Earth Day – pollution and the water cycle

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- Earth Day was recently celebrated on Tuesday, April 22, an annual effort at environmental awareness, which started in April of 1970.

Earth Day is more than just taking pretty pictures and posting them to social media - it’s a reminder that, as a society, we must take care of our environment.

Sometimes, throwing away trash or knowing what to recycle can be overwhelming.

“You can get together with some neighbors and have a neighborhood cleanup, and take turns disposing of your weekly trash," said Shelly Cox, a naturalist at the Remington Nature Center.

Limiting the amount of trash you throw away and identifying what can be recycled can help in multiple ways - one of them being, water quality. 

Whether you realize it or not, trash often ends up in local waterways. Periods of rainfall tend to wash loose trash into drainage areas over time, which feed into streams, creeks, and rivers.

“The watershed takes that all right into the river (trash). So we need to be mindful of how that's polluting the water and the animals that are living in it,” said Cox. 

Rain accumulation and runoff is part of a larger process on earth, known as the water cycle. The four core parts of the water cycle include evaporation, condensation precipitation, and accumulation. This critical relationship between water on earth’s surface and in the atmosphere helps transport contaminating pollutants, but it can also purify through evaporation. 

When water is heated by the sun and evaporated, it’s forced from a liquid state to a vapor, ultimately leaving impurities, solids, and other toxins behind.

Water vapor condenses into clouds and eventually falls as precipitation, returning to earth’s surface with renewed purity- assuming airborne pollutants aren’t present.

Not only does rain naturally water our lawns and gardens, it’s also the product of Earth’s built in purification system.