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Sound Rivers Executive Director Heather Deck, Program Director Clay Barber and board member Larry Hodgkins paid a visit to New Bern High School this week to talk stormwater.

The meetup with representatives from several Craven County schools focused on existing and active projects at Craven County schools and how to increase community, teacher and student engagement around green stormwater infrastructure.

“The meeting was really a kick-off on our collaborative work with East Carolina University in regards to the North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant on building more community awareness and collaboration to support school’s infrastructure needs, as well as utilize things like stormwater infrastructure as a learning opportunity/tool, especially as it might relate for career development in STEM,” Heather said.

Clay also brainstormed with New Bern High School’s principal, Ag and science teachers and a group of Ag students how to incorporate the school’s 5,000-gallon rainwater harvesting cistern installed by Sound Rivers in 2019 with a plan for a new greenhouse on the campus.

While the recently awarded $243,200 North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant encompasses a research study to facilitate engagement, it also will fund a makeover of the constructed wetland at Havelock High School.

“There is an existing constructed wetland there, so this will be an enhancement of what’s already there, so it will work better,” Clay said. “We’ll be cleaning out the existing one and adding a third wetland cell for the water to flow through, and we’ll also be cutting through the sidewalk of the student parking lot so more runoff from the parking lot can enter the wetland and be filtered naturally.”

Next on Clay’s agenda is to meet with Havelock High School’s principal and teachers to facilitate not only the project, but educational opportunities surrounding it.

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