While many students were still sleeping on Saturday morning, a group of students and faculty members met to mark storm drains in an outreach project aimed to raise awareness about water quality.
The group of about 20 people met at Spartan Village and separated into different groups to go around the apartment complex and campus to put signs on storm drains that said "No Dumping. Flows To Waterways." The students put the signs up and spoke with passersby about the drain flow issues around the Spartan Village apartments and Spartan Stadium.
The main purpose of the project was to make people aware that storm drains flow into the Red Cedar River, said Ruth Kline-Robach, who headed the event and works at the Institute of Water Research. Many people are not aware of this, so doing outreach is usually very effective, she said.
"This is a real challenge everywhere, not just on this campus," Kline-Robach said. "People don't make the connection of where water from rain goes."
Traditionally, people see storm drains as a "great dumping ground," making people think it is OK to dump things such as oil from cars, paint and animal waste into the storm drains, Kline-Robach said. Everything that collects on parking lots is washed into storm drains when it rains, she added.
As long as there have been cars on campus, this has been a problem, said Chrystine Shelton, an environmental studies and applications senior, who participated in the project. Especially during football games, tailgaters often dump leftover beer and pop down the drains, without even realizing they are polluting the river, she said.
"It's always been an issue," she said. "A similar program has been done in other areas and had success."
The Institute of Water Research has been working with other communities in the Red Cedar Watershed to do similar outreach and education, Kline-Robach said. The education is part of Phase II of the MSU Watershed Action Through Education and Research Initiative, or MSU-WATER.
Although many students consider it to be very polluted and unsafe, the Red Cedar River is actually diverse in fish species and has generally very good water quality, Kline-Robach said. One of the biggest ways the water receives pollution is from storm drains.
Volunteers from the Fisheries and Wildlife Club, the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment, or RISE, and Students Embracing Environmental Disciplines participated in the project.
RISE member Tim Matthews, who is an environmental geosciences freshman said he found out about this project through RISE and was immediately interested.
"It's something that definitely needs to be done, and if no one else will do it, I am always willing to help out," he said.
Along with raising awareness about the connection between storm drains and the Red Cedar River, the program also was a good way to improve campus involvement, said Laurie Thorp, RISE director.
"Many students don't think of making a difference in their four years at MSU," Thorp said. "But they can start making a difference beginning here and now, not when they graduate."
