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By Don Audette
Special to the Rappahannock News
People, animals, vegetation, just about everything needs water. But, water has had a tough time keeping clean. Whether it is dropping out of the sky, running off the earth, percolating through soil, sitting in an aquifer underground, moving along in a river, or residing in an ocean, it has always been mixing with bad stuff.
Take a drop of water flowing along the Cuyahoga River through Cleveland, Ohio, on June 22, 1969. The Cuyahoga River at that time was so polluted that there was not a single living fish between Akron and Cleveland. Even leeches and sludge worms that enjoy munching on waste material refused to go near the river.
A paint company used to hang test paint panels in the river to see how the paint held up under adverse conditions. The company dropped the program when chemicals in the river ate through the metal wires holding the panels. The Cuyahoga River was coated with a mixture of oil, paints, and chemicals. Bubbles of volatile gases welled up from below.
About noon on June 22, 1969, sparks from a passing train ignited the river. Flames soon leapt to a height of a five-story building. The story, which later received press coverage around the world, helped lead to the 1972 Clean Water Act.
Growth and pollution
How about a water drop descending as rain onto Clevenger’s Corner or Rappahannock County? Here, the rain has picked up pollution from the results of increased residential, commercial, and industrial development, both in Virginia and elsewhere. The primary sources are vehicle exhaust from increased traffic, and emissions from power plants generating electricity. Virginia favors unfeitered eco
96.7%