Environmental Education important at Saint Vincent

Anyone who has seen the orange-colored banks of the Loyalhanna Creek as it meanders through Latrobe would never forget it. The slimy, rusty sludge that made the creek banks gleam with a year-round Halloween orange seemed to be a blight that would last forever – the price the region paid in meeting the country’s hunger for coal in an earlier industrial era.

That the clean-up from the environmental disaster caused by seepage from abandoned coal mines is proving to be a battle that CAN be won is an important victory.  It is also important that the Monastery Run Improvement Project – the series of wetlands used for mine drainage remediation -- has been complemented by the development of the Saint Vincent College Environmental Education Center, which provides award-winning programs in environmental education for a growing number of students, teachers and members of the public.

Saint Vincent on April 23 will play host to the fourth annual Westmoreland Earth Day, featuring over 70 local environmental organizations from throughout the region. Environmental concerns will be in the spotlight at the event which will feature a number of activities for children and adults.

But environmental issues are a daily concern at the Saint Vincent College Environmental Education Center whose coordinator Angela Belli joined the staff in 1999. She has developed the programming with collaboration from Dr. Caryl Fish, associate professor of chemistry at Saint Vincent College. Beth Langham joined the Center as the environmental education assistant in 2002.

“I didn’t think we could teach that much about mine drainage,” says Ms. Belli about the start of the program. “Since then, it has been a matter of taking small steps and building.”

The SVC Center was established in 1999 to provide quality and diverse environmental education programs and activities in a community outreach approach to the College, local school systems and the general public. Now the Center hosts not only programs on mine drainage, but programs that continue to deal with environmentally significant topics in watershed restoration and general nature education. Through extensive outreach programming, public symposia and information dissemination, the Environmental Education Center has educated K-12 students and teachers, undergraduate students and faculty, and lifelong learners throughout southwestern Pennsylvania on the environment.

The Center is one of only a few organizations in Pennsylvania to provide educational programming and resource materials on abandoned mine drainage remediation. Professional development workshops and curriculum materials are available to help precollege teachers incorporate watershed topics into their existing curricula to meet Pennsylvania’s academic standards in environment and ecology, and the Center has developed a wide array of innovative environmental programming to teach K-12 students about watersheds, wetlands and the natural environment.

Included among the classes are Project WET, Wonders of Wetlands, Tools for Teaching Abandoned Mine Drainage, Aldo Leopold Education Project and Project WILD.  Their purpose has been to assist teachers and other non-formal educators to address the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Environment and Ecology, in addition to providing quality environmental education training to education students at Saint Vincent College. More than 15,000 youngsters (K-12) have taken part in the programs since the fall of 1999.

The Center classroom is located in the Saint Vincent Gristmill near the Monastery Run wetlands (those rusty-orange-colored ponds located along Beatty Road which initially mystified the casual passerby). Visitors who come to the wetlands for nature walks (and delight in the variety of wildlife now living there) can read the signs to learn about the chemistry of how the wetlands help clean up the watershed polluted by water seeping from abandoned coal mines.

The wetlands were developed on land owned by Saint Vincent Archabbey by the Loyalhanna Creek Mine Drainage Coalition, a broad-based organization of state and local organizations, which first held an organizing symposium in 1993.  The Monastery Run project, which  is now a twenty-acre site with three passive wetlands, first went “online” in 1997 when wetland 3 began treating 350 gallons per minute of mine water. 

Since that time, the Coalition has reported that there has been a significant improvement of the water quality in the  Loyalhanna Creek as it flows through downtown Latrobe.  The Coalition is now addressing other abandoned mine drainage discharges downstream, looking at alternative treatments to deal with higher flows, different chemistry and little land for treatment systems. A yearly symposium held on the Saint Vincent campus by the Coalition allows for progress reports as well as reports on other clean-up projects.

The wetlands have become a busy outdoor laboratory for undergraduate student and scholar research. For students with a strong interest in the environment, a major in environmental science is now offered by Saint Vincent College. A master’s degree in environmental science education is in the works through the College Education Department, and certification in environmental education is already available for students who want to teach.

Next month begins the ninth interdisciplinary Summer Institute in Watershed Restoration, conducted by the Environmental Education Center in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency. Undergraduate students, majoring in a variety of fields, will participate in the ten-week, full-time research experience which begins May 23.   Students will be part of research teams that study about the history of mining in the county, write about the watershed, study the photocatalytic oxidation of iron, and serve as members of the physical and chemical stream assessment team. In addition, students participate in weekly group meetings to learn more about environmental remediation and take field trips throughout western Pennsylvania.

Over the years, the environmental programs have been recognized with awards. Ms. Belli early this year was named as Outstanding Environmental Practitioner of the Year by the Pennsylvania Alliance for Environmental Education, a statewide organization that promotes environmental education throughout Pennsylvania. The Center itself was presented with a 2003 Western Pennsylvania Environmental Award in the Higher Education category in the awards program sponsored by Dominion and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. In 2001 the Center was honored by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as one of the first recipients of the Governor’s Award for Watershed Stewardship. 

(Editor’s Note: The fourth annual Westmoreland Earth Day, featuring over 70 local environmental organizations from throughout the region, will be held on Saturday, April 23^rd from noon – 5 p.m. at Saint Vincent College. This year’s event includes educational activities, thrilling live shows, and informative displays and booths for all ages and interests.  The event is free to all, and is sponsored by Dominion and the Western Pennsylvania Watershed Program, along with other state, county, and local environmental groups.)