University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences

What You Should Know About H2O

by Jennifer T. Allen

Most people don’t worry about their drinking water causing cancer, brittle bones or neurological diseases. Not many suspect that it could contain arsenic, mercury or lead. Even fewer know that efforts are underway on the third floor of the Chemistry-Physics building to remove these and other contaminants from water.

Since 2000, chemistry professor David Atwood and his student researchers have been working to remove elemental contaminants from water — and they have been successful.  

“Most people don’t realize their direct effect on the quality of our water and our air,” said Lisa Blue, a chemistry graduate student working in Atwood’s lab. “We have certain things we can’t live without, such as water and air, and I want to be part of the solution in taking care of those necessities.”

Atwood and his team have designed compounds that trap and remove contaminants from water. Water is filtered through the compound, which grabs onto the contaminant permanently. The filtered water then comes out clean.

The research taking place on UK’s campus has repercussions around the world. Arsenic contamination of drinking water is a large problem in India and Bangladesh and even poses problems in the U.S in several western states and on the East Coast. “I have measured arsenic levels in India’s drinking water as high as 220 parts of arsenic per billion,” Blue said. “The World Health Organization recommends under 10 parts per billion as safe. After filtering the water through our treatment, there was less than five parts per billion, which was the detection limit on that set of runs.”

The next step for Atwood and his team was to develop water treatment devices for personal use in homes. “We are working to get the water treatment in homes at an affordable cost,” Atwood said.

Cleaning up drinking water isn’t Atwood’s only environmental pursuit. Since 2005, he has been working to create a real-time sensor for detecting environmental contaminants. “The real-time sensor is based on a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and can be coated with different compounds to detect different contaminants. We are collaborating with a Lexington company, Quansor, Inc., who holds the QCM patents. My lab is responsible for creating the contaminant-specific coating to be used in the QCM.”

“In one application we demonstrate the ability of the sensor to bind and detect oil from an oil-water mixture,” Atwood said. “This is important for ocean-going vessels where the amount of oil they release to the ocean is strictly regulated.”

The sensor is based on changes of mass and could be expanded to monitor groundwater, nerve agents and pesticides. Atwood and Quansor are also working to interface the monitors with wireless electronic data transmission, which would allow results from the sensors to be transmitted through cell phone or satellite technology. This aspect of the work is being conducted by another Lexington company, Knight Electronic Design, LLC.

“Right now we don’t have a way to monitor water continuously,” Atwood said. “With this technology, we can submerge sensors in water at different depths and basically have a map of the sensors telling you every two minutes the identity and quantity of the contaminants that are present and where.”

And the technology can go beyond monitoring water. “I could see nerve agent monitors at the Bluegrass Army Depot located outside of Richmond, Ky., in New York City, or even on vehicles in Iraq or Afghanistan. One class of compounds we’ve created can decontaminate nerve agents, turning them into non-hazardous solids that would be easy to handle and dispose of,” Atwood said. “One use of the continuous monitoring system would be to place sensors around large metropolitan areas on a grid. Not only would you be able to know when a contaminant has been released into the air, but you would be able to know which way it was moving and could plan evacuation procedures accordingly.”

As Atwood looks to the future, he wants to find more compounds that can neutralize toxins in the environment. “If there is a contaminant in water, I am confident my group can create something to take it out,” he said.

He would also like to venture into biological contaminants, such as E. coli, viruses and anthrax, and find ways to capture them before they infect people. With the growth of the nuclear industry, Atwood also sees growth in radionuclides and detecting and capturing radioactive elements in the water and air.

“I chose to focus my research on environmental chemistry because I can apply fundamental inorganic chemistry to problems that have direct human impact,” Atwood said. “I really enjoy seeing our basic research applied to environmental problems that are important to the average person.”

Did you know?

• Tap water is more closely monitored and regulated than bottled water.
• Coal-fired utilities used to produce electricity release 48-52 tons of mercury into the air in the U.S. every year by burning coal that contains mercury.
• Issued in 2005, the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) made the U.S. the first country world-wide to regulate mercury emissions from utilities.
• However, a federal appeals court on Feb. 8, 2008 invalidated the CAMR because it did not require sufficient mandatory reductions in mercury. You can expect more stringent rules providing greater protection from the element in the near future.
• Clean water is expected to become more precious than oil in the coming decades.
• UK is uniquely positioned to become a global leader in arsenic research with faculty studying this element in the Colleges of Agriculture, Arts & Sciences and Engineering, and in the School of Public Health.

