My Clean Water Story

By Tim McDaniel, National Program Intern - Follow Tim on Twitter (@TimMcDaniel365) This is my first time writing a post for We All Live Downstream, so of course I had to do my research. Most of the posts that I had read for my organization were about some major catastrophe or a campaign that we worked on. I decided to I wanted to talk about something a little different. I want to spend a moment and tell you about how I became enthralled in the work that we do here at Clean Water Action. As a grassroots environmental organization, it is important for us to emphasize that the work we do is for the betterment of people, not organizations or businesses. We're powered by our members and the people we fight for and we want you to get to know us. A quick history: I was born in Dyke, Virginia. It is a very small, rural town just outside of Charlottesville. Every morning I would wake up, step out on my back porch and have a full view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The summers of my youth were spent picking wild blackberries and catching crawfish down by the local creek. Needless to say, water and the environment were a big part of my life from a very early age. Fast forward a bit - I was studying Marine Biology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA and was interning in my Marine Ecology professor’s Benthic Ecology lab. I spent a lot of time sorting samples for a project he was working on with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. And it fired me up about ecology and research. I graduated and moved to DC with my wife. That was when I found Clean Water Action. Research was my passion - never imagined working on environmental legislation - so when I sat down for my interview I was skeptical. I was to go out into communities and motivate individuals in this “grassroots movement”?  I really thought there was no way something like that would make any real impact, but hey it was a job. Then I worked to pass and implement a plastic bag fee in D.C. And I saw the impact that my fellow organizers and I had. Seeing that campaign through to the end and being able to witness the dramatic change and positive outcome completely turned my world around. I realized that our communities have a voice; they just need to be heard. I just celebrated my 3 year anniversary with Clean Water by stepping into the National Campaigns internship and working on one of our biggest campaigns ever: the Campaign to #ProtectCleanWater. The thing about this campaign is that it’s simple: we are either going to protect clean water or we’re not. And that’s what’s so exciting about Clean Water - I get to wake up every morning and work on what is one of the most important steps in the fight to protect our water for generations to come. If you’ve read this far, then I know something about you - you believe protecting our water and our environment is important.  I have a request - don’t be a passive about it, not now.  Not when the stakes are this high. You have a voice and I need you to use it. Tell the EPA that they are making the right choice. Visit this page and let’s #ProtectCleanWater together!