Where Does Storm Water go?

"There's a frog in there," exclaimed one of Mrs. Amy Robles' students at Gulfport Elementary School.

Instead of reading about storm water and how it ends up into the Boca Ciega Bay, the group of 17 students received a hands on lesson of where the water flows on Thursday April 14, 2011.

Gulfport Public Works Director Don Sopak gave a lesson about why it's important not to throw trash into the city's storm water drains. Sopak says he's personally found a mattress in a city drain before. "Whoa," the students shouted again.

While the lesson ended with a grand finale in front of the school, Sopak began the lesson in their classroom, complete with a question and answer session about storm water. "Does anybody know what storm water is?" 

"It's rain that comes from the sky," said one of the students.

"It's a pond somewhere where a duck lives," said another second-grader.

Sopak explained how and why storm water ends up in the bay. He said if we don't put trash in trash cans and recycle what we can, the garbage ends up in the city's storm drains and then washes into the bay. He also said recycling can also help us keep our ocean clean, by making new things out of old things.

As per the demonstration, Sopak brought "goodie bags" for each student. Inside the bags were recycled pencils, keychains and piggy banks made of old money. Several "oohhh's" and "ahhh's" filled the room during the unveiling of the "goodie bags".

The children were intrigued about recycled money, asking about other items as well. "How do you recycle jackets," said one student. "So, you could make new things out of the whiteboard?" she added while pointing at the front of the room. Sopak said yes, "You could. Anything that is plastic can be recycled."

The pencils Sopak brought were made of recycled jeans, the keychains - recycled plastic, and piggy banks were made of a mixture of old money and plastic melted together.

To complete the lesson, Sopak and the class went outside to talk about the holding ponds behind the school and to install signs near the drains. Streets and Sanitation Supervisor Doug Addis came out to help install "Dump No Waste Drains To Bay" signs on three drains right in front of the school.

Within 10 feet of the drains, Sopak found a plastic bottle, cupcake wrapper and piece of paper. 

To top off the lesson, Sopak and Addis opened up one of the manhole's. That's when students yelled out, "There's a frog in there!" and started asking about all the stuff that ends up under the manholes.

Sopak hopes that students realize the importance of recycling and reusing items, and even more importantly, to put trash where it belongs and not in the storm water drains.