Prepare your Pipes for Freezing Weather

Thinking about Spring? Now that the Fa-la-la is over and the light is slowly returning, we want to be done with winter. However, it isn't done with us. Temperatures are dipping this week.
Make sure that you are prepared for freezing weather:

1. Learn how to shut off the water supply to your house. If you have a pipe break, you will really be happy to know where to go.
   
2. Insulate all exposed pipes including outside faucets. Don’t forget pipes in unheated outbuildings, garages and pump houses. Cozy pipes mean having water available when it thaws.
3. Disconnect all garden hoses. Shut off and drain any outdoor water features or irrigation systems. If you washed the car during the warmer weather, don't forget about the hose!
   
4. Keep temperatures in the house to at least 55 degrees F. It won't hurt to make a plan, just in case the power goes out . . .again.
   
5. In extended cold weather let an indoor faucet drip slightly. Select a faucet that is on an outside wall furthest from the water meter. Of course, do this prudently. A dripping faucet can raise your water bill.

Don't be caught again by a deep freeze.

Public Hearing To Increase Noxious Weed Fee

Tonight, December 6 is a public hearing for the Kitsap County Commissioners to decide if the noxious weed fee assessed on homeowners is to be increased to a whopping $2.00 per parcel. That is, what, a half of a latte per year? Knowing that we love our lattes, even during the recession, what do we get for our buck (s)?

Kitsap County's Noxious Weed Program is run through WSU extension.We have our own six member noxious weed board and more importantly we have Dana Coggin as staff. Dana is weed warrior extraordinaire. She is out there chopping, pulling and poisoning noxious weeds everywhere. Since the mission of the program is to educate citizens and encourage citizens to protect the county against invasives, she shares the wealth. You too can be a Weed Warrior with Dana. She holds organized eradication "parties" with homeowners all across the county

What is the big deal about these weeds? These plants have accidentally found a home here and are overpowering our native species. These exotics cause mayhem in the environment. They reduce habitat for animals and birds, reduce property values and recreational opportunities. They clog waterways and even poison humans and animals. The noxious weed board determines which weeds are part of the "dirty dozen". These plants are aggressive and, well, noxious, but there is a glimmer of hope that they can be eradicated. For example, dandelions and Himalayan blackberry aren't on the list because they are so widespread that they are definitely part of our landscape for good.

WSU is soliciting your comments at tonight's hearing. To find out more visit: kitsap.wsu.edu/noxious_weed/index.htm

Join the Washington Green Schools Team

Is your child attending a Washington Green School? If she attends Armin Jahr, Breidablik, Orchard Heights, Silverwood or the Island School in Kitsap she does!

Washington Green Schools is a web based program offered to K- 12 schools to help them reduce their carbon footprint. This program is not only educational - it really makes a difference. Green School students learn, take action and act as leaders in their community.

The web site, www.wagreenschools.org, gives step by step instructions about how to get involved. Schools concentrate their main efforts on one environmental area for an entire school year. Choices are:

• Energy Efficiency
• Recycling & Waste Reduction
• Toxic Reduction and Indoor Air Quality
• Transportation and Outdoor Air Quality
• Water Quality & Water Conservation

To be certified, schools must earn 100 total points in their chosen category. Schools get 10 points for just signing up! Upon completion, the whole school celebrates by unfurling a Washington Green Schools Flag. Schools choosing, say, water conservation (my favorite), will complete an assessment to find out about their water source, how much water their school uses and who tests the health of their drinking water. After that they take action that makes a lasting change in water use at their school. The students then act as cheerleaders, inspiring their community to follow their example. Schools can continue in the same category in subsequent school years or choose a new focus.

Kitsap PUD is a sponsor of Washington Green Schools beginning in 2011. Part of this sponsorship is co-hosting a workshop to help teachers and other Green School team members learn more about the program. Urge your child's school to join other certified Washington Green Schools in Kitsap County. Consider being a Green Schools team member. A great learning experience with lasting results.

