| Surface Water Quality Sediment Lab |
 |
| 858 Dow Environmental Sciences & Engineering |
| As the
final resting place for many of the pollutants which enter a lake,
bottom sediments can play a significant role in governing water quality.
The topmost few centimeters of a lake's sediment may contain more
organic matter, algal nutrients, and toxic chemicals than the all
of the water in the lake. In case after case in the Great Lakes and
smaller inland waters, it is the presence of pollutants in the bottom
sediments which retards the recovery and restoration of water quality.
Environmental engineers are interested in a variety of problems relating
to sediments, including heavy metal (e.g. mercury) cycling, nutrient
(e.g. phosphorus) release, and sulfur dynamics relating to acid rain
inputs. The sediments lab will house a sediment core extruder, sophisticated
radioisotope instruments for sediment dating, and a suite of analytical
instrumentation for determining the chemical content of sediments.
This lab is closely linked to the Environmental Chambers (810 and 817 Dow), a group of five controlled environment rooms and two stand-alone units where light, temperature, and humidity can be manipulated in conducting experiments on sediment behavior. The kinetics lab is conceived as the ultra-clean counterpart to the Surface Water Quality Field Prep (816 Dow) and Kinetics (858 Dow) Laboratories. |
Michigan
Technological University
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, Michigan, 49931 - 1295, USA
Department Phone: 1-906-487-2520
Department Fax: 1-906-487-2943
Department E-mail: cee@mtu.edu