Opening presentations by Peter L. Wise, associate director, Illinois EPA; Stuart S. Tuller, team leader, U.S. EPA, Washington, D.C.; and Phillip D. Peters, executive director, Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, Chicago, were followed by discussions of far-reaching programs developed around the nation to educate the public about the complex issues of nonpoint source pollution.

Community special events as educational tools were described, including a Clean Water Celebration at Peoria, Ill.; Children's Water Festivals in Colorado; South Dakota Water Festivals; and a highly successful Nebraska Festival of Color focusing on sustainable urban residential landscaping.

Christy Trutter, of the Illinois EPA's water quality management/nonpoint source unit, described the Agency's innovative use of billboards to generate public interest in nonpoint source pollution; Eugenia S. Marks of Rhode Island explained a curriculum kit growing out of a five year study of Narragansett Bay to promote hands-on involvement by seventh and eighth grade students, and Susan V. Alexander of Pineland, Texas, outlined a teaching unit she developed to get her classes of low-income middle-school students involved in watershed protection, despite a small school enrollment and a "tiny" budget.

"Storm Sewer in a Suitcase"

Other sessions dealt with such diversified subjects as animal waste management systems in Utah, a South Carolina program to provide scholarships and television recognition for students making a positive impact on their local environments, and a "Storm Sewer in a Suitcase" miniature urban watershed model developed by the Tulsa County Blue Thumb Nonpoint Source Pollution Education Project in Tulsa, Okla.

During the opening day's luncheon, the Gaia Theater of Chicago presented a special theatrical performance, "One Fish, Two Fish, Dead Fish, Blue Fish," a mystery revolving around identification of pollutants impacting a river.

A masked member of the Gaia Theater of Chicago takes part in a special "mystery" presentation created for the national conference.

High school students at Fenger Academy in Chicago demonstrated their Illinois Rivers Project during the conference. Their teacher is Mary Greer.