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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
Washing Day
By Mike Little Soap is a pollutant — especially where lakes are involved. When Grandpa was a boy, and there were far fewer camps around the lakes, bathing in the lake was an acceptable practice. It probably was not a good practice even then, but once again it is population pressures impacting our lakes. This is also true for washing the family pet! Take Fido into the tub or into the backyard. There are so many people wanting to live and play near the lakes that we have to work hard to protect the resource. So use that expensive septic system you paid for bath water! A related problem that our watershed surveys have uncovered is outdoor showers — where soapy water can run off into a stream or down to the lake — these should be plumbed to a dry well at least. Washing boats and cars is another problem. Cars and boats should be taken to a car wash where the wastewater is either recycled or sent to a sewage treatment plant. Washing them in your yard allows the wastewater to run off into the lake. If you must wash your vehicles at your house, pick and area of absorbent soil with a good duff layer that will soak up the pollutants. Soapy runoff is great food for algae — both silt and dirt and the chemicals in the soap are junk food for algal growth. There are a whole host of bio-degradable cleansers on the market. For the sake of our lakes look for the least polluting to use at your home or camp. Mike Little is executive director of the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance. He can be contacted at | ||
