Keeping our waterways clean is extremely important, so when a list like America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2012, presented by American Rivers, comes out it truly puts into perspective how much work is still needed to clean up our rivers, oceans, lakes and every other body of water.

The Potomac River, which runs through Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Washington D.C., has been named this year’s most endangered river. The Potomac flows for 380 miles and provides 5 million people with drinking water. That’s kind of scary, especially since it’s considered endangered and contains urban pollution.

Ironically, even President Lyndon B. Johnson found the river dirty as he is known for calling the river “a national disgrace,” Treehugger reports. His remarks were even cause for the Clean Water Act of 1972 that works to improve, protect and preserve rivers.

Well, thanks to American Rivers, a conservation organization that fights for the beautification and health of our rivers, this list can hopefully open others eyes to the importance of protecting waterways. The organization has been creating this particular list since 1986.

Here are the other rivers that also made the list.
1. Potomac River
2. The Green River
3. The Chattahoochee River
4. The Missouri River
5. The Hoback River
6. The Grand River
7. The South Fork Skykomish River
8. The Crystal River
9. The Coal River
10. The Kansas River

To learn about these endangered rivers, click here.

Photo Credit: Flickr/NCinDC, American Rivers

The Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) has named Zuvo Water’s Bright Line one of its top 20 “must-see” new products of 2012.

Known for its global, innovated, intelligent water filtration products, Zuvo Water recently expanded its product line with Bright Line. The line includes smart and stylish faucets equipped with new technology, all while providing hot, cold and filtered water.

For example, the Triflow Bamboo faucet notifies homeowners when the filter needs changed through LED lights. A smartphone app is also available for monitoring water consumption, filter status and local filtering reports from their local towns and cities. How sufficient is that?

Tomorrow, Zuvo Water will officially launch the product at KBIS, but for fans and followers Zuvo posted a special sneak peak on Facebook. Check it out!

KBIS will be held in Chicago on April 24 – April 26. If you’re attending or are in the area, be sure to visit and check out Zuvo Water in Booth 656. For more information, visit Zuvo Water’s website and learn more about their complete product line.

Photo Credit: Zuvo Water

We are at a time in our environment that all the help our planet receives is much appreciated. One specific part of our planet that is in need of constant attention is our oceans; conservation is key. The film “Ocean Frontiers” is bringing to light the devastation our oceans are suffering from, along with “returning common sense to these troubled times.”

The website reads, “[the film] takes a balanced, bipartisan approach to both the problems we face in managing our oceans and the solutions at hand. The film features on-the-ground reporting from places across the country that are at the forefront of implementing promising new approaches to ocean and coastal management.”

The film illustrates “unlikely allies” joining forces and coming up with solutions to create a healthier, safer environment and industry. The film confronts conflicts within the eco-system; all while helping audiences understand key principles and showing new approaches to ocean management.

Produced by Green Fire Productions, the filmmakers traveled across the country “capturing stories of these ocean pioneers—people who are embarking on a new course of stewardship, in defense of the seas that sustain them.”

Eco News Network had the privilege of attending the premiere at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Mass. sponsored by the Conservation Law Foundation. The film was an eye-opener of possibilities–how even what goes on in the farm communities of Iowa impacts the Gulf of Mexico and the ocean at large.

It presents conservation and business as the partners they need to be in order for natural resources and the environment to regain balance. From the busy shipping lanes of Boston Harbor to a small fishing community in the Pacific Northwest; from America’s coral reefs in the Florida Keys to the nation’s premier seafood nursery in the Mississippi Delta, the film presents how unlikely allies, of industrial shippers and whale biologists, pig farmers and wetland ecologists, sport and commercial fishermen, reef snorkelers can cooperate to care for the ocean and all of the lives it supports.

Many organizations are sponsoring “Ocean Frontiers” and hosting screenings across the country. If you want to participate, here is a list of screenings from coast-to-coast; and if you want to host a screening all you have to do is apply and wait for materials to be shipped.

