Yesterday, I was asked to comment on the Clean Water Rule – see VT news article. Ultimately, one of our most important roles is take the time and communicate the role of of science in all of our lives. Images are worth a thousand words…here is one that at least for now is still on the EPA’s website. This interactive map highlights all of the communities that rely on drinking water directly from our nation’s streams and rivers.
This week I’ve been working with 13 other scientists from academia, USGS, and EPA at the Powell Center in Fort Collins. Over the next 2 years, I’m expecting to make significant advancements in the role of river corridors in modulating in-stream water quality across the US.
Our group went out on the New River yesterday to capture a longitudinal profile of water quality above and below the Claytor Lake dam. Early in the morning, water was not moving through the turbines and DO was over 100%…but as soon as the turbines were turned on DO plummeted to < 50%. Bottom water from the reservoir will do that! The picture below is of Maddie, Tyler and Mohammad navigating downstream.
This fall I’m teaching Introduction to Green Engineering and Field Methods in Hydrology – both are fun classes, with 84 in GE and 20 undergrad/grads in field methods. The first week of classes is always busy, and on top of that Erich Hester and I both signed up for the Ecostream conference in Asheville! Although it made for a busy week, the conference was well worth the effort = both our talks were well received. I presented Breanne’s greenhouse gas study in the context of stream restoration, and Erich presented findings from the modeling/field studies related to stream restoration approaches on reducing nitrogen export. There are lots of opportunities for folks interested in stream restoration / improving water quality within river networks. One of the most interesting talks was on the role beavers as ecoengineers….in the eastern US = it generated lots of discussion.