For the past two years, Sound Rivers has been partnering with Craven County Schools and the Epiphany School on an innovative Campus Stormwater Project. This grant funded project seeks to mitigate stormwater runoff from campuses, while providing an outdoor classroom learning experience for students. Engineers from NC State University have surveyed each of the participating campuses and developed a report outlining areas of stormwater concern, as well as the control measures that should be implemented. This project also provides teachers with lesson plans about stormwater pollution to implement in their curriculum and gives them the opportunity to attend a teacher education workshop to learn how to teach stormwater issues.

We are now moving into the second phase of the project and will begin implementing the recommended stormwater control methods on the campuses. Students will soon be able to see the real world application of stormwater control in an “outdoor classroom” setting. After the creation of these stormwater mitigation projects, such as rain gardens, students at each school campus will be responsible for maintaining them, as part of ongoing learning about pollution control.

A big thank you to the Bosch Family Foundation for funding this grant. We also want to thank our partners New Bern High School, West Craven High School, Havelock High School, and the Epiphany School of Global Studies.