Former Montana State University student Ashley Williams meets with residents of Sanambele, Mali, to discuss water quality issues affecting the community.

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. 

In 2004, as a junior at Montana State University (MSU), Ashley Williams knew she wanted to use her geography degree to make a difference internationally. She had no idea that agriculture would ever play a role in making that dream come true.

But that’s what happened when Williams found herself in a small farming village of 1,000 people in Sanambele, Mali, after a chance encounter with MSU entomology professor Florence Dunkel. Read more »

By Tom Williams, Pennsylvania State Director, USDA Rural Development

I joined Congressman Mark Critz (PA-12^th), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other state and local officials this week to celebrate a long-awaited groundbreaking for Pegasus Sewer Authority in Johnstown.  Thanks to the teamwork of federal, state and local agencies, the maximum amount of government funding was utilized for the project, allowing hundreds of rural residents in Conemaugh and Richland Townships to benefit from the $21.3 million sewer extension project while keeping their monthly sewer bills affordable. This public sewer access will allow for residential and commercial growth in the rural communities. Read more »

Written by Darrell J. Mowery, Indiana Public Information Coordinator

The United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development is improving the lives of the residents of the Indiana Town of Ossian by providing a USDA Rural Development Water and Environmental Program low interest loan in the amount of $3,290,000.  The funds will be used to replace distribution mains to provide a reliable municipal source of water, provide adequate fire flows and pressure, and eliminate the health issues and water boil advisories that have been required the last three years.

Phil Lehmkuhler, USDA Rural Development Indiana State Director stated, “USDA Rural Development is providing millions of dollars to rural communities to support the efforts of rural cities and towns to improve their water and wastewater disposal systems.  Congratulations to the residents of Ossian for making this important commitment to protect the environment and well being of your community.”

The  Town of Ossian’s water system has old cast-iron mains which have broken 140 times over the past two years.  This has resulted in three boiling water advisories to the public over the same time frame.  The distribution mains need to be replaced in several areas with new 8-inch water mains to provide a reliable municipal source of water to customers to meet the maximum day and emergency fire flow demand conditions.  The average water loss, pumped versus billed water, averaged over 25 percent for the last three years.

Further information on rural programs is available at a local USDA Rural Development office or by visiting USDA’s web site at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov.

Community officials from Ossian, Indiana join USDA officials to mark the start of a project to repair and replace water mains.

By USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan

On Friday, I was pleased to be part of unveiling the latest step in the Obama Administration’s strategy for restoring the Chesapeake Bay with the announcement of three Showcase Watershed projects in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

The Showcase Watershed pilot projects will demonstrate what can be accomplished by bringing people, sound science and funding together to solve natural resource problems in a targeted area.

USDA and our partners are helping farmers within the Showcase Watersheds implement voluntary conservation practices to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff. This matters, because all of the water that enters waterways from local farms in the watersheds eventually ends up in the Bay. Successful approaches learned in Showcase areas can serve as models for restoring ecosystems elsewhere in the country.

A thriving and sustainable agricultural sector is essential to the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, so the announcement of the Showcase Watersheds was made from a working farm in each State. I was honored to attend the launch event in Pennsylvania at the Eby-Patterson farm in Hershey, where the owners raise beef cattle and are excellent stewards of their natural resources. 

We had the opportunity to examine the positive changes in the Conewago Creek that runs through their property.  With experts from our Natural Resources Conservation Service on hand we examined the aquatic life that is thriving in the creek and talked with the Patterson family about their efforts to contribute to a healthier watershed.All three watersheds—Smith Creek in Virginia, Upper Chester River in Maryland and Conewago Creek in Pennsylvania—include a wide diversity of agriculture, allowing for a number of different approaches to conservation. In every case, though, USDA is coordinating with numerous partners from local, state and federal government, non-profit organizations and private organizations to reach out to 100 percent of land owners.

