My work gets me into places otherwise I had not even imagined that existed. Today I went to a large, underground club with a big, gorilla like fellow, all dressed in black and with impressive 45 mm firearm at his side, guarding the entrance. It was early morning and few clients. The problem was a bad sewage odor, whose source they couldnt identify. The pic shows the pipe running under the ceiling - it had been painted over but the connecting isolation rubber rings were dry and ineffective. And being deep under the ground level, they had two wastewater pumping stations but not visible air vents. They have a maintenance plumber and he started to shout furiously at me contradicting my observations so I cut him short. I got the impression that the maintenance man purposefully had been maintaining the problem to keep milking the owner. Now I realize that I may have been endangering not only his income but his life too.
13 comments:
So are you basically a plumber?
Is "water engineer" a euphemism for plumber?
Not trying to be condescending or anything like that. Got nothing against plumbers. Just curious.
No, I am a professional water engineer. I do seek out and take jobs where the plumbers and collegues (other engineers) are unable to solve the problem (like in this case). I also love controversies and to write expert witness opinions for judges and attorneys. It is in theses cases that I can ask for more money than general routine design work.
I do much designing of standard plumbing for housing (up to 22 meter tall blds.) and irrigation systems, but they are unworthy of comment. I do some "green" environmental projects, which I hate because they only satisfy the Client's or the Regulator's imbecile prejudices.
I reject larger projects because I dont want to leave professional work and become a manager of a consulting team or office. I'm not so good at managing intellectual workers and I am too old to start dealing with younger professionals.
In finding a good niche I designed all kind of related projects such as firefighting (sprinkler) systems, but I dont like them because they regulations force the Clients to very large expenses and they dont understand why they have to spend money in large water reservoirs and complicated pumping systems, when they are connected to municipal water. And they blame me for not standing up to the firefighting department's engineers.
At least 50% of my work is not design but permitting. Israeli bureaucracy is incredibly demanding and in every instance there is a need to get the regulator's approval and signature. I spend much time creating drawings and documents only to satisfy their requirements. And much bitterness trying to explain and get their approval - the Israeli regulator loves to have big name engineers and contractors and entrepreneurs begging for their signature. They organize meetings and send "NATO" letters (with dozens of copies) to show their superior knowledge and position and humiliate the public. Israeli buraucracy is a direct descendant of the Turkish Empire officer dealing with inferior races.I ask for half price in projects there is no need for bureaucratic approval, net engineering projects, but there are few.
My business plan is to diversify into new areas where standard procedures have not been yet developed (such as "sick buildings" and so) so there are no established prices and I can ask higher rewards.
Forgot. I also teach two courses in the University and every year spend time in consulting mission in some foreign country.
I am the hardest working person I know.
I had never heard the term "water engineer" before. I thought it was a joke or something you made up.
In the US, I think your kind of work falls under hydraulic engineer or civil engineering. I don't think "water engineer" or "water engineering" is used very much if at all.
Yes, basically it is civil engineer. But designing irrigation systems could be agricultural engineer. Wastewater treatment and reuse is sanitary engineering. Only in Israel water was so important as a profession and as a concept that there are people who call themselves water engineer. And water engineer is not really about construction but pipes, so civil engineering is not descriptive enough. A Hungarian Jew who emigrated to the US during WWII became a Professor of Math in MIT or other university. After a few years of teaching it was discovered that he had been a well-known theater critic in Budapest and had never studied math. People was amazed, because he had been considered a very competent teacher. Pressed, he confessed that he had no qualifications in maths but he was a fast learner, in fact he was able to teach any language or any subject if they gave him 20 minutes advantage over the student.
As for me, I stopped writing criticism after a friend and writer German Rosenwasser killed himself by opening the gas and putting his head into the oven. Well, nothing of the kind is true except German's suicide fifty years ago.
Pressed, he confessed that he had no qualifications in maths but he was a fast learner, in fact he was able to teach any language or any subject if they gave him 20 minutes advantage over the student.
I don't get it...the anecdote about the Hungarian Jew emigrant who became a math prof. seems like a non sequitor. What do you mean by this story?
It is an interesting anecdote, though. I'd be interested in hearing more about him. Did he have any techniques for fast learning?
So you work in sewers?
I didn't know you were a prole. I thought you had more class.
Sorry for my obscure non-sequitur comment on the Hungarian immigrant teacher. What I meant is that I see myself as a man with a good brain and body who can do anything he puts his mind on. I have my academic qualifications but I consider them obsolete and irrelevant (they are - the techniques learned fifty years ago are useless - we used tables of logarythms and I know how to calculat on paper square roots and how to use rulers). I see myself as offering the intellectual services that the market demands and pays for. Something like a Mensa whore.
"Have brain, will think for money".
Have brain, will think (for money).
Have brain, will think (for money).
I am not a prole. According to the AVO (the Stalinist Secret Service of Hungary), my family's file says clearly we are Burgeois and my Father has Clerical Tendencies.
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