By: centraljersey.com
HIGHTSTOWN – Members of the Peddie School Environmental Club have been busy educating their peers about storm water runoff and its effects on the environment, an effort that is helping the Borough of Hightstown meet its requirement to provide public education on this environmental issue.
Students created an informative presentation, which they shared with all 550 students at Peddie. The students explained that storm water runoff is a significant source of pollution, particularly as litter, pet waste and contaminants are swept into bodies of water.
"Since Peddie Lake is an asset to the community of Hightstown, the Peddie community, and the surrounding ecosystem, keeping this body of water healthy is especially important to the environmental club," said Jennifer Creel, one of the students who prepared and presented the education campaign. She added that such pollution threatens fragile ecosystems. According to Barbara Jones, chair of the Hightstown Environmental Commission, the borough is required to conduct public education activities to earn its Municipal Stormwater Permit Certification or would face fines for non-compliance. The awareness initiatives by the Peddie students helped the borough earn some of its required ten points.
"When something as dangerous as chemicals and cigarettes enters the water and begins killing the fish, the surrounding animals relying on those fish die, and so on throughout the food chain. It even affects humans, because if a human eats a contaminated fish from the ocean, that person will become ill," said Creel. "The only way we can completely prevent storm water runoff is by making sure we clean up after each other, recycling, disposing of chemicals, oil, and gasoline properly."
Despite her interest in the environment, Creel said she did not know anything about storm water runoff and its potential to pollute until she began working on the Hightstown research.
Classmate Sofia Oleas, who also presented the information to the school assembly, also said she was unaware of the consequences of the runoff. "I did not realize how serious the matter was and how strict New Jersey had become on the subject. Peddie Lake is beautiful, but people don’t think about the possibility of harming it when they leave something on the floor or change their oil," she said.Oleas, a resident of Hightstown who hopes to study environmental issues in college next year, said the club intends to make similar presentations in local elementary and middle schools in 2011 to help the borough earn additional points.
"We hope to inform kids at a younger age that littering is wrong and that caring for the environment shouldn’t have to be a job, but just another day-to-day action like brushing one’s teeth," she said.