PATRIOTISM & CLEAN WATER HOW DO THEY RELATE?

What does COVID-19 and Green Infrastructure have to do with patriotism? Does designing, installing and maintaining best management practices (BMP's) like Green Infrastructure (GI), have anything to do with being a PATRIOT in AMERICA today? What is GI anyway? Does it provide long term solutions to pollution problems and our quality of life in a rapidly growing society where today, ~85% of Americans live in dense urban settings. Is it only a healthy economy that makes America the greatest country in the world or is it our clean air, land and water resources that make America the country where millions of outsiders would risk their lives to live? I believe the answer to that question has everything to do with America's adherence to the US Constitution, and the liberty we share because of it.

As a young US Marine, while serving overseas in the Asia region, I witnessed terrible living conditions of millions of people, and the horrible water quality their governments did nothing about. I learned that in most countries, only a few connected people matter, while in America WE ALL MATTER! I will never forget the lessons I learned about freedom and liberty in a world that is largely void of it, except in the

United States of America. I learned that liberty supports a free enterprise system that drives American innovation from ordinary people, and that innovation is what drives the American economy and an incredible quality of life that our Constitution allows us all to attain. A quality that makes America the Beautiful, is that we believe in making money, BUT we do not believe in making money at the expense of others and the aquatic habitat when we discharge pollutants downstream. In America, we created a system that makes people accountable which is exactly why the Clean Water Act was amended in 1972 to include NPDES penalties for those who fail to protect ALL people and our environment, not just the precious few. In America we believe in profiting from our labor and for those who don't care about the damage they cause to others from their pollutant discharges, we draw the line.

Dense urban living without NPDES permit accountability and the resulting bad water quality that spawns disease and sickness like the COVID-19 virus is exactly what our country is trying to avoid. Years of air, land and water pollution problems have plagued Wuhan and many other cities in China for decades. While here in America, we implement strategies like GI that assures Americans that no such disease will ever be spawned from our shores AND that we will always have surface water quality that's fishable and swimmable in our shared creeks, rivers, lakes and ocean coasts; areas that are often surrounded by thousands and thousands of mess making people. 

In pursuing compliance with NPDES permits and Green Infrastructure post construction stormwater management, we are fulfilling our patriotic duty of preserving and maintaining the United States of America and the water quality that makes us so unique in all the world! If you are superintendent tasked to build a project that's profitable for you and your company, I solute you BUT only if you are also taking your responsibility of protecting America's watersheds from the damage caused by pollutant discharges to our shared watersheds, like sediment, wet concrete, oils, solvents, paints and solid wastes. By performing your NPDES site inspections you are being an American Patriot! Same as the Professional Engineer designing stormwater pollution prevention plans, or a federal, state or local inspector ensuring potential polluters are complying with their permits; or river keeper organizations that sometimes have to take the lead when the government fails to take care of their citizens. All of us together are in this thing called America, together. Make no mistake YOU ARE protecting America's most valuable resource, OUR PEOPLE and OUR quality of life. If you doubt it, look back in our own history when we didn't have the USEPA, NPDES Permits and environmental protection regulations, or just google "china water pollution" or "Latin America water pollution" or "India water pollution" see and read the mess they've made of major parts of their countries. China spawned this virus, a leadership that encouraged a rat market for the millions that are in poverty.

America the Beautiful, is a country worth fighting for yesterday, today and tomorrow! All you need to do is take a swim in the local lake in the middle of the city, or fish the local river surrounded by thousands of people and then compare that experience with that of someone living in China, Indonesia or South America. We'd be wise to remember that NPDES Permit compliance, Green Infrastructure, Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans, etc. etc. etc., all play a role is providing Americans an incredible quality of life. IF you've not already done this, I hope you look around you and find what's been staring you in the face for decades now. I think you'll find America economy AND our water quality is worth fighting for, especially now! SEMPER FI! T. Luke Owen, PG MS4CECI, AMERICAN