1. Water is way more complicated than H 2 0 Be prepared to come up with some questions when you see a big ?

2. In the late 1960s and early 1970s America’s water was reaching a point of crisis. 2/3 of lakes, rivers and coastal areas were unfit for fishing and swimming.

3. Fish were dying off in large quantities.

4. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught on fire (not for the first time).

5. ?

6. Clean Water Act Enacted in 1972 Goal to “restore the chemical, physical and biological integrity of our nation’s waters.” By 1985 ZERO direct discharge of waste into waterways Huge success… water quality improved consistently

7. ?

8. In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that America’s waterways were getting dirtier for the first time since 1972.

9. What was going on? The biggest source of pollution in America right now is … rain.

10. Runoff from farms causes a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico each summer. In 2013 it was 5,840 square miles. (Credit: LUMCON (Rabalais))

11. In urban areas, impervious surfaces send water to sewers instead of into the ground, lakes or streams. We’ve added lots of roofs, parking lots and roads to our cities over the last 40 years.

12. Combined sewer systems are over 100 years old and can’t handle all that rain.

13. Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) #5 into the Mill Creek, on a dry day

16. CSO #5 into the Mill Creek on a rainy day

17. ?

18. What are we going to do about it? Find the answers to your ? s Assess water quality in a local stream (today!) Visit professionals from the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati to hear what they are doing to decrease combined sewer overflows Check out different ways to keep rain out of the sewer system Explore the quality of water coming off impervious surfaces and Engineer systems that capture rain and allow people to use it later.

19. The Challenge Design a rainwater harvesting system for a local organization. Work with the organization to come up with a final design you can build and install on their site. The system design must include: mechanisms by which water gets into and out of storage system for distributing water to where it needs to go a way to manage overflow cost-benefit analysis, budget reflects reality water budget operation and maintenance plan