fall 2001 water news delaware water resources

8/9/2019 Fall 2001 Water News Delaware Water Resources

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F A L L 2 0 0 1 V O L U M E 2 I S S U E 1

DELAWARE WATERRESOURCES CENTERLAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE

Visit us at our new address: http://ag.udel.edu/dwrc

You'll find a wealth of Delaware water-related information at our comprehensive new Web Site:

Delaware Water Resources Center (DWRC) and Director's News: Latest updates on DWRC activitiesand information on the DWRC's mission, history, and role in the National Institute of Water Resources (NIWR). Delaware Water Concerns: Summary of the major areas of concern related to Delawares ground and

surface waters, with links to key organizations and agencies responsible for water quality and quantity. Projects and Publications: Descriptions of DWRC's undergraduate internship and graduate fellows

programs, annual conference proceedings, and project publications dating back to 1993. Advisory Panel: Purpose, contact information and e-mail links for the DWRCs Advisory Panel. Request for Proposals and Application Forms: For undergraduate interns, graduate fellowships and other

funding opportunities available through the DWRC. Internships and Job Opportunities: Information on undergraduate and graduate internships from a wide

variety of local, regional, and national sources along with current job opportunities in water resource areas. University of Delaware (UD) Water Courses and Faculty: Current listing of UD water resource courses

and researchers with an interest in water resources research; also, science and natural resource curricula links. Water Resources Contacts: Links to local, regional, and national water resource agencies and organizations

categorized as government, academia, non-profit, and US Water Resource Centers. Calendar: Upcoming local, regional, and national water resources events sponsored by the DWRC and other

agencies, such as conferences, seminars, meetings, and training opportunities. Newsletters: Access to DWRC newsletters dating to 1993. Annual and 5-year Reports: DWRC annual and 5-year reports, dating to 1993. KIDS' Zone: Water Resources Activities and Information for Kids and Teachers

DWRC 2001 Student ResearchConference Highlights

The 2001 DWRC Student ResearchConference was held at the University of Delaware on

February 9, 2001 and featured presentations by twograduate fellows and nine undergraduate studentinterns whose research was supported by theDelaware Water Resources Center (DWRC). The 70conference participants, including representativesfrom academia, non-profit organizations, theagricultural community, environmental managementand water resource agencies, and other studentsattended the oral talks and poster sessions.

A welcome and overview of their respectiveagencies by Dr. Tom Sims, Director of the DWRC,Gerald Kauffman of the Delaware Water Resources

Agency, and Dr. Joan Bennett, Coordinator of the UDUndergraduate Research Program, precededpresentations by graduate fellows Jennifer Jenningsof the College of Marine Studies (Land Use/Land Coverand Nutrient Discharges to Delawares Inland Bays) andLynette Ward of the Center for Energy andEnvironmental Policy ( A Baseline Nutrient Budget forSussex County, Delaware for Environmental Planning).Interns Gregory Buckmaster, Jennifer Campagnini,Maeve Desmond, Robert Ehemann, Emily Gonce,Jason Hetrick, Leigh Johnson, Anna Palermo andMelissa Weitz, were introduced by DWRC coordinatorCynthia Greene and presented posters summarizingthe results of their research on a broad range ofwater-related topics.

For more details on these projects and torequest copies of any reports, visit our website at:http://ag.udel.edu/dwrc/publications.html


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D E L A W A R E W A T E R R E S O U R C E S C E N T E R 2

Drinking Water Policy ForumHeld Oct. 11, 2001

A forum on "Drinking Water 2001: IssuesConcerning Delaware's Most Precious Natural

Resource" was held October 11, 2001 on theUniversity of Delaware campus. The UD Institute forPublic Administration (IPA) Water Resources Agency(WRA), in cooperation with the Delaware Departmentof Natural Resources and Environmental Control(DNREC), sponsored the event.

Recent events such as droughts andgroundwater contamination have emphasized thefragile nature of the water resource. The policyforum discussed the technical, governance,economic, and policy issues concerning drinkingwater in Delaware.

Keynote speakers were Dr.

McKay Jenkins, who spoke about theimportance of watersheds and bordersand the need to re-think concepts ofpolitical boundaries when it comes to theflow and distribution of water, saying:"What does a county line mean to anaquifer, or a state line to a raincloud, ora national border to a river?"; and Lee Ann Walling,Senior Advisor to Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who spokeon the Governor's "Livable Delaware Initiative",which, by promoting wise land use, seeks to addressmany of Delaware's water supply and water qualityproblems today and in the future.

