UMass Magazine Online




	Jessica Bloom, a graduate student in geology, points out a groundwater spring beneath a tailings pile near the Davis Mine. Researchers suspect the greenish filamentous algae thrives on the sulfur nutrients and warm temperature of the highly acidic water. (photo by Ben Barnhart)

EVEN A NEW ENGLAND WINTER that stretches deep into the spring doesn’t last forever. Eventually the snow melted at the Davis Mine site and the turning of the seasons began to confront the research team with a variety of warm-weather challenges, including swarms of black flies, mosquitoes and ground-nesting hornets. But the fieldwork hardships have paid off handsomely so far. Although plenty of difficulties lie ahead – for example, the logistical problems involved in installing a measuring system to gauge the volume of water flowing through Davis Mine Brook – the team is taking pleasure in a wealth of early successes.

Installing the plastic wells was the major effort of the project’s first year, and regular site visits to collect water samples have proven that the devices are functioning just as intended. Yuretich’s geology lab and Nüsslein’s microbiology lab are filling up with informative soil and water specimens. Together with findings from the column studies in Ergas’ engineering lab, data from these site samples are adding up to a volume of information that will soon be complex and multi-faceted enough to supply the necessary material for Ahlfeld’s sophisticated mathematical models. And because the project has progressed so smoothly in its early stages, schoolteachers working under Feldman’s supervision have begun their participation in the research a year ahead of schedule.

Two high school science teachers worked during this past summer on experiments that confirmed the presence at Davis Mine of bacteria with the ability to neutralize acid pollution. The teachers then moved on to creating lesson plans based on their hands-on experience. Four more teachers will join the research team in the coming year, and still more in subsequent years. By the end of the five-year project, an educational ripple effect from the Davis Mine waters will have spread into high school, middle school and elementary school classrooms throughout the state.

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Clean-up At Davis Mine

Clean-up: more images

A wealth of early successes

A wealth: larger image