We rely on our nation’s working lands for sustenance, economic health and cultural heritage, not to mention beautiful and satisfying landscapes like the one I was privileged to visit on Friday.  

The focused work we do in the Showcase Watersheds—added to the extensive conservation efforts already in place to restore the Bay—will strengthen both the region and U.S. agriculture overall, enhancing both productivity and sustainability. We are proud to be partners in this critical effort. 

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan looks over the creek at the farm of Mrs. Eby-Patterson and husband, Daniel. They are using new sustainable conservation techniques to keep their creek clean and to help improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay on their farm in Hershey, PA, on Friday, June 18, 2010.

By Jamie Welch, Worcester Prep, Berlin, MarylandThe upgrades currently taking place at the Berlin Wastewater Treatment Plant are comprehensive, and will allow the plant to fully process all the wastewater that goes through the system down to near drinking water quality.  The technology that the Town of Berlin, MD is installing was made possible thanks to a grant and some low interest Water and Environmental Program loans from the USDA.  These upgrades will help to remove the pathogens, nutrients and other pollutants from the influent.

Technology that is being installed as part of these upgrades is called a SBR or sequencing batch reactor.  I recently spoke with Jane Kreiter, Director of Water and Wastewater for the Town of Berlin, about this new technology and got a look at the lab where the Berlin wastewater officials monitor every stage of the treatment for specific criteria.

The new SBRs being installed at Berlin’s wastewater plant will all work in essentially the same way:  there will be three different SBR tanks installed as part of the ongoing upgrades, and Kreiter says that these will contain different amounts and kinds of bacteria to break down certain types of “bad” nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous.  Giant blowers at the bottom of each tank blow varying amounts of oxygen into the tanks, causing the oxygen to slowly bubble to the top.  The oxygen is needed to maintain the biomass inside the tank so that they can be healthy and break down and remove the various constituents in the waste stream.  When the bacteria are young in the biomass, they consume and break down a lot of the nitrogen and phosphorous, but as they begin to get older, they become full and less efficient at breaking down nutrients.  When this happens, they die and fall to the bottom of the SBR.  The dead bacteria are then removed from the bottom of the tank by way of a pump assembly and sent to a digester.  The amount of bacteria and oxygen in the SBR must be constantly monitored to ensure that the right amount of contaminants will be removed at each stage of the treatment process inside the SBR.

After the influent has gone through the entire treatment process it is ready to be sent to the spray irrigation site in Libertytown, Maryland.  Samples of the treated effluent are collected as they are leaving the plant and are taken to the lab.  Kreiter was embarrassed to take me inside the cramped, temporary lab that is located inside the mobile trailer they are currently using while the regular lab is being renovated.  She assured me that this was not what the lab normally looks like and asked to “make sure to come back when we get our new lab,” which will be opening when the rest of the upgrades are completed on site.  In the lab they test for pathogens, nutrients, total suspended solids, PH levels, and biological oxygen demand.

The upgrades to the Berlin wastewater plant, when completed, will break down nutrients and contaminants in the influent to create near drinking water quality effluent. “It’s a better quality than [the water] a lot people get out of their wells,” Jane Kreiter adds.  For a 24-hour time-lapse video of part of the Berlin Wastewater Plant SBR installation, you can visit the following links: http://cosnet.co.cc/berlinwwp1 for Part 1 and http://cosnet.co.cc/berlinwwp2 for Part 2.

Jane Kreiter, Town of Berlin, Maryland, Wastewater Treatment Plant Director, discusses the biology of the treatment operation with Jamie Welch, student blogger, Worcester Prep.

USDA Rural Development Nebraska State Director Maxine Moul, staff and the residents of  Stromsburg celebrated the 40th anniversary of Earth Day recently with the announcement of more than $2.2 million in planned improvements to the City’s municipal water system.  The improvements will bring the system, serving more than 500 users, into compliance with new Safe Drinking Water Act regulations.  Special recognition was given to those who were instrumental to the project as they each signed a segment of water pipe. Read more »