This year, twelve proposals were received from academic institutions located across the State of Oregon. IWW awarded research grants totaling approximately $82,000 using funds from the U.S. Geological Survey State Water Resources Institutes Program. In addition, this year the IWW awarded four stipends of $10,000 each to graduate students using funds from the Water and Watersheds Initiative. Graduate student award recipients and their proposal titles include:
USGS-funded proposals for 2007 are described below:
Principal Investigators:
Hannah Gosnell, Assistant Professor, Geosciences, OSU
Denise Lach, Associate Professor, Sociology, OSU
Gail Achterman, Director, Institute for Natural Resources, OSU
Desiree Tullos, Assistant Professor, Biological and Ecological Engineering, OSU
Abstract:
Many water resource conflicts have their roots in problems related to environmental governance – the set of regulatory processes, mechanisms, and organizations through which political actors influence environmental actions and outcomes. The Klamath Basin is one such example. Historically there has been strong resistance to restoration projects initiated by the federal government, but the recent emergence of more decentralized “hybrid” environmental governance structures (including, for example, government funded water “banks,” co-management with tribes, and community based natural resource management) and associated restoration projects on the “off-project” irrigated landscapes of the Upper Klamath Basin offer new hope that private landowners can be effectively engaged in ecosystem restoration. How water is used on off-project lands has a critical impact on the viability of endangered shortnose and Lost River sucker populations and plays a major role in the quality of Upper Klamath Lake water, and the quantity of water flowing to other parts of the Basin, both of which have implications for the viability of threatened salmon in the Lower Basin. Water use in the tributaries also has critical bearing on the livelihoods of individual landowners dependent on water supply for irrigation, as well as the physical and spiritual well-being of the communities that inhabit the tributaries, including the Klamath Tribes. The convergence of a number of factors, including demographic change in the Basin, impending adjudication, and increasing pressure from Klamath Project irrigators to share the burden of demand reduction has resulted in a recent increase in landowner engagement in water conservation and ecosystem restoration efforts in the three tributary basins to Upper Klamath Lake (the Wood, Williamson, and Sprague). The proposed project seeks to identify, catalog, and map the various restoration efforts going on in the tributaries, and evaluate the efficacy, viability, and social sustainability of the emerging governance structures on which they depend. Methods include demographic data analysis, GIS mapping, interviews, and focus groups. The impact of this project will be measured by responses at a town hall style meeting where results will be presented and community feedback and evaluation will be documented. The results of the research will be disseminated to federal agencies and NGOs working in the basin, policymakers, and other interested parties. Findings will be incorporated into a larger grant proposal to the National Science Foundation to build on this research.
Principal Investigator: Anne Nolin, Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University
Co-Investigator: Anne Jefferson, Post-doctoral Research Assistant, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University
Co-Investigator: Sarah Lewis, Faculty Research Assistant, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University
Abstract:
Mount Hood is the tallest mountain in Oregon and its 6 of its 11 glaciers feed into the five irrigation districts in Hood River Valley. Mount Hood’s glaciers have receded up to 61% in the past century and are projected to continue decreasing with further climate warming. Because glaciers store precipitation as snow and ice during winter and release it via meltwater during summer, glacier meltwater reduces the interseasonal and interannual variability of streamflow. However, the volume of meltwater from Mount Hood glaciers is not known because the glacial-fed streams are not gaged. The focus of this work is on current and projected glacier meltwater contributions to streamflow from three glaciers that feed two main branches of the Hood River.
The specific objectives are to:
Our approach uses a combination of direct streamflow measurements and a spatially distributed, physically based hydrologic model. We will quantify the amount of runoff from the Eliot, Coe and Ladd glaciers on the north side of Mount Hood. Measurements will be constructed using five gages set up immediately below glacier termini and several kilometers downstream. These data, along with historical gage records will serve as a calibration for a Distributed Hydrologic Vegetation and Soils Model (DHSVM), which simulates glacier meltwater runoff and basin-wide streamflow. Output from the model will allow us to project changes in glacier meltwater contributions to Hood River under climate warming scenarios. This research will improve the fundamental understanding of current and future effects of rapidly receding glaciers on water resources in a regime of water scarcity. We will communicate our results to USFS hydrologists and water managers of the relevant irrigation districts.
Principle Investigators:
Joe Bowersox, Associate Professor of Politics, Willamette Unversity
Scott Pike, Assistant Professor of Geology, Willamette University
Tamara Smith, Assistant Professor of English as a Second Lanaguage, Tokyo International University of America
Khela Singer-Adams, Director of Community Service Learning, Willamette University
Abstract:
Mill Creek flows westward from the forested foothills of the Cascade Mountains in central Oregon to the Willamette River in Salem. The 55-square mile watershed drains surface and ground waters from lands used for intensive agriculture, light industry as well as urban development. Like much of Oregon's Willamette Valley, the Mill Creek watershed has experienced reduced water quality conditions. The loss of wetlands, reduced native upland vegetation, compromised riparian buffers and polluted runoff and sedimentation in the Mill Creek watershed have contributed to declining water quality. Additionally, historical diversions and channelization projects for energy generation and timely transportation of peak winter flows to receiving streams have significantly diminished the ecosystem services provided by Mill Creek, and also reduced its aesthetic and recreational value. Despite its size and significance, Mill Creek remains the only watershed in the Salem metropolitan area lacking a state-sanctioned watershed council—perhaps reflecting its historical neglect.
