Project Proposals for 2003-2004 DWRC Undergraduate Internships

Contributed by UD faculty

As of 3/2103

CHECK BACK OFTEN FOR NEW IDEAS!

 

1. Limitations on the Clean Water Act Internship: Joshua Duke, advisor

2. Wetlands Internship: Bruce Vasilas, advisor

3. Engineering / Water Resources Internship: Ajay Prasad, advisor

4. First Hydrogeology Internship Project Proposal: Scott Andres, advisor, Delaware Geological Survey

5. Second Hydrogeology Internship Project Proposal: Scott Andres, advisor, Delaware Geological Survey

6. Stormwater Internship: Jack B. Gingrich, advisor

7. Lewes Internship: David Kirchman, advisor

8. UD Stream Habitat Restoration Internship: Gerald Kauffman, advisor, Water Resources Agency

9. Inland Bays Lewes Internship: William Ullman and Joseph Scudlark, advisors

10. Environmental Engineering / Water Resources Internship: Steven Dentel, advisor

 

      1.  Clean Water Act Internship.

Advisor:           Dr. Joshua Duke, Dept. of Applied Economics and Statistics.

Phone:              (302) 831-1309

Email:               duke@udel.edu

Web:                 http://ag.udel.edu/departments/frec/staff/faculty/duke.htm

Project:            Limitations on the Clean Water Act: Judicial Interpretation of Groundwater and Stream Flows Rates

 

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is a powerful statute that, in part, enables the federal government to limit land use on private land.  A set of criteria are used to determine which lands will be affected by the Act.  Recent judicial review and agency rules, however, have limited the set of criteria that can be used to activate CWA authority.  Of particular interest are minimum stream flow rates and the role of groundwater.  This research project will describe these legal issues and assess there effect on current and future land uses.  An application to Delaware wetlands will be part of the study.

 

  1. Wetlands Internship.

Advisor:           Dr. Bruce Vasilas, Dept. of Plant and Soil Sciences.

Phone:              (302) 831-1391

Email:               bvasilas@udel.edu

Web:                http://ag.udel.edu/departments/plsc/faculty/vasilas.html

Project:            Field oriented projects dealing with freshwater wetlands addressing:

* Improvement of accuracy in identifying and delineating wetlands.

* Functional assessment of wetlands for mitigation purposes.

* Functional assessment of wetlands for water quality purposes.

* Plant and wildlife ecology of wetlands.

* Hydrology of wetlands.

Interns will be trained in plant identification, plant ecology, soil science, and hydrology.

 

  1. Engineering / Water Resources Internship.

Advisor:           Dr. Ajay K. Prasad, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Phone:              (302) 831-2960

Email:               mprasad@me.udel.edu

Web:                http://www.me.udel.edu/prasad

Project:            To be determined.

 

A specific project has not been developed; interested students may visit, call or contact Dr. Prasad to come up with a project concept together.  Dr. Prasad’s personal research interests include: Environmental fluid dynamics, experimental methods for fluid mechanics, bio-fluid mechanics, heat transfer in the environment, and advanced measurement techniques for temperature and velocity.

 

  1. First Hydrogeology Internship Project Proposal.

Advisor:           A. Scott Andres, Delaware Geological Survey

Phone:              (302) 831-0599

Email:               asandres@udel.edu

Web:                http://www.udel.edu/dgs/DGS/Staff/asa.html

Project:            Depth to Ground Water Model for the Inland Bays Watershed

Delaware Geological Survey Internship in Hydrogeology

 

Student Opportunity:

            The student will have responsibility for data acquisition and developing and evaluating GIS-based models of water-table elevations for the Delaware Inland Bays watershed.  The student will be advised by A. Scott Andres, Senior Scientist, Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) and will also interact with other staff at the DGS and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources.  Contact Mr. Andres (asandres@udel.edu) if interested.

 

Rationale:

            Depth to the water table is a key element in many engineering, hydrogeologic, and environmental resource management and regulatory decisions.  For example, the depth to ground water determines whether a site is suitable for a standard subsurface wastewater disposal system or will require an alternative design.  It is an important consideration in predicting ground-water flow directions for environmental risk and site assessments, evaluation of permit compliance data, and registration of pesticides and determining acceptable pesticide application rates.  Shallow depth to ground water has been the driving factor for construction of extensive ditch networks in almost every major watershed in Delaware.

 

Objective:

To identify and develop the appropriate data acquisition, management, and estimation methodologies and procedures most appropriate to Delaware and to determine if water-table maps can be completed for the entire state in a cost effective and timely way.

 

Project Description:

            This project has three main components, A) data compilation, B) statistical evaluation and model development, and C) water-table elevation estimation.

 

A.        Existing depth to ground water data, digital land surface elevation models, and digital line graph files of surface hydrology are in the process of being compiled from a number of sources.  The intern will assist with automated and manual data entry tasks.

 

B.         The intern will do data exploration and evaluate several spatial and temporal models related to long-term water level observations, soils maps, and geomorphic regions.  The goal is to identify time periods that are representative of dry, normal, and wet periods, and spatial groupings that are representative of large geographic areas.

 

C.        The intern will help develop and evaluate appropriate water-table elevation estimation models.  Digital rendering of output is an important component of the process.

