CASPER, Wyo. — As part of its permit requirement, the City of Casper Sewer Division sponsored an initiative to provide free field trips for every fifth-grade student in Natrona County.
“We are required to provide public education on how stormwater pollutes our North Platte River and eventually our oceans,” Sanitary Sewer and Stormwater Manager Matt Wilhelms said in a statement. “With the Ocean Bound exhibit and the Every Drop Counts workshop hosted by The Science Zone, we had a unique opportunity to provide hands-on teaching about how local actions matter to our North Platte River and oceans.”
Ocean Bound is a travelling interactive exhibit developed by the Sciencenter of Ithaca, New York, with funding from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The exhibit allows participants to explore how water flows through a watershed, learn about how pollutants impact waterways, and understand the importance of healthy oceans.
“Ocean Bound lets participants pilot a full-size submersible from a mountain stream all the way to the ocean. What it teaches is outstanding and fits closely with our requirement to teach our citizens about all the things including litter and dog poop contaminants that are carried in our stormwater through the stormwater system to the North Platte River,” Wilhelms said.
Casper’s stormwater system has approximately 378 miles of streets, over 4,000 catch basins, and 267 outfalls that carry rain and snowmelt runoff, untreated, directly into the North Platte River.
“All of our paved streets, driveways, parking lots, and roofs make up the city’s impervious area and create the runoff,” Wilhelms said.
Stormwater is the number one source of water pollution.