Your Mission: Make a point to prevent river pollution!

Survey Says. . .
Have you ever looked closely at a gutter or a storm drain? You probably saw litter: cigarette butts, candy bar wrappers, soda cans or bottles, grass clippings, chewing gum, paper.

Rainwater, melting snow, and water from garden hoses can easily wash litter and other matters into storm drains, and finally into ponds, lakes, rivers, or the sea. Such runoff can wash straight into streams, wetlands, and other surface water. This contaminates surface water and groundwater and poses risks to people, as well as to aquatic plants and animals. Pollution whose source is difficult to identify is called nonpoint source pollution.

Take a firsthand look at what might be going into rivers by surveying everything you see in gutters, near storm drains, on sidewalks, or around your school.

Dirty Water: At the Root of the Problem
Unfortunately, what you see in gutters isn’t all a river gets. Other nonpoint source pollutants such as salt, car oil, fertilizer, liquid soap, antifreeze, battery acid, and paint thinner may end up in rivers. River water is withdrawn for industrial or agricultural use, and then often polluted by industrial waste or fertilizer, or it may be heated—causing problems for plants and animals in and along the water and for people downriver.

How does all that stuff affect rivers? Over the next several weeks you’ll see for yourself as you observe plants in water that you will pollute.

What’s the State of Your River?
As you’ve watched the plants in polluted water, have you wondered about the state of your state’s rivers? Go to http://www.epa.gov/OW/states.html and click on your state to see how the Environmental Protection Agency monitors water quality. Check the Index of Watershed Indicators: Does your county measure up? (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

Take Action—Geography Action!
If you participate in a river cleanup, do so safely. If you don’t live near a river, you can protect rivers (and oceans) by stenciling signs on storm drains. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) (National Geographic Society)

Keep your family on track by tracking their use of fresh water. (National Geographic Society)

Whatever you decide to do, tell us about it! Fill out the Geography Action! survey, and learn what other students are doing for rivers!

Activity adapted from “All About Water—K-3 Water Activities” Booklet, courtesy of the California Department of Water Resources.

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Photographs (left to right): Lower Monumental Dam, Snake River, Washington, by Richard S. Durrance; natural spring, Florida, by Wes C. Skiles; Sierra Newt, California, copyright Corbis

© 2001 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.