Be sure to visit the website and watch the trailer below for more information and see how you can become an ocean steward.

Via Ocean Frontiers

-Allyson Koerner

Photo Credit: Ocean Frontiers

Today is a special day, as it marks World Water Day. Millions go without water every day and this day is a reminder about not only how lucky we are, but to remember to lend a helping hand to those in need. Celebrate with us as we look what this day truly means and how you can help!

Here are just a few of the astonishing facts about the water crisis according to WaterDay.org and Water.org.
• One out of every eight people worldwide lacks safe drinking water.
• Two out of every five people lack adequate sanitation.
• Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related illness.
• More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.
• Women spend 200 million hours a day collecting water.

Many organizations are out there to help you get involved. Here are just a few: Water.org, Water for People, Water4 Foundation and charity:water.

Remember, in addition to today, any day of the year you can help those suffering from the water crisis.

-Allyson Koerner

Photo Credit: Water.org via Flickr

Tomorrow is World Water Day and Zuvo Water is asking for your help to benefit this special day. All you have to do is share your thoughts on the importance of water and you could win a Zuvo Water Filtration System. Sounds like a great way to gain a new product and celebrate water!

Here is a link to Zuvo Water’s Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zuvo-Water/30781109418

The purpose of World Water Day is to focus attention on the vital urgency for clean, accessible water. It is a day of advocating for and highlighting sustainable resources through wise management of the world’s water. Events are organized on or around this day to increase people’s awareness of water’s importance in the environment, agriculture, health and trade. The first World Water Day was held in 1993, after the United Nations adopted a resolution in December 1992, declaring March 22 to be the World Day for Water each year.

Zuvo Water is doing its part to help highlight the need for preserving precious water and environmental resources both in its products and actions. By combining ultraviolet light, ozone and filtration in a patented five-step process, the Zuvo Water Filtration System recreates nature’s way of cleansing water and reducing contaminants, while preserving the water’s natural and healthy mineral content. In addition to the health benefits of providing safe and great tasting drinking water, the product also reduces the expense and waste of bottled water by not adding to the more than 60 million plastic water bottles that end up in landfills every year. Additionally, Zuvo Water also donates all of its profits from the sale of its water bottles to help fund safe water access in Africa and bring potable water to rural villagers (for more information, visit www.zuvowater.com).

With its World Water Day Facebook contest, Zuvo Water hopes to inspire its fans and the larger community by bringing them together to share their thoughts on the value of water to them. “Water resources are increasingly under pressure all over the world, and we are excited to offer this forum to highlight the need to preserve this precious commodity, as well as to celebrate our appreciation of water and commemorate World Water Day,” states Andy Butler, CEO of Zuvo Water.

Photo Credit: Zuvo Water

With World Water Day tomorrow, many people are thinking of ways to improve water quality, or to even use it as clean energy. The Charles River Watershed Association is taking a different approach, using water to solve urban environmental problems. The Blue Cities program seeks to redesign and improve city infrastructure, ultimately improving the Charles River’s health.

“The biggest issue is runoff water,” said Julie Wood, watershed scientist for CRWA. “So we came up with ways to treat runoff before it gets to the river with vegetative practices, which means, trees.”

When it rains, water flows into the Charles from the dirty city streets, taking with it trash and bacteria. Therefore, the Blue Cities objective is to filter the water with vegetation before it reaches the river. According to the program’s official guide, CRWA “has developed a suite of tools and an approach to the urban environment that will help create a new kind of place: a Blue City.”

Applying techniques such as Low Impact Development, Green Buildings, Green Infrastructure, Green Corridors and stormwater management, CRWA has revamped sites in North Allston, Longwood Medical and Academic Area, and the Muddy River and Back Bay Fens, among others.

