Today is World Water Day, a global observance to raise awareness about the importance of access to clean, fresh and safe water.

This year, advocates in the U.S. are urging Congress to restore protections under the Clean Water Act for smaller streams and wetlands, which were overturned in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.

Jim Murphy, senior director of legal advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation, said rivers and streams in Mississippi used for swimming and fishing flow into larger bodies of water, so it is essential for the waterways to be safeguarded.

"It's really important for people to ensure that, with the rollbacks from the Supreme Court, that they're ensuring that their state and local leaders are doing what they can to protect the waters that people rely on," Murphy asserted.

A bill in Congress, the Clean Water Act of 2023, would reinstate the rule the Supreme Court struck down, and broaden the definition of which streams and waterways are subject to federal protection. It has more than 120 co-sponsors, but remains stalled in the U.S. House.

Murphy pointed to a poll, which found more than 90% of Americans think protecting the safety of drinking water, and the water in lakes, streams and rivers should be a priority. He added the most effective and cost-efficient approach to safeguarding water is to protect it before it gets to your home faucet.

"Protecting water at its source is the most important and one of the cheapest things we can do to ensure that people who are facing a crisis of dirty water are protected," Murphy explained. "In other cases, we also have to invest in the right type of infrastructure, to make sure that water is clean."

A boil water alert was issued for Jackson this week, as the result of repair work performed on the water system. In 2022, Jackson's water system crisis affected more than 150,000 residents, who were without clean or running water for weeks at a time.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the country's aging systems of water pipes are hotbeds for chemical and lead contamination.

More lead service line replacement programs exist in Illinois than any other state and Chicago alone has well over 400,000 lead pipes.

The nonprofit group Elevate wants everyone to have clean, safe drinking water, regardless of income or geographic location.

Patrick MacRoy, vice president of environmental health and water programs for the group, said one demographic has a higher susceptibility to lead poisoning.

"We've been focusing on child care facilities," MacRoy pointed out. "With the State of Illinois, we help administer a program to provide child care facilities with free lead and water testing, to help them meet their licensing requirements."

Extra attention, he added, is given to home-based child care sites because they are more likely to have a lead service line. Last month, President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $15 billion to replace the country's weakening pipes.

Part of Biden's infrastructure law is adherence to the "lead and copper rule," removing the elements from water pipes by 2034. To better understand the mandate, the Environmental Defense Fund released a new national map of lead service line replacement programs to help locate and replace lead pipes that deliver water to homes.

Elevate's LeadCare program is focused on lead removal, which MacRoy explains is complicated and expensive.

"You have to open up a hole at the water main to make the connection, run a pipe across the yard and then reconnect it in the home, restore the property to its original condition, whether that's putting in grass seed or sod, or fixing landscaping or fixing interior drywall that you had to open up to get to where the pipe comes in the house," MacRoy outlined.

MacRoy added he welcomes federal resources and hopes to work with state and local governments to make sure they are distributed equitably to help neighborhoods that need them the most.

A 2024 study from Johns Hopkins University found 68% of Chicago children of color younger than age six are exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water.

There are nearly 150,000 miles of rivers and streams in South Dakota, but new data show many of those don't meet state standards for safe water quality.

According to the state's 2024 surface water quality report, nearly 80% of waters studied don't meet the quality requirements for their intended uses, including recreation and aquatic life. The primary contaminants are E. Coli and Total Suspended Solids, which make rivers run brown. The report says some of the culprits are river bank erosion, runoff from large farm operations and sewage overflows.

Travis Entenman, managing director with Friends of the Big Sioux River, said those can pose human health risks through drinking water.

"When there's excess nutrients in the water, it takes more cost, energy, equipment, time, money that goes into cleaning our water before we can drink it," he explained.

Much of the contamination comes from nonpoint sources, meaning it accumulates from many small inputs, which are hard to regulate. Instead, the state offers incentives for voluntary action by landowners to prevent runoff, but Entenman said there's more interest in those incentive programs than there is funding available.

Entenman expects that to change as the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which provides technical assistance to landowners, gets funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. Projects that can improve water quality include riparian buffers, waste management systems for livestock operators and alternative practices for row-crop growers. Entenman hopes to see many people get involved.

"When a river or lake becomes impaired, it's kind of like a death by a thousand cuts," he added. "So, if you're doing the right thing, but your upstream neighbor isn't, it's not going to solve the larger issue."


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The Blackwater River, which flows more than 30 miles through West Virginia's Allegheny Mountains, ranks among the top 10 most endangered rivers in the nation, according to a new report.

The river is threatened by a proposed four-lane highway construction project which would cross all of its headwater streams.

Judy Rodd, executive director of the group Friends of Blackwater, said Corridor H would involve building a bridge in an area honeycombed with old mines and explains the construction could compromise decades-old work to actively treat the water in the North Fork of the Blackwater impacted by acid mine drainage.

She is worried the highway could be a major environmental setback for the region.

"We expect in the next year to really clean up this river and bring back a trout fishery that used to be there," Rodd explained. "However, if they start building this bridge, they could be opening up old coal mines, old tunnels, which are filled with acid pollution."

Rodd noted a draft environmental impact review of the proposed project, required under federal rules, is expected to be released in the coming months.

Small businesses and the local outdoor recreation economy depend on the scenic views and wilderness surrounding the towns of Thomas and Davis. Rodd argued a four-lane highway, with accompanying construction, light and noise pollution, would drastically alter the landscape.

"It's tranquil, it's dramatic," Rodd observed. "You got bald eagles soaring overhead, you got rushing water, you got fishermen in the Blackwater Falls State Park area."

Olivia Miller, program director for the Highlands Conservancy, said the highway could be rerouted to avoid the Blackwater Falls area, and pointed to an online petition which will allow concerned residents to voice their support for a Northern route to the Federal Highway Administration.

"Right now, we are asking folks to go to the American Rivers website and fill out the action alert to send a letter to highway officials," Miller stressed.

The Blackwater River is home to the endangered Cheat Mountain salamander, eastern brook trout and many other native species.