By emphasizing water quality monitoring and community-based ecological restoration of Mill Creek within the Salem Urban Growth Boundary (UGB), the current project has four main objectives:
These objectives will be attained through this grant by
Principal Investigator: Tarek A. Kassim, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University
Abstract:
Many fuel oxygenates have been identified as potential sources of aquatic pollution in our waterways. These oxygenates (e.g., methanol, ethanol, tert-butyl alcohol “TBA”, methyl tert-butyl ether “MTBE”, diisopropyl ether “DIPE”, ethyl tert-butyl ether “ETBE” and tertiary-Amyl methyl ether “TAME”) can contaminate both surface and subsurface environments. The main sources of surface and groundwater contamination by fuel oxygenates include: leaking underground fuel tanks, above ground storage tanks, farm tanks, leaking petroleum fuel pipelines, surface spills due to automobile or tanker truck accidents, surface spills due to abandoned or parked vehicles, MTBE contaminated surface water, and precipitation. The detection of fuel oxygenates in both surface (e.g., the Willamette River) and subsurface environments of the State of Oregon has sparked an interest about the potential adverse ecological effects (e.g., endocrine disruption) of these chemicals. The Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University is currently engaged in an effort to demonstrate new cost-effective surface and subsurface eco-cleanup (eco-remediation) technologies for various contaminants. Accordingly, the proposed study presents a substantial body of work and a unique opportunity to develop an innovative, lucrative and environmentally-friendly eco-remedial technology that can be demonstrated for removing various fuel oxygenates, particularly MTBE and its by-products in contaminated surface and subsurface environments.
The main goals of the research are to fully design a mitigation system and to verify its potential as an economical and sustainable method for removing fuel oxygenates in both surface and subsurface environments. The proposed mitigation technology is based on utilizing a heavier, more controllable hydrocarbon to absorb/retain lighter, more adverse ones. Since rubber is a liquid hydrocarbon that freezes at high temperatures, it should act as a medium in which lighter organic compounds (e.g., MTBE) would easily dissolve and hence be retained. Capturing of fuel oxygenates in a mass of rubber particles (i.e., recycled shredded scrap tires) would facilitate the remediation of the lighter compounds. Then, the enriched rubber mass can properly be disposed. In general, this will be accomplished by the successful completion of a series of research projects (i.e., phases). The objective of the first phase (this proposal) is to get preliminary information about the mitigation process and the interaction of the system’s variables: fuel oxygenates amount/concentration, rubber particles size, particles density, trench size and water flow rate. This will be accomplished by: (a) assessing the ability of rubber chips to remove a selection of fuel oxygenates from aqueous solutions, (b) determining the effect of size and density of the rubber chips on the efficiency of the mitigation rate for a selected number of fuel oxygenates, (c) determining the effect of water flow rate on the efficiency of the mitigation rate for a selected number of fuel oxygenates, and (d) studying the interaction between flow rates and rubber size and density for a selected number of fuel oxygenates.
In this study, the potential of rubber particles for retaining the most common fuel oxygenates found in contaminated sites will be determined. Several of these contaminants will be used in a series of comprehensive batch and column tests to determine the relationships among the variables in the mitigation process. The selection of the contaminants will be based on how frequent they were reported as common pollutant sources for surface and ground waters. Three concentrations (e.g., high, medium and low) of each contaminant will be tested for a better understanding of the effective range of the mitigation process. Three sizes of rubber particles will be investigated to determine the surface area effect on the effectiveness of the mitigation process. Rubber particles will be packed to achieve three densities to determine the unit weight effect on the mitigation process.
Principal investigator: Stephanie Harrington, Civil Construction and Environmental Engineering
Abstract:
This proposal focuses on tying together both experimental and theoretical analyses of dispersion through highly heterogeneous porous media. This area of research is of general interest because current methods do not adequately describe the tailing phenomena observed in breakthrough curves in media where there is a high variance in the log-conductivity (i.e. highly heterogeneous). Such research has direct relevance to groundwater problems in the State of Oregon, including Oregon’s 11 Superfund sites on the EPA’s National Priorities List (1), many of which are known to have subsurface environments that are composed of highly heterogeneous geologic materials. With the results of this research the fundamental processes which result in extended remediation times for these sites will be more adequately understood, potentially leading to more representative models being created to accurately predict necessary remediation times to reach desired conditions.
Most of the existing experimental work conducted on this topic have examined only 2-D systems and have developed the experimental or theoretical analyses independently. In this project, we will not only conduct new and unique experimental and theoretical analyses co-currently, but we will also analyze a 3-D system which is more representative of what occurs in the field.
In order to represent a highly heterogeneous system in the laboratory setting, the 3-D set-up will consist of a high-conductivity matrix material with low-conductivity spherical inclusions placed randomly within the matrix environment. An inert tracer solution of fluorescein and bromide (as lithium bromide), will be used to saturate the system. Data will be collected for the removal of the tracer using deionized water adjusted to a similar ionic strength. A robust experimental dataset of concentration versus time data will be collected at several internal points, as well as an overall breakthrough curve at the outlet of the system. The internal geometric configuration of inclusions will be varied between experimental runs, leading to multiple data sets for the 3-D system.
The final stage of this research will entail deriving and testing an upscaled two-equation time-varying mass transfer model for transport in a two-region system which will represent the experimental environment. It is hypothesized that this research will show a highly time-dependent nature for solute flow due to mass transfer limitations as the solute moves between the low-conductivity inclusions and high-conductivity matrix material.
