LM site manager and LM Support Partners find fun ways to teach fifth graders about what’s in the river
May 23, 2024
minute read time
On a bright, breezy Monday morning, Sara Woods and Sam Campbell discussed their plans for the day at the Western Colorado Children’s Water Festival. At this year’s two-day festival, about 1,500 fifth graders from all over western Colorado came to Las Colonias Park.
Woods and Campbell have represented the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM) for the past three years at the festival in Grand Junction, Colorado. Woods is LM’s site manager for the former Grand Junction processing site. Campbell is LM Support Partners’ environmental monitoring manager. They show off their work for hundreds of students at the festival every May.
With a team of support partners, Woods and Campbell offered groups of fifth graders in-person demonstrations of the water monitoring LM scientists perform. At the event, the kids learned about turbidity and clarity and what kinds of minerals are found in Colorado River water. They also learned about acids and bases and used litmus paper to tell the difference.
But this was a water festival, and kids want to get wet. The solution: refillable water balloons to represent elements found in river water.
“The water balloons will be a hit,” Campbell said.
“Or a disaster,” Woods said, laughing.
She needn’t have worried. After the demonstrations, the kids had a blast playing egg toss with water balloons, all labeled with atomic symbols representing half a dozen different minerals LM monitors.
Mission accomplished. By the end of the game, everyone was wet — presenters included — and the students had learned about the elements in the periodic table.
Educating the students is a labor of love for Woods. When she was a contractor for LM’s Support Partners, she advocated for LM to establish itself at the water festival at Las Colonias Park. Woods herself attended the festival as a fifth grader, and she remembers the impact it had on her.
When Woods later joined the federal staff, she saw an opportunity to educate students on important LM and environmental topics.
“I wanted to do this for years, and coming over to LM, I finally got some traction,” she said.
Woods supervises the site where the Climax Uranium Mill operated on the banks of the Colorado River during the Cold War. The site has been cleaned and is now Las Colonias Park.
During the demonstrations, Woods displayed a photo for students of the mill site, where tons of uranium tailings were left behind. Woods told the students, group after group, about the kind of work that used to take place at the site. She shared a story about Grand Junction residents taking the contaminated tailings home to use as fill dirt and in their gardens.
“It turns out that roses grow really well in uranium tailings,” Woods said.
LM Site Manager Sara Woods watches the inaugural run of the water-balloon toss at this year’s Western Colorado Children’s Water Festival. Each balloon was labeled with an atomic symbol representing one of six elements LM watches for in Colorado River water.
It wasn’t until years later that health experts realized the tailings posed a risk to human health. In 1978, Congress passed the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) of 1978 to mandate a safe and environmentally sound way to dispose of uranium mill tailings. The Climax mill was one of the sites cleaned up under UMTRCA, and the site is now a public park enjoyed by thousands of people every year.
The City of Grand Junction owns the park and assists in LM’s long-term stewardship of the site. Ute Water Conservancy District organizes the water festival each year, which is recognized as the largest children’s water festival in Colorado.
LM was one of 40 presenters at the water festival this year. Kids learned about the water cycle, conservation, sources of fresh water, endangered fish, hydroelectric power, river safety, and dozens of other topics. And they got very wet.
It’s a popular event, and Woods vividly recalled her own fifth-grade experience as the capstone of her year. This year’s festival will be especially memorable for her — her own daughter, Madi, was among the hundreds of kids to stop by the LM tent.
“Who’s heard of the Department of Energy?” Woods asked the class from Ascent Classical Academy, her routine polished through repetition.
“I have!” Madi yelled.
“You better have!” her mom said with a grin.
And just like that, a memory was made.
