Protect Your Pond From Pesticides and Hazardous Chemicals

Pond owners who use pesticides, fertilizers and other hazardous chemicals to keep their lawns and gardens looking good should consider this important fact.

These toxins are accumulating in your ground water and running off into your pond. The more you use the worse it is for the environment, wildlife and you.

Consider reducing or eliminating the use of chemicals to control lawn and garden weeds and insects by;

• weeding by hand and pulling off any insect infested vegetation and disposing of it
• frequently hosing down insect eggs and larvae that is attached to plants or other items
• switch up your garden crops from year to year so that you can avoid the use of fertilizers and prevent the depletion of soil rich nutrients
• regularly weed and hoe your garden to keep your plants healthy and insect free
• compost and other environmentally friendly fertilizers should be used
• in the cold winter months avoid using salt as a de-icer on your walk ways - use sand instead
• When disposing of hazardous chemicals avoid pouring them down your drain or dumping them in the lawn (contact your local government offices for local waste and disposal companies)

As pond owners we need to do our part to conserve and protect our most precious natural resource - water and the environment.

We need to educate our family and friends on these environmental issues and also ensure that our views are heard within local public offices. Make sure that your communities are not using hazardous chemicals and fertilizers to keep lawns, gardens and municipal ponds clean. Municipalities literally spend tens of thousands of dollars per year of tax payer money deploying chemicals into our environment all to make things look good.

We need to think of more creative ways to keeping our communities clean and looking good.

A great example of this is pond care and maintenance. Currently, 90 % of municipalities in North America are spending thousands of dollars per/yr on chemicals to keep municipal ponds clean. Those chemicals are being ingested by the ducks and wildlife that live in and around the ponds. This water is also seeping into water supplies, nearby rivers and lakes. Why are these local governments doing this?

Instead of using toxic chemicals to keep municipal ponds looking clean, local governments should be practicing environmentally friendly ways to do the same thing - pond aeration accomplishes 80-90% of what the chemicals do - and even better - it's a sustainable approach to healthy water - in other words the ponds look good and are also healthy contrary to the pond chemical approach.

There are all sorts of aeration systems on the market - windmill pond aeration systems are extremely cost effective and do cost any money to operate once they are up and running. No ongoing costs - unlike chemicals - its a one time investment.

Its up to us to make a difference and its starts in our back yard and communities!

© 2006, Pond Owner Magazine.
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