Action Plan
Problem/Impact: Oceans are the most vast and vital natural resource that our planet has to
offer. The long term sustainability of oceans and the ecosystems that they support is nothing
less than a fundamental economic imperative and basic moral duty of the nation.
As a result of human activities, oceans are increasingly threatened. Overfishing and
habitat destruction have decimated some marine populations and dangerously upset ocean
ecosystems. Oil spills and direct point source pollution from coastal population centers have
taken an incalculable toll on much of the nation’s coastline. Worldwide climate change is
beginning to increase sea levels and upset the sensitive chemical balance of oceans.
While these are major sources of detriment to oceans, each makes up a relatively small
percentage of all ocean pollution. However, the single largest contributor to ocean pollution is
inland runoff, particularly that from urban areas and agricultural activities.
Runoff carries large volumes of oil, other petroleum products, and roadway salts that
accumulate on parking lots and roadways, sediments from poorly managed construction areas,
and perhaps most importantly, fertilizers and nutrients used extensively for agricultural and
beautification purposes. These pollutants are washed away by rain, then channeled into the
ocean via rivers. Once in the ocean, these pollutants have a huge impact on coastal areas.
Their effects include: imbalance in dissolved oxygen concentrations, wildlife poisoning, and
coastal habitat destruction.
Iowa is the largest contributor of nitrogen pollution to the Gulf of Mexico. Because the
city of Dubuque is situated in the Catfish Creek Watershed, it drains directly into the Mississippi
River. As students who live near the Mississippi River, which forms an unbroken coastline from
the Gulf of Mexico through the Midwest, we understand that responsibly managing oceans
begins with us. The only way to ensure the long-term health of our oceans is to curb the
pollutants flowing into them.
Project: Our project is centered around the rain garden. A rain garden is a divot or depression
in the ground that collects rainwater and runoff. The collected runoff is then absorbed through
the ground. This helps with our Urban Storm Water Mitigation Plan. Instead of the runoff, which
contains pesticides, herbicides, trash, and other unhealthy materials, going straight to the rivers,
it is collected in the rain garden and then naturally filtered when it passes through the ground.
Additionally, the rain gardens help with flood control by lowering the huge influx of water sewers
must take on during large rain storms. During normal rain storm events, which in Dubuque are
1.5 to 2 inch rains, a rain garden is able to accommodate the rain and allow it to percolate
through the soil. And plus, rain gardens are aesthetically pleasing as well, adding another
incentive for building them.
We plan on building a rain garden around our school’s parking lot. The summer of 2013
is the ideal time to build the rain garden. The reason behind this is because our school is going
to start renovations in late spring. These renovations will include building a new parking lot and
renovating portions of our school. Because our school will already be under construction, we
have decided that it will be easy to build a rain garden around the new parking lot. It will be costefficient; instead of having to create a whole new plan for building the rain garden separately,
we can now just add on this rain garden to the current construction plans. Thus, it will save time
and energy because all of our necessary tools will already be there. Additionally, the installed
rain garden will be able to catch many of the pesticides and harmful compounds that will come
from the tearing down and construction of the other portions of our school. Our rain garden
would thus have an immediate effect on the Catfish Creek Watershed by reducing the amount
of harmful compounds that would otherwise run into it from our school’s renovation. Additionally,
the rain garden’s proposed location around the parking lot would help catch many of the
pollutants that collect in the parking lot from the cars, especially during school hours.
Audience: The rain garden will require future care and upkeep. Thus, it also provides a new
learning opportunity for Dubuque Community School District students to learn more about
gardening, the water cycle, and the Mississippi River and its watershed. With the help of the
Hempstead High School Green Team, our rain garden project will continue to be cared for and
educate the community about creating a cleaner watershed for years to come. Our rain garden
will not only be affecting our environment, but also the people who inhabit it. Current as well as
future members of the community can be involved in the maintenance of our sustainable
project, enabling it to serve not only as an economically friendly filter of roadway pollutants but
also as an educational tool for the future.
Today’s students are tomorrow’s workers. Education is a key factor in the growth and
sustainability of a project such as our rain garden. In order to better educate our peers about the
Catfish Creek watershed and its eventual impact on the world’s oceans, our rain garden will be
used as a functional outdoor learning environment. Allowing high school students to not only
hear about pollution when in the drab, ordinary classroom environment but also to go out and
experience in a vivid, hands-on way the simple projects that can be done to protect the world’s
oceans is a great way to encourage people to become involved in conservation themselves.
The city of Dubuque has implemented many types of storm water mitigation strategies
within and surrounding the city. Touring these different sites in order to truly see the effect they
have on both the surrounding land and nearby river is a wonderful way to get the people of
Dubuque involved in protecting “their” river. Hempstead High School’s rain garden will make for
a relatively close and easily accessible model for others to view and hopefully imitate.
Combining this physical evidence of their community’s concern with short educational
presentations within our school about its far-reaching ability to help the health of the Atlantic
Ocean is a practical way to get the entire city involved in the attempt to clean and maintain both
the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean.
Funding: The funding for our project will be from two of our main partners: the Dubuque
Community School District and the City of Dubuque. The City of Dubuque will cost share up to
500 dollars for plants and soil; meanwhile, the Dubuque Community School District would
implement the dirt work into the expansion plans for our high school, meaning the costs would
be minimized. This will take care of almost all of our costs for the project. For the rest of the
money needed for our project, we will work with our school’s Green Team to raise additional
funds. Over the years, maintenance costs will be minimal.
Milestones:
September 20-21, 2012 -- Local Student Conference and Conception of Plan
January 12, 2013 – Final Confirmation of Plan
February 2, 2013 – Begin Video Filming and Poster Creation
February 5, 2013 – Talked with Mayor Roy Buol of Dubuque about sustainable practices
in Dubuque
February 25, 2013 – Video, poster, and action plan finalized and submitted
Schedule:
Sep.
Local
Student
Conference
Pending
Approval for
Plan
Conducting
Research
Finalizing
Action Plan
Creating the
Video,
Poster, etc.
Coastal
America
Summit
Building the
Rain Garden
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
March
Future
Partners:
National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium
Dubuque Soil and Water Conservation Agency
City of Dubuque
Sustainable Dubuque
Dubuque Community School District
Jim Rolling, Chemistry Instructor at Hempstead High School
Jared McGovern, Education Coordinator for the National Mississippi River Museum and
Aquarium
Community Support (Other Dubuque Projects):
The city of Dubuque is already very conscientious about stormwater quality. In 2006, the city
announced its Sustainable Dubuque initiative which included the goal of environmental and
ecological integrity. Since then, a variety of strategies have been employed to reduce the
amount of harmful runoff that ends up in the Mississippi including pervious paving, native
landscaping, bioretention cells, bioswales and of course, rain gardens. Two Dubuque schools
already have rain gardens and the district itself is generally very concerned about the
environment. At Hempstead alone, the Green Team has initiated several programs including
composting. Our rain garden will have the support of the school district, the city of Dubuque,
and the Dubuque Soil and Water Conservation District.
Works Cited
"Nonpoint Source Pollution: The Nation's Largest Water Quality Problem." United States
Environmental Protection Agency. N.p., 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.
Revkin, Andrew C. "Offshore Oil Pollution Comes Mostly as Runoff, Study Says." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 24 May 2002. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.