DIRECTOR'S CORNER
Celebrating Earth Day
Thirty-five years ago on April 22 an estimated 20 million Americans celebrated the first Earth Day. People picked up litter along roadways, demonstrated in parks and protested in the streets – all in an effort to improve the state of the environment.
The first Earth Day represented a realization that a cleaner environment meant a better and healthier way of life. Today more than ever we have a better understanding of how the environment affects us.
At the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, we work every day to protect and enhance the environment for the benefit of the public.
Our efforts help ensure that Virginians have clean air to breathe, healthy waterways for swimming and fishing, and land free of pollution, waste tire piles and contaminated, abandoned facilities.
This year, as in previous years, DEQ will join citizens in communities across Virginia to raise awareness of current environmental issues in celebration of Earth Day.
DEQ will participate in the activities listed below. We encourage citizens to join us at the cleanups, festivals and exhibits. Hope to see you there.
Staff members from the DEQ South Central Regional Office stand by a pile of tires, plastic materials and other litter that they removed from Blackwater Creek during a cleanup in 2004.
Earth Day celebrations:
- Charlottesville, April 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., University of Virginia, Thornton Hall – Pollution prevention exhibit
- Harrisonburg, April 9, 8 to 11:30 a.m., Cleanin' and Greenin' Our Community Watershed – Eighth annual Black Run and downtown Harrisonburg cleanup
- Luray, April 22, 6 to 8:30 p.m., Luray Elementary School – Discussion on air quality sponsored by Friends of Page Valley
- Lynchburg, April 21, 1 to 5 p.m., Adopt-a-Stream – Cleanup of Blackwater Creek by volunteers from the DEQ South Central Regional Office
- Richmond, April 23, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., James River Fish Festival – Celebrate the return of the shad to Richmond at the south end of the 14th Street Bridge
- Virginia Beach, May 1, Mt. Trashmore Park, 12 to 5 p.m., Earth Day Celebration – Virginia Coastal Program oyster and seagrass exhibit