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GBlist: re: Pond Liners
on Thu, 10 Jul 1997
Jorg Ostrowski <ash@freenet.calgary.ab.ca> wrote:
> What is the most environmentally-sound pond liner material?
Hello Jorg and GBers;
Some time ago on the SB List when a question was posed WRT alternatives for
waterproof membranes under Living Roofs, it was suggested (only partially
tongue-in-cheek) that used "Kitty Litter" (bentonite clay) might be
reclaimed from the waste stream thereby reducing what must be... what, a
bazillion tons ? of the lethally toxic stuff going into landfills every
week.
As we all know, environmentally-responsible urban cat owners writhe with
guilt every time they have to dispose of their weekly doos into the
municipal garbage. Can't compost the stuff. Can't bury it. The average
urban lot can only take so much burying of the stuff before it gets
classified as a harazardous waste site.
It's probably safe to assume that Jorg's proposed garden pond will have
many of the same plant species that would be utilised in a Constructed
Wetland Wastewater Treatment System to treat biological and industrial
wastes so it would seem that the feline urine and fecal matter would not be
a problem.... in fact it would be beneficial to the plants (food)... and
the pond could theoretically be fed a diet of the used Kitty Litter (KL) on
an ongoing basis.
How Jorg would efficiently collect the KL on a grand,city-wide scale is his
business. I think that like all architects, he's probably very skilled at
spreading bovine manure very thickly far and wide. This would merely be a
similar process, except in reverse. Eh ?
*
On a less odiferous note, I was recently given a used swimming pool liner
which I used to make a critter pond on the back 0.5 hectare (to tide them
over periods of drought).
The steel walls of an above-ground pool had been weakened by rust and one
joint failed and two panels collapsed, causing a big tear in the liner
sidewall, freeing a frightening (to the owner) torrent of water to cut a
wide swath through the soft soil layer of an adjacent wooded slope.
(strangely enough, about 20 ft away and UPhill from the pool).
Fortunately for me (and the critters), the rest of the pond liner is in
fine condition.
I'm sure that anyone else who has (ahem)...people... with above-ground
pools in their vicinity can be equally as "fortunate". Re-use of an
existing resource is always better than consumption of new goods. Right ?
The only negative that I can think of is that it's... well... *plastic*.
If one finds the *bright* blue colour unnatural and objectionable, one
might lay down a thin bed of sand over bottom of the plastic liner and lay
up some stone at the edges with a cushion of sand between the backside of
the stone and the plastic liner.
The sand and the stone would probably help to reduce or prevent UV
deterioration of the plastic.
--
Rob Tom
---------- * ------------
be417@FreeNet.Carleton.ca
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
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