January 22, 2025
Many things seem overwhelming by way of being ominously large. Fires and floods are massive in their scale and destructive force. The climate is beyond massive. Politics seem a world and universe beyond, obtuse but also pervasive in our lives.
With so much largeness around, can we find comfort in small things? The complex beauty of one square foot of the forest floor or meadow. The color, patterns, and texture of rocks. Any given snowflake.
Ahhh, a refreshing drink of cold water on a warm late summer day. I’m aware of where the water comes from, but less so the copper pipes in my house through which it courses. It might be that the copper came from the Kennecott Copper Corporation’s mines in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska – a place I returned from just recently. The mining operation ceased in 1938 and my house was built in 1940. Could it be that every drop of water from my house ties me somehow to Kennecott, AK?
You’ve no doubt heard this phrase, and recently in reference to our climatic conditions and state of our creeks and rivers. According to my semi-authoritative sources on the internet, bones are not really all that dry. Living bones have a lot of moisture in their squishy marrow and vessels; maybe 60% moisture is a fair approximation.
Stormwater is a technical field, with its alphabet soup and rich collection of jargon: BMPs, SCMs, TMDLs, MS4, and the list goes on. But, if the messaging is right, everyone can comprehend runoff and water pollution, but not always what role an individual or business can play to address it. That’s where Stormwater For The People comes in!
I have enjoyed writing this blog for the last several years, and thanks for reading. Admittedly, my posts have been on the erratic side, but I have an excuse. I was working on a book! It started out as non-fiction and mysteriously transformed into fiction — and environmental mystery that is.