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Killing me softly with…PVC

Final installment of a series examining the impacts of a “dewatering system” on an eco-system. The series began with “We have met the enemy and he is us” This post introduces the topic of the impacts of a “dewatering system” on the infrastructure of a city. Part II “It’s all related” continues the discussion with the impacts on water and rivers. Part III of the series “What watt?” looks at the direct and indirect energy use resulting from the installation of the system and the resulting CO2 emissions.

PVC or Polyvinyl Chloride seems to be everywhere these days. It’s in everything from electric wires, to toys, to portable electronic devices and of course pipes. The “dewatering system” installed underneath the new 1,000 Marriott Hotel in downtown Indianapolis consists of almost 5,000 feet of PVC pipes. These pipes are used to gather the naturally occurring groundwater and funnel it to the sump basins where it is then pumped into the Indianapolis sewer system.

PVC has been the subject of a lot of attention since its first commercial uses in the 20’s and 30’s. Throughout its lifecycle (manufacturing, use, and disposal), it has been linked to various health issues including cancer, birth defects and reproductive impairment. Many of the environmental and health issues stem from the additives used to soften the normally rigid material.

During the manufacturing process workers exposed to the vinyl chloride face an increased risk of cancer of various types. Since the link between the vinyl chloride and the cancer in workers was discovered in the 1970’s, changes in the manufacturing process have virtually eliminated the exposure to the workers. Virtually eliminated…I don’t know about you, but virtually eliminated does not make ME feel warm and fuzzy, nor does it make me want to go to work in one of those factories. However, the danger does not stop at the factory doors. The EPA found “vinyl chloride emissions from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ethylene dichloride (EDC), and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plants cause or contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to result in an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness. Vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen that causes a rare cancer of the liver.”

Another problem with PVC is its tendency to leach and off-gas its chemicals. Leaching is a process by which the carcinogens and other poisons transfer to other things that come in contact with them. This was discovered to be a significant problem in such things as soft toys that would be chewed on by infants and even in (sorry mom) some adult “toys” as well. This has led to bans on various additives in some products. Studies have shown that chemicals in the PVC can even leach into water as it moves through a pipe. Off-gassing, is the process in which these poisons are released into the air. You know that new car smell? Yep, you guessed it…off-gassing! NOT a good thing. This has led to various manufacturers (Toyota, Nissan, Microsoft and others) to eliminate PVC from their products. It has also led to retailers either reducing the number of PVC products they carry or eliminating them altogether.

Finally, disposal…products made from PVC are very difficult to recycle. Since they are made up of various additives, the process to break down the material into useful components is costly, inefficient and only so successful. Most of the products made with PVC end up in being disposed of by the consumer, either by burning it with their trash, or throwing it away in their trash, where it might go to a municipal incinerator or to a landfill. What is significant about this is the fact that when burned, PVC releases all kinds of toxic chemicals into the air, like hydrogen chloride and dioxins. (Do you know how common landfill fires are?)

If all these things are wrong with PVC, why is it still in use? The answer is simple…it’s CHEAP! Human Health vs. the Dollar…now THAT discussion is a whole other BLOG!

Conclusion-

So dear reader, I hope you have stuck with me through this series of articles. I hope they underscore the synergistic nature of our environment and the need to consider ALL impacts when trying to solve an issue. What first looks like the fast, easy, and inexpensive way out may prove to be just the opposite. Finally, I hope they inspire you to get involved in your community by asking why things are done they way they are done and seeking better and better ways to live on this planet without killing it (and ourselves).

 

 

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It’s all related!

In my previous post “We have met the enemy and he is us“, I discussed the “dewatering system” that was built for the new Marriott Hotel in downtown Indianapolis and the impact this system will have on the Combined Sewer Overflow system. Today, let’s examine some of the other impacts this system and others like it have on our environment.

John Muir once said “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” What this means is all of the systems in nature are interrelated and changes in one area can have dramatic impacts in others, in other words, when we try to outsmart nature, we inevitably screw something else up! This “dewatering system” is an excellent example; there are impacts, not only to the water systems, but also to energy, carbon emissions, human health and wildlife survival.

