August 2020 has been proclaimed National Water Quality Month. A website devoted to this observance features a five-minute video in which former U.S. Congressman Jim Oberstar tells about the struggle to pass the Clean Water Act in 1972. This effort was fueled, in no small part, by public outcry following an episode in which Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire during the summer of 1969. In Martin Doyle’s book The Source: How Rivers Made America and America Remade its Rivers, you can read more about the intriguing and surprising convergence of events that led up to this important action by Congress.
As has been borne out by many subsequent events such as those in Flint, Michigan, good water quality is essential to everyone. To many Houstonians, it may come as a surprise that approximately 80% of our own area’s streams are unable to meet state water quality standards – most often due to elevated levels of bacteria. You can view a listing of these troubled waters on the 2020 Texas Integrated Report Index of Water Quality Impairments. Unwilling to let this situation go unaddressed, numerous efforts such as locally-based Watershed Partnerships are underway. The impetus for many of these initiatives can be traced back to that same Clean Water Act.
In observance of National Water Quality Month, how about getting involved in an activity that matches up with your personal interests, such as by collecting water quality data as a Citizen Scientist, participating in a watershed-based water quality program, getting your hands muddy on a habitat conservation project, or volunteering at a local nature center?
