It's starting to look like WINTER!

We finally got a good layer of snow on the ground and cold air coming through this week. For kids that may mean fun times outside building snowmen and sledding. For adults, that may mean slippery roads and shoveling. If you are the one shoveling and de-icing the sidewalks and driveway around your property, here are some friendly reminders:

• Salt (Sodium Chloride) is only effective at pavement temperatures 15 degrees F or above. Salting sidewalks at lower temperatures will NOT melt the ice.
• Sand is an abrasive; it DOES NOT melt snow and ice. However, it will provide traction on icy walkways
• If you use a 50/50 salt/sand mix, you're generally either half right or half wrong. Using a salt/sand mix leads to over application of both materials. 
• Always remove snow after it has fallen! This is the best way to avoid icy build-ups and avoid relying on ill-effective de-icers for sidewalk safety (de-icers not effective with 3 inches of snow accumulation).

And don't forget to enjoy the snow once the shoveling is done! Be in tuned with your inner child and go sledding/tubing or build a snowman!

Extended Deadline for 4th Quarter Bill!!

New deadline for sewage, stormwater, and recycling bill is now FEBRUARY 23, 2014 (bill states Feb. 13).
Bills were sent out later than usual due to software issues and other changes. Read more about it in the telegram article.

Fourth Quarter bill includes:
Stormwater fees for July-December 2014 (previously mailed as a separate semi-annual bill)
Sewages fees for October-December 2014
Recycling fees for November-December 2014*
*This is a new fee that the City enacted in November

The City combined the Sewage, Stormwater, and Recycling fees into ONE BILL sent out on a quarterly basis. Rates of sewage and stormwater DID NOT change. The switch to one bill will hopefully create less confusion and be beneficial to everyone.

Benefits of Wetlands

World Wetland Day was this past Monday (February 2, 2015). Wetlands come in various shapes and sizes, but must have these three components: Hydrology (soil must be saturated for 5% of growing season); Soils (must contain characteristics indicating water - like clay); and Vegetation (must contain wetland species). If you think this sounds like the entire city of Superior you would be correct! Superior is covered in wetlands.

Here are some benefits of wetlands:

• Flood control. They can slow runoff, minimizing the effect of floods. 
• Natural filter. They store nutrients and pollutants in the soil, allowing cleaner water to flow out. Some of the vegetation like cattails absorb pollutants. 
• Wildlife habitat. Many animals depend on wetlands for homes and resting spots. 
• Recreation. Wetlands are a great place to hunt, fish, explore, and overall enjoy nature!

Learn more about Wisconsin wetlands here: http://wisconsinwetlands.org/index.htm

Winter is the Perfect Time

Here in the northern part of Wisconsin we will likely have winter for several more months.  Winter is a great time to plan for the summer.

Here are 3 ideas on what you could spend some time planning this winter:

Bergamot

1.  Look at garden websites and native plants. 
Plan a rain garden or native plant area in your yard.  Where has water accumulated?  Where could you redirect a drain spout from your house? 
Check out the Native Plant tab as part of this blog.   Native plants have many benefits - both in terms of cleaning stormwater, adding beauty to your yard, reducing yard maintenance (no mowing), and providing food for pollinators.  Here is a Rain Garden manual with some ideas.  Learn about the zones of a rain garden and what plants could be planted in each.  Here is a site to learn about plants per zone.  
Since we aren't seeing blossoms now outdoors - visit websites or library books on native plants.  The colors are fun - even if we can't take in the nice smells of some of the flowers.   That will have to wait until you have them planted in your yard and the time for blossoming has arrived.

2.  Cleaning Time.  Another winter prep activity could be on cleaning out unwanted materials in your garage, basement or under the sink.  Spring cleaning - or at least on some mild winter days - can be good to take care of items - even unwanted medicines.  Are the pills expired?  Do you not need that can of partial can of paint?  Superior has an agreement with WLSSD in Duluth to bring items to their Hazardous Waste Facility.   Here is our disposal guide.  Here is information on disposal from WLSSD.  Here are their hours.
You also may want to stop for a car wash.  Commercial car washes are designed to capture grit and oil from your vehicle.  Any time of the year - commercial car washes are the preferred practice to wash your car without creating stormwater runoff and sending pollution or debris down storm drains and out to nearby streams.

