Please add your name to the petition for clean water today.

Benefits of Clean Water

Americans make an estimated 1.8 billion trips to go fishing, swimming, boating, or enjoy other activities at water destinations that they judge are clean and safe enough for these activities.

In 2001, sport fishermen spent more than 557 million days fishing the nation’s and spent some $36 billion in goods and services to support their fishing activities.(1)

This $36 billion in direct expenditures for fishing, in turn, generated another $102 billion in purchases throughout the economy and 1.1 million jobs with benefits to local economies wherever fishing takes place.(2)

The $45 billion commercial fishing and shell fishing industry depends on clean water to sustain fisheries and deliver products that are safe to eat. The industry employs 250,000 people harvesting over 10 billion pounds of fish and shellfish from the Great lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Puget Sound, and other water bodies.(3)

Manufacturers use about 13 trillion gallons of water a year.(4) While manufacturing operations vary widely; nearly all require a reliable source of clean water for production purposes, cooling, or as an essential ingredient in products.

The soft drink manufacturing industry alone uses over 12 billion gallons of water each year to produce products generating over $54 billion in sales.(5)

Other benefits include increased value of shorefront properties, income to local governments from downtown development along riverfronts and from increased beach use from clean beaches, and reduced sickness from waterborne disease leading to greater productivity of the workforce.

* 54 percent of Americans believe clean water is a right not a privilege.
* 90 percent of Americans believe that a federal investment to guarantee
clean water is a critical component of our nation’s environmental well-being.
* 91 percent of Americans are concerned that America’s waterways will not be
clean for their children and grandchildren.
The Luntz Research Companies, February 2004

The above information is an excerpt from the report A National Clean Water Trust Fund — Principles for Efficient and Effective Design by Kenneth I. Rubin, PA Consutling Group.

Please add your name to the petition for clean water today.

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1. US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Outdoor Recreation, US Department of Commerce, Washington, DC (October 2002).
2. American Sport Fishing Association, The 1996 Economic Impact of Sport Fishing in the United States, http://www.asafishing.org.
3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Liquid Assets: A summertime Perspective on the Importance of Clean Water to the Nation’s Economy, EPA-800-R-96-002, May 1996, p.6.
4. U.S. Bureau of Census data cited in U.S. EPA, Liquid Assets, p.10.
5. U.S. EPA, Liquid Assets, p.10.

Things I’ve learned from my Boys (honest and not kidding):

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old Boy’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20×20 ft. room.

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn’t stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words, uh oh, it’s already too late.

8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.

9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old man says they can only do it in the movies.

10.) Certain Legos will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.

11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.

12.) Super glue is forever.

13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can’t walk on water.

14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

15.) VCR’s do not eject PB&J sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.

16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.

18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.

19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.

20.) The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.

21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.

22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.

23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

24.) 80 percent of men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

Pass this on to your friends, with or without boys.

For those with no children, this is totally hysterical!
For those who already have children past this age, this is hilarious.
For those who have children this age, this could save a mother’s sanity.
For those who have children nearing this age, this is a warning.
For those who have not yet had children, this is birth control.

Keep your wheels on the road!

Eileen

P.S. Feel free to add your own nuggets of wisdom gained from your boys.

Welcome to the Southern Gal (Dana) Goes North (Chicago) blog. Dana is a writer with a great sense of humor. She writes about sacred memories, Southern spaces, recipes, poetry and dieting. Visit Southern Gal Goes North blog today.

Keep your wheels on the road.

Eileen

P.S. To the other blog who wanted to rent space on USAer this week: Sorry I may only choose one and Dana had been waiting because I was traveling. Please reapply next week.