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!

Read 'n' Seed 4: Third quarter of the book, "Aqua Shock."

This is a picture from Jay Cook State Park near Duluth. The water used to be up to the tree, and the water level is almost down to nothing. Clear eye opener for me!



1. Read chapters 6-8; pages 135-209.

2. So just who exactly hold the power to say that you I can or can’t have water? Chapter 6, “America’s Water Gods” say that the power is distributed among a wide scale of people such as the state engineers teamed up with their directors of state departments of natural resources, watershed organizations, federal government, Army Corps, regional water boards, private individuals capitalizing on their water rights etc. Whew, that was a lot. Basically, it’s divided amongst people who run the country politically, those who have the knowledge to manage the water (scientists), and those who hold money power such as capitalists.

Water experts are proposing ideas to make conserving water a possibility for the future, but the ideas will take time, effort, money, and most importantly, coming out of denial. In efforts for this, these experts are also pushing for a type of water coalition composed of those who hold the political power over the water and those who hold the knowledge on how to conserve the water efficiently. Either way, access to water in the future will mostly lie in the hands of political officials, so vote wisely.

Water is becoming a commodity (economic good/ trade object) due to the rising price of it. The question is, should it be a commodity since many think it’s a God-given right? There isn’t an answer for that yet , but in the near future water costs are going to keep rising . This is largely due to infrastructure replacement needs. Some people are picking up on this and using water as a source of investment for stocks or capitalizing on water with out considering other peoples needs.

Chapter 8, “Can we save our water,” was my favorite chapter. This chapter gives a form of solution and what we realistically need to do to achieve that. While reading this, I about landscaping ideas that use little water, how we should recycle our water, what types water guzzling appliances should be replaced, and that we should start thinking of how we need water, not how we want water. The book wrapped up with saying that water isn’t an infinite source anymore so we better get our butts in gear to change.
3. The UN has hired a water czar, which is like an advocate ruler or leader for the water issue for the whole world. However, some water experts are saying that the water crisis doesn’t need a water czar, but rather we need a team effort of political officials and scientists to carry out what is best for the United States as a whole. That’s what Israel did. Even though they are a small country they have figured out ways to be sustainable with water for their country as a whole.

I’ve mentioned infrastructure in previous posts, but this is one of our keys to sustainability. This is basically the network of pipes and irrigation systems that deliver us our water. One of the biggest themes of the book for a solution is pointing out that our problem isn’t having to little water; it’s having a poor system that manages it. Daniel Williams, water expert, said that “we need a one-hundred year plan on a very large scale-state and continent wide, to ensure we have enough water to sustain ourselves rather than spend and incredible amount of money……..to ship water from point A to point B.”

The water costs are going up due to our weak areas, and certain people are jumping on this as an opportunity for money. A water bank, is a money exchange network where water rights are bought, sold, and traded. The economic view on water says that a shortage on water means there will be a greater demand, which drives the price up. Whoever is on the power side of the money decides if farmers get water for their crops. If those people with the water power say they own the water, including the rain, you better check the laws to make sure it’s legal to put our rain buckets so it’s not considered stealing.





The book speaks on our water needs vs. our water demands. Having a huge lawn that suck up a lot of water keeps water in the plants rather than bringing it back to the aquifers (underground water supply). A xieriscape is a form of landscaping that includes low maintenance vegetation that run on small amounts of water. I’ll post more websites down below in my blog to find out you can incorporate that into your garden.

4. Here’s an issue I read about from 2008. Detroit and Michigan were in a fued because the Canadians accused Detroit of “stealing Canadian” hundreds of billions of gallons of water over the past 40 years. This is because the river that Detroit’s major water provider is also 100 yards into the Canadian Border. This is why water issues get so murky on how to deal with them. There is hope for issues like this! The book did mention ways that humans can take water and recycle it to be put back upstream. In order to do this we need to make water conservation a priority.

Incorporating other countries ideas on water conservation could help too! Steven Maxwell, who is a water business expert, mentioned that water is a monopoly and other countries regulate the monopoly with some type of checks and balance. This works well, but America just hasn’t adopted this way of life yet.

If you’re into science, listen to this. A geoscientist has the idea to use old mothball warships into water desalination plants. Florida has figured out a way to use reverse osmosis on Everglade water to help meet their H2O demand. How’s that for recycling! Hearing things like this amaze me of what the human brain is capable of and how we can apply it to sustainability.

So overall, we know the crisis, but what can be done about it? These next steps include individuals and society as a whole.
Step1: (now that you’re out of water denial) What are your water needs and your water demands.
Does every house in Florida and Vegas need a swimming pool. Do we need to take hot baths? De we need carwashes?
Step two: Think of small ways to make a big difference
Try not to water the lawn or turn it into a xieriscape. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Conserve on gas. Shorten up shower time. Turn electrical things off when they aren’t being use. Eat what you need. Go light on the animal products. If you are going to eat animal products, make what you need to avoid waste.
Step three: Keep water local.
Catch rain water and bring it back to the aquifer.
Treat waste water locally and return the clean treated water back into
ground.
Return water to dry damaged rivers and lakes.
Step 4: Politics
Vote for a representative that will stand up for water
If your representative isn’t educated on the topic, communicate about it to them, and let them know where you stand.

