PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER: (614) 644-2160
MEDIA CONTACT: Dina Pierce
CITIZEN CONTACT: Darla Peelle

Ohio EPA Awards $48,667 Environmental Education Grant to Seneca County Organization

The Sandusky River watershed will become a classroom for more than 200 Seneca County high school students with help from a $48,667 Ohio EPA grant. Nine grants were awarded statewide for $350,000 from the Ohio Environmental Education Fund.

The grant was awarded to the North Central Ohio Educational Service Center for its “Watershed Dynamics for 21st Century Learners” project. It will allow 210 students to investigate and explore solutions to complex, real-world problems associated with the Sandusky River watershed.

Students will use scientific instrumentation, technology, hands-on field work and computer modeling as they work on the problems. The project also will provide extensive professional development for science teachers in participating school districts.

Scientists, researchers and environmental science students at Heidelberg University’s National Center for Water Quality Research will lend their expertise in the field of water quality. The Ohio State University Stone Laboratory will conduct professional development and a culminating student learning experience.

The Ohio Environmental Education Fund is administered by Ohio EPA. Grants up to $50,000 are funded from one-half of the civil penalties collected by the Agency for air and water pollution control violations.

For additional information, contact the Ohio Environmental Education Fund on the web or at (614) 644-2873.

-30-

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1972 to consolidate efforts to protect and improve air quality, water quality and waste management in Ohio. In the past 40 years, air pollutants dropped by as much as 90 percent; large rivers meeting standards improved from 21 percent to 89 percent; and hundreds of polluting, open dumps were replaced with engineered landfills and an increased emphasis on waste reduction and recycling. Ohio EPA...40 years and moving forward.