Young Friends Go Green - Love the River @ MFM


Jillian and Dylan go Green promoting "I LOVE THE RIVER." They became the newest Friends for Our Riverfront at Memphis Farmers Market Downtown October 6th. Photo courtesy of Melinda Spiegel.

If YOU have a snapshot of your kids going green and loving our Memphis Riverfront, please email your photos to info@friendsforourriverfront.org. Help us start an exra-special page celebrating our "Youngsters Going Green! " Your kids are our future!

U.S Clean Water Act – Celebrating 40

In 1972, passage of the Clean Water Act was a game changer. As Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project and lead water expert for National Geographic’s Freshwater Initiative, wrote:
It forbade cities and industries from using rivers and lakes as waste receptacles. And it shifted the burden of proof about pollution’s harms from the government to polluters: the Act required dischargers to have a permit, and mandated the adoption of technology-based pollution controls. 
The Act also set an ambitious goal: by 1985 the nation’s waters should be “fishable and swimmable.
There has been much progress -- healthier water to drink; cleaner streams, rivers, and lakes; lower rates of wetland loss. Forty years ago the Hudson River was more of an industrial waste conveyance than a great waterway. Today, thanks to the Clean Water Act and citizen action from groups like Hudson Riverkeeper, who stood up to polluters and gave meaning and force to the Clean Water Act, the Hudson River is a model of ecosystem revitalization.

But the goal has not been met. In our own Wolf River Harbor signs are posted warning that fish caught there are contaminated and inedible. The trash and debris in McKellar Lake has been labeled by Living Lands and Waters as one of the worst examples of pollution. It is time for the City and Memphians to make stewardship of our rivers, creeks, and streams a top City priority.

Ms.Postel suggests six priorities for the U. S. for the next 40 years: * clarify the Act, * provide stronger incentives (or requirements), * address pollution from storm water, * bring the energy production practice of hydraulic fracturing under the purview of the Clean Water Act (as well as the Safe Drinking Water Act) and establish permitting requirements that safeguard * reinvigorate water conservation and efficiency * restore natural flow patterns to rivers. For the article, click HERE.