Environment: Our Water Supply Should Be Your Biggest Concern by Deborah Dolen

The plight of our bees have been my biggest cause until Frontline a division of PBS started a series on our water. After watching the excellent one hour and 45 minute documentary I found nothing going on in our generation is as important as what is going on with the water supply. I wish each and every person had to go out and collect the garbage, among other modifications of big business. Our beautifully manicured lawns [fertilizer] is also a big part of the problem. The rain run off from the unnatural joins the basin areas into the natural. Basically when we screw up our water supply-we are done. We better be looking for life on Mars.

Frontline, investigative TV at its best, began a well documented and easy to understand TV series in April 2009. They took cameras to the most remote, yet important final water destination areas of the states. Chesapeake Bay which is the end of the trip for waters as far as upstate NY, and Puget Sound in Washington State - home to whales, a myriad of other fish, wildlife, Boeing and PCB. Chesapeake Bay is home to crabs, oysters, Purdue Chicken and mutated frogs with six legs. Most convincing is fish being born uni-sex and obviously unable to reproduce. The only thing I found a bit unfair in the series was the failure to mention other chicken producers or industrial plants. I want a list of them ALL. ALL big business have owned lobbyists and most big business throws corporate responsibility on little people such as the farmers who cannot afford new clean up programs. Chicken crap, for example, does cause extremely unhealthy levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in our waters. 750 tons of it per annum in one spot is definitely not natural. Washington Posts take.

Detergents of every kind and pharmaceuticals in recycled water are right behind animal manure water run off on our dirty laundry list. This is one reason I spent years perfecting an all natural soap made with natural phenomenas. I already felt fake soap was a cause of cancer as cancer skyrocketed with our infatuation with fake soap [SLS] during WWI when real soap became short in supply because the war effort needed the real soap more. The men in the war may have been safer with the real soap than us at home! I feel the body sees SLS [the fake soap] as a toxin, does not know what to do with it and sticks it in our glands. Excellent Front Line Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI6p_6bqrnM In our grocery stores I am appalled at soap companies claiming SLS is natural, are lying, and no one is stopping them. Plus it takes petrol to refine the SLS chemical. There is nothing natural about it as they appeal to our "green sense" touting photos of babies wrapped safely in blankets on their SLS bottles. The cheap price alone is a key indicator it is crap du jour. These guys have made SLS appear cheaper than the standard ever toxic dish detergents and laughingly "safer."

As far as our dirty water goes, this whole issue is so major - it is as far reaching as Sarasota Bay, FL where red tide is worse than ever - choking all wild life the bloom gets a hold of. The cause? Fertilizer run off from our perfectly manicured laws and golf courses. How do I know? Fourteen years living on that bay and when we have very little rain we see no red tide. Tons of rain = major red tide, [monstrous algae blooms] subsequent fish kill and wildlife upset. I was tired of seeing dead fish back then. I did not understand the never ending infatuation with the perfect lawn or golf course was a nationwide problem, not just a problem of Sarasota, FL.
What can you do? Consider rain barrels as one basic viable water source unless you live near a major polluted city. You may have to test your rain water to be sure. Also re-consider how much fertilizer your lawn really needs and look at gray water options to water a lawn. Use one natural surfactant like I created based on natural technology instead of ten different toxic ones. Guilt trip EVERYONE you know to join your efforts.

Another way to help with the water issue is only buy meats and chickens from companies who have embraced responsibility for the disposal of manure. Chicken is fine if they were not all raised on one square inch. Meaning growing animals should be spread out across the country and not taxing one small rural town. Yes, they threaten us back with higher poultry prices. Then stick with the small farms. Purdue had one redeeming quality. It found planting trees would take care of some nitrogen and phosphorus. Excellent thinking - but on the other side of their mouth [on Frontline] they claim there is no direct link to crap and water run off. As far as they are concerned it could be run off from our mail boxes. As far as we are concerned, boycott Purdue because they encourage the chicken mills.

Deborah Dolen is an environmental writer and author of many Mabel White books. She can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DeborahDolen or facebook at http://www.facebook.com/deborah.dolen Deborah Dolen's home site is http://www.deborahdolen.com Read about Ringo a dog flown in from Katrina. Official Bio of his owner and short Bio. RSS Syndicated Feeds on the environment. How Twitter is best used. Deborah Dolen Books on Amazon. Review of her books on Open Library, Paperback Swap, Good Reads and ReviewScout. You can also read Google Profile. Deborah Dolen on MySpace Facebook, and Flickr. This is our favorite blogspot. See Deborah Dolen on YouTube and her last book written London Apothecary and book.