Natural Swimming Pools, Aquaponics, & Clean Water from Grey Water

We live in a world in which clean water continues to become the number one issue for planetary and human survival. In some states, it’s now illegal to collect your own rainwater, and many other areas have water restrictions due to droughts, not to mention all the industrial and toxic BigAg run-off in our lakes and streams. I present the following videos as eye-openers to help people realize there are other ways. By thinking outside the box, we can reuse, recycle, and even clean water, all while helping to restore natural habitats and growing high quality, nutritious food!

Thanks to Mitch for bringing my attention to this BBC tour and study of Natural Swimming Pools:

Thanks to Bill for sending me to the Aquaponics and Vertical Gardening channel:

I don’t eat fish, but I’ve been getting nudged a lot about Aquaponics as something for the cities of Goshen and Elkhart to explore to ensure greater food sovereignty and sustainability. Interestingly, last week at the Future of Food symposium at Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute, David and I ran into an Elkhart activist who bridges the gap between lower income people and opportunities for local food; he’s been getting the exact same nudge.

At the same symposium, we heard Will Allen talk about how Growing Power uses Aquaponics as a closed system in which fish waste fertilizes plants while other plants clean the water. David and I had the privilege to speak privately with Will for about 15 minutes during which he signed a copy of his amazing book (I’ll review that later), and clued us into some of his upcoming projects. He is truly an inspiration and one of the most compassionate and innovative people I’ve ever met:

Growing Power has a large scale Aquaponics facility, but you can also practice small scale aquaponics in your own yard, basement or home:

For those people not interested in swimming pools or fish, but who want to reuse their grey water, here are two tours around a $15,000 self-sufficient home called Sandgarden. The first is an artsy-er youtube tour and description of grey water treatment that gives you more of a feel for the system in context of lived experience:

The more technical tour and description of waste and grey water at Sandgarden gives more specifics on the how’s and why’s:

In the past, I’ve mentioned Gaia’s Garden as a fabulous permaculture resource. Indeed, this permaculture classic includes lists of plants and ways to plan your own three stage grey water purification system/rain garden. As the Hopi say, “We are the ones we are waiting for.”