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Check this page for announcements of WRIP proposal solicitations or grant awards

FY 2012 Request for Proposals for USGS Water Resources Research national Competitive Grants Program (104G)

The U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the National Institutes for Water Resources requests proposals for matching grants to support research on the topic of improving and enhancing the nation’s water supply, including (but not limited to) enhancement of water supply infrastructure, development of drought impact indicators, evaluation of the dynamics of extreme hydrological events and associated costs, development of methods for better estimation of the physical and economic supply of water, integrated management of ground and surface waters, the resilience of public water supplies, and the evaluation of conservation practices. Proposals are sought in not only the physical dimensions of supply, but also the role of economics and
institutions in water supply and in coping with extreme hydrologic conditions.

Application deadline is February 23, 2012.

Application announcement and guidelines (PDF)

Final awards are contingent upon Congressional approval of FY 2012 funding for the national water institute program.

Some important details:

  • Applicants must be faculty or staff at Massachusetts Institutions of Higher Education.
  • Proposals involving substantial collaboration between the USGS and university scientists are
    encouraged.
  • Budgets must include a $1 non-federal match for each federal dollar.
  • Matching funds must be committed at the time of proposal submission.
  • Indirect costs cannot be charged on federal funds, but can be used as a contribution to the non-federal matching requirement.
  • Proposed projects can be up for 1 to 3 years in duration and may request up to $250,000.
  • Proposals must be filed electronically at https://niwr.net.

FY 2011 Grant Awards

FY 2010 Grant Awards

The Massachusetts Water Resources Research Center is pleased to announce its Fiscal Year 2010 Proposal awards:

Four $5,000 graduate student projects will also be funded:

FY 2009 Grant Awards

  • Assessing the Transport and Fate of Effluent Organic Nitrogen in the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound Using Mass-Mapping Proteomics Technology ($29,998)
    Dr. Chul Park, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  • Characterization of Flow and Water Quality of Stormwater Runoff from a Green Roof ($4,900, graduate student proposal)
    Suzanne LePage, Dr. Paul Mathisen, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
  • Bacterial Toxicity of Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Adhesion ($4,976, graduate student proposal)
    Wei Jiang, Dr. Baoshan Xing, Dept. of Plant, Soil, Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Impact of Nanoparticles on the Activated Sludge Process: Effects on Microbial Community Structure and Function ($5,000, graduate student proposal)
    Deepankar Goyal, Dr. Juliette Rooney-Varga, Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell

FY 2008 Grant Awards

  • Environmental Behaviors of Engineered Nanoparticles in Water ($25,000, second year of two-year project)
    Dr. Baoshan Xing, Dept. of Plant, Soil, Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  • Quantifying Sediment Transport in Red Brook, Wareham, Massachusetts: Impacts of Dam Removal ($5,000 graduate student proposal)
    Steven Kichefski, Dr. Ellen Douglas, Dr. Allen Gontz, Dept. of Environmental, Earth & Ocean Sciences, University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Estimation of Climatic and Anthropogenic Influences on Freshwater Availability ($5,000 graduate student proposal)
    Yushiou Tsai, Dr. Richard Vogel, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Tufts University
  • Toxicity of Carbon Nanotubes to the Activated Sludge Process: Protective Ability of Extracellular Polymeric Substances ($5,000 graduate student proposal)
    Lauren Luongo, Dr. Xiaoqi (Jackie) Zhang, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Characterization of wastewater effluent from Western Massachusetts publicly owned treatment works using metaproteomic analysis ($5,000 graduate student proposal)
    Pamela Westgate, Dr. Chul Park, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst

