Monday, March 11, 2013

Friendly reminder

apparently, the dumping of used oil, antifreeze, paints, and other awful (household) chemicals are the primary source of pollution of the charles river. so.... most stormdrains have a sign like the one above, reminding people not to just carelessly dump their sh*t, as it will go straight to the charles river etc...
this one is actually on the bridge that i showed you yesterday.
as a kid, i sometimes used to make "soup" in such drains. we would throw in sand, mud, leaves, anything we could find and then stir it with a large stick... i guess that was one of the reasons they sometimes got clogged and all the rainwater accumulated at the little "playground" behind our house.... ooopss!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Not only the Charles River has that problem. Here we see them saying "drains to SF Bay" or "drains to [some river]". Closer to the ocean you'll see them saying '"drains to the ocean". Kind of sad people need to be reminded....

Andy said...

Protecting nature is full-time job.

s.c said...

Beautiful picture. Like it and the message to.

biebkriebels said...

Yes we used to throw everything everywhere, like in the middle ages. Times have changed, but some people still don't know apparently.

Stefan Jansson said...

Never tried that!

Kay said...

It's called "nonpoint source pollution" and is an initiative that began in the 1980s. Once industry pollution became more regulated, the next big source of pollution, local waterways, was targeted. In addition to motor oil and other muck, the runoff from lawn and garden chemicals, car-washing all adds to the pollutant load. Some people used to think it was treated before it entered rivers and bays. Not so.

Jack said...

This is a problem for old areas like Massachusetts. Many years ago they installed storm drains connected to local waterways, and it costs a lot to re-do the drainage to isolate it from the natural streams and rivers.

Tim said...

I like your soup better now. of course, you need a staafmixer..