Spartanburg Water presents grant to Watershed Ecology Center
January 30, 2017
$18,000 will support programs for 18,900 students on importance of watershed protection
Spartanburg Water presented an $18,000 grant to the Watershed Ecology Center for classroom instruction of 18,900-plus area students on watershed protection.
Spartanburg Water continues to support community engagement programs that actively protect area watersheds by awarding the efforts of the Watershed Ecology Center. This successful ongoing initiative serves to collect, analyze and disseminate sound scientific information on the ecology of the region. Special emphasis is placed on water conservation, watershed education, water quality and the study of organisms living in the area encompassed by a watershed.
“In 2016, this group served 18,900 K-8 students with presentations throughout Spartanburg County, including public, private and home schools,” said Regina Cousar, Chief Operating Officer of Spartanburg Water. “Educating students, our future customers, about the significance of our watersheds is something we see as very important.”
The grant will allow the program to add another part-time teacher to teach more groups of students, said Dr. Jack Turner, Director of the Watershed Ecology Center.
“We were fully booked by September 1, so this money from Spartanburg Water was a wonderful opportunity to add to our teaching staff,” he said.
In addition to the many classroom educational programs and water-based programming, the Watershed Ecology Center offers several public participation programs. The Center’s public participation programs include the watershed sign project in Spartanburg County and an Adopt-A-Stream program. To date, the Watershed Ecology Center has focused many of these efforts around Spartanburg Water’s reservoirs and the watershed. The watershed sign program was inspired by Spartanburg Water’s original watershed sign initiative in 2015, where more than 20 signs were installed throughout the Pacolet River Watershed Basin.
The Adopt-A-Stream program will assist in the AP Environmental Science Program in Spartanburg County schools plus encourage community volunteers to take an active role in stream monitoring and clean-up.
ABOUT SPARTANBURG WATER
Spartanburg Water, an award-winning utility, is comprised of Spartanburg Water System and Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District. It serves a population of more than 180,000 within Spartanburg County, as well as others in parts of Greenville, Union and Cherokee counties. With the help of its dedicated team of more than 250 employees, each day it produces an average of 25 million gallons of drinking water and cleans 12 million gallons of reclaimed water for its customers and community. For more information on Spartanburg Water’s water quality efforts, visit us at spartanburgwater.org.
ABOUT THE WATERSHED ECOLOGY CENTER
The Center’s mission is to collect, analyze and disseminate sound scientific information on the ecology of the region. Special emphasis is placed on watershed conservation, education, water quality and the study of organisms living in the area encompassed by a watershed. The Center serves as a repository for regional ecological information, providing education and research assistance to individuals, communities, local schools and governmental organizations. The WEC is also dedicated to providing research opportunities for the faculty and students at the University of South Carolina Upstate and other regional institutions.