FY 2007 Grant Awards

FY 2006 Grant Awards

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FY 2005 Grant Awards

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Elucidation of the Rates and Extents of Pharmaceutical Biotransformation during Nitrification
Dr. Andrew Ramsburg, Tufts University
Two important challenges facing the water quality community in the 21st century are management of
nutrients and mitigation of microconstituents. To meet the challenge posed by nutrients, discharge standards
across the northeastern United States are becoming more stringent. As a result, biological nutrient removal is
becoming increasingly more common. Interestingly, recent research suggests that biological treatment aimed
at controlling nutrient discharge may offer some utility in reducing concentrations of some microconstituents.
The proposed study is motivated by the potential synergy between nutrient control and microconstituent
attenuation, with specific emphasis placed on understanding pharmaceutical biotransformation by nitrifying
organisms.
Pharmaceuticals have been observed to be partially removed during wastewater treatment. However, the vast
majority of studies examining the fate of pharmaceuticals through the wastewater treatment process focus on
the disappearance of the parent compound. Few studies have elucidated biodegradation metabolites in
wastewater treatment plant effluents, despite preliminary evidence that suggests ecotoxicity may increase
along pharmaceutical transformation pathways, and mixture ecotoxicity may be appreciably higher than single
component toxicity. Thus, there is a critical need for careful research to elucidate those biochemical processes
that degrade pharmaceuticals during nutrient removal.
The proposed project integrates laboratory experiments and mathematical modeling to quantitatively assess
the fate of pharmaceuticals during nitrification. The research plan has three specific objectives: (i) elucidate
the rates of pharmaceutical attenuation by nitrifying organisms, (ii) identify metabolites produced during the
nitrification process, and (iii) develop modeling tools to predict pharmaceutical degradation within the context
of enhanced nutrient removal. In contrast to most studies that group pharmaceutical fate and transport based
upon pharmacology, we propose to link observed biodegradability to molecular descriptors of the
pharmaceuticals examined. Research findings will be applicable to both natural and engineered systems where
biological nitrification occurs in the presence of dilute pharmaceuticals. Results are anticipated to move the
state-of-the-art toward development of predictive capabilities aimed at assessing pharmaceutical attenuation
within treatment systems designed and operated for enhanced nutrient removal.

Assessing Human Impacts and Contaminant Trapping within Oxbow Lake, Northampton, Massachusetts
 Jonathan Woodruff, UMass Amherst Geosciences
Sediments within the Connecticut River have inherited a legacy of heavy metal contamination since
industrialization began within the watershed in the mid-1800s. Lakes and ponds located along the floodplain
of the river likely represent a major sink for introduced contaminants. Here we propose to obtain sediment and
associated heavy metal inventories from Oxbow Lake, Northampton, MA, and evaluate changes in the rate of
deposition since the formation of the floodplain lake in 1840 AD. We hypothesis that the lake has served as a
hotspots for heavy metal contamination since the onset of industrialization, but that major flood control
projects in the mid-1950s have decreased the rate of sediment and contaminant accumulation in recent years.
Three-dimensional Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys and short-lived radioisotopic dating techniques
will be used to map out sediment and contaminant distributions, and evaluate changes in rates of deposition
since the formation of the lake in 1840 AD. The project will provide a valuable new data set for evaluating
how sediment and associated contaminants have been distributed within the Connecticut River system, and
offer new information on how major dam impoundment on the river have impacted the supply of sediment to
the floodplain downstream.

Authentic Research Projects for Undergraduates based on Groundwater Contamination Issues Related to Arsenic
Julian Tyson, UMass Amherst Chemistry
Professor Julian Tyson and a graduate research assistant will initiate a number of research projects during the
summer that will be taken over by groups of undergraduates in the fall and subsequent semesters. The
research projects will focus on aspects of contamination of groundwater with arsenic, specifically aspects
related to the mechanism of contamination and possible remediation strategies. Experiments will be set up to
allow students to study the oxidative dissolution of arsenical pyrite minerals, the exchange of surface bound
arsenate by phosphate, and the reduction of both iron oxyhydroxides and arsenate by microorganisms.
Students will also study the potential for remediation by surface adsorption onto metal oxides, as well as onto
ion-exchange media and various media of biological origin such as charcoal, vegetable fibers, plant roots, and
hard tissues, such as shells and scales. Living biota, such as arsenic-accumulating plants and arsenic tolerant
microorganisms, including fungi and yeasts, will also be studied. The experimental work will form the basis
for authentic research experiences for undergraduate science students in their first-year on the University
campus and will expand the capacity of an existing successful program that is concerned with all aspects of
the bio-, geo-, and analytical chemistry of arsenic compounds in the environment.

