Thanks to a $70,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), visitors to Lansing’s Impression 5 Science Center can graphically learn about the importance of keeping groundwater clean.
“It’s hard to scrub groundwater once it is contaminated,” says Wayne Kukek of the DEQ. And dirty ground water can seep into the underground sources of drinking water called aquifers.
Clean water is one of those things people take for granted. But if a city doesn’t have it, it can’t develop economically.
Kukek has learned by experience. He works in Lansing but lives in Battle Creek where, in the 1980s, large quantities of dry cleaning fluid were dumped on the ground over a period of time. The caustic-chemical-laden fluid seeped into wells and then aquifers and has cost the city millions of dollars to clean up the mess.
“Battle Creek is still trying to recover,” he says.
Impression 5’s eight-foot-wide display hopes to mold minds toward greater respect for the ground water.
It depicts the city sitting atop layers of tiny pebbles, representing dirt, and with the twist of the wrist, one can inject dye into the pebble layers and watch it seep into the aquifer.
Included in the grant is $20,000 to train the Impression 5 staff to maintain the display’s plumbing and other working parts, and to teach viewers about its meaning.
Christine Spitzley, an environmental planner with the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, coordinated the project.
Groundwater is important for people to understand, she says. “Our goal is to let them see it, touch it, learn it.”
Source: Christine Spitzley, Tri-County Regional Planning
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
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