– What is the importance of water? What are the major issues with water ?
– Our major water source is the Rappahannock River. What condition is it in ?
– What can we do in your houses ?
– What are some of the other issues outside our environment – such as water justice ?
Water is a major player at St. Peter’s. It helped to divide St. Mary’s Parish established in 1748 from St. Paul’s Parish in King George.
Port Royal got its economic life from water – being on the river and becoming a royal port, located at the head of the navigable reach of the Rappahannock River for export of tobacco. The Rappahannock, Potomac, James and York were major highways of transportation that made colonial Virginia. In terms of conservation, Port Royal is part of the Rappahannock Watershed, one of 13 such watersheds in Virginia.
Besides providing a vital economy, water provides the lifeblood of the living community. What do plants, animals and various organisms have in common ? Water!
Water links and maintains all ecosystems on the planet. From sciencing.com: “The main function of water is to propel plant growth; provide a permanent dwelling for species that live within it, or provide a temporary home or breeding ground for multiple amphibians, insects and other water-birthed organisms; and to provide the nutrients and minerals necessary to sustain physical life.” It has its own cycle like carbon or phosphorus.
As nature’s most important nutrient, people need water to survive. Droughts affect our crops which can shut down life. Too much water creates floods which can have the same effect. Much of our environment is affected by events further up the river, such as excessive rain in the Piedmont.. In June, 2018 this area was affected by the worst flooding in 20 years.
Improper or over development by humans can bring about a slow death of a river and all that we get from it – recreation, food and retreat. The failure to actively manage our Rappahannock watershed can be significant.
3. Rebirth – Water is very present in Baptism. Baptism means immersion or bath in Greek. The immersion cleanses the person of sin and provides rebirth into Christian life. In both the Old and New Testaments, the word “water” is used for salvation and eternal life, which God offers humankind through faith in his Son ( Isa 12:3 ; 55:1 ; Rev 21:6 ; Revelation 22:1 Revelation 22:2 Revelation 22:17 ).
Nicodemus understood Jesus that one must have two births to enter the Kingdom of God – one’s natural birth in which water plays a major role and the birth by the Spirit to be the supernatural birth of being “born again” or regenerated.
4. Troublesome times – The word “water” is used in a variety of metaphorical ways in Scripture. It is used to symbolize the troublesome times in life that can and do come to human beings, especially God’s children ( Psalm 32:6 ; Psalms 69:1 Psalms 69:2 Psalms 69:14 Psalms 69:15 ; Isa 43:2 ; Lam 3:54 ). In some contexts water stands for enemies who can attack and need to be overcome ( 2 Sam 22:17-18 ; Psalm 18:16-17 ; 124:4-5 ; 144:7 ; Isa 8:7 ; Jer 47:2 ).
5 In other passages of Scripture, the following are said metaphorically to be “water”: God’s help ( Isa 8:6 : “the gently flowing waters of Shiloah” ); God’s judgment ( Isa 28:17 : “water will overflow your hiding place” ); man’s words ( Prov 18:4 : “The words of man’s mouth are deep waters” ); man’s purposes ( Prov 20:5 : “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters” ); an adulterous woman ( Prov 9:17 : “Stolen water is sweet” ); and a person’s posterity ( Isa 48:1 : “Listen to this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and have come forth out of the line [waters] of Judah” ).
97% of 300 foot buffers around perennial streams protected.
You can download the full report card here.
What else can we do as a Church ?
Prayer, reflection, retreat and picking up trash along the river. The children did this on their nature hike in June. The Ruritans have also done it as a group. We should also do our share.
Organize activities and education around local bodies of water, such as a cleanup, water testing,adopting your watershed or setting aside a time for prayer, reflection or a retreat. Not only will these activities help to protect oft-neglected natural areas, but they will also provide your members with an emotional and tangible connection to water conservation.
Faucet flow restrictors (also called aerators) reduce the flow of water from a faucet by at least 20% while maintaining the same water pressure. These restrictors are inexpensive, can be bought at nearly any home improvement store, and are extremely easy to install.
Related to this are the use of Mesh aerators for your sink faucets which mix air with water in order to reduce the amount of water lost but still provide decent water pressure. Likewise, you can easily reduce the amount of water wasted with each toilet flush by placing a plastic bottle filled with sand or pebbles into the toilet tank. This will displace some of the water so that less is flushed needlessly down the drain.
Replace your old toilet, or install a toilet tank bank.
The upstairs toilet in the Parish House. Has it been checked.?
Consider replacing toilets with models that achieve 1.3 gallons per flush or less, and are EPA Water Sense certified. If replacing your toilet is infeasible, you can easily install a toilet tank bank, available through Niagara Conservation. Like the common brick method, this simple gadget allows you to use less water per flush immediately through water displacement.
Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank of your toilets. If it seeps into the water in the bowl, you have a leak that needs to be fixed.
From pumping the water, to creating the plastic bottle, and shipping the bottle to your favorite store, bottled water leaves a big carbon footprint in its wake. GreenFaith recommends eliminating bottled water whenever possible, and replacing it with filtered tap water.
