By Catherine Durkin Robinson PoHo contributor,“feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field
Charlie Miranda has come up with a plan to turn hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater into drinking water. All in the name of self-sufficiency.
Yes, we are in the middle of a drought. But we aren’t desperate:
In 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a study of the treated wastewater from the city’s Howard F. Curren Wastewater Treatment Plant and found 27 different kinds of micropollutants in the recycled water even after it passed through a filtration process.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 24, 2009, at 9:14 am
For decades, Tampa has faced a conundrum; every day tens of milions of gallons of treated wastewater is dumped into Tampa Bay, wasted in a word. In St. Petersburg, treated wastewater is used for residential lawn watering, thanks to the foresightful construction of special water lines in neighborhoods. But Tampa’s attempts to re-use its wastewater hasn’t met with the same success.
So now the Tampa City Council wants to skip the whole lawn watering step and move right to drinking the highly treated sewer water. It voted yesterday to ask voters in a 2010 referendum if they want to build a system to deliver the potty product back to their drinking faucets.
By Michelle Schenck CL Green Community contributor
Everyone has a pet peeve or two. It is common to get slightly annoyed with a member of the human race every now and again, even if it is something small, like the way way a person slurps their cup of morning joe or the last person in the bathroom not replacing the toilet paper roll. It is the way that you confront and handle these matters, if at all, that turns these pet peeves into issues.
For example, when I was a little girl, I used to see a family member (they shall remain nameless) leave the water faucet on while doing the dishes. She or he would start to wash a dish, walk away to do something else, and then come back. I didn’t understand why they didn’t just turn the water off if they were going to step away for 15-20 seconds at a time? It seemed like such a huge waste of water even at a young age when the words “green” didn’t really mean much to me.
I would say time and time again to “Stop doing that!” It became frustrating and eventually became a pet peeve of mine. As I grew older, though, I was able to talk to that same person about this habit in a better, less screamy and immature way. I would talk to them about the importance of conserving water and to only use it when you are in need of it, not just because they can. They finally understood my point and, at least around me, has always made a conscious effort to turn off that faucet when they weren’t using it. It felt good to get a pet peeve off my chest so to speak while also instilling a green action in a family member.
Now days, I still get those pet peeve feelings but I feel a little more confident expressing myself in a mature manner about these peeves, at least if I have some form of relationship with the person. When I go to the beach, for example, if a friend just throws their water bottle or any trash for that matter on the sand and walks away, I will confront them about it. Nine times out of 10, a trash or recycling can is nearby and I just laughingly look at them and say, “Really?!” They usually laugh a little too and realize their mistake, pick it up, and throw it away. Sometimes people just need a little light-hearted reminder from their friends or co-workers about green actions.
As readers, what kind of green pet peeves do you have and what have you done to bring these peeves to light? Have you confronted anyone or groups of people about it? What kind of tactics do you think are acceptable to confront someone about green actions? Please post here.
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
I wasn’t the only one that thought something smelled funny about this Cone Ranch deal, a recent proposal by Commissioner Ken “Half Truth” Hagan (to subdivide and sell public land to private investors) and in the process serve up millions to Republican donors for brokering the deal. The St. Petersburg Times raised some major concerns and inconsistencies in this editorial and, according to this article in the TampaTribune, Mariella Smith says it stinks! Smith is a highly regarded environmentalist and she fights tirelessly and fearlessly on behalf of it. She always comes armed with enough information to make even the most seasoned and highly paid development interests look like buffoons, and I have nothing but respect for her on this or any other issue for that matter. If she says it stinks, bring a clothespin or a gas mask.
Of all the things that have changed in China over the past 30 years, transportation has undergone one of the most obvious of transformations. Where city streets once swarmed with bicycles, they are now full of automobiles. Cars clog intersection and expressways. Their exhaust clouds the sky and the air is full of the sound of horns. But zipping through the congestion is the vanguard of another transportation revolution: vehicles that use no gas, emit no exhaust and are so quiet they can surprise the unwary pedestrian.
In China, electric bicycles are leaving cars in the dust. Last year, Chinese bought 21 million e-bikes, compared with 9.4 million autos. While China now has about 25 million cars on the road, it has four times as many e-bikes. Thanks to government encouragement and a population well versed in riding two wheels to work, the country has become the world’s leading market for the cheap, green vehicles, helping to offset some of the harmful effects of the country’s automobile boom. Indeed, as engineers around the world scramble to create eco-friendly, plug-in electric cars, China is already ahead of the game. Says Frank Jamerson, a former GM engineer turned electric-vehicle analyst: “What’s happening in China is sort of a clue to what the future will be.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 27, 2009, at 2:05 pm
Just released from Tampa City Hall is Mayor Pam Iorio’s memo supporting a planned City Council vote tomorrow to lift the Bay area’s toughest lawn-watering ban that prohibited anything but limited hand-watering of lawns.
