The Water Guardians

Democrat Staff Writer

ROCHESTER — Sixth-graders at the Middle School received a hands-on primer in groundwater and pollution recently, learning about how everyday chemicals can make their way into the city’s water supply.

The lesson came as part of an ongoing education program provided by Lifewise Community Projects Inc, which has been moving from school to school with the goal of recruiting "Future Water Guardians."

"Our water is very valuable, and very fragile," said Bruce A. Montville EE, Lifewise president, speaking to students about the constant flow of pollution into watersheds throughout the state.

Montville, along with Lifewise partner Nancy Marden, have been offering the "Future Water Guardians of New Hampshire" program to schools since 1999. The lesson and demonstration, showing how water flows through a watershed and soil, is offered free to any school through a reservation. He’s taken the lesson to over 100 schools in the past several years, trying to raise environmental awareness and foster good environmental stewardship in young students. Friday’s 40-minute lesson was split into four classes, encompassing about 100 students in the Pisces team.

Bruce A. Montville EE demonstrates to a group of Pisces Team students what happens when pollution is introduced to ground water system.

Students had to complete a self-survey to prepare for Friday’s lesson, showing how much water they use per day and where, such as how many glasses of water they drink, or how long their showers last. The results of that survey will be sent to the Department of Environmental Services.

The students had already learned about parts of the water cycle, such as condensation and evaporation during lessons on oceans and habitats. The next lesson, said science teacher Rebecca Buzzell, will deal with the water cycle.

"This is a good way to kick it off," she said of the visit by Lifewise.

Montville used a diagram of the water cycle to start the lesson, showing how water moves from liquid to vapor and back, recharging the Cocheco River watershed. Throughout the demonstration he made sure to explain how an acquirer works and used dyes to show how pollution plumes as water moves through the ground.

"You don’t think that grass grows green by itself," Marden said, explaining to students how rain can wash fertilizer from a golf course into a local water supply.

She used a spray bottle to simulate how different sources of pollution, including leaked automobile fluids on the road and animal waste from a farm, move downstream into a mock Cocheco River. Multicolored dyes and powder soon discolored the water.

"Can you tell where the source of that is when it gets all mixed up," she said, explaining the difference between point and non-point source pollution. "You can’t, and that’s non-point."

Marden also asked students to point out the possible pollutants and sources of pollutants on the model.

"Oil," several children responded when asked what an automobile can leave behind as it drives along a road.

The demonstration also showed how waste from textile mills was once pumped directly into rivers, such as the Cocheco. That was used as an example of point-source pollution, as the students could actually trace the plume of discolored water back to a model factory.

The other model used to demonstrate groundwater movement showed several layers of soil. Montville filled the model with water and would inject dyes to show how the pollution spreads out, in some cases contaminating wells away from the original point of pollution.

"It’ll move slowly," he said as the class watched a plume of mock antifreeze work its way through the ground, following the motion of the water.

"We have no control of where groundwater will go," he said. "I’m nervous here (pointing) because it’s pretty close to my well."

Other parts of the lesson included how everyday chemicals, many of which are under kitchen sinks, can harm people if they make it into the water supply.