Ogallala Aquifer

The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground water table. It's located beneath the great plains. It covers an area of approximately 174,000 mi² (450,000 km²) in portions of eight states. About 27 percent of the irrigated land in the United States overlies this aquifer system, which yields about 30 percent of the nation's ground water used for irrigation. In addition, the aquifer system provides drinking water to 82 percent of the people who live within the aquifer boundary. The USGS estimated that total water storage was about 2,925 million acre feet in 2005. This aquifer is diminishing from overuse and we need to use its water rationally.

What is a Sediment Forebay?

A sediment forebay is a settling basin or plunge pool constructed at the incoming discharge points of a stormwater retention pond. The purpose of a sediment forebay is to allow sediment to settle from the incoming stormwater runoff before it is delivered back into the environment. A sediment forebay helps to isolate the sediment deposition in an accessible area, which facilitates maintenance efforts. A sediment forebay is an essential component of most detention basins designed today.

What is Beach nourishment?

Beach nourishment is a process by which sediment (usually sand) lost through long-shore drift or erosion is replaced on a beach. This process is often expensive (minimum of $1 million/mile), depending upon the source (and thus the cost) of the sand. Nourishment can greatly impact an ecosystem and the surrounding beach tourism. Once a beach is nourished, it almost always is necessary to regularly re-nourish it since nourished beaches tend to erode faster than natural beaches. include decreased habitat for sea animal nesting such as sea turtles due to the pumping of sand onto nesting site that hardens making the digging of nest very difficult. Decreased foraging areas for sea birds, and burying of beach flora under sand being pumped in.

Windmills at sea

The winds of change are blowing fast over the world's oceans, and energy developers intend to harness them with offshore wind parks which produces a lot more energy than windmills on land. With more energy production, it becomes much cheaper to produce these windmills. In these times of climate change and an increasing demand for oil, this new energy solution makes perfect sense. Offshore windmills will provide a reasonable, environmentally-friendly and economically feasible alternative to standard energy generation processes.
The windmills would use tethered systems, similar to the ones used in oil rigs, that holds a 200 meter tall steel tube with an attached turbine and three 60-meter-long blades. The windmills could then be located 50-100 miles off shore, and with a depth of up to 500 meters. With the further from shore you go, the wind speeds increase dramatically to have the ability to produce 5.0 megawatts (MW), compared to 1.5 MW for onshore units and help satisfy our energy needs without being eyesores from land.
Newer, float-able windmills are estimated to be a third of what it costs to install current offshore tower windmills. Another advantage of using floating platforms is that the windmills could be moved around if they were needed in areas that required more power.

Stormwater Grit Separator

The Aqua-Swirl provides a highly effective means for the removal of sediment, floating debris and free-oil. Swirl technology, or vortex separation, is a proven form of treatment utilized in the stormwater industry to accelerate gravitational separation. Independent university laboratory performance evaluations have shown the Aqua-Swirl achieves a TSS (Total Suspended Solids) removal of 91% calculated on a net annual basis.

Aqua-Swirl is constructed of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), and is therefore modular, lightweight and durable, eliminating the need for heavy lifting equipment during installation.

See: http://www.aquashieldinc.com/animation/AS.htm

Reverse Osmosis Filtration

Reverse Osmosis is the most convenient and effective method of water filtration. It filters water by squeezing water through a semi-permeable membrane, which is rated at 0.0001 micron. Clean water passes through and impurities that are too big to pass through the membrane are left behind and flushed away. It is also the only technology capable of desalinating sea water, making it into drinking water.
Reverse Osmosis was developed in the late 1950's under U.S. Government funding, as a method of desalinating sea water.
Reverse Osmosis systems have two major drawbacks. First, they waste a large amount of water. They’ll use anywhere from 3 to 9 gallons of water per gallon of purified water produced. This could be a problem in areas where conservation is a concern, and it may be slightly expensive if you’re paying for municipal water. On the other hand, this wastewater can be recovered or redirected for purposes other than drinking, such as watering the garden, washing the car, etc. Second, reverse osmosis treats water slowly: It takes about 3 to 4 hours for a residential Reverse Osmosis unit to produce one gallon of purified water. Treated water can be removed and stored for later use.
The most obvious solution to water pollution is a point-of-use water purification device. Reverse Osmosis Filtration makes the most sense for water purification when pure water is desired for ones household or industrial use.

Ozone Water Purification

Ozone – or O3 – is Mother Nature’s purifier and disinfectant.

You may have noticed that a sudden summer storm leaves behind a very distinct smell, sort of a “fresh scent” which lasts for about an hour. In this case, you smell Ozone, which has been creating from lighting bolts during the electrical storm. Ozone is also created by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Ozone is made up of three Oxygen atoms. One of these has a weak hold on the others, and is more than willing to transfer electrons with other organic substances, such as bacteria, and viruses. This single Oxygen atom binds with the other substance, causing it to oxidize (turn into something else. Rust is an example of Iron oxidizing into Iron Oxide).

Ozone is created inside an Ozone generator, and then is sent through a line into a diffuser, which creates ozone-saturated bubbles. Water is drawn in to mix with the bubbles, and then fed into the water purification tank. The weak Oxygen molecule in the Ozone attaches to other organic molecules in the water and oxidizing them. In effect – the Ozone “eats’ ‘em up” and ca-ching! Clean, fresh, purified drinking water.

"Ozone Generator"

Since World War II, ozonation has become the primary method to assure clean water in Switzerland, West Germany and France. More recently, major fresh water and waste water treatment facilities using ozone water treatment methods have been constructed throughout the world.