Water Pollution In Wisconsin's Lakes And Rivers

Water pollution in Wisconsin’s lakes and rivers is an important issue to recognize. My names is Megan Snyder, I attend Cardinal Heights Upper Middle School as an eighth grader. This letter is one way our social studies class can have practice at being an active citizen within our community. In this letter, I’m suggesting a new, small idea to help decrease the amounts of pollution in Wisconsin’s lakes and rivers.

Obviously, pollution has increased based on the tasks, we as humans do. Focusing in on the bodies of water in Wisconsin, the polluted runoffs have become common. From an article titled Wisconsin’s Lakes at Risk, it states, “Runoff pollution contributes to the fact that 380,000 acres of Wisconsin’s lakes and reservoirs and more than 3,300 miles of streams and rivers are polluted and unable to support all the activities for which we rely on water: swimming, fishing, and supporting wildlife” (https://frontiergroup.org/reports/fg/wisconsins-lakes-risk). The polluted runoff and the amounts of the bodies of water that are effected, causes many water sources to be unavailable for human and wildlife use. Ultimately, the bodies of

water that are polluted can cause major damage to our environments, and create a cause of unavailability for our (humans) convenience.

Pollution in waterways was even a problem back in history.

Early on, starting in 1899, Congress placed control after control, and placed acts to prevent and control water pollution. The majority of controls, acts, and laws were meant to enhance help, or use of human activities and to improve in proper care of the water. According to the article Water Pollution Regulations, it informs, “The 1965 Act amendments began to give each individual state the authority to develop and enforce water quality standards for interstate waters. If they didn’t develop or enforce standards, the Federal government would step in and establish standards for them” (https://www.wwoa.org/history/water-pollution-regulations). The government was very strict on why and how they placed the laws, to ensure the amount of pollution wouldn’t get worse in the

future.

There are several ways to help reduce the amounts of pollution on the Earth. One specific idea is to plant more gardens, and different kinds of plant species to help reduce polluted runoffs. For example, in the article Why Plant for Clean Water? it explains, “Stormwater runoff whisks pollutants from our streets to our waterways via storm drains… Blue Thumb plantings help infiltrate water back into the ground and stop stormwater runoff” (http://www.blue-thumb.org/why/). The small easy things can do so much, even if it is the slightest task, like growing plants, it can go a long way. Also, another way to improve the amount of pollutants, is by raising awareness about the disaster that could strike our planet if we keep refusing to take care it. With your organization, you have the power and platform to encourage, and give a little nudge of different, simple ways to help improve the way the earth is looking, and spread those tasks to others.

The importance of keeping Wisconsin’s waterways clean is a key goal to work towards. Keeping the amounts of water pollution to a minimum by everyone doing small tasks, as shown above, can do a lot to improve the shape of our planet. The world is in the hands of us, and if we can turn around our mistakes and misuse of resources by starting simple tasks, there’s no telling what we, and following generations can accomplish. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,

Megan Snyder
8th Grade Social Studies
Cardinal Heights Upper Middle School
220 Kroncke Dr, Sun Prairie, WI 53590