Mar 25, 2018 4 min read

Water is a vital part of a human’s life, and in Southwestern Pennsylvania, water is everywhere. From three rivers – the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio – come the majority of the area’s drinking water. For this and ecological and environmental reasons, it is important to inspect and maintain these rivers. The health of rivers can be checked by examining the tributaries that feed into them. Through the grant program REACH 4Schools, middle and high school students are doing just that.

“Issues such as water pollution come up in the news because water impacts a person’s entire life, so it’s good be knowledgeable about it and the problems surrounding it,” said Melissa Monteleone, AP environmental science teacher at Trinity High School.

REACH 4Schools is a program for students in grades six through the university level. Once they volunteer, students receive a grant to purchase equipment to conduct their own water quality study. They can test the alkalinity, hardness, acidity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate and phosphate in the stream. All data is sent to the West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia University, the Center for Environmental Research at Duquesne University, Wheeling Jesuit University and RedHorse Environmental LLC.

Led by the West Virginia Water Research Institute and funded by the Colcom Foundation, Three Rivers QUEST (3RQ) is the program that launched REACH 4Schools.

3RQ is the comprehensive water quality monitoring program that examines as much of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers as possible. By including other schools in their research and providing those schools with the necessary technology, 3RQ is achieving its goal.

“3RQ has been done since 2008 and has been done under a few different names. Colcom funds the whole 3RQ program, but the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) specifically funds REACH 4Schools,” said Lisa Barreiro, 3RQ coordinator in Pittsburgh. “I teach biology, so my personal goal in this program is to get kids more interested in science early on and not have someone just lecture them. The overarching goal for REACH 4Schools is to blanket as much of the 25,000 square miles in our river basins.”

In Washington County, Trinity Area School District is participating in the program. At the high school, Monteleone’s AP environmental science and Lane Stoner’s environmental science classes are studying Catfish Creek, which is located down the hill from the high school. There, they are installing a housing unit with a data logger in the stream that will continuously record data on the temperature, pH and rate of water flow.

On May 17, students will present their findings to the grant coordinator at a symposium held at the high school.

“This is a great way to provide the students with hands-on experience with field studies and research. Also, the projects and presentations will help prepare them for similar presentations in college,” Monteleone said.

Senior Haley Kafana, a student in the AP environmental class, said, “I think it’s interesting to take what we’ve learned in class and apply it to an actual study.”

Trinity Middle School is also taking part in the program. The research project will be incorporated into the curriculum of the new environmental literacy class that was offered to students this 2017-18 school year. Lorigan Banky, environmental literacy teacher, and the students will explore concepts such as composting, vermicomposting, geocaching, air quality, tree identification, recycling, carbon footprint and careers in the agricultural field.

“The group of 96 eighth-graders have the opportunity to travel to Morris Township Community Park in Prosperity to collect their data. We designed a contraption to put a data logger in the stream 24/7, which allows us to see changes in the water quality throughout time of day and year,” Banky said.

The REACH 4Schools program aids the curriculum of both schools and various other schools in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Additional schools participating in the program include Ringgold, Charleroi, West Mifflin and Winchester-Thurston.

Through the REACH 4Schools program, students and researchers will be able to monitor the health of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers for years to come.

April Horency, a senior at Trinity High School, is co-editor-in-chief of “The Hiller” newspaper.