The IPA will publish a special report inDecember summarizing the presentations at theconference. This report is intended to help shapedrinking water policy in Delaware. For moreinformation, contact WRA state water coordinatorGerald Kauffman (phone: 302-831-4925, fax: 302-831-4934, email: [email protected]) or go to WRA'swebsite at http://www.wr.udel.edu/.

WATER NEWSEditor Change

Cynthia Greene, coordinator of DWRCprograms and Water News editor since 1998, is no

longer with the DWRC. Greene establishedWATER

NEWS and the DWRC enhanced web site, andcoordinated the DWRC's internship program in itsinfancy. Her writing skill and perspective from heryears working for the EPA, New Castle SoilConservation District, and Chester County PA HealthDepartment, have been greatly appreciated.

New on staff is Amy Gier Boyd, whosebackground is in civil and systems engineering aswell as computing and nature education. She hasalso worked in public relations and administration forthe arts. Contact her with your water news or lettersto the editor at [email protected] or 302-831-1392.

New DWRC Research and EducationInitiatives for 2002 - 2003

The DelawareWater Resources Center

(DWRC) has as a primarygoal the training andeducation of future leadersin water science, policy andmanagement. In support

of this objective, the DWRChas provided funding since spring 2000 to supportundergraduate internships and graduate fellowships.Dr. Tom Sims, Director of the DWRC, notes that the15 undergraduate interns and 3 graduate fellows inthe program to date "are conducting research that isof direct value to those concerned about waterquantity and quality today. The DWRC is proud of

their efforts and committed to provide opportunitiessuch as these for other students in the future."

Requests for proposals for the 2002 DWRCundergraduate internship program will soon bedistributed and advertised to undergraduates at UDand Delaware State University. The following eightpriority research areas have been identified by theDWRCs Advisory Panel:

Nutrient management and water quality foragricultural and non-agricultural systems;

Sources, fate, and transport of waterpollutants;

Quantifying the response of aquatic systemsto pollutant inputs;

Water supply, demand, and conservation; Management and control of stormwater

runoff;

Identification and protection of groundwaterresources;

Treatment and disposal of on-site sewageand wastewaters;

Protection and restoration of wetlands.Student research projects are not restricted to

these areas, but relevance to the priority researchareas is considered as a guide in the final selectionprocess. Each undergraduate internship is supportedby a $3000 award from the DWRC. Specific detailsregarding eligibility, funding, faculty advisor contacts,the application process and deadlines, and programrequirements, may be found at the DWRC Web Sitehttp://ag.udel.edu/dwrc.


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Meet the 2001-2002 DWRCUndergraduate Interns

Six University of Delaware undergraduatestudents were selected by the Delaware Water

Resources Center (DWRC) Advisory Panel toparticipate in the 2001 DWRC undergraduateinternship program. Through DWRC's uniqueprogram, students and faculty work together inresearch and education programs addressing waterresource related issues of critical importance toDelaware and the Mid-Atlantic region. Take a look atthis year's interns and a summary of their projectobjectives.

Analysis of the Laws GoverningIdentification, Extraction, and

Allocation of Water in DelawareKatie Lemon and Dr. Joshua Duke

Department of Food and Resource Economics

While a participant in Columbia University'sBiosphere 2 program in Arizona during the spring of2001, Katie Lemon became more aware of theimportance of proper management of groundwaterresources. She had seen first-hand thecontamination and limited availability of clean waterin nearby Mexico and resolved to learn more aboutregulations governing that resource. "It was an eye-opening experience causing me to value my ownwater resources here in Delaware, as well as todesire a better understanding of how they aremanaged."

Lemon and herproject advisor, Dr. JoshuaDuke, Assistant Professorof Food and ResourceEconomics, will beconducting research tosurvey existing Delawarelaws that govern access to

groundwater. They willthen analyze theeffectiveness of thesestatutes with the goal ofidentifying sources ofwater use conflicts, both environmental anddistributive. Conclusions will be drawn to suggesteffective groundwater allocation strategies toalleviate current conflicts and prevent potential futureconflicts as the demand for groundwater increases.

A senior Natural Resource Managementmajor, Lemon is grateful for the opportunity afforded

her by this internship to learn valuable legal researchskills. She will incorporate the internship experiencesinto her senior thesis.

