Tuesday, July 16, 2013

So you slept through science class, part 7–healthy streams…..

Many of you have been following our family’s stream monitoring adventures and know that the streams in our area are not particularly healthy.  Several readers have been asking me why the streams are in the shape they’re in.  Urban streams are often “sick” for a number of reasons, including nitrogen and phosphorous runoff, the speed of the water moving through the streams (which increases erosion and decreases the soil’s natural filtering of pollutants), temperature changes in the water, and various toxic pollutants.  Here’s a  short, informative video from a division of NBC that does a nice job of explaining some of the threats to our local urban and suburban waterways: 

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