Fourth graders at Seitz Elementary went on a tour of Fort Riley NetZero facilities on May 2, 2017. The students, whose goal was to find out more about where their resources came from, toured Fort Riley’s Water Treatment Plant, Recycling Center, and AnMBR Lift station.
The Seitz Water Project involves the back parking lot at Seitz Elementary. The back parking lot is sloped and has permeable pavers. Rainfall is captured through the pavers and returned to the aquifers, but also to rainwater collection sites. These tanks that collect rainwater for reuse. Point two three inches of rain at Seitz is enough to (and is used to) flush the toilets in the school 780 times. Also, the water is used to help cool the building. This project is part of a green infrastructure grant from the EPA. The grant provided the Seitz Parking Lot as well as many other initiatives on Fort Riley. These initiatives are aimed at making Fort Riley a “NetZero” post. As in, they will aim to reuse their own resources and not use rely on other resources for water and energy. We are visiting some of the other NetZero facilities on Fort Riley to enrich their learning on natural resources and hazards. Also, teachers from Seitz and Fort Riley worked last summer to develop a curriculum to teach about the parking lot and green infrastructures and they used that curriculum this school year. – Krista Wyman
A student from Marlies Gipson’s fourth grade class wrote the following article:
What stood out to me at the water treatment plant was… How they tested the water. What they said was that there was bleach in our water. I was very fascinated to be in the lab where they work. It was so cool to be where they filtered the water. One of the spots where they clean the water. It was so clean. But the other ones look really dirty. After we did that I saw something that kinda looked like milk. Then we went to this thing that looked like a pool. I felt really excited and it was really cool. Maybe how it related to school is that we have something kinda like a filter in our parking lot. – Kaia