Last week in my Weekly(ish) I created one of my ‘deep dive’ segments on waterways. This week, with more news addressing, it needs its own page.
Find links and information on the latest news and reports.
what actions we can take.
what people of faith and congregations can do.
Most of us understand that water and waterways are what makes life possible. There is a reason that the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament starts with the parting of the waters, that there were four prime & ordained rivers—the headwaters of God’s paradise on Earth, and the River of Life in Ezekiel and Revelation that runs by the very throne of God on this, God’s paradise planet.
My goodness, as Christians, we are baptized in it these waters! In other traditions, as well, we are washed in it. And for Native Americans the stories of sacred land and waters resound with the words Mini Wiconi—Water Is Life.
And yet.
Chemical Dumping — Millions of Pounds.
According to this week’s U.S. Waterways in Crisis: A Toxic Report, industry and agriculture are dumping millions of tons of chemicals into rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands…
Quick number: the three worst states combined, Indiana, Texas, and Louisiana dumped 465 million lbs. of chemicals into their waterways between 2013 and 2022. Find your state. This information is from only what is reported each year to the EPA—the Toxics Release Inventory—and lists only what chemicals come under their regulations.
The researchers clarified that just because the chemicals get dumped doesn’t mean that the water isn’t still ‘healthy.’ Yet we do know that harm is being done, and not just from the chemicals we test and measure. There are 85,000 US chemicals that we don’t test for. The story of contamination in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina shows that both what we are testing for, as well as what we are not testing for, can and does cause significant harm.
Freshwater Systems Unstable
This next report comes from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, a research group that studies the climate crisis and planetary boundaries. For these studies, ‘planetary boundaries’ means the lines we must not cross if we want to keep the stable climate God gifted us with thousands of years ago, and in which humans have flourished.
Institute researchers contributed to a recent study showing that we are pushing the planetary freshwater system over the line, with big changes in how wet and how dry the conditions are, as well as the effects of human disturbances, and what that means for the stable life of the waterway creatures and ecosystems. Short answer, we are cycling out of a stable state. Read about the study, Earth’s freshwater cycle out of stable state, then read the study, published in Nature.
A third study to reflect on also addresses water, pollution, and climate change. This study looks at the fact that with climate change disrupting precipitation and heating things up, water is already in higher in demand. Demand will increase even as less water is available—in the words of the researchers we are looking at “severe water degradation in the future.”
Basically the challenge looks like this. With warmer conditions, everything is thirstier, creatures, microbes, soils, plants, air, and people. More water then is used by these thirsty people and systems, including agriculture. More pressure means larger reliance on groundwater thus emptying aquifers and reservoirs. And finally, adding to this, there is pollution from human activities including chemicals, plastics, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and sewage.
Mongabay—ever excellent in their reporting—does a great job of showing how this study connects with real people in the real world, Pollution poses big risks to global clean water supplies, study shows. Forbes also covered this study, Billions Facing Clean Water Crisis By 2050, Scientists Warn — Here’s Why. Read the study.
Rivers
Another article is from Mongabay, highlights the complexity of climate change and pollution, In climate-related flooding, a Ugandan river turns poisonous. The story focuses on Uganda’s Nyamwamba river where catastrophic flooding is sweeping copper mining waste from the river banks into the water. The poison water then gets into people, animals, plants, and soils from which crops are grown and food plants harvested.
The thing is, this is happening everywhere. Subsidence, heavy rain, violent typhoons/hurricanes, sea level rise, globally industry—toxic industries—have been built on shorelines and coastlines for easy access of transport to markets. All of this mess, refineries, chemical plants, mines, and agricultural run-off is going into the water.
For some, such as the Klamath River Project below, big progress is underway. For others, such as in St. James Parish, Louisiana, the fight for community and clean water is still underway, “We’re Dying Here” The Fight for Life in a Louisiana Fossil Fuel Sacrifice Zone.
Ocean Dive
And it is not just freshwater that is impacted.
