Audio clip
Anna George
A dozen or so rafters competed in a water tug of war at Ross’s Landing Thursday morning in a demonstration of a battle that’s going on worldwide — as well as in Chattanooga’s back yard, Tennessee Aquarium officials said.
One group, loaded in three rafts, held a sign that read “water resources” while the other team’s read “water demands.”
Nearly 150 students from Chattanooga Middle School and Normal Park Elementary cheered for both sides.
“But unfortunately there was not a clear winner on the river, but that’s illustrative of what we have ongoing right now,” said Dr. Anna George, Tennessee Aquarium chief research scientist. “It’s an ongoing contest for the water resources that we have available and the water demands that humans have on the environment.”
Dr. George said it wasn’t a political statement about the ongoing border dispute with Tennessee and Georgia that’s aimed at getting access to Tennessee River water.
Organizers hope the students walked away with a lesson about conserving water. Before the riverside demonstration by rafters from Outdoor Adventure Rafting, students watched “Grand Canyon Adventure 3D,” a movie that highlights the declining depths of the Colorado River. That movie opens to the general public at 11 a.m. Sunday.
“We really want all the kids in the area to learn about water conservation, because really individuals can make the largest difference at home,” Dr. George said.
The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders are studying water conservation in their science classes.
“They start learning about river ecology in fourth grade at Normal Park. They come down to Ross’s Landing to take water samples for testing. So they are really environmentally aware,” fifth-grade teacher Robin Cayce said.
The tug of war hammered home the point that water is scarce. The movie showcased how uncapped growth in the Southwestern United States has drained the Colorado River, which flows through the Grand Canyon and once emptied into the Pacific Ocean in Mexico, but now runs dry before it reaches the sea.
The movie features 3-D views of a river expedition with anthropologist Wade Davis and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who both brought their daughters along for the trip.
Students waved their hands in the air during the screening, trying to grab blobs of water that, through computer-generated technology, flew into the audience.
“It really helped us learn about the Grand Canyon and the water shortage,” said Janisha Battle, 11, at 6th-grader at Chattanooga Middle School. “If we do the right things at home, we can help the Grand Canyon and other rivers and water sources.”
Students yelled at the tops of their lungs for both teams battling near Ross’s Landing. But one student said the tie between the two teams was fitting.
“I thought that it was pretty important that we don’t use all the water, and that we keep our demands at an equal place with the resources,” said Turner Rowland, 10, a fourth-grader at Normal Park Elementary School.
E-mail Adam Crisp at acrisp@timesfreepress.com
Colorado River facts
* Southern Nevada gets nearly 90 percent of its water supply from the Colorado River. The river begins as snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains. The snowmelt travels through a series of tributaries into the river, which winds its way south for 1,400 miles and empties into the Gulf of California.
* The Colorado River is one of the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world. Seven western states and Mexico share the water, which serves about 25 million people.
* The river is divided among Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming according to a 1922 Colorado River Compact. Its use and operation is governed by a series of compacts, laws and court decisions collectively known as the Law of the River.
Source: Southern Nevada Water Authority
On the Web:
http://www.grandcanyonadventurefilm.com/
If you go
Grand Canyon Adventure 3D plays at the IMAX Theatre on Chestnut Street: 11 a.m., 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 p.m. on Sunday and will continue through October. Tickets are $7.95 for adults and $5.50 for children.
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
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