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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - 05:59 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Joe-Dill-Presents-Plaque-1

Two Greenville County residents were honored last weekend by the Environmental Education Association of South Carolina at their 2014 Annual Conference held at St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center at Seabrook Island, S.C. Greenville County Councilman Joe Dill was named Legislative Official of the year.

Joe Dill, Greenville County Council member, is a leader in conservation efforts in Greenville County. He has worked tirelessly, both within the Council by passing legislation, and by serving on environmental boards in the Upstate. His passion for the environment is most notably shown in his work to keep our water resources clean. He recognizes the worth of clean water as a natural resource for public health as well as aesthetic reasons. Mr. Dill served as a member of the Reedy River Steering Committee and the Saluda-Reedy Watershed Consortium Advisory Council. He attends workshops such as the Watershed Leadership Institute workshops, organized and led by the Saluda-Reedy Watershed Consortium (SRWC). These types of workshops include local legislators who want to learn about the challenges and joys of managing the watersheds in our area. Not content to simply learn from these types of experiences, he takes the next steps to put his knowledge into action. Mr. Dill feels that his greatest accomplishment has been to support the creation of the storm water management divisions in the county. Joe Dill has also been named as a key supporter in securing $2.2 million of much-needed grant funding for a project to rehabilitate the Slater Sanitary Sewer System. This grant supplied money from the Federal America Recovery and Reinvestment Act Stimulus Package. This package enables the upgrades to the sewer system necessary to ensure that our sewage waste is transported and treated effectively so that our area waters stay clean.

Greenville High School Student Adam Enggasser was named Outstanding Youth of the Year.

Adam Enggasser is a 9th grade student at Greenville High School who has taken an active leadership role in environmental education by starting up a Citizen Science Club and initiating a water monitoring program at his school. Adam has been involved in a cross-state partnership with the Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Program since December 2012, and after detecting a sewer break upstream from one of his monitoring sites, was able to catch the interest of the SCDHEC team in Columbia. Through his individual initiative, he submitted a grant application and received an SCDHEC "Champions of the Environment" award, and has started a student led Adopt-A-Stream program in his school, which is a model for other high schools to follow that can be duplicated across the state. Adam also volunteers at Roper Mountain Science Center and the Greenville Zoo F.R.O.G.Z (Frog Researchers of the Greenville Zoo) Chapter. At Roper Mountain Science Center, Adam volunteers on our public event days, sharing and interpreting the many animals to the visitors. For the local Frogwatch USA Chapter, Adam monitors sites at Lake Conestee Nature Park and Lake Cunningham. In addition to monitoring, Adam helped the Greenville Zoo setup their Facebook page and developed a digital "Frog Call Reference" App for android/Apple devices and shares/sets-up on FROGZ's participant’s devices to aid with field identification.

The Environmental Education Association of South Carolina (EEASC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect, equip, and support South Carolinians who promote environmental stewardship. The organization currently has more than 100 members, many of whom are formal and informal environmental educators working all around the state.

EEASC is committed to promoting quality environmental education among the people of South Carolina. Environmental education is interpreted in its broadest sense as a process that studies the connections and interactions between dynamic natural and human systems that lead to environmental literacy. It encompasses all aspects of the natural and manmade world upon which man relies.

EEASC encourages and recognizes the development and implementation of quality environmental education through its members, external educators and providers, legislation, and the business community.

EEASC offers its diverse membership a variety of benefits focused on promoting environmental education, professional development and networking in the environmental education field.

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