{"id":702,"date":"2016-01-14T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/mlk-day-service-will-help-philly-rivers-heres-how\/"},"modified":"2022-12-03T13:32:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T18:32:04","slug":"mlk-day-service-will-help-philly-rivers-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/mlk-day-service-will-help-philly-rivers-heres-how\/","title":{"rendered":"MLK Day of Service Will Help Philly Rivers. Here’s How:"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dozens<\/a>
\nDozens of bags of \u201cfloatable\u201d trash pulled from the Delaware River during a 2015 volunteer cleanup. MLK Day of Service volunteers who participate in neighborhood trash removal will also be helping our rivers because cleaner streets = cleaner creeks and rivers. Credit: Philadelphia Water.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As far as resumes go, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s is pretty hard to top.<\/p>\n

A 200,000-person march on Washington that was crucial in helping to pass the Civil Rights Act? Check.<\/p>\n

A year-long bus boycott that eventually led to a Supreme Court ruling declaring segregated buses unconstitutional? Check.<\/p>\n

The list of Dr. King\u2019s accomplishments is long, but one thing you don\u2019t hear too much about is King the environmentalist. But that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t connections between his activism and the green movement that helped to bring us transformational legislation like the Clean Water Act.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact his 1968 assassination predated the first Earth Day by two years, many credit MLK\u2019s work as laying the foundation for the environmental justice movement<\/a>\u2014a movement guided by the belief that all people, no matter their race or income level, have an equal right to things like safe, clean drinking water and health-promoting green space.<\/p>\n

No matter how you think of Dr. King\u2019s legacy, the fact is, much of the work that will be done in his honor during the Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service<\/a>\u2014an event being touted as the biggest MLK Day volunteer effort in the nation\u2014will help our rivers.<\/p>\n

How?<\/p>\n

Many of the planned events involve work that will remove litter from our streets, parks and other community spaces. And, while litter is often seen as a problem impacting our neighborhoods, it\u2019s also a stormwater pollution problem because so much of the trash on our streets will eventually end up in our rivers.<\/p>\n

We often talk about stormwater as a \u201cpolluted mixture\u201d that hurts the watersheds we depend on for drinking water and wildlife habitats. That \u201cmixture\u201d contains many harmful things that get picked up as water from storms and snow makes its way from our streets and storm drains to our rivers. Trash, of course, is the most visible part of stormwater pollution. It\u2019s also the easiest kind of pollution for people to address\u2014most of us, after all, can pick up litter when we see it.<\/p>\n

Through both the efforts of Philadelphia Water and our volunteer events, we\u2019ve literally pulled tons (over 40 tons a year, to be exact!) of trash from the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers each year. We also regularly clean out traps in storm drain inlets that are designed catch trash, but a big part of litter problem in our rivers and creeks comes from what are known as \u201cfloatables<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This photo, taken by the crew of our trash-skimming boat, is a perfect example of street trash that became river pollution:<\/p>\n

\n

Sad + striking photo today from our river cleaning crew. Why we #DrinkTapPHL<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/nF9Bbm3IXP<\/a> #CleanWatersPHL<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/WW6qnjePFG<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Philadelphia Water (@PhillyH2O) November 3, 2015<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n