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EPA Grant to Allegany County Schools Will Give Students Hands-on Experience Testing Water From Area Streams

Release Date: 8/2/1999
Contact Information: Roy Seneca (215) 814-5567

CUMBERLAND, Md. -- The Allegany County Board of Education has received a $5,000 environmental education grant to incorporate a water quality testing program for students at Beall Junior and Senior High School.

Under the program, about 75 students will be involved in getting water samples from two streams in the Frostburg, Md. area -- Matthews Run and Sand Spring Run -- which may have been impacted by underground and surface mining of coal. Water samples will be collected from selected sites along the streams for five consecutive weeks in the fall and five consecutive weeks in the spring.

Students will conduct laboratory tests of the water, and learn to make some rational statements about the water quality. In the end, they will make recommendations that could lead to maintaining or improving water quality. A web site will be set up to display data about the project and the participants.

"This project will get the students hands-on experience that is relevant to their community, and enrich the study of environmental science at their school," said W. Michael McCabe, regional administrator for the mid-Atlantic region.

EPA’s education grant program is designed to stimulate grass-roots environmental education. In the mid-Atlantic region, 25 grant recipients include schools, civic groups and non-profit organizations. Nationally, $3 million was awarded in 1999.

For more information on this grant, contact Nan Ides at (215) 814-5546. EPA’s regional Internet home page also has general information on the grants https://www.epa.gov/region03.