Conservation is key on second day of Clean Water Celebration

If the 2,000 or so students who left the Clean Water Celebration walked away learning only one thing, it was that water flows downhill.

That means the things that ruin water for people in Peoria can easily ruin water for people in St. Louis, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

"Water flows downhill, never uphill," said Denise Reed, a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of New Orleans, during a keynote address at the Peoria Civic Center. "Water always comes from you to us, never from us to you."

The theme of this year's Clean Water Celebration, put on annually by the Sun Foundation and its partners, was "From Our Gutters to the Gulf."

The Clean Water Celebration is a two-day event. The first day, which was Sunday this year, is on Peoria's waterfront. The second day brings school children from the Tri-County Area and beyond to the Civic Center for the keynote speakers and breakout sessions.

The message spread to the students was one of conservation, about taking care of their waterways for themselves and for neighbors to the south.

Paul Ritter's classes at Pontiac Township High School have been living that message for a few years. The students in those classes have designed receptacles for unused prescription drugs. They distribute them in municipalities across the states in hopes those unwanted prescription drugs will not be flushed down the toilet or carelessly discarded, causing them to wash into rivers and lakes.

"I've seen a lot of fish with six eyes or two heads," said Charles Spencer, a sophomore at Pontiac. "And a lot of people believe the reason is prescription drugs in the rivers."

The group has served as inspiration for a number of other drug recycling programs in the state, including Peoria County's.

The program also instills in the students a sense of urgency in protecting the area's waterways.

"It's really become part of the whole school," said Amber Brunskill, a senior who plans to stay involved in the movement after graduation.

The group, along with a few dozen others, ran a booth at the celebration, handing out literature and trying to encourage other students to get involved.