Six ThingsTo Do If Your Water Pipes Freeze

One thing you can predict about Pacific Northwest weather - it will be unusual. A stretch of hot dry weather in summer – unusual. A white Christmas – unusual. A week of temperatures below freezing the week before Thanksgiving – unusual. It would also be unusual to have more than one big winter storm. However, don’t be surprised if there is more winter weather to come. Our phones at KPUD were ringing last week with tales of woe about frozen pipes. It’s time now to think ahead to our next deep freeze. Here are some tips:

Prepare For Freezing Temperatures

1. Learn how to shut off the water supply to your house.
2. Insulate all exposed pipes including outside faucets. Don’t forget pipes in unheated outbuildings, garages and pump houses.
3. Disconnect all garden hoses. Shut off and drain any outdoor water features or irrigation systems.
4. Cover footing and foundations vents. Keep temperatures in the house to at least 55 degrees F.
5. Open cabinet doors to allow heat to reach pipes beneath sinks.
6. In extended cold weather let an indoor faucet drip slightly. Select a faucet that is on an outside wall furthest from the water meter.

IF Your Pipes Freeze

1. Be ready to turn off your water supply if the pipes are cracked a broken.
2. Do not use an open flame on a frozen water pipe.
3. Turn on a faucet that is fed by the frozen pipe so you can tell when it begins to thaw out.
4. Arrange a sheet of tin foil behind the frozen pipe to reflect heat back onto the pipe.
5. Blow hot air evenly onto the pipe using a hair dryer or heat gun. You can also wrap a heating pad around the pipe. Begin thawing close to the open faucet and work backwards.
6. When the faucet begins to drip – check for cracks or small leaks and get them repaired immediately.

Privately owned water system? Read this!

I wrote recently about the Municipal Water Law being upheld by the Washington State Supreme Court. Just looking at the word "municipal" in the title may make you hit delete. But wait. Adjust your radar. Do you have a community drinking water well? Are there 15 or more homes sharing this water source? If so, you have a privately owned water system which has the same water use efficiency requirements as a public water system.

By upholding this law, you as a "group A" water system are responsible for submitting an annual report to the Washington Department of Health by July 1, 2011. Now that I have your attention, don't panic. Your first report will let DOH know that you are working toward compliance with the WUE requirements. Mike Dexel at DOH is there to help you through this process. He's a nice guy, really! He has come up with three things that you need to prepare for your report:

1. Start collecting metered data. You are responsible for reporting on how much water is pumped from your source and how much was consumed. Your well should have a source meter already. Assign someone to record this data! What you probably don't have are meters at individual homes. When you do have those meters they will have to be read and compared to the source meter to make sure that you do not have leaks on the system.
2. Hold a public meeting to establish water efficiency goals. This means getting the people sharing the water source together, maybe in a living room over coffee. If you don't have meters yet, you can establish a goal based on your source meter. ex: "Reduce annual source meter production by 5% by 2015". Giving information to your customers is not a goal . . .that is a conservation measure which is also a requirement.
   
3. Develop a plan to install meters. You will need to explain your plan on you July 1 online report.You need to develop a plan to get every residence metered by January 22, 2017.

There are many ways to get your water conservation goal. EPA sponsored website http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/ has many tips on water saving appliances and fixtures that will help your community save water.

Visit Washington Department of Health Office of Drinking Water at http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/default.htm to find out what will be required from your water system. If you have a privately owned water system, find out your responsibilities today.

Seven Groundwater Facts You Need To Know

Do you know where your water comes from? Pipes? The Puget Sound? Amazingly, I have received these answers more than once and not from little kids either. In Kitsap County we get our drinking water from the sky. Yes, bless these drippy winters because eighty percent of us here in Kitsap use groundwater that is the result of rain percolating through the topsoil into the ground. Here are a bundle of facts about groundwater you need to know.

1. There is not an underground river that we tap into. Our groundwater is stored in between the spaces of rocks and gravel which comprise our aquifers. Picture pouring water into a cup of gravel.
2. We do not get any recharge from snow pack in the Olympic or Cascade Mountains. The water we have falls on our peninsula. What you see is what you get.
3. Groundwater will not recharge through impervious surfaces. We need vegetated areas to allow rainwater to soak into the ground. Native vegetation is the best. Grass can actually cause rainwater to run off similar to a parking lot.
4. Our wells don't all pump water from the same aquifer. Separate glacial events formed our aquifers over hundreds of thousands of years. Some aquifers are shallower than others. Some are even what we call perched aquifers.
5. Most of our wells are artesian. This means they are under the pressure of impermeable confining layers separating our aquifers. Some of this water is under such pressure that it bubbles up to the surface. Think of a spring fed lake.
6. Groundwater feeds our streams. Groundwater is always moving to the surface. How fast depends on the materials it is moving through. You can see groundwater seeping out through cliffs at the beach.
7. Anything that is put onto the ground has the potential of winding up in our water supply. Think about that before applying herbicides to your lawn!

