Brown Gold - The Dooley Digest Pt. 1

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Rainbowbridge said:
when you say first lift station tank....how many were there? Also how was the sewage treated?
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Lol, I've had too many Dangling Dirty Dogs (Chili Cheese Dogs) in my days there. Probably subtracted a few years from my life.

To my understanding it goes something like this but I could be completely wrong because I never really asked:

Lift Station 1 is attached to the dock and has a holding tank which adds water and possibly some chemicals/microorganism to start to thin up the matter and start the chemical breakdown process. Every pump out station and marina toilet/faucet flows into it via pipes under the dock.

In between lift station 1 and 2 are ~10ft long sectioned lengths of bolted together, slightly flexible pipes. NPS would have to add/subtract sections depending on the water level and also adjust the cable tensioning before or after depending if the water was going up or down. The lower the lake elevation, the more suction power is required because the pipe became longer. I'm no plumber, but that makes sense right?

Lift Station 2 is 3/4 the way up the hill and is a strong pump that sucks the waste up from Lift Station 1. Lift 2 also might act as a stoppage point for when they are adjusting the marina cables, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to control sludge oozing coming out when they were adding/subtracting pipes.

Lift Station 3 is next to the helipad and sucks the sludge up from Lift Station 2 and pumps it 1/3 mile away into the Maroon Lagoon. There might be a 4th Lift Station that takes all the sludge from Lift Station 3 and from employee housing and pumps it to the Lagoon. Or the housing might have it's own lift station independent to push matter into the Lagoon

Once it reaches the Lagoon, a chemical/microorganism is added to start breaking down the waste. This is also responsible for the reddish color.
 
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Ed_on_WD said:
I've been up the San Juan, but the crocs and zombies never did make an appearance while I was there.
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You don't have to see anything too feel the eeriness of the San Juan. There is something about that part of the lake, I cannot quite put my finger on it though. Let's just say If "they" exist, then the San Juan is a great place to find "them". *X-Files Theme Song*
 
Dangling Dooley said:
I never saw chipmunks.

We had the friendly but easily frightened herd of ewes that seemed to strictly stay in DR Canyon. I only saw a ram twice in my 4 summers there. It started to scrape it's hoof against the dirt, warning me that I was getting to close and defending its harem of ewes and lambs.
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you would know if they were about - they are like raccoons in that they will breed so quickly and even if you try to trap and hunt them out they'll still manage to be around. aside from the fact that they are way too cute and people will feed them. here we have to hunt and trap them and there are various hunting animals around (snakes, hawks, and others including semi-feral cats) and it is very rare to see one leave where it doesn't have one it it's mouth. one season when we were being overrun with them we had to set up bucket traps and caught 55 within a few weeks and i still had to hunt a lot the rest of that season. since then i've started removing habitat but our property is full of it (we like rocks :) - piles of rocks) so i am only scratching the surface. trying to fence them out is a challenge. i've not done it, but i dream of it. like any gardener, once you plant things animals like to eat it attracts them and you have to figure out some way to protect them or they'll be gone. some years i've also tried to decoy and bribe them, but it just ends up with them breeding even more. haha, oops, sorry, i can go on a bit long about gardens and the fun layers of thinking i have to do to get results here.


Dangling Dooley said:
DRM Canyon Wildlife:
Lots of lizards, rattlesnakes (2016 we had a nest under House 2), tarantulas, jackrabbits, cottontails, ring-tailed cats, striped skunks, mice, ravens, scorpions, toads, bats, MASSIVE MOTHS that would fly into your face, TOO MANY DOCK SPIDERS/TARANUTAL HAWKS/MUD DAUBERS!

Foxes, Utah Banded Geckos, chuckwallas, turkey vultures, & other various snakes.

Never saw any mountain lions thank goodness though I'm sure they are out there. Never saw coyotes or bobcats either.

I saw river otters in Rainbow Bridge Canyon once which was magical. Seen some horses on the southside of Padre and West Canyon. I've always wanted to see beaver at Powell, unfortunately few and far between...especially because 90% of the DRM staff are males.

A women once came to the dock and showed me pictures of an albino donkey she saw in the San Juan along the eastern banks of Piute Bay. I would love to have those pictures. Spirit Donkey in the San Juan, definitely fitting. 🤣
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:) the dominant herbivores here are white tail deer and they can do a lot of munching on plants, including the ones they're not supposed to eat that are claimed to be deer resistant. get a few dozen juvenile deer that don't know the plant is deer resistant taking samples and there's not much of a plant left. fences are required if we don't want to keep a dog outside permanently or to hunt them year round (illegal without special permits).
 
Speaking of the eeriness of the San Juan, In Oct each year I spend several days in the SJ, usually by myself, camping and fishing. Normally there are a boat or two up there and sometimes a houseboat so I usually don't feel "alone". Sometimes talk to others, sometimes just wave. A couple years ago I dodged rain showers all the way from Wahweap to the Neskahi and set up camp above there. Fished very successfully for the next two days and then suddenly realized I had not seen another boat or person since leaving Dangling Rope. My boat has a 150 Yama and an electric trolling motor but I'd been fishing up lake to where the San Juan river comes into the lake. Fishing was great but suddenly the eeriness of the isolation settled in. I fished the next morning then loaded camp and headed home. Finally saw one other boat just after passing Dangling. Chuck
 
cfulton said:
Speaking of the eeriness of the San Juan, In Oct each year I spend several days in the SJ, usually by myself, camping and fishing. Normally there are a boat or two up there and sometimes a houseboat so I usually don't feel "alone". Sometimes talk to others, sometimes just wave. A couple years ago I dodged rain showers all the way from Wahweap to the Neskahi and set up camp above there. Fished very successfully for the next two days and then suddenly realized I had not seen another boat or person since leaving Dangling Rope. My boat has a 150 Yama and an electric trolling motor but I'd been fishing up lake to where the San Juan river comes into the lake. Fishing was great but suddenly the eeriness of the isolation settled in. I fished the next morning then loaded camp and headed home. Finally saw one other boat just after passing Dangling. Chuck
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Great post! I can so relate!

I too, would take off alone in a 17' 1972 Winner with a 200 V6 Evinrude. (No matter that it was rated for 135, I figured they were horses of another color)

After 5-7 days up the Escalante or San Juan, I, too would have to head back.

Upon returning my wife would ask: if it was so beautiful, what made you come back?

I'd reply, well, guess I'd had enough of myself.

She'd smile and say: 'Now you know how I feel'

:cool:
 
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