WEBVTT - How Watersheds Work 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you should know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:13.760 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:20.200 There's Charles W Chuck Bryan, and there's guest producer Noel who, frankly, 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:21.919 I think he's done enough times. I we should just 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.120 be like our other producer Noel, and then if we're 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:31.800 in France, I would say our other producer. So just 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.800 removing the interim tag the guests fag. I think he's 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.919 I think he's earned it, don't you? What is with 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:43.279 you in these snacks? All right? Everyone, you should know 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:48.879 Josh has a largish cup. This is not large. It's 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.000 a small tumbler at best, tumbler full of jelly beans 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:57.520 and animal crackers as if you are a four year old. 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:02.200 Four year old should not be eating the stuff. Weird. 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.560 I don't like jelly beans, so well, whatever do you 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:06.960 put them in your mouth at the same time? Is 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.240 that the idea? Because they're all this mixed in there together? Yeah, 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:12.959 I guess. I mean, really, you're eating an animal cracker 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.520 at the same time as a jelly bean. Ohh no, no, okay, no, 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.080 I suit you me. I thought about the different flavors 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.039 of jelly beans are those of the weird jelly beans 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:26.840 are like, hey, this is fart snake oil. Yeah, they're 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.480 not supposed to be, though, I think they turned. It 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:34.280 was supposed to be just lime and great snake. That's 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.840 a good, good one. Uh. So, I've been singing the 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.399 Indigo Girls song in my head all day because of 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:41.800 water Sheds. I just want to throw that out there. 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:43.280 Is that one of the songs? I knew it was 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.720 one of their restaurants? Yeah, I didn't know it was 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.320 named after a song. Yeah. Up on the Watershed is 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.440 how it goes. Yeah, it's a good restaurant. It's Emily 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.640 from the Anigo Girls. It was. I'm not sure if 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:57.680 it still is, but yeah, I think it still is. Well, 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.200 so she named water shed after her song. She named 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:06.880 her song after the actual hydrological unit of watersheds. Yeah, 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:11.400 I think she thought that naming a song um kid 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:16.440 fears would be weird. Oh is that the song? No 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:18.919 watershed is the song? But I was just making a 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.079 joke about another one of their songs, Okay, I thought maybe. Yeah. 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.600 This is the most confusing Indigo Girls conversation I've ever had, 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:34.280 including the famous uh Indigo Girls conversation of ODT three. 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.560 This is more confusing. This is the worst, the worst 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.399 intro we've ever had in our lives. Alright, Well let's 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:47.680 continue then, Alright, so chuck watershed. Well, I already kind 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:49.320 of gave it away a little bit by saying it's 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:57.040 a hydrological unit. So watershed is basically Actually, it's even 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.880 easier to say, what's not a watershed? Not a watershed 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:06.880 is a ridgeline or a hilltop, or a large body 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.680 of water like a lake or an ocean or a bay. 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:16.160 Everything else is basically a watershed, yeah, which is to say, 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:23.160 a place where water sheds rain water, water comes down 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:26.280 upon the earth and then eventually finds its way to 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.280 a larger body of water via watersheds. That's right. I 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:32.639 just saw that there was this cool thing. I can't 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.040 remember the exact name of it, but a thing that 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.320 you can do here in Georgia where you can follow 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:43.480 the water from Atlanta all the way to Sapelo Island. Uh. 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:45.480 And it's a tour. I think you like, canoe part 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.440 of it and you just sort of, you know, follow 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.360 its path. It's like a little echoed So I see, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.680 I thought you meant like online. No, no, no, you 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:58.880 actually do it. Forget it? No, it does sound pretty cool. Yeah, 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.280 I saw them where that um, one drop of water, 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:05.160 This is on a kid's website, but one drop of 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:09.200 water stays in a lake for about a hundred years 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.240 for it moves along. Is that why you're eating the 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.360 jelly beans and animal crackers because I was on a 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:20.440 kid's website. Nice? All right, so we know what watersheds 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.719 are and are not. Uh, if you want the strict 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:25.920 definition from the e p A, they said as anybody 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.400 of land that flows downhill into a waterway. Yeah. So 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.320 they can be very big, they can be very small. 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.479 I saw somewhere that made reference to uh, something the 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:39.040 size of a footprint could conceivably constitute a watershed. Right. 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:46.479 So basically, anything that's defined by some sort of higher elevation, um, 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.840 that moves water, that moves water put on a downward 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.880 slope towards some sort of flowing water that goes into 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.719 a larger body of water. Again, that's a watershed. And 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:01.360 you put these things together, and one little watershed that 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:05.960 feeds water to a tiny, little trickling stream that uh 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.039 leads to a larger stream that leads to a river. 