Principal Investigators and Department:
Daniel E. Storm, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering; and Arthur L. Stoecker, Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University

Project Abstract/Summary:
The landscape of the Ozark Highlands is a complex arrangement of geologic features, soil types, vegetation, and land use. In recent years, changing agricultural practices and significant population growth in the region have coincided with deterioration in surface water quality. Accelerated eutrophication in regional water bodies has been attributed to increased nutrient inputs at the watershed level. Potential sources of excess nutrients include runoff from agricultural lands, recreation, urban runoff, on-site septic systems, and municipal wastewater treatment plants, channel erosion and others. This research will develop methods that will aid watershed managers in the Ozark and similar regions to set and implement TMDL's in a cost effective manner. As a case study, these methods will be applied to the Lake Eucha-Spavinaw basin to find cost effective methods of reducing phosphorous loads to the lake. Point and nonpoint sources of phosphorous will be identified and quantified. The Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model will be calibrated and used to predict the impact of land management practices on water and phosphorous yields. The basin will be identified and quantified. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model will be calibrated and used to predict the impact of land management practices on water and phosphorous yields. The use of alum in the poultry house, application of alum residual materials on fields, change in the time and amount of litter application, the use of buffer strips, riparian protection and restoration, alternative uses of poultry litter, and the hauling of excess litter from the region are being identified and quantified. Economic engineering approaches are being used to determine the change in costs for treating algae affected water for each level of phosphorous loading.

Principal Investigators and Department:
Aondover Tarhule and Rozemarijin Tarhule, Geography; and Thomas Dewers, Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma

Project Abstract/Summary:
The ability to detect the occurrence, location, volume and geometry of the network of solution-enlarged conduits in karst environments is critical to the proper management and conservation of water resources because these factors control groundwater movement and contaminant transport. Karst systems are especially susceptible to water pollution because the injection of surface waters directly into the subsurface through sinking streams introduces contaminants into the aquifer, which are subsequently transmitted at high conductivities in the discrete network of drilling and core sampling, downhole geophysical logging, well monitoring, hydrochemical and spring discharge hydrograph analysis. However, even with closely spaced networks of continuously improved in applied investigations by integrating conventional borehole information with continuous subsurface-imaging techniques such as Electrical Resistivity Tomographpy (ERT). The ability to detect the occurrence, location, volume and geometry of the network of solution-enlarged conduits in karst environments is critical to the proper management and conservation of water resources because these factors control groundwater movement and contaminant transport. Karst systems are especially susceptible to water pollution because the injection of surface waters directly into the subsurface through sinking streams introduces contaminants into the aquifer, which are subsequently transmitted at high conductivities in the discrete network of solutional conduits. Conventional site characterization typically involves intensive field programs of drilling and core sampling, downhole geophysical logging, well monitoring, hydrochemical and spring discharge hydrograph analysis. However, even with closely spaced networks of continuously sampled boreholes, significant uncertainties can arise in determining the lateral continuity and true subsurface geometry of solutional conduits. Stratigraphic resolution can be significantly improved in applied investigations by integrating conventional borehole information with continuous subsurface-imaging techniques such as Electrical Resistivity Tomographpy (ERT).

ERT using the new Swift System with programmable electrodes and new efficient inversion software generates a near continuous image of the subsurface, providing the most compelling evidence for the occurrence, location and geometrics of conduits. Although the system has been extensively used to detect subsurface voids and cavities, few studies have undertaken a systematic evaluation of its accuracy and resolution at various depths. Such an evaluation is necessary in order to develop sufficient confidence in the procedure that permits its application to new environments about which little information is available. This project is evaluating the detection capability of ERT. The goal is to determine the smallest dimensions of cavities and voids that are detectable with confidence at different depths and to assess the ability to identify subsurface karst that have comparable dimensions but different shapes such as voids and vertical shafts.

In addition to being able to detect subterranean conduit network and geometry for contaminant management in karst aquifers, ERT has the potential to reduce the cost of applied investigations by reducing the total number of boreholes required to characterize a site.

