School and Community Assistance for Recycling & Composting Education (SCARCE)

SCARCE provides water quality education to schools and the DuPage Community. Please find a technical (PDF), municipal (PDF), and general presentation (PDF) in varied lengths and content on water quality and stormwater management created by SCARCE.

Rain Barrel Program

DuPage County Stormwater Management Planning Committee Chairman Jim Zay developed the idea of painting rain barrels as a method of teaching children about stormwater management and conservation. DuPage County Stormwater Management Division financed the program. The County purchased rain barrels from The Conservation Foundation for classes of DuPage County public students in grades four through eight. SCARCE taught the kids the benefits of rain barrels and how to paint the rain barrels. Seventy schools participated, and seventy rain barrels were painted and displayed or installed.

Manor Hill School

Swartz

Washington School

Stormwater Management Planning
Committee Chairman Jim Zay
with students from Benjamin Middle School  

Lane School  

Watershed and Groundwater Models

DuPage County Stormwater Management Division purchased watershed models and groundwater models for SCARCE to take to public schools and educate children on watershed issues, including pollution prevention. The watershed models demonstrate how stormwater flows overland, and can pick up pollutants on its way to a local water body. The model shows techniques, such as native plants, rain barrels, and silt fencing to name a few, that reduce the amount of stormwater runoff, improve the quality of that runoff and slow the flow of the runoff. The groundwater models demonstrate the concepts of the water table, groundwater, aquifers and wells, and how important it is to keep the groundwater uncontaminated.

A SCARCE volunteer demonstrates the Watershed Model to kids at the DuPage County Fair: