PA Environment Digest

I am a graduate of Hampton High School in Allison Park, Pa. Through my participation in scouts I gained a love for the environment which has remained with me since I was young.

As an Environmental Science major at Slippery Rock University, completing an internship was a requirement for graduation which I needed to fulfill.

I saw an opportunity posted along the hallway at school and inquired about it with one of my professors, Dr. Burkhart. He had me contact Tim Danehy, and there I was with an internship with BioMost, Inc. for the summer.

As part of my internship I worked at a mine site planting wetlands that flow to a stream which runs through the site. Along with planting trees and shurbs, I and the other interns worked to create habitat for animals along the channels flowing to and from each wetland.

It was hard work and the weather was not always ideal, but the sense of accomplishment I had after seeing the site when we were finished was well worth the effort.

While waiting for orders of plants to arrive, projects around the office such as constructing an iron oxide drying facility and cleaning out the garage for iron and manganese processing kept me busy.

Another task I performed this summer was low-pH iron oxide recovery at De Sale 1 and McIntyre sites, both are passive treatment systems within the Slippery Rock Creek Watershed.

I and the other interns quickly discovered why it was our job to reclaim iron. It was a very dirty process, but someone had to do it!

This internship has provided me with valuable experiences and useful new information about watershed quality. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to perform the work alongside people that also want to make a difference.

I hope to have the opportunity to continue working with Stream Restoration, Inc. in the future, and to be able to keep learning from my experiences with them to further benefit their efforts in improving water quality in the watershed.

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