Have you ever seen a “Do not dump. Drains to the Letort.” sign next to storm water drains in Carlisle? If you have, then you are already familiar with one of the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring’s campaigns to keep the watershed’s water clean and protected. ALLARM runs 3 programs which directly benefit the Greater Carlisle Area. Each of these programs focuses around education for all ages.
1. The citizen science program aims to teach citizens to monitor their local streams through learning the proper techniques, understanding the data, and working to communicate their knowledge to others. Although ALLARM runs similar programs across the state, they work closely with the Conodoguinet Creek Watershed Association to enhance citizen science in the area. This program empowers people with the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively care for and promote the health of their local streams.
2.The environmental education program caters to children and young adults grades K-12. ALLARM workers and interns create curriculum for teachers and program. Additionally, they run programs for many different types of organizations and offer a diversity of material on water related subjects.
3. The Letort Storm Water Education Campaign works to educate people in the Letort watershed, which has a similar boundary to the Greater Carlisle Project area, about water run-off. They teach “healthy stream habits” actively and passively. Their active work includes rain barrel workshops and a new campaign called Adopt-A-Storm Drain. They also use posters and information sheets.
Carlisle is required under the federal law, Storm Water Discharge from Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s), to monitor its storm water and watershed. In addition to all of their educational work, this is also a service that ALLARM provides for the Greater Carlisle Area.