Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
16 <br /> �4) how i <br /> _ <br /> `j ^ tea ~ 9 WON, • !- � � `' 1 O 3 r <br /> `bP xOto"' moo or <br /> Oo- <br /> Executive 5ummiry : <br /> Wake County is " a great place to live , work , learn and play. " We want <br /> to help ensure that it will always live up to its motto . <br /> The environmental quality of Wake County, North Carolina and the <br /> resulting quality of life of its citizens is affected by individual citizen <br /> • ONOactions as well as government policy. The goal of this 1998 report is to <br /> establish and report a baseline measurement for several carefully selected <br /> Environmental Quality Indicators . Each year these same indicators will be <br /> measured to note their status and trends : either good or bad , up or down , <br /> forward or backward , better or worse or staying the same . <br /> Environmental Quality Indicators are bits of information that reflect the <br /> status of larger ecological systems . They give us the " big picture , " <br /> indicating the " environmental health " of a particular natural resource <br /> or the impact of human or natural pressures on our environment . True to <br /> the First Law of Ecology, " Everything is connected to everything else , " this <br /> report shows that all of the Environmental Indicators are interconnected <br /> and affect each other. For example, news stories this year have reported <br /> on erosion from construction sites contributing to sediment , the most <br /> n common water pollutant, in streams and rivers . <br /> fIdentifying and tracking a series of Environmental Quality Indicators is <br /> difficult . There are several different kinds of indicators . It was difficult to <br /> choose which ones to include in this report . Some can be measured <br /> directly by using official sources , such as government data . Others are <br /> based on physical measurements that citizens must perform themselves , <br /> such as data collected in stream monitoring programs . Still other <br /> indicators can be measured only through community surveys . Another <br /> difficulty in assessing Environmental Quality Indicators is the relatively <br /> new monitoring technology and the fact that reports do not necessarily <br /> cover the same geographic areas or time periods . <br /> Identifying and tracking a series of Environmental Quality Indicators is <br /> important . The task is important because it is the only way policy makers <br /> can obtain a reasonably objective picture of where we are , where we are <br /> going and where we have been with respect to the environment we live in . <br /> IV <br />