SOLUTION
In Europe, there is a Green City Competition that has been going on since 2010. It compels residents of each city to live greener lives because people like to win.
Having a competition like that between Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, and more would push each city to become more environmentally conscious.
SMALLER HOLES
The easiest and cheapest way to address litter passing through our storm drains is to replace the drains with mesh designs. Without the giant hole (see picture above the Contact section) that storm drains have when they come up on the curb, litter would collect on the drain, making for easy removal by maintenance crews or trash collectors.
FILTERS
Disposable filters inserted behind storm drains could filter out phosphorous and nitrogen in water. This filter could probably chemically bond these elements to itself while still letting H2O through.
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POLICY
Both solutions from above are put into a policy that not only encompasses storm drains but also somehow enforces picking up your pets' waste and makes sure that fertilizer companies sufficiently warn their customers about the dangers of excessive fertilizer use.
SMALLER HOLES
Changing all the existing drains would be expensive because there are many in urban areas.
FILTERS
Since they'd be disposable, they'd be expensive and would have to be replaced often.
POLICY
Time is lost when making decisions and the Council has bigger things to worry about, such as Amazon HQ and the growth of Columbus.
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positives
Negatives
alternative solutions
IMPACTS
Political activist Hannah O'Sullivan believes that it is your civic duty to speak your mind; therefore, if you support change, contact your representative.
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As of 2015, 1.252 million people live in Franklin County, which relies on the Upper and Lower Scioto Watersheds for its drinking water. Contaminants from the city, through storm drains, can get into their drinking water.
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As of 2016, 860,060 people live in Columbus (not to be confused with the Greater Columbus Area). No longer will their litter enter waterways through storm drains.
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Changing like this can show citizens that what they do as an individual does impact the environment because most people have a mindset that says, "This is too small. It's not going to matter." If everyone's thinking like that, littering and unnecessary fertilizer use is going to continue. However, if you change your action, you can show people that everything matters on all levels.
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FOOTNOTES
All statistics listed here are from the United States Census Bureau
image: Wikipedia
Feedback, compliments, and criticism are welcome!
contact the creator
STORM
DRAINS
adrienne heyrosa
What's the Big Deal?
The United States produces 254 million lbs of trash every year1, which, weight-wise, is like 180 million basketballs added to our landfills, streets, and sides of roads. Worldwide, 1.4 million lbs of litter get dumped into the ocean yearly, which amounts to the conservative estimate of 300 million lbs of litter in the ocean total2. Despite all the advertising and general knowledge that litter is bad, we still throw some of our trash on the ground as we walk by because "the trash cans are too far away" or "it's just a wrapper." It is hard to understand that our seemingly small decisions have a huge environmental impact.
California, a very progressive state, has seen the problems of litter in the world’s waterways first hand, considering that they’re a coastal state. They have passed state legislation3 nicknamed the “Trash Amendments.” From their website, they state:
“The project objective for the Trash Amendments is to provide statewide consistency for the Water Boards' regulatory approach to
protect aquatic life and public health beneficial uses, and reduce environmental issues associated with trash in state waters while
focusing limited resources on high trash generating areas."
This means that California is concerned about pollution in waterways to the point where they have instituted state laws.
When we litter in urban areas, rain and snowmelt can carry the litter down the storm drain and directly into our creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. However, what is even more threatening to our ecosystem is excessive fertilizer use. In suburban areas, people maintain their laws, often with fertilizer; notwithstanding, many people use too much and the nutrients can go with the next storm into our waterways.
In fact, the background image here is of Lake Erie, taken in 2015. All of the green in the water is algae that release toxins that can cause liver damage in humans when ingested either through drinking the water or eating improperly prepared fish captured during blooms like this4. Although there have not been human deaths yet from liver problems due to ingestion of toxins produced by algae, wildlife and flora and fauna are being snuffed out by seasonal algal blooms.
In 2014, Toledo suffered from a drinking water crisis due to the large amounts of toxic algae in Lake Erie.Prior to that in 2011, Carroll Township in Northern OH “suspended water use among the second largest algae bloom ever measured,” as written in the NY Times. Although there are currently steps being taken5 to stop algae blooms from becoming too big during their seasonal blooms, these steps are not considering inland cities.
FOOTNOTES
1: "Trash by the numbers: Startling statistics about US garbage ...." 1 Jul. 2016, https://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/trash-numbers-startling-statistics-about-americans-and-their-garbage.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
2: "23 Littering Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind - CreditDonkey." 3 Mar. 2015, https://www.creditdonkey.com/littering-statistics.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
3: "Trash Control | California State Water Resources Control Board." 28 Jul. 2017, https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/trash_control/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
4:""Algae in Drinking Water - City of Columbus." https://www.columbus.gov/AlgaeFAQs/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
5: "Prevention and control - NSW Office of Water - NSW Government." https://www.water.nsw.gov.au/water-management/water-quality/algal-information/prevention-and-control.
Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
image: Lake Erie, NASA
Expanding cities means more concrete, which is hard, solid, and impervious. However, when it rains and snows in cities, the water cannot soak into the earth. Storm sewer systems were designed to combat this and allow for dry impervious surfaces while directing water to nature.
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Since storm sewers don't have a filtration system to prevent substances that aren't water from entering storm drains, litter, fertilizer, and animal feces are swept with the flow of water into our waterways.