Yes, its a great place to renew and rejuve - and that is what I have been doing at Assateague State Park , in Maryland, USA.

Yes, WaterMan's fam has been media free and camping by the sea in Loop I of one of the world's best state parks - EVAH - in boston-ese.

Assateague State Park is Maryland's only ocean park. It is located on Assateague Island, a barrier island bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and on the west by Sinepuxent Bay. Two miles of ocean beaches offer swimming, beachcombing, sunbathing, surfing and fishing. The island's bayside offers visitors the chance to explore secluded coves by canoe or kayak. The marsh areas have a variety of wildlife, including deer, waterfowl and feral horses. Assateague was selected by National Geographic Travel magazine in 1994 as one of the 10 best state parks in the United States.

Couple of hints ...

1. Plan ahead and make reservations.
2. Buy your firewood at Buck's.
3. Keep your food in the car -although the horsies are cute - when they steal your food - your likely to get a little defensive.
4. Go to the beach - alot - my fam bodysurfed for 4 days straight and I eaven sea kayaked - and my kids think I am supercool again.
5. Talk to others - you participate in life with others - make friends for life.
6. Get all the rest you need - and that is really easy - you are likely to start dreaming again.
7. When you visit, tell them WaterMan told you to go.

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

In the deep hinterlands of western Massachusetts lives a river with a deep cultural, economic and environmental legacy. Enter stage left the mighty and graceful and still somewhat polluted Housatonic River - Thanks to GE.

According to Save The Housatonic - and organization made up a variety of environmental activist groups in Berkshire County MA - you know Great Barrington, Pittsfield, Lenox, Lee and other lesser known hilltowns - the big issue is still cleaning up the PCB's, that good stuff General Electric brought to life - emphasis mine - ...

Seeking a stronger local voice in the cleanup of the Housatonic River, Save The Housatonic recently unveiled plans to seek a special designation for the heavily polluted river. They will nominate the Housatonic River as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, or ACEC. If successful, the designation would add conservation standards to a 12.9 mile stretch of river and roughly 1,300 surrounding acres, likely requiring special permission from the state for any dredging or landfill within those boundaries.Area of Critical Environmental Concern, or ACEC.

 We want to give (the state) a tool to negotiate for the best possible cleanup," said Eleanor Tillinghast of Green Berkshires, one of four groups that constitute Save the Housatonic. "And we want to use this tool to encourage people to evaluate cleanup options and how they might affect the river and surrounding lands and neighborhoods.

Under the terms of the Consent Decree, GE was charged with developing a Corrective Measures Study (CMS) to investigate the need for, and possible alternative ways of, cleaning the Rest of the River - that section of the river from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the Housatonic down through Berkshire County, Massachusetts into Connecticut to the Long Island Sound.

GE is proposing a 10-year construction and restoration project involving the excavation and disposal of over 225,000 cubic yards of sediment and soil, at an estimated combined cost of $184 million for the Housatonic River.

Many concerned citizens are worried about what this might mean for the River. While we strongly support the clean-up of PCB contamination from the river sediments to make the river safe for wildlife and humans, we have strong reservations about the GE proposal. Some would like GE to clean more of the River; some would like GE to use new and innovative technologies to break down the PCBs rather than dredge the River and landfill contaminated sediment and soil; and some are very concerned that they may live near a PCB-dump like the one adjacent to the Allendale School in Pittsfield. Everyone wants the process to end with a clean and beautiful Housatonic. 

According to Massachussetts Audubon - one of the groups that are part of Save The Housatonic ...

The GE Proposal contains insufficient information to evaluate the feasibility and cost of restoration of remediated areas. Given the sensitivity of the habitat along the Housatonic River and its floodplain, GE must be held to accordingly high standards for this clean up, which should begin with avoidance and minimization of adverse impacts to critical habitats. Where there is no alternative but to destroy habitats, restoration of affected areas to fully functional habitats must be required by EPA.

Download the  map of the proposed Housatonic Area of Critical Environmental Concern - here.

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

Yes we can. 

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

Now, don't you feel a whole lot bettah?

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

Hey, water lovers - big news.

Finally, after 3 years of weekly H2O radio shows, WaterMan, your SuperHero Ambassador for Water has launched the podcast of his radio show:

And So It Flows - the worlds only h2o radio show.

