Water We Drink - Day 3

Today campers followed the water that goes down the drain even further. From the sanitary sewer that they saw yesterday, the sewage travels by gravity through pipes to the Metropolitan Waste Water Treatment Plant. Campers:

• Took a quick look around the plant, from the entrance
• Recited the waste water treatment poem excerpt (and learned what Not to put in the toilet)

Screen the junk, and sink the grit

Pump the sludge and then burn it

Feed the bugs and add chlorine

Take it out and now its clean!

• Then they headed for a ride on the Jonathan Padelford on a special charter, downstream to see what comes out the other end of the waste water treatment plant: clean water!
• On the way back, Park Ranger, Brian Goodspeed, provided perspective on the river economically, as a place of liesure, and how it is affected by huge areas of land that make up its watershed.
• Lead Teacher, Kate Flick, read a story about "another way to listen," encouraging campers to continue their exploration of "who water is" in many ways, using all their senses.  
• Campers played on the boat decks, were curious about the views of nature and industry, and painted in their nature notebooks.