Wednesday, December 13, 2006

rain gardens



some of cincinnati's people who are interested in rain gardens met today. rain gardens are an organic tool to slow, stop and sink rain water down into the ground. an alternative to this sort of technology in the city could mean doing notihing, which would relegate the water to a storm drain, which depending on you are could trigger a combined sewer overflow response (not good), or at the very least washing some nasty polluted water into the local watercourses (yucky as fucky, will kill all the duckies).

so i tagged along to this get together, and it was interesting. it was in a metropolitan swer district building, though there was some representation of people all over the politcal and activity map. some kind of interesting alliance between different sorts of people should soon be emerging out of it!

an interesting initiative in kansas city was mentioned. here's the website. KC has compacted clay soil, so flooding is a big problem. out of necessity, the people and the government are working to seriously cut into rain water run off by making thoughtfully designed, implemented and maintained rain gardens to make it so the navigable waterways, steams and roads aren't deluged with polluted water every time a big rain hits. In Minnesota, there are some places that did this in a more "grassroots" (aka anarchist), where forward thinking people started doing stuff and the local gov't eventually had to run with it. I'll figure where that was and put it in next time.



on another topic, THESE GODDESS DAMNED CRUTCHES! URG

2 comments:

Unknown said...

i forgot to point something that i think is muy, uber important.

that is, that gardens are super cool and can be used for so many things that you might want.

for instance, you want to reduce your dependance on the industrial medical system? no problem! just grow some comfrey, some willow, some boneset, whatever, and get a library book or workshop and make some home remedies.

want to do some nature magick? you might need various plants and fungi that aren't growing right around you by accident. the same can be said for the city dweller who wants their kids to be exposed to more non-human life forms than their own parasites and the family dog; the bird lover who attracts their feathered friends with flower pollinating insects; with the person who wants to grow some of their own food without using nano technology; anyone who wants to do some abo skills (friction fires, cordage, foraging, etc.)- the list goes on to infinity -1

D. Lollard said...

amen!