This affects everyone and anything that relies on water. Not only that, but we also will have a to start paying more for water regardless due to new infrastructure needs. In addition to this jump in cost, if we don't conserve water there will be even more of an increase in price due to careless methods of wasting. If this isn't done, we may have to go find water rather than watch t.v, go to the movies, or even class. If we don't have our basics down, the rest of life is going to be hard to manage.


This is worth our effort and energy. If we don’t have water, we don’t have life.

Read 'n' Seed 3: Second quarter of "Aqua Shock"

Hey gang! Here's some more info about our precious h2o.
1. I read chapters 3-5, which covers pages 57-134.
2. Main topics of Chapter 3 discussed how exactly our water is disappearing. The factors include climate change, global warming, poor and outdated infrastructure systems, leaky faucets leading to a big waste, and uneven water rationing amongst the country. Chapter 4 covers the how our water becomes contaminated by human consumption of toxins and how we excrete them into the water which can't be filtered by our outdated water systems. In addition to this, lead is traced in our water from old pipes that need to be replaced with a pretty penny. Agriculture runoff, man made pollutants, natural pollutants. With all this being said, many people think our drinking tap water is safe, but even bottle water has traces of pharmaceuticals, hormones, antibiotics, and mood stabilizers. Chapter 5 reveals how Politics is dragged into this. Since we are running out of water, who gets what water supply? Cases are being brought to the supreme court because people are doing what they need to to get water for them and their crops. Even if it means taking it. There are three ways of giving water rights to the people, but some experts are mentioning laws on water will only making things worse.
3. The first term that I came upon is on the issue that people are moving to arid or semi-arid land. This is land that is dry climate which creates because we have to transport the water to them. More energy for transportation=more water usage and loss through leaky old pipes. These pipes lead to the loss of 7 billion gallons of water a day. Overall I learned that the water supply is a cycle and humans are interrupting that cycle by globally warming our earth, blocking it with concrete foundations, and polluting it with our living styles. Our climate is changing and a huge problem arises when people aren't willing to change with it. We need to build new damns and reservoirs to conserve water for when we need it.
True or False; our drinking water is safe and it's especially safe from bottled water? FALSE! Per year 7 million Americans get sick from our drinking water. This is due to lead in old pipes that haven't been replaced. Our water systems are not able to filter the chemicals we excrete and eliminate. You can bet that when you take tylenol, antidepressants, and other pharmaceuticals that it's going to end up in the water. O did I mention that we also have arsenic, salmonella, fertilizers, and other pollutants from manure run off. The newest one is methyl tert-butyl. This is when they add oxygen to gasoline and it ends up in our water and causes cancer issues.
Chapter 5 discusses how the war over water will be developed and who the key players are. The two ways that water rights will be decided on are riparian right and prior appropriation. Riparian means the land owner that touches the water gets to use it, and prior appropriation is what private owner seizes and uses the water first gets to keep it. However people get the ownership of water, that means there might be rules and people will get in trouble if you violate them. Some experts say that making rules will just make more issues for America.
4. This is already affecting society, and if we do not change with the ways the water changes we could see a battle for one of our most basic living. If we do not conserve water we may find the day that we turn on the tap and nothing comes out. Lowering water levels could mean that ships in the Great Lakes may not have the water to provide their mode of travel. This could hurt our pocket books severely.

Here are ways we can start to fix things:
On an individual basis:
1) Turn off the tap water while brushing your teeth. (this will save up to 8 GALLONS PER DAY)
2) Change to water friendly appliances (save up to 30% water waste)
3) turn your facets on below full water blast.
4) give left over water to plants and animals.
5) Abusing extra pharmaceutical chemicals and other chemicals will wind up in our water...the less the better
6) Produce less CO2 to contribute to global warming
7) Use 6o gallon barrels to capture rain water for water storage and usage

On a national level
1) Build more damns and reservoirs
2) Replace old leaky and toxic pipes
3) Shift population to where the environment can sustain people for drinking water
etc

I will make a new post that shows small ways to conserve on water and how to communicate with others on how to conserve water.

Read 'N' Seed 2

Picture link
Introduction
My book again is called "Aqua Shock, The Water Crisis in America."

1. I covered the Introduction, Chapter 1 and 2-pages 1-55.

2. The main topics I read about included how our water is supplied on this earth by mother nature, how humans obtain and distribute water, the amount of water we use that exceeds the amount provided, and due to lack of water future conflicts of present day and in the future to come.

