Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
San Jose Mercury News
(c) Copyright 2002, San Jose Mercury News. All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
'History at the Port' contest winners posted
By Sara Neufeld
Mercury News
REDWOOD CITY: A sewer science lab program that reaches more than
1,500 Peninsula high school students annually has been named the best
educational program in the nation by the Association of Metropolitan
Sewerage Agencies.
A national environmental achievement award for public information and
public education has been presented to the South Bayside System
Authority Wastewater Treatment Facility in Redwood City, which runs the
program with the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant and the
Central Contra Costa Sanitary District.
The South Bayside authority is a regional wastewater facility that
serves 215,000 residents and businesses in San Mateo County. Its
personnel present weeklong classes to students at Carlmont, Notre Dame,
Woodside and Menlo-Atherton high schools. The program will expand in the
fall to include Sequoia High School.
The sewer science class is a hands-on lab that teaches high school
students about municipal wastewater treatment, reinforcing pollution
prevention messages and introducing students to careers in the
wastewater field.
The sewer science curriculum teaches students the basic concepts of
how wastewater is treated before being returned to the environment. It
combines microbiology, chemistry, physics and environmental science.