The Pollution in the Pond

My stepdaughter looked at me this morning with her big brown eyes and said "Elaine you should write about the pollution in the pond." "What pollution?", I asked. She said in the park pond that we had visited a few weeks ago. How could I have forgotten?

We went to Denison Park in Corning a couple of Saturdays ago for some play time on the equipment with our little neice and decided to go check out the pond and look for ducks. What we saw was some sort of a duck hybrid and a really dirty pond. Chock full of duckweed (which can be good but can be a sign of a high nutrient load= pollution). Also cans, bottles, paper bags, tires and all kinds of just plain trash was littering the surface of the pond. It was really sad and bad looking for a pond in a pretty city like Corning.

I was going to write a letter to the Parks and Rec Director in Corning about that pond and I forgot all about it. Me, the tree hugger. I am ashamed. And it took an 8-year old (although a pretty wise and with-it 8-year old), to remind me. Don't get me wrong, I think the Corning Parks and Recreation Department does a great job with their parks. I love the new pavilion, and the Summer Parks Program for kids is superb. I just think they need to find a way (we'd volunteer if we had a boat) to get that pond clean. I know it is probably a losing battle, but maybe volunteers COULD help? That's how we get a lot of the "dirty" work done at Tanglewood- good old volunteer elbow grease.