An A+ for Water Protection

By Tom Damm

If you’re like me, you remember staring out the window on a nice spring day thinking how great it would be to have class outside – until your teacher snapped you out of your reverie.

For students recognized by EPA last week, the outdoors has been a classroom.

Three elementary and middle schools and one college in Pennsylvania were honored for environmental projects that offer lessons in protecting drinking water sources.

At Limerick Elementary School in Royersford, students held a watershed day and planted a protective buffer of 100 trees along the Landis Creek.

Also in Royersford, students at the Spring-Ford Intermediate School created a rain harvesting project to recycle and reuse water.

At Sandy Run Middle School in Dresher, more than 700 students were involved in a project to rip out invasive knotweed in Sandy Run and replace it with native trees and shrubs that will help restore the waterway.

And at Cabrini College in Radnor, students took a variety of actions to restore Valley Creek and did important stream and community research.

Awards to the schools and their students were presented at a National Drinking Water Week ceremony at the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association in Ambler, Pa.  The competition was sponsored by the Schuylkill Action Network, a team of agencies, including EPA, committed to cleaning up and protecting the Schuylkill River and its tributaries – a drinking water source for more than 1.5 million people.

Feel inspired?  Check out ways you can protect your local waters.

About the Author: Tom Damm has been with EPA since 2002 and now serves as communications coordinator for the region’s Water Protection Division.  Prior to joining EPA, he held state government public affairs positions in New Jersey and worked as a daily newspaper reporter.  When not in the office, Tom enjoys cycling and volunteer work.  Tom and his family live in Hamilton Township, N.J., near Trenton.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.