Worms normally used as fish bait have found their way into the wastewater treatment plant in Bald Knob, AR and they have caused major issues in their new
Worms at the Bald Knob Treatment Plant
The only way to get rid of the worms is to remove them physically, which is a tedious and costly process. The plant has had to drain a million gallons of water in the effort to get rid of the worms.
Editorial Note. The piece below is veteran Gazette columnist Tiger Tom’s response to yesterday’s post regarding the environmental superiority of “real” Christmas trees as compared with “fake” plastic Christmas trees. — Hardly Waite, Editor.
by Tiger Tom
I’ll be quick because I’m a little ashamed to be taking time to come to the defense of a plastic Christmas tree. It’s like defending Spam, or high fructose corn syrup.
One, the guy from the wooden, bushy Christmas tree industry in the National Geographic article refers to his trees as “real” and to the plastic trees as “fake.” What is so real about having a dead factory farmed tree in your living room? It isn’t any more a tree than the plastic one is. A pretend tree in the living room is a fake tree. Wood or plastic, it’s still a fake tree.
Two, the bushy fake tree advocate also leaves out things like the undisputed fact that people often use plastic trees for many years. This changes the whole equation. He assumes that everyone buys a plastic tree shipped from China, throws it away, then buys another just like it next December. I confess that I actually know people who have plastic Christmas trees. Several people. And I don’t know any who pitch the tree at the end of the season so they can get next year’s upgraded model. A plastic tree is a plastic tree, and if you’ve got one you might as well stick with it. Next year’s won’t have a better operating system.
Three, the wooden tree argument just assumes, without showing any evidence, that it takes more water to produce a plastic fake tree than a wooden one. I remain unconvinced. Trees, especially young ones (and Christmas trees, let’s be frank, are murdered before they even reach adolescence), are very, very thirsty little guys. And when you add in the re-use factor, it’s clear that the bushy tree water saving theory doesn’t hold water.
The bushy tree advocate also fails to mention that plastic trees don’t have to be made in China. He says most of them are made in China. I frankly don’t give a flip where they’re made, but if having the manufacturing pollution and water consumption in the US rather than China is really important to us, perhaps a Made In USA tree could capture the market. And if you made it out of recycled plastic, it would be a sure winner. Or who says fake trees have to be made of PVC? Why not old automobile tires or recycled waffle irons?
The big hole in the bushy tree argument, though, is that it assumes the non-existence of the best environmental and water-saving choice of all–not having a Christmas tree. There’s not a hint in the article that a person could get by in our civilization without a Christmas tree. It’s either a plastic tree or a bushy tree. It’s like saying it’s good to kick your dog because it’s better than kicking your sister.
Did Jesus’ family have a Christmas tree? Of course not. It was actually a 16th century German (probably one who owned a lot of scrubby useless trees that he needed to get rid of) who invented the Christmas tree. Since that time the whole of western civilization thinks it has to rush to the Christmas tree lot as soon as the merchants start ringing the bells.
I, Tiger Tom, say Bah, Humbug! Show some class. Skip the fake indoor forest altogether, or decorate your potted Aloe Vera plant.
What could be weirder than having a having a big, messy fire hazard in your living room at holiday time?
Fake Christmas trees might be convenient and seem environmentally beneficial at first glance, but their environmental costs—measured in greenhouse gas emissions and landfill space—far outweigh their benefits.--National Geographic.
The environmental superiority of real Christmas trees is an accepted fact except among the sellers of artificial trees.
Artificial trees are made from a kind of plastic called polyvinyl chloride, which is derived from petroleum and can contain lead or other harmful toxins. Furthermore, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, about 80 percent of fake trees are manufactured in China, where most electricity is generated by burning coal—one of the dirtiest fuel sources. They come to the user on ships that burn diesel and emit noxious gasses. Fake trees do not biodegrade.
In contrast, real trees are completely recyclable, and they are grown in the United States on thousands of farms that employ an estimated 100,000 people.
As far as water use is concerned, real trees, it is true, use lots of water, but they are usually grown in areas where water is plentiful. It is almost certain that the process of manufacturing plastic trees uses more water. No actual figures are available to substantiate this claim.
These are only some of the many reasons that real trees are second only to no tree at all as an environmental option.
Contrary common belief, real Christmas trees save water as compared with fake trees.
New Jersey has recently enacted a new Fertilizer Law, designed to protect waterways from becoming overly nourished. The new law sets limits on the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that can be used on lawns and restricts the times when fertilizer can be applied. It is considered the toughest such law in the nation.
The amount of nitrogen that consumers can use is limited to 0.9 pounds on 1,000 square feet of ground per application, and 3.2 pounds per 1,000 square feet for the year. That is a 10 percent reduction from the previous limit of a pound. Professionals can apply up to a pound of nitrogen per 1,000 feet in each application, and are not to exceed 4.25 pounds for the year.
There have been difficulties for some landscapers.