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.640 That's one little watershed, but it's a part of the 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.640 larger watershed for that one big river that that little 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.520 stream feeding it is just one of many streams feeding it, 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.720 and each of those streams has its own little watershed. 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.360 So it's a weird little patchwork quilt or jigsaw puzzle 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.600 that overlays any bit of land. Um. Those are all watersheds, 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:33.560 and when you put them all together, they all form 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.640 one cohesive hole. And the boundaries are defined by elevation. 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.720 Because if you, as this article puts it, if you 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.240 live on a ridge, uh and your neighbor lives on 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:46.119 the other side of ridge, you live in two different 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.599 watersheds and your mortal enemies, right exactly, if you're a 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.720 half field and you're a McCoy uh. The the our 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.120 own article UM had a nice little analogy with the umbrellas. 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.120 Like if you turn over let's say five or six 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:03.039 umbrellas at varying heights on top of one another, and 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.520 they all had holes at the bottom. Any water, let's 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.839 say it started raining, it would just collect at various 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.799 different parts of the umbrella, and it would all flow 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.240 down and eventually exit that bottom and maybe go into 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:20.159 another umbrella, but that would eventually eventually get down to 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.960 that main umbrella, which would be whatever main body of 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.320 water it flows into, right, so ocean or a lake 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.599 or whatever. And then each each watershed is defined by 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:35.560 the um the headwater of the water it goes into correct, right, 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:41.480 so um the well you have three things as far 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.320 as flowing water goes. Right, you got the headwater where say, 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:49.640 like the river begins and snow melting rain all flows 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.960 down hill to this thing to form the beginning of 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.400 the river. And there it goes there it's off headwaters 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:01.640 release and then um, with that flow water hits another 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:08.600 stream of some sort, you've got a confluence. And then 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.560 um where they end, say like they go into a 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.760 bay or something like that. Big river empties out, like 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:19.720 the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Where it 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.720 empties into the Gulf of Mexico. That's the mouth that's right. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.360 And all of this water it moves downhill or uphill, 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.040 It moves towards the equator. The bulge in the earth 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.720 attracts the water like crazy, Yeah, I can't move uphill though, 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.880 can it? Uh? To us? We would think it was 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:42.880 uphill because we're looking down onto the southern hemisphere. For 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.040 the Southern hemisphere be downhill with them. It's just wacky. 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:48.840 I will say that one time I was in a 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:54.640 rainstorm in the desert that was so bad that there 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.920 was water running uphill briefly and it was freaky looking. 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.760 I'll bet like it's just something your brain doesn't know 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.440 how to process and you see a definite grade in 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.280 the land and water going the way that it shouldn't 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.960 be going. I don't know what caused it, or maybe 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:14.200 it was the drugs. Just kidding. Um, it was an 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.920 intense storm and the desert storms. Actually this leads right 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.200 into this part nicely. Desert storms are amazing because of 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.080 how the water runs off compared to what I was 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:28.200 used to growing up in the southeast. But um, there 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:32.400 are uh a lot of different things that can happen 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.200 to the water once it rains or once it snow melts. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.199 It's not gonna all end up in the Mighty Mississippi 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.959 or that ocean and here they are. Yeah, there's a 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:45.840 lot of stuff they can happen to it along the way, 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.280 that's right. Uh. Infiltration is one of the big ones. Uh. 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:52.320 The rain falls on the dry ground. Obviously, water's gonna 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.920 soak in, get in that soil or infiltrate it. Uh 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.160 some of it will remain there and that shallow layer 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.720 uh um. And then that's going to move downhill through 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:10.160 that soil still UM into let's say an aquifer or something. Okay, Yeah, 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.679 that's that's um infiltration, right. Yeah. And sometimes it goes 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.040 a long way or remains stored for a long period 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.400 of time before it comes back to the surface. Sometimes 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.640 it doesn't, but it's just how much is infiltrating the ground. Yeah, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.680 And those um underwater rivers are pretty interesting. You've got 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:29.960 ones that are like in a car system, like a 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.439 limestone system, where it actually is like a river underground 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:38.640 like a cave. But you also have underground rivers UM 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.600 that aren't part of car systems and that are actually 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.440 rivers underneath rivers. Right. So you have a river bed. 