Waterworks Blog
Unchecked algal blooms are a green menace
September 21, 2015The Lehigh Valley region is blessed with an abundance of water, and for many residents, the summer involves relaxing at a lake, river, pond or creek — be it fishing, boating, swimming, or just sitting next to the water. If you’ve spent any of that time in mid-July and August, you’ve likely seen a fair amount…
Where does groundwater come from?
September 9, 2015We talk a lot about groundwater, but it’s been a while since we’ve explained what, exactly, it is. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there’s ground water pretty much everywhere on earth. It varies in amount and in distance from the surface. “The water table may be deep, such as under a hillside, or shallow…
Egad! It’s El Niño
August 18, 2015A Morning Call story this week states that the Old Farmer’s Almanac is forecasting lots of snow and cold this winter across much of the northeast. Meteorologists, on the other hand, are calling that prediction a bunch of hot air. Instead, they say, the El Niño that’s affecting our weather has all the appearances of…
Dumpster pools and hydrants are not the way to chill out
August 4, 2015Philadelphia’s Dumpster pools have been all over the news, so it seems a good time to remind everyone (especially with a wave of 90-degree-plus weather predicted for later this week) that it is NOT cool to use hydrants — or Dumpsters — to beat the heat. While the idea of using a trash receptacle for a pool is…
Make your own all-natural bug spray, ant traps
July 18, 2015It’s been clearly documented that the use of pesticides has led to water pollution, and doctors and scientists have linked pesticides in our food to disease. We’re always looking for ways to reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides in our homes and gardens, so when we saw these two recipes from Rodale’s Organic Life, we knew we had to…
Tired of the rain? Save some before it goes away
July 8, 2015With all the rain we’ve had recently, saving some water for a (non-) rainy day is probably the last thing on your mind. Yet it’s actually the perfect time to think about it, because waiting until your garden is dry and the plants are wilted and brown is too late. A rain barrel is the…
Celebrate freedom — and stay injury-free
July 4, 2015You can count on three things every July 4th: freedom, fireworks … and injuries. Each year, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, “230 people on average go the emergency room every day with fireworks-related injuries in the month around the July 4th holiday.” The most injured body parts were hands and fingers, with eyes, faces…
The land of 10,000 lakes — and a lot of pollutants, too
June 25, 2015Apparently not even the far reaches of Minnesota — known as “the land of 10,000 lakes” — can escape source water pollution. A story from Pollution Online states that scientists have found a host of drugs in 11 lakes and four rivers, even in remote areas. Among the drugs found were those used in certain X-rays,…
A tail of a water-testing method that relies on common scents
June 4, 2015There’s a new reason to love man’s best friend, and it’s pretty doggone awesome: A company is training rescued dogs to sniff out contamination in water. According to a story from Water Online, a Maine couple’s company — Environmental Canine Services — is the first company to use “scent-trained canines” to discover and track down…
Flushable wipes? Not so much
May 26, 2015[dropcapMedium]Y[/dropcapMedium]ou may recall a post from 2013 in which we urged our customers not to flush so-called “flushable” personal wipes: “The next time you pick up a package of “flushable” personal wipes, think twice: they’re not as flushable as their manufacturers imply. Truth be told, they’re clogging up wastewater treatment plants across the country — …