The Power Is Yours - Water

Let's start with water. Our country is facing a variety of challenges with keeping our water supply and water ways healthy. Here are few of the big challenges facing America's water.

1. Algae Blooms in Lakes - WI DNR
2. Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia (aka Dead Zone) - NOAA
3. California Drought
4. Contaminated Drinking Water - WI Watch
5. Flooding - Weather.com

This list is a complete list of challenges facing America's water systems, but it's a decent sample of what we're dealing with.

These issues can be further broken down and understood based on various factors related to the problems. These factors include:

1. Nutrients, chemicals, and bacteria entering the water system via human activity.
2. Water consumption and overconsumption
3. How rain enters the water system

The core piece here is really about how rain enters the system. It falls from the sky (that's a lot of potential energy to start with) and hits the Earth's surface then quickly begins moving to the lowest point, becoming runoff. It picks up the things (chemicals, bacteria, dirt, etc) which it encounters and eventually deposits its payload somewhere. Some of this water will seep into the ground, where various layers of earth and roots may act as filter to help purify the water; while other water will end up in ponds, lakes, and rivers.

Because this is how the system works, it's a good place to start. Rain water which strikes impermeable surfaces moves very quickly; such surfaces include: driveways, roofs, roads, and compacted soils. This water moves quickly, moving with it more debris.

Here are some things you can do to help:

1. Rain barrels to catch and store water and prevents runoff.
2. Permeable paving to reduce runoff
3. Plant trees to reduce runoff
4. Use native plants to help improve your yard's water infiltration
5. Convert your roof from a traditional roof to a green roof.

Even if you've done things to help keep water onsite in your yard, some water will escape and carry things with it, but you have the power to help control what things are carried away. Leaves, yard waste, and pet waste can add additional nutrients to the system, just like chemical fertilizers. These are pretty simple to tackle:

1. Don't fertilize your lawn.
2. Compost your leaves and yard waste onsite in your yard or haul them yourself. Do not leave them piled up in the curb and gutter in the street.
3. Pick up after your pet.

We can all also pay attention to our consumption. There are a variety of low flow water fixtures which you can use. There are other ways to limit your use as well such as limiting lawn watering or car washes.

Lastly get involved. Identify your local watershed. There are often volunteer or advocacy initiatives at a local level such as restoring wetlands (BTW highly beneficial), or advocating for local policies which encourage property owners to be water-frendly. As stated before, these are big problems, but they can be solved with actions of individuals even on a small scale. Remember, the power is yours.