Archive for the ‘water’ Category

Learning to Save Water – and Love Nature – at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Posted by Mary Beth Sammons on
Rylee is a big fan of the Krasberg Rose Garden fountain at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Rylee and I are big fans of the Krasberg Rose Garden fountain at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Growing up in Northbrook during the 1960s, I often took for granted the simple pleasures that many of us enjoyed during our childhood, such as running through the sprinklers and splashing around in our neighbor’s built-in pool, which was always filled to the brim. My parents were very mindful of the environment, but water conservation just wasn’t on my radar. I didn’t even know it was an environmental issue.

Riding our bikes east on Dundee Road, my friends and I would pass the mountains of mud that were just a vision of the magnificent living museum the Chicago Botanic Garden has become today. We’d glance at it quickly, then pedal our bikes onward to Glencoe Beach where we spent most summer days, swimming and crushing on the lifeguards. Summers were all about water play.

It wasn’t until years later that I realized my children and grandchildren might experience a water crisis. (more…)

The Big Reasons Not to Flush Old Medicines Down the Toilet

Posted by Kate Sackman on
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Keeping these contaminants out of our waterways sounds good to me! (Pic via WBEZ/Rodrigo Pena/AP)

Over the years, you may have heard that the recommended way to dispose of unused pharmaceuticals is to flush them down the toilet or pour them down the drain—not anymore. The EPA and FDA backed off this recommendation for almost all drugs (exceptions are listed on the FDA website). Medicines are among the thousands of “chemicals of emerging concern” the EPA and much of the scientific community now monitor and study.

Today for our EcoMyths/Worldview segment, Jerome McDonnell and I discussed the pros and cons of flushing medicines with two experts: Olga Lyandres, PhD, of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, author of the paper “Keeping Great Lakes Water Safe: Priorities for Protecting against Emerging Chemical Pollutants,” and Commissioner Debra Shore of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD). Both had a lot to say about the dangers of and the solutions for the contamination of our drinking water by dissolved pharmaceuticals and other household products. (See how we “flush” this myth in the full article.) (more…)

Catching and Using Rain Where It Falls

Posted by Kate Sackman on

A rooftop garden atop Chicago's City Hall. Chicago has plants cooling 3 million square feet of rooftops throughout the city. (AP Photo/Chicago Department of Environment, Mark Farina)

About a decade ago, I started to notice that rain storms felt more violent, as if mandated by some mythical storm troll who controlled the skies. Weather had changed, yes, but not because of imaginary attackers, in spite of my paranoid delusions.

In fact, extreme precipitation is a predicted consequence of the cumulative effects of climate change; these events are often accompanied by flooding. (more…)