LAFAYETTE TODAY
Monitoring
the Bushkill
Illustration By Kelly Murray '06
Faculty and students are monitoring the health of the Bushkill Creek and watershed through various efforts. Arthur Kney, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Dru Germanoski, Dr. Ervin R. Van Artsdalen ’35 Professor and head of geology and environmental geosciences, led recent projects.
Students assessed the Bushkill’s water quality in Intro to Environmental Engineering, taught alternately by Kney and David Brandes, assistant professor of
civil and environmental engineering,
who suggested using the Bushkill
as a common thread throughout
the class.
“Students are better able to
identify with class material because
of the hands-on approach,” Kney says. “The data we gather are used
by the Bushkill Stream Conservancy to help evaluate trends in water quality. We’re providing valuable research, free of charge, directly to the community.”
Germanoski’s hydrogeology students measured stream flow and determined that there was a significant loss of surface water through seepage into groundwater. The class also evaluated groundwater in the watershed’s slate and carbonate rock portions to learn how bedrock geology affects water chemistry.
“It makes students aware that no matter where they are on earth, they are always in a watershed that is part of successively larger watersheds,” Germanoski says. “Land-use practices have the potential to affect distant places through natural hydrological linkages.”
| 
