Tag: water quality

Imagine a Day Without Water…

October 11, 2017

Thursday October 12 is “Imagine a Day Without Water” Day. Can you even begin to imagine a day without water? It isn’t just your personal use of water – brushing your teeth, flushing your toilet, taking a shower – though those rituals are vital. Water is also essential to a functioning economy. What is a college campus or a hotel supposed to do if there is no water? They close. How can a restaurant, coffee shop, or brewery serve customers without water to cook, make coffee and beer, or wash the dishes? They can’t. And what about manufacturers – from pharmaceuticals to automobiles – that rely on water? They would grind to a halt too. An economic study released by the Value of Water Campaign earlier this year found that a single nationwide day without water service would put $43.5 billion of economic activity at risk.

Imagine a Day Without Water is an annual day of awareness that highlights the importance of safe, affordable water to all facets of everyday life. In recognition of the 2017 Imagine A Day Without Water, the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership is unveiling our new “Community Resources for Water Quality” tool developed to improve the accessibility of information about preserving water quality for folks in the Lower Raritan Watershed. The “Community Resources for Water Quality” tool lists and describes publications and other types of materials available through the Rutgers-New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) specific to maintaining or improving water condition in our communities. The tool is designed to assist Environmental Commissions, Green Teams and/or other interested residents to improve, preserve and restore stream areas and watersheds. We think it’s pretty neat!

Water is a public health issue, it is an economic issue. No community can thrive without water, and everyone deserves a safe, reliable, accessible water supply. Our new tool highlights things that every one of us can do to preserve and improve our water resources to make sure that no one ever has to imagine a day without water again. Please check out the tool, and let us know how it inspires you to preserve or restore our water resources!

With thanks to Rutgers-NJAES and Joan Kaplan with the Rutgers Environmental Steward program for their assistance in developing this tool.

World Water Monitoring Day 2017 + Story Slam

July 19, 2017 Comment

Monday September 18 is World Water Monitoring Day!

Join the LRWP and coLAB arts to celebrate with an after-work picnic (5:30-7:30pm) along New Brunswick’s Boyd Park waterfront! Bring your dinner (or something to share). We’ll supply beverages, paper products and dessert. RSVPs requested: hfenyk@lowerraritanwatershed.org

The event will include water quality monitoring demos (ph, salinity, phosphorus, nitrate-nitrogen, turbidity, dissolved oxygen), project updates on the Rail-Arts-River and “frames” sculptural installation, picnicking and a Raritan River “story slam” with coLAB Arts.

Want to participate in the Story Slam? We are looking for 4-5 people to tell their stories about the Raritan River at our September 18 event. Do you have a special, original Raritan River story to share? Let us know by August 31! We’ll then make arrangements for you to work with coLAB’s Dusty Ballard and John Keller who will help you prepare to tell your story on stage. This must be a personal, true story, that happened to you where you are the central character and it should somehow relate to the Raritan River or Lower Raritan Watershed. Though we love fiction, we’re interested in the truth. Your truth. Spill all of the details!

Stories must be within a 4-to-8-minute time frame. Tell ONE story with a beginning middle and end containing a series of events that grow to a climax. Though we love stand up comedy, this is not a stand up set. We’re only interested in the thoughts, feelings, and emotions you experienced through this ONE story from your life that you’ve prepared.

Contact hfenyk@lowerraritanwatershed.org if interested in the Story Slam, and to RSVP.

 

May 21 – Visual Habitat Assessment Training in North Brunswick

May 1, 2017 Comment

Please join us for our May visual habitat assessment training with the LRWP and WMA9 Americorps Watershed Ambassador Katee Meckler! (Here’s more on the LRWP’s water quality monitoring programs).

This FREE training will run from 9 AM – 1 PM at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension EARTH Center at Davidson’s Mill Pond, located at 42 Riva Avenue in North Brunswick.

We will start the morning with a lecture indoors, and then get out in the field to test our knowledge of streams and stream habitat.

Please wear clothing and footwear that you don’t mind getting wet and dirty.

RSVP required, E-mail Heather: hfenyk AT lowerraritanwatershed DOT org

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