This week marks the 45th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Much progress has been made in that time to clean up our waterways. Image, at the time this act was passed there were rivers so polluted they burned with fire. As we learned in our tour of the Anacostia River last fall, pollution from a closed powerplant, improperly capped landfill areas, and massive raw sewage dumps are still causing harm in that local river. Recent reversals of regulations protecting our waterways have the potential to cause great harm, erasing the past decades' forward progress in protecting water.
How can you help? Contact local, state an federal representatives to let them know that clean water matters to you. Regardless of political party, clean water is something that all should be able to come together on. Join your local watershed group and learn what needs to be done in your community to protect water. Set an example and share information with family and friends: reduce fertilizer and pesticide use, reduce household and garden water consumption, installing rain barrels, install a rain garden or conservation landscaping if appropriate to your property, scoop and properly dispose of pet waste, reduce impervious surfaces on your property. Help at our Pleasant View project -- w're improving storm water management while creating native plant habitat for the Muddy Branch watershed.
Please share your ideas and water stewardship with us. Also, you might check with your local church to see if it has a storm water management plan. I'm happy to report that our Kentlands Ward LDS chapel has a plan which includes having an area of native trees and other plants where water that drains from our parking lot and church roof is cleaned naturally and then recharges the groundwater.