Water – Forget the fact that these pumps are taking what could be perfectly good drinking water (or at the very least perfectly good “process” water) and flushing it down the drain, there are other impacts to the water systems. Because the parking garage in this example was built below the water table, pumps run continuously to pump the naturally occurring groundwater into the sewer system. The effect of this pumping is to lower the water table in the area, and potentially in a large surrounding area. When the water table is lowered several things occur. First, anyone in the area that is using well water will find that their wells go dry as the water table lowers, thus requiring them to dig their wells deeper, sometimes at great expense. Next, as the water table lowers, water, being water, will follow the path of least resistance and begin to “fill in” the area. This means groundwater from a larger area will begin to move thus impacting larger and large areas. In some cases, nearby wetlands and rivers could begin to drain and dry up.

In addition, as the water table lowers, plant life that is dependent upon that water will begin to die out as its root system can no longer reach its water source. This may require additional irrigation to keep the plants alive which adds to the vicious cycle and strain on the water system. In some cases, invasive plants will migrate into the spaces left behind by the dying plants. Wildlife that depends on the native plants will die out or migrate to other areas due to lack of food.

Among the impact caused by lowering the water table is subsidence. Because the presence of ground water creates hydraulic pressure, it is able to support the weight of the soil, rock, AND BUILDINGS above it. Removing the groundwater will cause a “sinking” or settling of the earth above it. Don’t believe me? The city of San Jose is THIRTEEN feet lower today than it was 100 years ago. The problems in New Orleans were exacerbated in part by subsidence caused by the extraction of groundwater over the last century. What will be the impact to the buildings as the ground around them SINKS? They too will sink and settle causing foundation problems, and other structural and non-structural issues throughout the building or HOME!

River – While we are talking about water, let’s look at the impact on the river. According to the senior manager on the project for Marriott, the water was going to the river any way, well was it? Ground water is replenished by rain water, surface water, AND NEARBY RIVERS AND STREAMS. This water may have COME from the river not be on its way TO the river. As the water table lowers, the river could try harder and harder to refill the void, eventually drying up the river. It has happened before folks! However, let’s assume for the moment that the manager was right and the water was heading to the river. By “speeding up the process” the ecosystem of the river will be changed. Rather than the water slowly filtering through the ground (and being naturally cleaned and filtered along the way) it will be blasted into the river. This will lead to increased erosion as the water speed is faster than is natural. The increase in erosion will lead to additional sediment in the water (already the number one pollutant in Indiana). This increase in sediment will begin to kill off the fish and plant life in the river as they can no longer find food or the food dies off because of lack of sunlight that is now blocked by the sediment. In addition, many of the organisms that serve a key role in the food chain are impacted by even slight changes in water temperature. Because this water did not reach the river naturally, it will change the temperature of the water.

Energy – What a minute, I thought we were talking about water here, what does that have to do with energy? In my next post we will discuss the energy impacts (both direct and indirect) of the “dewatering systems”.

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We have met the enemy and he is us! -Pogo

What was true in 1970 when Pogo first uttered his immortal words is truer still today. At the time of this writing, my city, Indianapolis (ok, yes I live in Carmel, but much to the chagrin of many Carmelites, Indianapolis STILL is the major metropolitan city in this area), is in the midst of a 17 year project to mitigate it’s sewer overflow problem. Indy, like several hundred other cities, utilizes a Combined Sewer Overflow system. Basically, what that means is wastewater from homes and businesses (uh, sewage!) and rainwater from streets and parking lots utilize the same pipes to transport the water (and the, uh, sewage) to the treatment plants. Sounds logical, right? You only have to lay one set of pipes, excellent! Except…when it rains. That’s where the overflow part of the Combined Sewer Overflow system comes in. When the amount of “water” to be processed exceeds the capacity of the system, it is allowed to flow freely (“floatables” and all) into local rivers and streams. In Indianapolis, the amount of rain required to cause the overflow is ¼”! One quarter of one inch! In 2008, Indianapolis received a rainfall of over ¼” SIXTY times…about 6 or 7 BILLION gallons of sewage a year! Anyone want to go for a swim? How about a nice drink? Or, fish fillet? Want to be grossed out? Check out WTHR’s Bob Segall’s article at http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=9260797.

The good news is we are fixing the problem, to the tune of several BILLION dollars, but we are fixing it. The bad news is…we haven’t really learned anything in a hundred years. A recent article in the Indianapolis Business Journal featured the “dewatering system” of the new 1,000 room Marriott hotel in downtown Indianapolis. This $425 million project is part of our city’s plans for hosting the Super Bowl in 2012. “Dewatering System” sounds so innocuous doesn’t it? Sounds almost like a dehumidifier or something, right? So, what exactly is a “dewatering system”? Many of you have homes with basements; undoubtedly you have a sump pump. These systems are designed to funnel water to the pump where it can be moved away from the foundation of the house. They help to prevent water from leaking through the foundation of the house into your basement. On a much bigger scale, that is the type of system engineered at the Marriot. Still sounds pretty harmless, right?

