Waterwise Wednesday: Plastic Rain in the Rocky Mountains

Over 90% of Rocky Mountain rainwater samples gathered for a United States Geological Survey contained microplastics, plastics less 5 mm or less. While urban samples contained more plastic, samples from remote sites indicate microplastics may be more pervasive.

Some microplastics are released as tiny particles like fibers from synthetic clothing or car tire fragments. Others fibers come from the breakdown of larger plastic items like bags and bottles. The particles migrate and have been found in the remotest parts and people on the planet.

To see the report: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2019/1048/ofr20191048.pdf…

Waterwise Wednesday: In Dew Time . . .

It’s dew season, when the clear, calm nights cause surface temperatures to fall below the dew point.

A nice rainstorm coupled with thick green vegetation, (like ripening fields, gardens, or thick lawns) and clear night skies could develop dew for several mornings until the moisture evaporates from the ground.

Dew time is part of the change of seasons here in the Panhandle and makes for wet treks to school, the alley trash can, or marching band practice.


LEAVE IT ON THE LAWN

The City of Kearney has multiple street sweepers that run regular routes. These street sweepers are NOT designed to pick up only leaves. To get to their regular routes the street sweepers will be avoiding areas where it is obvious that the property owners have purposely moved leaves off their lawn onto the street.

Composting Ideas

Compost is ready to use when it is dark, brown and crumbly with an earthy odor. It should not be moldy and rotten. Compost should be somewhat fluffy and does not have to be powdery. The original materials should not be recognizable in the compost. Incompletely decomposed materials used in gardens will compete for nitrogen with the soil.

Waterwise Wednesday: A Mower’s Lament

Yardwaste ranks as one of the top five surface water pollutants in the United States. Clippings in storm drains create nutrient overload that feed algal blooms and bacteria. The bacteria, who breathe dissolved oxygen in the water, decrease oxygen enough to kill off fish, aquatic insects, and other aquatic plants. This results in a hypoxic area, or dead zone, in the water.

Put grass clippings to better use:

– sweep or blow them back on the lawn for natural fertilizer
– use as mulch in the garden or a weed blanket along the alley
– compost it
– put in the yardwaste dumpster and the let the City compost it at the Yardwaste Facility

Waterwise Wednesday: I’m Melting

. . .So said the Wicked Witch of the West. And Greenland’s ice sheet too.

The second largest ice sheet in the world, lost a near record breaking 11 billion metric tons in a single day to the ocean last Thursday, August 1. (That’s about 4.4 million Olympic swimming pools worth of water.) Unusually high temperatures, 30 to 40 degrees above average, contributed to the record melt. Globally, heatwaves also created ice melts in Arctic tundra, Greenland fjords and European Alpine peaks where it usually stays permanently frozen.

Photo © Tomasz Tulik

Waterwise Wednesday: Why Water Management Matters

Photo © Norlito Gumapac

Chennai, India’s sixth largest city with 4.5 million people, has run out of water.

According to a study by the Anna University, Chennai lost 33 per cent of its wetlands and 24 percent of its agricultural land, (crucial for improving groundwater table) in the last one decade. Drought coupled with rampant development and construction built on reclaimed water bodies are largely to blame.


Waterwise Wednesday: Black Water

Photo © creativecommonsstockphotos

Cities flush fire hydrants to make sure the hydrants work properly and rid the system mains of corrosion, rust, and sediment.

If faucet water is dark or discolored after a City hydrant flush simply run the tap until the water is clear again. The black sediment is naturally occurring maganese that has reacted with sodium hypochlorite that is used to protect water from contamination as it travels through the pipe system.