Sparta Front Page
Stickers share message of conservation
, Reporter
07-19-2009
Those who wander around Lincoln Parish and have to use the restroom at a business or hotel will see something in addition to their own reflection when they look in the mirror.Patrons of a hotel or other type of business will see a blue sticker attached to the mirror with a message asking them not to waste water. The awareness campaign is the result of declining water levels of the Sparta Aquifer, which provides water to all or part of 15 parishes in north central Louisiana, including Lincoln.
Members of the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, Louisiana Tech’s agricultural sciences department and the Sparta Groundwater Commission created the stickers.
Lindsay Gouedy, a Tech senior majoring in agriculture business and a Sparta commission intern, is distributing the stickers to businesses throughout Lincoln Parish. She hopes to do the same thing in Ouachita Parish once she’s distributed them across Lincoln Parish,
she said.
Gouedy placed stickers on bathroom mirrors at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Ruston on Friday after hotel General Manager John Birr granted her request to do so.
Gouedy said hotels have a tremendous influence over people, because they probably host more people from out of town than any other business.
“Ruston hotels represent Ruston to a lot of our visitors. By doing this, we can get our message across to a lot of our local residents, as well as people from other places,” Gouedy said.
A large segment of the public still doesn’t even know about the aquifer or the water shortage, she said.
“We’re hoping that the visitors at these establishments see these stickers and become more aware about their own supply of water elsewhere,” she said.
Birr said many of his patrons come from within a 200-mile radius of Ruston, often for weddings or sporting events.
“The beauty of this (message) is that it goes out to people in not only Lincoln Parish, but eight to nine other parishes,” Birr said.
People who live in the 15 north Louisiana parishes use almost 70 million gallons of water a day, but the aquifer can only sustain usage of 54 million to 56 million gallons a day, according to hydrologists with the U.S. Geological Survey.
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Get involved
To request a sticker or for more information, call Lindsay Gouedy at 257-3275 to visit www.spartaaquifer.com for more information.
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