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.
February 26, 2024
I posted Obsessed with Phosphorus several years ago. I had done a little research on the element, including the 61-mile long conveyor belt in Western Sahara that can be seen from space. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, we all know phosphorus as one of the big three pollutants included in the Bay’s pollution diet. Recently, I read Dan Egan’s book, The Devil’s Element – Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance, and realized there is a lot more to mysterious #15 (that’s periodic table talk) than I had known. In fact, “P” could just as easily stand for “paradox” as phosphorus.
We have always known that long-term maintenance was part of the picture for stormwater BMPs. However, for many years, that notion was an annoying rattle in the background as we’ve gone about the often more gratifying work to design and install BMPs. Now, maintenance is front-and-center with any project. Most practitioners would agree that lack of adequate maintenance is unacceptable, as the result is not good for the site, for water quality, or for the property owners and public. Poor long-term maintenance also represents a huge betrayal of the initial investments of money, time, creativity, and energy we put into planning, designing, and installing the practices.