Urban Water Issues - Alan Kolok, Professor, Biology, UNO
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Alan S. Kolok Director, Nebraska Watershed Network Water quality in Omaha: From nuisance to resource. Implementing a More Sustainable Future in Nebraska: Urban water quality. September 25, 2013
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Presented at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, College of Public Affairs & Community Service, Conference on Implementing a Sustainable Future in Nebraska Alan Kolok, Professor, Biology, UNO
Transcript of Urban Water Issues - Alan Kolok, Professor, Biology, UNO
Alan S. KolokDirector, Nebraska Watershed Network
Water quality in Omaha: From nuisance to resource.
Implementing a More Sustainable Future in Nebraska: Urban water quality.
September 25, 2013
The city of Omaha has some interesting water features …
… however Omaha’s most visible interactions with water have been negative.
Omaha
Missouri River
Platte River
Elkhorn RiverPapillion Creek
Omaha – A city
surrounded by water.
Omaha’s urban water quality challenge ?
How do you change urban water from a nuisance…
… to a resource ?
http://omahacso.com/program/sustainability/
Economic Affordability
Regulatory Compliance
Community Acceptance
The mission of the Nebraska Watershed Network is to involve students, in conjunction with local stakeholders, in projects that focus on the environmental stewardship of freshwater resources and the biota that those waterways support.
http://omahacso.com/program/sustainability/
Community Acceptance and the Nebraska Watershed Network
Crowdsourcing Environmental Stewardship
Wildlife Roadkill www.wildlifecrossing.net
Crowd Hydrology
Platte River
Elkhorn RiverMissouri River
The Elkhorn River
Research Station
Crowdsourcing water quality:“What’s in your Watershed Day 2011”
Omaha Boy Scout Troop 597 at the Elkhorn River Research Station.
Platte River
Elkhorn River Missouri
River
The presence of the atrazine can be used as a first-tier screening tool for agrichemical runoff.
Immediate reporting time
Inexpensive ($10 per sample)
Increased sample size
Reduced resolution (3 ppb)
A healthy dose of IT
Omaha Boy Scout Troop 597 at the Elkhorn River Research Station.
- Omaha Boy Scout Troop 597
- Norfolk Boy Scout Pack 124
- Ewing Public Schools
- Audubon Society of Omaha
- Nebraska Master Naturalists
- Sierra Club Missouri Valley
- Keep Fremont Beautiful
- Keep Norfolk Beautiful
- Upper Elkhorn River NRD
Volunteer Organizations :
www.unomaha.edu/envirotox
May 21, 2011 Watershed Day 2
96 tests, 53 positive hits.
0/15 0%
4/12 33%
49/6971%
Omaha
What’s in your Watershed Day 2013
Papillion Creek
Five Groups of students from Omaha North High School paired with Network Interns.
Five sampling points along Papillion Creek
Global Youth Service DayApril 26, 2013
What’s in your Watershed Day 2013Papillion Creek
Measurements taken:
pHTemperatureNitratesPhosphatesAtrazineDissolved oxygenColiform bacteria
New Orleans
Arkansas River
Ohio River
Missouri River
Illinois River
Minneapolis
What’s in your Watershed Day 2014Li’l Miss Atrazine
“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”
- Baba Dioum
“So… by looking at all the stuff that we alone have done, we’re just going to be seniors in High School,other kids our age or even maybe a little bit younger can look into this and go…
…if they can they can do it why can’t we?”
“So, by our little small experiment we can get generations of kids, you know, to get involved in this stuff and really just…..
... make a difference in the world that we live
in today.”
Funding Agencies
Collaborators:Daniel Snow University of Nebraska – LincolnShannon Bartelt-Hunt University of Nebraska - LincolnTim Cowman University of South DakotaGraduate Students :Marlo Sellin-Jeffries Lindsey Sherretts-KnightAshley Jessick
Undergraduate Students :
Jason Weigel Kate Oien Bethany McAcyMolly Hartman Kelty Abbott Josh KrajewskiDebbie Akerly Erica Anderson Racine RangelNicole Alexander Nick Conoan Lucas Harrison