 

  1. Second Hydrogeology Internship Project Proposal.

Advisor:           A. Scott Andres, Delaware Geological Survey

Phone:              (302) 831-0599

Email:               asandres@udel.edu

Web:                http://www.udel.edu/dgs/DGS/Staff/asa.html

Project:            Nanticoke Watershed Total Maximum Daily Load Project

Delaware Geological Survey Internship in Hydrogeology

 

Student Opportunity:

            The student will have responsibility for assisting with sample acquisition, performing QA/QC tasks on analytical data, acquiring and processing stream flow records, and computing pollutant loadings for five sampling stations in the Nanticoke River watershed.  The student will be advised by A. Scott Andres, Senior Scientist, Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) and will also interact with other staff at the DGS and the College of Marine Studies.  Contact Mr. Andres (asandres@udel.edu) by if interested.

 

Rationale:

            The Nanticoke River watershed has been ranked one of the top priority watersheds in Delaware in the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program.  A TMDL is the amount of pollutant that a water body can assimilate before significant environmental damage occurs and is a key component in the regulation of wastewater discharges and nutrient management practices, and in the allocation of funds for pollution prevention measures.  Field monitoring of flow and water quality are necessary to compute current pollutant loads.

 

Objectives:

            To gain knowledge and experience in the collection and processing of water quality samples, evaluation of analytical results, and methods used for computing pollutant loads.

 

Project Description:

            This project has three main components, A) sampling and sample processing, B) data compilation and QA/QC, and C) computation of pollutant loads.

 

A.        The intern will assist with collection of monthly base-flow samples and with the setup and retrieval of storm-flow samples collected by automated equipment.  The intern will assist with collection of ground water samples on one date at selected sites.

 

B.         The intern will assist with automated and manual data compilation and QA/QC tasks.  This work is done with spreadsheet and database software packages and requires constructing charts and tables and completing statistical evaluation of data.

 

C.        The intern will work with existing programs and help develop and evaluate improved methods for computing pollutant loads.

 

  1. Stormwater Internship.

Advisor:           Jack B. Gingrich and Charles E. Mason, Dept. of Entomology and Applied Ecology

Phone:              (302) 831-1308

Email:               gingrich@udel.edu

Web:               

Project:            Assessment of Stormwater BMP’s and Wetlands Restoration Areas as Sites for Breeding of West Nile Virus Vectors

 

During our studies on bionomics of West Nile virus (WNV) vectors, and as a result of reports from the scientific literature, it became apparent that many new water impoundments were being created either as stormwater retention ponds, or as wetlands restoration sites.  The standing or intermittent water sites created commonly occur around highways, new construction sites, housing developments, and sites that were restored to offset wetlands loss due to construction projects.  Relatively little is known about the types of mosquitoes breeding in these sites or their abundance, especially in this region of the country.  Our State agencies in Delaware have had limited opportunities with respect to monitoring these sites because of the overwhelming numbers of sites that are already part of ongoing mosquito surveillance and control operations.  

                        

We propose to investigate these sites, on a systematic basis, from a mosquito production standpoint with the following objectives: 1) Determine the types of stormwater and restoration impoundment sites most likely to produce potential vectors of WNV; 2) determine the attributes of good and poor mosquito habitats among the various types of stormwater catchments; 3) in areas where vector species are present, determine the species associations present that might strengthen or weaken the sites as foci of virus activity; 4) Determine seasonal periods when these sites actively breed mosquitoes; and 5) suggest solutions that would minimize mosquito production at these sites in an environmentally sensitive way.

 

  1. Lewes Internship.

Advisor:           David Kirchman, College of Marine Studies

Phone:              (302) 645-4375

Email:               kirchman@cms.udel.edu

Web:                http://www.ocean.udel.edu/cms/dkirchman

Project:            To be developed with prospective intern.

 

To discuss housing, contact DWRC program coordinator Amy Boyd at aboyd@udel.edu.

Research interests include:

Microbial ecology of heterotrophic bacteria in aquatic environments (mainly estuaries and oceans); bacterial and degradation of macromolecules and other organic compounds; inorganic nutrient cycling of heterotrophic bacteria; phylogenetic structure of bacterial assemblages as revealed by molecular techniques.

 

 

  1. UD Stream Habitat Restoration Internship.

Advisor:           Gerald Kauffman, Water Resources Agency

Phone:              (302) 831-4929

Email:               jerryk@udel.edu

Web:                 http://www.ipa.udel.edu/directory/homepages/kauffman.html

Project:            Stream Habitat Restoration at the UD Experimental Watershed

 

      9.   Inland Bays Lewes Internship.

Advisors:          William Ullman and Joseph Scudlark, College of Marine Studies

Phone:              (302) 645-4302 FAX: 654-4007

Email:               ullman@udel.edu or scudlark@udel.edu

Web:                http://www.ocean.udel.edu/level1/facultystaff/faculty/wullman/index.html

Project:            Agriculture / Chemistry Project.

 

Joe Scudlark and I are interested in finding a summer student to work on a project related to ammonia gas emission rates from poultry production facilities in the Inland Bays watershed. We plan to use nitrogen isotopic signals as a method of tracing the provenance of atmospheric ammonia.  We would be most interested in a student who has knowledge of agricultural (e.g. poultry management) practices as well as interests in environmental or analytical chemistry.

To discuss Lewes student housing, contact DWRC program coordinator Amy Boyd at aboyd@udel.edu.

 

 

      10.   Environmental Engineering / Water Resources Internship.

 

Advisor:           Dr. Steven K. Dentel, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Phone:              (302) 831-8120

Email:               dentel@.udel.edu

Web:                http://ce.udel.edu/~dentel/

 

Project:            Working with new methods for accelerating biodegradation with energy generation from sludges, sediments, contaminated groundwater. This will continue a project initiated by two undergraduates in 2002-2003.  The concepts are fairly complex but the experiments are quite simple in this exploratory research project.  Other topics can also be developed.