Going With The Flow

by Allison L. Elliott

James Ward grew up in a part of Texas where water is more likely to come from the ground than the sky. In Balmorhea, a small town located at the junction of the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains in west Texas, Ward and his sister were raised as sixth-generation farmers and ranchers in the Trans Pecos region. Water is always scarce in that part of Texas, with an average rainfall of only nine inches per year. The Wards relied on springs to water their cattle and irrigate their crops of alfalfa hay. During James' childhood an 18-year drought hit the region and his family hard, so when he graduated from high school (in a class of 16), he followed his interests in water toward bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from Sul Ross State University in Alpine,Tx., and ultimately a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Kentucky. Today Ward is going with the flow and looking for entrepreneurial ways to assure groundwater quality for the people in his adopted Bluegrass home.

Alan Fryar, associate professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, worked with Ward on his doctoral research and dissertation. Fryar studies hydrogeology, the area of geology that deals with the movement of water beneath the earth's surface. Together he and Ward looked specifically at water quality in karst terrain. Karst refers to an area in which the soil is underlain by a matrix of soluble bedrock through which underground streams can flow. Large areas of Kentucky are composed of limestone karst, as is 40 percent of the United States east of the Mississippi River. As rain seeps into the earth it can dissolve the limestone, creating conduits and changing the flow of groundwater. As the stone dissolves, sinkholes form and contaminants can enter the water supply directly without first being filtered through layers of soil. Ward and Fryar found a site in nearby Versailles where just that appeared to be happening, and set out to find a way to track contaminants in groundwater.

Ward found a high level of coliform bacteria in a spring near downtown Versailles. The spring also happened to be very near the local sewage treatment plant, so he suspected a leak in the sewer pipes. But other sources had to be considered. There were nearby farm animals, wild animals and geese in a local park. Any of these could be sources of bacteria entering the open spring. Tracking bacteria in groundwater is not a simple matter. For starters, the water dives under layers of soil and rock, only to resurface hundreds of yards or even miles away. Underground streams can merge, and it's extremely challenging to track the travel of bacteria invisible to the naked eye. Faced with this problem, Ward came up with an innovative solution.

Ward first ran a few tests with salt and dyes (after receiving government approval and warning the locals not to be alarmed if their water turned fuchsia). The best time to track groundwater flow in karst is during and after a storm surge. So when thunderstorms rolled in, Ward threw on his waders and stepped into the stream to collect samples. After dyes he moved on to experimenting with latex microspheres, which are roughly the same size as coliform bacteria. Theoretically the spheres should move in the same way as the bacteria he wanted to track. But there was no way to be certain that they were. The only thing that moves like a bacterium is an identical bacterium. Nobody was really keen on the idea of injecting additional coliform – better known as E. coli – into the spring. They needed a way to track the bacteria already in the water.

Ward developed a method of removing bacteria from the spring and isotopically tagging them. The process, which involves growing the bacteria in the laboratory on a special medium, is unique and currently under intellectual property consideration. The tagged bacteria are injected into the groundwater at key points, along with salt, dye and latex microspheres to aid in tracking. When Ward pulls water samples (automatically and by hand) he can tell by looking for his tagged bacteria where the underground water sources flow, diverge and run into contaminants.

The water research was an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional effort. Professor Gail Brion in the UK colleges of Engineering and Public Health developed the AC/TC ratio technique that was used to determine age, source and load of fecal matter at the sites. Mark Coyne, Professor of Soil Microbiology in the UK Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, helped formulate the isotopic tagging technique. Professor Stephen Macko at the University of Virginia was so excited by Ward's breakthrough that he did sample analyses for free.

The impact of Ward's work reaches beyond central Kentucky. Cities like Nashville, Knoxville, Tampa, and San Antonio, as well as much of the Ozarks, share the karst geology of Kentucky. So do countries like South Africa, England, France, Morocco, China, Australia and Switzerland. Twenty-five percent of Earth's population drinks water from karst limestone systems.

"The sky's the limit – or maybe the ground's the limit," said Fryar.

"His [Ward's] contributions are really significant in the development of new techniques. This was as much a proof of concept as anything."

And as for Ward himself?

"He strikes you as a good ol' boy, but he should not be underestimated."

You also shouldn't underestimate how interesting Ward's back story is. While working on his master’s at Sul Ross State, he filled out a questionnaire on the UK EES department website, indicating his interest in hydrogeology. He also mentioned a few other facts about himself, such as his background ranching, his time spent working the Texas oil fields and and his experience in working with cattle and horses.

"He seemed like a really hands-on kind of guy," said Fryar, who corresponded with Ward about the program and became his adviser when he enrolled. He was right. On the ranch and during college, Ward had had his share of barn building and livestock wrangling. When the price of beef cattle dropped, he and his family hunted the wild hogs eating their alfalfa, and sold the hogs for meat. Ward also welded furniture and ornamental iron. In addition to farming, his father worked for the Texas A&M agriculture experiment station. This guy was obviously a hard worker.