The system at the Marriot has a series of almost 5,000 feet of PVC pipe, funneling water to sump wells that are four feet wide and nine feet deep. There are four pumps that run every minute of every day pumping 1,200 gallons of water a minute. That’s 1,728,000 gallons a DAY, or 630,720,000 gallons a YEAR! That is enough water to supply 10,000 households for an entire year! And, what are they doing with all that water? According to the senior project manager they are sending it “right to the [White] river”. Hmmm, so they ran a pipe west from those pumps over a ¼ mile UNDER White River State Park to the river, or was it south almost half a mile under Victory Field, or north under the Eiteljorg and the Indiana State Museum. Uh, I don’t think so Tim. If I were a bettin’ man, I’d bet they will pump 630,720,000 gallons of water each year into the Indianapolis Combined Sewer System, where it not only adds to the amount of waste water that has to be handled by the system, it also has to go through the waste water treatment facility and be processed before it goes “right to the river”.

What design issue led to the decision to pump over a ½ a BILLION gallons of water into the Combined Sewer System? The three story BELOW ground parking garage is five feet deeper than the level of the water table on the site….five feet. So, think about this…how many buildings in downtown Indy have three floors of parking, or other space below ground and are pumping just as much, if not more water into the Combined Sewer? Dozens? Hundreds? In some states, it is a criminal offense to capture the rain water that falls on your property, yet we are literally flushing billions of gallons of water each year down the drain…AND we are all paying for it. Not only are we paying for the project to overhaul the sewer system and the capacity to handle water that was not entering the sewers to begin with, but we are paying for the waste water treatment facilities and operations, and we pay for it in the damage all this water has on the river itself. One day, in the not so distant future, we are going to be desperate for water to drink. Think of the cost that will entail!

Surely in this day of Low Impact Development and Sustainable Design we can come up with better solutions than just dumping the water down the drain. How about a two story parking garage, instead of three, how about building above ground instead of below, how about using that water to flush the 1000 or so toilets in the new hotel and for other non-drinking uses, how about filtering it and using it in the hotel pool? How about building codes that require developers to USE the water on their site rather than just pumping it into the water system?

The impacts of design decisions like this one go far beyond the strain it places on our sewer infrastructure. The great environmentalist John Muir once wrote, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” In my next post, we will examine some of the other impacts of the “dewatering system” on, not only water, but energy, carbon, and human health.

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How I Missed Easter

It was Sunday morning. So, I did what I do on almost every other Sunday morning, I plodded downstairs, fired up the coffee maker, fed the cats, got the newspaper and flipped on the TV to watch CBS Sunday Morning. My wife soon joined me, and as she did, she handed me a card. CRAP! It was Easter and I hadn’t gotten her a card; in fact, it was a few minutes before I even realized WHY she was handing me a card in the first place. How had this happened? How had I forgotten Easter? How had I forgotten a major holiday, when, normally the whole famn damily descends upon us (just kidding, I LOVE doing dishes and cleaning the house! Really!)?

Let me tell you how…it seemed that I, in my infinite wisdom, had scheduled to sit for a major exam on Monday, the day following Easter. I scheduled to take the LEED Accredited Professional Exam on April 13 the day after Easter, AND almost as important, the day after The Masters. This exam is hard to describe, it is brutal (all those who are still planning on taking the test, you should probably turn your eyes from your computer monitors). This test covers the material found in a resource guide that is about 27 inches thick in about 4 point type and covers such exciting information as the pressure differential required between a designated smoking room and the rest of the building in order to control the containments in the air. So, instead of watching Tiger and celebrating the Easter holiday, I was studying.

Leading up to the final weekend, I read the resource guide cover to cover three times. I had read three other study guides and worked through the sample exercises and assignments. I had underlined, highlighted and agonized over every detail. Then I started getting the emails…the emails advertising the review classes. “Take our class and double your chances of passing the exam. Our students have a 30% success rate on the exam.” WHAT? Do you mean to tell me that typically 85% of the people that sit for the exam FAIL IT?!!? I better study harder!!

