Not all water faucets produce equally. In fact, tap water can vary a lot these days — from grimy to cloudy to just simply flammable.
In Boston, however, you can find some great water. That’s because the city just won a national tap water taste test competition (yes, that exists) organized by the American Water Works Association.
The annual competition (which, by chance was held in Boston this year) revealed the secret to Boston’s delicious H2O: Watershed protection, according to Yes!
The city purchases its water from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which for the better part of the last 30 years has been buying conservation land near the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs — both of which are the sources of Boston’s water.
This uninhabited, undeveloped space naturally filters the water before it reaches the reservoirs, as well as during its journey to the city, purifying it. This natural cleansing doesn’t just make it healthy and tasty; it also just about eliminates the need to use expensive chemical filtration on it, too.
The tasty tap water doesn’t come cheaply, though. It has cost the Authority billions of dollars to purchase the four hundred square miles of protected forest surrounding Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs, as well as their cleanup and conservation efforts along the Charles River and in Boston harbor.
Though with the huge improvement in quality made since 1985 (when the Authority was established), it seems like money well spent.
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Tag: Infrastructure
A New Museum Exhibit Educates About Disaster Preparedness
From ‘superstorm’ Sandy in 2012 to the countless forest fires that ravage the West every year, natural disasters are increasingly becoming a large part of American life. As a result, combating Mother Nature when she’s at her angriest requires not just innovation, but education, too.
That’s exactly what a new exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. aims to do, according to Next City. Organized into categories of earth, wind, fire, and water, “Designing for Disaster” is educating visitors about the history of disaster relief and prevention, as well as what works and what doesn’t.
Tales of large-scale projects such as flexible staircase joints at UC Berkeley’s California Memorial Stadium will surely draw in visitors, though it is the hands-on demonstrations and focus on everyday solutions that this exhibit is making the most difference with.
As the Washington Post writes, “The exhibit’s most compelling demonstrations show how innovative engineering solutions can reduce the impact of disasters and, in fact, already are.”
Whether highlighting family disaster plans, showcasing earthquake drills, or using an interactive feature to help visitors learn about the durability of different roof styles, Designing for Disaster is spreading knowledge.
As Americans flock to our nation’s capital during the summer vacation months, they can learn how others are preparing for natural disasters. And with that education, perhaps they can educate members of their own communities on how best to prevent future damage.
After all, while you can’t avoid Mother Nature’s fury, you can make sure you’re ready to meet it head on.
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Landing at This Airport: Millions of Bees
The decrease in bee population is something that many people are fighting to fix, and rightfully so: they are vital to the survival of the very plants that provide our food. From the EPA’s recent grant to an app that catalogs bees around the world, there are countless solutions buzzing about.
At Seattle’s Sea-Tac Airport, they’re trying a new approach (pun intended): Pairing the bee’s infrastructure — colonies — with our own.
Each day, Sea-Tac facilitates up to 855 take-offs and landings and now, the jets will be in the company of European honeybees, thanks to beekeeper Bob Redmond.
Redmond is the founder and executive director of Common Acre, a local nonprofit that “produces public programs at the intersection of earth and art,” according to its website.
The project, dubbed Flight Path, fits squarely into that mission and plays an important role in helping the bee population, as it aims to transform the open space at the south end of Sea-Tac into an ideal ecosystem for them, as well as educate travelers about the importance of bees. Twenty-five hives were constructed at Sea-Tac, housing up to 1.25 million bees — which is 50,000 bees per hive! With all that bustling activity, the airport is the perfect place to house the bees.
Doing so, however, means creating a habitat that will not only be suitable for pollination, but also breeding bees that are more adaptable. The second part of this plan is what makes Flight Path so unique — instead of just giving bees a home by setting up an apiary, Redmond is giving the whole population a boost and a better chance for survival. By actually breeding the bees to best survive life in the Pacific Northwest, he is effecting permanent change for the species.
Redmond sees a lot of similarities between the buzzing little yellow insects and airplanes, which he pointed out to Grist:
“All of these things humans have figured out — but fairly late in the game, evolutionarily speaking — the bees have been solving for eons,” Redmond said in reference to the bee’s “wiggle dance” navigation system, as well as its complex transportation and storage structure, all of which are unbelievably advanced for something so small.
Redmond’s dedication to these fascinating creatures began with a few hives in his yard, and has since expanded not only to Common Acre but also his business, the Urban Bee Company, which produces local and sustainable honey bee goods and services.
“The thing that we can learn from the bees is the collective spirit of cooperation — and consumption,” Redmond said to Grist. “That’s something that is not as easy to swallow, but vital to understand for our own future.”
A future that we can only hope has more arrivals than departures when it comes to the all-important bees.
