Focus on Water

Water is a resource that is sometimes taken for granted. Watershed Committee of the Ozarks Inc. is doing what it can to prevent that from happening.

The goal of the committee, now in its 25th year, is to safeguard the quality of Springfield's water supply, says Executive Director Loring Bullard.

"Let's make sure we don't do things that mean we're not going to have a high-quality water supply in the future," he says.

The nonprofit venture began as a response to concerns.

In the early 1980s, Springfield was in the process of expanding into the Sac River Watershed, the area northwest of Springfield that supplies most of the city's drinking water. With this expansion came questions: What could adding thousands of new septic tanks do to the quality of that water?

Responding to these concerns, the city of Springfield, City Utilities and Greene County jointly created the Watershed Management Coordinating Committee in 1984. Five years later, the committee incorporated as a nonprofit and changed its name to the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks.

The Watershed Committee has a six-member volunteer board of directors and five full-time paid staffers. Its 2008 annual operating budget was $300,000, of which 63 percent came from grants, and 37 percent came from sponsors.

Watershed Committee spent 8 percent of its 2008 budget on operating expenses, 27 percent on salaries and benefits, and 16 percent on community projects. Another 27 percent represented a federal grant for designing the Valley Water Mill project, and the remaining 22 percent was granted to other regional watershed projects and agencies, such as the James River Basin Partnership.

Education through demonstration

In the past quarter-century, the Watershed Committee has seen area water quality improve significantly as its recommendations have been put into effect.

"We've seen some of the springs that have been monitored from the 1980s through today (become) cleaner because we have put in better sewage systems out in the rural areas," says Bullard, who's been at the helm for 20 years.

The Watershed Committee does not have regulatory authority, but it acts as an adviser to Springfield, Greene County, CU and local developers. It offers training on safe watershed practices, such as properly installing septic tanks, using rain barrels to collect water and planting rain gardens to reduce storm runoff.

Some of this training takes place at the Watershed Center at the 100-acre Valley Water Mill Park, which opened in mid-2007 northeast of Glenstone Avenue and Interstate 44. The Watershed Center includes fishing piers, a 2.5-mile trail with educational signs and an outdoor learning station. There also are demonstrations of various watershed-preserving techniques, including a pervious parking lot that absorbs rainwater instead of channeling it away, a rain garden and boardwalks constructed with recycled plastic.

Plans also call for a 4,200-square-foot green education building, which will help further educate the public.

"You'll get information about energy efficiency and things you can do at home with lighting, or energy use, or geothermal - all of those kinds of energy-saving measures that people can think about implementing at their house," Bullard says.

The Watershed Committee is accepting construction bids for the center and hopes to break ground by Christmas, with completion targeted for fall 2010. Bullard said the committee has budgeted $5.5 million for the project and is raising the last $50,000.

Starting young

Education has been a key emphasis of the committee. For the past two summers, the local YMCA Summer Odyssey program for kindergarten through fifth-grade students has included a Valley Water Mill Park field trip.

The children learn about the water table through a variety of hands-on activities.

Mary Kromrey, the YMCA's associate executive director for the downtown and child-care services branches, is very enthusiastic about this cooperation between two nonprofit agencies.

"We have all these kids we get to see every day, we get to touch their lives every day, and then we can look to a fellow not-for-profit to help us educate them so they can become better citizens," she says.

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield Superintendent Ted Hillmer has served four years on the Watershed Committee board and a stint as chairman.

He's involved because of the core work the group provides - monitoring 19 water sites, mostly streams, to check for pollutant and bacteria levels - and it allows him to give back to the community.

"To me, that's very important," he says. "I'm giving my time, giving my expertise in a field which I think is very important to any community, specifically Springfield. ... (I) have an opportunity to provide some input, some long-term direction, in something that's educational for our young people so they can protect this water source in the future."[[In-content Ad]]