A Remote Sensing Algal Production Model to Monitor Water Quality and Nonpoint Pollution in New England Lakes
Mi-Hyun Park, UMass Amherst Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Lake Champlain, like many New England lakes, experiences eutrophic conditions, algal blooms and degraded
water quality when agricultural and urban runoff are discharged and (harmful) algal blooms have become an
increasing problem over the past two decades. This requires frequent monitoring of algal bloom distribution
and propagation to identify major drivers and to implement mitigation practices. This study will employ
remote sensing to monitor the spatial and temporal distributions of algal blooms and to develop algal
production models in Lake Champlain, with application to other New England lakes. Satellite image data can
be used for regular, synoptic coverage of algal production over large areas with better spatial and temporal
resolution compared to in situ monitoring. The satellite algal production model will be calibrated and
validated using available in situ water quality time-series data. In addition, land use, meteorological,
hydrological and water quality data will be analyzed to identify the major drivers of algal blooms in the Lake
Champlain Basins. The remote sensing model resulting from this study will provide a cost-effective and
efficient alternative to traditional field studies in similar lakes.

Monitoring and Understanding Water Quality at Three Potential Charles River Swimming Sites
Ferdi Hellweger, Northeastern University Civil & Environmental Engineering.
This project focuses on monitoring and understanding water quality at three potential Charles River
swimming sites. The project builds on our high resolution (daily and hourly) monitoring at five sites
conducted during Summer 2010, which provided some insights into the water quality at the sites, but also
identified additional research needs. Specifically, there is a need to characterize the water quality over a wider
range of precipitation events, to relate our high-resolution data to those of other long-term monitoring efforts
(e.g. Charles River Watershed Association), and to analyze dam operation and/or wind factors. We will
perform daily sampling of E. coli, turbidity and temperature at three potential swimming locations from June
1 through August 15. In addition, we will deploy two ISCO autosamplers Mo-Fr from July 1 through July 31
for hourly E. coli analysis. The 2010 and 2011 data will be analyzed for relation to long-term monitoring data
collected by CRWA and MWRA, and considering dam operation and wind variables.


Dr. Ellen Douglas, UMass Boston

An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the nonliving environment, interacting as a functional unit. Humans derive benefits from the network of interactions among organisms and within and among ecosystems; these benefits are called ecosystem services. Human consumption of ecosystem services has been especially detrimental to river systems and their associated aquatic and riparian ecosystems. One of the biggest human impacts on rivers has resulted from the building of dams. There are 2,964 dams in the Massachusetts dam inventory database, most of which are low head, run-of-the-river dams that no longer serve the purpose for which they were built. The presence of these dams has fragmented aquatic and riparian ecosystems, impeded fish passage and generally impacted the natural ecological and hydrological functioning of the streams in which they reside. In many cases, dam removal is less costly than dam maintenance or upgrade, hence dam removal decisions tend to be based on purely monetary considerations, and the environmental costs or benefits associated with the dam are not fully considered. Furthermore, dam removal projects can be delayed or completely derailed by the perception that doing so will result in the loss of aesthetic, recreational and property values associated with the impoundment behind the dam. While dam removal is a high priority in Massachusetts as well as across New England, the true cost of these efforts, which include direct (economic), indirect (environmental) and cultural (recreation, aesthetic) costs, are not well understood and hence are usually not well quantified in dam removal decisions. The main challenge of water resource management is to find a balance between the use of resources as a basis for human livelihood and the protection and conservation of the resource to sustain its ecosystem functions and benefits. We propose to develop a physically-based and policy-relevant classification scheme for sustainable water and ecosystem management decisions. We will begin with an existing physically-based ecological classification system (such as the EPA Wadeable Stream Assessment; and the Least Altered Streamflows in Massachusetts) and expand upon it by factoring in political, economic and social indicators. One of the overall goals of this proposed project is to provide a framework for estimating the total ecosystem service value that any particular riverine habitat has to the humans and ecosystems that benefit from it. The overall outcome of this work will be a decision support framework that will be useful to environmental managers and policy-makers in assessing the degree to which ecosystems can or should be restored. Our ultimate goal is to provide a useful tool that identifies ecosystem service value from a multitude of human influences, but for the research proposed herein, we focus our approach on dam removal, which is important Abstract 1to the restoration of aquatic and riparian ecosystems and fish passage in New England. Our proposed framework will address the complexities involved in ecosystem restoration, multi-objective decision making and the allocation of limited state and local resources.

