Matthew Manthey, a local environmentalist, probably thought he had asked a reasonably straightforward question.
“Anyone want to take a guess at what a watershed might be?” he asked a group of kids at the Secaucus Public Library and Business Resource Center last week.
“A shed that holds water?”
There were more than a few comedians at the Riverkeeper program. The hands-on, interactive session, geared for kids ages 7 to 13, allowed children to learn how common everyday waste contributes to water pollution.
Riverkeeper is a national non-profit organization that encourages communities to preserve local waterways. The Hackensack Riverkeeper is a branch of the organization.
“We all contribute to the pollution of the river,” Manthey, the Americorps Watershed Ambassador for the Hackensack Riverkeeper, explained to the kids in attendance. “Whatever we do to the land is going to cause some problems for our water and the animals that live in the water.”Animals in the water
To demonstrate his point, Manthey came armed with the Riverkeeper’s EnviroScape, a plastic model of a typical town, complete with houses, cars, a construction site, a factory, a farm, people, and some animals.
Manthey then led the kids through a discussion of the types of typical pollutants we commonly put onto the ground, using the props as a guide.
Noting that cars sometimes have leaky tail pipes that drip oil onto the ground, Manthey invited one of the kids to sprinkle a little pepper behind the various model cars and trucks on the EnviroScape to mimic the oil that vehicles drip onto the ground.
Other pollutants – from fertilizer to cigarette butts and trash – got their turn in the hot seat, with a symbolic dash of pepper or paprika added onto the EnviroScape.
What it means to the watershed
Dictionaries define a watershed as “the region draining into a river, river system, or other body of water” or “the region or area drained by a river, stream, etc.; drainage area.”
In recent years environmental groups across the country have added watershed protection to air quality and land conservation as a prime area of concern. According to the Center for Watershed Protection, located in Maryland, environmental groups have concluded that safeguarding watersheds is the best way to simultaneously address many water resource problems.
After the kids “littered” the EnviroScape with pepper and paprika, Manthey showed them how pollutants wind up in rivers, creeks, and other waterways.
“Now, we’re going to have rain,” Manthey said. “Who wants to make it rain over the town?”
Four volunteers took turns using water spritzers to mimic rain, which created muddy pools of “pollutants” that drained into the EnviroScape’s river.
To drive the point home further, Manthey next poured water onto the model town to symbolize a flood, something with which the kids of Secaucus likely have first-hand experience.
“Now, would you want to drink that water?” Manthey asked, referring to the river in the model town.
There was a unanimous chorus of “no!”
“Would you want to live in that water?”
Again, the same “no!”
“What about the animals that have to live in the water?” Manthey asked. “What do you think we can do to keep the river clean?”
“Maybe we can pick up our trash,” suggested Emily Hayes, 8.
“Don’t use our cars so much,” Sterlin Snuffer, 8, chimed in.
Finally, this suggestion from Natalie Won, 9: “We could sue the people that pollute the water.”
Spoken like a true comedian – or future lawyer.