This digital story was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Inspired by the MoMS exhibition Water/Ways, three teens collaborating with staff at the Museum of the Grand Prairie in Mahomet, Illinois.
Jacob Minin (00:06): Water is an invaluable resource. We drink it, we use it to grow our crops, we play in it. We sometimes don't realize exactly how essential this resource is.
Suzanne Smith (00:26): I do think people take their water for granted, not necessarily on a global level, but I think in our country, we expect to turn the faucet in our bathroom or in our kitchen on and clean water will always come out of the tap.
Jacob Minin (00:41): However, we shouldn't take clean water for granted because pollution of our waterways causes problems for us far beyond the unpleasant appearance. Problems like contaminated drinking water and inability to grow crops rank among some of the worst. Unfortunately, damage has already taken place within our community. [inaudible 00:01:01] an ammonia spill by the University of Illinois into the Salt Fork River.
Jessica Riney (01:07): Back in 2002, there was a release from a U of I, they had a contractor that was cleaning their boilers and there was a release of ammonia into the stream system. And it ultimately got released into the [inaudible 00:01:21] Branch in Salt Fork.
Jacob Minin (01:23): In the aftermath of the ammonia spill, water restoration groups in our community are working hard to make this stream healthy again. However, there is potential for more harm to our waterways. Recently, a coal company has been trying to get permission to break ground near the bank of the Salt Fork River, which flows through Vermilion and Champion counties. This would cause multiple problems for residents.
Suzanne Smith (01:46): In the Salt Fork River, about four or five miles downstream is the town of Oakwood, which gets their drinking water supply from the Salt Fork River. And then a little bit downstream from there is the Camp Drake Boy Scout Camp in every summer. There's about 2000 Boy Scouts that tube in the Salt Fork River. And so we believe that it's important that we're very careful with the water that flows through the Salt Fork and particularly concerned about the water that would flow out of this coal mine.
Jacob Minin (02:16): Slurry impoundments are walls designed to keep harmful coal sludge from entering the water supply. However, they're not always effective.
Suzanne Smith (02:24): Our concern is that over time, these slurry impoundments will not maintain their integrity, that there will be cracks and that there will be leaching from that area. And that has a potential, again, to contaminate groundwater.
Jacob Minin (02:38): This means coal sludge could contaminate both the drinking water for the residents of Oakwood and the recreation waters near Camp Drake. Additionally, farmers that live near local rivers and streams rely on clean water to maintain the excellent quality of the soil. Thus, drainage from local coal mining could damage the crops we eat.
Jessica Riney (02:57): We're working with a variety of groups. We're working with biologists, hydrologists with University of Illinois, some scientists with USGS, geological survey.
Asset ID: 8580
For a complete transcript, please visit the Museum on Main Street website: www.museumonmainstreet.org