In 2004, Ward graduated from his master’s program one day, spent the next 24 hours driving northeast, and arrived in Lexington on the third day. He and his sister Jennifer, who is now an engineer in Midland, Tx., had made the trip with his belongings piled in a gooseneck trailer. He didn't have an apartment, so he stayed a few days with a friend. Not really keen on being a city dweller, he quickly found work and housing on a farm in Bourbon County. Today he lives at and manages the Eagle Creek Horse Motel outside of Sadieville. Ward lives in an apartment on the top floor of a barn. People traveling with horses in trailers can stop for the night, hook up their RVs and board the horses in the barn.

Ward plans on sticking around Kentucky. He is engaged to fellow E&E graduate student Katy Adank. She is quite literally the girl next door – their offices in the Slone Building are adjoining. But she's also from a world away, as she grew up in a suburb near Chicago. The two plan to stay in the area, and Ward hopes to take his research in an entrepreneurial direction. He's already working on the launch of a water consulting company.

He should have plenty to do here. Officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the effect of runoff from Cane Run in Lexington on Royal Spring in nearby Georgetown. As the largest city in Kentucky using groundwater as its principal water supply, Georgetown is vulnerable to contaminants that may wash into the storm sewers of Lexington and into the underwater streams flowing toward Scott County. Work with tagged coliform bacteria is just the beginning, as bacteria serves as an indicator for the possible presence of other pathogens. Ward has also looked at man-made contaminants like pharmaceuticals and caffeine.

"The field of hydrology is made up of future problems to solve," Ward said.

Discussing his experiences at UK, Ward says, "The people of Kentucky are very friendly. When you're working with them, there are no egos involved typically. Their ability to come together as a team is what I'm in awe of. You don't see that many places."

Fryar encourages his students to write their own grant applications, which Ward did. He received funding from the state, the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR program, the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, the EES department and other organizations. The bulk of his funding actually came in through the UK College of Agriculture, another example of Ward's interdisciplinary work. Ward says this is an example of what makes UK a great place to do research.

On being progressive and interdisciplinary, he says "It's one thing to say it; it's another to do it. That’s when you do get those big grants and can become a Top 20 school."

If you see James Ward around Lexington, say hello. You'll recognize him, because he has the only UK Ph.D. pewter belt buckle known to be in existence. Fryar had it custom made to match the one from James’ undergraduate alma mater, where buckles are worn instead of class rings.

"James is authentic and old-school. He’s self-reliant, thoughtful and a real gentleman. We’re lucky he’s decided to stick around," Fryar said.

Easy Being Green

by Stephanie Lang

Taught to respect the environment by his parents, geography senior Taylor Shelton wanted to find an organization that would challenge him to step out of his comfort zone.

“If I had to pick a label for myself when I was a freshman in college, ‘progressive environmentalist’ would not have been the first one I would’ve thrown out,” Shelton said.

Concerned over issues regarding renewable energy and sustainability on UK’s campus, Shelton joined Greenthumb, Kentucky’s largest student environmental organization, when he was a sophomore. “Greenthumb was a group on campus that was being really proactive on issues such as renewable energy,” Shelton said. “I attended other meetings for other clubs but I found that this group was doing things I thought a campus organization should be doing.” 

The basic goals set forth in Greenthumb’s online mission statement are straightforward: celebrate our environment; educate those around us about environmental issues and methods to make our environment a better place to live; promote environmental awareness and sustainability on our campus and in our community; and make lifestyle choices that reflect our commitment to environmentally responsible actions. 

This broad mission statement makes it easy for students from all walks of life to join. “We want the organization to be as inclusive as possible and to have the voice it deserves regarding university issues,” Shelton said.  

The inclusive atmosphere appears to be paying off. According to Shelton, there are 15 to 20 people who regularly attend meetings, but they have had as many as 60 people present.  

Shelton noted that graduate students along with faculty and university staff are also involved with the club, although in a lesser role. “The diversity of the people who join the group bring to light a variety of issues, including logging in Robinson Forest and mountaintop removal in eastern Kentucky,” Shelton said. 

After attending meetings for one year, Shelton was impressed by the variety of activities and tough issues tackled by Greenthumb. “I decided to take on a leadership position and was chosen as co-coordinator by friends and colleagues,” he said. “Sometimes people lack the spirit to go against the grain but I think we all need to think about the issues and take an active role.” 

As a co-coordinator of Greenthumb, Shelton is extensively involved with planning a long list of activities and events the organization sponsors. During the fall semester, Greenthumb holds movie screenings and lectures on various environmental issues. Shelton proudly noted that Greenthumb also partners with larger environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. 

For Shelton and Greenthumb, April is one of the busiest months on campus. Greenthumb, along with Residence Life Recycling and the Environmental Studies Program, organized the annual Earthdays in the Bluegrass to promote sustainability‚ responsible global citizenship, and the power of local action.  

