August is National Water Quality Month!
Celebrate our national water quality with the great outdoors
Reading, PA – There is no better way of showing the importance of clean water then by celebrating a whole month dedicated to the quality of water.
Everyone who enjoys going swimming, kayaking, or even boating in rivers, lakes, and oceans needs to understand how important it is to preserve the clean water that we use for drinking, and our personal enjoyment.
Did you know that 207 of our 397 national parks – 52% have waterways that are considered “impaired” under the Clean Water Act? According to the National Parks Conservation Association, the most common reasons are high levels of pathogens, mercury, heavy metals, nutrients and sediment.
The National Park Service (NPS) is the agency in charge of the management and monitoring of water quality in all national parks across the United States. The NPS is highly important because not only do they monitor all the waterways, but they classify each waterway as well. If a waterway is impaired, they contact the state and make sure they take the appropriate measures to reduce the pollution. In fact, by treating the waterways that are contaminated, this in turn reduces the amount of pollutants that enter from runoffs into other bodies of water.
Lake Okeechobee is a great example of this type of situation. The fact that Lake Okeechobee is a man-made lake and collected too much water this past winter, water was released and now heading to the Everglades National Park. The state of Florida has constructed a plan that will store and treat the water flowing into the Everglades National Park.
Suburban Testing Labs is a leader in testing the public drinking water, wastewater, soil and solid materials for many recreational and commercial areas. In fact, in Pennsylvania alone, we test the water for more than 1 Million residents. Contact us for information on how we can support the testing needs of your utility or construction project.
To read more, please visit https://www.npca.org/articles/98-focus-on-water-celebrating-national-water-quality-month