For 60 years RainSoft has been treating, testing water around the world. During the last 14 years I have been the Dealer here in Ottawa, Ontario. We sell/service all RainSoft water systems: Water Softeners, Reverse Osmosis Systems, Whole House Carbon Filters, Chemical Free and Chemical Iron & Sulphur Removal Systems, Sediment Filters, UV Light Systems and MOST IMPORTANTLY PEACE OF MIND! I have an A+ rating with the BBB and have won the Consumers Choice Gold Awards for 5 years in a row. This is a family run business and we especially care about the water you and your family drink and live with. www.rainsoftofottawa.com
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART ~ Mike Rowland, Film by Ruedi & Priska Abbühl Uploaded on Jan 29, 2011
Credit for this beautiful Emperor Penguin film goes to Ruedi & Priska Abbühl… And the Music … All glory goes to composer Mike Rowland from the album “My Elfin Friends,” who is currently compiling a book about the power of healing through music…I have the impression that to penguins, man is a different kind of penguin, unpredictable, occasionally violent, but tolerable company when he sits still and admires Nature and leaves it as he found it. ~Aetopus/AC
WHERE PENGUINS LIVE: Penguins do not live in the Arctic. They live on the shores of Antarctica and they also live in the south of Australia, New Zealand, America & Africa. The most northerly place that penguins live is on the Galapagos Islands which is near Ecuador in South America. Even though there is ice in Canada and the Arctic, penguins don’t live there or in the northern half of the world.
No other animal other than penguins can draw attention to the environmental damaged caused by oil and gas drilling (fracking and mountaintop removal), my reason for ending this video with the message “NO TO ARCTIC DRILLING!” ~Aetopus/AC Please see my previous blog, “Fracking Hell ~ A Catastrophe!”
Here is a great YouTube video, “Birth and March of Emperor Penguins“, from Nature’s Great Events – In the coldest part of the planet, Emperor Penguins breed and give birth to their young, only to begin a great march toward the coast.
HOW FRACKING WORKS: 1) A pressurized mixture of sand, water and chemicals is injected into a horizontally drilled well. 2) The mix cracks the shale and fills the cracks with sandy grit allowing natural gas to flow up the well. 3) The recovered water is stored in lined pits or taken to a treatment plant.
“Animation of Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking)”, a YouTube video was published on Apr 26, 2012 ~
ALASKA FRACKING:… Alaska is a major component in fracking and it is big in the future. Alaska has around 2 billion barrels ofoiland 80 trillion cubic feet of gas. This is enough to fill the Alaska pipeline for 12 decades. The wells of Alaska are located in two areas. The biggest spot for the fracking to occur is the North Slope, where most of the wells are… The other area of fracking takes place in the Kenai Peninsula on the South coast of Alaska… Not only can gas and oil be extracted from fracking, but so can 500 million barrels of recoverable natural gas. This recoverable natural gas comes from the North area. Alaska fracking is a good way to extract oil because it can cover many wells at one time, making the process less expensive… because the fracking takes place in the north part of Alaska, there is no human harm done because it does not take place in developed areas, where many people normally live. Fracking in Alaska takes place in the undeveloped areas.
FRACKING IS CONTROVERSIAL AND HARMFUL: Around 25% of the oil extraction in Alaska uses fracking… Alaska fracking can be harmful to the environment as well as the animals because it puts chemicals in water that harms these two. This is why Alaska fracking has been a controversial topic for many years. Because of this, there have been hearings for new laws and regulations for this type of oil extraction in Alaska. These types of laws and regulations, if passed, would be very strict. Some of the regulations could involve oil extraction companies giving more information about the chemicals used that could potentially harm any areas containing water. The contamination of water can cause a lot of problems in the future for Alaska.
The following excerpts are taken from a report, “There is No Away: Emerging Contaminants Detected in Water” which was published in the March/April, 2006 edition of Canadian Water Treatment magazine.
A report from the Canadian Institute For Environmental Law and Policy (CIELAP) released during National Pharmacists Awareness Week emphasizes the need for the Canadiangovernment and industry to invest mores resources to research the effects of “emerging contaminants: in Canada’s waterways”. The report makes 11 recommendations about ways to reduce the amount of, and their effects on, one of Canada‘s most valuable resources.
Anne Mitchell, executive director of CIELAP, said the release of the report was planned to coincide with the industry’s national convention because there are a number of issues related to increasingenvironmental contamination by pharmaceuticals and personal care products. She was also careful to commend pharmacist for their efforts in keeping unused and wasted drugs out of the water.
