The Scituate Reservoir Watershed Education Program 2013 Theme:
Teacher Resource Packet
Teachers’ Resource Packet Contents:
Stormwater Runoff
Watershed Concepts
What We Can Do
GSE Links
Important Vocabulary
Classroom Activities
Stormwater Runoff
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified stormwater runoff as one of the biggest hazards
to water quality nationwide, but it is also one of the most difficult to address. This year’s theme, "Where Does
Your Water Shed?," is designed to help students and their families think about where stormwater goes after it
rains, and where our household water goes beyond just “down the drain.” All of the water we use in our daily
routines, and all of the water that falls in rain and snow around our houses eventually leaves our property and
travels downstream – whether on the surface or through groundwater. But what it is carrying with it as it
travels? It is our hope that by working together we can protect both our private drinking water wells and the
Scituate Reservoir by reducing groundwater and stormwater contamination and increasing stormwater
infiltration.
In order to guide your students in creating meaningful entries for this year’s poster contest, first reinforce the
concepts of connection between land and water in a watershed, and between the groundwater that we drink
from our wells and the surface water that 60% of Rhode Islanders (that’s over 600,000 people!) drink from the
Scituate Reservoir. Remind your students that even if they drink well water at home, whenever they visit other
parts of the state, such as Providence, they are likely drinking water from the Scituate Reservoir, right here in
our towns.
“Stormwater pollution is caused by the daily activities of people
everywhere. Rainwater and snowmelt run off streets, lawns, farms, and
construction and industrial sites and pick up fertilizers, dirt, pesticides, oil
and grease, and many other pollutants on the way to our rivers, lakes, and
coastal waters. Stormwater runoff is our most common cause of water
pollution.” (U.S. EPA, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Outreach
Materials, cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwatermonth.cfm)
Everyone lives in a watershed.
A watershed is an area of land that water flows across or
through on its way to a particular body of water.
It is helpful to think of the two definitions of the word
“shed”: as a noun, a shed is a place where things are stored.
As a verb, to shed something means to cast off, as a snake
casts off its skin. A watershed is a combination of the two –
it is an area of land which both stores water in the form of
groundwater and surface ponds and lakes, and sheds water
in the form of groundwater flow and surface streams and
rivers.
Watershed boundaries are determined by topography. Take a look at the picture above – since water will
always flow downhill, the central water body within a watershed will always be at the lowest point. The area of
land that makes up the Scituate Reservoir Watershed is all uphill of the reservoir. This may seem like a simple
concept, but it is enormously important when we consider that all of the actions that take place on land within
this watershed will eventually impact the reservoir itself. Additionally, this watershed does not stand alone as it
appears in the picture. The Scituate Reservoir Watershed is a part of the larger Pawtuxet River Watershed,
which in turn is a part of the even larger Narragansett Bay Watershed. That connection means that not only do
our actions on land in the Scituate Reservoir Watershed affect the reservoir, but they also affect the Pawtuxet
River, which feeds into Narragansett Bay.
The Scituate Reservoir is especially important because it provides
drinking water to 60% of Rhode Island, while the groundwater that
is directly connected to it in its watershed provides drinking water
for private wells in Scituate, Foster, Glocester and Western
Johnston. Some of your students may not live right in the Scituate
Reservoir Watershed, but their participation is no less important.
Wherever we may live, we are always in the watershed of some
water body, and it is still up to us to help protect its water quality.
Ask your students to look for their homes on the maps in the
appendix of this resource guide to identify the watershed they live
in, and its central water body if it is not the Scituate Reservoir.
Whenever they water a garden or even do the dishes, this is the
destination of most of the water they use. Anything that does not evaporate or get absorbed directly by plants
will eventually flow downhill and reach the central water body of that watershed.
To understand the watershed concept, ask your students to
recall the Water Cycle. Water evaporation and absorption
into the ground work like a purification system, filtering out
many pollutants. Since evaporation is dependent on the
weather, we cannot do much to increase its ability to clean
our water. We can, however, impact the ability of water to
absorb into the ground. When stormwater is able to absorb
into the ground and filter through vegetation, surrounding
water quality is greatly increased. A land surface such as a
garden or wooded area that can absorb water like this is called
a pervious surface. The opposite, surfaces including paved
roads, parking lots and rooftops, are called impervious.
When it rains over an impervious surface, any contaminants on
that surface – such as motor oil dripped on a parking lot, litter,
or even bird waste on a rooftop – will be carried along by
stormwater runoff into the nearest lake or stream. According
to the U.S. EPA, water quality will be negatively impacted and
flooding is more likely to occur when 10% or more of the
landscape is impervious (asphalt, concrete, roofs and other
development). For comparison, the Village of North Scituate is
approximately 15 ‐ 23% impervious, and the average for the
state of Rhode Island is 12%. In a city like Providence,
impervious surfaces can make up over 40% of the ground
cover!
