National Groundwater Awareness Week

By Heather Voorman, The Groundwater Foundation

Since March 9-15 is National Groundwater Awareness Week, this week’s blog post is dedicated to ideas for spreading groundwater awareness in your community!
One of the best ways to spread groundwater awareness in your community is to educate your family, friends, and neighbors about the water we rely on every day! Below is a list of community project ideas to help teach others about groundwater and ways they can protect it.

Groundwater Basics:

·       Lead a groundwater education campaign.  Activities could include: hosting or presenting a groundwater 101 lecture, creating and distributing educational materials throughout the community, writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, or writing and recording a public service announcement for a local radio station.

·       Hold a mini-groundwater festival for local residents. Form teams to demonstrate groundwater concepts through hands-on activities. For activity ideas, visit the Try This! and Girl Scout Resources sections on our website.

·       Host a Test Your Well event in your community.  This event allows well owners to have their water screened for common contaminants such as nitrates and offers opportunities to raise awareness on pollution prevention.

 

Water Conservation and Pollution Prevention:

·       Design and install a rain garden for your school or other community spaces to capture rain water and reduce storm water pollution. For more information about installing a rain garden, visit the All About Rain Gardens section of our website.

·       Share water conservation and pollution prevention messages that encourage the protection of groundwater supplies.  Examples could include performing a play or writing a story about the importance of protecting groundwater supplies. Click here for an example of a story!

·       Get permission from the city to stencil messages on storm drains to help prevent chemicals and oil from being dumped down them.  These chemicals pollute both surface and groundwater and are dangerous to aquatic plants and animals.

 

                                                                           Image credit: epa.gov

 

Creating long-lasting groundwater awareness and protection efforts:

The Groundwater Foundation has some great programs that help communities continue their groundwater awareness and protection efforts. Click on the links below to learn more about becoming a Groundwater Guardian or getting your green space involved in Groundwater Guardian Green Sites!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Groundwater Guardian        

 

 

 

 

Groundwater Guardian Green Sites   

For more information on National Groundwater Awareness Week, visit the National Ground Water Association Website.