Communities can’t exist without good housing, solid housing development that is fair, equitable and just. That’s where I see us moving.
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I want my daughter to grow up with green space to run in and clean air to breathe, under the cooling shade of trees.
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It’s no secret that infrastructure—including electric grids, fossil fuel pipelines, public transportation lines, bridges, railways, and roads—are in a rapid state of decline in the U.S., and that there is not nearly enough money allocated to their repair and maintenance. Central to that problem and probably the most alarming aspect of it is the fact that water infrastructure systems—the pipes that bring us treated water and the sewer lines that take waste water away—are in various states of disrepair all around the country.
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Presented by the U.S. Water Alliance, the One Water Summit is a conference that seeks to bring people from all over the country, from a variety of professions, to exchange knowledge and develop strategies for achieving “a sustainable water future for all” — that is, a future where everyone has access to sufficient quantities of clean water and where water management practices are tied to healthy and thriving ecosystems, communities, and economies.
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Gentrification. Those of us who work in water cities and towns inevitably encounter it. As a result, we must discuss what it means, analyze our own role in the process, and come up with solutions.
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You may have heard the terms point and nonpoint source pollution. To demystify these terms a bit, a point source is a known source of pollutants, such as a factory or a sewer treatment plant. Nonpoint sources are everything else: lawns, roofs, construction sites, driveways, and roads. Pollution from these sources can take a variety of forms, including mud, bacteria, fertilizers, and toxic waste like oil and paint. Stormwater collects these pollutants from multiple sources, then introduces them directly into our streams, rivers, and lakes.
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The average American produces a little over four pounds of trash each day. Even though many of us recycle, the amount of waste we produce is still higher than it was in the sixties. Together, Americans produce 220 million tons of waste annually, 55% of which end up in landfills (unless you live in San Francisco, which has managed to divert 80% of its collective trash to recycling and composting programs, and is well on its way toward the end goal of producing “zero waste” as a city). And while businesses, schools, and hospitals produce a lot of trash as well, 65% of the trash found in today’s landfills is produced by individual households.
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At scales ranging from the neighborhood and city to the watershed and basin, communities around the country are finding ways to break down silos in water management to become more sustainable and to more equitably maximize benefits across their community and watershed. River Network is hosting a series of webinars with support from the Urban Waters Learning Network and the Pisces Foundation on Integrated Water Management, which cover multiple examples of how these approaches are taking root across the country.
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It really was a “Watershed Awakening”…the growing awareness and eventual decision made by Calvin College to turn its attention to Plaster Creek, the impaired creek that drains the watershed in which the college is situated in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Back in 2002, Calvin College began involving students in service-learning activities that evolved into today’s Plaster Creek Stewards, a highly successful collaboration of college faculty and students, urban residents, local churches and schools, and community partners working to restore the health and beauty of our 58 square mile watershed.
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