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madokie

(51,076 posts)
Fri Jun 27, 2014, 03:01 AM Jun 2014

How a Solar-Powered Water Wheel Can Clean 50,000 Pounds of Trash Per Day From Baltimore’s Inner Har

How a Solar-Powered Water Wheel Can Clean 50,000 Pounds of Trash Per Day From Baltimore’s Inner Harbor
The wheel can help clean the harbor of debris from the city's storm drains.


Reposted with permission from EcoWatch.

A large wheel has been strolling the Baltimore Inner Harbor the past month, doing its best to clean the trash that has littered a city landmark and tourist attraction.

It’s called the Inner Harbor Water Wheel, and though it moves slow, it has the capability to collect 50,000 pounds of trash. The timing for John Kellett’s solar-powered creation is crucial—hands and crab nets simply can’t keep up with the growing amount of wrappers, cigarette butts, bottles and other debris carried from storm drains into the harbor.

“It looks sort of like a cross between a spaceship and a covered wagon and an old mill,” says Kellett told NPR. “It’s pretty unique in its look, but it’s also doing a really good job getting this trash out of the water.”

The wheel has become an integral part of the Healthy Harbor Waterfront Partnership Initiative. It receives power from the Jones Falls river’s current near the harbor, which turns the wheel and lifts trash from the water into a dumpster barge. A solar panel array keeps it running when there water current isn’t enough.


http://www.alternet.org/environment/solar-powered-water-wheel-can-clean-50000-lbs-trash-day
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How a Solar-Powered Water Wheel Can Clean 50,000 Pounds of Trash Per Day From Baltimore’s Inner Har (Original Post) madokie Jun 2014 OP
there's truly great device,can we make a few thousand of them for the mid-ocenas too? nt msongs Jun 2014 #1
K&R.. mahalo madokie! Cha Jun 2014 #2
Kicking. nt littlemissmartypants Jun 2014 #3
It is like a pool skimmer, but solar powered. hollysmom Jun 2014 #4
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