The Competition for Disaster Relief Funds Heats Up
When you think of disaster relief, the words that probably come to mind are EMTs and paramedics, FEMA, and the Red Cross.
But for President Obama, it’s competition, resiliency, and natural disasters. These words — together — form his new plan to help with disaster relief.
While that may sound a bit odd, it encourages state and local governments to compete for natural disaster relief funds from the federal government. With $1 billion at stake, Obama challenged communities to create sustainable plans to rebuild and reboot their communities.
With the National Climate Assessment’s report released last month detailing the imminence of climate change, Obama’s plan also comes with the hope of finding ways to combat it. Therefore, competing states should come up with proposals that involve innovative local resilience projects, policy changes, and adaptive plans for extreme weather and climate change.
State and local communities that were declared natural disaster areas between 2011 and 2013 will be eligible for $820 million worth of grants. States hit by Hurricane Sandy will have the opportunity to compete for an additional $180 million. Applicants are required to detail how the proposed action and the disaster are linked.
Winners will receive cash through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Block Grant. Already, a few winners have been named for the Hurricane Sandy competition. Here, a few of the approved projects.
The Big U in New York will protect Manhattan (West 57th Street to The Battery to East 42nd Street) from floods and storm water through the creation of a protective system. This part of the city is low-lying and culturally important, and the project will have environmental and social benefits as well.
Another is the New Meadowlands: Productive City and Regional Park, which will combine transportation, ecology, and development to connect and rebuild the swampy area between New Jersey and New York.
The Jersey Shore will also receive some funding with a focus on repairing the beaches and rejuvenating the communities in the area.
For a listing and description of the rest of the approved projects, click here.
With all of the natural disasters that have occurred recently, President Obama’s competition will hopefully encourage states and local governments to plan and prepare to prevent such devastating effects from occurring in the future — or at least, lessen their impact.
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Infrastructure: America’s Investment for the Future
Overcrowding, temperamental weather, and economic instability are just a few future trends facing us whose ramifications are already being felt. Take a look around. It’s easy to see their impact through continued job layoffs and random, severe weather.
However, City Lab — a think tank at UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design dedicated to solving urban and city issues — believes that there’s one easy solution for all these problems: Infrastructure.
It goes without saying that there is always room for improvement. Anyone who’s sat for hours in traffic — whether it’s the result of emergency road construction or just simply a case of too many people on a road that’s too small at the same time — can attest that is certainly true when it comes to America’s infrastructure. An upgrade just might make life a little less stressful — all the while combating those large problems.
Here, a couple strategies created by CityLab to propel American infrastructure into the future.
• Plan for the unexpected – Anticipate and plan for any potential disaster (natural or unnatural) and act accordingly.
• Design adjustable systems – Natural disasters, stress, and extra loads should all be taken into consideration to create buildings and bridges that are malleable and flexible.
• Create an interconnected system – Most of us know what it is like to either A) be in a city where buses, cars, bikers and walkers all fight for space, or B) live outside of the city where a car is the only viable option. America should adopt an interconnected system similar to Europe where all transportation works together efficiently.
Preparing for the unknown is a difficult task — but one that is necessary. These suggestions from CityLab (see the others here) are just one approach, but, through their implementation, America could get on the fast track to a secure future — and have the ability to adjust to any potential roadblocks.
An Idaho Couple Is Literally Paving the Way to America’s Solar-Powered Future
If you’ve ever seen a raw egg sizzle on the sidewalk on a sunny day, then you probably know that our roads can collect a lot of heat. With 4.09 million miles of road and countless parking lots in the United States absorbing the sun’s rays all day long, clearly there’s a lot of solar energy that’s going to waste in this country.
With solar panels going on everything from cell phone chargers to the roof of the White House, an Idaho couple wondered, why not put them on America’s enormous stretches of asphalt as well?
Scott and Julie Brusaw are hoping to re-pave America’s roads and parking lots with their Solar Roadways project. These solar panels can generate enough juice to power our cities, plus withstand the heaviest of trucks (250,000 pounds), provide illumination for safer night-time driving, and defrost snow and capture water.
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As The Escaptist writes, the inventors claim that a nationwide system of Solar Roadways could produce enough clean, renewable energy that it could power the whole country and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent.
If you think this concept seems a little out-there, their project (now in its eighth year) has already received $750,000 in funding from the Federal Highway Administration. The Solar Roadways team is wrapping up the construction of their prototype parking lot that’s right outside their Idaho lab and are now seeking an additional $1 million on crowdfunding site Indiegogo for commercial production.
According to their website, the super strong glass-covered panels have been tested in civil engineering laboratories across the country for traction, load testing, and impact resistance — exceeding all requirements. There’s even a video demonstrating that these panels can support the weight of a tractor.
