Grants: Water Resources

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Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring, Support & Training

The purpose of this project was to educate, train, and assist community and school watershed groups to conduct water quality testing in the watershed. The project spun off of two ongoing projects on Midland’s Sturgeon Creek and an effort being facilitated by Saginaw Public Schools. As part of this project, a watershed database and website was developed for housing existing data, and for making the data available to the general public. Steps were taken to standardize the procedures used by watershed groups to ensure quality and consistency in the results. The project was designed to be a model that SVSU can use throughout the Saginaw Basin.

Tittabawassee Watershed Management Plan Water Quality Analysis Phase 2 & Shoreline Reconnaissance

The Northern Tittabawassee River Task Force is proposing to complete a second year of water quality testing at critical sites in the along the Tittabawassee River in Gladwin County. Along with water sampling and in cooperation with the Gladwin County Health Department, the NTRTF will conduct a shoreline reconnaissance project that will look for â€œpoint sourceâ€ discharges of sewage into the river. Finally a land use and development study will be completed in these areas that will provide information on historical land use, current land use, and proposed development. This report will serve as the basis for the reconnaissance effort. It is anticipated hat the health department will use this information in the promulgation of a sewage/septic inspection ordinance that will be implemented as property transfers take place within the watershed.

Water Tunnel

The Midland Conservation District built a “water tunnel” similar to the WIN-funded Earth Tunnel that was built in 1999. The Water Tunnel is a traveling display that will provide an inside and outside view of water quality, its sources and causes of impairments. The design of the tunnel demonstrates the sources and causes of pollutants created by improper land use practices. It also discusses how impairments can be improved. The Water Tunnel gives visitors a view of good and bad stream management techniques and the impact that both have on life forms in the streams and on the surrounding land.

Restoring Flows and Enhancing Fish Passage over Low-head Barrier Dams in the Saginaw River Wateshed

Based on research presented in the WIN Water Resources Fisheries Scoping Study. This document detailed a critical issue facing the natural reproduction of the Saginaw Bay Fishery as lack of access to appropriate spawning areas caused by dams. This project developed a strategy for resource managers and communities that will assess the most cost-effective options for fish removal and/or fish passage to achieve the targeted, sustainable fish population goals for Saginaw Bay. This strategy includes a classification of dams in the Saginaw River Watershed based on current use, ownership, expected life span, potential safety issues, sea lamprey barrier issues, and other factors such as potential for increasing spawning habitat in a tributary, as well as costs and funding options.

Tesla Turbine for recovery of Electrical energy from Waste Heat

This project builds on ongoing research in two previously funded WIN projects: Freshwater Prawn Propagation and the Biomass Fuel Pellets Derived from Agricultural Waste. In this program, SVSU researchers determined the feasibility of using a Tesla bladeless turbine to extract and create electrical energy from the waste heat generated by the biomass furnace located at Saginaw’s Good Neighbors Mission. The furnace at the Mission was chosen because it already has the necessary telemetry to analyze the functionality of the turbine from an off site location. It is surmised that this same system can be used to derive electrical energy from nearly any operation that produces waste heat such as power plants or industries that generate heated wastewater.