For example, one project took place on Everett Street in North Allston. Started in February 2008, CRWA developed a Green Street demonstration project along a section of this street. According to its site, “The project involved the design and construction of a system of green infrastructure that maximizes the use of street tree cover for stormwater interception as well as temperature and air quality improvement and as a result illustrates the connection between green infrastructure, stormwater management and ultimately water quality.”

Everett Street in North Allston before and after implementation.

“Using water as a foundation for planning and design leads to a whole host of benefits: more pleasant streets; integrated public open space; a cleaner, more accessible river; and infrastructure that is flexible and resilient,” according to the project guide.

According to the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, last year the city had an average of 59.72 inches of rain. Here are just a few ways vegetation can help the environment.

• Plants help absorb and filter the water, preventing an increase in water contamination, and aid with overflow or flooding.
• Sidewalk rain gardens improve water quality.
• Green roofs slow and filter runoff and insulate buildings.
• Bioretention areas prevent flooding.
• Porous pavement allows rain to filter through.
• Street trees help with water treatment and air quality.

The green infrastructure techniques make it happen, as well as collaboration with other environmental and advocacy groups, such as the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston Environment Department, Boston Transportation Department, Boston Water and Sewer Commission, Allston Civic Association, Allston Brighton Green Space Advocates, Harvard Green Campus Initiative, among others.

If everything goes according to plan, the CRWA is looking at impressive results, including the reduction of total runoff volume by 34 percent. In terms of contamination, the total phosphorous level would be reduced by 25 percent, nitrate by 40 percent, TKN (organic and ammonia nitrogen) by 27 percent, copper by 42 percent, lead by 47 percent, zinc by 47 percent and cadmium by 45 percent.

As stated in CRWA’s project guide, “our cities must change. We can influence how they function and look, and how we will feel in them. With creativity, flexibility and unshakable will we can implement change that treats water as the precious, sustainable resource that it is. It is our responsibility to do so.”

For more information about World Water Day and the Charles River, be sure to read our other articles.

-Alexandra Gyarfas

Photo Credit: Flickr/monkeyatlarge, CRWA

Prehistoric, endangered, and in the Charles River; an Atlantic Sturgeon pays a visit to the Boston Harbor. Found swimming close to the North End, this surprising spotting brings attention back to the river’s improving ecosystem and the importance of its maintenance just in time for World Water Day.

According to the Maryland DNR Fisheries Service, the Sturgeon has been around since the Cretaceous period, more than 120 million years ago. It is characterized by its size (between 4 and 6 feet), its arched back with a single row of bony plates, down sloped head and cartilaginous skin.

The Sturgeon was once abundant in the Boston Harbor. According to watershed scientist for the Charles River Watershed Association, Julie Wood, this species used to be “all over the place, it was a huge food source during Colonial times.” However, when the Industrial revolution came around, the Charles contamination and the massive dam construction scared the Sturgeons away.

“The Sturgeon is like the Salmon; it is born in the river, goes out to the ocean to live its adult life, and then comes back to the river to die,” said Wood. “When all the dams were built in the Charles, it blocked the fish’s passage, it couldn’t return.”

The Atlantic Sturgeon spotted in the Charles River by Rick Bellitti.

Bellitti’s timing could not have been any better. The Sturgeon was declared an endangered species this year on January 31, only weeks before being seen in the Charles. Although its presence in the river does not guarantee the existence of any more species in the area, it still speaks to the Charles’ improvement and healthier ecosystem.

“It is good news,” said Wood. “We can’t say there are lots more, but it is nice to hear good environmental news for a change.”

The CRWA is still working on making the Charles come back to life by improving its water passage for the inhabitant fish. By exposing the consequences of the dams (some of which are not even useful anymore), they promote advocacy aiming at their removal.

“We alone cannot do this,” said Wood. “But if a community comes together and protests a dam, there will be results.”

Click here to read our series about this year’s World Water Day.

