The SF PUC is hosting a street fair called “Big Blue Bucket Eco Fair” on Saturday the 26th from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. It looks like a cool event, and I plan on being there and reporting whats what. Some pre-highlights are rain barrel installation and a used medication drop off. Medication disposal is one of those small things that in aggregate settings, like say a City, has a massive impact. Dumping that last pill or three down the drain has long been an accepted way of getting rid of unused pharmaceuticals, but it has a tremendous impact on local waterways when these chemicals make it to the bay: waste water treatment plans are NOT designed to removed medication from water, it DOES get into fish and harm the waterways. Just another good example of San Francisco doing its part.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) should get props for constantly pushing conservation and eco friendly approaches to water use. Building on that history is their new Our Water Our World (OWOW) program that has much practical informaiton to help you build safer, water conscious front & back-scapes. Another handy dandy link for you Californians is this Nifty 50 PDF that has 50 great, native choices to consider when building real local looking gardens.
All water eventually leads to the ocean, and every bit of whatever that is so casually flushed away does not simply disappear. Your choices echo on and on, sometimes in really disturbing ways. Here is one of the latest updates on Oceanic Dead Zones – something most of us hear about from time to time, perhaps in a 30 second spot on the news or a small blurb box in the local market rag. Sure, maybe large scale industrial & agricultural pollution IS the main culprit here, but you look at the 20 LB bag of nitrogen fertilizer in your garage for your lawn, hell look at your damn lawn, and you think about all the water, fertilizer and pesticides you dump there, that I have dumped there, and you ask yourself is it worth it?