Earthdays is jam-packed with events such as gardening workshops, films, art and community service projects, and a bike trek through campus and Lexington. These informative and educational programs show students various ways they can reduce their carbon footprint and become more involved in their communities.

For students, faculty and staff looking for ways to become more environmentally conscious throughout the year, Shelton offered several ideas. “First of all, recycle – it’s one of the easiest things to do,” Shelton said. “If you live in a dorm room you are given a recycle bin, so that is all ready there for you. If you live off campus and would like a recycle bin, you can call the city and they will deliver one to your home. Once you get into the habit, it becomes second nature and is vitally important in the reduction of waste.” 

Shelton also pointed to the Wildcat Wheels Bicycle Library which loans bicycles to students, faculty and staff at UK. After a summer internship working on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan in the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, Shelton, along with other Greenthumb members, volunteered some of their time with this eco-friendly group. 

“Riding a bicycle to class, especially if you live off campus, is a big difference.” Shelton said. “Not only is it more environmentally friendly, but it is more practical because anyone who drives a car knows it is impossible to find a spot on campus, not to mention the high gas prices.” 

“I know it is harder for students on a budget, but eating locally grown foods from the co-op also makes an impact,” Shelton said. “This not only helps green the university by purchasing healthier food grown less than 50 miles away, but you are also creating a livelihood for someone in the local economy. I would take pride in being able to grow food and make sure someone else had a happy and healthy life.” 

As a UK senior, Shelton hopes that Greethumb continues to grow, educate and raise awareness on tough environmental issues.  

“Greenthumb is and should continue to be an activist organization and will hopefully be the guiding light on UK’s campus for doing things that are in accordance with sustainability theory. We should all be really willing to devote time and energy and put ourselves into making these things happen.”

From Livibility to Sustainability: Lexington and Vancouver

Although Vancouver, British Columbia, and Lexington, Ky., are more than 2,000 miles apart, students in Ernest Yanarella’s class are studying how they can become similar.

The class, From Livability to Sustainability: Lexington and Vancouver, examines the lessons of the Vancouver model for Lexington-Fayette County’s recent efforts to become a middle-sized world-class city.

“Vancouver is a West Coast magnet for economic development and international trade and, as a city, is taking steps to migrate from livability to sustainability,” Yanarella said. “Lexington, as a metropolitan area in central Kentucky, has teetered between being a small town and a big city.”

The seminar provided each student with an opportunity to focus on one particular policy area (transportation, rural farmland, downtown development, urban and regional planning, etc.) and seek to draw lessons from Vancouver’s success for Lexington’s ambitions to become a world-class city in its own category, Yanarella said.

The work Yanarella’s students compiled will be a springboard for a series of future funded workshops focusing on the seminar’s broad topic and objectives. These seminars  will bring notable people from Vancouver to Lexington to offer insight on how Vancouver is working to achieve its livability and sustainability goals.

“One learning outcome of this course was to sensitize students to what we can learn from cities and town fathers and mothers who take the potential of cities as the true home of human beings seriously,” Yanarella said. “The other major learning outcome was to foster recognition that while cities such as Vancouver, Seattle, Austin and Portland afford marvelous general lessons for working toward sustainability, cities like Lexington must make their own inventories of their distinctive environmental, cultural and social assets and forge their own unique solutions.”

Recommended Reading

1. Michael Harcourt (2007) City Making in Paradise: Nine Decisions that Saved Greater Vancouver’s Livability, Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre.
2. Lance Berelowitz (2005) Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination, Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre.
3. John Punter (2004) The Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design, Seattle: University of Washington Press.
4. Kent Portney (2003) Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities, Boston: The MIT Press.
5. Richard Florida (2008) Who’s Your City? How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life, New York: Basic Books.

Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945

Appalachia has played a complex and often contradictory role in the unfolding of American history. Created by urban journalists in the years following the Civil War, the idea of Appalachia provided a counterpoint to emerging definitions of progress. Early-twentieth-century critics of modernity saw the region as a remnant of frontier life, a reflection of simpler times that should be preserved and protected. However, supporters of development and of the growth of material production, consumption, and technology decried what they perceived as the isolation and backwardness of the place and sought to "uplift" the mountain people through education and industrialization.

Ronald D Eller has worked with local leaders, state policymakers, and national planners to translate the lessons of private industrial-development history into public policy affecting the region. In Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945, Eller examines the politics of development in Appalachia since World War II with an eye toward exploring the idea of progress as it has evolved in modern America. Appalachia's struggle to overcome poverty, to live in harmony with the land, and to respect the diversity of cultures and the value of community is also an American story. In the end, Eller concludes, "Appalachia was not different from the rest of America; it was in fact a mirror of what the nation was becoming."

Eller is former director of the Appalachian Center and professor of history at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930.

Eller is also a consultant for the new PBS Series Appalachia: A History of Mountians and People. Read more about the project, and listen to the NPR story on the project here.