The memo:
I am pleased to report that our reservoir level is currently at 21.8 feet, and Hillsborough River flows are 152 million gallons per day at Morris Bridge. In my May 19th memorandum to you, I said we would support a relaxation of the water restrictions if the reservoir exceeded 21 feet and rate of flow in the river exceeded 60 million gallons per day.
Since rains have continued throughout the Hillsborough River watershed and the two thresholds placed on our water supply have been exceeded, I am recommending that our existing emergency water use ordinance be amended to adopt the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Phase IV modified level, effective June 1, 2009. With your concurrence, an amended ordinance will be walked onto City Council agenda at the Thursday, May 28th meeting.
The Phase IV restrictions will:
• Allow customers to irrigate with sprinkler systems once a week on their designated watering day.
Watering hours for most customers are Midnight to 4 a.m.; however, hours are specified for property
sizes and irrigation methods.
• Limit non-turf irrigation by low volume methods to three days per week.
• Limit pressure washing to that conducted by commercial businesses.
• Prohibit residential car washing.
• Apply 78 degree requirement in water-cooled buildings to government facilities and common areas only.
Again, I would like to thank you for your vote in adopting very tough water restrictions that saved hundreds of millions of gallons of water.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 6, 2009, at 3:10 pm
You recall last week that PoHo contributor Kelly Cornelius commented on the unusual deal being mulled over by the Hillsborough County Commission: sell a piece of publicly owned ranch land in order to prevent it from being developed into a subdivision. Not that it is being threatened for such development, since the county already owns it and is keeping it undeveloped.
The Times reports that commissioners want to study the deal and are appointing the ubiquitous task force for the, um, task:
A panel of environmental leaders will help Hillsborough County commissioners scrutinize a proposal to sell 12,000 acres of public land in the name of preservation.
Commissioners voted unanimously today to consider a proposal to sell off the Cone Ranch well field — nearly 20 square miles of undeveloped land in northeast Hillsborough.
The county’s water department owns the land, which was bought two decades ago for the drinking water that might one day be pumped from the aquifer.
The group bringing the deal to the table has all kinds of hard-right-wing ties outlined in the Times pieces.
Posted by Ben Luongo on Mar. 16, 2009, at 10:30 am
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Tampa’s 15 billion gallon reservoir is now basically drained and the rainy season is months away. According to Tampa Bay Water spokeswomen Michelle Robinson, Tampa is now going to have to rely on both the underground water aquifer, which could increase the risk of sinkholes, and the small of amount of desalinated water from the plant.
When people think of Florida they might find it unlikely that it would suffer from a water shortage. However, after decades of development even a state surrounded by water is prone to shortages, and Florida is not the only one. According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 36 states are projected to suffer water shortages in the next five years. Water shortage is a problem felt at local levels, like the city and state, but also at national and international levels. This means that efforts to remedy water shortages are going to require both state and federal solutions.
However, on a more individual level, there is stuff that we as Tampanians can do to reduce the amount of water that we use on a daily basis. Here are some easy and cheap examples:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 23, 2009, at 3:08 pm
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio is making lemonade out of lemons, using the down economy to try to snatch up a prime piece of waterfront real estate and put it into public hands: the former Georgetown Apartments property on South West Shore Boulevard.
She wrote to City Council members today:
Dear Council members,
I want to give you more information about the article you may have read in Saturday’s SP Times about Georgetown Property.
Several months ago the city initiated discussions with the Trust for Public Land and the County (ELAPP) about the possibility of acquiring the 160- acre Georgetown Apartment site. Historically this site has housed 600 apartment units however it was sold in 2005 for $125 million with plans to build approximately 1,240 units of single-family and multi-family units. Due to the recession the property has gone into foreclosure and Bank of America will be soliciting bids for the property. This is a beautiful piece of land – most of it undeveloped with great access to the bay. To be able to protect the majority of the land from development forever would be of great benefit to our environment and to the community.
After many discussions and inputs we thought the best course of action would be to have the Trust for Public Land submit a bid when BOA is ready for proposals. The Trust has a successful track record of helping communities around the country to conserve strategic land resources for public use.
I will keep you informed as this progresses and if you want to talk about this further please give me a call.
Sincerely,
Pam
Here is the property from Google’s satellite view:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Nov. 3, 2008, at 3:08 pm
Got a question about Election Day or any of the campaigns or candidates? Just want to vent a bit or ask “Hey, Wayne, where can I find that talking bear political commercial?” Then just leave a comment and I will do my best.
