Bottle Filling Stations in Hockey Rinks

2014 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Erik Rogalka from Garden City Collegiate wanted to do something to conserve water in the community. He proposed installing water bottle filling stations at the new hockey rink.

“By all the teams and parents filling their bottles using one of these stations the amount of water that would be saved would be huge. Another great thing about these stations is that it lowers the amount of disposable bottles being used. Instead of buying disposable bottles, spectators and players can use this bottle filling station. This would decrease the amount of disposable bottles that are thrown out at hockey rinks.”

“This project would be a really good way to help preserve our watershed, even if it is just in a small way. Everyday people are wasting water and using plastic bottles in hockey rinks without giving it a second thought. People rarely think about the consequences of their actions and these bottle filling stations would help save our watershed from carelessness. This project is one hundred percent approved by the community centre and is relativity low in cost. For these reasons I think this would be an excellent plan to implement.”

Erik can now proudly say that through the Caring for Watersheds contest, he was able to make this happen!

Wetland Aeration System

2014 Wainwright, Alberta, Canada

Ben Brunen of Wainwright Alberta wanted to help protect wetlands and the aquatic life that depend on them in his home town. After discussions with local biologists and the Town of Wainwrights’ Park and Recreation department, he decided that the best way to do that was install an aeration system in one of the main waterbodies in town.

The wetland Ben focused on was in Wallace park, in the heart of Wainwright. A popular place for residents and visitors alike, the wetland water quality and aquatic life had been suffering with increased algae, due to lack of oxygen in the pond. Because of the pond’s condition, fish were not able to survive, taking away a popular summer-time activity for Wainwright’s residents: recreational fishing. Having an aeration system would help the wetland as the fish and other aquatic life depend on oxygen, often depleted by high algae levels.

Ben, the youth representative of the town’s Parks and Recreation board, had the Town of Wainwright help support half of the project costs to buy an aeration system. The Parks and Recreation board emphasize supporting local companies, so they naturally turned to Art Matthews of Wainwright Plumbing and Heating to design and install the aeration system. The system was installed in early summer of last year.

The system has been very successful in increasing oxygen in the water, supporting an increase in aquatic life and decreasing algae, while adding to the pleasing aesthetics of Wallace park. An article in Wainwright’s newspaper in May of 2014 reported that the system is still functioning perfectly, and trout populations are healthy, allowing for recreational fishing to begin at the start of summer.

Garcia Bend Park/River Clean Up

2014 Sacramento, California, USA

Alexa Smith, Kieran Garcia, and Feliceya Torres wanted to help their community by holding a straightforward cleanup along the banks of the Sacramento River. They submitted a proposal explaining how excess garbage can pollute the waterways and adversely affect aquatic organisms. For the cleanup, they chose a site in their neighborhood that is used frequently for recreation, Garcia Bend Park.

Smith, Garcia, and Torres recruited additional students from their high school, The MET Sacramento, and spent a productive day on the waterfront. They collected over 15 bags of trash in just a few hours. Project funds from Nutrien helped to purchase bags, rubber gloves, a dip net, and snacks for the participants.

Red Maple Seedling Fundraiser

2014 Trenton, Ontario, Canada

Chantal, a grade 8 student from Murray Centennial Public School won fourth place for her “Red Maple Seedling fundraiser” proposal. Chantal’s idea was to hold a fundraiser at her school to sell Red Maple Seedlings and use the profits to purchase a water bottle filling station for her school. Chantal’s goal was to increase awareness about the importance of planting trees in our watershed and educate her school community about the negative impacts of disposable water bottles to the environment.

Chantal purchased 320 Red Maple Seedlings for $175.00 with the guidance of Tree’s Ontario and financial assistance from Murray Centennial Public School. The fundraiser was held in April 2014 and each seedling was sold for $5.00 generating a revenue of $1475.00. The profits from the fundraiser cover the cost of purchasing one water bottle filling station for the school.

With an additional $1305.00 from Caring for Our Watershed Implementation Funds, Murray Centennial Public School will be receiving a second water bottle filling station to meet the needs of the school with population of 600 staff and students.

The two water bottle filling stations were installed March 2015.

Battery Recycling

2014 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Batteries need to be disposed of in a proper manner. Orit Gluskin wanted to make sure her fellow students knew more about battery disposal, and the dangers of batteries in the landfill.

“The elements that are put in batteries range from common acids to toxic metals. The reason we shouldn’t just dispose of batteries in the regular garbage is because under high temperature, pressure or even when untouched, they can leak toxins. If they leak into the soil they will simply follow underground water into the closest water supply. These toxins are harmful to both organisms and the environment.”

Thanks to a contribution from Nutrien, Orit was able to start a school-wide battery recycling awareness campaign. Orit created posters and student surveys to learn more about her classmate’s knowledge around battery disposal. She also held a recycling drive where students could bring in their batteries, which were taken to a reputable e-waste facility in Winnipeg. Students were rewarded for their participation with entries for gift cards.