-Alexandra Gyarfas

Photo Credit: Flickr / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region, Rick Bellitti

The Water4 Foundation, a 501(c)3 public charity based out of Oklahoma City, announced yesterday the launch of its campaign for World Water Day, the United Nations-designated international day held annually on March 22. Celebrities such as actress Jennie Garth of “90210,” former Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Gerald McCoy have joined in to raise awareness for the campaign, which kicked off yesterday with the opening of the World Water Day Photo Contest, held in partnership with World Vision.

“World Water Day is a moment for all of us in the water and sanitation sector to join forces and highlight the progress being made, as well as reaffirm our commitment to the work that remains to be done,” said Greenly. “By bringing innovative techniques and a business-based approach to our projects and partners in places like Togo, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Haiti, we’ve made significant strides toward helping to address the world’s water crisis.”

Starting in 1993, World Water Day has focused attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. One in eight people across the globe lack access to clean water and 4,100 children die each day from problems related to unclean drinking water, making the issue one of the world’s leading humanitarian crises. Furthermore, drought still ranks as the single most common cause of severe food shortages in developing countries.

As part of its efforts to bring attention to this crisis, Water4 has launched its World Water Day Photo Contest, which encourages people to submit a creative photo showing how much water it takes to produce an everyday food item. Water4 and World Vision, which will partner with Water4 on the contest, will accept submissions through March 23, 2012, after which Water4 ambassador Jennie Garth will judge the winning photo. More information on the contest can be found on Water4’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/water4foundation.

“I am so proud to be able to support World Water Day and the work that the Water4 Foundation is doing around the world, helping to bring clean water to children and families in need,” said Garth. “Often we forget how important clean water is for so many things– such as health, education, empowerment of women, food security– and this World Water Day we hope to raise awareness of its impact and encourage people to help in any way they can.”

The global clean water crisis has drawn many to support World Water Day and the work of Water4 and other organizations. “Having been to Africa and experienced firsthand how clean drinking water can change lives, I’m continually reminded of what a gift clean water is,” said Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Gerald McCoy. “It’s important to spread the message of World Water Day and the great strides that organizations like Water4 are making towards ensuring that everyone has access to something so simple yet so necessary.”

“My mom instilled in me as a young kid the importance of giving back,” said Roy Williams, former Dallas Cowboys safety and current sideline reporter for University of Oklahoma football games. “I’ve been honored to travel to countries in need and personally lend a hand, but even supporting Water4 and World Water Day from right here in America can go a long way towards saving children around the world.”

The Water4 Foundation will also support the Anabel Reid Run for Water, a fundraising event taking place at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas on March 23-24, 2012 that will honor the memory of Anabel Reid, an ACU student passionate about charity and mission work who was involved with the Water4 Foundation before she passed away on November 4, 2011. Proceeds from the run will benefit the Water4 Anabel Reid Memorial Fund.

Finally, those local to the Oklahoma City area will have a chance to see for themselves the unique Water4 approach that has helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world gain access to clean water when Water4 holds its World Water Day Open House at its facilities. Visitors are invited to tour the facility and watch a drilling demonstration.

Photo Credit: Water4 Foundation

World Water Day is only eight days and to celebrate we will be posting a series in honor of this special day. From water organizations to animals living in bodies of water to keeping water clean, we will be posting articles until World Water Day on March 22. Keep your eyes peeled daily for new stories and be sure to stay updated on this meaningful day.

If you’ve ever been in Boston, you have probably walked along the Esplanade, crossed the Massachusetts Ave. Bridge, or seen the view from beautiful Storrow Drive, in which case you have paused to admire the Charles River. A few decades back, the stench of its polluted waters drove everyone away, but thanks to many local organizations, the river has been awarded with a very important prize and just in time for World Water Day!

On March 22, this year’s World Water Day, the Charles River Watershed Association will be hosting a special celebration. After decades of hard work to revive the Charles River, a task most locals deemed impossible, the organization won the Thiess International River Prize, the world’s most prestigious environmental award. And what better way to celebrate than to honor those who made it possible?

