February 20th, 2022

In America…

We care deeply about the impervious.

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im·per·vi·ous
adjective
not allowing fluid to pass through.

This is a massive topic. Get to know this word intimately.

When the earth is covered with concrete, asphalt, buildings (i.e. impervious surfaces) there is nothing to absorb rainwater. Instead of the rain hitting vegetation and getting absorbed and filtered by the earth (and thus replenishing groundwater and fostering soil life/health), the rain runs away. It runs and runs…sometimes flooding, often eroding, and almost always picking up contaminants like fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals. The rain carries all of this misery into our streams, rivers, lakes, oceans poisoning fish and birds. And us too.

So.

We need to be careful about how much of the earth we are covering and protect the beautiful dance between rain and vegetation and soil. Yes, housing needs to be built and roads are still a reality. But we can do better than we have in the past. We can focus on compact development where the buildings and infrastructure take up less land and thus more of the earth is open to drink. We can install and maintain solutions to manage water on site (rain barrels/gardens, pervious pavers, green roofs, storage tanks). We can design our cities and towns in a way that requires less driving and are more walkable, thus less need for wider roads and endless surface parking lots.

We can, we can.