The report, There is No Away: Emerging Contaminants Detected in Water, was written by Susan Holtz, a policy consultant to CIELAP who writes on issues related to sustainable development, water and energy. CIELAP is a not-for-profit research and educational institute dedicated to environmental law, policy analysis and reform.
In writing her report, Holtz examined the issued of “emerging contaminants” – a term that originated in a U.S. Geological Survey report. It refers to the presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (collectively know as PPCPs) and endocrine-disrupting substances (EDSl) in the Canadian water system. Holtz warns that the contaminants entering surface, ground and drinking water can have serious environmental and health consequences. One of the biggest concerns is the issue of resistance to antibiotics and hormonal imbalances due to higher concentrations of EDS. Of major concern, she says, if the increased use of antibiotics for both the human and animal population. In Canada, there were 326.2 million prescriptions filled from July 2001 to August 2002.
In farming, Holtz notes that antibiotics are no longer being used singularly to treat sick animals; they’re also being used in the form of hormones, growth promoters and for illness prevention. In her research, she determined the increased use of drugs in veterinary medicine, farming practices and aquaculture has decreased the effectiveness of the use of antibiotics. The use of hormones in both animals and humans has had a negative effect on reproduction, causing the feminization of fish, wiping out an entire talhead minnow population in Ontario. EDSs have also contributed to deformities in fish, birds and wildlife…Building on study results conducted in the U.S. and Europe, Holtz says it’s time for Canada to get more involved in the issue of contaminants in water. She says the Canadian government and Canadian organizations don’t have enough information “even to develop a strategy that can effectively” determine the effects of contaminants in water… Here are a few YouTube videos relevant to this article: ~ Pharmaceuticals ~ ~ Disposing of your Medications ~ ~ Pharmaceutical Products In Our Water PSA ~ In addition to research, Holtz said a focus on human behaviour and providing more information to the public in order to encourage better choices are also important elements of social change.
University of Waterloo - The Water Institute Through collaboration among individuals engaged in water science, technology, management and governance, the Water Institute is an interdisciplinary hub that facilitates innovative research, education and training. The Institute’s activities focus on the sustainable use and management of water resources to support healthy and prosperous communities and ecosystems at the national and international scale. Throughout its history, the University of Waterloo has demonstrated a significant and consistent commitment to education and research on water-related topics and has garnered international acclaim for its innovative solutions to society’s water problems.
Launch of the The Water Institute’s External Partners Program
With over 125 faculty members and 400 graduate students, distributed over all six faculties, the University of Waterloo has one of the largest and most diverse water research programs in Canada. Established in 2009 the Water Institute supports and encourages greater interdisciplinarity among our programs. An important element in the strategy to achieve our goals is to encourage much closer association between the University and external organizations, including the private sector, government, civil society and other research facilities.
Please join us for this year’s Water Institute’s Research Symposium to be held May 2, 2013 at the University of Waterloo. The 2013 symposium will showcase the breadth of Waterloo’s water research and provide an opportunity for organizations to interact with researchers and students.
Nature Works LLC, a solely-independent division of Cargill, is the first company in the world to produce packaging that is 100 per cent compostable.
Made entirely from field corn, NatureWorks PLA is a food packaging resin that uses an annually renewable resource that doesn’t compromise the earth’s’ ability to meet the needs of tomorrow.”
It’s like using food to carry your food – or your water – as is the case with BIOTA Spring Water.YouTube video: HowStuffWorks Show: Episode 1: Corn Plastic, This clip from the HowStuffWorks show on the Discovery Channel discusses the use of corn to make plastic. Plastic made from corn is biodegradable, carbon-neutral and edible. Could corn plastic revolutionize the plastics industry?
The items shown in the collage below are just a very few of the manyproducts that are made from this corn resin- amazing!YouTube video: Corn to Plastics, – Corn is showing up in places you would have never expected. A company in Columbus is making plastic film from corn. Our Ohio visits Plastic Suppliers to learn more about this new technology.
The technological process of producing the plastic is essentially the same as producing petroleum-based plastic. “Instead of oil-based carbon, we start with a sugar-based carbon from corn,” said Tucker. The technology is especially important to the bottled water industry in the shadow of a recent study by William Shotyk of Heidelberg University in Germany, whose research on bottled mineral water shows that the plastic containers release a deadly toxin called antimony into the water the longer it is stored.
