Pittsburgh Students Stop Pollution Through Stenciling!

Mr. Weiss’s class 7C at Schiller Classical Academy is educating their community about non-point source pollution entering Pittsburgh’s Rivers through the City’s storm drains. Armed with spray paint and stencils, these students are letting people know that litter in the storm drains is non-point source pollution in Pittsburgh's rivers. This Northside school is less than a mile from the Allegheny River and this topic hit close to home. Their project included an inventory of the storm drains around the school. Materials in the storm drains were recorded and the drains were mapped using GPS units. A group of these students also worked on a radio story about their project with Pittsburgh's radio program Allegheny Front on WYEP. Students in the class also passed out door hangers to businesses and residents around their school before the stenciling date to educate them about the project and the problem of non-point source pollution. They went back to the drains they had mapped, cleaned them up, and stenciled them with the saying: “Dump No Waste. Drains to Rivers.” Mr. Weiss’s class collected over 4 garbage bags full of litter and debris during their stenciling. They hope that the stenciled drains will serve to educated and remind the community to keep litter out the storm drains and out of Pittsburgh’s beautiful rivers.