The treatment of wastewater and the protection of water resources is critical to keeping your communities healthy. But the impact is felt far downstream too.
The other day I was watching a short news video online. When it ended, I went back to what I was working on, only to be surprised a minute later when the audio from the next video in the queue started playing in the background. It wasn’t another news clip. The excited talk about finding an undamaged stoneware jug in a creek caught my attention.
I listened to it in the background for a few minutes and finally clicked back on it. That video led me to another and eventually to a YouTube channel. Adventure Archeology is a channel run by a guy in Alabama who mostly walks local creeks in search of antique bottles and other artifacts. He’s remarkably successful.
My mom owned an antique store and I dug through plenty of garages, attics and barns as a kid. I’d learned more about old furniture, tools and glass by the time I finished high school than most people will ever know. So the videos made in search of things — lost treasures — I knew a little about had my interest. It was also pretty interesting to learn that cemeteries were often near dumps in the 1800s to keep disease away from the towns.
I got sucked in watching him pull things from the water, listening to him explain what they were, sometimes knowing what they were before he did. But the more I watched the more my fascination with his finds turned to amazement at the volume of garbage in the creeks and streams he was walking — bottles, cans, buckets, TVs, laptops, phones, shoes, clothes, guns, backpacks, bikes, car parts, toys and tons of tires. Tons of tires. Some was new and some was old, but much of it will persist in those streams for generations. Some has already been there more than a century.
Some pollution clears over time. Tires don’t. But the water keeps flowing. Trash from one town makes its way downstream to another. Small inputs at the top of the system combine and become more significant farther down. What we put in — the litter entering storm drains, FOG, fertilizers, unflushables — and what we take out has long-lasting consequences for people far down the line.
And that goes both ways. Improvements in wastewater and stormwater systems, community education, stream cleanups and good stewardship make a big impact downstream, too. We’ll never stop every entitled person who thinks the local creek is a perfectly suitable place to dispose of their old tires, but the jobs you do and the support you build for protecting and improving water resources in your communities can have a far-reaching impact.
Water will wash some sins away, but not all. Especially if it’s already dirty. Thanks for doing your part.
Enjoy this month’s issue.
