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I traced the creek's algae bloom to our mortar washout | Bricklayers - The Community Guide

I traced the creek's algae bloom to our mortar washout

Recently, I was on a job site next to a small creek. We washed out our mixers and tools, letting the dirty water soak into the ground. Soon after, the creek was covered in thick green algae. A local environmental guy told me the lime in mortar adds phosphorus to water, causing algae blooms that kill fish. Now, I use a containment pit to catch all the washwater and let it settle before disposal. It takes a little extra time, but it stops the pollution. We all need to adopt this practice to protect our waterways. Ignoring this could lead to fines and harm our environment.

3 comments

3 Comments

sarahs276mo ago

honestly i used to brush off stuff like that, thinking it just soaked into the dirt and that was that. reading how the lime adds phosphorus straight to the water really flipped a switch for me. it's wild how something so normal on a job site can mess up a whole creek. the risk of fines is one thing, but killing fish because we didn't take an extra hour to set up a pit? that's just bad practice. totally changed how i handle washout now.

lisa_roberts646mo ago

But here's the thing, @sarahs27, sometimes the eco stuff just isn't practical on a real site with real deadlines (and real budget limits). That extra hour for a proper pit costs money, and clients aren't exactly lining up to pay for it. Most of that runoff gets filtered by the soil anyway before it hits any creek, so the whole fish kill thing feels like a worst case scare story. The fines are pretty rare if you're even a little careful, so it often comes down to just getting the job done.

christopher_hunt3mo ago

Started doing the extra hour on washout pits last year after a buddy got hit with a surprise inspection. Cost me maybe two hours total across a whole job, but the peace of mind was worth it. The soil thing works sometimes, but not when you hit clay or get a hard rain that sends everything straight to the ditch. Never had a client complain about it when I explained the fine could run five figures.