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| On the sidewalk Monday by the post office on Federal Street on the North Side, water gushes from a window washer's unattended hose. |
Think about waste involved in runoff of valuable water (Diana Nelson Jones): This is just plain wrong. Look at this hose. I passed it in front of the post office on Federal Street and South Commons on the North Side/North Shore Monday morning. A man was washing the post office windows with a squeegee, and water from this hose was flowing down the sidewalk and into the street. This is water that Alcosan treated that's right back into its system for treatment. This water was completely wasted. The cost of treating it was wasted. We keep paying that cost and we keep wasting. People complain about being nickel-and-dimed but blithely go about wasting and witnessing waste without even thinking, much less thinking about the incredible amounts of money this heedlessness costs us. The costs become exponential over time.
I was going to ask the window washer why the hose didn't have a shut-off valve, but at that moment, a man greeted him and they started talking. I didn't want to embarrass him in front of someone. Over the years, as I have passed that post office and its huge sweeping curve of sloping sidewalk, I have thought: This would be a great place for a rain garden. Storm water washes around that curve right into the street. A rain garden on a patch of that sidewalk could intercept a lot of it.
Later that morning, I received an email announcement from the county about the Allegheny Green initiative that county Executive Dan Onorato started in 2009, when the four planters in the courthouse courtyard were turned into rain gardens. The downspouts that had drained into the city's sewer system now divert rain water into the planting beds, and the planters are filled with drainage material and drought-tolerant native plants.
The county has placed signs that identify and tell you something about the 30 native plants. The signs have QR barcodes that, if you have a smart phone, you can scan for more information. The news release tells that a rain garden should be composed of native plants that tolerate the pooling of water as well as periods of drought, and goes on: "The cost to develop a rain garden is normally $6-$8 per square foot and provides increased value to homes and businesses." Two inches of rain on a roof can result in more than 600 gallons of water rushing through downspouts and into sewer systems. As little as a tenth of an inch of rain can cause combined sewers to overflow.
Then there's pavement. There is permeable surface material out there, but we continue to pave things with the old asphalt, so the oil under your car and the soap that cleaned it and everything else that is lying on the streets contaminates storm water that flows into storm and sanitary sewers and local streams. The county executive affirmed that "green infrastructure is a key component of storm water management" and that "we must come together as a community to address the issue."
Yes, DanO, we must. So I address this directly to you: Would you call the post office and ask them to get a hose valve for their window washer? As the guy who committed the Allegheny County Office Building to being the county's first green-roofed public building, you have more clout than I.
As for the rest of us: If you are one of those people who let the water run when you aren't using it -- washing the car, brushing your teeth or squeegeeing a window -- think of how you would feel if, say, a $10 bill blew from your hand off the bridge and into the river. If I am not speaking to the choir as you read this, just think about it. Just give it a little thought. In the end, no matter who is paying the bill -- the post office this time, your employer next time, or you -- it's all the same. We all lose when we waste.
I was going to ask the window washer why the hose didn't have a shut-off valve, but at that moment, a man greeted him and they started talking. I didn't want to embarrass him in front of someone. Over the years, as I have passed that post office and its huge sweeping curve of sloping sidewalk, I have thought: This would be a great place for a rain garden. Storm water washes around that curve right into the street. A rain garden on a patch of that sidewalk could intercept a lot of it.
Later that morning, I received an email announcement from the county about the Allegheny Green initiative that county Executive Dan Onorato started in 2009, when the four planters in the courthouse courtyard were turned into rain gardens. The downspouts that had drained into the city's sewer system now divert rain water into the planting beds, and the planters are filled with drainage material and drought-tolerant native plants.
The county has placed signs that identify and tell you something about the 30 native plants. The signs have QR barcodes that, if you have a smart phone, you can scan for more information. The news release tells that a rain garden should be composed of native plants that tolerate the pooling of water as well as periods of drought, and goes on: "The cost to develop a rain garden is normally $6-$8 per square foot and provides increased value to homes and businesses." Two inches of rain on a roof can result in more than 600 gallons of water rushing through downspouts and into sewer systems. As little as a tenth of an inch of rain can cause combined sewers to overflow.
Then there's pavement. There is permeable surface material out there, but we continue to pave things with the old asphalt, so the oil under your car and the soap that cleaned it and everything else that is lying on the streets contaminates storm water that flows into storm and sanitary sewers and local streams. The county executive affirmed that "green infrastructure is a key component of storm water management" and that "we must come together as a community to address the issue."
Yes, DanO, we must. So I address this directly to you: Would you call the post office and ask them to get a hose valve for their window washer? As the guy who committed the Allegheny County Office Building to being the county's first green-roofed public building, you have more clout than I.
As for the rest of us: If you are one of those people who let the water run when you aren't using it -- washing the car, brushing your teeth or squeegeeing a window -- think of how you would feel if, say, a $10 bill blew from your hand off the bridge and into the river. If I am not speaking to the choir as you read this, just think about it. Just give it a little thought. In the end, no matter who is paying the bill -- the post office this time, your employer next time, or you -- it's all the same. We all lose when we waste.
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| The last flood on Federal Street, March 1904 |
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