3. Event Planning  Here is information on planning on setting up recycling at special events: 

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/recycling/awayfromhome.html

Orb365 Update

Thank you to the over 25 businesses, organizations, and community members who participated in making ice orbs!  Each orb was representing a day in the year that water is important.  Over 365 came in - some were on the liquid-side and some cracked so the extras helped.  
365 is a pretty big number and orb by orb the numbers grew. 

This project location was Center City Park on Belknap and Tower Ave.

Thanks to Cathedral students who made 200 of the ice orbs.  Wow!   Here is Principal Carr dropping their batch off.

I picked up orbs from a dozen places and the colorful pile grew.

As the pieces of the balloons were removed (it took tubs of warm water using rubber gloves to do the task with some of them) the beauty of the orbs was fantastic to see on the clear and the dyed ones.  It was so fun to see the orbs of different sizes - and even shapes. 

 

 

The sculpture that resulted - well - there were plans of building a taller organic shape - partly as if it was a person - since we are over half water.  The balls in the given temperature didn't want to stack more than 5 or so high.  The sculpture that was 'born' was a rather simple organic low-to-the-ground- shape.  It has a head and two arms reaching out.  One arm could be thought of as a pollution prevention arm and the other as water conservation arm.    Or, with a more city twist, one could be Superior and one could be Duluth.  Here in the Twin Ports are watersheds are shared, our wastewater treatment plants both discharge into the St. Louis River, and our community members live, work, and play in this special place on the western edge of Lake Superior.  

 

Here it is -  Orb 365.  Maybe it could be called Twin-Pus (like an Octopus but with only two arms).

 

Stop by and wander over to the 'statue.'  A 3-D shape can be explored from all angles.  The issues relating to water also come from many angles.   As a reminder there will be a Water Film Fest with a dozen short films coming up January 29.  I've sent up film on assorted topics on water.  Some local productions by local filmmakers will be part of this program.  Free movies.  Bring yourself.  Bring a friend.  Thank you to those who participate in the City of Superior Environmental Services events.  It means a lot to learn more about water quality and how we make a difference.  All of us.

 

Orb365 Project Jan 16

Orb365 project is coming up this week!

This Friday afternoon - Jan 16 - will be the assemblage of 365 frozen water spheres (orbs).  Environmental Services invited the public to participate and fill balloons with water and made round frozen "bricks."   About 200 community members from youth to seniors are participating from a school, local organizations, businesses, county government and city government staff.  The sculpture to be built at Center City Park, near Belknap and Tower, will include all the spheres.  Thank goodness it's looking like the air temperature won't be quite a low numbers as the last week.  The sculpture will last how ever long it lasts.

Each sphere represents a day in the year that water is important. 

Thanks to all who are participating: Cathedral School students

Senior Nutrition

Superior Fusion

Thirsty Pagan

CASDA youth

Fairlawn Mansion

Lake Superior NERR Center for Muscle and Joint Therapy

Geraldine Hughes, master gardener

Stephanie - Clerk - Douglas Co.

Habitat for Humanity ReStore store

Mac's Sport

Shannon's Stained Glassery

Superior Library staff

Cathy Casper

Long Family and more! Whether you participate in making the orbs for this event or make one or more at home.  Hold up the sphere and think of it as a water drop.  What journey will that drop make in a given year?   Inside us is part of the story. We are also part of the effort to help keep it clean.

What is an outfall?

A stormwater outfall is defined as any “point at which storm water is discharged to waters of the state or to a storm sewer” (NR Code 216). Outfalls are further categorized by 2 types – major and minor. A major outfall is essentially one that is large in size and drains a large area of land. Minor outfalls are the remaining outfalls of various sizes and drainage areas.

