Chandler: Raising environmental awareness among LI youth through hands-on education

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Across Nassau County, school-age children are preparing for an upcoming field trip in several weeks that will remain with them for a long time to come—it will reveal what happens after you flush the toilet!

These students will be visiting the South Shore Water Reclamation Plant, formerly known as Bay Park, which processes 70 million gallons of wastewater every day generated by hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. This experience will have students literally face-to-face with an appreciation of our fragile environment and the need to recapture, conserve and recycle that most precious of resources—water.

For Veolia North America, showing the inner workings of why the wastewater treatment process has an important educational function. We want the next generation of Long Islanders to understand how fragile our ecosystem is and how Nassau County’s system protects and improves our waters. We want Long Island’s students to have a hands-on understanding of how science affects their daily lives in compelling ways. By welcoming them into this industrial facility in a safe and guided manner, we begin to open their world as to what is required to protect their future. And we want Long Island’s youth to know that preserving and protecting our environmental progress can be a rewarding career path—and that someday they could put on a hard hat and join us in our work.

This effort is also meant to demonstrate how corporations throughout the bi-county region can play a role as stewards of the environment. In an era of climate change, when the Island has been repeatedly swept by severe weather—and our ground water is more precious than ever—no business is immune from navigating a path to a greener operation.

Ironically, these Veolia field trips occur at a time when the State of New York is reviewing the Regents diploma requirements as students prepare to graduate high school. While the Regents exams will stay in place for students, education officials say it will carry less weight or, in the words, “a reduced status.”

These educational decisions do not occur in a vacuum. Companies and institutions across Long Island must recognize changes occurring in the classrooms and that curriculum continues to be redefined.

In our area of expertise, we would hope environmental sciences would remain a focus. By hosting
these field trips at our facilities, we are assured of leaving a strong, positive message with students regarding environmental protection. For Veolia North America, even if one student per class
makes a career decision to assist our environmental mission, then this program is deemed an unqualified success.

The public-private partnership with the administration of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman allows Veolia to bring its global expertise to bear on Nassau County’s three wastewater plants. Our  20-year agreement has already seen enormous benefits, including modernization of the plants, a return of marine health to nearby bays and estuaries, and far more efficient reclamation operations. Today, we are ensuring a new generation recognize they have the means to be part of that success story.

Kevin Chandler is president of Veolia North America’s Long Island operations.