We've taken our understanding of stream and river dynamics ... and applied it to a real environmental challenge on the Mississippi " — Bern Sweeney
The Stroud Center, nationally and internationally known for its knowledge of small streams, is now doing a research project on the nation’s largest river, the Mississippi.
The project is for a large international manufacturing company at its plant on the bank of the Mississippi near St. Louis, Missouri.
Stroud Center Director Bern Sweeney said that last fall the plant added a new process that required a much higher volume of water to be discharged into the river than before.
“Stroud was asked to design a monitoring program to understand the potential effect of the effluent on the river,” said Sweeney.
The Center was awarded the project among stiff competition. Sweeney attributed this to the Center’s reputation for its research on other large rivers and because of the work it had done on another plant - this one on the Susquehanna River.
Center scientists Sweeney and John Jackson started monitoring the plant last October. This is traditionally the Mississippi’s lowest-flowing season - the time when any effluent could have its biggest impact. The Mississippi is also much easier to work on during its lowest flowing season.
Sweeney and Jackson hired a river captain to help them navigate the river during their first field sampling. Because such captains know the river intimately, this was the quickest way to find the ideal sampling areas.
The Center scientists used a variety of methods to sample the river. They placed “substrates” - media on which organisms can colonize and grow - at various points upstream and downstream from the effluent discharge zone.
After a month, Sweeney returned to the Mississippi - this time with scientist Dave Lieb - to retrieve the samples, which are now being processed in the Center’s laboratory.
When this is done the Center will report its findings to the company.
“We’ve taken our understanding of stream and river dynamics from our basic research program and applied it to a real environmental challenge on the Mississippi,” said Sweeney.