Most of us drink groundwater. Now you know.

Muni Law Confirmed Constitutional

The Washington Supreme Court decided on the side of water utilities by unanimously confirming the constitutionality of the Municipal Water Law on 10-28-10.

In 2003 utilities saw the need for a law that would give utilities more flexibility with water rights in order to plan better for the future. A 1998 ruling had stated that water rights holders must use the water they had rights to or lose them. The legislature enacted the Municipal Water Law that enables water suppliers to retain their rights to the water that their pumps and pipes are capable of delivering not just the water that they are using at the present time. Saving for a rainy day – or dry day – as in this case makes sense. The law removes a lot of uncertainty to municipal water suppliers across the state.

When dealing with water – nothing, however, is simple. Some people have problems with the definition of a municipal water supplier. The law defines a municipal water suppliers as any group A system, that is a water system with 15 or greater connections. Environmental groups, some individuals and several tribes feel that this law encourages sprawl and water speculation. They feel that there will be greater development in the rural area by developers who will have rights to water that would have been allocated elsewhere in the past. They also are concerned with the possibility of individuals selling these water rights at will. This was the basis for the law suit filed in 2006, Lummi Tribe v State.

The municipal water law also stipulates that municipal water suppliers must conserve water. So since all parts of the law has been upheld, all municipal water systems, even those run by a local neighborhood associations must follow the law. This law states that these systems must:

· Provide the department of health with a conservation plan.

· Make conservation goals in a public forum.

· Report the progress of these goals to the department of health.

· Maintain system leakage to below 10%.

· Install water meters on each connection of the system.

This law is good for utility planning and good for water conservation. The legislature has left the door open for further clarification of this law by individual law suits, of which there will likely be plenty. For more info visit http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/rights/muni_wtr.html.

Facebook is not a Fad

If you are reading this you have probably already embraced social media. Some of us are a bit behind the times. Yesterday I attended a workshop about using facebook and twitter for water utility messaging and communication. According to the Portland Water Bureau they are way, way ahead of the social media communication game. They have had their posts picked up by the NY Times, twice! Thrilling. They got their notoriety from posting a picture of a chagrined teenager who had just dumped soap into a Portland fountain for a giggle and a shot of skinny dippers in the reservoir. Point taken, humiliation gets attention.
Some take home points I received about using social media at my water utility from the presentation by Matt Smedley from Frause and Sarah Bott from Portland Water Bureau are:

• Fly rogue. Some managers are old school. Just go for it. (Sarah made this point by showing a picture of her frowny face boss)

• Be prepared for negativity, but don't let it get to you. Matt pointed out that most off the wall comments are policed by the other readers.
• Don't be stupid! Use common sense about what you post. Don't call your boss a jerk.
• Be consistent. Make your page's goals transparent so your readers will know what to expect
• No lecturing. (Sorry if I've done that in the past)
• Must be fun. Know how to keep your audience's attention. Promote interaction.
• Feed the machine. Keep those posts coming. Sarah spends 4 hours a day on social media!

The afternoon sessions were a little more realistic. Kirk Stinchcombe from Econnics told us to ask ourselves if, truthfully, do our customers really want to get posts from us two or three times a day? Wouldn't they rather be getting tweets from Lady Gaga? A couple of times a week, or when we really have some important, relevant information is plenty!

OK, I opened a facebook page for Kitsap PUD. I promise to post only relevant information and let people know if they (God forbid) need to boil their water even if its Thanksgiving weekend. Facebook is not a fad. I will use it for good!

Looking for a Bargain?

