Water, Water, Water: What I learned

I find myself in Wheaton, IL at the Rice Campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in the atrium of the building.  Tonight there is a free event with the man behind the company that put the infamous green roof on Chicago’s City Hall, James Patchett of Conservation Design Forum, Inc.  As I look around the lobby, I see many people who seem to be twice my age sitting enjoying disposable snacks - far from sustainable (I can safely say that this is not your eco-speed-dating crowd).  Not only are the aluminum cans of Diet Coke available, but the ever-evil bottled water.  How can you call yourself an environmentalist and enjoy bottled water anymore? I, myself, indulge in a Diet Coke.  I’m only human and can’t resist the artificial sweetener and caramel coloring.  There aren’t even recycling bins anywhere to be found.  It appears that I will have a crushed can in my pocket to take home as a souvenir.  At least I have something to write on my evaluation form and the event hasn’t even begun.

Water, water, water.  That was the theme of the night.  Jim spoke for two hours and had to even speed through things to get finished.  You know you’re listening to a good speaker when you sat there for two hours and it felt like 15 minutes and you just wanted to hear more.  I don’t even know where to start, really.

Water is going to be, and really already is, a huge issue.  The UN even stated that by 2025 two out of three people in the world will face water shortages if current consumption rates keep going as they are today.  People can live without oil.  Water is a necessity.  The water waste here in the United States is unfathomable, really. 

We’ve either paved the earth or filled it with turf grass.  “What’s wrong with that?”, you ask.  Well first of all, we’re not paving the earth with porous or permeable concrete.  The water has no where to go.  So we create storm sewer drainage to carry away the water rather than letting the earth breathe naturally.  As the water travels from roads and driveways, etc., it collects contaminants.  Eventually all of that water has to go somewhere.  So it goes into streams and lakes and rivers and estuaries and wetlands that we try to restore.  The problem is that these natural resources are being destroyed.  Native plants were never meant to live in these conditions. 

Turf grass and beautiful lawns are another issue.  I’m not totally anti-grass, but people have to be aware of the consequences.  The old law comes into play: “for every action, there is a reaction.”  A natural untouched habitat from the glacial periods to today will flourish in periods of drought or hard winters and so-on.  The top of the hill might be wet and the bottom might be dry.  Natural springs come from beneath the earth below the frost line and trickle to the surface.  Dew and rain water soaks into the ground and the dense root structure.  The plants grow strong and retain moisture and collect that moisture even in times of drought conditions. 

So what do we do?  We take these lands and grade them.  We take all of the topsoil that has any redeeming value from the farm land and push it to a corner.  We run bulldozers all around the land flattening it and grading it to spec.  We get rid of the good topsoil selling it off or giving it away and bring in new topsoil to the required 4 inches.  So now you have a minimal amount of topsoil on top of clay.  The top of the hill is dry. The bottom of the hill is wet.  So we plant a non-native plant like Kentucky Blue Grass which has a shallow root structure and is a cold-weather plant.  The spring thaw comes and everyone’s lawns look lush.  By the heat of the summer, if you’re not watering your lawn (with potable water, most likely) the grass starts to burn out and die.  Grass is delicate in the fact that too much water and the grass dies.  Too little water and the grass dies.  So then sometimes you have storm sewer grates in your lawn which is just ridiculous.  We should be able to easily take on several inches of rain and the ground absorbs it fine, but that’s not the case.

Another ludicrous thing that Jim Patchett pointed out is that we are obsessed with our lawns.  We dump all kinds of fertilizers with high concentrations of nitrogen on them.  The nitrogen really just helps green up the grass and doesn’t promote much root structure.  Then 40-60% of that nitrogen washes away from your lawn into the groundwater systems.  Magically with all of the water and fertilizer, our lawns start to grow.  Uh oh - time to get out the lawn mower because we don’t want the turf to actually look like it is growing.  Lawn mowers are responsible for about 5% of CO2 pollution.  God forbid there be any weeds or we have to go out there and dump more chemicals on the ground.  He also mentioned a 1987 study by the National Cancer institute, a child living in a household using home and garden pesticides has a 6.5 times higher risk of contracting leukemia.

There are some things you can do, however.  Aside from xeriscaping your property, which is a little extreme, but might be right depending on where you live, there are some things you can do to manage storm water.  We’ve already talked about permeable pavement.  Green roofs are gaining a huge momentum here in Chicago.  Mayor Daley went to Germany and got the idea and had to have one.  When Chicago City Hall was completed with half of a green roof, the temperatures on a hot August day were around 90F versus 169F on the normal black tar roof side.  Most air conditioning units draw their air from roof top units in city buildings.  They are much more efficient if they have to cool 90F temps versus 169F.  The green roofs also absorb the rain which keeps the plants growing and then the water evaporates back into the sky.  In Germany, there is an ordinance about dealing with storm runoff.  Basically, you’re taxed based on how much water goes into your sewers.  You really don’t have to do anything to your house, but you’re going to pay for it in your pocketbook.  Other simple items you can do at your own home include rain barrels and cisterns for irrigation.  We’ll go into more solutions in depth in future posts. 

I’ll leave you with the same parting fact that Jim left us with.  30% to 60%  of all potable water in the United States goes towards watering our lawns depending on where in the country you live (east coast versus the arid west). 

Let the earth breathe.