DUNCAN, Okla. – Students watched intently as heavy rain sent soil, trash, fertilizer and chemical  run-off streaming into the lake that supplies their town with water.
                 “Ewwww, I’m not going to drink that,” a young girl said.
                 The contamination is a simulation. Food coloring stands in for run-off and chemicals, a spray bottle supplying the rain. Source water protection specialists from the Oklahoma Rural Water Association presented the run-off model as part of an outdoor classroom event organized by the Stephens County NRCS Field Office on May 19th at the Stephens County Fair and Expo Center.                 “It was a great experience because the kids got very involved,” said Jeannie Anthony, an ORWA source water protection specialist. “They really respond to what they see happening in the model.”
                 The demonstration was provided with an EnviroScape model that illustrates the connections between a neighborhood, construction site, golf course, water treatment plant, farm, manufacturing plant and a forest clear-cut.
                 “Has anyone here helped their parents wash the car or spray the lawn?” Source Water  Protection Specialist Henry “Junior” Welch asked as he placed drops of coloring on the driveways and lawns of the model community. “But what happens when it rains?”
                 Once Welch applies the spray bottle, the drops of color flow down driveways and streets into steams that flow into the model lake, the community’s water supply.
                 “I’m not fishing in there,” one boy said.
                 The event in Duncan was the latest in a series of events organized by the Stephens County and Comanche County NRCS offices. Anthony and Welch presented in Red Bud Park in Marlow on April 28th and at the Medicine Park Wildlife Refuge on April 29th.  The events drew a combined 550 students, who responded to the interactive and interconnected nature of the EnviroScape model.
                  “Using this model, we were able to relate what happens within our communities,” Welch said. “We were able to show that what we do in our everyday lives could lead to contamination of drinking water supplies.”
                 The ORWA presentations are designed to not only grab the interest of students, but to educate them on the importance of water protection.
                 “These kids were in-tune to the fact that each person in the world today is ultimately responsible for the contamination that takes place,” Anthony said. “They each walked away knowing that they have the power, knowledge and responsibility to keep our water supplies clean and safe.”