11/28/11
David Tomasko, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist & Manager, Watershed Assessment and Sciences Program
Atkins North America,
Tampa, FL
The successful management of water resources is essential task for communities dependent upon clean water and a healthy environment. Balancing the needs for providing flood protection, water supply, and environmental features requires proficiency in the fields of hydrology, biology and general ecology. Three examples will be reviewed that illustrate the value of fully integrating these fields to address specific water quality concerns. In South Florida, the appearance of a large algal bloom in 2005 was investigated to determine the most likely cause(s). In Louisiana, the restoration of its severely impacted and rapidly disappearing coastal wetlands is dependent upon the implementation of large-scale freshwater diversions into prior floodplains. In Puerto Rico, the reestablishment of an historical tidal connection between San Juan Bay and the San José Lagoon is a long-desired project for communities in the vicinity of the Martín Peña Canal. In all three examples, close coordination between the fields of engineering and environmental science was essential.
David led efforts to develop the scientific basis for a technology-based pollutant load reduction goal for Sarasota Bay, as well as the resource-based pollutant load reduction goal for Charlotte Harbor. In addition, David has developed or refined pollutant load reduction strategies for portions of the Miami River, the Winter Haven Chain of Lakes, Lakes Hancock and Jessup, and the Wekiva River. David’s current work involves the estimation of water quality and natural system responses to ongoing or planned restoration projects in Florida, Virginia, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
Dr. Rubin is an advocate of “decentralized”, or as he likes to call them, “distributed systems”. Dr. Rubin prefers the term “distributed”, because it captures the idea of returning water and other resources back to the community. Dr. Rubin emphasized the need for management and operation of smaller community water treatment plants. A community could have the best water treatment technologies, but if they cannot operate and maintain the equipment, it becomes useless. Dr. Rubin suggested that persons interested in working in the waste water field get as many waste water management certifications as possible to aid in the operation and maintenance of decentralized systems.
ReplyDeleteDr. Rubin continually emphasized the vast amounts of information available on the EPA website. He encourage students to seek out the area of environmental engineering they are interested in whether it is groundwater, drinking water treatment, or surface water protection, and search the EPA website for current laws and regulations. Dr. Rubin explained how sewer mining can be applied to central and decentralized systems alike. One system, at the University of North Carolina, captures sewage both from a centralized system, and on site use. This water is treated onsite by a constructed wetland and then used for irrigation. A condominium building in Battery Park New York City has a membrane bioreactor in the basement, and they use the reclaimed water for toilet flushing and irrigation. Dr. Rubin continued to talk about the many low impact “simple” ideas that can be used to provide sustainable food sources such as vegetative roofs and walls.
Here is a link to some interesting vegetative walls http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/15-living-walls-vertical-gardens-sky-farms/1202?image=1
Those interested in vegetative walls; I suggest contacting Suzie Boxman boxmans@mail.usf.edu for more information. She has research experience working with these types of plant walls.
This link contains information about many “green” buildings, and explains the Battery Park community internal reuse system in detail.
I'm looking forward to Dr. Tomasko's presentation on definition of broad aspects of water supply including water-quality management planning and flood control.
ReplyDeleteI think that due to the fast urbanization and increasing living standards, the environmental sustainability of our global society becomes more and more questionable and properly managed water resources are a critical component of growth, poverty reduction and equity.
In the future, floods and droughts will continue to threaten farmer livelihoods and lowland economies and also with higher rates of urbanization, increasing demand for drinking water will put stress on existing water sources.
It will be interesting to know methods for:
1) planning and management on a natural water systems;
2) Promoting water conservation, reuse, source protection, and supply development to enhance water quality and quantity.
I think, Dr. Tomasko will address challenges to water resource management during the presentation.
Dr. Tomasko introduced the method of “quantitative pollution ecology” in his talk, as well as its application in water resource management. Specifically, he presented three projects carried out in Florida, Louisiana and Puerto Rico separately, all of which utilized the “quantitative pollution ecology” for successfully solving the problems. Throughout the presentation, I think it is more important to learn a way of thinking rather than the projects themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe first project was described in most details. Firstly, the problem was defined. There was an algae bloom after a bridge replacement project in South Florida Keys, and the bridge replacement project was therefore blamed for causing the algae bloom. Because the real cause of the algae bloom was still uncertain, Dr. Tomasko’s company got involved in a project to identify the major causes of the algae bloom. Secondly, the problem was quantified by comparing the Chlorophyll data and water quality data over time in the algae bloom area. The start date of the algal bloom, and its direct cause were identified. It was estimated that 3 metric tons of phosphorous was needed to cause the bloom. Thirdly, they estimated the maximal potential phosphorous release from the bridge replacement project, which is 1 metric ton, around 1/3 of the phosphorous needed. Hence, the bridge project was excluded from the major causes of the algal bloom. At last, other possible causes were investigated, and the inland water runoff after hurricane Katrina was identified as the main cause of the algal bloom.
The second project was involved with wetland restoration in Louisiana. Large scale fresh water diversions were implemented in order to promote wetland sustainability and reduce salinity. A total of 8000 cfs of freshwater was required for the restoration. Since the amount of fresh water needed is very large, studies were carried out to evaluate the possibility of algal bloom downstreams. The third project was involved with the reestablishment of the connection between San Jose Lagoon and San Juan Bay to improve the water quality in San Jose Lagoon. The ecological benefits of establishing the connection were proved through the project.
Some related websites:
This website provides recorded presentations on water resource management, including an earlier version of Dr. Tomasko’s presentation:
http://www.cfw.ufl.edu/seminar_schedule_fa09.shtml
The journals provided by the Atkins introduce more interesting projects:
http://northamerica.atkinsglobal.com/About_Us/Our_Publications/Pages/Technical_Journals.aspx