When it comes to environmental conservation, the effects of routine activities such as washing cars, walking dogs and fertilizing lawns might be overlooked.
Senior public history major Dean Kessler said when it rains in Muncie, runoff from leftover soaps, animal feces and fertilizers can pollute waterways from the White River to the Gulf of Mexico.
Senior architecture major Katie Marinaro said when rainwater combines with storm drain pollution, such as sewage, water treatment plants get backed up by the overflow and so they drain the water into local streams, lakes and rivers.
"The water that goes through storm drains goes right through Cardinal Creek, and then that water goes through the duck pond and keeps flowing through tributaries, and keeps going until it reaches the Gulf of Mexico," Marinaro said. "Along the away, it can harm drinking water and wetlands. Just one person here at Ball State can have a huge effect."
For their Honors 297 class project, Kessler said he and eight other Ball State University students raised awareness about storm water pollution by spray-painting slogans such as "Your waste. Your water. Your health," next to storm drains in Yorktown.
The team's first choice was to label storm drains on campus, but they had to work in Yorktown instead, Kessler said. Although President Jo Ann Gora was enthusiastic about the project, he said the team did not get proper authorization in time.
For three weekends in November, the group of five seniors, two juniors and two freshmen traveled to Yorktown and spent three to five hours spray-painting the storm drains, he said.
"Yorktown is trying to get all their neighborhoods covered, so we contacted them," Kessler said. "Our first goal was campus, but there was too long of a wait. Muncie and Delaware County wastewater management said that Yorktown needed help."
The students made stencils out of cardboard and used the longest-lasting, environmentally-friendly spray paint they could find, he said. In order to prevent excess spray paint from getting into the storm drains, the students used extra pieces of cardboard to shield the drains.
Marinaro said people interested in reducing their storm water pollution can pick up after their dog, wash their cars with environmentally-friendly soaps and stop using fertilizer on their lawns. If people notice leaks coming from their cars, they should immediately fix the problem and dispose of it as hazardous waste, she said.
Even though the students will be finished with their class, they plan to continue to try to obtain approval from the university for labeling storm drains on campus next semester, Marinaro said.
"[The university is] worried about the temporary design of the spray paint," she said. "They are worried about how the stencils don't look professional."
Because Ball State is a university of a certain ranking, it is required to mark its storm drains, Marinaro said.
"They are in the process of [marking the drains] and all the storm drains they're putting in from now on have a stamp that's in the metal," she said. "A lot of the older drains on campus, [which are] off of McKinley, need to be marked, and we think stenciling would be the best option for the drains."
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