“The NatureWorks bottle is what is referred to as a ‘barefoot resin,’” said Tucker. “There’s nothing to leach and the bottle doesn’t change the makeup of the water.” But just because the bottle is made from food doesn’t mean you can eat it. BIOTA cautions on its website, under frequently asked questions, that because the bottle is a plastic product, it’s not recommended that the containers be consumed.
BIOTA spring water bottle, uploaded on Jul 6, 2007 – the environmentally friendly packaging.
Here’s an interesting footnote to wrap up this blog:However the usage of PLA corn bottle involves some drawbacks also. It is obvious that the production of PLA corn bottle or any other bio plastic would necessarily involve devoting vast acres of land for producing crops used in the manufacture of plastic products rather than food. It cannot be overlooked that plants also use energy in the form of fuel, water and other resources. Besides, transportation also adds up to a lot of fuel consumption. Being disposable they add to the waste generated and cannot take the place of reusable products which are more environmentally friendly. http://www.innovateus.net/content/what-pla-corn-bottle
IMPORTANT TO NOTE:“The technology is especially important to the bottled water industry in the shadow of a recent study by William Shotyk of Heidelberg University in Germany, whose research on bottled mineral water shows that the plastic containers release a deadly toxin called antimony into the water the longer it is stored.”This is another very important reason for everyone to realize the dangers of bottled water – not only to our health, but to our precious environment.It would be a very wise investment for you to consider a Reverse Osmosis water treatment system, such as the Rainsoft Reverse Osmosis system offered by us.
Eternally Pure Water Systems, Inc.
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The first Canadian Earth Day was held on Thursday,September 11, 1980, and was organized by Paul D. Tinari, then a graduate student in Engineering Physics/Solar Engineering at Queen’s University. Flora MacDonald, then MP for Kingston and the Islands and Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, officially opened Earth Day Week on September 6, 1980 with a ceremonial tree planting and encouraged MPs and MPPs across the country to declare a cross-Canada annual Earth Day. The principal activities taking place on the first Earth Day included educational lectures given by experts in various environmental fields, garbage and litter pick-up by students along city roads and highways as well as tree plantings to replace the trees killed by Dutch Elm Disease.
Earth Day Canada (EDC) is a national environmental charity founded in 1990 that provides Canadians with practical knowledge, tools, and simple easy-to-accomplish actions to support a healthier environment through EDC’s year-round and award-winning programs.
EcoKids supports teachers and students, grades K-8, with free educational resources, curriculum-linked lesson plans including ESL and FSL, and homework help and games for students. EcoMentors offers youth the training and resources they need to facilitate local environmental education workshops with their peers and other young Canadians…
Toyota Earth Day Scholarship Program recognizes tomorrow’s environmental leaders providing twenty $5 000 scholarships to graduating high school students going on to post-secondary educationin the discipline of their choice. The Hometown Heroes Award Program recognizes environmental leaders at the community level with an individual and a group award (each with a cash-prize of $10 000), and business leaders with a small business award. Earth Day Canada’s Community Environment Fund funds sustainable community projects in Ontario providing grants of up to $20 000 to schools and not-for-profit organizations.
The Diversity Engagement and Inclusion Initiative helps the environmental sector to better communicate with, engage and activate Canada’s diverse social and cultural communities. The Employee Engagement program works with employers to achieve business and sustainability goals through inclusion of best practices.
Here’s a wonderful video, ” A Photographic Tribute to The Ocean” from OneEarthOneOcean that I just came across ~ This Earth Day, One World One Ocean is giving the ocean the attention it deserves with a special video collection of ocean photographs from our online community. Here is the ocean through their eyes.
Let’s take up the challenge
to do our part as keepers of Mother Earth
- the need is great!
The following excerpts are taken from WaterCanada’s magazine article, “Breaking the Ice” – The trouble with implementing national wastewater standards in our country’s coldest climates, by Rob Jamieson and Wendy Krkosek
Managing sewagein Canada’s Arctic communities is very different than in the more populated southern regions of Canada. Arctic communities tend to have small populations of 100 to 2,000 people and many can only be accessed by air or by sea during the brief summer season. The cold climate and permafrost conditions generally prevent the use of underground pipes for transporting sewage from homes and buildings to a centralized sewage treatment plant. Therefore, people living in the Arctic often have to rely on a trucked system for water delivery and wastewater collection.Homes and other buildings are often equipped with two tanks: one for potable water, the other for wastewater. Drinking water deliveries and wastewater collection are usually conducted around every one to two days.
[Here is a very short YouTube video featuring the Sewage Lagoon and Windmills at Hooper Bay, Alaska, uploaded on Mar 18, 2010 ~ Temps +8F and 15 kt wind. 360 deg panorama of sewage lagoon and windmills, cemetery, and parts of Old Town.]
