Quickly, he glanced around the edges of the creek. More thick black fluid was floating slowly in the moving water. There was so much that it was impossible to see anything at the bottom of the creek bed. He was amazed at how much black fluid was floating past.

Gary decided to go down the street, door to door and recruit the neighbors in his mission to find out what was going on. Petitions were the most common form of civil action so Gary took a petition to Mr. Derdeck first.

Gary's neighbors were friendly enough and their houses lined the creek. He was unsure that they would have the concerns that he did about the situation. After all, it seemed like most people were to busy to care about the health and safety of the tadpoles in the area. Gary thought about how alive those tadpoles were the day before he noticed the fluid. He thought about how very fragile their life really was and wondered how his neighbors whose homes lined the creek, might be effected by the oil as well. The businesses on the other side of the creek seemed to not care at all and often dumped papers, tires and cans over the bank. It was an unsightly mess.

Down stream from his house, the creek ran under a culvert that allowed it to pass under Main Street. Gary had to pass over a walking bridge to get to his favorite store in town, Petersons Drug Store. Petersons had a wide variety of sports cards and candy. The water below the bridge seemed to have a putrid odor and appeared different from the rest of the creek. He couldn’t help but stop and look, although the smell almost knocked him over. There was a blue and red film on top of the shallow water. Gary's mother always told him not to climb down in the culvert, but he could never figure that out. Drowning was not a possibility in such shallow water.

DIRECTIONS AFTER READING PBL 2