Before you take that next big gulp of water, you might want to consider some facts about what's in that glass: Over 65 percent of the lakes and streams in Massachusetts are considered too polluted for drinking. Not to mention that Massachusetts has the second-worst water quality in the United States, ahead of only New Jersey.
Despite the grim facts, one group is taking action to clean up local bodies of water. For the past three years, the Massachusetts Community Water Watch (MCWW) has provided communities with the resources and opportunities needed to measurably impact local water quality.
MCWW, part of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, in alliance with AmeriCorps and the Massachusetts Service Alliance, engages students from 14 area college campuses in environmental community service efforts. Through active participation, MCWW motivates students to make a difference in cleaning and preserving local waterways. Along with active cleanup efforts, MCWW stresses educating future generations to become environmental leaders.
This year marks Tufts' second year of involvement with MCWW. Last year, Tufts publicly announced its commitment to work with the Mystic River Watershed Association, the Massachusetts Office of Environmental Affairs, and the Environmental Protection Agency in hopes of cleaning up the Mystic River by 2010.
This year, MCWW became an official member of the Leonard Carmichael Society, which offers students more opportunities for hands-on work in cleaning up the Mystic River - one of the areas most important but polluted water supplies.
The Mystic River, parts of which flow a mere half-mile from campus, has a number of problems. The main problems plaguing the river's water quality include toxic chemicals leaching from old waste disposal sights (an issue dramatized in the film, A Civil Action), excessive amounts of nutrients from fertilizers and pesticides, trash, and sewage-borne bacteria. Each year, such sewage-borne bacteria cause the deaths of ten million children globally.
In addressing these serious problems, MCWW has come to Tufts because of the campus' close proximity to the river. Americorps member Stephanie Gros, Tufts' own full-time MCWW program director, has witnessed the impact that students can have. "I want the program to really give students at Tufts concrete things they can do to make a difference," she said during this year's first MCWW meeting on Wednesday night.
Though Gros once felt that she couldn't make a difference with a problem that loomed so large, the impressive turnout at Wednesday's meeting proved otherwise. Not only has MCWW recruited student participation, but it has also rallied support from many faculty members. Engineering professors Steve Chapra, John Durant, and Paul Kirshen and Assistant Director of Peace and Justice Studies Dale Bryan all support the project, recruit students, and raise awareness.
Armed with their motto, "Think globally, act locally," and a successful Mystic River clean-up project last fall - when 30 volunteers pulled one ton of trash out of the water - MCWW has organized four student-led programs to improve the Mystic River's water quality.
River clean-ups comprise the first of these programs. The group will designate a site for a big Earth Day Clean-up, which will take place on April 21. MCWW hopes that this activity will build a close coalition of the community and college students. MCWW also expects to attract local media to cover the event in order to raise statewide awareness of the problems plaguing the Mystic.
Secondly, MCWW promotes water testing, with the help of Chapra in the Civil Environmental Engineering Department. Chapra will also help the cause during his "A Year on the Mystic" presentation, which will take place on Feb. 21 at the Town Hall at Winchester Center. By addressing the community, MCWW hopes to raise awareness among government officials in order to receive government funds to help meet the goal of "potable, fishable, and swimmable" water.
MCWW's third tactic is community education, which informs local elementary school children about the condition of their water supplies. Along with classroom education, MCWW advocates on-site learning and will conduct water-testing exercises once a month with a group of local seventh and eighth graders.
The fourth program will create awareness by ensuring that the local community is aware of the river's environmental condition. MCWW hopes to plan a Mystic River Awareness Week with movie nights, informational printouts in the media, and speakers. "We're young, vibrant, and full of energy, and we need to make a difference," sophomore volunteer Adam Blacchi said.
For more info, MCWW has weekly meetings Wednesdays at 9 p.m. in Eaton 206.
