Rain and Renewable Energy

Hey everyone! I’m Noelle Wyman, and I am the Clean Water Program AmeriCorps volunteer with Missouri Coalition for the Environment in University City (St. Louis for our purposes). I’m excited about getting more involved in water issues here in St. Louis and around Missouri, and so far it’s been a great start to the year!

Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) works primarily through policy initiatives, legal defense, and citizen actions to promote a healthy environment here in Missouri. I will be working in our Water Program, which focuses on enforcing the Clean Water Act and educating people about clean water issues.

The “great story” I would like to share with you all from these past few weeks is from the Green Homes Festival, which was held at the end of my first week here. It was especially meaningful for me to be able to attend and volunteer at the Festival because I helped to plan it last year but was unable to attend since I had to go back to school.

The Festival is organized as a joint effort between MCE, spearheaded by my former supervisor Erin Noble, and the EarthWays Center, which is a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden devoted to green living and promoting sustainability. In many ways, the Green Homes Festival is like the many other outdoor fairs that are happening around the region this time of year—it is full of vendors, children’s activities, and food. However, unlike so many of the other fairs, the Festival is focused on being, building, eating, acting and understanding being green. There were green builders, a solar oven, organizations advocating for legislation on climate change, and workshops given by individuals well versed in various aspects of green living and environmental issues. There wasn’t necessarily a lot to buy, but there was a ton for people to learn. It was, to put it simply, very cool.

All week, Erin had been asking for everyone’s hopes and prayers that it wouldn’t rain. We talked about it so much that I still remember that they were forecasting a 40% chance of rain. That Saturday dawned cloudy and windy, but no rain… yet. The Festival was being held at Grandel Square in MidTown; for those of you familiar with St. Louis, you know that there virtually no green space there. I helped MCE set up with the River Des Peres Watershed Coalition along the side of the street. The neatest thing about our booths was that there was a HUGE map of the St. Louis region where people could identify their watersheds and see what they could do to help. We also had, of course, plenty of information about rain gardens and barrels and stormwater runoff.

Did you know that a 40% chance of rain doesn’t mean that there’s a 60% chance it won’t rain at all? It means that 40% of the area will receive rain. I bet you do know that most weather forecasts are wrong; I’m pretty sure the entire St. Louis area got a downpour that day. Most people took cover in the main booth where they had a lot of tables—but the water found its way in. You guessed it: we had a mini-flood of stormwater runoff! I, of course, seized the opportunity to talk about the issues with stormwater in St. Louis with the unwitting couple sitting next to me whom I had rescued from getting their feet wet. They, and everyone still at the Festival, got to see firsthand the problems that traditional, non-green infrastructure can cause. (The couple next to me was privy to a discussion about combined sewer systems, water quality, and rain gardens and barrels as well.)

Click here for more pictures from the festival.

Thankfully, the weather cleared up and the day ended with a rainbow—I’m not being campy, there actually was a rainbow. I’m looking forward to being a part of, as well as organizing, more educational and outreach events with MCE this year. I will also be monitoring and commenting on CAFO and wastewater treatment facility permits, which I’m affectionately referring to my poop projects. I’m also going to be spending a lot of my time on UAAs (Use Attainability Analyses) that will work with local residents gain protections their streams throughout the state.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in Kansas City at the end of this week and hearing more about your respective experiences in the past few weeks!