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Department of Ecology News Release - October 7, 2002
02-187
SPOKANE - A grade-school teacher, a parent volunteer and the Wilbur School District 200 will receive the state's top environmental honor on Monday, Oct. 14.
The Department of Ecology's (Ecology) Environmental Excellence Award recognizes teacher Erin Utley, parent volunteer Kayti Didricksen, and the students who have worked since April 2002 to collect water-quality data on upper Goose Creek to help the city of Wilbur prepare to build a new wastewater-treatment facility.
The award also recognizes one of the many activities taking place throughout Washington to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act. Volunteers and professionals are testing bodies of water across the county to get a "snapshot" of water quality today. The students will enter their data on the www.yearofcleanwater.org Web site to include it in a national report.
Flora Goldstein, who manages the Ecology's Spokane office, will present the Environmental Excellence Award at a 10:50 a.m. assembly in the Wilbur School "elementary court."
In order to plan the water quality requirements for the facility, Ecology needed 12 months of data about the existing quality of the water in Goose Creek.
The water-quality requirements for the effluent that is discharged from the treatment facility to upper Goose Creek depend largely on how the creek is used. Ecology requested that the town study the creek to determine if trout are living in or have ever lived in upper Goose Creek. If so, the city's permit would be written to ensure that the water remains healthy for the trout.
Erin Utley volunteered to have her class conduct the sample collection every month, to not only help the city of Wilbur but also to learn from the hands-on experience.
Kayti Didricksen, who also works for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, volunteered many hours developing a "quality-assurance project plan" so that the students' data can meet a high enough standard to be useful to the city. She also has helped, along with Ecology's Elaine Snouwaert and Karin Baldwin, to train the students.
A Wilbur School senior, Beth Rettkowski, managed the data and will summarize it when the project ends in June 2003. This will fulfill her required "senior service project" before graduation.
Contact: Jani Gilbert, public information manager, 509-456-4464; pager, 509-622-1289
Note to reporters: You are welcome to attend the assembly. Please call Elaine Snouwaert at (509) 456- 5011 by Friday, Oct. 11 so that she can notify the school.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
