Fair promotes water awareness

The ACC Students for Environmental Outreach club hosted the Water Awareness Fair on Sept. 24 at the Rio Grande campus student lounge. The Lower Colorado River Authority, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, City of Austin Watershed Protection Development Review, and ACC's Environmental Science Department were all present at the event and representatives spoke to students about the environment in and around Austin as well as job opportunities.

"We want (students) to get an awareness of actually how much water we have available to use," said Bryce Ramsey, president of Students for Environmental Outreach. The fair was part of the Student for Environmental Outreach's Water Awareness Week.

Laurie Dries, an environmental scientist with the city of Austin, spoke to students about the importance of protecting Barton Springs.

"It's a natural site, but it's in the middle of the city and a park, and there is stuff built all around it," said Dries about Barton Springs. Dries talked to students about the Spring and about the endangered salamander that can be found there.

"The city is so big now that there are people who have never even been there. They know it's there, but they don't know what it looks like," said Dries. "Hopefully they get an idea."

Students also got a chance to talk about job opportunities in the environmental science field.

"They're giving us information about internships, career opportunities and what to do to get your foot in the door at these places and apply for a job," said Ramsey of the various organizations at the fair.

But, the most important topic of the fair was about the water that feeds in and out of Austin. Ramsey wanted students to understand that, "if we don't protect that very limited amount of water, we are going to lose it to either pollution or inadequate availability."