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Spotlight - Westminster College Students Monitor Slippery Rock Watershed Mine Water Treatment
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Once again this year, Westminster College students from Dr. Helen Boylan's Advanced Laboratory class have participated in a collaborative effort with the Slippery Rock watershed Coalition to monitor passive treatment systems in the watershed. The project provides students with a practical, hands-on experience that allows them the opportunity to not only apply what they have learned through classroom and laboratory instruction to a real world application, but also gives them a better understanding of an important environmental issues such as abandoned mine drainage and environmentally-friendly methods of addressing the problem.
This year the students conducted monitoring at the De Sale Phase 1 passive system. The students split into two groups to work with Wil Taylor of the Jennings Environmental Education Center and Cliff Denholm of Stream Restoration Inc. non-profit group to conduct water quality monitoring of each passive component.
In additon, students from the Biochemistry class collected samples to investigate what microorganisms are present at various steps in the treatment process.
Since 1995, the Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition has installed 12 passive treatment systems which treat over 500 million gallons of abandoned mine drainage every year. With the installation of these systems, 150 tons of acidity, 8 tons of aluminum and 150 tons of iron are removed from the Creek every year.
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5/30/2011 |
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