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:50.400 All of the sediment and soil and dirt and um, 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:54.439 sand and gravel that make up a river bed is porous, 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.120 but it's also saturated, which is why there's a river 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.640 on top of it. But because that riverbed is porous, 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.880 water actually flows through it as well. So that's one 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.240 of the other ways that water can kind of flow 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:12.200 invisibly to us underneath the river through the ground. Yeah, 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.000 and and that infiltration and how that water flows, it 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.680 depends a lot on the soil characteristics, whether or not 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:22.320 it's clay or sandy like you're saying. And then also, 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:25.920 like you mentioned, it's just like a sponge that soil saturation. 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.480 You know, it can only get so saturated, and then 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.560 you get that lovely river. Uh And then of course 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.719 the land cover has a big impact too. Um, if 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.000 you've got you know, what humans have done has created 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.760 a lot of They pay paradise and put up a 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:50.040 parking lot. You do not like that song really, all right? Um, 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.439 you seem shy about admitting that I don't only to 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:54.480 put things down, you know, Okay, you don't want to 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:59.040 yuck a yum Um. I do like that song though, 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.199 that's great. Uh So, Anyway, what we've done is paved 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:04.000 a lot of things, and then that creates what's called 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.000 a fast lane for rainfall. And that is it's not 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:08.679 the only reason why, but that's one of the big 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.560 reasons why we have floods. Is that this water that 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.240 normally would take a more lazy route and a more 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.960 natural route. Yeah, water super lazy. Um, if it hits 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.160 that pavement, now, then you you get water running much 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.600 faster and in ways you maybe didn't predict. Yeah. The 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:31.920 Geological Service calls impermeable surfaces a fast lane for rain, water, stormwater, right, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.400 and it is true. And the built environment definitely alters 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.600 the way water moves through it. Um. So human not 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:45.000 just human uh intervention or obstruction, but also human use 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.920 to Like when we draw water out of an aquifer, 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.120 that prevents it from ultimately going to its destination or 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.280 delays it, I should say, depending on what we do 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.240 with that water. Yeah, Like if we drink it, tinkle 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.839 it out into a stream, we actually make it go. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.920 They're faster. Are you encouraging that? Nothing wrong with that? Man? 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:07.520 All right, Well let's take a quick break and we'll 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.440 talk a little bit more about some of the other 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:23.640 things that can happen to water once it's the ground. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:36.720 All right. So, um we teased everyone that other things 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.800 can happen to water. We can turn into wine, all right, 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.920 if you believe the Bible, it can evaporate and then 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.520 turn into rain part of the rain cycle. Yeah, well 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:48.720 that's a big one. Um did we do one an 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.319 evaporation or just clouds. That's probably where we covered that 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:56.719 cloud fluffy clouds or something a little fluffy clouds. But 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.040 when rainfall does come down on the ground, a lot 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.080 of it does go back up into the atmosphere through evaporation, 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.640 and that depends on how hot it is, a temperature, wind, 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:11.559 atmospheric pressure, a lot of other things. Then there's also transporation. 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.760 This is my favorite, is it. Yeah, we'll take it away. 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:19.600 Oh well, basically when you have plants, they're also taking 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.800 in water themselves, putting it to good use, breaking it down, 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:32.000 creating chlorophyll, not borophyll, chlorophyll uh and um, just generally 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:36.240 making things pretty unhappy. That's transporation. Yeah, and that will 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.640 slow the runoff obviously because taking a more circuitous route 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.800 well locks it up, and then eventually it should evaporate 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.959 from the water or from the plants and enter the 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.199 rain cycle again. Yeah. And then of course other man 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.920 made things like water storage, like you know, if you 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.000 build a dam or something, you're literally in control of 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.680 the release of that water. Yeah, that's a huge threat 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:02.280 to the health and vitality of wet lends. Is damn 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.160 building like it helps us. You know, we have um 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.840 basically a huge store of drinking water that we can 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:14.560 create electricity from. But for the downstream ecosystems, it's damns 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.040 are not good. Plus they can cause earthquakes, if you'll 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:23.760 remember correctly, Yes, that's right, I remember, they remember. Uh 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.360 so hold on. I have to say I was thinking 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.960 the other day about those shorts for the uninitiated. We 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:31.800 used to do one minute shorts that appeared on the 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.640 Science Channel. They were like the precursor to our actual show. 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.880 Do you remember those shorts? So the I thought of 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:41.520 one the other day to remember the when we were 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.560 playing racquetball. That was I think the pinnacle of all 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.440 of them. Just the setup. Yeah, just the whole thing, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.840 everything went. It was just perfect. I thought it was great. 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:53.200 It just popped in my head the other day. I 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.880 was like, I totally forgot we even did those things, 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.200 and then I was thinking about it. Thought it was hilarter. Yeah. