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One of the main reasons for adding plants to an existing aquaculture system is to conserve water. The amount of water used in factory aquaculture is enormous. We are entering a time of severe water shortages as populations soar and cities are competing with farmers for water.

One of the main reasons for changing over from conventional tillage farming to aquaponics is water usage. It is claimed that aquaponics uses only about one tenth the water as tillage farming.

Yes, mixing fish and plants is tricky business but all we have to do is look at nature; for we only invented the word aquaponics, not the process. You can optimize your system to grow plants or fish but if you want to optimize it to do both you will have a challenge on your hands.

Aquaponics Earth has  been contacted by farmers who are cutting down nut trees here in California due to lack of water and wanting to know what they can grow using what little water they are allocated.

Next to food, fresh water will be (and already is) the most valuable commodity on the planet. So, above all other discussions about why to mix growing plants with fish, I believe limited water is the primary reason.

When the founders of Aquaponics Earth came together, they realized they all shared the same life mandate--that mandate is to Teach People How To Be Self Sufficient. They also realized that mandate is what brought them each to discover Aquaponics in the first place. Because it is Aquaponics that has the capability of revitalizing, sustaining and saving the lives of starving people all over the world. Aquaponics turns starving people from victims--begging for their next hand-out from whatever charitable organization or government agency that is in front of them, if any--into people with dignity who are independent and capable of  providing food for themselves.

Oliver
www.AquaponicsEarth.com
(760) 298-3755
56925 Yucca Trail, Suite #303

Yucca Valley, California 92284

Be Water Wise

Watch this video to find out about BeWaterWise.com, and how you can conserve water.

Desalination of salt water and brackish water is becoming a critical issue as inland lakes and ponds suffer from droughts and water relocation projects.

Ecosystems suffer first. Terminus lakes could benefit from a new desalination system being developed at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Terminus lakes are located in closed-basin regions where there is no outflow for the water and a high evaporation rate, leaving a high concentration of minerals and salts.

This new, low cost way to desalinate water uses a specialized low-cost solar pond and patented membrane distillation system powered by renewable energy.

Hundreds of terminus lakes worldwide such as the Great Salt Lake, the Salton Sea in California, the Aral Sea and Nevada's  Walker Lake are experiencing a decline in water levels and an increase in salinity from both human and natural processes," says Francisco Suarez, a doctoral student in hydrological sciences.

Suarez is developing an artificial salt-gradient stratification process that traps solar heat at the bottom of the solar pond and uses the collected energy to power the membrane distillation system recently patented by the University. The hot brine in the lower storage zone of the pond, which can reach temperatures greater than 195 degrees Fahrenheit, may be used directly for heating, thermal desalination, or for other low-temperature thermal applications.

The process has been highly successful in the lab in a small-scale experiment using a 400-gallon tank, where dissolved solids and precise fiber-optic temperature sensing are being used to track the process as it desalinates the water. The next step for Suarez and the research group is to build a pilot-project, demonstration-scale, low-temperature desalination system in an open environment.

This desalination system is designed to help sustain the ecosystems of these closed-basin regions.

Read more about this desalination system at the University of Nevada

Did you know... 65% of new impervious cover can be classified as car habitat!

What is "car habitat"?  

"...the geometry of roads, parking lots, sidewalks, cul-de-sacs and other new development infrastructure."  That's car habitat.

Local development codes enforce how much impervious surface is allowed.  They take into consideration how water drains and is absorbed by local soil conditions, as well as the level of development already affecting the watershed.

Better site design can reduce flooding by improving absorption of heavy water deluges into nature's groundwater infrastructure.  Snowpack might be nature's LARGEST water reservoir, but groundwater is also a very valuable service provided by nature in lowlands. 

Better Site Design (BSD), can include greater use of

• swales
• relaxed lot geometry
• natural area conservation
• open-space subdivisions
• pervious paving
• and other site design techniques

Several dozen communities across the country have changed their local codes and ordinances to promote BSD through a roundtable process to gain consensus among development stakeholders.