3. I learned enough to quit denying that there really is a water crisis. The average human uses 80-100 gallons of water a day and the U.S. alone uses 408 BILLION gallons of water per day. That's a lot and I'll explain why in question 4. The book opens in a very direct way that the world is drying up and that many are in denial about it. Not all are in denial, because there are already states fighting over what is left. First term I learned was, "aquifer." This is our supply of water under our ground surface. One of the book's experts, David E Williams mentioned that we are using aquifers as a water checking account when we should be using at a savings. Next term, I learned is "water cycle" aka "hydrologic cycle." This term tells us that water doesn't escape into space, so our water supply is moved by nature from the atmosphere, down into the ground, then to water in the surface, then back up to the atmosphere.

4. The problems are laid out pretty clearly which affects every thing that relies on water which affects you and I.

Problem #1 Many are in denial that the earth is drying up. I was guilty of this before reading this book. It's easy to be in denial when we have running water, and have Lake Superior right outside out window.

Problem #2 Humans are not being water sustainble with the amount that is given to us at a time. Many parts of the country borrow water from other places through irrigation systems. That's not a problem until the place we borrow it from needs the water. Also, humans are using too much at a time. Here are some facts

• highest use is 195billion gallons for energy production and for thermoelectric power plants.
• 2nd Highest use is irrigating crops, watering livestock, and other agriculture by 142 billion gallons
• Bathing 50-70 gallons of water for a bathtub
• 5 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of gasoline
• We need 2-4 liters of water per day and it’s 2,000 to 5,000 liters it takes to produce the same person’s daily food
Keep in mind the water we use to wash the dishes, wash the car, water the plants, give to the dog, washing your hands, consume through pop, juices, alcohol, and so on.

Think of our water supply as a bank account. You're getting paid on Friday (water cycle replenishing us) and its monday. We are going to the mall on a daily basis/utilizing too much water, before our paycheck/ water relief comes in. If we use our credit card/ borrowing water that can provide temporary relief, but we still aren't making enough to hit even. This can cause us to head towards water bankruptcy.

Problem #3 Global warming is going to cause even more drought in the climate imbalance.

Problem #4 Imbalance of water leads to conflict, and conflict leads to war.


Why should we care as Duluthlians living near an abundant source of water? Lake Superior is at chronic low levels since January 1926. Other states and Canada are becoming more thirsty due to their own supplies of water being reduced down to drought levels. For example, if we keep living the way we are, the Lakewalk won't have much of a lake.

To address this we first must get out of denial. Start with yourself to make a change, Energy is the biggest sucker of water so turn off your electicty when not needed. The water we run down the drains uses energy to desanitize it. Turn off the faucet, shorten shower times, leave rain buckets out for water supply for plants, etc. At a bigger level we need to redo our infrastructure. We need to build dams, aqueducts, and other water supplies for tomorrow, not yesterday.

Read 'n' Seed

picture link

1. The title of my book is Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis In America by Susan J. Marks
2. This book is about our water supply: where most of it is currently, how has it changed, and why should be be concerned about are present and future in regards to it. 
3. I chose this book because I keep hearing that the "next war" is going to be over water and how our northland will see an "economic boom" due to our great lakes. I realized that I don't know much about this current issue, so it would be best to use this Reed 'N' Seed opportunity to educate myself. 
4. Links:  Great Lakes Information Network, Georgia Drought.org, World Bank.org 
5. There are 208 pages in this book and eight chapters. The first quarter will have the introduction and the first two chapters. The second, will have chapters 3-5, and the third quarter will have chapters 6-8. 

I'm really glad to be researching a new topic and being able to share it with everybody. I'll do my best to make my posts clear like the water we desire to drink.

Welcome to GreenMachine by Shannon F

Hey eco Guys and Gals! I'm Shannon Flaherty and I'm so glad you could make it to my blog!

This blog is going to be about the things we chose to put in our bodies as fuel. This includes food and water. My Read 'n' Seed is on Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis in America so there will be ample information on water: what are the current issues with it, how that affects agriculture, and how we can change to conserve and provide clean water. I'll also be reading "The Food Revolution" to give information on the food that water grows for us to keep living. One specific quote by Hippocrates motivated me to study the relationship between man and food in terms of health. He said, "let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." I know this hasn't been America's strongest point: being the fast food nation, but we are already making efforts to go back to our grass roots. Our mothers said urged us to drink water instead of pop and eat our greens, but this blog is taking it further than that. I'm on a mission to motivate people to turn into GreenMachines. 

There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Read 'n' Seed
5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my web group are: 

1. http://colefisher.blogspot.com/
2. http://enviro-surfingwithamyandkristen.blogspot.com/
3. http://creativewithcayla.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.blogger.com/profile/05507051340565114957a

You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile." (Make sure all these gadgets are in place).

I'm really excited to share all that I know on this topic. I'm hoping to do the read'n'seed and I'll definitely be sharing on this. If you have an interest in this similar topic, you can blog and talk to me. Go Green while being a GreenMachine!