When it rains over a pervious surface, contamination can get
filtered by soil and plants. This is preferable to stormwater
runoff, but it is important to remember that water can still
carry contaminants with it into our groundwater. When it
rains over a lawn or an athletic field that has been treated
with fertilizers and pesticides, or a walking path where
someone has failed to pick up after their dog, these
contaminants can reach our groundwater. The way we treat
the land directly impacts the quality of water in our wells and
in our reservoir. The watershed and water cycle work
together to connect land to water.
What Can We Do?
The Scituate Reservoir Watershed connects our communities. We depend on everyone who shares our
watershed to protect our well water, and in turn, the state of Rhode Island depends on us to protect the
Scituate Reservoir. By ensuring that our well water stays safe and healthy, we in turn support the water quality
of the reservoir.
Here are some things your students and their families can do to protect the water quality in our wells, our
neighbors’ wells, and in the cities that depend on us for clean water:
Animals…
o Clean up pet waste and dispose of it in the trash.
o If you have livestock, keep them fenced out of water bodies and keep their manure high and dry so it
will not wash off into the water ‐ even just putting your pile on a tarp and keeping it covered can help
limit harmful runoff, and there are many resources available to learn about other options.
Landscaping…
o Instead of using fertilizer on your lawn, let it go a little longer between mowing – slightly taller grass
offers more shade to its roots, and will stay greener naturally.
o Let your lawn turn a little brown during those hot, dry weeks in August – its natural!
o If you do use fertilizer, be sure to get a soil test done first so you know exactly how much you should
add – adding more than needed won’t increase growth, but will increase algae blooms in nearby water
bodies.
o Reduce impervious surfaces, or their impacts, when possible:
If you are repaving a driveway or a walkway, consider crushed stone instead of asphalt.
Watch your property during a rain storm and find out where the stormwater travels. Use
gutters, downspouts and garden design to keep it on your land and direct it to grassy or
wooded areas rather than onto asphalt or concrete.
Plant a rain garden – if properly designed, rain gardens create holding areas to keep
stormwater in one place long enough for it to infiltrate into the ground, rather than running off.
Household Chemicals…
o Make sure your septic system is functioning properly! Broken septic systems can jeopardize your
drinking water and your neighbors’.
o Use non‐toxic household cleaners – even a fully functioning septic system is simply not equipped to
filter strong chemicals such as bleach.
o Do not dump used oil or chemicals on the ground – use an absorbent drop cloth when changing oil in
lawnmowers or other equipment, and always bring used oil and chemicals to proper disposal locations.
o Pick up litter and recycle!
o Share what you have learned with others!
Important Vocabulary:
Conservation: Planned management of natural resources to prevent exploitation, destruction or neglect.
Ecosystem: All living and nonliving things which make up a particular environment. For example, a forest
ecosystem consists of trees, shrubs, birds, deer, squirrels, soil, rocks, streams and the
weather patterns which bring sunlight and rainwater.
Ground Water: Water held in soil deep underground. Groundwater comes from rainwater that did not get
used by plants or swept away in streams or storm drains, but instead percolated through
the soil. From there, groundwater can flow down hill towards the Reservoir, or get pumped
up to the surface through a well.
Impervious: Fluids such as rainwater cannot penetrate (i.e. asphalt, concrete, rooftops).
Low Impact Development: LID emphasizes conservation and use of on‐site natural features to protect
water quality.
Pervious: Fluids such as rainwater are able to penetrate (i.e. forests or fields).
Soil Erosion: Washing or blowing away of top soil by water or wind.
Stormwater: Rainwater which does not infiltrate into the ground but flows directly over land into surface water bodies such as the Scituate Reservoir, carrying with it all the pollutants it may have
picked up along the way.
Surface Water: Any water that is on the surface of the land such as streams, rivers, ponds, reservoirs – even
puddles!
Watershed: The area of land that water flows across or under on its way to a stream, river or lake such as the
Scituate Reservoir.
Classroom Activities
1. How Pervious is our Schoolyard?
Take your class for a walk around the school with a bucket of water. Ask students to guess what will happen when water is poured over different surfaces, from the parking lot to the lawn, to drive home the concept of pervious surfaces.
