A Needed Cleanup

In 1970 myself and two other classmates needed to do a science project for our Biology class in high school. We decided to go down the Cuyahoga River from Kent to Cuyahoga Falls Ohio. We took pictures of the many waste pipes going into the river from the businesses lining the river. Dead fish, oil slicks, and black water from drainage pipes were very evident. We then took water samples and a picture of the business and name of the company doing the polluting. These samples were compared to a clean water sample. We used the information for a science fair and posted all the information on a 4 by 8 piece of plywood. It seemed to cause quite a stir among all who attended the science fair. It was so hard to see the results of the pollution from the river. This had quite an impact on me that I am still going down the same area of the river in my canoe every year just to check on things and have been a river advocate ever since. The river is continually getting healthier and I see river otters frolicking in the water instead of dead fish.