|
Intern at DEP educates residents
about area's storm water runoff Stencils on drains carry warning
Yellow ducks are guarding several catch basins for storm water
runoff within the city and other neighboring communities.
The ducks were spray painted onto roads in
Brewer, Orono and Bangor by area youth and state Department of
Environmental Protection summer intern Caroline Tjepkema as a way to
educate residents about contaminants and how they travel from yards
to area waterways.
"The ducks symbolize pollution," she said. "It's
a good visual way to portray pesticides and fertilizers that are not
that [visually] apparent."
Working with the Bangor Area Storm Water Group,
made up of representatives from Bangor, Brewer, Hampden, Veazie,
Milford, Orono and Old Town, Tjepkema surveyed area residents about
how they maintained their lawns and educated youth about water
runoff.
The words "Keep water clean" and "Drains to
river" surround the ducks, which are the official mascot of Think
Blue Maine, which falls under DEP and sponsors educational TV
commercials and a Web site, www.thinkbluemaine.org, aimed at
teaching people how to keep Maine water clean.
Tjepkema, an Orono resident, recently earned her
master's degree in botany and plant pathology from the University of
Maine.
Monday she worked with a group of 4-H youth in
Bangor and was in Milford with another youth group on Tuesday. UM's
Cooperative Extension provides her with an office.
"'Don't fowl our water,'" said Allan Thomas,
Bangor Area Storm Water Group chairman.
"We really do have to clean up our water," he
said. "And not just because it's a federal mandate. The world
depends on it. I'm not a tree hugger, but I know we all rely on that
water."
Since Congress finalized the Clean Water Act in
1977, there has been significant change in the occurrence of
waterway pollution, but more work still can be done, Thomas said.
"It's all the little things," he said, listing
cigarette butts, lawn fertilizers, pesticides and small fluid leaks
in vehicles as examples of easily cleaned up contaminants. "It's
just that too many people in the area ignore the little things.
"If residents don't understand [the problem],
they won't change," Thomas said.
The Bangor storm water group has been working
together for more than a year, said Ken Locke, Brewer storm water
coordinator.
As part of her summer job, Tjepkema conducted a
lawn care survey with 250 residents within the storm water group's
communities. Free water tests that checked for nitrogen, phosphorous
and potassium were offered.
"As a group and a community, we're concerned
about the amount of fertilizer and pesticides that are being applied
to the laws in the community," Locke said. "We wanted to get an
idea, as a community, about how many residents were applying
fertilizer and pesticides and out of them, how many were doing it
themselves and how many were hiring a company to do it for them."
People need to realize that fertilizer,
pesticides and other contaminants can travel into rivers, streams
and other waterways through the storm drains right outside a home
and the bright yellow ducks are a good way to get their attention,
Tjepkema said.
"It's a really good way to portray the
pollution," she said. "People know the commercials and remember the
ducks."
Local AmeriCorps volunteers helped Tjepkema with
stenciling the ducks.
Members of the Bangor Area Storm Water Group and
Think Blue Maine will be giving away plastic yellow ducks at the
American Folk Festival later this month to people who can answer a
water pollution question, Thomas said.
A copyright story in the Bangor Daily News by
NOK-NOI HAUGER, OF
THE NEWS STAFF, Aug
12, 2005.
|
