Cleaning up our Water

Cleaning up our Water
Oil, grease, deadly bacteria and disease are all found in our ponds, rivers, lakes and oceans. Now, a new invention may be the first step to cleaning up our water.

From traffic to urban sprawl, environmentalist Mark Gold says it all leaves our water sources dirty and polluted. "Everything you can think of is a source, whether it's your car, your next door neighbor, yourself," says Mark Gold, Ph.D., an environmentalist from Heal the Bay in Santa Monica, Calif.

One solution for all this pollution is the Smart Sponge Plus. Rodolfo Manzone, Ph.D., a chemist at AbTech Industries in Scottsdale, Ariz., says, "It is a very simple system based on a combination of synthetic polymers."

The Smart Sponge Plus uses the same material found in diapers, roofing, car bumpers, and glue and has an anti-microbial coating that removes pollutants and destroys bacteria. The sponge is placed in existing storm drains to catch the pollutants before they end up in rivers, lakes or the ocean.

Rodolfo says, "It has the capability to absorb, retain oil, grease and nitrocarbons and to lock them in and create solid waste." The sponge can also kill E. coli bacteria. The water in our lakes or rivers may not be safe enough to drink yet, but it is clean enough to swim in. And that's a step in the right direction.
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