By a correspondent | December, 2002

A group of American students in Illinois have won an ecology prize after spray painting more than 3,000 storm drains with the warning not to dump wastes into the local river.

	Dump no waste - drains into our Vermilion river

Forty ecology students from Pontiac Township High School and 140 of Karen Sterzik's eighth-graders from Pontiac Junior High School took a day out of class not long ago to help keep waste out of Vermilion River.

Working with wire brushes, stencils and spray paint, the students painted 3,300 storm drains with the message "Dump no waste - drains into our Vermilion."

Ritter reeled off a list of city officials who could have vetoed the project. "The students had every opportunity to fail but they didn't. This was a project that was meant to be done," Ritter said.

Their project was one of 11 honored this month with the Illinois Environmental Projection Agency's Green Youth Awards.

The state agency started the awards this year to recognize student work in such areas as waste reduction; air, water and land pollution; restoration or preservation of natural areas; energy or water efficiency; and cleanup and beautification.

Officials from the IEPA contacted David Sullivan, manager of the city's wastewater treatment facility, about the project. The Pontiac students' work was among 40 school projects submitted to the IEPA.

The project made Ben Johnson, a Pontiac high school senior, more aware of how much people throw away. "When we were using the brooms to sweep off the (storm sewer) grates, we were finding all kinds of stuff that people threw away and didn't care where it went," Johnson said.

Ritter said the entire project cost less than $1,000. Most of the cost was underwritten by grants obtained through the IEPA and the Wal-Mart merchandising chain.

The city of Pontiac also covered some of the cost for spray paint and the stencils.