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Solar Roadways could help fight not just climate change, but unemployment, too. The Brusaws claim that the implementation of their concept on a grand scale could create thousands of jobs in the U.S. and around the world. “It could allow us all the ability to manufacture our way out of our current economic crisis,” their website boasts.
Currently, the cost of installation of the Solar Roadways is unknown (the hard numbers should be ready for announcement in July, Wired notes), but the Brusaws say their Solar Roadway — like many renewable energy sources — pays for itself over time.
Let’s hope there’s lots of sunny days ahead in the forecast.
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Thanks to Uncle Sam, Our Trains Are Finally Getting a Sweet Upgrade
Let’s face it, America’s antiquated rail lines aren’t much to brag about. But it finally looks like they will enter the 21st century after the government put down some serious cash for some sleek new trains.
As Think Progress reports, the Illinois Department of Transportation has spent $225 million on 32 diesel-electric passenger locomotives last month. If things go according to plan, by 2016, you will be able to hop aboard one of these trains (that travel at speeds of up to 125 mph) in Illinois, California, Michigan, Missouri and Washington.
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Citizens shouldn’t balk at this hefty price tag since these trains will actually play a big part in cutting carbon emissions. How so? According to a press release from Siemens (the manufacturer of the trains), “these modern locomotives are powerful and efficient and will deliver a cleaner ride, with better air quality and reduced emission rates ensuring compliance with the Federal Railroad’s EPA Tier IV regulation required to be in place in 2015.” Tier IV standards, by the way, require emissions of planet-harming particulate matter (soot) and nitrogen oxide (a powerful greenhouse gas) be reduced by about 90 percent.
Rail transportation is one of the greenest ways to travel. As Think Progress writes, trains account for about two percent of transportation emissions while cars are responsible for a whopping 70 percent. Since transportation is one of the biggest culprits to climate change, it’s about time the government makes a big investment on greener infrastructure such as this.
Texas Breaks a Record, But Not the Kind You’d Expect
Everything’s bigger in Texas, which partly explains how a state known for its oil rigs, giant steaks, and five-lane highways has just broken a national wind energy record.
On the evening of Wednesday, March 26, wind power fed 10,296 megawatts of power into the state’s electricity grid — almost 29 percent of all wind power used in the state at that time. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, that’s a record for all power systems in the United States.
Texas is actually the largest producer of wind power in the United States, with the potential to collect more power than Italy, France, or the U.K., according to Next City. It’s no surprise, then, that the morning after the wind energy record, Texas broke a “wind power share record,” when 38.43 percent of the state’s power came from windmills. (To be fair, that happened at 3:19 a.m., so perhaps the state wasn’t buzzing with electrical needs.)
Most of the electricity comes from West Texas, which is home of Roscoe Wind Farm and Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, as well as the television drama Friday Night Lights. (Why was wind energy never a plot on the show?)
There’s a divide in the Lone Star State in terms of energy needs and energy generation, though: West Texas has the wind, but it doesn’t actually have a large enough population to use the power it generates. At the same time, places like Houston and Corpus Christi generate far less electricity than they need.
To solve the problem, Texas passed the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones Initiative. Now transmission lines zigzag across the state, successfully carrying wind power from north to south and west to east that was previously lost on its way to the electrical grid.
Other states and their power generators are trying to be more like Texas. The Southwest Power Pool, which serves Oklahoma, Kansas, and parts of Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Arkansas, is attempting to build a network of transmission lines that will hook into the one in Texas, funneling wind energy across state lines.
Currently Texas has 12 gigawatts of installed capacity in the state, and 8 more gigawatts are planned or under construction.
The lesson here is clear: Don’t mess with Texas, especially when it comes to transforming wind energy into electrical power.
These Lamps Are a Lot Smarter Than They Look
We have smartphones, smart televisions, and smart thermostats, so why not smart lights?
As it turns out, we soon will. Last week, Silver Spring Networks announced it will build the largest-ever project to connect streetlights to a smart grid in the United States. The company plans to work with its client Florida Power & Light to build 75,000 smart lights in the Miami-Dade County area.
Not only will this be the biggest such undertaking yet, but it will be the first to connect streetlights to a network used for smart metering. Each lamp will serve as a node that collects information about the grid. Workers will be able to control the lights, monitor outages, and figure out how to fix problems remotely. Because the streetlights will be connected to the same grid as houses and businesses, the additional information they provide will help the company diagnose and fix outages more quickly and pinpoint where the problem is originating. “To them, a street light is just another sensor on the network,” Sterling Hughes, Silver Spring’s senior director of advanced technology told Jeff St. John of GreenTech Media. “The lighting serves as a perfect canopy to strengthen the network.”
Silver Spring has previously worked on smart grid streetlight programs in Paris and Copenhagen. Hopefully this smart idea will prove to be a useful model here in the States as well.
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