Youngsters learn the ins and outs of water

By Emily Richmond

Friday, March 18, 2005 | 10:25 a.m.

Henderson city officials deputized fourth graders at James Gibson Elementary School on Thursday to report their family, neighbors and friends if they waste water.

The students were even equipped with cameras and notebooks to record "violations" and told to bring their evidence back to school for city officials to collect later this spring.

But Mayor James Gibson, who attended the event at the school named for his father, said the purpose of the "Jr. Water Watchers" program is raising awareness, not punishing violators.

"We're not telling them to turn in mom and dad," Gibson said. "We're asking them to be aware of their surroundings. We've had enormous success with our conservation program so far and now we're taking it a step further to our youngest residents."

Gibson told the students he wanted water conservation to become a "way of life" for them so that by the time they are grown up with families of their own it would be natural to take showers of no longer than five minutes and never run the dishwasher unless it was fully loaded.

Brian Estep, one of the city's first "Water Watchers," told the students they could also use their cameras to capture examples of smart water use, such as siblings remembering to turn off the faucet when brushing their teeth. Estep, who began his career with the city's utilities services department in 1991, regularly investigates violations of the city's water use regulations.

"What we need you to do, more than anything else, is get the message out," Estep said. "Save water!"

The students also heard from Vicky White of the city's water treatment facility, who passed out glass jugs of sludge and clear vials teeming, she assured them, with unseen bacteria and microorganisms. She cheerfully described the various stages of waste water, from the flushing of a home's toilet to its eventual return to Lake Mead.

"That right there, my friends, is raw sewage," White told the students, as she pointed to a jar filled with cloudy liquid and floating brownish chunks. "I get the cool job of working with poop. You can do it too, someday, if you study real hard."

Fourth grader Blaise McComb said while he's looking forward to scouting his neighborhood for broken sprinkler heads and was impressed by Thursday's presentation, it's not enough to make him change his career plans.

"I'm still going to be a professional football player," McComb said. "I'm not one for poop.""