Quench your thirst for under a buck! Get 748 gallons of water for only 92 cents! This is a bargain, but water rates go up the more you use. Our drinking water is precious. It is a finite resource. That why Kitsap PUD, like most water utilities, have tiered rates for water consumption. Tiered rates, also called conservation rates, encourage wise use of water and discourage our customers from becoming water hogs. This tiered rate charged for water consumption is in addition to our bi-monthly service charge of $41.04. Kitsap PUD has the following tiered rates. Consumption rates are rounded down to the nearest 100 cubic feet.

0-1,400 cubic feet: $0.92 per 100 cubic feet
1,500-2,400 cubic feet: $1.32 per 100 cubic feet
2,500-4000 cubic feet: $1.66 per 100 cubic feet
4,100 cubic feet and over: $4.12 per 100 cubic feet

Most people don't think in cubic feet like we utility folks do. There is 7.48 gallons per one cubic foot of water. So, doing the math, 100 cubic feet is 728 gallons. This means that our first tier customers can use 748 gallons for only 92 cents! This is tasty, tested to be healthy, convenient to get drinking water. Think about that next time you are waiting in line at the convenience mart for a bottle of water.

Water consumption in tier two and three increases the cost of water less than $1.00 more per 100 cubic feet. The big jump is to tier four. Customers using 4,100 cubic feet or more of water during a two month period will pay $4.12 per 100 cubic feet. We are talking about 30,668 gallons of water! Who uses this much water over two months? No one does during the winter. Customers irrigating lawns, usually with automatic irrigation systems, consume the most water during the summer months.

Can you have a luscious garden and not break the water bank? Yes, use irrigation systems wisely by only watering when plants truly need watering. Most people turn on the system for the hottest month's water needs and run it that way all season! Yes, you know you do.

Water is a bargain, but pay attention to how much you use and choose to use it wisely.

Lets toast the new year

Happy New Year! Happy new water year that is. October 1 marks the new water year 2011. Time for us at KPUD to reflect on 2010 rainfall. Having just gone through a season that could only marginally be called summer, I think we all know it has been wet. How wet was it?

Rainfall in Kitsap County varies so greatly that in order to get a complete picture of our county's precipitation, our office collects rainfall data from 40 collection stations. Most of the rain gauges have computerized loggers that collect rainfall data every fifteen minutes, but a few of the rain gauges are at private residences where committed homeowners collect the rainfall measurements and bring them into our office.

During 2010, the gauge at our office on Finn Hill Road in Poulsbo registered 53.02 inches. This compares to the measly 27.67 inches reported in 2009. Our average rainfall is around 40 inches at this spot. The north part of the county is in the rain shadow. The rain gauge at McKenna Falls in the Bremerton Watershed registered 80.72 inches this year! If you are interested in finding out about rainfall at other sites visit our websit at kpud.org. I'll tell you how to navigate the labyrinth of the website to find this info and more:

• go to kpud.org and click on "water"
• click on "reference data" on the top bar and choose "hydrologic"
  
• check the "I agree" box
• click on "Water Resource Data"
• after arriving at the county map, click on the "Daily Rain Page"
• pick your precipitation gauge site and year for daily rainfall totals

Also on this page are deviation contour maps. These maps allow you to compare twenty years' rainfall data at a glance. Areas of the maps are colored with red/yellow for dry, green or average rainfall and blue/purple for wet areas. What colors do think will predominate on the 2010 map?

Lets toast the new water year by drinking a big glass of Kitsap County tap water. Here's to wet weather!

The Straight Poop

A reader asked recently about dual-flush retrofits for existing toilets. These are devices that give you choice of a half flush for pee and a whole flush for the poo. She wanted to know what I thought she should do; Replace old toilets or install the retrofits. She pointed out that retrofits were cheaper and she wouldn't be adding more old fixtures to the land fill. Point well taken about the toilets in the landfill, but I still had to recommended that she replace high water using toilets with new ultra-low flow toilets or High Efficiency Toilets. I came to this conclusion after reading a cautionary memo from John Koeller, the guru of toilet testing. He warns that these devices must be approached with much caution. (Sounds scary doesn't it?) More about him later.

