Metrics for measuring the health of rivers, lakes, and oceans in your community

 Every three years the  rates the health of the Great Lakes.  This year two of the five--Huron and Superior, were ranked healthy.  From the WOOD-TV article "Study: Only 2 of 5 Great Lakes have ‘good’ ecosystems":

The triennial analysis from the International Joint Commission was included in part of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s annual State of the Great Lakes report.  According to the analysis, Lake Superior and Lake Huron were given “good” grades for ecosystems. Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario are considered “fair,” while Lake Erie’s ecosystem is considered “poor.” 

The analysis is conducted once every three years as part of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada. The ecosystems are graded on nine measures: 

• Can we drink the water? 
• Can we swim at the beaches? 
• Can we eat the fish? 
• Have levels of toxic chemicals declined in the environment? 
• Are the lakes supporting healthy wetlands and populations of native species? 
• Are nutrients in the lakes at acceptable levels? 
• Are we limiting new introductions and the impacts of non-native species? 
• Is groundwater negatively affecting the water quality of the lakes? 
• Are land use changes or other stressors impacting the lakes?

These seem like pretty good criteria for use by local planning systems when it comes to the health of the rivers, creeks, canals, waterfronts, lakes, and oceansides in their communities.  Of course it should be extended by the addition of criteria relevant to land use like:

• addressing water conservation and drought
• development restrictions on development in flood plains ("South Florida, Tulsa, and Santa Fe as examples of regulatory success and Texas as an example of regulatory failure," 2021)
• addressing "king tides" issues ("Duwamish River floods Seattle’s South Park neighborhood," Seattle Times)
• legal acknowledgement of FEMA floodmaps ("America underwater: Extreme floods expose the flaws in FEMA’s risk maps," Washington Post)
• hard versus soft infrastructure wrt waterfronts and flooding
• etc.

Local planning initiatives.  Note that wrt DC, I recommended they include a rivers, watershed and waterfronts element in the city's Comprehensive Plan--they disagreed.  

-- "DC puts forward legislation to create Waterways Commission and Authority," 2019

Communities with rivers, creeks, lakes and oceansides should probably have a separate element of their master plans addressing relevant issues.

And I suggested that DC's neighborhood government commissions with rivers and creeks ought to create standing committees to address river, creek and watershed issues.  Alternatively, they could have environment committees that address such issues as part of their purview.

DC did test an "Adopt a Stream" program, comparable to what other states do.  I don't know if it's been made permanent.

The State of Utah has created the Jordan River Commission to address various issues concerning Provo River/Jordan River.  The Jordan River empties into the Great Salt Lake.  One form of interpretation for the JRC is the creation of a parallel walking and bicycling trail, although the foundation of that in Salt Lake City and County, precedes the creation of the JRC.

Waterfront revitalization.  Many communities are engaged in waterfront revitalization, but this becomes problematic with the effect of climate change, sea level rise, tides, etc.  

The New York Times asks why are we still building on waterfronts, given sea level rise ("Why Is New York Still Building on the Waterfront?").  I have to admit I push waterfront based revitalization initiatives and don't always think about this.

Watershed interpretation.  One way to increase people's recognition of the importance of these issues is to add interpretation programs.  

The park I am on the board of has a section of Parley's Creek, and I want us to add interpretation signage to it.

The County already has a great watershed guide that is a model for other communities (Stream Care Guide: A Handbook for Residents of Salt Lake County).

Salt Lake Public Lands has created at some signage in some of their parks and open spaces (above), and the County Watershed agency has created some signage for Red Butte Creek and the Jordan River (below).

Drinking water.  Rivers are the primary source of drinking water to most communities in the United States.  Which is why people should be receptive to public communications efforts concerning water quality and investing in rivers and watershed systems.