Environmental Progress - Spring 1998

Teens, Seniors Pair Up to Protect Source Water

Pilot project merges age and experience with youthful enthusiasm.

The Illinois EPA is participating in a unique 15-state pilot program that pairs senior volunteers with high school students to implement local source water protection efforts. The "Source Water Protection Mentor Initiative Program" is being coordinated through U.S. EPA’s Region 5. Under the initiative, teams of local senior volunteers or mentors provide technical support and assistance to communities in the program.

The U.S. EPA is funding the project through the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement to local Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) offices. The pilot is being tested in northern Illinois with funding going to RSVP offices in Winnebago and McHenry/Kane counties.

A workshop was held at McHenry County Community College on July 1, 1997 to train the senior volunteers in the basic principles of groundwater flow, potential sources and routes of groundwater contamination, and how to conduct a potential source inventory. The next step was to target a community for this assistance.

East Dundee was chosen

East Dundee in Kane County was chosen because the five-year capture zones for the village wells had been delineated and initial work was undertaken to identify potential sources of contamination.

Gary Swick, an Environmental Science teacher from Dundee-Crown High School, encouraged his class to begin the source identification process for the East Dundee wells. A joint effort was launched to partner retired senior volunteers with high school seniors to identify potential threats to the water supply recharge area.

As Kim Kaecker, a student from Dundee-Crown, put it, "The point is to find contamination before it gets into the groundwater."

A kick-off meeting on September 16, 1997, laid out the project approach to train participants on the types of businesses, facilities, or activities that could pose a threat to the groundwater; and to familiarize them with East Dundee’s drinking water system. Six teams of four to five students, each led by a senior volunteer captain, conducted windshield surveys and door-to-door interviews while looking for potential threats within the drinking water protection area. The teams divided the water supply protection area into 12 gridded areas and completed the project over a two-week period.

From "old folks" to team members

Results of the project went well beyond identification of potential contamination sources. A real and somewhat unexpected camaraderie developed between the students and senior volunteers. Debbie Danitz, coordinator for the McHenry/Kane RSVP, was initially concerned that "the students would not work well with the senior volunteers." However, as work progressed a real respect for the senior population was fostered. Swick found "Students developed a respect for the senior volunteers. Their initial impressions of them as ‘old folks’ developed into one of admiration once they began working as teammates. The senior volunteers validated the experience as socially significant."

Equally important was bringing a "real world" environmental project into the classroom. Swick has earned a reputation for projects involving the kids with their community, developing recycling programs, natural area restoration projects, and stream sampling. "This project," he says, "may have been the most significant thing they have ever done in school or so far in their lifetimes and may mold their future careers or actions in protecting the environment. This will be their memory from the high school classroom."

He added, "This is education at its finest! This is not multiple choice questions, simulated lab experience, or a story to analyze. This project was reality. It was a great forum for learning."

Student Brissa Minajeras, agreed. "It was fun and it was better than doing stuff out of a book."

The project also had value for the senior retired volunteers. Dick Hilton, one of the seniors said, "The experience was as meaningful to me as I hope it was to the group I worked with.

The project was so successful that other communities in the McHenry/Kane county area are developing projects using the same approach.

Next, a video and a City Council appearance

The students are making a video detailing the project and providing recommendations on how the city can protect its drinking water supply. Studentarurging the city to adopt a groundwater protection ordinance and applying for national recognition through the Groundwater Guardian program.