Archive for June, 2010
Did you know that lawn and garden watering make up nearly 40% of total household water use during the summer? Rain barrels provide free water to use during these high water usage periods, saving most homeowners about 1,300 gallons of water as well as saving money and energy. A rain barrel collects and stores rainwater from your roof that would otherwise be lost to runoff and diverted to storm drains and streams. Usually a rain barrel is a 55 gallon drum with a vinyl hose, PVC couplings, a screen grate to keep debris and insects out, and other off-the-shelf items.
It’s relatively simple and inexpensive to construct one and it can sit conveniently under any residential gutter down spout collecting and storing water for when you need it most — during periods of drought — to water plants, wash your car, or top off a swimming pool.Rain Barrel connected to a gutter downspout
Do you use rain barrels? If so, we invite you to comment to us about it. If you don’t currently use one, would you ever consider installing one? If not, why not?
Check out some of these projects in Maryland, Virginia and other Mid Atlantic States.
Don't flush your old prescriptions!
1. Take your prescription drugs out of their original containers
2. Mix drugs with an undesirable substance, such as cat litter or used coffee grounds.
3. Put the mixture into a disposable container with a lid, such as an empty margarine tub, or into a sealable bag.
4. Conceal or remove any personal information, including your Rx number, on the empty pill containers by covering it with black permanent marker or duct tape, or by scratching it off.
5. Place the sealed container with the mixture, and the empty drug containers, in the trash.
Made you curious? Find more information and tips on pharmaceuticals in water or if you’re interested in learning more about a take back program in your area, leave a comment on this blog.
What else do you think would heighten awareness of this issue and keep drugs meant for your system out of the water system?
Methane gas is produced naturally in the manure of cattle and Pennsylvania’s Blair and Bedford Counties will soon be using manure from 6800 cows to generate 2.5 megawatts of electricity each day. They will harness their manure’s methane using a new regional digester, a facility that houses and processes manure, storing the methane that’s produced. This digester facility will not only help the Clover Creek Watershed manage its nitrate problems; it will also help manage the 380,000 gallons of liquid manure generated every day in the area, and create a bedding or soil product available for resale. Finding more opportunities like this one throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed is on EPA’s Mid-Atlantic region’s todo list.
Would you purchase fertilizer from a process like this or one that came from a more traditional process?
Here’s another example from Rockwell, PA where farmers are saving the environment and money with these new ideas.
Annapolis, Maryland after sea-level rise
What would it be like to see the Mid Atlantic coastline as a town like Venice, Italy? If you live by the shore, there are scenes that may be even more spectacular.
Check out this series of slides by the Maryland Sea Grant College that visualizes the impact of sea level rise along the Maryland coast. The Maryland Climate Change Commission estimates that sinking land and rising seas driven by climate change could cause shoreline waters there to rise 1.3 feet by the middle of the century.
Several EPA regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, and our Office of Research and Development are planning a conference this spring to address the water-related impacts of climate change.
EPA Press conference on Green House Gases
If you’re interested in their findings, let us know and we’ll report back to you. In the meantime, is your carbon footprint lighter these days? Tell us about it.
And take a look at the EPA Press Conference on Green House Gases