Category Archives: Sustainability

Infrastructure, Sustainability

Aging Infrastructure Is National Public Health Issue

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pipes-573482_640At RainBank, we’ve been talking about how aging infrastructure will affect public water systems. Now, we have to change that conversation to how aging infrastructure IS affecting public water systems.

The poisoning of the population in Flint, MI is an issue that Erin Brockovich has been alerting us about since the public water system changed sources in 2014.

According to NPR, in an article titled Beyond Flint, MI, St. Joseph, Louisiana has been experiencing problems with its aging water system for ten years. The article quotes a local resident as saying: “What’s happening here in St. Joseph got the attention it’s gotten because Flint has made water a public issue,” he says. “And what I try to tell people is, this isn’t just happening in St. Joseph or in Flint. It’s happening in Louisiana, it’s happening in Kentucky and Tennessee and Mississippi and in areas of poor and disenfranchised communities across the country.”

Now, Ohio gets added to the mix, as Two Ohio EPA staffers on leave over lead in village’s water. According to CNN, State Rep. John Boccieri and state Sen. Joe Schiavoni said late last month that the Ohio EPA knew lead was leaking into Sebring’s water supply as far back as August, citing reports from Ream & Haager Laboratory, a state-certified vendor that conducted water tests.

This is a national public health issue. Do you know what levels of toxins are in your water?

Environment, Sustainability

Is it Time to Consider Rainwater Collection as a Viable Water Source?

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biohazard-295141_640Why should rainwater collection be considered as a viable water source?

When public water supplies become damaged or compromised, especially due to human error, we must consider other viable options.

Over the last year we all have read articles about contamination of public water sources. The most recent in Flint Michigan has alarmed the nation. Old pipes in the infrastructure leached lead into the supply system caused by corrosive water when emergency managers switched water from Lake Harrow to the Flint River, affecting more than 1,000,000 people.

animas-river-pollutionIn August 2015, an estimated 3 million gallons of mine waste was released into a tributary, which flows into the Animas River near Durango Colorado. The mustard colored sludge contained high levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium making the river and nearby wells unsafe for humans.

In April 2015, the nation’s largest electrical company Duke Energy was found guilty of contaminating nearby wells with heavy metals such as vanadium and chromium. Local streams and lakes were also affected from contaminants from Duke’s Coal ash pits.

Collecting rain makes sense. Whether you collect it in rain barrels or your storage needs require larger cisterns, rainwater collection and use has a host of benefits.

(c) Andrew Suryono, Indonesia, Entry, Nature and Wildlife Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography AwardsHere are two main reasons why you should change your way of thinking about rainwater collection:

  • Rainwater can be a clean, safe, reliable source of potable and non-potable water
  • Rainwater is relatively clean to begin with and if collected, conveyed, stored, filtered and disinfected properly, it can meet the needs of small scale watering to whole house potable use
Infrastructure, Sustainability

Climate Change and Water Scarcity

ball-1055956_640At the Paris World Climate Summit held in December 2015, participants overwhelmingly agreed to work on a legally binding agreement to reduce carbon output as soon as possible. While currently non-binding, there is commitment to “do their best to reduce their carbon output”.  Global warming is expected to account for approximately 20% increase in water scarcity this century.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “Climate change will have significant impact on the sustainability of water supplies in the coming decades.”

The Federal Clean Water Needs Survey identified over $100 billion in needed infrastructure in the next 20 years to address stormwater and sewage overflows.

The NRDC goes on to explain that capturing rainwater from rooftops is an effective water resource management strategy that increases supply and reduces pollution.

The unnecessary use of potable water for non-potable uses, such as outdoor landscape irrigation and indoor toilet flushing, climate change and continually increasing areas of impervious surfaces in our landscape, results in stormwater runoff carrying pollution to our rivers, lakes, and beaches. Although the problems of water supply and water pollution can be complex, practical solutions for both are available now, such as capturing and using rainwater from rooftops.

Rooftop rainwater capture is a simple, cost-effective approach for supplying water that promotes sustainable water management. Reusing rainwater, rather than allowing it to run off of paved surfaces to pick up pollutants and carry them to nearby surface waters, is a practice which provides numerous benefits:

  • Inexpensive, on-site supply of water that can be used for outdoor non-potable uses with little, if any, treatment, or for a variety of additional uses including potable supply with appropriately higher levels of treatment
  • Reduced (or no) energy and economic costs associated with treating and delivering potable water to end users because capture systems often use low-volume, non-pressurized, gravity fed systems or require only the use of a low power pump for supply
  • Reduced strain on existing water supply sources
  • Reduced runoff that would otherwise contribute to stormwater flows, a leading cause of surface water pollution and urban flooding.

Seattle has adopted “Rooftops to Rivers” strategies for controlling storm water and combined sewer overflows. Updated code and regulations can be found here.