How many feet above sea level are you? Q5 of The Big Here Quiz

According to this website, Windsor, Ontario is 190 metres above sea level.

But according to Toporama, my house is closer to 182 metres. See?

Who knew that sea level means the world to pilots?

When you flush, where do the solids go? What happens to the waste water? Q4 of the Big Here Quiz

Because my home is in the Riverfront Sanitary Drainage System (pdf), my educated guess is that the solids and wastewater make its way to the Lou Romano Water Reclamation Plant for treatment.

The facility, which discharges into the Detroit River, is believed to be the largest primary treatment plant discharging into the Great Lakes basin. The Detroit River Canadian Cleanup Committee, a community based organization working to improve the health of the Detroit River, recommended the treatment upgrade to local officials some time ago. The city is adding secondary treatment capability to produce cleaner effluent.

The biosolids "are heat dried and pelletized at a plant on Sandwich Street, operated by Prism Berlie Windsor Ltd. The finished pellets are used as a fertilizer and soil conditioner."

While the Windsor product is 3-5-0 on the N, P and K scale, it is also heavy in micronutrients and adds moisture retention characteristics to the soil. It's also a soil conditioner with high organic matter. Application rates vary from three to four tonnes per acre, based on the following crop and a soil tests.

The biosolids are roughly 65 per cent organic matter and take years to break down so the benefits are gradual, he says. Both active pathogens and cysts are killed in the pasteurizing heat treatment.

The Windsor sludge is of particular value because analysis shows it to be low in lead, cadmium and mercury, which have no place in the soil matrix. There is a decade of data backing claims about this product, he says. Bernie Calhoun cash crops more than 800 acres near Essex and says that over the years sewage sludge has helped his farm a lot by adding organic matter. He considers it a good substitute for cattle manure. He has used the pellets as well, but says "I like it for free, I don't want to pay for it," stressing that human biosolids have a pejorative sound, especially to non-farm rural neighbours.

ShopEco in Tecumseh

One of my ongoing resolutions is to act more green. Making this task much easier for me is the relatively new ShopEco in nearby Tecumseh, Ontario which pledges to offer "products to the public that are environmentally responsible, coming from sustainable sources and using only the healthiest ingredients." ShopEco is the closest thing to a Grassroots store in these parts.

Yesterday I bought a bisphenol-A free plastic sippy cup from Born Free, a couple silicone nipples for baby-to-be (endorsed by the Children's Health Environmental Coalition), and some Bio-Vert laundry detergent.

When was the last time you felt good about buying laundry detergent?

Trace the water you drink from rainfall to your tap. Q3 of the Big Here Quiz

The water from my home's taps is pumped by A.J. Brian Pumping Station from The Detroit River (although this site says it from local rivers). From there it travels across the street to the Albert H. Weeks Water Treatment Plant. After traveling through pipes (will approximate distance once I can figure out an address for said station and plant), it lands in my coffee pot.

When Was Sunset. Q2 of the Big Here

Sunset was at 5:13 pm today.

Favourite recommendation:
Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day from the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department.

Using the link above, I determined that for Detroit, Michigan, the length of the shortest day of the year begins at 7:59 am and ends at 5:03 pm and that for the longest day of year, the day begins at 5:55 am and ends at 9:13 pm.

I never gave the matter much thought before but now I find it odd that sunrise varies over only 64 minutes while sunset varies over 4 hours and 10 minutes during the course of a year (at my present the latitude).

So using the Sun and Moon Data website again, I plugged in the opposite geographical coordinates of Detroit. Instead of N42, I plugged in S42 and instead of W83, I put in E83 and then lo and behold, I found a place where the sun rises at 3:49 AM. That is, if I plugged in the right time zone. I've always had difficulty wrapping my brain around the concepts of time and longitude.

Point North. Q1 of the Big Here

I'm tackling those things I've been meaning to do. One long standing item on my list is doing Kevin Kelly's The Big Here Quiz - 30 questions to elevate your awareness (and literacy) of the greater place in which you live.

Question One: Point North.



Local answer:
Contrary to sign above, Detroit, Michigan lies directly north of Windsor, Ontario.

So if you are near the Detroit River, you simply scan the horizon for the Renaissance Center, or as some of the locals call it, the RenCen.

Favourite Recommendation:

In England all you need to do is look at a church. Old English churches are always aligned along an East-West axis with the tower in the west. It is very rare to see an exception to this.

If you look at the church yard surrounding the church you will often see the ground level is lower on the north side. The cold north side is less popular for burials and successive centuries of interments have raised the ground level on the other three sides.