RESEARCH OFFSPRING IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD: THE CAMPUS GROUND WATER PROJECT

In many research projects involving undergraduates, scaling up becomes an important goal. Scaling down can also have important benefits. This poster presents an example of a “backyard” project derived by the intersection of a watershed project and a campus construction project. The watershed project is a reconnaissance survey of surface water for trace levels of antibiotics and estrogens, originating from runoff associated with livestock operations and/or base flow from leaking septic systems. The construction of Hope’s new science facility required extensive pumping to temporarily lower the water table. This activity provided the opportunity to perform a pump/drawdown test on the near-surface aquifer. The backyard project borne from this union was an investigation of the chemistry and potential pharmaceutical contamination of ground water beneath the Hope College campus.

Fifteen ground water wells were installed on the campus by faculty and students. Well elevations were surveyed and mapped in reference to established benchmarks. Water levels were gauged on a routine schedule for one year. Ground water was sampled and analyzed for major cations and anions using ICP and ion chromatographic techniques. Protocols and analytical schemes were developed and tested in order to establish an effective approach for detection of antibiotics and estrogens using HPLC and enzyme-linked immunoassays.

The project investigates questions of global interest and significance- pharmaceutical contamination in the environment. The Hope College campus is a tractable microcosm for the development of field techniques, laboratory analysis, and project management skills necessary for a similar investigation on any scale. Students were engaged in well installation, total station surveying, water-level measurement, sophisticated chemical analysis, and microbiology .

This campus project is well-suited to interdisciplinary involvement because the work is highly visible and peripheral students, faculty, and staff can get informed, and subsequently involved, without a significant time investment.