Functional Assessment of Wetlandsfor Mitigation Purposes

Kirsten Lloyd and Dr. Bruce VasilasDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences

Wetlands are protected by Section 404 of theClean Water Act, as they play a critical role inpreserving water quality. Their functions can include

trapping potential pollutants, removing sedimentfrom runoff waters, and reducing soil erosion throughthe storage of floodwaters following storm events.To receive federal protection, a wetland must beidentified and delineated according to U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers' guidelines requiring threecharacteristic indicators: a hydrophytic plantcommunity, hydric soil, and wetland hydrology.Unfortunately, the majority of fresh water wetlandson the DelMarVa Peninsula display evidence ofwetland hydrology only during annual periods of aninundation. Therefore, many wetlands have beenincorrectly delineated and then destroyed, their loss a

result of a variety of causes from road and housingdevelopment to agricultural drainage.

Kirsten Lloyd, who grew up in Newark,Delaware and serves as an Ag Ambassador at UD,became interested in local wetland delineation issueswhile enrolled in a wetlands course taught by heradvisor, Dr. Bruce Vasilas, Professor of Plant and SoilSciences. In particular, she is interested in howbetter assessing wetland functions can promotewetland mitigation, the process of creating orrestoring wetlands to compensate for wetland losses.Since mitigation is most successful when the lost

wetland is replaced by a wetland with similarfunctions and values, it is critical to have a wetlandclassification system that accurately characterizes thefunctions of specific types of wetlands.

Lloyd is using the Hydrogeomorphic (HGM)Method for wetland functional analyses, which relieson using collected data in a model that predicts howwell the wetland will function. The predictions arethen compared to reference standards based on datacollected from wetlands in the same HGM sub-class.


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Lloyd will be working with her advisor andsoil scientist Lenore Vasilas of the USDA NaturalResources Conservation Service to collect, organizeand analyze data from reference wetlands inDelaware and Maryland toward the ultimate goal of

creating an HGM model for mitigation purposes in theregion. She will receive training in plant identification,plant community assessment, soil morphologydescriptions, and the interpretation of hydrologicconditions based on soil morphology. Lloyd hopesher research exploring wetland criterion andmodeling wetland functional assessment will improveour accuracy in wetland identification anddelineation, thereby ensuring greater success of "in-kind" wetland mitigation efforts.

In her senior year now as an EnvironmentalSoil Science major, Lloyd has prior research

experience through an internship with Delaware'sDepartment of Natural Resources and EnvironmentalControl (DNREC)'s Site Investigation and Restorationbranch, for which she performed environmentalassessments of sites suspected of contamination byhazardous substances. She is enthused about herDWRC internship as an opportunity to gain broaderknowledge of wetland soils, plant communities, andhydrology.

Ectomycorrhizae as a HydrologicIndicator in Wetland

Identification

Kristin Staats and Dr. Bruce VasilasDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences

Typical indicators of wetland hydrology suchas drift lines and blackened leaves are evident onlyunder conditions of inundation, yet for the majorityof seasonally-saturated fresh water wetlands on theDelMarVa peninsula, these indicators are observedfor only a portion of the growing season. A moreuseful potential indicator of wetland hydrology

permitting accurate wetland identification is thepresence of ectomycorrhizae, fungi which aresymbionts of plant roots. The fungal hyphae formroot "mantles" during most of the growing seasonwhen the water table is close to the surface. The

vertical soil distribution of these "mantles", easilydiscerned by the naked eye, can be interpreted todisclose hydrology and water table height profiles ofa suspected wetland area.

Kristin Staats, a senior Environmental SoilScience major in the Department of Plant and SoilSciences, is participating in a team research projectunder the leadership of Dr. Bruce Vasilas, with JeffThompson from the Maryland Department of theEnvironment and Lenore Vasilas from the USDANatural Resources Conservation Service. The projectgoal is to evaluate the potential of ectomycorrhizaeas a viable hydrology indicator, thereby facilitating

wetland protection through more accurate wetlandidentification and delineation. Staats' training willinclude plant identification, plant communityassessment, soil morphology descriptions, and theinterpretation of hydrologic conditions based on soilmorphology.

Staats grew up in Felton, Delaware andattended Lake Forest High School. At UD she hasworked as a lab assistant, and also conductedresearch as a Science andEngineering Scholarstudying the effect ofalum-amended poultrylitter on stabilization ofphosphorus in Delawaresoils. Staats has updatedthe Sussex CountyDelaware Soil Surveywhile working as a soilscientist trainee for theUSDA Natural ResourcesConservation Service, andmost recently was an environmental scientist internfor Tetra Tech, Inc. mapping a landfill and calculatingemissions to assess potential remediation strategies.

