The importance of water & the Water Keeper Alliance (Michelle Williams)

Water is a universal source of life. It makes up most of every living cell, maintains the temperature of the climate, produces oxygen and is used for food production.

It is traditionally considered a renewable resource, as a constant volume passes through the hydrologic cycle, being recycled and purified.  However, humans pull water from and pollute water resources faster than the process can replenish and filter it. This causes several issues ranging from water scarcity to ecosystem damage and the depletion of biodiversity.

One of the primary solutions to remedy this is through supply-side water conservation, by protecting aquifers and watersheds. To gain some first-hand insight on how this is made possible, our Lim College sustainability class embarked on our second field trip of the semester. This time, our destination was the Water Keeper Alliance, a global organization driven by the belief that everyone has the right to clean water.

Executive director Marc Yaggi, begins the discussion with a brief history of the Hudson River, upon which their office is located. Looking out upon the river, through the floor to ceiling glass that makes up the walls of the conference room, it is hard to believe that once upon a time, the river was considered dead. New York residents wouldn’t fish from it, let alone drink from or swim in it.

Marc tells us this river was once the most biodiverse stretch of river in the North Atlantic and was home to 300 square miles of oyster beds, lending itself to New York’s title of the “Oyster Capital of the world.” However, the progressive decline of water quality throughout the 60’s, fostered in part by a lack of pollution controls and over harvesting, meant that New York went from eating 1 million oysters a day, to a ban on the consumption, after they were found to be transmitting disease.

in 1966, frustrated with the conditions of their once loved river, a group of fishermen banded together, prepared to result to aggressive action upon those responsible for the degradation of the river. Under the leadership of Bob Boyle, they decided “let’s not break the law, let’s make it.” They set out to enforce an old, unenforced navigation law, that Bob had uncovered: the 1899 rivers and harbors act. The act stated no waterway should be obstructed without congressional approval. They began leveraging this law against companies who were omitting their waste into the river, and used the money from their first successful court case to purchase a boat, to patrol the rivers and uncover more culprits. As time progressed, states noticed this action, and jumped on board to protect their waterways and by 1999 the Water Alliance consisted of 34 groups. This snowball effect of action eventually evolved into 28 environmental federal laws and the Clean Water Act.

Today, the alliance consists of 341 water keepers, helping to patrol and protect more than 2.5 million square miles of water, which could be considered a supply-side initiative in solving water issues. A demand side initiative incorporates their partnership with Bionic, known as the ocean plastic recovery initiative, where they retrieve plastic from the ocean to create yarns. Working alongside companies like GAP, their goal is educating them on and implementing sustainable uses of their resources.

While we should commend the Water keeper Alliance on their positive contributions to water conservation, we must also evaluate how our individual actions impact our water resources. So, before you buy that single use plastic water bottle, or that must-have fast fashion tee, consider that 30% of single use plastic ends up in our oceans and the fast fashion industry pollutes our waters with toxins, chemicals and fossil fuels. These actions are among many that negatively impact our water resources, but they are also avoidable. If we each enable thoughtful consideration towards our water, the Water Keeper Alliances fight for clean, accessible water for everyone may be realized. 

Ref: Robertson, M. (2017). Sustainability Principles and Practice. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.

Photo cred: waterkeeper.org