By Andy Yencha, Renewable Natural Resources Educator

Earth Day this year is a perfect opportunity to celebrate water resources at home and take action to improve and protect our environment.

Earth Day is April 22 and the celebration this year is noteworthy for at least two reasons.

For one, Earth Day is now 50 years old. Compared to the age of the Earth, fifty years is not a very long time, but relative to the age of most earth inhabitants, surviving 50 years means you have staying power!

Earth day is also notable this year for a somber reason. Most traditional Earth Day gatherings will not take place due to Coronavirus.

Although the virus pandemic is putting a damper on countless Earth Day events around the Keystone State, we can still protect the environment around our homes without breaking social distancing guidelines.

Last month, Penn State Extension highlighted four activities individuals and families could do to protect water where they live. This month we present four more.

Get Acquainted with Your Water Source

It’s hard to protect what you don’t understand so knowing where your water comes from is important.

Over 12 million people live in Pennsylvania and they all need clean water. About 9 million residents get their home water from a public utility and the rest, around 3 million, rely on a private water source, usually a drilled water well.

If you get your water from a public utility, you’ll get a document from them called a Consumer Confidence Report or CCR. Water utilities are required to send customers this report every year.

CCRs will tell you where your water comes from, potential water contaminants, steps your water provider is taking to ensure your water is safe to drink, and actions you can do to protect and preserve your community’s water supply.

Call your water utility if you can’t find your CCR, or try searching for it on this EPA webpage.

If you get your water from your own water well you know it comes from a groundwater source, but have you ever wondered where the groundwater comes from?

There’s a good chance the source was rain or melted snow that soaked into the ground within 100 feet of the spot where your well is located. Removing potential pollutants from this area will safeguard your groundwater.

Common contaminants may include animal waste from pens and dog runs; gasoline, oil, or diesel fuel from parked machinery; and improperly stored hazardous materials like fertilizer, fuel, or pesticides.

Penn State Extension’s website has more information about how to safely store toxic materials.

Measure Your Home’s Water Use

The average person in Pennsylvania uses around 60 gallons of water per day in their home and, good news, this number has been trending downward, mostly because we are now installing more low flow toilets, showerheads, and water-efficient appliances.

This Earth Day try taking a closer look at the ways you use water to see where savings are possible. The process is sometimes called a water audit.

The easiest way to get this information is to use available estimates for different water-using appliances and activities and then compare them to the situation in your household.

Penn State Extension developed a water and energy savings calculator that can guide you through this process. Completing this calculator will show you how much water and money you might save!

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Water Use Activity Center, and Grace Communication Foundation’s fast-paced Water Calculator are simple water audits you complete online.

Redirect Downspouts

Downspouts are the vertical pipes that drain rain gutters on buildings. Without downspouts, gutters would overflow, damaging buildings and potentially harming people.

A single downspout may drain 500 square feet of roof or more. This much area will produce over 13,000 gallons of stormwater during an average year of rainfall in Pennsylvania, enough to fill a medium-sized inground pool.

And when the discharge from hundreds of downspouts in a neighborhood is added together it’s easy to see why buildings can cause flooding and related water pollution problems.

You can help your community manage stormwater by making sure your downspouts don’t drain directly onto a hard surface – like a driveway or sidewalk – that spills onto a street.

Reposition, or add an extension to the base of your downspouts, so they drain someplace on your property where water will soak into the ground like a healthy patch of lawn, a planting bed, or rain garden if you have one. Just be sure to keep this water away from building foundations or it may seep into your basement.

Have Your Soil Tested

Soil testing is an activity to determine how much fertilizer, if any, is needed to improve plant growth in your lawn or garden.

Some people apply fertilizer every year out of habit even though a simple soil test would tell them they don’t need to. Because plants only use the fertilizer they need, any extra that’s applied may end up polluting a nearby stream, lake or river.

Even if you don’t fertilize your lawn or garden, a soil test is a great Earth Day activity – especially for families with school-aged children – because it’s a way to conduct a science project on your lawn.

A basic Penn State soil test costs $9.00. You can download the necessary submission form and sampling instruction from Penn State’s Agricultural Analytical Service Laboratories website.

There is no need for any special equipment. Select the lawn or garden area you want to test – separate tests are required for turf areas, vegetable gardens, and landscape beds – read the instructions, collect the sample, let it dry overnight in a warm room, package it properly, fill out the submission form and mail it to the lab along with your payment.

A few weeks later you’ll get your results for soil pH, phosphorus, potassium, several other nutrients as well as a recommendation for how much lime and plant nutrients you should apply – if any – for optimum plant growth.

(Reprinted from Penn State Extension April 22 Watershed Winds Newsletter.  Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

Related Articles - Penn State Extension:

Take The Water Environment Federation Stormwater Needs Survey For MS4 Stormwater Managers 

Master Watershed Steward Program Launches For Lower Susquehanna Region

Multifunctional Riparian Forest Buffers - More Than Just Trees

Penn State Extension: Slow The Spread of Aquatic Invasive Species

Marvelous Macroinvertebrates - A Whole World Of Creatures Under Water

Spring Often Brings Increased Complaints Of Sediment In Water Wells

Sinkholes & Underground Cavities Due To Human Activity

Welcome Tyler Groh, Extension Watershed Specialist

Welcome Justin Mansberger, Master Watershed Stewards Teams

[Posted: April 23, 2020]

4/27/2020