WACO, TX — This spring, students from a private school in downtown Waco developed a plan to reduce pollution in waterways.
Eleven Live Oak Classical School students seniors, including Rich Helmer, and one junior worked on a storm water mitigation project to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff leaving the school and going into the streets.
"A lot of times, you have massive amounts of water going to one place, and for us that one place is the Brazos River, and it takes everything with it, including pollutants and trash," Helmer said.
As part of their initiative, crews installed gutters to some of the buildings.
Students also created three rain gardens: two above ground and one in the ground.
"They will slow the flow to the street and increase infiltration into the aquifers," said Melinda Johnson, science teacher at Live Oak Classical School.
In addition, they put two barrels under the downspouts of the gutters to collect rainwater and reuse it.
"We'll be using that to water the pots, water the grass during the summertime," Johnson said.
The project was made possible through a grant the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded to Baylor University. The university gave Johnson a $5,000 subgrant.
With the amount of rainfall in Waco this spring, students have been able to notice the impact of their hard work first hand.
"I was surprised by how big of a difference and how practical it was," said Grace Morrison, senior at Live Oak Classical.
City of Waco Environmental Program Manager Anna Dunbar helped students understand the origin and ending of stormwater.
In Waco, stormwater goes into the conveyance system before ending up in the Brazos River.
"Let's say someone unknowingly decides 'I have this paint, I'll just put down the storm drain,' That means that the paint in next storm will be carried into the river without treatment or carried into Lake Waco," Dunbar said.
She added it's unusual for schools to work on this type of project.
"The really great thing about this is they not only learned things about stormwater but then they actually saw it in real life at their campus and they came up with solutions," Dunbar said.
Helmer hopes their solution will make a difference.
"I think it could help Waco because it can show rain gardens don't need to take a lot of space to do lots of good," Helmer said.
Students from art and environmental classes also painted a mural in the backyard of the school where the project was developed.
A cement driveway near the Live Oak Classical School lunch room was also removed in an effort to reduce the amount of runoff.
"The whole path to the street, it was all cement. The water would flow directly from the roof into the street," Johnson said.
A granite pathway and grass will be added once the rainy weather slows down in our area.
The overall project is expected to be completed next month.
Next school year, students from the environmental class will maintain the project and possibly add other features to it.