'And So It Flows', has garnered a loyal following, has been airing live, for 3 years, every Tuesday morning @ 9AM on WBCR 97.7 FM in Great Barrington, MA - live streaming is available at www.berkshireradio.org

'And So It Flows' blends H2O music, H2O news and H2O talk bringing water to listeners' radar screens in both simple and profound ways. The show engages listeners to see water through a wider prism.

"People now see water as more than a clear liquid. Water is our culture, religion, philosophy, economy, art, music, politics - throughout the moist fabric of our lives."

Water will never be the same.

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

The New Gunga Din? - No Way!

If you think oil and gas is pricey - then meet T. Boone Pickens - the former Corporate Raider. If you live in Texas, he may just own your water - in fact he is looking to cash in bigtime on your thirst.

If water is the new oil, T. Boone Pickens is a modern-day John D. Rockefeller. Pickens owns more water than any other individual in the U.S. and is looking to control even more. He hopes to sell the water he already has, some 65 billion gallons a year, to Dallas, transporting it over 250 miles, 11 counties, and about 650 tracts of private property. The electricity generated by an enormous wind farm he is setting up in the Panhandle would also flow along that corridor. As far as Pickens is concerned, he could be selling wind, water, natural gas, or uranium; it's all a matter of supply and demand. "There are people who will buy the water when they need it. And the people who have the water want to sell it. That's the blood, guts, and feathers of the thing," he says.

How sweet.  Let this so called "Surprising Environmentalist" - ha - get your hoots and hollers today.

T Boone Pickens
BP Capital
8117 Preston Road Suite 260
Dallas, TX 75225

Telephone: 214.265.4165
Fax: 214.750.0216

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

FYI, for those of you who have been wondering, our blog has seen less activity - because we have grown as a company and guess what? Yupper, growing pains.

But you have WaterMan's word - at least one post per week - until we find guest contributors.

Are you a water lover and interested in contributing to our WaterManBlog - go to our contact us page to send an email. Do it now - before its too late.

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

Carbon Shmarbon.

Just think - if you are American and make 75 Grand a year - your yearly h2o footprint is 3,235 cubic meters of water per year. If you made the same amount of money in let us say, Albania, your yearly water footprint would be 2,165 cubic meters.

Jus think ... 

1. The production of one kilogram of beef requires 16 thousand litres of water.
2. To produce one cup of coffee we need 140 litres of water.
3. The water footprint of China is about 700 cubic meter per year per capita. Only about 7% of the Chinese water footprint falls outside China.
4. Japan with a footprint of 1150 cubic meter per year per capita, has about 65% of its total water footprint outside the borders of the country.
5. The USA water footprint is 2500 cubic meter per year per capita.

What we eat, what we do for a living make a difference in how much water we use.

Calculate your own simple water footprint here and a more detailed one here.  

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

All smiles for water. 

Meet Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus - he just announced a deal to bring clean water to 100,000 people in Bangladesh.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Monday unveiled a deal between his pioneering Grameen bank and French group Veolia Environment to provide clean water to poor rural communities in Bangladesh. 

No problem, as long as the local Bangladeshi communities are empowered and this is not a grand privatization.  Veolia is one of the worlds largest private water companies. Keep an eye on this one.

For those of you who may not know, Muhammad Yunis is famous for his pioneering Microcredit programs.

Yunus, 47, and his Grameen bank were jointly awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace prize for the pioneering programme of lending small sums to poor people who would not qualify for bank credit. 

Lets hope his water deal is in the same vein. Lets make sure the people benefit. 

Tag it:

Recommend this article...

Water. Today, you've probably bathed in it, used it to brush your teeth, quenched your thirst with it. Like most of us you you probably don't give it a second thought. 

But for more than one billion people around the world - water is a life or death issue. In fact, over 5,000 children each day die due to lack of clean and accessible water supply

It is clearly time to do sumphin'. 

Introducing TheTap Project from UNICEF

Beginning today, Sunday, March 16 2008, thru World Water Day, Saturday, March 22, 2008, restaurants around the world are asking customers to pay a dollar for a normally free drink of tap water. For every dollar raised a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days. 

Find a participating restaurant near you here. 

Tag it:

Recommend this article...