Garden Hose Filters promote healthy worms, which work better than fertilizer.
Fish exposed to psychiatric medicines showed gene patterns similar to those found in people with autism, in a study suggesting a link between drugs that get into the human water supply and the brain development disorder.
Researchers put antidepressants Prozac and Effexor, as well as antiseizure drug Tegratol into water tanks of minnows. Tests showed that the same genes turned on in people with autism were also triggered in the fish after exposure.
The findings suggest that small amounts of psychiatric medications found in the drinking supply may be a cause of autism, the researchers said. Psychiatric drugs have been linked to autism-like symptoms in studies of rats exposed to the medicines, according to the study.
Concentrations of the drugs are found downstream from water treatment plants that process human waste that contains the medicines. The molecules make their way into the supply downstream, where pregnant mothers who drink the water can pass the exposure to their fetuses.
NSF International, the prestigious certifying agent water treatment products as well as foods and many consumer goods, has certified the first product – SCA’s TENA ® Flushable Washcloths (adult-sized wipes) – under the NSF Flushable Consumer Products Certification Program. The NSF ‘Certified Flushable’ mark on certified TENA Flushable Washcloths helps buyers differentiate between flushable and non-flushable products by eliminating confusion.
NSF Officials Testing Products Under New Flushability Standard
The best way to have bottled water is to get the bottle out of the picture and process the water with your own treatment unit. Coolers are now available that provide the same delivery system as bottled water coolers but avoid the expense and hassle of buying, carrying, and changing bottles. The savings in money and time and bother
A Modern Bottleless Water Cooler
Modern bottleless coolers can provide a variety of water temperature options, some with hot, cold and “cook” (ambient temperature) water, others with cold only, others with cold and cook only.
Part of the allure of having a bottled water delivery service, however, is not having to clean and maintain the cooler itself. The article below, from a leading seller of bottleless coolers, demonstrates that taking care of your cooler isn’t as hard as you thought.
How to clean a bottleless cooler, sanitize the reservoir, and change the filter
A major reason people do not switch from rented coolers to bottleless coolers is the perception of convenience. These people believe that maintaining a cooler is a skill reserved for experts and learning how to do so would be too difficult. We believe in you and your ability to clean the cooler, sanitize the reservoir, and change the filter with ease and confidence.
Cleaning the cooler and sanitizing the reservoir:
You can easily wipe down the cooler with a light bleach solution (a tablespoon of bleach per gallon of water) or you can purchase a commercial water cooler cleaning agent such as Cooler Clean ™ or H20K ™. Wipe the lid of the cooler and remove both the lid and the reservoir cover. Drain any remaining water in the reservoir through the faucets. Using a dry paper towel, wipe out the inside of the reservoir to eliminate any film. Pour the commercial cleaning agent or bleach solution into the reservoir and fill with water. Wait 15 minutes and then drain the reservoir using each faucet. Repeat if necessary. Replace the reservoir cover and lid. Allow the reservoir to refill. Drain a few cups of water from each faucet and discard. Your cooler and reservoir are now cleaned and sanitized!
Bottleless coolers can be fed by either a filter or a reverse osmosis unit, in some cases built into the cooler unit, in others installed at a remote location, such as under a nearby sink. Servicing the treatment unit is also a relatively easy process. RO and filter makers provide instructions.
In what seems to be becoming a common event, yet another airport terminal was evacuated when a water filtration device was discovered in a passenger’s luggage. In a recent incident, a man was arrested for transporting drugs on an airplane inside a water filter.
In this incident, the woman passenger, who had boarded a plan at the Minneapolis airport with a water filter in her luggage, was not arrested. The water purification device was detected during bag checking and the Bloomington Police Department bomb squad was called in for investigation.
Climate change is bad for electricity supplies. It takes electricity to process and deliver water, and it takes water to make electricity. What affects one side of the equation affects the other.
We burn coal or natural gas to boil water to turn turbines to produce electricity. Turbines produce more than 90 percent of our electricity.
Power generating plants are cooled by water in rivers or lakes. As the water gets warmer, and less abundant because of global warming brought on by the greenhouse gasses produced by running the turbines, it gets harder to cool the plant and electrical production has to be cut back.
According to Scientific American, by 2040 electrical production may fall as much as 16 per cent in the summer, when we need it most for air conditioning.
More about this from Scientific American.
| Our shower filters make you sing better. |
Proposed repairs to bolster Montana’s Fort Peck Dam following epic flooding along the Missouri River last year would cost more than $225 million, according to cost estimates released in 2012 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But with money short, Corps officials acknowledged they are able to afford only $46 million for damage assessments and repair work for now. Most of that will be spent on repairs to the dam’s spillway.
Dams, which often seem like a good idea when they’re in the planning stage, eventually become fiscal liabilities that will need expensive repairs and even more expensive decommissioning.
We have so many water filters to choose from that you’ll be totally confused.
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