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.320 The gag and that one was that I was airing 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:05.560 like a full like basketball uniform and sweatband. Holson, you 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.240 were wearing like an Oxford and jeans and we're playing 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.080 racquetball like that? Was that funny as that? Yeah? I 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.240 just thought it was great. Surprised that never took off. 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.440 Well it did. It got us a TV show. Yeah, 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:20.880 that's true, we did. Like it was the TV show 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:22.800 that didn't take off. We had a couple of dozen 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.600 of those shorts. Right, those are all fun. Let's start 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.560 posting some of those again. Well this is my passive 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:33.560 aggressive way of asking YouTube. Okay, Uh, so watersheds are 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.680 keeping them clean as a big deal. It really matters 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:42.640 because there's a domino effect that can happen um when 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:47.840 they're polluted. Oh yeah, so water is great for transporting things, right, 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.280 we put barges on them, jet skis on them, sailboats. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.200 It's also really good for transporting other stuff, like anything 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:02.320 that's a pollutant is really easily moved along through water. Right, 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:05.960 And the whole point of a water shed is moving 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.600 water across land into larger bodies of water. Well, the 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.040 stuff that's in the way of that water gets picked 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.120 up and carried in along with it too. Right, So 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.280 the pollutants that we just leave lying around, everything from 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:23.240 dog poop to um anti freeze, ends up in the 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.720 water because it's in the water shed. So it ends 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.200 up in the body of water. And since we use 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.480 these these bodies of water for all sorts of different things, 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:35.560 it's a big problem. And and it's a it's a 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.280 it's something that I think more people need to be 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.920 aware of because you think I'll just leave my dog 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.320 poop there on the ground. You don't think about how 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.800 it's going to rain and flush that dog poop in 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:53.000 there and create a coliform bacteria bloom that's going to 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.800 kill a bunch of fish or give them salmonella. Yeah. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.360 I've seen certain cities on their storm drains have little 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:03.360 signs that say things like, you know, just reminders like 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.280 you know, what goes in this thing will end up 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.679 in you know, some larger body of water and have 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.760 a big impact. Stuff. I found the thing that said 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.440 the leading cause of pollution or sediments and a lot 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.160 of times bacteria like E. Coli from dog poop. Yeah, 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.200 and even excess nutrients can be bad. Yeah, because those 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.119 form algae blooms. Right. Yeah. So algae blooms are um 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:30.240 where a a type of algae is already present in 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.679 a body of water, but then all of a sudden 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.760 there's a bunch of agricultural runoffs. Say, so there's a 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.560 huge introduction of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are fertilizers. Well, 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.480 algae is a plant, and algae blooms as a result, 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.720 and they can block sunlight for other plants in the 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.879 in the body of water. Um, when they die off, 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.800 the bacteria that eats them and your decomposes them uses 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.080 up tons of oxygen, so it chokes to life all 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.080 out of the fish that are in the body of water. Um. 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.359 It can make things quite smelly. It's it's just not 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.080 good for anybody. And and the reason why these algae 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:09.240 blooms happen is because of the fertilizer runoff that's being 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.680 introduced into the bodies of water. All right, well let's 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.760 take another break in. Uh more more depressing news right 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:38.000 after this. All right, Charles, where's the where's the silver 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.560 lining here? Well, let's here's some more bad news. I 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.960 was hoping to change that in the United States of 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.399 our waters are impaired or threatened, and impaired means that 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.879 it doesn't support one or more of its intended uses. 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:57.199 Impaired means it's drunk. It is it's a drunk like 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.440 drunk with pollution. So one or more of a stended 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:02.080 uses could mean, you can't swim in it, you can't 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:07.000 drink it, um, don't you know. It's always scary. It's like, yeah, 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.520 he's good fishing over there, just don't eat them, right, 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.399 that's always like oh wow, yeah and bad. But it 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.440 could be it could be anything. It could be from 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.720 there's high levels of mercury in there too. You know, 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:23.439 there's um toxins or um I'm sorry, bacteria. Yeah, that 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:28.280 could kill you. Flush eating bacteria lives in bodies of water. Yeah, 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.080 there's a lot of reasons and a lot of a 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:32.920 lot of stuff you just take well, oh well that's 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.840 the that's the natural state of that body of water. 