Friday, December 31, 2010
Another reason not to let storm water accumulate—it isn’t very clean
by Larry Geller
During the recent deluge this picture topped the Star-Advertiser front page on December 21. It’s a huge (and as I’ve been arguing) unnecessary puddle of storm water.
On their web page today is an article in the blog “One Doctor’s Opinion” about playing in storm water. As you can imagine, it’s not a good idea.
Snipping from the article, here is the doctor’s list of what could be in a puddle of storm water (and obviously, why it’s not good to play in it):
* All sorts of construction sediment and debris
* Petroleum products (motor oil, gasoline) that spill or drip from our cars onto the road--it gets washed into the storm system when it rains
* Pesticides from our yards
* Fertilizer products
* Antifreeze from leaking radiators
* Paint
* Various household hazardous wastes
* Dead animals--both healthy that were killed by cars and unhealthy ones that happened to die near a storm drain
* Detergents
* General street litter, garbage, and waste
* Pet waste with all the organisms, bacteria, parasites that goes with it--for those who do not pick up after their pets, this is where it goes after you ignore it
* Products of environmental erosion
* Yard maintenance products
* And the list goes on and on.....
So add to the reasons why Honolulu should consider how to use porous pavements and other techniques to reduce or eliminate its storm water problem this additional motivation: that water isn’t clean.
Click here for earlier articles on the use of porous or permeable surfaces to let rain water just filter into the earth, as it did before we paved the island over.
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