A winner of the Milton Draper and BurrisMarshall Scholarships, Staats has been chosen toparticipate in the UD Honors Program, Ag and Spirit Ambassadors, and the Alpha Zeta agriculturefraternity.

This DWRC internship project advancesStaats' experience with hydric soils and field samplingtechniques. She looks forward to completing heranalysis of ecosystem characterization, includingectomycorrhizae distribution, for six Delaware sites.


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impact of the new curriculum on youthcomprehension and behaviors.

Place's interest in acareer in sustainable andorganic farming led him toinquire about research

opportunities in soil andwater resources andnutrient management. Inaddition to working withcrops, he has extensiveexperience in animaltraining and managementon several farms, includingas farm assistant on the UD

Farm for the past three years and as a summer camphorse wrangler. A member of the ProfessionalHorsemanship and Rodeo Cowboys Associations,Block and Bridle Club, and collegiate Future Farmersof America, Place has an enormous love of the great

outdoors, listing his pursuits as rodeo, farming,hockey, hunting, fishing, camping, horses, mountainbiking, and hiking.

His personal interests and teachingexperiences have prepared him well for thisinternship in environmental education. Place alsolearned subtleties of public service while parking carsand had his first forays into teaching whilesupervising summer campers in horsemanship,swimming, canoeing, hiking, archery and riflery.More recently he has been teaching educationalprograms through the UD Animal Science Club forGirls Inc., Girl Scouts, and at Ag Day, and setting upresearch projects and labs for UD Farm faculty andstudents.

Nutrient Management NewsA regular update on DelawaresNutrient Management Program

The DWRC is supporting three 2000-2003graduate fellowships that provide scientific support tothe Delaware Nutrient Management Commission(DNMC)'s Nutrient Management Program. Thisprogram is designed to improve water quality inDelaware through cost-sharing programs, theapproval of alternative-use projects, the education ofnutrient generators and handlers, and many othermeasures. The DNMC developed Delaware NutrientManagement Program regulations last year whichwent into effect Jan. 10, 2001, outlining nutrientmanagement certification requirements, complianceand enforcement of standards, and complainthandling. The DNMC and DNREC have identifiedpriority action areas encompassing inland bays and

the Nanticoke and Pocomoke watersheds of SussexCounty Delaware, based on impaired water andlivestock production levels.

The Nutrient Relocation Program has alreadyprovided cost assistance in relocating more than15,000 tons of excess poultry manure. Half of this

was exported off the Delmarva Peninsula, with thebalance used in areas in need of nutrients oralternative use projects processing raw manure intoeconomically and environmentally sound products.The Nutrient Management Program is offering$5/acre cost-sharing support to help stakeholdersdevelop nutrient management plans. To date thisprogram has defrayed cost of planning for more than88,000 acres well before the 2003 deadline forsubmitting plans.

The DNMC is now working with DNREC todevelop an approach to permit large livestockoperations or CAFOs (Concentrated Animal FeedingOperations). For CAFO guidelines, you may visit

http://www.epa.gov/ost/guide/cafo/index.html, orcall the CAFO hotline (202) 564-0766, or [email protected].

For more information on Delaware's NutrientManagement Program contact William Rohrer,Program Administrator, Delaware Department of Agriculture (phone: 1-800-282-8685), or visithttp://www.state.de.us/deptagri/About_Us/ nutrient.htm.

FreeNutrient Management CertificationClasses at UD -- Expanded Offerings

Visit http://www.rec.udel.edu/nutrient/page3.htmlfor complete course schedule and information

An estimated 5,000 Delawareans requirenutrient management certification by the mandateddeadline of January 1, 2004. To meet this need, UDhas added additional free certification classes thisyear for nutrient generators, private nutrienthandlers, and commercial nutrient handlers, to theexisting schedule of classes for nutrient managementconsultants. Since January 2001, more than 1,200people have trained to receive general "Session I"nutrient management certification. The DNMC hascertified 63 nutrient management consultantsthrough reciprocity with MD, VA, or PA certificationand attendance in UD's Session I class, and also 229

nutrient generators who went on for the secondsession of training. Nearly 200 have attended allthree courses offered by UD to date in order to becertified as private nutrient handlers. During the fallof 2001, several additional training classes were heldat all three Delaware county extension offices.

Leading the training sessions are Dr. GregBinford and Dr. Dave Hansen, both nutrientmanagement and water quality specialists in the UDDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences. They may becontacted at [email protected] / 302-831-2146, [email protected] / 302-856-7303, respectively.

fall 2001 water news delaware water resources

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