Members of Plant City’s Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay got to see water in action during a field trip on Tuesday, March 1.
The City of Plant City teamed up with the organization to take 21 students on a field trip to the Westside Canal, one of the city’s capital improvement projects focused on cleaning up stormwater. The Westside Canal is located on the south side of Ball Street near the intersection with Hunter Street. Assistant City Manager Bill McDaniel led students to the project site.
The $700,000 project, which spans four acres, included installing 750 linear feet of underground drainage piping from Warren Street to Hunter Street for additional water quality treatment. An additional 350 feet are used for drainage pipes.
“When we collect the water, we get the bad stuff out,” Tatyana Austin, the project’s engineer, said.
Sharon Spires, the industrial pre-treatment coordinator for the City of Plant City, told students about the importance of clean drinking water. Though over half of the world is covered in water, only 2.5% of that water is fresh, according to National Geographic. Only 1% of that water is easily accessible, as the rest of it is found in glaciers.
“That 1% is both drinking water and for feeding animals,” Spires said. “All of that 1% of water for Florida is in the aquifer, in these little pockets.”
On a model of a small city set up by field trip organizers, students learned how mismanagement of daily activities — like using fertilizer and taking out the trash — could harm Florida’s aquifer.
“Who’s in charge of the trash?” Spires said. “We are.”
Students were given paper and food coloring to represent pollutants, including oil, trash, pesticides, fertilizer and sand. When instructed, students poured the pollutants on the model city. The makeshift trash traveled to the
bottom of the model, which was full of water. Spires explained to students that any form of pollution, even if it’s not near water, has the potential to harm the state’s aquifer.
“It’s a shame, because we can control that,” Spires said. “We can’t control animals. But we can control the herbicides, pesticides and trash. There’s some things we can’t do anything about, but there’s a lot of things we can do. Now our 1% of water is dirty, so we’ve got to fix that.”
Spires and Austin directed the students’ attention to the Westside Canal. They explained that the canal, a man-made pond, is a natural treatment system designed to take on pollution.
“Engineers like Tatyana design these magnificent ponds,” Spires said. “We need to protect that.”
Plants at the Westside Canal remove nutrients and contaminants from the polluted water. Although the water isn’t safe for humans to drink, it is an acceptable habitat for animals. During the field trip, students saw birds drinking from the canal. Later, the canal also will have fish and other small aquatic animals.
The Westside Canal Capital Improvement Project received two grants, including $373,093 from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and $350,000 from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The project began two years ago, and the finished pond was completed last month.
City Manager Mike Herr was pleased with the presentation to students.
“Our youth are an important audience to talk about excellent management of our rivers, streams, canals and ecosystem,” Herr said. “We are proud of this project.”
For Austin, teaching Plant City’s youth about the project was something she felt would benefit the city’s future.
“Today the kids, tomorrow the adults,” Austin said. “It’s important to understand what the environment means to us. It must be preserved for future generations.”
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.