Water

Access to sufficient high-quality water is becoming the central issue of the 21st century. In Kentucky, a significant number of rivers are impacted by factors undermining their quality and outstripping state and federal regulatory resources for addressing them. Better environmental education is needed if the quality of Kentucky’s waters is to improve.

Working to address this issue with improved watershed management education is the Water Pioneers Water Quality Outreach Initiative, headed by Lindell Ormsbee of the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute at UK. The initiative aims at educating eastern Kentucky youth about Kentucky water resources, engaging them in water issues, and improving water quality in their local communities.

Water Quality Outreach Initiative

This project unites the College of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service, the UK Robinson Scholars Program, and several outside agencies in an effort to encourage youth activism on behalf of an in-depth study of the Appalachian watershed. The youth - inductees into the Robinson Scholars Program—a scholarship and leadership development program that seeks to improve college attendance in a twenty-nine county region of Eastern Kentucky with a traditionally low college-going rate—will develop ideas and compare information about watersheds with students in partnering states and regions, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Actions and Outcomes to Date

External partners in the project include Eastern Kentucky PRIDE, Kentucky Water Watch, the Kentucky Division of Water the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet, the Kentucky Division of Forestry, and Copperhead Consulting. The project is working in the 29 eastern Kentucky counties from which Robinson Scholars are drawn—Bell, Breathitt, Carter, Clay, Elliott, Estill, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson, Johnson, Knott, Knox, Letcher, Lee, Leslie, Laurel, Lawrence, Magoffin, Menifee, Morgan, Martin, McCreary, Owsley, Perry Powell, Pike, Rockcastle, Whitley, and Wolfe.

During the weeks of June 11-16, 2006 and June 18-22, 2007, 28 and 29 students and advisors participated in week-long investigations of a Kentucky watershed. The program included water-quality investigation, topographic and geologic analysis, technology training, and ecological investigations.
For the culminating project, students drafted project proposals for their home county. The students included goals and objectives, project summaries, timelines, resources, and challenges.
The Water Pioneers programs were held in Jabez, Kentucky, at the Kentucky Leadership Center. Additional curriculum, including mathematics and chemistry activities, was integrated into the program in 2007. Nature art was used as a communication tool, contributing another dimension to the program.
KWRRI submitted an abstract for the students to participant in an international conference, the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE). NAAEE accepted two presentations of the Water Pioneers Water Quality Program for delivery at the annual conference in Virginia during November 2007. The student presentations included an overview of the program and community projects.

Following their intensive experiences, students each year connected with individuals and groups within their respective home counties for six months to allow each student the success of completing a community project related to water quality and watersheds within the Robinson Scholars service area.

The curriculum team, external partners, and advisors followed up with the students throughout the remainder of the school year to assist with the development and implementation of each student’s community project. The students presented their projects to local officials, parents, UK faculty, other Robinson scholars, and local community groups in November 2006 and 2007.

The Robinson Scholar’s staff and KWRRI will submit grant applications to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for funding for an exchange program in May 2008. The project will also contact foundations for funding.