From Streams to the Statehouse: Kids Speak for Clean Water

This spring, Blue Water Baltimore partnered with our friends at The St. Paul’s School to engage 55 third graders in stream discovery and learning about the Urban Water Cycle at their campus in Timonium. Our team of engagement specialists devised a full day of experiential learning for the students, which started out with a “toilet paper race” to answer that perennial question: “Will It Flush?”

Or maybe the question is, “Should It Flush,” since students learned that even though an object may disappear down the drain, that doesn’t mean it’s safe for our shared underground pipe systems. We learned that only toilet paper is truly flushable, and other items like paper towels, tissues, and un-flushable wipes should go straight into the trash because they can cause dangerous and costly sewage backups if they are flushed down the toilet.

Next, students learned all about how the stormwater system beneath our feet carries rain water and pollution into our local streams. BWB staff showed the group how Green Stormwater Infrastructure acts as a sponge and soaks up excess water and pollution before it can degrade local ecosystems.

After learning all about how pollution moves across our landscape, we hiked to the nearby stream and hunted for benthic macroinvertebrates, which are tiny water bugs that can give us clues about how healthy or sick our streams really are. We found dragonfly, caddisfly, and stonefly larvae, along with tiny snails that don’t tolerate pollution very well. Combined with some readings from our handheld water quality monitoring instrument, these findings led the group of stream sleuths to understand that their local stream is alive and well, and everything that happens upstream has a big impact on downstream communities.

Finally, armed with knowledge about how pollution moves across the landscape and impacts our shared waterways, students took action by writing letters to their elected officials in support of HB 232, the Maryland Bottle Bill. This bill would place a small deposit on each beverage container sold in the state, thereby incentivizing Marylanders to properly dispose of their bottle trash so it doesn’t end up in our streams. Students delivered their “message in a bottle” to Delegates Cathi Forbes (District 43B) and Michele Guyton (District 42B), who shared them with their colleagues in the House Economic Matters Committee.

The Maryland Bottle Bill successfully passed through the House Environment & Transportation committee, but was stalled in its companion committee without a vote. While we are disappointed that the bill didn’t become a law this year, this is the furthest the bill has ever progressed through General Assembly and the effort has incredible momentum from community members, advocates, and dedicated representatives who have become champions for the measure.

From the streams to the statehouse, we are proud to be working alongside our communities and future voters in pursuit of cleaner water. By facilitating unique learning experiences and helping to build civic engagement skills, Blue Water Baltimore is making sure our neighbors can effectively speak up for their local waterways – for generations to come.