Water Flows One Way
Time to get a bit science-y on you:
A bit over 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. About 96.5% of all of our water is in our oceans. All of the water that has ever been on Earth is still on Earth.
Get that last part?
Our early atmosphere, way back before dinosaurs and politicians (though not all politicians), was comprised of tasty things like hydrogen, ammonia, and methane. As these things began to bump into each other and bind together, some of them teamed up to create water. It rose high into the ether, then got tired and fell as rain. It puddled, pooled, streamed, and laked, then evaporated and rose high into the ether. Until it got tired and fell as rain. It’s an endless cycle. So all of the water that has ever been on Earth is still on Earth.
And we’re screwing it up.
Streams and rivers run north and south and east and west. With very few exceptions, however, they don’t run uphill. The Mighty Mississippi has run uphill a few times, due to earthquakes and the like. There have been cases of rivers that have become so overused and degraded that the lakes and bays that signaled their terminus began to flow back towards the source. Water, for all intents and purposes, however, flows downhill. As does everything that we put in our water.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is getting ready to host World Cup Soccer. After that, they’ll host the Summer Olympics – pretty sweet deal for Rio. As part of their Summer Olympics package, they’ll host events in water sports like rowing, windsurfing, and sailing. They plan on holding these events in Guanabara Bay. It’s a special place – you can walk on the water. This is due in large part to the enormous amount of waste in the bay. In addition to the usual plastics and paper, you’ll see floating tires, mattresses, and animal carcasses. Folks who have traveled to Rio to “test the waters” prior to an Olympic appearance, have stated that the smell was so bad that they didn’t want to dip a toe, much less dive in. Windsurfers and sailors who actually came into contact with Guanabara water came out in rashes and sores.
All of that garbage started somewhere.
A few weeks ago, a train derailed in Lynchburg. While thankfully nobody was hurt, and in the great scheme of things it wasn’t a huge environmental disaster, it did manage to spill a bit of crude oil into the James River. Folks downhill from Lynchburg took to feverishly testing their own waters to see if they were getting a whiff of that oil. Eventually, that fouled water would end up in the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay, you see, is downhill from Lynchburg.
When you look at the watershed for the Chesapeake, it’s huge. It encompasses over ¾ of Virginia, and a surprising amount of the East Coast. From the Appalachian Mountains east, you see, it all goes downhill, and into the Chesapeake. As does your trash and chemicals.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is dedicated to protecting this historic and important waterway through education, advocacy, litigation, and restoration. They do a lot of cool stuff. They’re currently trying to sway our legislators into approving the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint. The main goal of the Blueprint is to monitor and set goals for the Total Maximum Daily Load that can be emptied into the Bay. This means chemicals and pollution. 21 states, including such far-away places as Montana and Texas, have signaled an opposition to the Blueprint. Virginia, thankfully, filed a brief in support of the plan. You can click here to read more from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and sign their petition.
So think about this as you walk past discarded litter and ponder your lawn care. What we discard flows downhill. The last time anyone walked across the Bay it was on the backs of oyster beds. That’s been a long time ago, but it would be nice to do it again.