The following news is reprinted with permission from the Mystic River Watershed Association: For years, the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) and its volunteers have helped to document water pollution problems in the Town of Belmont. This week, that hard work paid off. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an Administrative Order onContinue reading “A Victory for Clean Water: Citizen Science Data Leads to Change”
Category Archives: Water
Dragonflies and Damselflies and Algae, Oh My!
Here in the Greater Boston area we’ve just had a discharge of the combined sewer overflow system due to recent heavy rains. This affects the entire Mystic River watershed of which the Alewife Brook watershed is a part. The announcement of the overflow comes at a time when I need a reminder of the reasons why IContinue reading “Dragonflies and Damselflies and Algae, Oh My!”
Oceans Day Mnemonic: DIVE
In honor of World Oceans Day today, DIVE. D is for Drink, as in Drink tap water from a reusable bottle or glass. Those plastic bottles end up in the ocean and require fossil fuels to produce and recycle (that is, when they are recycled rather than ending up in a landfill. The Story ofContinue reading “Oceans Day Mnemonic: DIVE”
Speaking of Backyards: Environmental Justice on the Lam
Really? Oil waste is exempt from federal hazardous waste laws even when it contains the same contaminants that would otherwise be highly regulated? “You elect officials to protect you and you put laws in place to protect not only individuals but communities. I guess we fell through the cracks,” says one nearby resident, who reportedlyContinue reading “Speaking of Backyards: Environmental Justice on the Lam”
Drink This Pearl
No, this is no Alice in Wonderland admonition.
Among doctors, “pearl” is shorthand for “pearl of wisdom.” The ones that are the most commonsensical are the most valuable. Is Drinking Water Week—we’re in the middle of it right now—something to “celebrate” as its sponsor, American Water Works Association, suggests? The availability of potable water is disastrously inadequate in so many places. I’m not keen on doing much celebrating. I do, however, feel grateful to the people who manage my local watershed; to my Cambridge, Mass. neighbors who don’t pour awful things into the storm drains, and to everyone who stays off the roads and walks or bikes or takes the T and thereby makes non-point-source pollution of the water a little bit better
Drink this pearl—a beautiful rant by Dr. Bernard Lown. Enjoy with chaser of tap water.
Cambridge Outdoors 
You must be logged in to post a comment.