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By Lewis Kendalllkendall@newsobserver.com

CHAPEL HILL While many peo-ple stayed inside to avoid the triple-digit heat index, a group of volun-teers worked in the sun for hourslast week all in the name of water.

Nearly 50 men, women and evena few kids from Friends of BolinCreek and the Redwoods Group in-surance company kicked off theChapel Hill High School Water Sus-tainability Initiative.

From the crack of dawn, volun-teers worked around the campus,cleaning surrounding streams, di-verting water from eroded areasand constructing an information ki-osk.

Not only is it great for the envi-ronment, but its great for educa-tion and the community, said Bet-sy Kempter, educational outreachcoordinator for Friends of BolinCreek.

This is going to set the stage forwhen the students arrive in Augustand will be ready to start some-thing new and exciting.

Group braves heatfor cleaner water

High school runoff

harms waterways

HARRY LYNCH - hlynch@newsobserver.com

From left, volunteers Dorothy Powell and Mary Beth Ormistonwatch volunteer Fatima Dean caulk their new stream table Thurs-day at Chapel Hill High School. The three participated in the CHHSWater Sustainability Initiative. Ecologically minded volunteers spentthe day building equipment and cleaning up a nearby stream. SEE WATER, PAGE 10A

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The initiative is the brain-

child of Rob Greenberg, anearth and environmental sci-ence teacher at the school.

Greenberg and Kemptermet at an environmentalsymposium in February andquickly came up with goalsfor reducing the high schoolswater footprint.

Chapel Hill High lies on agraded piece of land which ishome to Jolly Branch, a smalltributary of Bolin Creek

which, in turn, flows into Jor-dan Lake.

The problem, Kemptersaid, is the schools large, im-permeable concrete foot-print harms both streams.

The issue is about infiltra-tion, she said. When youput in all these impervioussurfaces, all these buildingsand rooftops, you get a lot ofrunoff.

It brings a ton of waterdown the hill.

Because it hasnt been fil-

tered by the ground and veg-etation, this water containspollutants that harm thecreeks, Kempter added.

Keith Cooper, the chair ofthe schools math depart-ment, said that during bigstorms, rain runoff can evendamage the school itself.

Since they built the buslot, the water rushes downand comes into the class-room, he said, pointing to avent outs ide the roomclogged by leaves and mold.

To combat these issues, thegroup plans to constructrain gardens, large depres-sions filled with nutrient-rich

soil and vegetation, as well asgreen roofs topped with a

similar mixture to help puri-fy the runoff.

The long-term goal is towork with N.C. State to de-velop an engineering plan forthe school to better deal withthe water problem, Kemptersaid.

Chapel Hill has an ordi-

nance that requires develop-ers to maintain the same vol-ume of runoff before and af-ter construction, and on June26 Carrboro passed similar

water-control legislation.The Redwoods Group, a

for-profit company that prac-tices community service andsocial responsibility, got in-volved after one of its in-terns, Shalini Chudasama,proposed the partnership.

Chudasama, a student atUNC, said she saw the work-day as a potential learningexperience.

We wanted people tolearn and walk away know-

ing more about rain runoff,she said.

We wanted to get peopleto think about it more and tohave the opportunity for theconversation to continue.

Part of Greenbergs plan isto use hydrology tablesbuilt during the workday to

teach students about the be-havior and importance of wa-ter.

The tables are large shal-low boxes set on four legsthat can be filled with sand,rocks, or gravel, and tilted atvarious angles so that waterruns down, mimicking a

stream.You need to have projectslike this that are real world,Greenberg said.

You need to see whatthese problems are, studythem, and see what can bedone better.

The Chapel Hill resident,whose background is in geol-ogy, emphasized that under-standing how water works isvital to our future.

People need to knowwhere their water comesfrom and understand how itfits into the big picture, hesaid. Water is life; you cantlive without it.

Kendall: 919-932-8760

HARRY LYNCH - hlynch@newsobserver.com

Volunteer David Zavaleta of Chapel Hill raked the sea of Carolina grit, a finely groundrock, as CHHS teacher Rob Greenberg, right, dumped another load Thursday. The pairwere working with others to rebuild the outdoor classroom area at the high school.

The News & Observer

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Want to help?

For more information on theChapel Hill High School WaterSustainability Initiative, go tobolincreek.org/