Huntsville/Madison Development News (Moulton, Harvest: septic tanks, chlorine, chemicals)

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by Suesbal

What keeps Huntsville from expanding east - mountains?

Yes, that's probably part of the reason. West is virtually flat so easier to build on. Plus, the airport's west of town, as well as I-65. When 565 is extended east in about 50 years growth will no doubt head that way. There's already quite a bit of residential development east of town though. There's not a lot of development south either.

[MisterEd51]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

Yes, that's probably part of the reason. West is virtually flat so easier to build on. Plus, the airport's west of town, as well as I-65. When 565 is extended east in about 50 years growth will no doubt head that way. There's already quite a bit of residential development east of town though. There's not a lot of development south either.

Redstone Arsenal which extends all the way to the Tennessee River blocks most growth of Huntsville to the south. Any growth east or west of Redstone Arsenal is still blocked southward by the Tennessee River.

[JoeJunior]

Most people don't realize that Huntsville is a huge agricultural county with huge row crop farms. We compete on city streets with combines, tractors and cotton pickers seasonally.

If a farmer has an off year, he'll just sell off 20-30-40 acres of prime farmland and they sprout new houses on the land.

However the new housing developments are scattered all over the county--mostly out of sight on back roads. It's a shame that utilities including natural gas and sewers are not available. And most of these just have one source of cable tv and one internet source by ground.

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by JoeJunior

Most people don't realize that Huntsville is a huge agricultural county with huge row crop farms. We compete on city streets with combines, tractors and cotton pickers seasonally.

If a farmer has an off year, he'll just sell off 20-30-40 acres of prime farmland and they sprout new houses on the land.

However the new housing developments are scattered all over the county--mostly out of sight on back roads. It's a shame that utilities including natural gas and sewers are not available. And most of these just have one source of cable tv and one internet source by ground.

Price wise, refitting the average house with natural gas is $10k. And depending on appliances, propane is often the more efficient fuel, even using less than natural gas in some cases.

Internet services usually piggyback on electric poles, not buried. When you see big reels being buried, those are main lines to substations. As long as internet stays around $50/month, the just one provider will work.

And what’s the advantage to sewers? Higher utility costs? 20% of the nation’s houses (and 40% of Alabama) are on septic and if installed correctly, they will operate (for free) for years vs monthly sewer bills.
https://www.circleofblue.org/2015/wo...eptic-systems/

[dwhisent]

Originally Posted by johnsonkk

Internet services usually piggyback on electric poles, not buried. When you see big reels being buried, those are main lines to substations. As long as internet stays around $50/month, the just one provider will work.

The problem with a single provider is the providers take advantage of the lack of competition. Spectrum 500 Mbps for example costs 95 bucks/mo (after the intro rates sunset) with no competition, but is $40/mo if they have competition.

Originally Posted by johnsonkk

And what’s the advantage to sewers? Higher utility costs? 20% of the nation’s houses (and 40% of Alabama) are on septic and if installed correctly, they will operate (for free) for years vs monthly sewer bills.
https://www.circleofblue.org/2015/wo...eptic-systems/

Even if installed correctly, sometimes issues happen - then it may be as simple as a clean out, or a major costs for new field lines. Either one really messes up your lawn. It's kinda a piece of mind. (I have a septic tank myself). And there are real problems with contamination of the underground water.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by JoeJunior

Most people don't realize that Huntsville is a huge agricultural county with huge row crop farms. We compete on city streets with combines, tractors and cotton pickers seasonally.

If a farmer has an off year, he'll just sell off 20-30-40 acres of prime farmland and they sprout new houses on the land.

However the new housing developments are scattered all over the county--mostly out of sight on back roads. It's a shame that utilities including natural gas and sewers are not available. And most of these just have one source of cable tv and one internet source by ground.

I live in the city of Madison, in a very suburbanized area (technically, according to the Post Office, it's still a rural route), and we don't have access to natural gas and only have one source of cable TV and internet (I use Dish for television, WOW for internet). We do have city/county sewer, thankfully. So it's not just the far-flung areas that have such things going on.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by dwhisent

The problem with a single provider is the providers take advantage of the lack of competition. Spectrum 500 Mbps for example costs 95 bucks/mo (after the intro rates sunset) with no competition, but is $40/mo if they have competition.



Even if installed correctly, sometimes issues happen - then it may be as simple as a clean out, or a major costs for new field lines. Either one really messes up your lawn. It's kinda a piece of mind. (I have a septic tank myself). And there are real problems with contamination of the underground water.

On ISPs, the introduction of 5g is going to make for competition. Rurally, I have depended on satellite for years, which is insanely expensive. More recently, the speeds from phone hotspots are as fast or faster, and less costly. Technology advances.

On septic, there is a lot of overblown fear that comes from years of concerns of sewage borne diseases in cities and close surrounds. A properly functioning system will not contaminate groundwater, to the point that when I was asking the county health officer about systems and companies that did proper installs, he said that a well and septic only needed to be 50' apart.

About the only contamination I would be concerned about would be from chemicals that never should be put in a drain anyway. Stuff like is used in fracking.

[dwhisent]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

About the only contamination I would be concerned about would be from chemicals that never should be put in a drain anyway. Stuff like is used in fracking.

What I was referring to is round water fecal contamination. I'm no expert on this, but Harvest-Monrovia Water has been building and installing water treatment plants and treatment systems on their wells because, at least they claim, because of high levels of fecal contaminants which in their annual report they attributed to failing septic systems. Very few of the residents they serve have connections to sewer systems, and I would guess there are many thousands of septic tanks, many of which are quite old.

[JoeJunior]

After I moved to our 10 year old house, I had the septic tank pumped out.

Izard charged $550 for the service--and they didn't even have to dig to find the tank.

Thankfully a pump out is not required very often.

[AU HSV]

Huntsville International continues to bounce back from covid. 2022 saw over 1.2 million passengers travel through the airport an increase of 28% over 2021.
2019 was the record year with 1.4 million, that record will probably be surpassed in the coming year.
Travel is split 50/50 between business and leisure which is good to see.
American has brought back mainline service to DFW on Airbus 320 and Breeze has helped a lot with its nonstops to Las Vegas and Tampa. They add nonstops to Orlando with through service to Charleston in March.
American will also resume nonstop to Miami this summer.
Bottom line, more people that use the airport, better flight/airline options and lower prices will follow.