The Red Cedar River ran green Friday as an MSU environmental group continued its study to understand pollution flow in the campus watershed.
MSU-WATER, MSU-Watershed Action Through Education and Research, a watershed management initiative comprised of faculty, staff and students from 15 departments across campus, dyed a segment of the Red Cedar green.
The research group was conducting a test to monitor how contamination moves through the river.
Tom Voice, a civil and environmental engineering professor, said the project hopes to build a mathematical model of the river to find behavior patterns.
“As long as you understand the physics of the river, you can predict how a given pollutant will behave when it enters the river,” Voice said. “The mathematical model will allow us to ask ‘What if?’ questions, which will help us to do a better job of prediction.”
The dye was dropped in a thin line from the Hagadorn Road bridge at 10 a.m. Friday.
Voice said the segment of dye would slowly spread out and become less compressed as it traversed the river, simulating how pollution might flow.
The group then went to the Farm Lane bridge and took water samples while waiting for the dye to arrive.
After about a half hour, the dye reached Farm Lane and the group went to the footbridge behind Kellogg Center and then, finally, to the Kalamazoo Street bridge.
According to Ruth Kline-Robach, water quality coordinator for MSU-WATER, the group had to obtain permits from Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality, the Ingham County Health Department and others because the non toxic green dye could “easily frighten passers-by.”
The four-year initiative is in its second year and is supported by the university with $1.4 million in funding.
While this is the first test of this kind to the river, the group plans on doing it again when the river is not flowing as quickly.
Angeles Velez, a civil and environmental engineering doctoral student, said MSU is a good pilot for watershed research.
“This river has a lot of branches, river inputs and surface water,” Velez said. “It’s going to be very helpful for research.”
The Red Cedar River has 80 outfalls, or outside entry portals such as pipes, Kline-Robach said.
She and Voice said the project will help in tracking non point source pollution, such as lawn fertilizers or oil from cars.
“We want to determine in certain areas how we use the land and how we use the river,” Voice said. “Plug that into where different pieces of land are draining, and then we can begin to change our behavior when it comes to the river.”
Both faculty and students involved contend the interdepartmental initiative is a step forward for research and for the university.
“There are so many different departments and colleges working on so many different pieces of the project,” Voice said. “It’s great to see all the talent put together.”