MAJOR OUTFALL

MINOR OUTFALL

Superior has over 100 stormwater outfalls (19 of them are major). Outfalls get screened every year during dry weather (at least 2 days after rainfall) to detect Illicit Discharge. Read more about Illicit Discharge from a previous blog post. Half of major outfalls get screened every year (2-year rotation) and 1/5 of minor outfalls are every year (5-year rotation). The trickiest part of outfall screening is FINDING the outfall. All outfalls have been mapped many years ago, but the terrain has changed since then . . . especially after the 2012 flood. Minor outfalls can be small (6” in diameter) and can be buried underground. Outfalls should be dry during periods of no rain so any flow from an outfall could potentially be an illicit discharge. In this past 2014 field season we did observe flow from outfalls, but they were all likely due to infiltration from natural water source or tap irrigation. Fortunately we didn’t notice any odd discharge. 

So if you noticed two strange people parked along the side of the road, looking in the nearby fields or staring at the storm drain off the road during the summer . . . they may be trying to find the outfall in the field or off the road.

Water Film Fest II - January 29

Films can take us to places, share ideas, and open our connection to something.   Please join us and attend Water Film Fest II.  The date and place are being confirmed still.   Jan 29 (Thursday) from 6-8 p.m. in Room 1012 Swenson Hall at UWS is the place and time.  A dozen short films will be shown - all relate to water.   Several are local productions.
Thanks to UWS Lake Superior Research Institute for arranging the place.  It's easy to get to for students and the public.  Two screens.  Every seat is a good seat.
Free.  Bring a friend.  Bring a date :-)

Share the announcement with others who may want to attend: 

Here is the poster :

 

What is impervious? How much in Superior is impervious?

About 21% of the City of Superior is impervious.  On these types of materials water does not infiltrate into the ground.  Instead, it runsoff.  Whenever there is runoff there is the possibility of pollutants traveling along with the water.  Pollutants ranging from natural things like soil, leaves, small branches to chemicals and materials like oil and spills. 

From the pie graph below you can see that of the impervious areas most of it is due to roads (21%).  Buildings comprise about 16% of the areas. 
Other categories with 5% or over are: unpaved driveways (16%), paved parking areas (9%), railroad yard (7%), unpaved roads (5%), paved driveways (5%), and parking unpaved (5%).  Unpaved areas are considered impervious because of compaction of the soil.  Other areas considered impervious are pools, tanks, trails, alleys, sidewalks, decks, concrete, and holding ponds.

December 2 - EPA's Birthday

December 2, 1970 was the start of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.   The EPA was set up to help deal with and preventing environmental problems. 

Superior is in the EPA's Region 5 which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and 35 tribes. 

The EPA encompasses preventing and cleaning up of air and water pollution,  education, and enforcement of laws.  Climate Change and sustainability are also big topics now where businesses, governments, and residents need to work together.

The City of Superior follows the WPDES (Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) from the EPA and enforced by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.  Superior Environmental Services is about keeping water clean and with the permit we are monitoring construction sites, educating the public, education municipal staff on preventing pollution, checking for illicit discharge, and finding ways to reduce nonpoint source pollutions.  The motto is "only rain down the drain."   The storm drains can help a street by reducing the likelihood of flooding but unfortunately, they are openings to local streams.  

Here are some national photos being submitted about views of America.
Documenting Photos - Documerica is place for people to submit photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/sets/72157620856436476/


SHARE A PHOTO

If you'd like to share any older or current photos of Superior with us please do so.  Local waters, native plant gardens, water recreation activities, flooding, snow or rain event shots, and such would be welcome to be part of a collection on local images. 
We won't be seeing leaves, green grass or flowers for awhile but if you have photos from other seasons that would be great.  Perhaps this will turn into a school project.

Remember we all make a difference in local water quality.  What we do on land affects our local surface waters.  The EPA is a government organization to help with keeping the environment healthy which in turn helps wildlife and humans.  Local organizations, local government, local businesses, and local cooperation is all important for finding ways to keep the environment in good shape for now and for the future.