John says that even though manufacturers claim astronomical water savings for these dual flush retrofits, there have been no real-world studies that support these savings. His concerns are:

1. Changing in the full flush characteristics of the toilet fixture can adversely affect flush performance. This will lead to double flushing to get the waste down.
2. The reduced flush is particularly vulnerable to unsatisfactory performance. If it doesn't appear that the liquid has disappeared, addition flushes will ultimately occur.
3. Most of the flush valves are adjustable and allow the owner to adjust the flush way above the original flow rate.
4. Installation requires the owner to disassemble the tank from the bowl, remove the flush valve and replace and adjust the new valve. All kinds of potential for problems there. Replacement will also void the warranty.

Picky stuff? Well John Koeller knows his poop - literally. People were upset about having to reflush the 1.6 gallon flush toilets that they were required to install. John responded to the problem by conducting the MaP test, Maximum Performance test of popular models of toilets. This test resulted in a list of toilets guaranteed to do the job in one flush.

Did you know that the maximum average fecal size of an adult male is 250g? John used this data to create a soybean test medium to be extruded through a tube resulting in a cylindrical specimen 4 inches long. This is plopped from a scientifically specified height into the toilet being tested. A prescribed amount of toilet paper is added and flushed. It better all go down or else the toilet won't make the cut. This is fascinating research. I've met John in person and he really seems like a normal guy.

So. . .take it from the expert. You spend a lot of time flushing that fixture. It makes sense to choose the option that is stands up to "real world" demands.

How Water Conservation Dollars are Spent Appropriately

Are your water conservation dollars being used appropriately? Recently I have looked at how we utility conservation folks evaluate conservation programs. What measures do we choose? Why? How do we know they work? I've come to some conclusions.

First, let me begin by saying that I group measures into two categories. Information or educational types of measures and infrastructure types of measures. Our customers need to have the information to know why and how they can save water. But, everyone knows that just because you know you should do something doesn't mean you will act on that knowledge. If we really want people to save water we have to make easy. That's why we give out rebates for washing machines and toilets. A push to put the infrastructure in place.

Most measures, I conclude, are chosen for emotional reasons. We get the reaction from our customers and run with it. An example is rain barrels. A rain barrel holds 55 gallons of water which in the scheme of things is not that much. Our customers love rain barrels. They know they are making a difference however small. Its a good thing. Our customers respond to certain programs like this. Poster contests involve many of our customers through their children. There is nothing like seeing your children's work up on a calendar on their wall! We can't quantify the water savings, but again, our guts say getting the word out this way is successful.

Albert Einstein had a saying on his door - Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. This is my mantra these days. Conservation measures are very difficult to evaluate. Educational measures are especially difficult. Is that decrease in water consumption due to the wonderful outreach our utility has been doing or to the wet summer weather. . . Hard to tell. Of course good conservation professionals keep track of how many brochures are given out, how many shower heads have been distributed or even make follow up phone calls to find out if those toilet test dye tablets were used. But actually water savings is hard to measure.

In these days of watching our decreasing budgets, we must be able to equate numbers to measures. To compare the dollar amounts spent to the dollars saved by delayed need for new water sources. Luckily, there are studies out there that the rest of us can look at and base assumptions on. The City of Seattle participated in the Residential End Uses of Water Study in 2000 which still gives us reliable information on where water is being used in the home. The Alliance for Water Efficiency web page houses studies and reports about high efficiency washers, toilets, showerheads and faucets. EPA's WaterSense webpage has specifications for recommended retrofits and draft specifications for weather based irrigation controllers.

Utilities choose measures that educate as well as measures that they can assign a number of gallons saved. For example replacing a 3.5 gallon per flush toilet with one that uses 1.28 gallons per flush will definitely save 2.2 gallons per flush. Easy to quantify. However, even programs like these are hard to evaluate. When following up on replacement of fixtures, one conservation professional found that water use had increased in some customer accounts. How? Well she found out that the customer's daughter moved back in with three year old twins. There lies another evaluation problem.

My conclusion is evaluation is important up to a point. Its difficult and it rarely gets done and that OK. The assumptions of water savings are valid. Utilities use common sense, information available and, most importantly, they know their customers. They use these tools to choose measures that are appropriate for their customers.

Get your free money here

Who doesn't like free money? KPUD has mailed hundreds of checks to its customers. Of course as the saying goes, there is no free lunch. You must provide a receipt for your recently purchased water efficient washing machine in order to get a rebate check.