Better Site Design Can Reduce Development Costs

The strength of the BSD approach is that numerous modeling studies have demonstrated it can reduce impervious cover, pollutants and development costs by as much as 10 to 40% at individual development sites.

The weakness of BSD is that it lacks a watershed context and therefore reductions in site IC may be not be enough to meet subwatershed objectives.

SOURCE:
Chesapeake Stormwater Network, CSN Technical Bulletin No. 3, "Implications of the Impervious Cover Model".

The rite of passage for young coho salmon is a glorious rendezvous with the sea, but three years of drought have left many migrating fish marooned in the drying tributaries of Marin County's San Geronimo Valley, according to a recent study.

Many of these trapped juvenile fish, commonly known as smolts, have either been plucked out of isolated pools by birds and other predators or died from lack of nutrients, biologists with the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network said.

The stranding of smolt trying to reach the ocean is one of a litany of problems facing the endangered Central California coho population, which registered the lowest number of egg-laying adults in the normally bountiful Lagunitas watershed in recorded history last winter.

It is unique in that the primary spawning grounds are in the middle of developed communities. Some 40 percent of the coho in the watershed are hatched in tributaries surrounded by homes, golf courses, roads and horse corrals in the 9-square-mile San Geronimo Valley, according to the study.

It is estimated that between 3,000 and 6,000 coho swim down the waterway back to the ocean every year. The plummeting coho numbers exacerbate a near-catastrophic decline in the overall population of salmon along the West Coast. The coho population around the state has declined precipitously over the years and so few chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system the past two years that ocean fishing had to be banned in California and Oregon.

Fixing Leaks Can Be Elementary, My Dear Watson

Learning about water efficiency can be as easy as 1-2-3 with WaterSense's recently released Fix a Leak Week curriculum by EPA's WaterSense water conservation program. WaterSense has developed lessons for grades 3 through 5 that focus on saving water through finding leaks. Nationwide more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year. In fact, the average home can waste 11,000 gallons of water per year, enough to fill a backyard swimming pool. But students can learn about saving water and conduct fun science experiments by sleuthing out leaks where they live and helping parents find ways to fix them. The free resources offer step-by-step instructions for teachers and include ready-made worksheets for students. Parents and water conservation outreach coordinators may also find these materials and a corresponding family pledge to save water useful. While the curriculum is designed to be taught during Fix a Leak Week (March 15-21, 2010), the concepts are timeless and worthy of teaching any time of the year. Learn more about Fix a Leak Week 2010 and the teacher's curriculum.

WaterSense to Label Flushing Urinals

WaterSense specifications for flushing urinals, make WaterSense  labeled products available for use in commercial and institutional restrooms.

WaterSense labeled urinals have the potential to help save businesses and institutions water and money on utility bills.

If all urinals installed before 1994 were replaced with WaterSense labeled models, it would save nearly 36 billion gallons of water annually--equal to the flow over Niagara Falls in 20 hours.

Half-gallon Flush Limits

To earn the WaterSense label, urinals must flush using no more than half a gallon, well below the current federal standard of 1.0 gallon per flush (gpf). Older models installed before regulations were in place can use even more water--as much as 5.0 gpf.

As with all WaterSense labeled products, urinals must undergo independent, third-party testing and certification before earning the WaterSense label.

Schools, restaurants, offices, and commercial buildings

Schools, restaurants, businesses, and other commercial buildings can benefit from the financial savings of WaterSense labeled urinals.

If a high school of 1,000 students replaced its inefficient urinals, for example, it could save enough to supply water for nearly 700 households.

EPA estimates that there are about 12 million urinals currently in use in the United States, and up to 65 percent of them are inefficient models that use significantly more than the federal standard. For every inefficient urinal replaced with a WaterSense labeled model, 4,600 gallons are saved annually. Learn more about the WaterSense specification for flushing urinals.

Water is undervalued in many parts of the country. In fact, about 30% of all water utilities operate at a loss or a deficit.

So where does all your money go? The money you pay toward your water bill is stretched many different ways by utilities.

Water utilities, like any business, need to pay for operating expenses such as electricity, treatment chemicals, maintenance, and employee wages. On average, about 70% of your water bill goes to your water utility's operating expenses.

As they work to collect sufficient revenue to ensure the availability of clean and safe water, municipalities and water managers try to keep their rates affordable. Even so, the cost of water and wastewater varies, and the factors that ultimately set the price differ from community to community.

Small Community Water Utilities

Many private water utilities serving smaller communities lack commercial and industrial customers that help keep costs to residents low. These utilities are sometimes forced to charge residents nearly double the national average to recoup operating expenses. In these communities, investing in water efficiency makes twice as much sense.

Improvement Project Costs

But that only makes up part of your water utility's financial needs. Many water utilities need money to pay for improvement projects to upgrade infrastructure or increase capacity--meaning the ability to provide water to an expanding number of customers--and they might also need to pay down debt just like the rest of us.

EPA studies estimate that updating aging water and wastewater infrastructure could cost more than $500 billion over the next two decades.

While many of the pipes that deliver water to American homes are relatively new, some pipes are more than 80 years old and well overdue for replacement. And this $500 billion does not include the funds that are needed to build new infrastructure to meet the demands of a growing population!

The good news is that there is something both utilities and consumers can do to delay these major investments and save money.

WaterSense Savings with Certified Products

WaterSense makes fiscal sense, both from a utility standpoint, and to consumers' wallets. Many water utilities are promoting WaterSense labeled products to help their customers save on water bills and to delay the utilities' need for expensive projects to increase capacity.

So if you're looking for new ways to pinch pennies as a household, consider the following.

The average household can reduce its water bills by as much as 30% by installing water-efficient plumbing fixtures such as WaterSense labeled toilets and faucets and ENERGY STAR qualified appliances.

Replacing older, inefficient toilets alone could save a family of four some $90 per year. These savings, coupled with potential rebates in your area, mean your bathroom makeover could pay for itself in no time--and pay the savings forward in your community for years to come.

New York City residents use 1.1 billion gallons of water every single day--enough to fill the Empire State Building with water five times!

That's a lot of water, and a lot of potential water savings.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) has joined EPA's WaterSense program because efficiency matters. 

Leaking toilets and running faucets are among the greatest water-efficiency challenges in New York City.

The city benefits when people use WaterSense labeled toilets and lavatory sinks because they use less water and perform better. Conserving water will not only help New Yorkers save money, but it helps to conserve the supply we all depend on.

As a promotional partner, NYC DEP will help EPA educate consumers about the value of water, water efficiency, and the WaterSense label. 

Public Restrooms in Times Square

WaterSense already made its Broadway debut in 2007 and 2008 with the Charmin Holiday Restrooms in Times Square.

The restrooms featured WaterSense labeled Kohler brand toilets and faucets and spelled relief for both tourists and locals in need of a public restroom during the holiday shopping season and on New Year's Eve.

Since joining the program early this year, NYC DEP has already begun spreading the news about WaterSense to its approximately 9 million customers through its Web site and at public outreach events. Thanks to this partnership and the prospect of better water efficiency, the Big Apple could earn a new nickname: the city that never leaks.

The advantages of portable sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) can encourage  more PONGs (Portable Outreach Neighborhood Garden (PONG) and personal gardens with no need for the backbreaking and costly work of breaking concrete and blacktop.

Back breaking work is simply not necessary.

SIP gardening also avoids the risk of contaminated soil.

InsideUrbanGreen.com is a helpful DIY site to help you make your own planters and planter boxes instead of going gung ho and tearing up concrete, etc.

Add to these innovative storage box planters a few heirloom seeds...and you have your own victory garden on your patio!