At the urging of my wife, I decided to take a practice exam on Friday night, in that way I would know what to study on over the weekend. So I sat down with the exam, checked the time (you only have two hours to complete the test) and read the first question. “){(ikfj;djm,k dl;ksfadjdlsa8973kk. Dfhsdofudkjdsfn nfd;jkldj lsdjfdlaf”. No, that is not a typo. That is EXACTLY what the first question looked like to me…and the second…and the third. When completed, I scored a whopping 51%. I guess I knew what to study now…EVERYTHING. (Passing on the exam is 170 out of 200 or roughly an 85%).

Saturday came and I tore into the books…Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality…

Saturday afternoon, I took another practice exam…78%….CRAP!!!! I reviewed the questions I missed to see if I could identify a pattern so I could focus on something…nope, all over the board. Early evening I tried again…81%…ok progress. Study, study, study, study. About 10 pm, I took another test….73% WHAT!??! Why on earth is an IT guy trying to learn this stuff? Exhausted, I dropped into bed for sleep. Yeah, right, sleep…The next morning, AFTER, not giving my wife a card, I went back at it. I took break to have lunch with the family at a local restaurant and bored them by reciting endless factoids from my studies. Probably reminded my sons of their childhood, when I would read them from computer text books (yes I AM a fun guy!).

After lunch, I studied a bit more then took another exam…83%. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening studying all the materials again. I took one last practice exam and got an 81%. Monday dawned and I was back at it. Reviewing and re-reviewing the material. I walked into the testing center a bag of nerves. When the young lady behind the counter checked me in, she looked at the exam I was registered take and said, “Oh, you’re taking the hard one.” Oh great! Give me some confidence!

If you have gotten this far you are either a) related to me, b) getting ready to take this monster exam yourself, or c) like to watch train wrecks…but I have to say I passed! I have never been so relieved! I passed! (and yes Ryan, I over studied!) By the way…can anyone tell me who WON The Masters?

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How I Missed Easter

It was Sunday morning. So, I did what I do on almost every other Sunday morning, I plodded downstairs, fired up the coffee maker, fed the cats, got the newspaper and flipped on the TV to watch CBS Sunday Morning. My wife soon joined me, and as she did, she handed me a card. CRAP! It was Easter and I hadn’t gotten her a card; in fact, it was a few minutes before I even realized WHY she was handing me a card in the first place. How had this happened? How had I forgotten Easter? How had I forgotten a major holiday, when, normally the whole famn damily descends upon us (just kidding, I LOVE doing dishes and cleaning the house! Really!)?

Let me tell you how…it seemed that I, in my infinite wisdom, had scheduled to sit for a major exam on Monday, the day following Easter. I scheduled to take the LEED Accredited Professional Exam on April 13 the day after Easter, AND almost as important, the day after The Masters. This exam is hard to describe, it is brutal (all those who are still planning on taking the test, you should probably turn your eyes from your computer monitors). This test covers the material found in a resource guide that is about 27 inches thick in about 4 point type and covers such exciting information as the pressure differential required between a designated smoking room and the rest of the building in order to control the containments in the air. So, instead of watching Tiger and celebrating the Easter holiday, I was studying.

Leading up to the final weekend, I read the resource guide cover to cover three times. I had read three other study guides and worked through the sample exercises and assignments. I had underlined, highlighted and agonized over every detail. Then I started getting the emails…the emails advertising the review classes. “Take our class and double your chances of passing the exam. Our students have a 30% success rate on the exam.” WHAT? Do you mean to tell me that typically 85% of the people that sit for the exam FAIL IT?!!? I better study harder!!

At the urging of my wife, I decided to take a practice exam on Friday night, in that way I would know what to study on over the weekend. So I sat down with the exam, checked the time (you only have two hours to complete the test) and read the first question. “){(ikfj;djm,k dl;ksfadjdlsa8973kk. Dfhsdofudkjdsfn nfd;jkldj lsdjfdlaf”. No, that is not a typo. That is EXACTLY what the first question looked like to me…and the second…and the third. When completed, I scored a whopping 51%. I guess I knew what to study now…EVERYTHING. (Passing on the exam is 170 out of 200 or roughly an 85%).

Saturday came and I tore into the books…Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality…

Saturday afternoon, I took another practice exam…78%….CRAP!!!! I reviewed the questions I missed to see if I could identify a pattern so I could focus on something…nope, all over the board. Early evening I tried again…81%…ok progress. Study, study, study, study. About 10 pm, I took another test….73% WHAT!??! Why on earth is an IT guy trying to learn this stuff? Exhausted, I dropped into bed for sleep. Yeah, right, sleep…The next morning, AFTER, not giving my wife a card, I went back at it. I took break to have lunch with the family at a local restaurant and bored them by reciting endless factoids from my studies. Probably reminded my sons of their childhood, when I would read them from computer text books (yes I AM a fun guy!).

