CAS faculty researching water, providing training to nourish the world

CAS faculty researching water, providing training to nourish the world

Friday, September 6, 2024

Media Contact: Elizabeth Gosney | CAS Marketing and Communications Manager | 405-744-7497 | [email protected]

Water management, access and treatment are key to the work Oklahoma State University's College of Arts and Sciences' faculty are doing to ensure communities have the resources to nourish the world for years to come. OSU's land-grant mission inspires the work CAS researchers are taking on.

With that vision in mind, these individuals use their skills and knowhow to impact society's sustainability - sometimes in unseen, but no less important, ways.

Invisible water source

Dr. Todd Halihan, a professor and interim head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology, has been conducting water research within the geosciences at OSU since 2000. Halihan's work centers on Earth's subsurface, which is then applied to address groundwater issues.

"In the 'good old days,' we said, 'Water comes in and water goes out,' and we worked with that understanding," Halihan said. "If you're really going to understand the subsurface, you need to know where it's going in, how it's moving through and how it's coming out because along the way, the water is going to undergo chemical, biological and physical changes. Sometimes those lead to good outcomes and sometimes bad outcomes."

Halihan added that the ultimate question he seeks to answer is, "How are we going to provide and manage clean water for 10 billion people?"

In September 2023, Halihan was awarded $2 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to study the use and risks of enhanced aquifer recharge (EAR). Halihan and a team of researchers from OSU, the Oka' Institute at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, and Texas State University in San Marcos are using EAR to improve groundwater availability and quality.

"We know the aquifer is declining," Halihan said. "So, we're looking at developing a system to get more water into it and not have adverse effects while doing so. And then taking it a step further to develop an incentive program of 'invest this much to get this much additional water and then we will pay this much' to rally people around supporting the future of the aquifer."

Having earned his bachelor's degree from Monmouth University, a liberal arts college, Halihan learned early on to value collaborations between diverse fields of expertise.

"My work with water has led me to working with other faculty in disciplines you might not expect," Halihan said. "I've worked with history professor Dr. Tonia Sharlach on how the Sumerians used water. I've worked with art professor Liz Roth to make cover art for articles, and she has joined me in the Bahamas on geological projects. A land-grant university gives us that opportunity to think about getting involved and trying to change the outcome."

Contaminants and purification

Dr. Sabrina Beckmann, an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, is addressing the need for clean water for household use and irrigation. She is working on projects that directly impact Earth's water supply quality.

"Our lab studies microorganisms in anaerobic groundwater habitats for enhanced groundwater supply and health," Beckmann said. "Most of these microbes don't breathe oxygen as we do, but they can breathe a wide range of other electron acceptors like sulfate and nitrate, contaminants which are chlorinated compounds, or climateactive gases like CO2 and isoprene."

In conjunction with Halihan, Beckmann is working to understand the impacts of EAR by studying microbes in the water within the Arbuckle Simpson Aquifer in southcentral Oklahoma. The Arbuckle Simpson Aquifer provides public water for municipalities and agricultural or industrial needs.

"The Arbuckle Simpson Aquifer is the primary - and often only - water source for at least 150,000 people," Beckmann said. "We are analyzing the groundwater before and after implementing the EAR structures to prohibit and/or eliminate the inflow of microbes that cause a potential threat to public health. A novel electrode monitoring system will tell us exactly what microbes are active and in what quantities in the groundwater."

Beckmann said not all bacteria are harmful and that most bacteria can help prevent pathogenic bacteria from forming.

"If the bad guys take over, we can switch the buttons at the electrodes to eliminate them and make the good ones return," Beckmann said. "We are developing guidance tools for the characterization and monitoring of these EAR structures with the overall goal of presenting a cohesive, comprehensive and accessible framework to assist water planners in determining the feasibility of costeffective EAR structures for their scenarios elsewhere."

In the pursuit of clean water, Beckmann has also been working on sites with groundwater contaminated with hazardous halogenated compounds. Her goal is to use the good bacteria as probiotics for the groundwater to wipe out the compounds.

"If these specific bacteria are absent in the groundwater, we must search for them elsewhere, such as in different contaminated soil habitats, pristine river sediments, or even deep-sea oceans where trace concentrations of these compounds naturally exist," Beckmann said. "Once we find promising bacterial candidates, we must understand their physiological needs and determine how to isolate and grow them in the lab, mimicking their future home - the contaminated aquifer."

