Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990 TAG: 9003290593
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
In a poster campaign aimed at environmental awareness, the board will send a different version of the saying to pupils across Virginia, and eventually nationwide.
The message is simple: Pollutants dumped into the ground in one place will someday show up in another.
This month, the board plans to distribute color posters of the mysterious world of caves to every earth sciences teacher in Virginia.
Radford High School teacher Gary Schafer, on March 16, was the first to receive the poster, entitled "What Goes Down Must Come Up!"
Schafer said the poster is a good way to alert people to the problem of polluting ground water, a topic he regularly talks about in his classes.
"I tell the kids you have to have awareness and think about what you're doing before you haphazardly throw something in a sinkhole," Schafer said.
"Once you've fouled the ground water up, it may not be recyclable within your lifetime."
The poster tells how karst terrain - land laced with caves, sinkholes, springs and sinking streams - is especially vulnerable to contamination. Karst does not filter out pollutants as water moves quickly through the natural, underground aquifers.
Karst is common in the New River Valley and Southwest Virginia, said Radford University geologist Ernst Kastning.
Continued urbanization and illegal dumping in sinkholes pose the greatest risk of ground-water contamination in the New River Valley, Kastning said.
"Legislation can only go so far," he said.
Kastning and his wife, Karen, a Radford University geologist and member of the 11-member advisory cave board, believe that education also is important.
They were instrumental in seeing the poster project through from its inception more than two years ago.
"Students are the ones who may one day be in a position of authority," he said. "They may be sitting on local boards."
The couple is eager to start mailing the 17,000 posters because they want to begin spreading the word.
After Virginia's earth sciences teachers receive theirs, the Kastnings will start sending posters to museums, libraries, universities and other groups. Then comes national distribution, beginning in West Virginia and Kentucky, which also have a lot of karst terrain.
"It's not geared strictly for young people," he said. "Certainly it's for other people."
As a private venture, the Kastnings are writing a booklet describing the hazards of dumping trash in sinkholes on one's property.
Three groups contributed a total of approximately $7,000 for the posters: the Virginia Natural Heritage Program under the Department of Conservation and Resources, the state Department of Education and the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias, a private group.
by CNB