After lunch, I studied a bit more then took another exam…83%. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening studying all the materials again. I took one last practice exam and got an 81%. Monday dawned and I was back at it. Reviewing and re-reviewing the material. I walked into the testing center a bag of nerves. When the young lady behind the counter checked me in, she looked at the exam I was registered take and said, “Oh, you’re taking the hard one.” Oh great! Give me some confidence!

If you have gotten this far you are either a) related to me, b) getting ready to take this monster exam yourself, or c) like to watch train wrecks…but I have to say I passed! I have never been so relieved! I passed! (and yes Ryan, I over studied!) By the way…can anyone tell me who WON The Masters?

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Put your hands behind your head! Lay down on the ground! You are under arrest!

Your “crime”? Installing a RAIN BARREL and CATCHING RAIN WATER!

Yes, believe it or not, in some states rain harvesting (through rain barrels, cisterns, or other means) is illegal! A recent example was reported in the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-contested-rainwater18-2009mar18,0,5585599.story?track=rss) by Nicholas Riccardi, reporting from Denver.

Many states sell the rights to bodies of water such as lakes, ponds, rivers and streams, however in some western states they take it to a whole new level. Their claims can actually extend to water BEFORE it enters the lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. In fact, Riccardi’s article Dough Kemper, executive director of the Colorado Water Congress as saying, “If you try to collect rainwater, well, that water really belongs to someone else.”

Now let’s think about this for a minute. I can’t use the water that falls on my property? So in this line of thinking, I should not be allowed to have plants of any sort on my property, even grass. That would actually use some of this rain water that falls on my property, wouldn’t it? And wouldn’t having barren soil allow more of it to run into the rivers and streams (forget about erosion for a minute). What about the rain that falls on my land and then evaporates? Can I be arrested because I failed to stop the evaporation? Or what if my dog drinks from a puddle of rainwater, can he be thrown in the pound? What’s next? The air we breathe? The sunlight?

So, what are these criminals in Colorado trying to do by stealing this water? For one thing, they are trying to reduce the amount of potable water they use on a daily basis; which would reduce the amount used by the cities and municipalities in Colorado; which in turn would reduce the amount of water taken from the rivers and streams and lakes and ponds; which in turn would leave more water for those with the so-called “water rights”. I don’t get the logic! What do these crooks do with the water they are “stealing”? Gosh, they use it to water their gardens, water their flowers, and in some cases wash their cars. Doesn’t that water end up in the ground anyway? It serves to reduce storm water run-off, thereby reducing erosion, reducing the need for storm sewer infrastructure, and allowing the earth to filter the water before it enters the rivers and streams. Actually sounds helpful to capture rainwater rather than criminal, doesn’t it?

Where were these guys when we dammed up the Colorado River (I know it’s not in Colorado) to provide water to Las Vegas and Los Angeles? The Colorado River doesn’t even flow all the way to the ocean anymore. Many Mexican farmers have been forced to either move or starve because there is not enough water flowing to grow their food.

How did these laws come to be in the first place? Remember the west of the movies, dry desert for miles and miles? These laws were created because of the lack of clean, usable water. You’ve heard the saying “Water is the next oil?” OPEC will be replaced by WPEC. I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs about lawsuits between states over water rights. It seems incomprehensible that on a planet mostly covered with water that we would face this problem doesn’t it? Do you think anyone 50 years ago would have thought we would be running out of oil?

Few deny the fact of global warming, there may be those that argue about its cause, but global warming is a fact. This will serve to create more stress on our already stressed water systems. You only have to look toward the southeastern United States to see the impacts of a prolonged drought. Or, look to the “bathtub” ring around “Lake” Mead in the Southwest. Vegas could run out of water, not in 200 or 100 or even 50 years, but in a matter of decades.

This is a systemic problem. Just as with the aging power grid, or the issues of dependency on oil, this is not going to be solved without an integrated approach. Government, business, and the individual are going to have to work together to change the way we live and the way we use the resources of the planet. Until recently I had never really thought about what happens to the water as it leaves my property. When I fertilize my yard, where do those chemicals go? When I let my car drip oil on my driveway, where does it end up? We all need to think about it and more than think about, we need to use that knowledge to change our behaviors.

