This blog post was written by Randall Hyman with generous funding from the Great Lakes Protection Fund and features exciting updates on the work of the Moonshot Great Lakes team. To read the full blog please visit the Great Lakes Protection Fund Blog.
Reaching for the Stars
Sixty years ago, the thought of turning one of America’s dirtiest rivers into a national park seemed as unlikely as landing a man on the moon. Remarkably, both came true in less than a decade and both proved that our nation’s collective resolve and resources could accomplish the impossible. Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap” in 1969 and Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s founding in 1974 inspired a generation, including a Harvard-trained attorney and environmentalist from Cleveland named George Hawkins.
“I knew the scale of change would be a moonshot,” Hawkins says, recalling the daunting challenges facing Washington DC’s Water and Sewer Authority in 2009 during his first month as CEO. As an experienced environmental regulator who served on the utility’s board, he thought he was up to the task.
“What I did not know was how backwards the day-to-day operations were compared to how heroic the employees were. I panicked as I watched a crew repairing a pipe that was a century old, looking at printed maps stained from years of use and wondering who would talk to angry customers .”