OSU to team with EPA and others on watershed consortium

Thursday, April 9, 2009

(April 9, 2009 Stillwater, OK) – Recognizing the need for long-term, wide-ranging strategies to protect water resources, the Oklahoma Water Resources Research Institute at Oklahoma State University will team with universities and the federal government to form the Consortium for Watershed Excellence.

Members will initially include the Rivers Systems Institute at Texas State University, the Arkansas Water Resources Center at the University of Arkansas, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Consortium will invite other regional universities as it moves forward.

“The Consortium embraces two main goals,” said Will Focht, OWRRI director. “The first is the acceleration of progress toward achieving water quality standards through capacity building at the grassroots level. The second is the preparation of the next generation of water resources professionals.  Both EPA and state water agencies are interested in rehabilitating impaired streams and keeping those streams that are not impaired from becoming so.”

To achieve these goals, the Consortium will perform watershed assessments; education and outreach; facilitation and planning; water quality monitoring; and technology development and deployment.

A February 9, 2009 EPA grant of $72,599 is the first project undertaken by the Consortium. This project will study bacterial pathogens in the Red River Basin – an area chosen because it reaches across each of the five states in EPA region 6 (New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana).

“We will study pathogen pollution, which comes from both human and animal sources, and potentially threatens the health of people when they swim and recreate in creeks and streams,” said Eric Mendelman, program manager at the Rivers Systems Institute at Texas State. “We’re focusing on pathogens first because people can more easily relate to immediate health risks. What we want to ensure with our project, is that we assess and communicate the risks using science and education.”

A Transboundary Work Group that includes water agencies, scientists and researchers will help evaluate pathogen data and help design pathogen education programs for the public.

“The first thing you have to do before you can get people involved is for everyone to be on the same page and speaking the same language,” Mendelman said. “The next steps will be to find ways of dealing with causes and possible solutions for problems, communicate with community leaders, decision makers and citizens through local workshops, and develop a plan to implement solutions.”

Consortium partners will work in close collaboration to expand its efforts to include additional pollutants and to expand coverage to other watersheds in EPA region 6 where pollution is threatening water resources and posing potential health and economic risks.