Removing the Stains that Microplastics Create

2019, Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

Sarah Cadotte, a student from Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School, wanted to tackle the issue of microplastics in our watershed that come from fibres that drain out of our washing machines when we clean our clothes. She found a product that helps filter out these tiny pieces of fibre by attaching to washing machine drainage hoses. She obtained permission to have three of them installed within her school division. The filters can be emptied into the trash where the plastic pieces can be properly disposed of, rather than making their way into our water systems.

Filtrol Filter Student Implementation

“If I can inspire my community to take action, even in something as small as installing a filter, then maybe there’s a greater hope that eventually, more people can become more economically aware of what’s going on in our waters and how even the smallest things can make great impacts.”

Rain Gardens: Stopping Runoff At Its Source

2019, Greeley Central High School, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Casbah Parlin
Casbah’s concern revolved around the fact that rivers, groundwater, and oceans are being polluted by plant nutrients and sediments that are resulting to dead zones in the gulf of Mexico. To combat these problems, Casbah constructed a rain garden at the Guadalupe Center. Rain gardens absorb excess rainwater that would otherwise runoff and transport pollutants that can harm the watershed. Casbah’s rain garden will help improve our watershed’s air quality, improve the water quality of the runoff, attract beneficial insects, and provide an aesthetically pleasing project that residents can admire on their walks. Casbah believes that his project can have a huge impact when it becomes a wide-spread activity within his community. He believes that replicating this around our watershed will greatly decrease the amount of runoff and help compensate for the many impervious man-made structures.
Rain Gardens

Abstract Awareness Painting

2019, Mountain View High School, Loveland, Colorado, USA

Carson Duemig, Nik Hochheimer, Jaron Davis, Jeremy Gray
The Big Thompson Watershed and communities in this watershed have fallen victim to toxic chemicals due to the use of toxic paints that leave an everlasting mark on the watershed. This group of students put together an abstract painting that will be displayed in the children’s section to the Loveland Public Library. They hope that their painting will spark conversation amongst kids and their families about the harmful effects that we can have on our watersheds. They also hope that their audience will decrease their use of toxic paints.
Abstract

Energy Saving Campaign

Energy

2019, Fossil Ridge High School, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Gabriela Carcasson, Madison Torrey, Jack Kraus, David Casey
65% of our energy comes from coal. Acid mine drainage contaminates watersheds as oxidized substances runoff into bodies of water and change the pH. In addition to computers, printers, projectors, and TVs, there are numerous appliances used by teachers, such as coffeemakers, lamps, microwaves, and mini fridges. These students focused on educating their peers and teachers about energy usage. Teachers were surveyed on their energy use, electrical timers for appliances were distributed, and stickers were placed around the school to educate peers and teachers. This group of students also presented at the Environmental Leadership Summit –a sustainability conference for students all over Northern Colorado put on by Fossil’s environmental club—where they handed out stickers and timers.
Energy

String Quartet in B♭

String Quartet

2019, Greeley Central High School, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Jack Matthews
Jack believes he can make the greatest difference by empowering others who might be moved my music to work for environmental change. He believes that the growing problem of watershed overuse and pollution has often been overlooked as something too great for one individual to combat against. Unfortunately, not only does this mean people will continue to overlook it, but they will also persist in contributing to the crisis. The first step in restoring watersheds is to raise basic attention. The best methods to raise awareness, according to Jack, is to promote it through elements of popular culture that can easily be received by the public. Jack composed a string quartet, in the key of B♭, and named it after the watershed he lives in –the Poudre Watershed. The quartet includes musical themes inspired by the Poudre River. He hopes that the awareness he creates will help his local watershed by simply exposing people to enough information so that they can ask themselves: “What can I do to improve my watershed?”
String Quartet

Let’s Stop Sitting on the Issue, and Sit on the Solution

Sit on Solution

2019, Greeley Central High School, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Eliana Mascarenas
Bottle caps are one of the top 5 types of trash found on beaches. Furthermore, in beach cleanup activities around the world from the past 30 years, over 20 million caps have been found. The Poudre watershed is connected to the Mississippi, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Everything we deposit in our rivers, even the tiniest piece of plastic, impacts the bigger picture. As her solution, Eliana educated the public about how much they are contributing to the issue. She put together a bottle cap drive within several schools and collected over 200 lbs. of plastic bottles. Those bottle caps were then delivered to a recycling center and were traded for a bench made out of plastic bottle caps.

