Green Machine by Shannon F

Aqua Shock Finale!

Ok, so in all honesty I divided up my book incorrectly for sections, and I read ahead. I talked to Dr. V, and she told me just to do a big review over the book. I'm going to take it one step further, and emphasize what's going on in the Northland with water was well.

This post will include:
1) A recap of what I've learned in the book
2) What the Northland is doing in relation to the water crisis.
3) What I'm doing to change my lifestyle with this knowledge.

Before I get started, I want you to watch this video on Duluth's water situation.

1) What I've learned from this book.
I'll give the simplest points right now.

  -Water is being taken for granted and not being sustained. This definitely applies to the U.S.,but it also applies to the world.

   - Next to the oxygen we breathe, water is the most essential element combination of life. If we don't have water, we do not live.

  - Not everyone in the world has water.

   

A child dies every 15 seconds from diseases caused by a lack of safe water and sanitation

-The water that America has is taken for granted. This is due to the easy water accessibility coming right through our taps.

- America's water supply is contaminated and many don't even know it.
Our water supply has toxic chemicals from our products, animal and human waste, natural environment changes, and pharmaceuticals. Some water can be cleaned up and returned to water supplies. Other things like pharmaceuticals are not able to be filtered yet. Everything we do has an effect on the water whether is positive or negative. Mother nature can also lose her temper, and when she lets us know with erupting volcanoes, hurricanes, floods, etc our water can become toxic to our health.

-Mother nature has a natural water cycle that should be followed not interrupted.
The cycle follows a path by the groundwater storage, moving to water in oceans and surface water, then moving up into the atmosphere, freezing at high altitudes. coming down as run off, moving to freshwater storage, then back into ground water.

Humans are interrupting this natural cycle by moving water through infrastructure to deserts and places where it's convenient to us. For example, transporting water to people living in the desert of Nevada isn't the best way to go about it because we lose water through our struggling infrastructure.

Not everyone has access to clean water.

 “884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population.”

"A child dies every 15 seconds from diseases caused by a lack of safe water and sanitation, that's 1.5 million children dying from preventable diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and typhoid every year."

We don’t use water wisely. 

We use too much at a time. We don’t recycle it properly for sustainability, our water infrastructure is not being mended to, and we are displacing water by trying to hydrate people in desert areas of the country. Our demand of water is too high, leaving the water cycle to be interrupted.  

Who gets to say they own the water.

Politics is getting dragged into this, because the politicians represent the people who need to the water to survive. Streams, lakes, and other surface water is torn between geographical areas that are under different political rule. For example, if Canada owns upstream but that stream flows into Michigan, who owns it?

Water and money.

Is water a commodity or a god given right? Many people are realizing the worth in water and they are starting to push it towards being an economical asset. Large corporations are trying to obtain water rights for a profit. This risks water being owned by people that may not ethically share it to those in need.

We are not being kind to water.

Many of the products we use get washed down the drain. That ends up in the water system and may not be able to be filtered out. Everything from our garbage, pesticides. animal manure runoff, pharmaceuticals in our urine, lead from the infrastructure pipes, air pollutants being returned through rain water all end up in our water. Humans especially in America use way to much in order to live. All of the excess has an effect on our water.

Water has a cycle that gets interrupted by man kind.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclesummary.html

Check out the picture of the water cycle. If we take water out of this cycle and distribute it to areas that are primarily desert, this screws the natural system up.

Water is being used too fast for the cycle to replenish itself.

Our infrastructure system transports water to other places but leaks a ton of it on the way; NOT EFFICIENT. We let the water run while we brush our teeth, bathe too much, farm in ways that takes too much water to raise animals, use appliances and energy devices that takes too much water, etc. To prove this, the average American uses 80-100 gallons of water per day! On top of it, too many people have the luxury in this country of having a personal pool even if they live in the desert. 

What can be done to change the water crisis?

Come out of denial. Raise awareness.

Redo our infrastructure.

Occupy needs vs. demands.

Recycle water. Use aquifers as a savings account for water not a checking account. Resupply water to places that need to for the water cycle.

Find ways to stop polluting the water. 

Whew! And that was a brief review! I did some research on what's going on in Duluth and the surrounding Northland. 

According to this link, "Approximately 18 million gallons per day of wastewater flow through the system. During wet weather flows can increase up to six times due to inflow and infiltration (I/I)" We also have a budget of $14 million dollars for the year for the Sanitary Sewer Utility Department. The city of Duluth doesn't treat our own water and that's because we contract with 

  

In 2009 our budget with WLSSD was $8,084,400. That's a lot of money! On the flip side, if we don't pay this price, our dirty water gets disposed of in the St. Louis River, which leads down the Mississippi River. If we don't use a waste water treatment facility like this, the people of Louisiana  in the documentary would be even worse off. 

I did learn a new definition in my research. Water mains are, "Drinking pipes that distribute mains to customers, and transmits mains and service lines which are private." Speaking of water mains, we have a 12-18% water loss in our water main system. Most of this is due to main breaks, which means we really can't afford not to replace our old infrastructure. It's old as in 80-120 years old; it's been overseen for four generations, and it's time to replace it. 

Thankfully we have a staff that works around the clock if needed. We pay a price of $300,000 a year for this, but as I said, if we don't have water we don't have life. However, if we continue to neglect the water crisis, we are going to be paying a lot more than $300,000 to fix the newly exacerbated crisis. We've already had a preview of something like this. The Miller Hill Mall had a recent main break in 2009 which left people with out water coming from their taps. That means no Orange Julius's or Caribou Coffee if there isn't water going to those businesses. In fact, the whole entire Mall closed down on Dec, 15th because of this. No water; no life. 

The video that I mentioned earlier, showed Mayor Don Ness. He's got a really good point on the things he said. The problem is that the voters don't give enough credit to the Politicians that do care about the water issue. Many of us constituents, get angry with our water supporting Politicians because they may increase taxes to fix water issues. Like I've said before, if we don't pay to fix this now, we may not have water for life in the future. Let's keep supporting our Politicians that are doing the best they can to work with this water issue. 

What I'm doing right now to make a difference. I know I may seem a little nerdy on this, but I'm finding ways to recycle water around my home. On the days the mornings that I shower, I realize that no body likes to jump right into the freezing shower water before it warms up. Instead I fill this ice cream bucket with the cold water until it warms up. Surprisingly, this whole thing gets filled. Instead of it running down the drain, I put it into my dogs water dish and give it to my plants around my house. If there is left over water, I use a separate cup to use as teeth brushing water. This is a simple change for me, and it makes me feel good.

I also have gotten used to turning the water off in increments when I shower. I'll get my body nice and warm with water, turn it off, and put the shampoo in my hair. Rinse that out, get warm again, then turn it off for conditioner and shaving legs time. I find that this save me water and prevents me from wasting time in the shower. DOUBLE WIN! Any bit helps!


Thanks guys!