Service-Learning and the Wabash River: Urban Water

Projects
Hudson Huth

Driving across one of the many bridges that connect Lafayette and West Lafayette, you can
take in a view of the tree-lined Wabash River. Flowing between the two cities, the river can
sometimes be seen as an ecological barrier between the city and the university that occupy
opposite riverbanks. However, for Purdue’s Lindsey Payne and the Wabash River
Enhancement Corporation (WREC) it serves more as a cornerstone for collaboration.

Dr. Payne has collaborated with the WREC and other community partners to design and
implement community-based urban water projects. Running since 2013, her class, EEE 495:
Urban Water Projects, gives students professional engineering and sustainability experience.
This course is one of many at Purdue with a focus on learning outside of academia.

Service-learning classes, like EEE 495, operate differently than a conventional class. Unlike a
standard university course that focusses more on theory, application is at the core of a service-
learning class. Intrinsic to the design of each service-learning course is a community partner,
mutually beneficial research and projects, and application in the community. EEE 495 works
closely with WREC to produce urban water projects for a wide variety of community partners
such as Lafayette’s Imagination Station, Food Finders, and United Way.

Dr. Payne believes that “service-learning allows students the opportunity to connect their
academic course content to solving real-world problems through civic engagement, sustainable
design, integrating diverse perspectives, communication, and leadership.”

With this outlook, Dr. Payne’s class EEE 495: Urban Water Projects has had great success in
the past 5 years remediating water runoff problems in the Lafayette area.
Engagement Projects

Four EEE 495 students pose in front of the bioswale they just finished installing at Imagination Station in Lafayette.

Community Support for Food Finders

During the spring of 2016, Urban Water Projects partnered with Food Finders to tackle dual
problems of runoff and aesthetics. Water runoff into the Wabash River is a major source of
pollutants and a problem that is not easy to address on a large scale. Any nonporous surface
like a roadway or roof will cause rainwater to collect, making the issue prevalent across many
sites in Lafayette.

Food Finders is a nonprofit that seeks to “provide food for those in need and to educate,
advocate and address food insecurity in North Central Indiana.” Even though the organization
assists those across North Central Indiana, Food Finders’ food bank, Food Resource &
Education Center, and warehouse are all located in Lafayette.

Katy Bunder, CEO of Food Finders, comments that “the Purdue students have created a great
plan that will make our new Food Resource and Education Center more attractive to the
neighborhood as well as capture runoff and prevent it from going into the Wabash River.”
Students plant native grasses for a bioswale installation.

For the project, students designed and helped install native savannas, bioswales, and rain
gardens, three landscape elements that help remediate sediment and other pollutants from
stormwater runoff. In addition, students created educational signs to place near these
installments.

Over 60 community volunteers and representatives from Food Finders, WREC, GreenVision,
and Lowe’s came together to help landscape. Furthermore, WREC contributed $20,000 to the
project, while the Office of Engagement provided additional funding; Lowe’s donated tools for
the project and for Food Finders to use in the future.

Diverting Stormwater at United Way of Lafayette

The completed landscaping at United Way of Lafayette. Hundreds of plants will help reduce runoff and a red rainbarrel can be seen
to the left of the building.
In the spring of 2018, Urban Water Projects students partnered with the United Way of Lafayette
to help decrease stormwater runoff from the United Way Roof. Rain barrels and gardens of
native plants were used to capture more than 22,000 gallons of water per year coming off the
roof of United Way, water that would otherwise run into the Wabash River.

Adrienne Farr, an Urban Water Projects student stated that “This course has taught me how to
engineer, design, and implement a solution to a community problem, and provided me excellent
experience in real-world environmental engineering.”

United Way of Lafayette is a nonprofit with the mission of “mobilizing our community to improve
lives.” The organization provides resources, leadership, funding, and programs aimed at youth
development, tax assistance, counselling, and more.

“Working with this Purdue service-learning class allowed us to show our civic duty to take part in
preserving our local environment, while allowing us to work with a group of students to provide
them a real-world experience while studying at Purdue.” comments Amy Wood, Director of
Volunteer Engagement at United Way.

For more information regarding EEE 495: Urban Water Projects, contact Dr. Lindsey Payne at
paynel@purdue.edu. For Lafayette/West Lafayette residents interested in installing their own
rain barrels to decrease stormwater runoff, the city of West Lafayette has a program that offers
the barrels for a low fee.