Excerpt
SOCIETY worries about whales, striped bass, and the snail darter, but it doesn't get too excited about soil even though soil is much more important to society's existence. Committees and political action groups exist to save the snail darter, but no committees have surfaced to “save the Evesboro loamy sand” or “save the Manor silt loam.”
Each person's interests no doubt differ from the standpoint of land and water conservation and the prevention of sediment pollution. But each person should have one common pursuit: good soil and clean water are essential to human life. Preservation of these natural resources is necessary to achieve orderly growth and to preserve those environmental qualities that society recognizes and enjoys.
This good resource called earth or soil often takes on the ugly name of silt, dirt, mud, or more professionally speaking, sediment. Maryland's experience is the same as that of most other states: this sediment clogs tributary streams and finds its way into major rivers. It raises streambeds until floodwaters reach higher and higher levels, overflowing old developments and inundating newly developed areas, with ever-increasing damages and costs. It fills navigation …
Footnotes
Roy E. Benner is chief of the sediment control section, Water Resources Administration, Department of Natural Resources, Annapolis, Maryland 21401.
- Copyright 1985 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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