Leaking Dumpster
Decatur Metro | July 22, 2009
This dumpster sits behind 1 West Courthouse Square’s (aka Birds From Hell building’s) parking deck.
It has leaked onto the sidewalk and into the street for as long as I can remember. As someone who walks this sidewalk frequently to get to and from the MARTA station, I have to say I’m pretty disgusted every time I have to walk through this smelly mess. Lord knows what it is.
I’ve long meant to post a pic and submit a code violation to the city about this. Tonight I did both. Let’s see what can be done.
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I also noticed this particular dumpster and have seen many rats at its base. I hope your plan works!
Ugh. One of the few things I do not like about Decatur–it’s sewer system and rats. You can’t even think about bird seed in this town without attracting rats. Everyone in Decatur has a rat story; often they’re too embarrassed to admit it until they realize that it’s impossible to live here long without dealing with rats.
Let me tell you about the fun I had in my basement in June.
Seems I have now regained control of the basement, but the little buggers sure are persistent. And there not actually little buggers, but this is a family show.
I was sitting on my porch once drunker than 2 skunks. My friend said quietly, “whatever you do, don’t turn around”. A rat was slowly walking about 4 inches behind me, following the world’s dumbest and slowest palmetto bug. I swear the rat stuck his tongue out at me as I screamed and ran. I have never gone from smushed to sober that quickly in my life
*shudder* If I saw something like that, I’d do my best to go from sober to smashed ASAP!
Every big city has a rat problem but “I thought” it was worse in citys with alot of water in them like Seattle. (Talk about a town with a rat problem!) What is it with humans and pigeons and rats anyway?
Actually funny you mention this as I’ve been in and out of this town for upwards of 10 years and never once saw a rat. Last night I was on my way out to my car and saw a number of them eating out of my neighbors cat dish. (I live next door to an old southern fellah that leaves cat food out for the coons….don’t ask) So over the years I’ve seen coons and dealt with that but never rats. This morning I went next door to ask him to stop putting food out there and he was going on and on about how normal it was and he put decon out a couple of years ago and found 30 dead rats in his yard. (Bleh. I didn’t want to know that.)
So I proceeded to kindly ask him to stop leaving out food. I spent alot of time in big cities…I know how fast those suckers breed. No need to contribute to it by feeding them highly nutritious cat food. Doh!
And given that raccoon rabies is ubiquitous in the Southeast, it’s pretty darn silly to be feeding raccoons too. I used to know a raccoon feeder whose deck abutted wild space in Candler Park and I advised him to get pre-exposure rabies vaccination since it was just a matter of time before he got a raccoon bite…..
Gross. I hope they clean that business up ASAP. And rats, yikes. This is one time I’m grateful to not have what everyone else in Decatur has…
And thanks for adding me to your blog roll!
The word you’re looking for is leachate (i.e., the liquid that results from rain percolating through trash along with liquid produced by decomposition of the trash itself), or more to the point, “hopper juice.”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hopper+juice
Don’t you wish you worked a job that afforded you fun facts like these?
How about the dumpster at Leon’s?
I second the comment about Leon’s dumpster. What can be done about these necessary evils??
Is it in violation of anything?
Decatur City Code, Section 82-33:
(d) Maintenance of surrounding area. The occupant of a commercial establishment and the management of multiple dwellings serviced by a commercial refuse container or a recyclables container shall be responsible for maintaining the area surrounding the container clean and free of refuse and recyclables.
(e) Preparation of refuse. All refuse shall be free of liquid and placed in watertight paper or plastic bags with the tops secured prior to being placed in a commercial refuse container.
I love a man who can quote THE CODE.
Thanks ! It’s a gift.
I bet it’s a great party trick!
If the sludge runs into the storm water system, that may also be a code violation. Of course, washing the sidewalk may produce a violation as well.
And speaking of odors most foul, has anyone else noticed the occasional terrible smell at Commerce and West Ponce near Ted’s – a not-quite-identifiable bouquet reminiscent of ripe sewage with undertones of well-used cooking grease?
Ugh. I HATE this dumpster. The most vile smell ever.
Part of the problem here — at least in terms of people’s expectations — is the street’s personality crisis.
The streetscape treatment — nice trees and sidewalks — on this stretch suggest it’s one of our high streets, where people expect the most cleanliness. The bus depot would suggest it’s more of a secondary, “b-grid” street with lesser expectations. And the sidewalk-fronting dumpsters suggest it’s nothing more than a service alley.
There’s no question what kind of street Leon’s dumpster is on, though. Git scrubbin’!
I catch Emory’s CCTMA shuttle bus right in front of this dumpster every morning. It always smells completely disgusting in warm weather, leakage or not… I wish it could be moved somewhere else entirely, though I realize dumpsters have to be somewhere.
I totally agree. This is disgusting– and I dont think nastiness like this would be allowed in NYC from my experience.
-side note: What about the leaky water main in front of the high shool entrance?
The water main is a DeKalb County issue, not a Decatur issue and I’m sure there are many like it all over the County.
Hmm. You must have lived in NYC after I did. I lived there pre-Guliani and ripe smells were part of the summertime ambience especially anywhere in Manhattan outside of the posher areas like the Upper East Side.
But Decatur makes a living off of its intown charm and convenience, not its international business cache, so it better enforce whatever regulations keep it smelling nice.
What a tough life here in Decatur. A smelly dumpster? HORRORS!
Wait…when did it just become smelly? My problem is that I have to walk through that “leachate” . (thanks Lump)
But no, I have nothing on people starving in the Sudan.
It’s like my response to my wife when she complains that our kitchen trash smells: “That’s because it’s trash.”
Then I usually have to take it out.
For the City of Atlanta to address issues like this would require a site and bureaucracy completely dedicated to dumpster issues. Decatur will probably actually clean this up. Thanks for drawing attention to it. Soon Decatur, as a gouge to its ugly sista the ATL, can change its motto to: “Our Trash Don’t Stink”
I’ve always liked this dumpster and the spicy blue cheese sauerkraut durian fruit smells that it produces. It would be a shame to see it go.
Agree. Since that’s my most frequently used bus terminal, I have viewed/smelled it many times. Luckily, so far, I have not seen any rats there, but if I did, I would not be surprised. I have noticed a lack of city cats, such beautiful and useful creatures, in all of Decatur. I recommend a cat for any rodent problems, it will take care of the matter lickety-split, and will still purr and provide good company when you need it for your own comforts of home and hearth.
Cat chasing rats? I used to have two cats and I woke up one night to find a rat in the house and the cats sitting on the couch looking at me like, “Are you going to take care of that?” I think that the rats had paid the cats off.
Also, loved that post about a rat chasing a cockroach.. oh… I mean palmetto bug. Gotta love the South!
My kids used to have roaches as pets after as the result of a particularly “interesting” preschool unit. Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. I highly recommend them. They are about 4″ long as adults, move very slowly, carry no diseases and make an interesting hissing sound when you pick them up. They have a very interesting social structure and actually “talk” to each other. They are often seen in crypt scenes in B movies.
They love dog food and the occasional piece of cantaloupe as a treat.
I’ll never forget seeing my 4 y.o. daughter talking to on of the roaches (named “Mrs. Hissie) and tucking it into the little bed in her doll house. It was so touching.
We’ve also had pet rats … can’t recommend those though – they are a smelly mess – only second to guinea pigs.
LOL! I love cats…and dogs too, but we are talking about cats!