NORTH
DAKOTA WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Dr. G. Padmanabhan,
Director
ND
WRRI
Box
5285
Fargo , North
Dakota 58105-5285
Phone: (701) 231 7244 E-mail: g.padmanabhan@ndsu.nodak.edu Web: http://www.ce.ndsu.nodak.edu/wrri
THE INSTITUTE
The Institute was founded in
1965 by authority of Congress as one of the 54 Institutes throughout the nation
and is administered through the United States Geological Survey. The NDWRRI
receives funding through section 104 of the Water
Resources Research Act of 1984 and it applies its Federal allotment funds
to research that fosters: (A) the entry of new research scientists into the
water resources field, (B) training and education of future water resources
scientists, engineers, and technicians; (C) the preliminary exploration of new
ideas that address water problems or that expand understanding of water and
water-related phenomena; and (D) the dissemination of research results to water
managers and the public. The Institute has a State Advisory Committee
consisting of three members representing the three principal agencies dealing
with water issues – State Water Commission, State Health Department, and the
USGS - and a Technical Advisory Committee consisting of faculty from NDSU and
UND. The North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota administrations
consider the Institute’s activities important and are supportive of its
efforts. The Institute’s core funding
comes from annual appropriation granted under the authority of Section 104 of
the Federal Water Resources Research Act by the US Geological Survey. Though
modest, the Section 104 program has provided crucial seed funding for research,
education, and information dissemination activities of the Institute drawing on
the water expertise of the two universities of the State – North Dakota State
University, Fargo and University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
ACTIVITIES
The
NDWRRI continues to meet its mission by dedicating most of the Federal
allotment funds toward competitive graduate student research fellowships. Each
of the Fellowship is also a research project that will result in a master’s
thesis or doctoral dissertation. The faculty advisors find matching or
co-funding for the research through the university, or grants from local,
county, state or federal agencies, foundations, or industry. Also, the
Institute co-sponsors seminars and conferences on water themes. A newsletter is
published annually.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Fellowship projects for the year 2002 include a comparison of two public water supply ozonation systems in terms of their disinfection by-products formation, modeling feedlot runoff quantity and quality, phosphorus transport through wetlands, influence of timber harvesting on wetlands and habitat use. Another ecological research on periphyton communities in the Sheyenne River provides baseline data for the Devils Lake outlet project. In recent years, one Fellow was hired by the USGS WRD North Dakota district, and another for the ND State Water Commission. Several Fellows work for municipalities and watershed districts, and water resources engineering firms in the region. While one Fellow is involved in pilot testing of UV disinfection systems for drinking water treatment, another has had interest shown by the U.S. Forest Service in conducting a study on forested wetlands to develop ecologically based Best Management Practices. One other Fellow is doing post-doctoral work in aquatic ecology field. One Fellowship permitted the development of a screening method, that can determine total PCB and PCDF in water sample and tell before-hand whether the sample merits detailed chromatographic analysis.