Hands On Topo map used to demonstrate water flow from the streams to area rivers and how oil and pollution makes its way into the waterways.
Deputy Executive Director of the Nueces River Authority Julie Lewey spoke at the Thursday November 10th Rotary Club of Uvalde meeting held at the Uvalde Country Club.
As part of her presentation Rotary Member Julie Thomas and Rotary President Mayra Vasquez were given bottles of blue dye and spray bottles filled with water. In the demonstration, several drops of the colored dye were placed on streams, creeks and tributaries of the Nueces and Frio Rivers. The dye represents oil, contaminants, sewage from overflow and other pollutants that are spilled onto the ground.
Next, Thomas and Vasquez sprayed water onto the map simulating rainfall on the areas of the map over general areas where the dye was placed. Once the water accumulated from the spray, the dye could be seen flowing into the rivers.
“The Nueces Basin encompasses a 12th of the state; it’s significant and large. It runs from Edwards County up in Rocks Springs all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. Anything that happens in the headwaters or anywhere in the basin is reflected in the quality of water on the coast,” said Lewey.
“Everything we’re doing up here in Uvalde County; everything that is happening up above us is impacting our neighbors to the south and that’s one of the key things that we bring this into the schools to kids about. What they’re doing in their section of the basin is impacting their neighbors and why it’s so important we work together to conserve shared resources, which is the Nueces Basin,” Lewey said.
“We take this basin model into the 5th and 7th grades classes in many of the counties. We don’t have all of them,” she said.
She went on to say that the Nueces River Authority is working on a grant so that schools within Uvalde County might be included.
