permaculture

["Chuck & Linda" <clearned@bminet.com>]

John wrote:

Hmmm, I wonder how millions of them have been managing to stay clean and
healthy for millions of years,

*****John perhaps I should have qualified my statement further. I was
speaking of my pond which does not have a means to flush itself and the DNR
does not want me flushing it for various reasons. So when a pond has no
means of flushing itself and lots of plants like Cattails(which I have) then
you have an ideal climate for pond scum which does not make for a nice
swimmming environment. So this is why a means of skimming is suggested. This
is very common condition in southern WI and those who I know who have ponds
that do not flush are generally skimming their ponds once a week to keep up
with it. Then there is the issue of fish. It is the reccomendation from
those who have fish to use airation to keep the oxygen levels up for the
fish and they strongly suggest pulling the water up from the bottom.

John wrote:
Or ask any of thousands of people in pondy places like Minnesota, Vermont,
etc. who regularly swim (in season, of course ;-) in 'small' ponds that
magically stay clean just by being dynamically balanced ecosystems...

**The DNR made a big point of talking about how most of the ponds that are
dug are done with the intent of having a nice swimming pond and what they
end up with is a scum covered pond during the ideal swimming months. There
are ponds all around my area I can see for myself this scum effect. I do
agree that if a pond can flush itself this makes a huge difference. I was
assuming that the gentlemen heading to spain would need to mechanically
flush or filter the top layer and that he would need to incorporate
mechanical means of moving water around. I am very interested in this pond
and water remediation and I have read of some very exciting results from
technologies like the restorer at the new alchemy institute. I have spoken
with pond consultants and studied these water quality issues, I still stand
by that point that a pond is not always a good swimming area without
flushing.

Chuck Learned





John Schinnerer, MA
-------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net




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