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Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink

Ever since I accompanied my son’s youth group on a canoe trip in Ontario, Canada in the early 90’s, I have been passionate about rivers. While I don’t always make it out on the water as often as I would like, I always make it a point to canoe several times a year and, at the very least, stop to watch rivers in our area as often as I can.  There is something about the peacefulness, the solitude, the simpleness of dipping a paddle in the flowing water that helps to make the world make sense. There is something about the power, the roar, the magnitude of a river as it crashes and pounds its way through a canyon that creates a sense of awe and wonder. For years I have claimed a river to be my place of worship. In fact, for my mother’s 74th birthday I invited her to visit my “church”. We canoed for 10 miles on a perfect autumn day…and yes, she paddled the entire way.

It was through rivers and such organizations as American Rivers and Riverkeepers, that I first became involved in environmental issues so it seems fitting to begin with a discussion about water and rivers.

It has been said that water will be the next oil and that whomever controls the water, will control the money and power. Throughout history water and water rights have been the catalyst for disagreements, arguments, fights and even wars. You only have to look as far as Georgia and Tennessee to see the importance of water rights even today. Due to the recent droughts in the south eastern United States, water has become like gold and has prompted Georgia to lay claim to 150 square miles of Tennessee based on a border dispute dating back to the early 1800’s. Not so coincidentally, a portion of the Tennessee River flows through this territory. Having this piece of land and the water rights that would accompany it would be very beneficial to the state of Georgia. In another case, South Carolina has sued North Carolina over the amount of water the latter pulls from the Catawba River, a river which tops the American Rivers Most Endangered Rivers List.

As droughts grip portions of the country and perhaps become even more prevalent in the years to come, conservation of our water resources will become more and more important. I was very glad to see that the US Green Building Council increased its emphasis on Water Efficiency in the new LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Rating System for Existing Buildings. To me this validates an increased awareness.

Water conservation can have a positive impact on our rivers and streams in several different ways.

  • First, reducing the amount of water we use reduces the amount of water that needs to be drawn from our rivers and streams. You only need to look at the Colorado River and observe the trickle of water that now makes south into Mexico to see the impact of drawing too much water from a river.
  • Second, most of the water that is used is flushed back out into our rivers and streams adding pollution in the form of chemicals, garbage and human waste. A significant portion of our rivers are unsafe to drink from, fish from or swim in due in large part to this overflow.
  • Third, the embodied energy to pump and process this water adds to our overall energy usage which contributes to carbon emissions.
  • Fourth, we the consumers pay for the costs to pump, process, store and to building the infrastructure to support these activities in the form of utility, sewer and tax bills.
  • And last but not least, there is evidence that the continued draw of water followed by the flush of water back into the rivers is causing the them to “age” faster. The change in water flow is increasing erosion and sedimentation of the rivers which restricts the flow, may lead to increased flooding, and harms the wildlife that depend on the waters. Like the effect cholesterol has on our blood vessels, this sedimentation has the same effect on our rivers and streams.

A thought occurred to me while my wife and I were discussing ways to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle around our house. Several years ago my wife and I bought an RV so we could follow the Lewis and Clark Trail across the country. For those not familiar with RVing one of the great things about it is being “self contained”. You take your water and all your “facilities” with you. You can then park just about any where and camp. What you learn very quickly, is that you are limited in how long you can be “self contained” by, of all things, water.

An RV has three tanks (basically); the fresh water tank holds all your potable water for drinking, cooking, washing, showering and flushing; the gray water tank holds all of the waste water from the sinks and showers and the black water tank holds the flushed water. When either the fresh water runs out, or the gray or black tanks fill up you have to pack up, move the RV and dump the tanks and fill the fresh water. Because our RV and its takes are relatively small, we have learned to adapt.

When washing dishes for example, we get the dishes wet then turn off the water. We then scrub a sink full of dishes at a time before rinsing them. This method uses very little water. We use a similar concept when showering…get an area wet, turn off the water, soap it up, then rinse it. We find that even little things, like brushing our teeth are done with as little water as possible.

So, back to the thought I mentioned, I wonder if it would be possible to change our living habits to incorporate this minimalistic approach to using water in our day to day lives. I have started with turning the water off while brushing my teeth. Seems simple enough, yet a surprisingly difficult habit to break. Its a way to start, I think. Maybe we will try an “RV Week” and try use as little water as possible during the week. It will be interesting to measure the impact of just one week on our water consumption.

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