I remember being in grade school, and my school was having an Earth Day celebration.  This was my first encounter with being educated about protecting our environment, and it inspired me to do what I could to make a difference.  

I did small acts then, like encouraging my family to recycle and reduce their water use. In high school, I pushed to implement a recycling program. In college, I became a Penn State Eco-Rep, and I teach students how they can live a more sustainable lifestyle.  Currently, I am a student intern in EPA Mid-Atlantic’s Water Protection Division.  All of these acts and the ones in between would not have been possible if I was not motivated when being educated on environmental protection from an early age.  EPA agrees that environmental education is vital in helping to conserve and protect our environment and takes time to recognize schools that make outstanding efforts to groom the next generation of environmentalists.  

School may be out for summer, but students and schools in the Schuylkill River watershed haven’t taken a vacation from protecting their watershed.  Some of these schools recognize the importance of teaching the younger generations about environmental topics such as water conservation and pollution sources. And they are not only teaching but also modeling good practices in management of their own facilities.

For their part in protecting drinking water sources through educational programs, class projects, and land management practices, several schools, colleges, and universities were recognized at the 2011 Schuylkill Action Network Drinking Water Scholastic Awards. This event was hosted at Upper Perkiomen School District Education Center in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. In attendance was EPA Region 3 Deputy Regional Administrator Bill Early who spoke about the importance of environmental education. Some environmental acts that were recognized included: installing rain gardens, planting and repairing buffers, and testing water. Some students also created educational videos to educate the watershed community on why it’s important to keep our water clean.

Click on the picture above to watch a video overview of the 2011 Schuylkill Action Network Drinking Water Scholastic Awards. Click on the link to learn more about the Schuylkill Action Network and how they are promoting education and outreach.  Have kids at home?  How are you educating them about environmental protection? Leave a comment and let us know!

I’d like to tell you about alien invaders…no, not Martians from outer space, but plants from the other side of our own planet.  In this case, it’s not an unidentified flying object we’re worried about, but an invasive floating plant.

The European water chestnut (Trapa natans) is an invasive, partially submerged aquatic plant that was introduced to the U.S. in the 1920s from Eastern Europe. It has spread through watersheds within the Chesapeake Bay watershed such as the Potomac River, Sassafras and Bird rivers of Maryland, and the lower Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.  Recently, it has begun to impact smaller, local watersheds closer to EPA’s Philadelphia regional office where I work, such as the Perkiomen Creek Watershed in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Why should you care – aren’t water chestnuts those yummy things that you can find in Chinese food? Not these water chestnuts! The European water chestnut consists of multiple rosettes, with long cord-like stems that can be as long as 16 feet, forming dense floating mats and making the waters  a pain for boating and fishing. As if impeding your recreation out on the open water wasn’t enough, the seedpods typically have four barbed spines that are sharp enough to penetrate shoes as you scamper in the shallow waters of impacted areas. Ouch! 

As far as the native ecosystem is concerned, the floating foliage severely limits the passage of light into the water, reduces oxygen levels in the water, and reduces growth of native aquatic species, all of which are needed to maintain a well-functioning aquatic ecosystem. And these water chestnuts are definitely not good to put in your salad or stir fry. 

How prolific is this invasive plant? Each plant produces up to 20 seedpods per rosette and each seedpod can live for up to 12 years. In one year, one plant can produce 300 new plants! European water chestnuts prefer slow-moving and nutrient-rich waters, like man-made or natural ponds, and shallow creeks. The water chestnut begins to flower in late July.  The nuts ripen one month later and seed production continues into the fall.

What can you do to help stop the spread of these invaders? If there is European water chestnut (or other invasive aquatic plants) where you recreate:

Remove  the aquatic plant from all parts of your boat, trailer, fishing gear and accessory equipment. Dispose of the removed material in the garbage.

Drain all water from your boat including your bilges, live wells, buckets and other water containers before leaving the water access area.

Wash your boat and gear thoroughly with regular tap water when you get home. Flush water through any part of the boat that contained water from the waterway including motor’s cooling system, live well and any other area that holds water. Dry equipment and boats in a sunny location before using them in a new body of water. 

Volunteer with your local watershed organization if there is European water chestnut where you live. 

I recently had the pleasure of joining the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, which is organizing hand-pulling parties all summer long, in order to remove the plant before it begins to flower and go to seed. Not sure whether you have a watershed organization where you live?

You can surf your watershed to find out. The best way to keep invasive plants out of our waters is to be informed about what species are a threat in our region and in the rest of the country.  Do you know of invasive plants in the waters where you live and recreate?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created the WaterSense program in preparation for the future to address the issue of water conservation. WaterSense is a partnership program by the EPA to protect the future of the nation’s water supply, by promoting water efficiency and showing people simple ways to use less water with water efficient products, new homes, and services. WaterSense labeled products cover a variety of brands and models of bathroom sinks, kitchen faucets, toilets, flushing urinals, and showerheads that use much less water than conventional models.  And they’re available at stores near you, in the Mid-Atlantic Region and beyond! 

Services like professional landscape irrigation can also bear the WaterSense label, if the individual performing them has been verified as proficient in water efficient irrigation design, installation, and maintenance.  What other water-based services can you think of that could be WaterSense labeled?

The WaterSense program has had great successes in water, energy, and dollar savings so far.  EPA estimates that if the approximately 587,600 new homes that were built in the U.S. last year had met WaterSense criteria, five billion gallons of water and more than $50 million in utility bills would have been saved annually.  Do you have any WaterSense labeled products in your house?  You can calculate how much you would save if you did. Hopefully in a brighter future, programs like WaterSense can be implemented in areas and homes all around the world.

The WaterSense program is working hard to make sure that our future includes clean water, but something this complex can not be done alone.  Please tell us something you’re doing to save water.  Got a good idea?  We’d love to know about it.

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.”  

- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1746.

There are approximately seven billion people in the world and I am just one of those people. Born in one of the poorest countries in the world, Albania, I know what it feels like to have no direct access to clean drinking water.  My family had to climb mountains for hours every weekend in order to fill up huge buckets, barrels and bottles with clean, fresh water in order to meet our basic needs. The Earth’s surface is covered with over 70% of water; however something many may not be aware of is that less than 1% percent of that water is clean enough to be used for human needs.  

How much water do think you use each day?  Estimates vary, but the average U.S citizen uses 158 gallons (600 liters) of water every day.  To think of it another way, multiply that 158 gallons per day of use by the 311,763,576 million people living in the U.S., and then consider the rest of the world…

Plus, 10 percent of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more each day (for example, a showerhead leaking 10 drips per minute wastes enough water in a year to run a dishwasher 60 times). The amount of water leaked from U.S. homes could exceed more than one trillion gallons per year. That’s equivalent to the annual water use of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami combined!  

Closer to home, retrofitting just 20% of households in the Mid-Atlantic with water-efficient fixtures could save more than 65 billion gallons of water and more than 215 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually—that’s enough water to supply Philadelphia residents for more than seven months and enough electricity to power 243,000 households for one month. 

That comes to my main point of thought:  there is a limited amount of clean water to go around, and a constantly increasing population that demands it. 

What is EPA doing to help us conserve this crucial resource? Tune in next week to find out!