Principal Investigators and Department:
Robert Anex, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University; William Focht, Political Science, Oklahoma State University; and Chad Settle, Economics, University of Tulsa

Project Abstract/Summary:
This research project is developing an Enhanced Life-Cycle Assessment (ELCA) framework for the integrated assessment of the implementation of environmental technologies. It will assess the acceptability of treatment wetlands for cleanup and restoration at the Tar Creek Superfund site. The Tar Creek Superfund Site, located in Northern Ottawa County, Oklahoma, has been approximately 1,000 hectares underlain by underground mines in northeastern Oklahoma. The underground voids contain 94 million cubic meters of contaminated waters. Since last 1979, acidic metal-rich waters have been discharging into Tar Creek from natural springs, boreholes and abandoned mine shafts. In 2000, Governor Keating's Task Force endorsed, in principle, the idea of treatment wetlands as holistic, cost-effective solution for the environmental problems at the Tar Creek Site.

As the idea of using treatment wetlands technology is reviewed with federal officials, the Oklahoma congressional delegation, and other interested parties, there will be a need for detailed technical and financial analyses that support the policy process. The Tar Creek Site has been controversial and any treatment recommendation will naturally raise concerns within public groups regarding factors such as safety, cost and reliability. This project is producing policy-relevant data regarding the use of treatment wetlands that will directly address stakeholder concerns.

This project is developing an ELCA methodology that facilitates comprehensive environmental decision-making by combining LCA inventory and impact analyses, risk assessment, and benefit-cost analysis within a stakeholder-based analytic-deliberative process. The ELCA framework provides a systematic process for environmental technology assessment that accounts explicitly for the interdependence among changes in releases of pollutants, human health risks and economic impacts throughout the pollution control technology life cycle. The ELCA approach provides comprehensive analysis to inform the policy process, guided by stakeholder concerns and preferences regarding environmental management and pollution control.

The specific goals are as follows: 1) to develop methods of assessing stakeholder concerns and preferences suitable for guiding policy-relevant analyses; 2) to integrate risk assessment and benefit-cost analysis methods with life-cycle assessment techniques; 3) to demonstrate the ELCA framework by producing policy-relevant data regarding the costs, benefits, risks and stakeholder acceptability of using treatment wetlands at the Tar Creek Superfund site; 4) to identify priority information needs of the decision-making process to help guide future scientific research.

Principal Investigators and Department:
Elizabeth Bergey, Zoology, University of Oklahoma

Project Abstract/Summary:
This project is assessing the status of Oklahoma springs with respect to groundwater input, and the effects of altered groundwater water flow rates on spring biota. Groundwater is an extremely important commodity in Oklahoma, with extensive use by agriculture, industry, municipalities and private landowners. This extensive use of groundwater has reduced water levels in some aquifers, with possible consequent partial to complete water loss from associated springs. Because springs are located at the boundary between groundwater and surface flows, springs provide an excellent point to easily monitor changes in groundwater resources. A monitoring program involving 50 springs throughout the state was carried out in 1981 and 1982, with funding from the Oklahoma Water Resources Research Institute. The monitoring scheme used aquatic invertebrates and fish as biomonitors of spring conditions.

This project is re-assessing the same 50 springs that were studied in 1981-1982, after an interval of twenty years. Invertebrates are being sampled and environmental conditions recorded at each spring. Light traps are also being used at several sites to capture adult aquatic insects for accurate species determination. Landowner questioners and flow measurements in 1981-1982 and 2001-2002 are being used to estimate flow changes. Changes in the invertebrate fauna during the time interval is coupled with information on changes in flow and other environmental conditions to ascertain the relationship between changes in invertebrate fauna and changes in flow.

The main goals of this project are 1) to determine whether springs and spring organisms are imperiled by any recent changes in water flow, 2) to determine whether the invertebrate fauna in some springs is more susceptible to flow changes than in other springs and 3) to increase the knowledge of biodiversity of aquatic invertebrates in Oklahoma.