comes stupid

We are in Nassau

I would say most people have oil...

I would love to convert to gas...the only thing is it is very expensive since we don't have a gas line in our house and it would need to be connected to the line down the street

We have sewers...I have never had a cess pool and would probably not have considered a house or town that had one

Message edited 1/9/2008 1:42:36 PM.

Re: Here comes stupid

1) No I don't think most LI houses use oil, I think it depends on the neighborhood. My parents house had oil, our house has gas.

2) A cesspool/septic tank is a waste disposal system. All the water that is flushed/comes down any drain goes into a main pipe that leads to the cesspool. There are bacteria in the cesspool that breakdown the waste so all that is left is water. The water then leaches out of the cesspool into the surrounding soil.
Much of Nassau has sewers. Most of Suffolk has cesspools, with a few exceptions. The reason for this is when LI was developed, nassau was closer to NYC and therefore had a higher population, so a sewer system was built. Suffolk was considered the country, mostly farmland, so there was no need for a municpal sewer system, everyone could handle their own water/waste. Now that the population of Suffolk is much larger, there is a need for a sewer system, and it is being talked about. The problem is the expense of building and then maintaining the system. No one wants their taxes to go up, understandably.

Message edited 1/9/2008 2:13:46 PM.

Re: Here comes stupid

ok...

so how clean is this water that then leaks into your backyard?

I am being totally serious, fyi.

Re: Here comes stupid

1. natural gas is not an option where I live, eastern suffolk . everyone here has oil. I grew up in an area where 99% of the houses had gas.

2. sewers aren't an option here either but where I grew up in suffolk we had them.

Its very mixed.

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the water isnt contaminated...its like using fertilizer in the soil! and beside...this was goes so far down that it doesnt affect any plants that you would plant

Now saying that, we always had to pump out our cesspool when i was growing up and the grass was always nice a green and healthy over the cesspool!!

Re: Here comes stupid

Posted by Ophelia

Posted by MrsFlatbread

Posted by Ophelia

ok...

so how clean is this water that then leaks into your backyard?

I am being totally serious, fyi.

Not sure what you mean? Are you taking about the drinking water? If so, its pretty safe. You can google drinking water and Long Island NY

no, I mean the water...if it's leaking into the soil...is the soil contaminated in some way, or is the water clean enough that there is no harm.

I've had to drink enough LI water to have formed my own opinion on that

Re: Here comes stupid

Posted by MrsFlatbread

Posted by Ophelia

Posted by MrsFlatbread

Posted by Ophelia

ok...

so how clean is this water that then leaks into your backyard?

I am being totally serious, fyi.

Not sure what you mean? Are you taking about the drinking water? If so, its pretty safe. You can google drinking water and Long Island NY

no, I mean the water...if it's leaking into the soil...is the soil contaminated in some way, or is the water clean enough that there is no harm.

I've had to drink enough LI water to have formed my own opinion on that

besides...I bet it's better than breathing the air in brooklyn!!!!

Message edited 1/9/2008 2:56:19 PM.

Re: Here comes stupid

1. hard to say. we have gas and I love it! Grew up with oil, never knew otherwise. Gas is just cleaner to burn overall.

2. Everyone else described it, so I won't. I will say though I live in Nassau and have cesspools We are one of very few areas in Nassau not hooked up to a county or private sewer line.

And to throw another thing out there, there are two types of underground disposal systems: cesspools and septic systems. Both do the same, except in a cesspool, the ground is earthen and the waste breaks down into good bacteria. In a septic system, the solids are held in a concrete bottom tank and the liquids are leached out to absorb into the ground. The solids need to be pumped out because they don't enter the ground.