Lawns and exotic ornamental plants are often the standard landscape at religious institutions, and contribute significantly to an institution’s water footprint. Native plants, or those plants that thrive well in your climate and are historically native to your region, can keep your landscape beautiful without the need for additional water resources.
1 Turn off faucets.Start saving by breaking a bad habit: Never let faucet water run needlessly as you wash or rinse dishes, wash your hands or face, brush your teeth or shave. Bathroom faucets run at about 2 gallons of water a minute, according to the EPA. Turn off the tap while you brush your teeth and shave, and you can save hundreds of gallons a month.
2 Use every drop.Learn to repurpose water. One easy way is to capture under your colander the potable water you use to rinse fruits and veggies, and deposit it in the garden. Do the same while you wait for your hot water to come in.
3 Double-dip dishes.Take a page from the past and make smart use of dual sinks. Instead of letting the water run while you wash dishes, fill one sink with hot, soapy water for washing, and the other with cool, clear water for rinsing. You’ll use half the water you otherwise would, according to the EPA. If your sink is a single model, use two large bowls for washing and rinsing.
In-sink ‘garburators’ require lots of water to operate properly, and also add considerably to the volume of solids in a septic tank, which can lead to maintenance problems. Start a compost pile as an alternate method of disposing food waste.
It may seem counterintuitive, but it turns out washing dishes by hand uses a lot more water than running the dishwasher, even more so if you have a water-conserving model. The EPA estimates an efficient dishwasher uses half as much water, saving close to 5,000 gallons each year.
Running tap water to cool it off for drinking water is wasteful. Store drinking water in the fridge in a safe drinking bottle. If you are filling water bottles to bring along on outdoor hikes, consider buying a LifeStraw personal water filter, which enables users to drink water safely from rivers or lakes or any available body of water.
1 Shorten your showers.Use a kitchen timer to time your showers. Aim for five minutes or less.
Collect the cold water you run before it’s hot enough to shower and use it to water plants or flush the toilet (known as a bucket flush). Rinse water from dishes and food preparation can be collected and used to soak other dishes.
Our diets account for roughly half of all the water we use. All food has a water footprint, but some are much larger than others. Eating less beef, one of the most water-intensive foods, is a smart place to start. Shifting away from animal products to a plant-based diet can shrink your water footprint significantly.
Clean the car using a pail of soapy water. Use the hose only for rinsing; this simple practice can save as much as 100 gallons when washing a car. Use a spray nozzle when rinsing for more efficient use of water. Better yet, use a waterless car washing system; there are several brands, such as Eco Touch, which are now on the market.
Blasting leaves or stains off your walkways with water is one way to remove them, but brushing with a broom to first loosen the dirt and grime will decrease your water use and save you time in the long run.
Mulch will slow evaporation of moisture while discouraging weed growth. Adding 2 – 4 inches of organic material such as compost or bark mulch will increase the ability of the soil to retain moisture. Press the mulch down around the drip line of each plant to form a slight depression, which will prevent or minimize water runoff.
Early morning is generally better than dusk since it helps prevent the growth of fungus. Early watering and late watering also reduce water loss to evaporation. Watering early in the day is also the best defense against slugs and other garden pests. Try not to water when it’s windy: wind can blow sprinklers off target and speed evaporation. An automated watering system with a built-in moisture sensor can help ensure you’re only watering when necessary and at the most efficient time of day. If you’re using a timer, consider adding a rain or moisture sensor to avoid watering unnecessarily.
Adding organic material to your soil will help increase its absorption and water retention. Areas that are already planted can be ‘top dressed’ with compost or organic matter every year. Turn a healthy dose of compost into new garden beds when preparing the soil for planting.
9. Water by hand.Consider hand watering if you have a small garden area. Households that manually water with a hose typically use 33 percent less water outdoors than those that use an automatic irrigation system, according to the EPA.
“Water justice refers to the access of individuals to clean water. More specifically, the access of individuals to clean water for survival (drinking, fishing, etc.) and recreational purposes as a human right.
“Water and sanitation for all provided in an equitable and sustainable way is central to global justice for poor women and men. Despite successive global declarations and efforts, hundreds of millions still suffer from lack of access. Simplistic portrayals of water and sanitation ‘crises’ have often led to misunderstandings on the nature of the problem and how to address it. The result has been a failure to centralize the needs and interests of the poor and marginalized within different solutions.
“A simultaneous increase in demand and decreasing availability of water are leading to an intensification of competition and conflicts, worsening existing water-based inequalities. Globalization and climate change has favored some actors’ access and control of water at the expense of others— threatening their water and food security.
“Water justice promotes the regulation of corporations from polluting water, and impeding them from restricting access, in any way, to bodies of water that may provide clean water for drinking, fishing, leisure, etc. Water justice is often reached through activism, social media, outreach; through the law; through the pressure imposed by interest groups and lobbyists on elected officials; and by educating the public on the multifaceted importance of water justice.
“The issue of water justice is considered a relatively recent one in human history: before the 19th century Industrial Revolution, people lived more in harmony with their immediate environment. As industrialization has spread around the globe, so the problem of contamination and diminishing access to water has spread with it. As Earth’s population continues to grow, people are putting ever-increasing pressure on the planet’s water resources. In a sense, the world’s oceans, rivers, and other inland waters are being harmed by human activities.