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Enterprise Examines Groundwater Resources
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AUGUST 9, 2004 -- "A lot of the work we do is in bad weather," John Gierke says proudly of his Aqua Terra Tech team.
Out in the woods, often in snow or pounding rain, the students test water wells and perform geophysical surveys to figure out what's going on under their feet. Their goal is to characterize unseen groundwater resources and predict how the water might be affected by human activity and natural climatic variability.
Their most-recent client is the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. Over the past three years, funded by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Aqua Terra Tech Enterprise has been developing and testing a hydrological model of the Silver River watershed. They have analyzed the region's geology and topography, studied the river and the water table, looked at precipitation and even tracked temperature in order to estimate evaporation.
They use special software that can determine with reasonable certainty what will happen to the water table under current conditions-and even forecast what could happen if, say, a development were to be built somewhere in the watershed.
"It lets us do 'what-if' tests," said Gierke, an associate professor of geological and environmental engineering. For a proposed future project they plan to analyze the impact of placing septic fields near lakes.
"If the model shows the flow is fast in a certain area, commonly closest to a lake, then you should keep the septic fields farther from the shore, because if they do not operate as designed they could contaminate the lake," he said.
Marc Slis, the water quality specialist for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, says the model shows promise in predicting the effects of development on the reservation. "They have created a powerful tool that could have a lot of value in helping the tribe make future land-use decisions," he said, adding, "The KBIC's support for this project shows their commitment to the environment. It's part of their culture and philosophy."
Next, Aqua Terra Tech hopes to take their expertise to another part of the world that has another set of problems: Nicaragua. The city of Boaco has a good water distribution system, but the water, drawn from a nearby river, is iffy at best. "We could try to find a groundwater supply and design a system for them," Gierke says. "The city wouldn't have to pay the engineering costs, and the students would get tremendous experience in engineering as well as working in a very different cultural setting."
"We wouldn't be competing with any local engineering design firms," he adds, anticipating the question. In such a poverty-ridden region, "nobody's competing."
It sounds like another perfect project for the team whose slogan reads like an SUV ad: Rugged. Dependable. Weather resistant. |
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