What is an efficient washer?
An efficient washer can cut water use in half. Old style washers can use up to 50 gallons a wash. Efficient washers also cut energy costs because they use less hot water and tend to get a lot of water out of the clothes before they go in the dryer.

How can you find out if your washer qualifies?
Qualifying washers must meet the minimum criteria for both Modified Energy Factor MEF and
Water Factor WF to qualify. MEF is the cubic fee of laundry to be washed and dried per KWh.
WF is the number of gallons of water needed to wash each cubic feet of laundry.

OK, what is the amount on the check?
If you are a KPUD customer you could get a check for up to $50 from KPUD. The rebate amount depends on the rate of efficiency of the washer. To get the full amount your washer must have a MEF of 2.46 or above and a WF of 4 or less. You could get a $25 or $35 for lesser efficiency rates. Check the list published on the KPUD website to see how washers compare at www.kpud.org.

Is that all I get?
The Cash for Appliances Washington program is also offering a $150 rebate for washers that are energy efficient. Check out their website at www.cashforapplianceswa.com. Combine the two and you could receive a total $200 rebate.

How much will I pay for one of these washers?
Efficient washers do costs more. Probably around $700-$800. The reduction in water and energy costs will defray the extra cost up front.

Question for you.
Are these rebates an incentive for you to buy an efficient washer or would you consider the rebates a welcome reward for a purchase you would make anyway? Vote now!

Make a wise purchase and get FREE money!

Don't Mess with the Puget Sound

How many of you (raise your hands) have seen a bumper sticker saying "Don't Mess with Texas"? Who knew that slogan was from an anti-litter campaign? I didn't until yesterday. Our KEEP group was visited by Dave Ward, Stewardship Chair, from the Puget Sound Partnership. He came to give us a pep talk about getting the "Puget Sound Starts Here" brand out in front of people. His passion is to make this message as recognizable as the Texas slogan.

He had some good points about saving the Sound. I'm sharing a few:

• First of all, recognizing that the Sound has a problem is a hard sell. Dave said it would be much easier if the Sound was on fire instead of reflecting Mt Rainier in its luminous blue waters. 4.3 million people aren't connected with the health of Puget Sound. Most just think of the Sound as a huge playground.
  
• Dave made a point of reminding us that we aren't seeking to convert anyone. We don't need any more greenie zealots. We just need ordinary people to change their everyday behaviors to turn around the direction the Sound is heading.
• Dave illustrated that information doesn't precipitate behavior change. Just because we know what is right, doesn't mean we do it. Awareness must be joined by convenience, support and, yes, even laws. Dave calls this infrastructure.
• He gave a colorful example of how a delicate problem with truckers was dealt with. It seems that truckers don't like to stop to pee (at least male truckers), so they fill up milk jugs, then toss them out the window when filled. (Another factoid I wasn't aware of). The solution to this gross out to the road clean up crews, was to install elevated waste receptacles at truck stops. The truckers simply have to roll down the window and deposit their jugs. The truckers certainly had the awareness that tossing their jugs was a no-no, now they have the infrastructure to make the behavior change.
• Good news is that Puget Sound is now getting attention from the Feds. The Sound is joining places as the Everglades and the Great Lakes as an "official" place worthy of restoring. The EPA just promised the Partnership 6 million dollars over 5 years. KEEP is expecting to get a minuscule bit of this money for local programs.
  
• Dave reminded us that the Puget Sound Starts Here campaign is is not a Partnership brand, but came from a collaborative of storm water folks. A small but significant point for us that are thinking that playing down our connection with the Partnership may be a good idea in light of recent negative media attention.

It remains to be seen if the Puget Sound Starts Here slogan makes the big time, but the Sound certainly deserves not to be messed with!

Kitsap's best summer ever?

Our rain guru, Jim LeCuyer, thinks this was the best summer ever (his exact words). Although most of us disagree, we can't argue that cool wet summers are good for our water supply. In Kitsap we all use groundwater. When its hot, our water consumption at least doubles. We tend to get nervous about our lawns and gardens and let our hoses flow. This year, we had to do less of that.

To say we had more rainfall is one thing, but look at the big picture. This graph compares this year's rainfall (in blue) to the historical average (in red). Look at the green line. . .remember 1999? We weren't quite there this year, but close. For an update on daily rainfall visit the KPUD webpage at www.kpud.org.

