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THIS ISSUEAWE Releases Water Conservation ToolFree Workshop on the AWE Water Conservation Tracking Tool Mark Your Calendars! The Water and Energy Summit and Expo is Coming to Santa Fe in April Acoustic Logger Leak Detection Project |
Creating clouds, learning about the water/energy connection, and turning river water into drinking water were topics covered in the 11th annual Children’s Water Festival on October 22 and 23 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. More than 1000 fourth graders from schools all over Albuquerque participated in the event, which is just part of the extensive K-12 outreach program sponsored by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA). Twenty-three different activities were presented each day, five per classroom. ABCWUA sponsors the event and provides many volunteers who come from private businesses, government agencies, and educational institutions — about 200 altogether. Who are these volunteers? Let’s introduce a few. Bagher Dayyani from ABCWUA Surface Water Plant taught an activity called Engineering Clean Water. Students used critical thinking to figure out the correct order of steps used to clean river water. They devised a process to clean a bucket of pretend water (glass beads). When thanked for teaching, Dayyani responded, “It is a great joy working for this fine utility and being able to share water conservation ideas with kids.” Barbara Romero from ABCWUA customer service taught Water Accounts Count where students graphed a year of water bills to discover who is a water hog and who should be rewarded by the Water Fairies. (Photo: left, Stephanie Moore from Daniel B Stephens; right, Kim Davis from ABCWUA). Ben Zimmerman from ABCWUA Pollution Prevention (far left) and his crew (middle, Alex Salazar; far right, Alex Lovato) put nasty chemicals on trial for contaminating our wastewater stream in their activity, Water Court. When asked why they felt teaching students about wastewater was important, Lovato responded, “My grandson lives here. I want a better, cleaner environment for him.” Victoria Delgado (not shown) added, “It’s rewarding! It makes me feel good to teach kids how to protect their water.” Dr. Suzanne Pierce, Center for Environmental Science Institute (University of Texas at Austin), feels so strongly about the message of her activity that she brought two of her graduate students to help her teach this year. Their activity, Energy Drink, teaches kids that saving energy saves water too. One of her grad students, Phil Levasseur, said he was there because “stewardship and conservation start at an early age.” He remembered how his life was changed by making a simple marble track in the third grade. It made him decide to be a scientist. Levasseur wants to inspire kids to learn about science and how it can help us become stewards of our land and water. High school students from School on Wheels and the Del Norte High School EARTH Club presented Water Olympics, an activity that teaches kids about the properties of water. They said they enjoyed being role models for younger kids as well as teaching about the importance of water. Julie Filatoff, HDR Engineering, Inc., taught students how dirty water can be cleaned using a five-step process. She said her company values the time she spent teaching at the festival, not only because of her message, but also because it makes her part of the Albuquerque community. Filatoff said she wants kids to learn that they can help control some aspects of keeping water clean, like picking up dog poop and not pouring chemicals on the ground. Sandia National Labs sent volunteers such as Ken Morris to teach about issues like Why the River Runs Brown that explains how watersheds can influence water quality. Morris took a vacation day to be a timer, making sure students were in the right workshop at the right time. He feels that volunteering is an important way to help his community, and he knows how important teaching is; his wife is a teacher. Deirdre Kann and Maria Torres work for the National Weather Service. They taught students how to make clouds and felt their time at the Water Festival was well spent because they helped kids understand about Albuquerque’s flashfloods. Their most important message was “stay out of the arroyos.” These are just a few of the wonderful volunteers who helped make the ABCWUA 2009 Children’s Water Festival exceptional. If you would like more information about the festival or the outreach programs in the schools, contact Sharon Sivinski at 768-3245, or visit abcwua.org and click on “Education.”
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Ruben Archuleta and Rob Paynter check for cleanliness at a fire hydrant water valve |
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Through funding received from the Governor’s Water Innovation Fund, the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer (NMOSE) and the City of Rio Rancho agreed to jointly implement an acoustic logger leak detection project to quantify real water losses in the city drinking water distribution system. The cities of Ruidoso and Las Vegas are also participating in the project.
The project will conduct a pre- and post- water audit and install 100 acoustic leak loggers. After the project, the 100 loggers, along with the equipment used will become city property. NMOSE will work with Rio Rancho utility to locate and evaluate leaks identified for potential water recovery and evaluate potential volume of water saved, including cost of water and energy saved. The final report is expected in June 2010.
Deploying an acoustic leak detection logger |
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For more information about this project, please contact Marian Wrage at mwrage@ci.rio-rancho.nm.us.
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A Newsletter Published by the New Mexico Water Conservation Alliance |
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A Newsletter Published by the New Mexico Water Conservation Alliance