This article from The Atlantic (gift link), The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone. As far as humanity is concerned, the transformation of our seas is “effectively permanent” presents the heartbreak of what has already happened to our oceans and needs to be named and mourned. The rising heat and hot-blobs have upset marine migration paths and impacted not only sea life, but sea birds as well. Increased carbon absorption means acidic water, interfering with shelled animals. Plastic waste is everywhere. The oceans have been hot before, this ended up being over a hundred million years of rain. We must stop the madness.
What Restoration Looks Like
A process. The removal of the dam and the restoration that follows is a years-long process that is actually happening in Northern California.
For Indigenous People, dam removal in order to restore wild rivers, wild salmon, and riverlife is having a real impact. Earthbeat offers us a deeper dive into the faithful response to dam removal, with mention of the All our Relations Campaign and including the prayers and witness of Earth Ministry, WAIPL, alongside Pacific Northwest nations. Indigenous leaders gain support of Washington Catholics for dam removal.
Read a series on the Klamath Dam project from High Country News, What would a healthy Klamath River look like? An illustration of a complex ecosystem that could exist again. The process to remove the dam and restore the river and its salmon runs has been decades in the making and led by the Shasta, Klamath and Yurok people. When they won permission to remove the dam, the tribes celebrated and got to work, from Indian Country Today, ICT, Tribes celebrate plan to remove dams on Klamath. Tribes along the Klamath River hope removing four dams will help restore salmon, considered integral to Indigenous cultures.
Learn more about this effort from a NOAA feature story this last week, Klamath River Reshapes Itself as Flushing Flows Move Reservoir Sediment Downriver. Biologists expect higher, turbid spring waters to jump-start recovery. Listen also to last year’s Podcast.
What you can do
From Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 14 Things you can do to clean up your rivers, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay.
Learn about River Habitat and be inspired by stories of restoration and clean up from NOAA. This page is information-packed and includes case studies to mobilize your hope, such as restored estuary habitat in the Salt River Ecosystem.
Volunteer with clean up at your local Waterkeeper and/or Riverkeeper. Learn about your watershed! Discover what rivers and streams are near you that you can ensure stay protected or get cleaned up. Over the years I have been personally grateful for the work of Columbia Riverkeeper. Riverkeepers advocate for the health of the river, people and ecosystems.
You can also join an advocacy effort locally, nationally, and/or globally to stop the damage. Read a 101 about Public Hearings and Comment Periods and how to speak for just public policy as a person of faith, as well as sign-ons and petitions.
People of faith and river-conservation go hand-in-hand.
A Congregational Watershed Manual! A huge thank you to Rev. Dr. Nancy Wright with Richard Buzz for a manual to get us all started. Read about how the manual came together through the work of Vermont churches and Vermont Interfaith Power and Light. The manual helps with the ‘how to,’ but also tells stories you can share to inspire people to make a difference. Find an interfaith version as well as a Christian version of the manual.
Some stories of regular folks-of-faith making a difference:
Shout out to the Unitarian Universalist Church West and their Earth Ministry Team in pitching in to clean up 20 bags of trash from Lincoln Creek near Milwaukee. Also in Milwaukee, shout out to Eastbrook Church for mobilizing people for support and clean up with Milwaukee Riverkeeper.
Shout out to Lower Neuse Riverkeeper in North Carolina—and the Carolina Waterkeepers—and St. Francis Catholic Church for the clean up of Hippie Beach.
Working together expresses love of neighbor, water, and land. I love this photo posted by Cahaba Riverkeeper of the folks from Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints.
You can literally gather up your folks and organize an information session and/or clean up by reaching out to your local Riverkeeper and asking how you can help.
And thanks as well to the many, many people of faith I have stood next to and walked with along the Columbia River thanks to the care and stewardship and efforts of Columbia Riverkeeper.
Prayers Up!
Richenda
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Just to say… my updates are not endorsements, and links are usually third party. Please make your own determinations. My goal here is to amplify the conversation and encourage engagement, learning, and resilience. And of course, to bless your efforts!