Choose How to Spend Tax Dollars Today

Do you feel like tax dollars get spent without your input? Well here is a chance to help make a choice. Of course we are talking about a tiny, minuscule, insignificant amount in the scheme of things $5,000 - $10,000. But, go ahead, feel empowered. This amount is the grant funding offered from Puget Sound Partnership to Econets across the region. KEEP (Kitsap Environmental Education Programs) qualifies as an Econet group so is diving in for the dollars. There is a total of $100,000 to be distributed across the Puget Sound Region to support the Puget Sound Starts Here campaign. I heard that the Partnership paid a lobbyist $400,000??? KEEP will be in competition with the 12 other Econets in the region for this pittance.

Members of KEEP brainstormed ideas to submit for grant funding. Of course, they gave us oodles of time to submit . . letters of intent have to be in by September 10. The top two ideas must be submitted to KEEP by tomorrow, September 2, to give time for letters to be written. So . . .click on your top two choices TODAY.

#1 Ad Space with Blog Component
Monies would be used to purchase online and print advertising space in local newspapers. Print ads would actually look like a written column. The ad would be linked to a blog. Articles/blogs would be written in turn by different members of KEEP and highlight the health of Puget Sound as well as events thus expanding on last year's grant-funded project. These ads had a phenomenal click through rate last year.

#2 Coaster in bars/restaurants
Purchasing coasters with facts regarding the health of Puget Sound. These coasters would be distributed to bars and restaurants throughout Kitsap.

#3 Movie Trailers
Run short film clips of under Puget Sound or already created Puget Sound Starts Here ads at movie theaters.

#4 Ferry boat advertising
Large ads on boats to raise awareness among daily riders and tourists alike.

#5 Boater Education
Provide a device called the "No Spill" to boaters while fueling. This simple device prevents fuel spills and would include a message on the bottle itself.

Take the opportunity to help choose a project. Vote now.

Four steps to building a rain garden

Go on a rainy day hike . . . find out where the water from your driveway and gutters ends up.
A rain garden acts like a native forest capturing this rain water, slowing it down and allowing the water to percolate down into the ground. Compare this action to our common cul de sac where rain generally runs off of the sloped driveway skirts into a storm drain, travels through a pipe and is dumped into the closest stream, lake and ultimately to the Puget Sound. Two reasons the former is a better picture.

1. We need water to be in the ground . . .so we can pump it up. We all drink groundwater in Kitsap County. The only way that water gets there is through rain fall.
2. Rain fall picks up all the people stuff that we put on the ground and carries it to the Sound. Dog poop, oil from cars, chemicals from lawns all become a soup of that robs the Sound of oxygen. Rain gardens act as little factories, cleaning out this goop before the water travels on.

What is a rain garden?
Rain gardens are simply depressions in your yard. It can be any shape or size and can be planted with a variety of different plants. Want one??? Here are the four steps to get that accomplished.

Locate

• Identify the best location for the rain garden.
• Look for the natural drainage from driveways and downspouts.
• You need to do a simple soil test to determine how good the drainage is at this site.

Design & Build

• Determine the size and shape of the rain garden.
• Excavate the soil - only eighteen inches in most cases.
• Level the bottom of the rain garden - don't let it get compacted.
• Mix compost with the soil that you removed.
• Return and level the soil leaving at least a six inch depression to collect water.
• Create an entryway for the water this can be a swale or even a pipe.
• Create a rock lined over flow for those bigger storm events.

Plant

• Select plants that likes wet feet but that can also survive during the dry summers. There are plant lists readily available. Native plants are ideal, but many other plants work, too.
• Cover the soil with mulch
• Water the plants until they are established.

Maintain

• Mulch as needed to cut down on weeding chores.
• Make sure the inlet and outlet are both clear.
• Don't use pesticides or fertilizers. Remember this water is going to your aquifer.
• Water as needed, but if the correct plants were selected this will be required minimally and only in the warmest of weather.

This project is pretty straightforward, but help is available! WSU has a fleet of Master Gardeners waiting in the wings to help you with your rain garden construction. Also, Kitsap County Conservation District will help you with the costs incurred while building your garden. Can't beat that!

I am building a rain garden myself in late summer. I will let you know how it goes!