Laura Walker, City of Savannah's Environmental Administrator for the Office of Sustainability, dropped some knowledge to our club about the different types of water resources - potable water, stormwater, and wastewater. The Water Resources Bureau at City of Savannah designs, builds, and maintains infrastructure that produces, treats, and conveys safe drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater. Did you know a source of our drinking water is the Floridan aquifer and that it's the best drinking public source in the world? Laura also talked about getting to know your water meter. If you just got your water bill (I did this week), check your water meter! It should be less than what you see on the bill. If not, call the City. If there's a blue thing spinning, you have a leak. And THE MORE YOU KNOW (insert Reading Rainbow here).
Are you scared of lead in your water? Turn your water on and before you use it, count to 3. This allows fresh water to come through your tap. Here's another fun tidbit: Use cold water, not hot, to cook. Doing all of this limits the possibility of coming into contact with lead. Leaking all kinds of safe water wisdom on you today.
Want more? Did you know that your water UTILITY bill includes not just water, but wastewater and utilities? The most expensive thing on your bill is sewer because it's expensive to treat. #eew We also learned the 4 Ps that can be flushed down the toilet - paper, pee, poop....and puke. #quadrupletheeew. And for those who like additional wipes, don't flush those down the toilet. There's no such thing as flushable wipes - even when it says flushable. #misleading
Dropping some other bombs here - 80% of the pollution was once point-source (sewer waste), now 80% of the pollution is non-point source - pointing to us vile humans. We need to be water advocates regardless of any political leaning. Call 311 when you see your neighbor blowing leaves down the storm drain! Create a rain garden. Use that water to irrigate your grass (we also learned that grass is dumb). Compost (PS - Daniel "wins everything" Weiner won the composter).
Be on the lookout for a cool project in Habersham Village at Jacob G Smith Elementary. The City is doing some green infrastructure design and have received funding from the State to deal with the school's drainage issues. Some solutions are to put in pervious pavers and create rain gardens through functional art.