Category Archives: water quality

I’ve been studying eco-friendly building and landscaping products and practices for several years. Early on the question arose, “Why all the fuss?” Why? We have a real problem. That’s the first important thing. 1) Water is our most precious resource and there’s a real issue with both the quantity and quality of water. Even here in the land of 10,000 lakes, we experience drought, watering bans and peak shortages of municple water supplies that compromise emergency services like fighting fires. As for quality, urban run-off is the #1 cause of pollution in our lakes, rivers and streams. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency estimates that 40% of our waterways are impaired by conventional pollutants. The good news is the second important thing: several “best management practices” exist for reducing urban run-off and pollution and reusing that most precious resource.
Continue reading →