W.A.T.E.R.

Water, Accessibility, Testing, Education, Resiliency

About Us!

←Amelia

Amelia is a senior at HHS, and is interested in the environment and what young people can do to help. She is good at organization and communication and likes to reach out to people to learn more. She is looking forward to making a difference in the community.

Brenna→

Brenna is a senior at HHS and she is passionate about the environment and how it is affected by pollution. She is good at taking notes which as helped as we interviewed our contacts and gathered information. She is excited to work with Amelia as they both pursue Environmental majors in College.

Targeted Sustainable Development Goals

Why did we choose this project?

With our passion for the environment and our drive to help mitigate the effects of climate change and pollution, we chose to focus on the most important shared resource: our bodies of water. We wanted to educate people of all ages about the importance of safe drinking water as well as the effects of contaminated water on our environment and our wildlife. So we set out on a project that will help bring awareness and a change to our community through three main goals:

1

To bring awareness to databases that show contamination in your area as well as reducing the amount of pollution derived from human activity

2

Improve the cleanliness of polluted bodies of water around town by clearing physical and chemical pollutants.

3

To create long-term progress and sustainability through frequent monitoring of water quality and education.

Amelia York and Brenna Fisk - Water Pollution

←Community Need

We chose to focus on water pollution in the Holliston watershed. Our town resides in the Charles River Watershed and is directly influenced by the pollution in the Charles River. We created a timeline of pollution and different issues that have been caused because of old regulations, a lack of laws, and pollution from early on in our country.

Water Quality PSA →

We created a PSA on water quality around the world and within our community. We included statistics on the water around the world and how water insecurity is not solely affected by drought. At the end, we included information on how to protect your water sources to reduce polluted water.

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National Geographic Slingshot Challenge

Amelia and I had the amazing opportunity to participate in the Slingshot challenge hosted by National Geographic and Videos for Change. The purpose of this challenge was to create a one-minute video that explains how we are taking steps toward solving environmental issues in our community. We were challenged to focus our video on topics such as cleaning our air to reviving our ocean in our community.

Our contacts:

Sean Reese

Using his knowledge from being the town’s Department of Public Works director, he gave us the initial information we needed to guide our ideas in one direction. Data on the town’s drinking water and infrastructure we gained from meeting with him and two of his colleagues was valuable and a great foundation for the rest of our project.

Dan Marsh

Mr. Marsh is an experienced Holliston High School Environmental Science teacher who provided us both in class with the background knowledge on water quality and mitigation that is already taking place, as well as what we could do to improve it. He coached us on using databases and was a main source of guidance in getting specific information and data on the subject of water quality and chemical spills. He continues to be a great resource and a supportive teacher in our area of interest.

Matt Zetteck

As the Town of Holliston Sustainability Coordinator, Matt Zetek has provided us with valuable information on the town’s needs, as well as been a huge supporter of our endeavors with Matter of Trust. He has connected with several town representatives and colleagues in other towns to broaden our contacts and gain more viewpoints on our ideas. He has been a significant advocate for our project and continues to mentor us throughout our process.

Matthew Barry

After reaching out for our survey on Facebook, Mr. Barry gave us online resources to increase our knowledge of the technical aspects of water quality. His background knowledge as a civil engineer in the water supply, treatment, and distribution industry was a perfect reference for the information we needed.

Matter of Trust

Matter of Trust is a worldwide organization that focuses on the betterment of the environment and human well-being through sustainable and renewable resources. We have had the incredible opportunity to partner with them and learn about their hair mat program. They create mats with fibers and hair, which filter out heavy metals, chemicals, oil, and other pollutants, as well as serve as a barrier for other litter and waste that may run off into storm drains and bodies of water. We are waiting to loan out a machine used to make the mats in order to put them around the storm drains in town to reduce the number of chemicals and oil that go into our groundwater, ponds, and lakes. After a meeting on Thursday, we now know that we are on a waiting list to get the machine and become Matter of Trust's first Northeast Partner.

Our Survey

Water Cleanup

We are planning a water cleanup on November 19th at 3:00 pm and would love for everyone to join us!

Make sure to bring:

waterproof shoes
protective gloves
dress for weather
plenty of water
any extra trashbags you may have!

Pictures from the semester!

Pictures from our first cleanup!

Meeting with Matt Zettek for the first time

←Follow us on Instagram!

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