In the majority of communities in the Canadian Arctic, the collected sewage is then transported to lagoons (or waste stabilization ponds) located on the outskirts of town. The lagoons are typically designed to hold a full year’s worth of sewage and are frozen for approximately nine months of the year. The lagoon contents thaw during the short summer season, which is approximately two to three months long. At the end of the summer, around early September, the water in the lagoon is pumped out into a natural tundra wetland, or directly intoa lake, a river, or the ocean… The main advantages of these types of systems, and the reasonswhy they are used in small Arctic communities, are they are simple to operate and maintain, do not require energy inputs, and do not use mechanical equipment that would be susceptible to malfunction and failure in extreme cold climates. The problem, however, is that while these types of treatment systems have been well studied and tested in temperature climates, very little research has been conducted on how they perform in extreme arctic climates. The impact of new regulations Environment Canada has recently implemented new Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER). The regulations include National Performance Standards (NPS) for municipal wastewater facilities, and specific timelines for upgrading facilities based on an environmental risk assessment framework. However, EnvironmentCanada has specifically acknowledged the challenges that remote, northern communities will face in complying with the WSER. It was recognized that little information exists on the performance of wastewater systems operating in Canada’s far north, and the risk they pose to human and environmental health (CCME, 2009). Therefore, the regulations do not immediately apply to wastewater systems located in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and north of the 54th parallel in the provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. A five-year grace period (ending in 2014) was provided to conduct research on northern wastewater system performance, and to propose alternative effluent quality guidelines….
In response to the impending federal wastewater regulations and the need to identify cost-effective approaches for sewage management, the Government of Nunavut and Dalhousie University have developed a long-term research program focused on municipal wastewater management in Nunavut. The goals of the five-year project, currently in its third year, are to characterize the performance of existing lagoon and wetland wastewater treatment systems in Nunavut, assess the risks these systems pose to both human and environmental health, and identify and test strategies for improving the performance of passive treatment systems in Arctic climates. This work is also meant to provide the information needed to develop appropriate wastewater treatment standards for northern regions…
To address this issue, Dalhousie University has collaborated with the Nunavut Research Institute to establish a water quality laboratory in Iqaluit. The lab is equipped to analyze for all primary wastewater parameters, and is also used to provide training to students enrolled in the VThe research conducted to date has produced some very interesting results. The unique summer arctic climate, where some communities receive up to 24 hours of sunlight, can have a number of advantages.
For example, extended daylight can stimulate a tremendous amount of algae growth in sewage treatment lagoons. These algae populations are capable of adding considerable amounts of oxygen to the lagoons through photosynthesis, which helps facilitate biological treatment processes. Trying to understand and harness the natural processes that occur within lagoons and tundra wetlands will be key to predicting and optimizing the performance of these systems.
As these types of “open” treatment systems are heavily influenced by environmental factors such as ambient temperature and solar radiation, it will also be important to understand how their performance may be influenced by climate change. Initial findings also indicate that the characteristics of the water bodies which receive the treated effluent must be carefully considered in the establishment of appropriate treatment standards for the Arctic.
Interesting factoid for you all–did you know Canada is has more kilometers in distance North-South than East-West…..
A natural disaster that is
going to occur across all of Canada!
I decided to take the time to Google “pine beetles in Canada” and now realize just how serious a threat the pine beetle is to our environment just from reading headings such as: ‘death of a forest’; ‘the threat of mountain pine beetle‘; ‘pine beetle threatening new B.C. tree species’; ‘pine beetle contributing to forest smog’; ‘pine beetles contributing to climate change’, etc.
Pine beetle damage extends from forests to drinking water. The deep green pine trees of British Columbia’s great forests are turning a rusty red, thanks to the mountain pine beetle’s increasing resilience to warming winter temperatures. The grain-sized critter, which lives in the bark of mature trees, kills the trees within months, leaving the wood an ash grey colour once the pine needles fall out years later. The mountain pine beetle’s devastation has spread over 20 per cent of British Columbia’s total area, costing the province $884 million.By 2014, it is projected that 80 per cent of the province’s pine forests will disappear, an outcome with unprecedented economic, social, and environmental consequences.
