ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS VISIT WATER INSTITUTE

Photo: Tim Ehlinger

By Casey Twanow

MILWAUKEE – Wandering through the UWM Great Lakes WATER Institute on March 9th, you might have stumbled onto an unusual scene: Romanian government officials huddled at a research poster, passing around 3-D glasses for a better look at a map of Lake Michigan.

Officials from Romania’s Ministry of Environment and Waters Management, Ministry of Economy and Commerce and National Administration of Romanian Waters, and faculty from Romania’s Ovidius University visited the WATER Institute as part of a water study management tour. The tour was funded by EcoLinks, a subset of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The trip introduced Romanian officials to research and technology that could improve their country’s water and wastewater management and flood control measures and restore polluted waters. It was also a chance to build international partnerships working toward sustainable development in Romania.

The delegation began their trip in New Orleans and traveled to Vicksburg, Mississippi, for presentations by the Army Corps of Engineers on disaster response and flood control (Romania dealt with three severe floods in 2005). Their next stops were Milwaukee and Madison. Tim Ehlinger, a UWM biology professor, traveled with the group and organized the Milwaukee portion of the trip. The Romanians visited UWM, the WATER Institute, and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District facilities. The trip ended in Washington, D.C. where delegates met with U.S. environmental agencies.

At the WATER Institute, scientists Harvey Bootsma, Tim Grundl and Rebecca Klaper presented research to the Romanian group.

Bootsma displayed a 3-D poster of Lake Michigan’s depth and bottom features. He also presented data from a monitoring buoy in Lake Michigan that records variables like temperature, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll concentrations at different depths. Bootsma is involved in a project that will establish a network of monitoring buoys on the lake. 

Photo: Tim Ehlinger

Grundl showed the delegation his newly designed “Grundlmatic,” which measures pollutants in lake and river sediment. He explained researchers will lower the Grundlmatic’s platform from a vessel – like the WATER Institute’s Neeskay – down to the bottom of a river or lake. Then they will trigger a probe that descends up to three meters into the sediment and measures contaminant levels with a laser.

Photo: Tim Ehlinger

Klaper discussed her studies of the genetic effects of pharmaceutical pollutants on freshwater organisms. Common drugs like pain relievers, anti-depressants and birth control hormones enter our waterways and water supply after the drugs pass through people’s systems or are disposed of in sinks or toilets. Klaper is searching for genetic tools to help scientists monitor this pollution. Ideally, high levels of a pharmaceutical would trigger a physical change in an indicator animal which could function as warning.

The many questions and comments, translated from Romanian to English and back again, highlighted the universality of environmental and water concerns. Ehlinger says that Romania is dealing with “pollution issues related to harbors, urban runoff and sewage,” similar to ours.

Invasive species threaten native ecosystems in both the Great Lakes and the Black Sea, which Romania borders (our most infamous invader is the zebra mussel; theirs, the comb jelly). In Romania, efforts to restore and manage sturgeon, an important local fishery in the Black Sea and Danube River delta, are underway. Here in Wisconsin the WATER Institute, Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Department of Natural Resources are working to protect and restore lake sturgeon.

Photo: Tim Ehlinger

During the WATER Institute tour, Ovidius University associate professor Lucica Tofan said she likes the idea of a research facility, like the WATER Institute, associated with a university. She thinks this model could help develop research and provide opportunities for students and professors in Romania. 

Ehlinger has established a partnership between UWM and Ovidius University that he describes as “a consortium for sustainable development and water management.” It will promote collaborative research and student exchanges; this summer Ehlinger will take an undergraduate group to Eastern Europe to explore the science, socioeconomics and policy issues of Romanian environmental concerns.

The Romanian tour not only provided a rare glimpse of dignitaries in 3-D glasses, it showed an important, and hopefully growing, awareness of the global nature of water issues and conservation. Sharing knowledge, technology and responsibility for global waters through partnerships like Ehlinger has established will help us meet the future challenges of caring for this precious resource.

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