Mike Broomall and three of his colleagues at the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale examined the green garbage bin with the pensive concentration of a team of surgeons.
"All I know is this thing's got to be tight," said Broomall, a research technician, fitting a black drainage pipe through a hole at the bottom of the trash can. The bins eventually will be used as quarantine tanks to study four species of fish native to the Susquehanna River.
The staff at the Stroud Research Center has something of a Rube Goldberg complex. They can turn a Coleman Cooler and some plastic tubing like the kind sold at Home Depot into a cozy love nest for breeding mayflies.
This ingenuity (or eccentricity) takes place daily at the water-research laboratory, tucked away on 900 acres of hilly farmland in southern Chester County.
Stroud scientists have studied the world's streams, rivers, and watersheds since Lyndon B. Johnson was president. This year the center is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and next Sunday it will be one of several environmental and conservation groups to benefit from the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup steeplechase races.
Running on a $4 million budget and a staff of 50, researchers here have investigated the quality of New York's water supply, the Amazon River, the tropical streams in northern Costa Rica, and the Schuylkill. Stroud likely is the only research institution in North America focused solely on freshwater streams and rivers, according to Bern Sweeney, president and director.
At the heart of Stroud's research is the White Clay Creek. Scientists have catalogued the stream's temperature, flow, chemistry, and biology every day for the last 40 years. They compare these data to those collected on every other freshwater body they study, including the Amazon. The shin-deep stream is about seven feet wide and looks surprisingly small for having such a big role.
Stroud scientists also recently finished examining the water quality of the Schuylkill. According to Sweeney, 50 percent of the water quality has been lost, mostly because of deforestation and industrial and residential development. The goal for researchers, Sweeney said, is to use this data to figure how to allow for human activity and development without compromising water quality.
The center is also experimenting with planting 6,000 trees along the east branch of the Brandywine Creek to act as pollution buffers.
Constructed to look like a Quaker farmhouse, the Stroud Center has a brick and clapboard exterior and a gabled roof. But inside, abstract murals on the walls add contrast to the rustic wood and stonework.
These contrasts between urban and rural, modern and quaint, are apparent throughout the center. The scientists' offices are cluttered with stacks of papers and books, looking like typical academic suites except for the knee-high water boots stashed under desks.
One of the original founders, William Bolton Stroud, for whom the center is named, wore work boots and khakis to the center. Stroud walked a mile to the center from his farm, using a machete to cut down plants that were harmful to the creek.
When he wasn't hacking weeds, he enjoyed a buttoned-down role on the board of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
Stroud's wife, Joan, helped champion the center's educational programs. Stroud currently educates 3,000 students each year and provides professional development to more than 200 teachers.
The other cofounder, Dr. Ruth Patrick, was in her 60s when she helped establish the center. Patrick split her time between the water-research center and serving as the head of the limnology department, which studies bodies of freshwater, at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Sweeney, who joined the center in his early 20s as a University of Pennsylvania graduate student, recalled that Patrick had a remarkable intensity and vivacity.
"When she talked to us, it would never be, 'What did you think of the Phillies game?' " said Sweeney. "It was always, 'What new have you learned today?' She was challenging us every day."
The Strouds passed away - Joan in 1985 and William in 2005. Patrick recently celebrated her 100th birthday and still has an office at the academy.
Sweeney said he hoped the center's work would help ease a "global freshwater crisis."
American consumption depends on 150 gallons per person a day, he said, whether it's for drinking, manufacturing automobile tires, or producing light bulbs. By comparison, people in India use 10 gallons a day. Sweeney said it's imperative to conserve and maintain high-quality freshwater.
"Every drop counts," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment