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August 06, 2004
Water-quality Engineering
Yesterday I received an engineering industry newsletter from Bentley that was announcing their recent acquisition of Haestad Methods, Inc. That’s interesting enough but something struck me as odd when I was reading it:
“As water quality has become a critical issue worldwide, water-quality engineering is now a significant growth area in AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction). According to infrastructure industry management consultant Alan Farkas of Farkas Berkowitz & Company, the growth rate of water-quality engineering has increased just over 10 percent per year on a compounded basis for the last six years. “Water-quality engineering has been and should continue to be the most attractive engineering market segment in the U.S.,” noted Alan Farkas.”
Why has water quality become a critical issue worldwide? Isn’t this situation created by the activities of human beings on the earth? Because of it being a critical issue worldwide, now it’s become a growth area for people to fix the problem. So that means that people will profit from fixing the problems created by themselves. Engineering is a process of creation and we are creating solutions, we are making something. I ask why we should have to recreate something we have already had?
In today’s paper there was an article about plans to spend 850,000 dollars to increase the water quality of Como Lake. One of the problems listed was fertilizer runoff, which is creating uncontrollable algae growth which in turn is choking the lake and killing the fish population. The project is a nice idea though, because it will help the lake by reducing sand, salt, fertilizer and other chemical runoff to the lake. See information about this project at the Capitol Region Watershed District Site:
The slideshow presentation given at a June 30th meeting with photos. (pdf format)
http://www.ramseyconservation.org/crwd/projects/arlingtonpascal/6%2030_Presentation.pdf
Before and after pictures of the proposed rain gardens.
http://www.ramseyconservation.org/crwd/projects/arlingtonpascal/6-30%20Rain.pdf
Before and after pictures of the proposed ponds. Cool aerial photos of the neighborhoods and Como golf course.
http://www.ramseyconservation.org/crwd/projects/arlingtonpascal/6-30%20PONDS.pdf
I know it gets complicated to fix things once they are a problem, but yet it’s simple if prevented before they are a problem. We as human beings have to learn to be more conscious of our environment, and get back to the simple idea that we have to live in balance with nature and not destroy it. It’s a mindset. For instance, instead of manufacturing disposable items because it’s convenient for the consumer, and more profitable to produce, we should think about where that waste is going first. Instead of having a green lawn at the expense of our lakes and rivers, we can change our priorities and methods. Did you know that boiling water kills weeds?
As consumers, we should become more aware of what we are buying, how we are using it, how it effects our environment and how we are treating the waste. All of the engineering after-the-fact to correct a problem seems like such a waste of time and money when pollution is something that could be avoided in the first place. We can’t stop trying to fix the problems we create, but we can stop creating problems to fix, if we care enough to do so.
“We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”
http://members.aol.com/danlady99/ForTheChildren.html
Posted by carl1236 at August 6, 2004 10:45 PM | Balance