Waterworks Blog
Put winter storm preparedness at the top of your list
March 12, 2017With a potentially crippling winter storm all but certain Monday night into Tuesday, it’s a good time to review your storm preparedness. When it comes to predictions, there are four levels: Winter Storm Outlook – Winter storm conditions are possible in the next 2 to 5 days. Winter Weather Advisory – Winter weather conditions are expected to…
Keyhole garden design holds the key to saving water
February 28, 2017In 2013, we wrote about one of our favorite gardening concepts: hugelkultur, in which large chunks of rotting wood buried deep underneath a garden’s soil will save water and, eventually, turn into compost. Well, we have a new favorite: the keyhole garden. A recent Rodale story does a great job of explaining the concept in detail,…
10 ways to ditch plastics
February 22, 2017Back in January, we wrote about the flood of plastic trash that’s polluting our waterways. We’re going to revisit that post again today, add some more details, and include a few more suggestions about what you can do to reduce your use of plastic. Plastic is, literally, everywhere. We use plastic utensils, plates, cups and…
Drought status moved to “watch;” conservation still urged
February 15, 2017The precipitation since the beginning of the year has convinced the DEP to step back our drought status to “watch” from “warning” in Lehigh County as well as our neighbor to the east, Northampton County. However, it will take many more months of above-average precipitation to make up for the last two years of drought conditions. We’re pleased that conditions are…
Wet winter helping California recover
January 31, 2017We’ve posted a few times about the severity of the drought in the Western states – in particular, California. Here’s good news, for a change – the water level in some of the state’s reservoirs is starting to return to normal. A recent article on KQED Science features interactive pictures of three reservoirs that have…
Plastics are polluting our waterways
January 26, 2017If you’ve seen The Graduate, you might remember the immortal words of Mr. McGuire to Benjamin Braddock: “There’s a great future in plastics.” In the 50 years since that movie’s debut, it’s become clear that those were wise words — at least from an investor’s point of view: Civilization has become addicted to plastic. And…
Water you waiting for? Teach kids about the importance of H20 today
January 16, 2017It’s no secret that the Earth’s clean water resources are shrinking rapidly. Pollution, waste, drought — all play a role in draining our supplies of potable H20. There are, of course, many ways we can conserve water. The trouble is, it’s often hard to convince people that water is a finite resource. As long as…
Updated status and graphs as of January 6, 2017
January 7, 2017Here’s a weekly report dated January 6 (PDF) to share updated data related to water supplies, Little Lehigh Creek levels and monitoring wall levels. Several of the graphs here update the ones we shared in November on this blog and show some minor improvement based on the steady heavy rains in late November and additional precipitation…
Drought warning persists
January 5, 2017The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Production (DEP) continues to have Lehigh County (as well as Northampton County and six others) in a drought warning. Read the news release from DEP. As part of the drought warning, DEP is encouraging a voluntary water use reduction of 10-15 percent. LCA’s mid-summer usage of about 25 million gallons…
Flow returning to Little Lehigh – pictures
January 4, 2017Water flow has returned to all sections of the Little Lehigh Creek since the steady rainfall in late November. Fortunately, precipitation has been steady since then – at least enough to keep the Little Lehigh flowing. Rain is in the forecast again the week of January 8, which is promising. Here are two pictures from…