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Earth Month 2010  celebrating the mauka to makai connection
Earth Month 2010 has all ages in the City and County of Honolulu working together to make an environmental difference, from the mountain to the sea. Whether it's protecting and caring for Mother Earth by stenciling storm drains, planting trees, cleaning and monitoring streams and neighborhoods, cleaning highways and beach parks, restocking Kona Kampachi (fish), restoring trails and bike paths, and preserving wildlife habitats, Earth Month means awareness and action. In promoting positive pollution prevention behaviors that improve the quality of urban waters, storm water quality has become an important part of the overall study of our environmental and related fields. Scientists who study the impacts of nutrients on ecosystems, educators, youth and civic groups interested in backyard conservation practices and service projects that focus on sustainable storm water practices, contractors who manage programs to control erosion at construction sites, engineers who design constructed wetlands to reduce pollution from new housing developments, industrial-commercial business owners who must get permits for storm water discharges, and even firefighters responding to material spills, need to think holistically, have knowledge of storm water runoff issues, recognize positive opportunities for pollution prevention, and apply their knowledge to protect water quality and aquatic habitat, and safeguard human health in our communities. Earth Month also means celebrating e malama I ka wai ola (protecting our waters … for life) IN ACTION by connecting with good neighbors who will take on clean water, gain and share their knowledge with other good neighbors as we go along, make small commitments everyday that can lead to bigger mauka to makai (mountain to sea) connections in a watershed. A watershed is all the land that drains runoff to a waterbody such as a mountain stream that flows to the ocean. Hawaii watershed are relatively short and steep. During periods of high rainfall, large volumes of water are quickly conveyed from our island’s mountains to the sea. As water flows through your watershed, pollutants are carried along too. When it rains, water flows downhill from our high island ridges to the ocean, washing pollutants into the streams and drainage channels along the way. Polluted runoff or non-point source pollution results when storm water or irrigation water washes pollutants off the land, urban neighborhoods, industrial-commercial and construction sites, into our streams and coastal waters. Polluted runoff is the greatest threat to Hawaii’s surface and ground water. Sediment and nutrients are the leading pollutants, along with trash. Where we live and what we do can have a positive impact on the watershed and water quality. Be an everyday clean water hero. Get outdoors and do something good for the environment. Feel free to get involved in one of these upcoming opportunities.
Earth Month Mauka to Makai Clean Water Expo
Adopt-A-Stream/Adopt-A-Block Volunteer (Field Day) Program: http://www.cleanwaterhonolulu.com/storm/hero/adopt.html Pearl Harbor Bike Path Volunteer Cleanup (Field Day): www.cleanwaterhonolulu.com/storm/calendar/index.php Storm Drain Stenciling (Field Day): www.cleanwaterhonolulu.com/storm/news/FINAL_2008%2016page_2of2.pdf
Good Neighbor Awards The Journey Home: Upcoming Events and Activities Volunteer Leader Training: World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) in September Calendar at http://cleanwaterhonolulu.com/storm/calendar/index.php The City and County of Honolulu is fortunate to co-sponsor this event with the US Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu Engineer District's Civil Works Technical Branch and Pacific Regional Visitor Center, along with cooperating partners agencies, organizations, schools and business with clean water goals including the State of Hawaii Department of Health, State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources-Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Hawaii Water Environment Association (HWEA), and Punahou School. This annual event started in 2004 with Washington Middle; 2005 with Waipahu High. WWMD engages students in learning about their watershed and taking common water measurements of temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrates, and phosphates as a safe, easy, fun and educationalscientific investigation of water quality through hands-on fieldwork. Content Objectives Students will know that
Process Objectives Students will be able to
Assessment Strategies
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Multimedia
Make A Difference Days in September, October, November: Not everyone lives next to a stream, but all of us live in a watershed. A watershed is all of the land area that drains to one point whether a stream, bay, or the ocean. Whether you live right on the water, or like most homeowners, within a half mile of your neighborhood stream—your actions on the land can effect water quality in the stream that flow to the ocean. By controlling pollution upstream, you can make a difference in our neighborhoods, streams and the watersheds. Using a watershed approach to pollution control, we need everyone to help tackle trash and nutrients that find their way into our streams from widely scattered sources on the land. Trash, excess fertilizers from urban lawns, sewage from septic systems, and sediment from construction projects all can wash off the land and into our waterways every time it rains. Even pollution from our own backyards and driveways can find its way into our waterways through the network of storm drains that empty into neighborhood streams. Therefore, the way we care for our lawns, run our households, and grow our food can all affect water quality. Cleanup teams are working together with the City and County of Honolulu to influence changes in behavior of the general public that will result in reductions in trash, nutrients and sediment entering the streams. These teams are protecting our waters for life, e malama I ka wai ola, for future generations. Volunteer cleanup actions are now underway in ten watersheds/regions.
8:00am Check In Quick links
Be An Everyday Clean Water Hero School Assembly in December, January, February: Existing assemblies sponsored in Ewa, Nanakuli-Maili-Waianae water basins. Guest Speaker For Career Day |
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©2006-
City & County of Honolulu, Department of Environmental Services
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