Urban Practices
 Cindy Crook, Unified Sewerage Agency
Only three percent of the water on our planet is fresh water. But there’s a reason why we can’t get to a lot of that fresh water. Can anyone guess? Do you know why? Right—two percent is frozen.
Narrator
Cindy Crook coordinates the Unified Sewerage Agency’s Tualatin River Rangers program. She speaks to fourth graders who live primarily in urban settings.
Cindy Crook, Unified Sewerage Agency
Pollution is not good for our creeks and streams. And a lot of times people don’t realize that things they’re doing in their neighborhood every day can pollute our creeks and streams. On the back of your little booklet, there’s a list of things in your house that you don’t want to dump down a drain—either an outside storm drain or an inside drain. You should not dump things like used motor oil, paint; there’s a whole list of things.
Narrator
Crook encourages students to take their list home, go though the house with an adult, and search for things that could pollute local water supplies. The homework assignment helps share the information with parents and gives kids an opportunity to earn their Tualatin River Rangers badge. The agency has also developed educational materials that can be localized to any watershed in the country.
 Rob Baur, Tualatin Riverkeepers
One of the problems is there’s a very narrow riparian area—and the riparian area is the area right along the river. Here, for example, the golf course—it’s been cut clear down to the river bank—so there’s no trees to shade the river, to keep the sun off of it, keep it cool.
Narrator
Rob Baur is a member of the Tualatin Riverkeepers. This local citizens group organizes canoe trips and other activities that help local residents appreciate the Tualatin
Rob Baur, Tualatin Riverkeepers
If they know something about the river—if they’ve been out there—they’ll have an interest in the river and feel part of it, rather than just seeing it in a brief glimpse as they go over it on a bridge. They’ll have a sense of ownership and be more concerned when they read something’s going on or see something happening along the bank.
Narrator
Other community groups have taken similar approaches, sponsoring cleanup parties for their urban streams, or stenciling reminders next to neighborhood storm sewers.
Unfortunately, even in the Tualatin basin—where nonpoint source pollution is well documented—public education efforts have had limited success. The Unified Sewerage Agency spent more than five years trying to raise public awareness of the issue, only to learn through a survey that many people thought the term "nonpoint source pollution" meant there wasn’t a pollution problem.
 John Jackson, Unified Sewerage Agency
A lot of people didn’t realize the Tualatin River was there. A lot of people had no opinion as to whether they should be worried about the Tualatin River. A lot of people didn’t realize that if they’re living up on top of a hill somewhere, that their runoff eventually made it to the Tualatin River.
Narrator
Jackson says the survey renewed his agency’s charge to remind citizens of their impacts on local streams. But he admits the results were disappointing.
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