The Northland's rivers, streams, and creeks are a beautiful part of our landscape.
Many flow directly into Lake Superior... which holds some of the cleanest water in the world.

You can take steps at home to keep our Northland water pure... as meteorologist Shannon Murphy explains in, "Your Green Life."

Humans have covered the world in dead spots...

"A dead spot is something where we've covered over the surface so you can grow a plant on it. So, it doesn't feed anything. It doesn't clean the air, it doesn't clean the water, and it doesn't cool the area."

Dead spots act as a funnel for toxins to get into our environment, which we have already seen as a problem in the Lake Superior basin, right down in Canal Park.

An eco–friendly option you have at home to reduce water contamination would be to install a green driveway, a sponge–like surface that can absorb some of the problem.

"A one inch rainfall on a ten by ten square foot area roof would produce 60 gallons of water so a standard garage roof, 24 by 24 would produce about 860 gallons of water from a one inch rain. That's 430 water cans of water off of just a standard garage."

The installation of a green driveway starts with a layer of crushed rock, followed by fabric and sand, and then the sheet of plastic cells, which doesn't allow for settling in its pores to occur.
This allows for planted grass to thrive giving it a true "green" image or you could fill the cells with pea gravel.

"If they are planted with grass, they are a living, breathing surface that's cleaning the air, cleaning the water, deadening sound, and changing CO2 back into oxygen again."

You can also use these same materials for walkways, parking lots, and low–traffic roads.

In Duluth, meteorologist Shannon Murphy, the Northland's NewsCenter.

If you were wondering about its durability... this driveway was installed five years ago, has survived Northland winters, and is even strong enough to be plowed.