ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION - GENERAL BACKGROUND
Why an education program about our environment? Why not leave that to our schools? Because when our environment gets polluted, it is not the schools that have to clean it up--it's government. And the best way to treat pollution is to prevent it from ever happening--through education. People can't prevent pollution from entering our rivers and streams until they know how it gets there--through our storm drains. Did you know that half of the adults who read this will be learning for the first time that the storm drains in the street outside their homes drain to the river--not to the sewage treatment plant? Did you know that when you wash your car on the lawn or at a car wash that you help prevent pollution in your local river or stream? Did you know that draining your gutter downspouts to the lawn actually helps reduce runoff and pollution? That's why we have an education program about our environment.