The Kansas River, photographed in Lawrence, Kansas.

A glance at the 2010 Water Quality Report reveals a plethora of contaminants in our local water supply. From atrazine - a type of herbicide - to arsenic, the contents of the report are surprising but not unique. We are residents of Lawrence, Kansas, and our water comes from the Kansas River, commonly known as the Kaw. The Kaw is the world’s longest prairie river, according to Friends of the Kaw, a grassroots organization that works to protect and preserve the river. The fact that the Kansas River supplies water for 600,000 Kansas residents emphasizes the idea that everyone is downstream from somewhere. But we are not unique: a quick look at your municipality’s water report will likely reveal much of the same information.

Click here for a map of the Kansas River, the Clinton Reservoir, and all the river’s wastewater treatment plants.

Like most cities, Lawrence’s drinking water and wastewater are treated separately. Topeka puts its treated wastewater (known as effluent) from its wastewater plant into the Kansas River. Lawrence captures water from the river downstream. The local coal-fired plant, also cited near the Kaw, takes water from the River, filters it through three sludging pools, and then dumps the water back into the Kaw. Once treated, people drink the water. And, continuing downstream, once the water is excreted and flushed away, Lawrence, again, treats the wastewater and returns it back to the river. Yet, the water is not a closed system, explains Jeannette Klamm, Utilities Programs Manager for the City of Lawrence. The water is recycled up and down the river: Lawrence’s water treatment plants are upstream from its wastewater treatment plant, and Lawrence’s wastewater treatment plant is upstream from Kansas City’s water treatment plant. Read more…

Beth Terry shared these nurdles and plastic fragments found on Marin, Calif.’s Kehoe Beach in March 2010. Photo: Becca Harsch.

Manuel Maqueda says we’re stuck midway. We understand plastic pollution issues, but we don’t have the solutions. The voice of the Earth is not being heard, Maqueda, co-founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition, says. He was driven to seek plastic pollution justice after a conversation with oceanographer Captain Charles Moore, who is also the founder of the Algita Marine Research Foundation. Moore shared with him what appeared to be a bag of sand which, Maqueda realized, was a bag of minute pieces of plastic. Moore told Maqueda, “that’s the beaches of the future…. It’s the global warming 30 years ago coming to us now.”

Maqueda wanted to take action, to solve environmental issues that were being ignored. After research and collaboration with Google Earth, he gathered a group of individuals with a shared interest and passion for plastic pollution justice to meet at the Google Headquarters. Together they addressed “what this problem is, what the solutions are, and what the solutions are not.” (See the infographic below to see where the problems are.) From this meeting, the Plastic Pollution Coalition emerged. Maqueda and Plastic Pollution Coalition quickly became the voices of the Earth that had been relatively silent in the fight for plastic pollution justice. Read more…