Once the perfect probiotic is found, harvested and grown in the lab, Beckmann and her team use the bioaugmentation process to pump the bacteria into the aquifer, where they will take over and eliminate hazardous compounds.

"Our lab specializes in growing microbes that live without oxygen, called anaerobes," Beckmann said. "In this case, the bacteria breathe the chlorinated compounds instead of oxygen and dehalogenate them for example to ethene, which is nonhazardous for us."

Using a global perspective

Dr. Thomas LaVanchy, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, is using his research to address global concerns both in the classroom, where he teaches about sustainability and water resources, and abroad, where he works to find adequate water across nations.

"The road to meeting global food needs is a shared path through water and water management," LaVanchy said. "To solve the global food problem, it takes more food, and the water footprint to fill that growing demand is a growing challenge."

LaVanchy has traveled to locations including Cape Town, South Africa, and Ghana to explore climate change's impacts on agriculture and the sustainability of access to water as a resource.

"What a farmer could typically do to sustain their industry is changing," LaVanchy said. "Now, they are needing to irrigate, and as priorities from competing industries are shifting, we're looking at supply issues and then the social aspect of who is sharing the burden of getting that water."

LaVanchy said in 2018, Cape Town almost ran out of water. He was interested in helping residents be proactive to avoid future crises.

"Something cities sometimes struggle with is the waste from unhoused populations making its way to the water source," LaVanchy said. "We're working with populations to use nature-based solutions to clean the water and keep it clean enough to support drinking water and watering crops."

As an instructor, LaVanchy said he aspires to help his students see the bigger picture in the world.

"Solving water problems is inherently inter- and transdisciplinary," LaVanchy said. "CAS offers a variety of perspectives that can be partnered to solve these wicked problems."

Accessing the future

The water below the surface is useless unless trained professionals can access it safely. CAS Outreach is leading the way in workforce development with courses and training materials to prepare future generations of groundwater professionals.

"There are several different positions within the groundwater industry that are needed to get the water to our faucets," said Dr. Caitlin Barnes, director of CAS Outreach. "The more involved I got in conversations about the industry, the more I came to realize people don't really even know this industry exists."

Compounding this lack of awareness is the Department of Labor Statistics' estimate that 130,000 geoscience positions will need to be filled by 2029. Amidst the shortage of workers, the industry is expected to also grow by 5% by 2031. In response to these issues - and knowing the resources available at OSU - groundwater industry leaders approached CAS about building selfpaced courses taught by subject matter experts designed to prepare individuals with varying experience levels to join the groundwater workforce.

Barnes worked with Halihan in the Boone Pickens School of Geology, her CAS Outreach colleagues and the National Ground Water Association to head up NGWA University Powered by OSU. Now in its fifth year, NGWAU has provided training to people in 24 states and six countries. Complementing the NGWAU workforce development program is Awesome Aquifer 360, a K-12 outreach program aimed at instilling an interest in earth sciences in the classroom. It has reached 387 schools, 42 states and more than 40,000 students.

"If we don't have people filling these positions, we're going to lose a foundational infrastructure across the nation that helps us access clean water," Barnes said. "We've been accessing water for a very long time, and it is shocking that we could lose that knowledge because no one is paying attention to how we get water from point A to point B."

To bring focus to groundwater's essential role in providing clean water to communities, Barnes and her team launched a national public awareness campaign in February. The centerpiece PSA, which begins with a medical professional turning on the tap to find dirty water pouring out, has reached 56 million people in 46 states and 27 countries, airing on networks like CNN, HGTV, TNT and Discovery.

"It was important to convey that you don't have a medical industry - you don't have anything - without clean water," Barnes said. "It has been exciting to hear from people who have seen the PSA organically and to see that they really are absorbing the message. People who are watching this can make an impact by telling their friends and creating that chain of awareness."

Learn more about groundwater at OSU by visiting groundwater.okstate.edu.

Click here to watch exclusive content about groundwater at OSU.

Photos by: Ellie Piper and provided

Story by: Erin Weaver | CONNECT magazine

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