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.720 That's absolutely not true. Yeah, And like you know, you're 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:41.280 pointing out here that it's all it's all interconnected. The 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.280 e p A has a paper called Sustaining Healthy Freshwater 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.720 Ecosystems and they really try to drive home the point 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.960 that these are not isolated bodies of water like it's 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:56.760 it's all very much tightly linked to one another. And uh, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.679 the human impact has this domino effect that you know, 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:01.520 you throw that cigarette out of your car and you 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.000 don't think it's a big deal that's gonna end up 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.560 either in a bird's nest or a body of water, 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.359 just two places, right, can't you see a little baby 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.080 bird being like what is that? Why did you bring 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.800 that home? Just nuzzling up against it, rubbing its little 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:23.040 baby bird head. Uh? Where else around the world, this 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.480 is obviously a big problem. It's not just the United States, uh, 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.840 and the Amazon basin, the Amazon River doten is threatened 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:36.640 with extinction because of the domino effect of watershed runoff pollution. Well, 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:41.879 you said it earlier. You said human human activity basically, 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.160 and it's not just us polluting. Like say, you pour 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:50.200 out your anti freeze and just go in yuck into 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:55.480 yourself about how great that was. I just dumped it 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:57.600 down the storm drain. You're not supposed to do that. 0:20:57.600 --> 0:20:59.879 That's not good, right, not good. It goes beyond that, 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:04.040 like our activity. Like say, um, if you tear up 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:08.320 some trees along a stream bed, Well, tree roots have 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:12.840 a really great effect of holding soil in place. And 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.159 without the roots to hold the soil in places, the 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.480 stream passes by and maybe floods a little bit after 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:23.119 a big rainfall. It takes a lot of sediment with it. Well, 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.840 you say, so long, river bank, Who cares that sediment 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:30.720 can go clogg the gills of fish downstream and kill 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.800 them all. Because you just couldn't live with a tree 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.800 in your backyard, or because you just had to build 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.639 your river house that you visit three times here. But 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:42.920 even still, even if you did build that, you would 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:45.840 want to keep a buffer of trees along the river bank. Like, 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:47.960 there's just some steps you want to take, right And 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:51.440 it's it's easy to overlook a lot of the activity 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:56.160 that we do UM that has these these negative effects 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.720 on UM water bodies because we're doing them elsewhere but 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.480 in the watershed that's still connected to the body of water. 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:04.960 I don't know if we've driven that home enough yet 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:08.960 that the activities we do on the watershed affect the 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:12.800 bodies of water in the end, that's right, but people 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.840 are taking action UM. The first Watershed Protection and Flood 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.800 Prevention Act came about in nineteen fifty four. That was 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:24.159 a little bit more about coordinating UH flood efforts or 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:27.919 flood prevention efforts rather UH. And then in nineteen seventy 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:31.119 two they added some more conservation efforts to that, and 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:35.200 then in they I think they made it friendlier to 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:40.080 get loans for groups carrying out measures that would help 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.919 promote watershed management financial loans. Yeah, and there's like a 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:46.800 lot of ways that you can get involved. Um. The 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:49.199 e p A is big time into putting you in 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:51.560 touch with people who are already trying to protect your 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:55.600 local watershed. Yeah. Um, there's stuff you can do if 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.640 you're a loaner. Um, if you have a leaky faucet, 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.639 fix it. It wastes water. It also increases the potential 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.639 for pollution. That's one thing. What else can you do? 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.159 You can fix that septic tank? Yeah, that too, that 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:10.879 can increase pollution. The things you can poop out all 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.280 over your yard, right, take care of it, yeah, because 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.520 it spreads disease your fecal material. Uh what else? Add 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.840 plants and trees instead of removing them, Right, that's a 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:24.240 good one. If you have a asphalt driveway, carry it 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:28.080 up and put down pavers. Now what does that mean? Well, um, 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:32.280 you know pavers have um joints between the pavers so 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.760 the water can trickle through them. It's a permeable surface 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:39.480 rather than impermeable. You know what. I kind of like 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:42.760 or the and this has got to be slightly better, 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.440 is the instead of the solid driveway just the two 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:49.960 strips where your tires go, oh yeah, that's Grandma's house 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:51.880 right there. Yeah, and then having either the grass strip 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:55.240 or pebbles or something in between. It's kind of nice, yeah. 0:23:55.440 --> 0:24:00.159 Or or what about the ever popular neglected stre up 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:02.800 of rocks with the grass growing up through them, which 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:05.639 is what mine would end up looking like invariably. Or 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:07.159 have you ever seen the ones where it's like a 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:10.479 steep driveway but they basically put tiny steps in the 0:24:10.520 --> 0:24:12.280 center of them that you walk up. I always thought 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:17.320 that was love those, totally love those I went by. 0:24:17.640 --> 0:24:19.520 You know that while you may not know, but there's 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:22.840 a street what's the name of the street leading up 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:25.560 to our office where there's a row of houses where 0:24:25.560 --> 0:24:28.439 the drive the yard. It's like it's one of the 0:24:28.480 --> 0:24:34.320 steepest things I've ever seen. And it going back up 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:37.520 towards Glen Iris, there's a cut through street off of 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:40.919