The second annual Water Festival will hit Austin like a wave this week.

The Water Festival, organized by the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center, is an event focused on water education, cleanup and what people can do to get cleaner, fresher water.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Jay C. Hormel Nature Center Director and naturalist Larry Dolphin said.

The festival will focus on water quality in rivers and streams in Mower County. This year’s theme is the same as last year — Clean Water: We All Live Downstream.

Dolphin said the inaugural event went well last year, and he is excited to see the turnout this year.

One goal is to inform the public about ways to stop pollution, which can have adverse effects on towns downstream and can harm animals, especially through things like plastic floating down waterways to the oceans and oil that is dumped down storm drains.

The festival will feature many hands-on activities, such as kayaking, crayfish hunting in the stream and a water survival game. Dolphin encouraged people to sign up for the service day on Friday, when organizers will work with storm drain plates, take a tour of the sewage treatment plant and more.

Dolphin encouraged people to attend the various events all week.

“We’ve got plenty of room on our service day and plenty of room in the other areas,” Dolphin said.

He hopes people will learn how important waterways are and that everything is connected, so even something done in a river in Mower County can end up in the ocean.

“What we do here in Minnesota certainly has an impact on what happens far away,” Dolphin said.

He hoped the festival would also just be a celebration of water and everything it does for living creatures.

People who would like to volunteer or attend should contact the nature center to register at 507-437-7519. More details can be found at www.hormelnaturecenter.org/water-festival.html.

 

 

Water Festival schedule: July 6-10

Monday, July 6: Al Singer, Dakota County Land Conservation Manager, 7 p.m. RSVP by July 3

Wednesday, July 8: Chad Pregracke, clean water expert, 7 p.m., RSVP by July 7

Thursday, July 9: Peter Mayer, songwriter/performer, 9:30 p.m., Summer senior special; 1 p.m. family, children’s concert; 7 p.m., evening concert. RSVP by July 8

Friday, July 10: Clean Water Service Day: 8:30 a.m., River cleanup; Staff-led water quality testing of Austin’s waterways; 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., Join Nels Rasmussen, Austin Water Quality Specialist in attaching “No Dumping/Drains to River” signs; 1:30 p.m., Staff-led water quality testing of Austin’s waterways; 2 p.m., Sewage treatment plant tour