DNREC dives into National Water Quality Month

As the calendar turns to August, Delaware recognizes National Water Quality Month on a tide of momentum from Gov. John Carney’s signing of the Clean Water for Delaware Act, hailed as landmark legislation for reviving many of the state’s waterways and ensuring all Delawareans have access to clean water.

The act is buoyed by a new $50 million Clean Water Trust to fund drinking and wastewater projects across the state, and supports the Clean Water Initiative for Underserved Communities that will enable the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control through its environmental justice mission to work toward achieving clean water for all Delawareans.

DNREC celebrated the completion of the Lewes canal project, a joint effort to enhance an existing living shoreline. A method of shoreline stabilization and protection for wetlands, living shorelines absorb storm energy and protect property while reducing the potential for shoreline erosion issues. They also improve water quality by removing nitrogen that can cause algae blooms which are detrimental both to human health and aquatic life.

In addition, DNREC launched an interactive, online quiz about water quality. Anyone can test how attuned they are to the critical role water has in every aspect of human life, including the importance of drinking water and the proper treatment of wastewater. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which initiated National Water Quality Month in 2005 – linked to the passage three decades earlier of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act – offers water education resources that include a drinking water activities website for students and teachers.

Water Quality Month provides the opportunity to learn just how precious water is for survival, and how much people should value it for sustaining human life – with only about 3 percent of the world’s water being freshwater, and just 1 percent of that freshwater potable or drinkable.

DNREC wants the public to know that everyone can help the state achieve the water-quality standard for clean water and safe drinking water that all Delawareans deserve. The DNREC Division of Water section recommends taking the following actions to help improve the state’s water quality:

• Properly store, use and dispose of chemicals and hazardous liquids (thus keeping them out of the water supply)

• Properly maintain septic systems

• Properly dispose of outdated medications at a take-back event

• Test soil to determine if fertilizers are needed

• Reduce use of lawn fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides, especially when rainstorms are imminent, and consider fertilizing with an alternative such as compost or compost tea

• Volunteer for a community or statewide cleanup

• Use rain barrels to collect rainfall for watering lawns and gardens

• Start a rain garden that will thrive with little need for watering

• Wash cars at commercial car wash locations where wash water is collected for proper disposal.