Written in 2020: It's the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, so happy 51st Earth Day! Since I was 21 on the first Earth Day then 21 + 50 =......Okay...
I won't bore you with my story of what I did on the first Earth Day in 1970; you can read about it here. Yeah, I helped build a dam.
One thing I learned: don't follow the advice indicated by this graphic from the January 1963 Popular Science. Even in 1970 we knew this was a bad idea - and not because the gravel is unnecessary!
To celebrate Earth and do good deed or two. Just keep 6 feet apart from others and wear a mask.
I do remember the first Earth Day in 1970. I was 21, about to graduate with a BS in Geology from the College of William and Mary, get married, and head to the wild west - Tucson, Arizona, and the University of Arizona where I would study a new field, hydrology. It was a great excuse for many (but not moi) to skip classes but I actually helped do something useful: build a dam.
Build a dam? On Earth Day? Did we not get the message down there in the Colonial Capital of the Old Dominion?
Runoff (I knew some hydrologic terms even then) from a construction site was dumping (I knew enviro-lingo even then - 'dumping', not 'transporting' or 'depositing') sediment into our beloved Lake Matoaka, hallowed site of many ancient and sacred rituals (annual 3.2 beer can regatta, etc.). Thomas Jefferson, he who founded The University but attended W&M, reputedly lost his virginity there every week or so. These epochal events were celebrated nightly by many reverent, tradition-conscious undergraduates and wayward faculty.
W&M didn't have an engineering program, so dam construction was left to geologists (not a bad idea - think Oroville Dam spillway). What, we were going to ask the physics majors? We'd still be arguing about strength of materials, charge density, and moments of inertia.
So build we did.My sed-strat classmates (I had none who would admit to being geomorphologists) protested our plans because they wanted to witness an event that normally took millennia to complete: formation of a delta. But led by paleontologist Dr. Gerry Johnson, we won the day, constructed the dam (a replica of which is shown here), and saved our beloved waterway from premature infilling.
There was much celebrating that evening at the lake. And much contamination the next day - something for Earth Day 1971 to address.
And that's the truth (at least the part about building the dam).
Today I would have been boarding a flight to Virginia to partake in my 50th college reunion at the College of William and Mary. As they say, 'Wait'll next year!".
How's this for an interesting Earth Day factoid. Richard M. Nixon (R) - during whose presidency the EPA, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act were all created - died on this day in 1994. Who would have imagined that?
So now, on this 53rd Earth Day where I am in Williamsburg for my twice-delayed 50th reunion, all I can say is:
Enjoy!
P.S. My Oregon State University email is non-functional so if you want to contact me, use aguadoc@live.com.
I hope the Weekly Water News Summary is back next week!
“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.” -- H.L. Mencken (tnx @danfagin)
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