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KC Water Services to Receive National Award for Water Quality Curriculum

Posted on June 2, 2015

(Kansas City, Mo.) – KC Water Services believes the water quality of our streams, lakes, and rivers is everyone’s business, and a program to teach children that message is getting regional and national attention.

The Kansas City Metro Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA) recently honored KC Water Services’ water quality curriculum, called “Journey of Stormwater: KC to the Sea,” as an APWA Sustainability Practices Award winner. In addition, KC Water Services will receive a national award for “KC to the Sea” at the International Public Works Congress and Exposition in Phoenix, Arizona in August.

“We recognize that educating young people is a great way to spread the message of good water quality and raise awareness about the role we all play in reducing the pollution found in stormwater runoff,” said Terry Leeds, the Director of KC Water Services.

The “KC to the Sea” curriculum is offered for free to 4th through 6th grade classrooms within the KC Water Services’ ratepayer area, and it is aligned with Missouri Core Curriculum and Next Generation Science Standards. Through the five-day program, students learn how precipitation moves through a watershed, how stormwater becomes polluted, and how best management practices implemented by the KC Water Services and in their own backyards improve water quality and reduce the amount of stormwater that enters area streams, lakes, and rivers. As a final project, students create a public service announcement to encourage others to adopt practices that will improve water quality in Kansas City.

”By teaching our youth, our goal is to instill an understanding of the value of clean water and its related infrastructure to future generations for years to come,” added Lara Isch, the Water Quality Educator who will accept the national award in August on behalf of KC Water Services.

KC to the Sea was piloted during the 2010-2011 school year with six participating teachers in six schools. Since then, KC to the Sea has been presented in more than 30 public, private, charter, and parochial schools reaching more than 7,000 students.

For more information about “KC to the Sea,” please visit www.kcwaterservices.org/kc-to-the-sea.

For more information, please contact Brooke Givens, Media Relations Coordinator, at brooke.givens@kcmo.org or 816.513.0284.

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KC Water maintains and operates water treatment and distribution systems, stormwater management systems, and wastewater collection and treatment systems for residential and business customers in Kansas City and for wholesale customers in the Kansas City area. KC Water is primarily funded by fees charged to customers based on their use or impacts on the three utility systems.

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