2. Follow That Drop!
Take a walk outside the school building with your students. Try to imagine the path of a rain drop falling onto the property. Help your students to survey the topography of the area. Water will travel down hill, follow the drop to a stream, pond, wetland or other water body or if that is not possible, look on Google Earth with your students to identify water bodies that may be down hill. If the area the rain is traveling over is pervious, or coming from gutter down spouts, think of ways the water could be allowed to infiltrate into the ground. How can you break the path of impervious stormwater traveling across the landscape? (hint: use rain barrels, put in vegetated filter strip or rain garden, use crushed stone rather than asphalt). Encourage students to think without the obstacles of cost to help them think outside the box. Encourage the students to repeat the exercise at home with their parents, or give it to them as a home work assignment to do with their parents. If you have access to an i‐phone, you can obtain the app Creek Watch free of charge. You and your students can enter data about nearby water bodies The app allows you to take a picture of the site and input your observation data. This is another great parent/child homework assignment to extend beyond the classroom.
3. Experiment: How does pollution spread?
This simple and fun exercise demonstrates how water picks up contaminants and carries them along
as it flows into a water body.
Materials:
Paper towel cut into strips, approximately 1” wide and 5‐6” long (1‐2 per student) Crayola or other washable markers Cups of water (1 per table) Procedure: Instruct students to make a large dot in the middle of the strip of paper towel, and ask them to guess what might happen when they dip it into the cup of water. Once they have made a few guesses, try it out. You will see the color bleed from the dot as the water carries it through the paper. Explanation: It is up to you to decide how in depth to explain this activity. If you do not have much time, it is enough to simply explain that water picks up things in its path and carries them along. To go more in depth, explain that this is due to cohesion, a unique property of water that causes it to cling to other substances and carry them along. Extension:
This simple experiment can be turned into an art project – replace the paper towel strips with coffee filters that have been cut in half, and allow students to draw for a few minutes on their filter. With a water dropper, drip across the filter and watch your students’ amazement as the colors change and blend into each other! And just for fun, a few twists of a pipe cleaner can turn half of a coffee filter into a butterfly!
4. Where’s the Groundwater? Objective: Groundwater is water that is found underground in the spaces and cracks between soil, sand and gravel. Often hidden from view, in this activity you will "see" what groundwater looks like and learn some basic groundwater vocabulary. Materials Needed
• 2 clear cups
• Sand
• Gravel or aquarium rock
• Pitcher of water Procedure 1. Fill both cups with layers of sand and gravel to about 3/4 from the top of each cup. Remember that in nature, aquifers consist of layers of sand, gravel and rock. 2. In one of the cups, pour water slowly into it. Watch how the water fills the spaces between the par‐ ticles of sand and gravel. Does the water appear to move faster through the sand or faster through the gravel? Why? 3. Now continue to fill this cup with water to the top (above the top of the sand and gravel). Water that is located above ground, like rivers and lakes, is called surface water. Water below the ground's surface is called groundwater. 4. In the second cup, slowly pour water into the cup until the water line is about one inch below the top of the sand/gravel. Look closely at this line created by the water. This line is called the water table. Water below the water table is called the saturation zone. 5. Now pretend that your pitcher of water is a large rain cloud and pour some more water into your second aquifer until the water table is about one half an inch below the surface of the gravel. Your groundwater supply has just been recharged. This is what happens when it rains or snows and wa‐ ter infiltrates (or sinks) into the ground.
Optional Extension: Use colored water or powdered drink mix to
Visit NACD website for above words and definitions to print off and use with this
activity. http://www.nacdnet.org/stewardship&education/
represent a source of groundwater contamination. Sprinkle or pour the contamination on the top a cup filled with gravel and water. Sprinkle water (rain) on top of the gravel. Observe and discuss what happens. Conclusion We have learned that groundwater is water that is found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand and gravel. We have learned that groundwater is stored in‐‐and moves through‐‐the layers of sand and gravel. This geologic formation of sand and gravel which stores groundwater is called an aquifer. Aquifers get more water when they are recharged by rain and snow. Activity Source for Groundwater Exercise: The Groundwater Gazette, published by The Groundwater Foundation
5. Words and Definitions with Graphics Use the "Protect Your Private Well" box and description cards contained in this packet to teach students about groundwater and water quality protection. If you would like more copies of the card cut outs, contact Gina DeMarco at 401‐934‐0840 or [email protected]
Why Should We Help Protect Water Quality in the Scituate Reservoir? As a teacher, you can think of many ways to inspire your students to help protect water quality and guide them in brainstorming about why they should help. Perhaps one reason that will resonate with the students is that they themselves deserve to look forward to a future with clean, readily available water and that they deserve to raise future generations with the same expectations and opportunities. By educating their families and the community, and pitching in to help keep the watershed clean, they are protecting the quality of life they desire to experience in the future. Please inspire your students to think of multiple reasons that they should help and care. Thank you for taking part in the Scituate Reservoir Watershed Education Program Poster Contest!