Environmental Activities

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In line with its mission to protect the environment, MSD greatly expanded its environmental activities in the 1980s and 1990s. Recycling and energy conservation were early priorities, as was environmental education.

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Educational activities range from lively play-like programs for elementary school children (below) to summer internships in environmental science and technology for high school students (right).  MSD has also sponsored special workshops for teachers.
MSD Photos by Martin E. Biemer

Workshops for teachers were set up, and special educational programs were scheduled in elementary and high schools. Summer internship programs provided high school students and their teachers with opportunities to gain experience in activities aimed at helping improve the water quality in the community’s streams.

Community activities included co-sponsoring the annual Ohio River Sweep, the community’s own Beargrass Creek Sweep and the Household Hazardous Materials Collection program.

MSD also initiated the Greenways Program, which is developing natural areas along the community’s waterways to help protect the quality of water, provide cover for wildlife, and provide pathways where citizens can enjoy nature.

To support these programs, MSD added several aquatic biologists, a landscape architect and a soils bioengineering specialist to its team of engineers.

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The stream sampling program uses a mobile laboratory to help determine what is in the community's streams.
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MSD's Earth Day display included an aquarium stocked with the types of fish that live in the streams.
MSD Photos by Martin E. Biemer
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Household Hazardous Material Collections helped make citizens aware of the need to properly dispose of hazardous materials.  The occasional one-day events have now evolved into permanent collection centers.
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The Ohio River Sweep and the Beargrass Creek Sweep bring people of all ages together to clean up the banks of the community's streams.
MSD Photos by Martin E. Biemer

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