UCO to host Blue Thumb training

EDMOND, Okla. (AP) – The University of Central Oklahoma plans to offer a two-day Blue Thumb Water Quality Education volunteer training course.

Hosted in conjunction with the Oklahoma Conservation Commission and the Oklahoma County Conservation District, the Blue Thumb program is OCC’s water pollution education program. Now in its 20th year, it will be offered Jan. 30 and Jan. 31 on the UCO campus in Edmond.

Since its inception, the program has trained hundreds of volunteers as young as middle school students to serve as citizen scientists and safeguard Oklahoma streams, rivers and wetlands from pollution.

Blue Thumb is specifically focused on water pollution with no defined point of origin, like sediment from land clearing activities, grass clippings placed in creeks or lakes, and fertilizer, pesticide and animal waste runoff.