 


under PI Dr. Michael Ash of UMass Amherst

Release of toxic chemicals into surface water by industrial facilities in Massachusetts puts the drinking water of many communities at risk and potentially impacts human health. Previous research on environmental justice (EJ) has found that low income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted by industrial air pollution and by the siting of hazardous waste facilities, but no methodology exists for assessing the differential impact of surface-water releases of industrial toxics on EJ populations. We will examine social and economic characteristics of communities in proximity to facilities releasing toxics to surface water in Massachusetts. The methods and metrics developed for assessing community exposure and environmental justice in industrial water pollution will be applicable to the entire United States.

 


under PI Dr. Andrew Guswa of Smith College

In the northeastern United States, the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) poses a significant threat to eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). Replacement of hemlock forests by other species, such as birch, maple, and oak, may alter the hydrologic cycle and impact water resources. Changes to hydrologic fluxes include both the input of water, which is affected by canopy interception, and the uptake of water for transpiration.  This proposal seeks to build upon and complement earlier findings to better understand differences in hydrologic fluxes between hemlock and deciduous forests.  The objectives of this project are to quantify the difference in average interception between hemlock and deciduous stands, quantify the spatial variability of throughfall in hemlock and deciduous stands, quantify differences in summertime water use for hemlock and deciduous stands.  To achieve these objectives, this project will engage a cohort of three undergraduates in a two-month field campaign to measure and characterize hydrologic fluxes in hemlock and deciduous forest stands.  The field work will be carried out at the Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station, a 200-acre site maintained by Smith College.  We will establish two hemlock sites and two deciduous sites and instrument them to measure throughfall and sap flux.  Achievement of the project objectives will address a variety of water resources research needs of regional importance. This project will also engage undergraduates in scientific research, which has the potential to advance science, enhance education, strengthen the research community, and raise general awareness of the importance and impact of scientific understanding.

 


under PI Qian Yu of UMass Amherst

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a key factor for water quality and climte change, but the field survey is
insufficient to monitor DOC over a large spatial scale. We propose to use CDOM inversion from
hypersepctral satellite images to monitor DOC distribution and dynamics, given the correlation between
CDOM and DOC. Our study site is the Neponset River and Boston Harbor regions. We will sample in situ
CDOM and water above-surface spectrum data monthly in growing season. Based on the field data, we will
improve and calibrate our radiative transfer based algorithm, QAA-E (Extended Quasi Analytical Algorithm),
to inverse the ag440 (the absorption coefficients of CDOM at 440nm) from EO-1 Hyperion images. CDOM
concentration (in the unit of QSU)is linearly related to ag440 very well and could be derived by empirical
relationship. To understand the sources, degradation and transport of CDOM, we will also model the
relationship between CDOM and major watershed and hydrological variables with GIS support, including
vegetation cover and density, flow, soil type and precipitation. This proposed work will be an important prior
study before it is extended to regional scale.

 


under PI Dr. David Boutt of UMass Amherst

The Deerfield River in Massachusetts is heavily regulated by hydroelectric dams. It flows over glaciofluvial
deposits typical of New England valleys. Piezometric data collected from the streambed in the Charlemont
Basin of the Deerfield River show relative head reversals between the hyporheic zone and the channel during
daily dam-release flood events. Efforts to identify and observe areas of focused hyporheic exchange using
temperature anomalies proved inconclusive due lack of data across a heterogeneous streambed. Here, we
propose using fiber optic distributed temperature sensing to identify surface water-groundwater (SWGW)
exchange locations. Knowledge of substrate and underlying geology will allow us to delineate specific
glaciostratigraphic units of the subsurface that are important to SWGW exchange. Last, we will employ
coupled groundwater flux-heat flux models to estimate the magnitude of exchange between the stream and
subsurface.