Development of Public Educational Programs on Water Quality

Proceedings of the 1989 Georgia Water Resources Conference, May 16-17, 1989, Athens, Georgia.Water quality has been a public concern for several decades. Public law 95-200 set the national goals of "fishable-swimmable" surface water by 1983. More recently, the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1986 and the Water Quality Act of 1987 have focused increased attention on the necessity for maintaining high water quality standards. Operating under the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, as amended, the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) is a unique partnership of federal, state and local organizations. It is the educational arm of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a part of the land-grant university and a part of local government. CES has county agents located in each of Georgia's 159 counties. These agents serve as the delivery point for numerous educational programs. The basic mission of the UGA Cooperative Extension Service is education. Development of educational programs on water quality for delivery to all citizens of Georgia offers a significant challenge to CES. This paper will outline the current and projected educational programs on water quality that CES has developed and designed.Sponsored by U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Georgia Institute of Technology.This book was published by the Institute of Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 with partial funding provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, through the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1984 (P.L. 98242). The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia or the U.S. Geological Survey or the conference sponsors