River Cleanup Day

River Cleanup Day

River Cleanup Day is a day to bring awareness about where our water comes from, what we do with our water resources, what causes harm to our water resources, and what we can do to prevent further issues. It is also a day about educating ourselves and others and coming together as a community to build healthy, sustainable ways to maintain our Earth and more specifically our rivers. 

In the U.S. about three-fourths of the fresh water withdrawn each year comes from rivers, lakes, and reservoirs; one-fourth comes from groundwater aquifers. In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that the United States uses an estimation of about 322 billion gallons of water per day.

Water Use in the U.S.

8% domestic use
33% agriculture
59% industry
Over 600 gallons per day per person in the U.S. is being diverted for farm irrigation and livestock use from natural aquatic sources.
More than half the people in the U.S. get their water from groundwater.

Water Pollution

According to the World Health Organization, over 2 billion people drink from contaminated water. Here are examples of how much water is affected due to different types of pollution: A gallon of paint or a quart of motor oil can seep into the earth and pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water. A spilled gallon of gasoline can pollute 750,000 gallons of water.

Organizations That Are Doing Cleanups

• National River Cleanup
• The Greenway Foundation
• River Cleanup World
• Living Lands and Waters
• The Ocean Cleanup

5 Most Common Things Found at a River Cleanup

• Cigarette butts
• Plastic bottles and bottle caps
• Food packaging
• Aluminium cans
• Plastic bags

Ways to Help Keep Rivers Clean

• Educate yourself about how and why water gets polluted
• Cutdown on your plastic use
• Hold companies accountable
• Be aware of usage of chemicals in lawn and garden care
• Recognize the harm personal litter causes
• Volunteer
• Donate
• Watch what you flush
• Conserve water
• Watch what you eat
• Properly dispose of hazardous household items
• Service your septic system
• Landscape with native plants
• Eliminate bare spots in your yard - the outcome of having any type of bare spot is the same: stormwater hits the ground and is not able to soak into the soil
• Make a rain garden and/or install rain barrels
• If you live on the water, build a living shoreline
• Resurface with permeable pavers - Time to replace that crumbling driveway? Consider using permeable pavers that allow runoff to soak into the ground and be filtered naturally rather than runoff into the nearest storm drain.
• Remove animal poop
• Participate in a local training or certification program - learn how to engage communities about identifying and solving environmental problems
• Reach out to your elected officials
• Keep-up-to-date on environmental news
• Be aware of and understand your carbon footprint
• Share what you know with others

How to Plan Your Own Cleanup

Here is a guide to help plan your own cleanup and get involved in your community and also a guide about helpful safety tips when planning a cleanup.

KEEP UP THE GOOD!

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