“Last September, CRWA was awarded, on behalf of the Charles River, the International River Prize, and that’s given out by a group called the International River Foundation,” said Watershed Scientist Julie Wood, who has been a part of CRWA since 2006.

“Basically they look for a river that has had measurable environmental improvements, and then they try to look at how the river got there,” said Wood. “So they want to look at innovative practices [and] innovative management approaches.”

According to Wood, the river has been affected by centuries of contamination and pollution. The Industrial Revolution had a heavy impact, contaminating the water with industrial waste, and using the Charles for sewage.

“In the early 1900s it was actually so smelly in the Downtown area where the Esplanade is, it was so smelly and disease infested, that basically people were getting diseases from mosquitoes spreading, and different diseases from the water,” said Wood.

As a solution, a dam was built at the end of the river in order to prevent the polluted water from reaching the ocean and spreading out. This however increased the level of bacteria build up in the blocked river. Today, the Museum of Science stands where such dam used to be.

“Up unto the 80s there were still a lot of problems with sewage discharges,” said Wood. “So to some extent people thought, ‘It’s dirty, it’s always going to be dirty,’ you know, ‘it’s a lost river.’”

But not everyone gave up. “CRWA was formed back in 1965, but in the early 90s it really started getting a science focus,” said Wood. “We began focusing on sampling water, finding out what the sources of pollution were.”

Sewage contamination was the obvious response, but the contamination on land also affects the river, as it runs off into the water when it rains. In 1995, CRWA teamed up with EPA to begin the Clean the Charles River Initiative, a project dedicated to decontaminating the river.

They were joined by a long list of organizations, including the Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental League of Massachusetts, Boston Water and Sewage Commission, the Cities of Cambridge and Newton, Towns of Bellingham and Franklin and the Boston Duck Tours (among others).

The original goal was to make the Charles River swimmable and fishable by 2005. Even though the river is not entirely there yet, back in 1995 the EPA graded the river (using letter grades, A, B, C, D and F) in contamination level and gave it a “D.” By 2010 the Charles was considered a “B+.”

“In the last 20 years or so, big improvements have been made,” said Wood, explaining the bacteria contamination in the river has gotten much better. However, there is still a long way to go.

“Sometimes it is a little bit of a challenge, it has gotten so much better that people think it’s not an issue anymore.” Wood added that everyone needs to be mindful of their waste, and there is still more cleaning up to do.

For now, however, let us celebrate such a significant accomplishment by honoring everyone involved in the Charles River cleanup. CRWA, among its celebrated organizations, will attend a casual after-work gathering at the Cambridge Boat Club. Cheers to all of them, the Charles River and World Water Day.

-Alexandra Gyarfas

Photo Credit: Alexandra Gyarfas

Can you imagine what life would be like without water? We can’t either, so why not rejoice the much needed natural resource. It might not be marked on the calendar as a national holiday, but March 22 is World Water Day, where we get to celebrate the masterpiece that is water.

If you can’t think of a way to celebrate, then try entering the Surfrider Foundation’s video contest. All you have to do is enter a three-second water-themed video. Yes, you heard right, three seconds! It’s harder than it sounds, because you only have a small amount of time to explain why you love water and its importance.

Matt McClain, Surfrider Foundation’s director of marketing and communications says, “Water is the foundation for all life on the planet. Sadly, it only takes a few seconds to pollute water, spoiling it for everyone to use and enjoy. We created The 3 Second Movie Contest for World Water Day to celebrate clean water and also raise awareness about water quality issues and how they affect us all.”

Between now and March 13 videos will be accepted, and the winner will be announced on World Water Day. Email submissions to 3secMovie@surfrider.org where you can win one of three prize packages.

Not only is this a fun and interactive way for the Surfrider Foundation to get others involved on the special day, but to educate and spread awareness about clean water projects.

-Allyson Koerner

Photo Credit: Surfrider Foundation