Taking 'green' to D.C.

Earth Day 2008 will hold special meaning for a group of Heidelberg College students, who depart for Washington, D.C., on Saturday to represent the college and showcase a year’s worth of research and design work they’ve completed at the U.S. EPA-sponsored National Sustainable Design Expo.
 
The Expo takes place on the National Mall April 20-22 to coincide with other Earth Day celebrations in the nation’s capital.
 
The students volunteered to participate in the EPA’s P3 (People, Prosperity and the Planet) competition that supports teams of college and university students who compete to design and build sustainable technologies. 
 During the course of this academic year, the junior and senior biology, chemistry, psychology and water resources majors have tested water samples, learned about EPA Best Management Practices, met with architects, pavement contractors and administrators, and surveyed the campus community for aesthetic design preferences to learn how to incorporate environmental considerations into campus building projects.
 
The Heidelberg P3 team entry is a redesign of campus parking lots along Rock Creek that incorporates perennial flowering plants, shrubs and grasses in planting “swales” along the edges as well as within the paved areas. The swales -- depressions filled with gravel, sand and soil -- will capture rain or snow melt and reduce the amount of pollutants from parked vehicles that enter Rock Creek. The plan also includes more lighting and a landscaped dry detention pond for large amounts of rain or snow.

Student team members include: Luke Ahrens, Christopher Boehler, Jonathon Drushel, Michelle Evans, Matthew Lamoreaux, Derek Puchta, James Ryan, Benjamin Schwarz, Kristi Thomas, Amanda Williams and Katherine Wood.
 
Faculty advisors are: team coordinator Anne Stearns, assistant professor of water resources; Amy Berger, associate professor of geology; Ken Krieger, senior research scientist in the NCWQR; Aaron Roerdink, assistant professor of chemistry; and Dr. Traci Stark, assistant professor of psychology.
 

In addition to the five faculty mentors of the P3 team, the students were guided by biology professor Susan Carty concerning suitable plant choices to use in the design and Gary Winston, , director of the National Center for Water Quality Research, who added insight about human toxicology risks from metal and solvent pollutants. Jack Kramer and Ellen Ewing of the NCWQR helped the students with chemical testing and preparation of their display poster for the Expo.