Ways to uphold water quality include non-toxic products and natural pest controls. As they said in the sixties: “Dilution is not the solution to pollution.” The answer to pollution is to keep harmful chemicals out of the wastewater and rainfall runoff. In a household this means using the least toxic cleaning and maintenance products possible. In the yard it means avoiding the use of pesticides and herbicides, and applying fertilizer responsibly. In the pool it means using the least toxic methods of water purification.
Rainfall runoff from yards, which contains excess fertilizer, degrades the water quality of ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and marine bays. This can be avoided by using less fertilizer or timed-release fertilizers which release nitrate and phosphate slowly, providing the opportunity for plant roots to absorb most or all of the fertilizer applied. The ultimate timed-release fertilizer is compost.
Fortunately, there are many strategies to control pests without the use of toxic chemicals. For example, termites can be kept out of your house by means of termite shields and fine screens. The can also be controlled by means of borate baits or diatomaceous earth, which kill termites but are not dangerous to people.
The Earth Easy website http://www.eartheasy.com/live_natpest_control.htm#c lists natural control methods for common interior pests. These include ants, dust mites, cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies, wasps, moths, earwigs and silverfish.
The Earth Easy http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_cntrl.htm website also
describes many ways to manage garden pests and lawn and maintain lawns http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_lawn_care.htm without toxic chemicals. These include: prevention, beneficial insects, non-toxic home remedies, and traps and barriers.
The use of tough native plants, which crowd out weeds and resist insects, eliminates the need the need for herbicides and pesticides.
Everyone (including pets) benefits from a non-toxic home and yard environment, especially those who are chemically sensitive. The avoidance of toxic chemicals also helps keeps local ground and surface water healthy and pure and thus, contributes to the goal of “watershed balance.”
Timed release fertilizer (TRF) is chemical fertilizer, mostly nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus (NPK) formulated to dissolve in a period of weeks and months. The release of the normally soluble chemicals is slowed by encasing the fertilizer granules with slowly dissolving resin or sulfur.
TRF has many several advantages. It dissolves slowly and steadily to feed plants over a long interval. It resists being washed away by the rain. Thus, it decreases the amount of fertilizer polluting the ground water or local waters.
The use of TRF or compost to enrich soil results in healthier plants, with less waste of fertilizer. At the same time it results in healthier local streams, lakes, and local marine waters. Most of all it increases the quality of life by making fisherman happy.
Compost is composed of brown humus. It consists of the remains of plants and/or animal manures “cooked” by bacteria and fungi.
Compost makes earthworms happy as it multi-tasks. It is the essential ingredient of fertile top soil. It decomposes slowly and steadily to fertilize plants with nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, as well as essential trace elements. It also acts like a soil sponge to absorb and release water essential to plant growth. Compost’s loose texture aerates the soil, allowing plant roots to absorb essential oxygen and disperse carbon dioxide.
When applied to home landscapes, compost makes the soil more rain absorbent. It thus reduces the need for irrigation water, and decreases the amount of rainfall runoff. If used, instead of quickly dissolving chemical fertilizer, it improves the quality of rainfall runoff.
Green home products selected for their low toxicity – in their production, use and disposal. They are often old fashioned products used before the industrial revolution and its arsenal of toxic chemicals.
The list of potential chemical threats in the home is long and frightening, and it takes considerable effort to avoid them.
Fortunately, the user-friendly Earth Easy website http://www.eartheasy.com/live_reducing_indoor_toxins.html
lists dozens of ways to lower the toxic level of a homes interior.
Toxic products include: volatile organic compounds or VOCs (e.g. rugs, particle board, high VOC paints), phthalates and polyvinyl chloride or PVC (e.g., food containers, shower curtains, vinyl flooring); heavy metals (e.g., Teflon cookware, lead paint, treated wood); polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs (e.g., flame-retardant children’s clothing, polyester and foam products).
To keep home toxin levels low, it is crucial to use to use natural products for cleaning, indoor and outdoor pest control, and lawn maintenance http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_lawn_care.htm. It is important to use low VOC paints, caulks, finishes, and carpeting. Also it is crucial that homes be properly ventilated, especially in the winter, in well-insulated modern homes designed for air tightness.
Everyone (including pets) benefits from a non-toxic home and yard environment, especially those who are chemically sensitive. The greatest health impact is in keeping interior air pollution levels low.
A properly chlorinated pool may contain 3 parts per million (ppm) of chemically active chlorine — about one-quarter of a pound in a 10,000 gallon pool. This is the equivalent of a half-gallon of laundry bleach. Drinking water may contain around 0.5 to 4 ppm.
The old-fashioned way to maintain chlorine levels in a pool is to add chemicals in granular or liquid form. One great disadvantage to this method is that the chlorine reacts with dissolved ammonia in the water to produce chloramines. These are foul smelling compounds which are irritating to eyes, lungs, and skin. Chloramines can kill red blood cells and have to be removed from the water used in kidney dialysis. Chloramines are also harmful to fish and amphibians. The salt chlorination system eliminates the chloramine problem and offers several other advantages.
The way it works is this: First, common salt (sodium chloride) is added to the pool at a level of around 3,000 ppm, one-third to a half of the level in human tears. This amounts to 250 pounds in a 10,000 gallon pool. The salt chlorinator uses the salt as raw material to produce a pound or so of active chlorine daily. It does so by the electrical splitting (electrolysis) of the salt using two electrically charged titanium plates. Electrolysis also disintegrates the irritating chloramine.
Salt chlorination expands your swimming comfort zone. Besides eliminating chloramine, it maintains a constant low active chlorine level without irritating excess. Moreover, the slightly salty pool water is more comfortable to the eyes and skin than freshwater: It leaches less salt from your slightly salty body. Thus the water feels softer and you can open your eyes underwater without discomfort.
After the active (hypochlorite) form of chorine does its disinfecting work, it morphs back to its original chloride form. The chloride then recombines with dissolved sodium to reconstitute the original sodium chloride salt. In this way the salt is efficiently recycled. However, salt will need to be added periodically to make up for chemical losses, and dilution by rain etc.
The automatic nature of salt pool chlorinators is an advantage when you are away and can’t maintain the pool. By simply adding salt to the appropriate concentration, you can insure the proper chlorine level. Experts say the water is usually clearer with salt chlorinator systems. It’s also easier to balance because the new generation of chlorinators produces a steady supply of chlorine that will not cause the pH to suddenly drop.
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