Sit on Solution

Poopy Problems

2019, Greeley Central High School, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Alexandria Sherman-Sutton
Dogs drop a total of 390 million pounds of poop per year in Colorado alone. That is equivalent to 4,126 dump trucks full of waste. When the waste decomposes, it runs-off into local rivers and lakes polluting streams, rivers, and local waterways. That whole process not only causes pollution, but also carries bacteria, pesticides, and diseases. In water samples taken from urban areas, studies have found that 20 to 30 percent of the bacteria in water traces back to dog waste. That same bacteria pollutes the air and our water. A study of air samples concluded that up to 50 percent of bacteria originates from dog poop. For her project, Alexandria installed 12 dog bag stations around her community along with signs that educate the public about picking up after their dogs. She also raised an additional $700 to install another 10 stations in her watershed. These stations can be found at these locations: Poudre River Trail Corridor, Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area, Signature Bluffs Natural Area: Greeley Parks & Natural Areas, Josephine B. Jones Park & Open Space, Poudre Ponds Recreational Fishery, and Island Grove Regional Park.
Poopy Problems

Got Bags?

Got Bags

2019, Greeley Central High School, Greely, Colorado, USA

Emma Lackey, Rachel Feinstein
Emma and Rachel were concerned that plastic bags were harming their watershed. Plastic bags get caught in storm drains and make their way into our watersheds. These plastic bags also contain dangerous chemicals that leach into our water sources. Emma and Rachel calculated that approximately 28 million plastic bags are used in Greeley every year. That’s why they decided to educate the public on the harmful effects plastic bags has on our watersheds. They also distributed reusable bags to help the public combat this issue in their daily lives. Emma and Rachel set up booths outside grocery stores to talk to customers, educate them on the problem, and ask them to use the reusable bags they were handing out. Emma and Rachel also managed to raise an additional $2,000 for their project.

Got Bags

MUSIC IN THE RIVER

2019, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
To help raise awareness about the sewage runoff problem facing their community, Aria Schottelkotte decided to write and record a song. After heavy rains, Aria noticed the raw sewage runoff that was going into the local watershed. She noticed that water quality thus decreases dramatically, resulting in parts of the river being closed where there is usually swimming and recreation. Knowing that recreation is one of the best ways for people to get involved with and care about their watershed, when it is prevented from happening, the problem can only get worse.

Aria wrote the song using the instruments she plays, then went to a local recording studio and hired musicians to help fine tune the sound. Once the track was professionally mixed, she uploaded it to Spotify and iTunes so that people could listen to it both within her community and all over the world. With lyrics like “it’s all up to you”, Aria set out to create a change in the Ohio River watershed as well as wherever else her song may be heard.

THE RUNOFF

2019, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Run Off
The Runoff film was important for Brendon Lowry to make because oil runoff is such an important issue, but is not brought up very often. He felt that what is often discussed is air pollution, and wanted to raise more awareness about this other type of pollution. The film he made shows that oil runoff is damaging our watershed.

The film that he did was actually broken up into two sections. The first section of the film was a video about oil runoff, while the second was set up as interviews. He did interviews with several people discussing the importance of addressing oil runoff and asked them if they believed that it was an important issue.

Brendon thought it was very important for consumers to understand the damage caused by oil runoff. The use of motor oil is one of the largest sources of pollution into his watershed and other waterways. Oil is toxic to people, wildlife, and plants. One quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of water. Americans spill 180 million gallons of used motor oil into our nation’s waterways each year. Having clean water is very important to our health and everyone benefits from clean water. We can all help in getting and keeping our watershed clean.

Run Off