water

Town Meeting TV's Meghan O'Rourke interviews Karina Dailey, a Restoration Ecologist with the Vermont Natural Resource Council (VNRC). Karina also serves as the board Chair on the VT Dam Task Force. The VNRC is working with the state and landowners to remove old unused dams and restore natural waterways. In this episode Karina explains the whys and hows of dam removal and stream restoration.

Host Dennis McMahon, Esq., is joined by Kristen Balschunat, Conservation Specialist with the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District.

"Rethink Runoff helps communities consider the impact of stormwater runoff in Chittenden County. Excess water from rain or snowmelt flows over surfaces like driveways, sidewalks, and streets picks up pollutants such as oil and grease, chemicals, nutrients, metals and bacteria, flowing into stormwater systems or directly to the lake, streams, rivers or wetlands."

For more info:

Rethink Runoff Website: http://rethinkrunoff.org/

Lake Report from Lake Champlain Basin Program: https://sol.lcbp.org/en/

Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District Site: http://winooskinrcd.org/

Come along with award-winning producer James Gero to a world before electricity, gas power, steam, and all our accustomed fossil fuels that now belch and spew virulent toxins into our fragile and vital environment, poisoning all the creatures of our irreplaceable ecosystem. This was a time when men harnessed the power of water. Constant and always renewable. Reliable and most importantly a very very green unpolluting endless resource. Men in these bygone days also harnessed the power of the wind navigating the world on an endless journey of exploration. We never feel the earth turn but in doing so it sets in motion all the laws of gravitational motion. However, let us all look to the sky in doing so we may watch the heavens of clouds, feel the wind on our faces caressing the movement. We are now all turning with the earth and the power of weather, wind, and water. Harness this power and this alone and we may begin to save the earth. Earth is our only home. We are just a dot in a black abyss. This is our time to feel the earth turn. It is earth day, it is earth day, it is always earth day. For three centuries the Middlebury falls powered a bustling mill district. In 1802 Eben Judd built the first marble factory in the United States in Frog Hollow. By 1808 his mill was sawing up to 10,000 feet of local marble annually. From 1760 onward, the Middlebury falls powered numerous mills, the products from these mills were sold as far away as New York City. The mills produced milled lumber, iron products, flour, paper, guns, textiles, marble products, and architectural woodwork.

Community producer James Gero's video of water on Lake Champlain.