Water Pollution

Rain or Shine, Do Your Part to Protect Our Oceans from Stormwater Pollution

| January 9, 2019 | Categories: Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living, Water and Water Conservation
In winter 2018, the last thing we needed to worry about was stormwater pollution. We only got 3.77 inches of rain in the official 2017-2018 water year in San Diego. Now here we are in 2019, and our first blog post of the year is about the pollution effects of all the rain we’ve been getting. It’s great news in Sana Diego to get some drought relief, watching our reservoirs fill back up and enjoying snow in the mountains. But now we need to be concerned about managing the negative effects of all this water, such as stormwater pollution. Stormwater runoff is the single biggest contributor to poor water quality in San Diego.… Read More

Green Roofs Are Even Greater Than We First Thought

| September 15, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Green Roofs
North America’s largest living roof – about the size of eight football fields – continues to flourish atop Dearborn Truck Plant’s final assembly building, part of the Ford Rouge Center. Photo: Courtesy Ford Motor Company
When I first installed the green roof at Good Earth Plant Company in 2007, all of the information about the long term impact came from Europe. There weren’t all that many green roofs in the United States and there weren’t many studies being conducted on the few that existed. Times change and we are much more enlightened about the positive impact of green roofs on the immediate environment and their contribution overall. Some of the best studies are coming from The Green Roof Research Program at Michigan State University. One of MSU’s collaborators is a company which might not come to mind when you think about green roofs: the Ford Motor Company.… Read More

Water, Water Everywhere: Tips to Prep for El Niño

| November 4, 2015 | Categories: Environment, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Sustainable Living, Water and Water Conservation
Having sandbags standing by is a smart precaution. Photo: Courtesy City of San Marcos
It seemed like just a few days ago we were still wearing shorts and flip flops while watching our bone dry yards hang on for cooler, wetter weather ahead. Suddenly we have freeway offramps and neighborhoods flooding due to rainstorms. Is this San Diego or the Pacific Northwest? Weather forecasters tell us an El Niño winter is ahead, and based on this week’s weather you can call me a believer. It seems like the temporary answer to our drought problems and your long-suffering landscape plants. But an overabundance of water can create its own set of problems. Some of them can turn out to be destructive and very expensive to fix if you don’t take measures now to prepare.… Read More