Here is a CBC News: The National video from Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, presented by Chris Brown - uploaded on Apr 24, 2008
The mountain pine beetle’s infestation in western Canada is turning forests into a new source of greenhouse gases, according to new research published in the journal Nature
A recent study by the Colorado School of Mines shows that Colorado’s quality of local drinking water is also affected by the beetle. Driven by climate change, mountain pine beetles are infesting pine wood in Colorado and releasing more carbon into watersheds. This changes how disinfectant chemicals interact with water during treatment, and in turn creates potentially harmful by-products.
What does this mean for Canada’s west coast? “The vast majority of British Columbia’s population lives far away from the pine beetle crisis,” says Brennan Clarke, media representative at British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests, Land and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO). It’s unlikely that pine beetles will interact with drinking water resources, but FLNRO continues studying the beetle’s impact on regional hydrology.
The damage to the ecosystem is already done with over four million devastated acres of forest in Colorado and Wyoming, where studies show changes in water chemistry and nitrate levels in watersheds, which can cause algae growth in downstream drinking water reservoirs. Risk of wildfires is another hazard to drinking water as water-resistant soils prevent water penetration.
Jim Bouldin, a research ecologist writing for RealClimate, says there is a “complex relationship between the beetles, weather, forest conditions, and tree chemistry.” - Erin Pelhivan, WaterCanada Jan/Feb. 3013 magazine ~ “Critters and Carbon“.
Here is a link to an alarming award winning video I found on YouTube that points out the devastating effects this invasive insect will have on our economical and ecological future: Death Of A Forest – Pine Beetles kill millions of trees in US & Canada ~uploaded by Wild Visions, Inc . on Feb 14, 2011 http://youtu.be/KTHXPJwaLTc
I CAN’T WAIT TO TRY SOME OF THESE FABULOUS HINTS!!!
Why not have some fun over the coming weekend and try some of these hints for yourselves. Keep the rest on hand for future reference.
I’m sure you’ll find many useful hints here.
I’ve been microwaving corn on the cob for some time now, just as the hint recommends, and it tastes great!!! (far better than any other method!)
What’s the appropriate expression here ~ I think it’s, “Necessity is the mother of invention”.
Here’s a bit of trivia for you re the above phrase – The author of this proverbial saying isn’t known. It is sometimes ascribed to Plato and it does appear in translations of Plato’s Republic… The proverb was known in England by the 16th century, although at that point it must have been known to very few as it was then documented in its Latin form rather than in English. Many well-known proverbs appeared first in Latin and were transcribed into English by Erasmus and others, often as training texts for latin scholars.http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention.html
UTEC, the university of engineering and technology in Lima, Peru in collaburation with Mayo DraftDCB has developed the world’s first billboard that can produce potable water from the air as a promotional admissions campaign. In this region rainfall is scarce year-round, but atmospheric humidity reaches almost 98% – the project provides residents with up-to 96 liters clean drinking water in reserve tanks situated in taps at the foot of the sign, instead of having them deal with polluted wells.
Interestingly, the project wasn’t so much driven by Lima’s need for water as UTEC’s need for more engineering students. Their motto is “We will continue changing the world through engineering.” And if this is what such students could get working on, we’re all for it.
The billboard contains five generators that churn out purified water through a reverse osmosis system. The system sends water to a tank that can store up to 100 liters per day. As you can see in the video above, people are actually using the billboard to get fresh water. In three months of operation, the billboard has produced thousands of liters.
Fortunately, the Peruvian government isn’t counting on UTEC and Mayo DraftCFB. They’ve recently announced a $3.3 billion-dollar upgrade they plan on making to their water and sewage infrastructure to provide better drinking water to their citizens.
RT @CTVNews: The proposed US law that could grant snowbirds an extra two months in their favourite sunshine state, without a visa: http://t…twittered 4 days ago
WHERE PENGUINS LIVE: Penguins do not live in the Arctic. They live on the shores of Antarctica and they also live in the south of Australia, New Zealand, America & Africa. The most northerly place that penguins live is on the Galapagos Islands which is near Ecuador in South America. Even though there is ice in Canada and the Arctic, penguins don’t live there or in the northern half of the world.
No other animal other than penguins can draw attention to the environmental damaged caused by oil and gas drilling (fracking and mountaintop removal), my reason for ending this video with the message “NO TO ARCTIC DRILLING!” ~Aetopus/AC
contaminants” – a term that originated in a 
Toyota Earth Day Scholarship Program recognizes tomorrow’s environmental leaders providing twenty $5 000 scholarships to graduating high school students going on to post-secondary education
The Diversity Engagement and Inclusion Initiative helps the environmental sector to better communicate with, engage and activate Canada’s diverse social and cultural communities. The 
Let’s take up the challenge
