Sewer Gold

[Cfmct]

I had a friend stop by tonight after work, he wanted me to check out his IDX PRO it was not working correctly... I found a leaky battery... I asked him if he wanted to see all the gold I had found and after he was done looking at it.. he told me when he went to the sewage treatment plant to unload his sewage truck he told me when the treatment plant has to blow out the sewer pipes to clean them, then they clean the filters and he said he and a friend got to go through the whatever was in the filter and he came up with over 20 wedding bands his friend got a 3/4 diamond ring and a heavy gold chain, I guess people flush their gold by accident or who knows what...

He told me he took the rings he found and cashed them in for the gold value and made about a grand or so... I don't know if I would go thru sewage looking for jewelry...

[roadrunner_426]

Some of those wedding bands are probably flushed on purpose..as for the gold chain, maybe somebody hugging the throne after a rough night out..hey, treasure is where you find it..HH Roadrunner_426

[DJS]

Originally Posted by roadrunner_426

maybe somebody hugging the throne after a rough night out..HH! ! ! ! ! Roadrunner_426

man, I wish I had a dollar for every time in my life I could relate to that...

I really doubt if I would make a habit out of sifting though sewer sludge looking for valuables.
I guess it would depend on the circumstances, like if it could be set against a screen of sorts and hosed down, and anything gold there would be obvious and you could just pluck it out, maybe I'd do that ... But not browse through the toxic sludge by hand.
Get some of that into a cut and you are guarenteed blood poisoning, and I imagine just inhaling around the area without some very good protection woulod be hazardous.
In short, you'd have to dress in bio gear to have a crack at it.
I've worked at sewer plants before. Being a union carpenter we get to all sorts of insustrial operations.
First day I was about naseous all day long and didn't even think about lunch, but suprisingly I got used to it pretty quick and it didn't bother me that much after a few days there.
I went to see the input line, and I really expected to see individual turds coming down the line [Hey ! Thats mine ! ahhaha] ... But no, by the time it reaches that point, its all just ground up, nasty as can be sludge.

[dirtchirp]

I WAS JUST WONDERING IF YOUR FRIEND LIKES HIS IDX PRO AND IF IT WAS WORKING RIGHT BOWSER

[Cfmct]

Originally Posted by bowser

I WAS JUST WONDERING IF YOUR FRIEND LIKES HIS IDX PRO AND IF IT WAS WORKING RIGHT! BOWSER

Its working ok now, I also removed his coil cover because he had sand under it and that can cause the detector to act up as well.

[grinsebring]

Craig, I don't know if you remember my post a couple years ago about the pumptrucks that cleaned the septic tanks. Years ago in Vt. they would dump the contents on to the cow corn fields. It was a way for the truck to get rid of the stuff and also free fertilizer for the farmer. It stunk to high heaven until it was turned under and it broke down. just like the filtration plant, the rings, ear rings, coins,and other small valuables that were lost to the sink and laundry found their way to the septic tank and ended up on the corn fields.......Gil

[spittfire]

Hazardous material no matter what is in there! My advice is to leave it alone!

[hoser]

If you have the stomach for it, might not be too bad. I would however gear up for it. Rubber gloves and at least a dust mask and something to cover your clothing. if you knew just how much hazardous stuff you get into on a daily basis, it would scare you.

[Cfmct]

The sludge was dried out and I guess it was easy picking... I personally wouldn't bother but this guy was having fun, to each there own


So Gil did you pick through the sludge for the goodies?

[DJS]

I probably wouldnt mind going through it if it was spread out in a field, by the time it got to that point it would be mixed with soil and decomposed enough that it wouldnt be so bad to deal with, it still wouldnt be real high on my list of places to detect/dig through but if I knew there were enough valuables to make it worth while I'd probably do it

you'd have an extremely hard time getting me to dig through a raw sewage filter in a plant though...
I would have to be positive there was something in there worth enough to justify my doing it(and it would have to be worth ALOT) and it would have to be a "do it and be done" thing, I definitely wouldnt roll around in it just out of curiosity of what I MIGHT find...
that would be a little too much for me

[tater]

Hey now that should be on Dirty Jobs.

[Jason]

Man! That's gross, yet cool at the same time. Like a train wreck, you just gotta look.

[hoser]

Well look at it this way. If someone asks you how your hunting went today, you could just say "crappy", and you wouldn't be telling a lie.

[wannadanc]

E. coli and spinach just keep floating to the surface of the !!!! in my brain. I have done some pretty gross stuff in my long lifetime - but this would be a reach.

[Basset]

Not sure if I would want to dig around in the contents that came off a sewerage hauling truck . You are opening yourself up to everthing that could be infectious not to mention the chemicals that could be in the material.

I was a sewer treatment operator for several years. I never came down with anything that was health related from raw sewerage but I was also careful not to obtain a needless exposure to the sewerage. That also included sludge even when it was digested.

Sludge that has been on a drying bed or injected could cause a real exposure sobe careful when handing this material.

If you want to MD this material I would be very careful and make sure that you take universal Precautions when handing this material both before and after. To include disinfecting your detector and digging tools and i what you found.
Basset