Bottled Up

2014 Landmark, Manitoba, Canada

Trevor, Cole, Jaxon, and Andrew wanted their school to use less plastic water bottles. They also saw the refill stations as a way to reduce water use. They proposed faucet refill water stations to encourage students to refill their own bottles.

“We did an experiment to see how much water we will waste from drinking from a fountain. We squirted water from the fountain into a cup for three seconds and marked the cup, and then we timed someone drinking and got the spilled water in a cup and marked it. By comparing the lines we discovered that 66% (2/3) of the water dispensed goes down the drain.”

Thanks to Nutrien, the school now has a new drinking fountain with a sensor so that no more drinking water goes down the drain!

Don’t Flush Those Meds!

2014 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

When Hailey and Ruby discovered that traces of pharmaceuticals were being found in Canada’s lakes, they decided to take action. The pair surveyed family and friends and found that most people don’t know how or where to dispose of pharmaceuticals.

“According to the article Pharmaceuticals in Our Water: A New Threat to Public Health, tests on water in North America have found trace amounts of antibiotics, painkillers, anti-inflammatories, hormones, tranquilizers, chemotherapy drugs and drugs used to treat epilepsy and blood cholesterol.”

Hailey and Ruby created a brochure with details on how their community could properly dispose of medications, and delivered these brochures to doctors’ and dentists’ offices around Gimli. They also shared the information with the Home Care Co-ordinator and Senior Resource Manager as well as a private home care companies to expand their audience. “By informing people of the possible consequences of flushing meds on our watershed, we are confident that people will want to do the right thing. After all, we all want a healthy lake and watershed”

Cigarette Recycling

2014 Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

“Did you know that 4.5 trillion cigarettes are smoked a year worldwide and it takes 18 months to 10 years for a cigarette butt to decompose?” Alex Klasz noticed that his school had a lot of cigarette butts around the area where people smoke, and when he discovered how harmful these are to the environment, he wanted to make a change.

“Cigarette butts go from the grass and sidewalk to the drain for the street to the river where fish can eat and choke on butts. This means the hazardous chemicals in those cigarettes, such as cadmium, lead, arsenic, and hydrogen cyanide, enter our watershed.”

Alex also learned that cigarette butts can be recycled through a program called TerraCycle, but needed collection containers for his school so that students wouldn’t put their cigarette butts on the ground or in the garbage. Thanks to Nutrien, the school received an outdoor container for cigarette butts. Through the recycling program, the school also receives funds for cigarette waste. Alex plans to use those funds to purchase more containers so that the program continues.

Switching to Eco Friendly Cleaning Products

2014 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

If you can’t pronounce the ingredients in cleaning products, how can you tell if they’re going to be safe? Stacey Amos and Tristan Harper wondered this when they started looking at the types of cleaning products found in schools.

“We need to think about the impact on our water because all of these liquids end up going down the drain. These lead to our waters, and include chemicals such as loramine oxine, myristamine oxide, and styrene. How do we know these are safe for our lakes if we can’t even pronounce it?”

The team proposing switching their school’s cleaning products to eco-friendly versions that don’t contain harmful ingredients. Thanks to Nutrien, they were able to purchase classroom kits of cleaning products and re-usable cloths. This means “safer products and less pollution. Time to get cleaning!”

Pharmaceuticals in our Water

2014 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Maggie Reid from Greystone Heights School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, proposed the idea of putting up posters at her local neighbourhood grocery stores and pharmacies to inform and educate Saskatonians on the proper way and appropriate locations to dispose of pharmaceutical products. In her proposal, Maggie made the connection that when you turn on the tap and fill your glass with water, that water may still have traces of medications and pharmaceuticals in it.
In Maggie’s research she found that although waste water treatment plants can remove many chemicals and foreign materials, active drug compounds are not eliminated and can collect in our rivers, lakes and ground water. When these chemicals collect in water bodies they have the potential to impact the fish, wildlife, and other organisms living within aquatic ecosystems. Expired or unused pharmaceuticals have certain chemical properties that may disrupt the proper function of hormone systems and can be attributed to causing fish to change sexes from male to female during sensitive stages of development. This has consequences for breeding and maintaining healthy fish populations in our rivers and lakes. Not to mention, we drink this water ourselves! This was a problem that Maggie felt strongly about.

She discovered that people still currently flush un-used medications or pharmaceuticals down the toilet in order to keep their children or pets from ingesting them. Maggie felt the solution to this problem was to raise awareness. If people knew that the South Saskatchewan River that they loved was becoming increasingly filled with chemicals from the improper disposal of pharmaceuticals, they would think twice the next time they went to flush their pills down the toilet! She discovered that there was an easy alternative available for the safe disposal of these items. All peopled needed to do was return expired and unused pharmaceuticals to their local pharmacy where there are policies to safely dispose of them. Maggie took action to implement her project and received permission to put up posters at Extra Foods’ pharmacies and the Coop pharmacies within her neighbourhood. The posters communicated information in a fun and simple way through graphics that Maggie drew by hand. The participating pharmacies were delighted to put up Maggie’s posters and were happy that she was taking the initiative to improve her watershed through the Caring for our Watersheds program!