Protecting Drinking Water Sources
Faculty mentor/Supervisor:
Jon A. Souder
Email Address:
Department Affiliation:
Forest Engineering Resources & Management
Project Location:
Corvallis, or remotely
Project Description:
Drinking water is one of the most important resources that forests provide for society. There are 156 community water systems (115+ hookups serving 25+ people year-round) in Oregon that rely on surface water as their primary source. Over the last three years, a group of OSU scientists completed a project evaluating the effects of forest management (logging, forest roads, and reforestation) on drinking water quality, including changes in : (1) water quantity and timing; (2) sediment and turbidity; (3) forest chemicals; and (4) natural organic matter and disinfection by-products. Now that the Trees To Tap book is out (https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/em9295-0) we are creating Atlas of Community Water Supplies to provide specific data for each of the 156 CWSs. The MEP would be involved in taking information from Excel spreadsheets, ArcGIS layers, and other data sources to create graphs, tables, and maps for each of these systems.
Describe the type of work and tasks you anticipate the student will perform:
1. Work with mentor to create a template (draft in place) that will contain the information for each community water system.
2. Access Excel spreadsheets and create a MailMerge document to extract data from the spreadsheets and format for insertion into the template.
3. Create Excel macros or other approach to create pie and bar charts from the Excel spreadsheets for each CWS.
4. Create maps from ArcGIS data layers and format these for inclusion in the individual CWS pages.
Hourly rate of pay:
$15.00/hr.
Detail your mentorship plan:
I will meet weekly with the MEP to provide guidance on the project tasks.
I will make sure that the MEP is aware of professional opportunities in their field of interest.
I will invite the MEP to meetings and presentations on this project and any others of mutual interest.
I will write letters of recommendation for the MEP.
Note: my mentorship does not terminate with the ending of the MEP funding or project. I remain in contact with previous MEPs and have assisted them in obtaining employment and with career advice.