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Updated December 6, 2019
Ohio Wesleyan University senior Brianna Graber was honored Dec. 4 with a 2019 Litter Prevention Award from the Keep Delaware County Beautiful coalition. Graber earned the award for spearheading a project to install a trash-collecting storm drain net in the Delaware Run, which flows through campus.
The net was installed in September, and Graber spent a month monitoring its impact before removing the net for the winter.
“There were some dilemmas that needed to be overcome,” she said, “like adjusting the research and sample-taking times. We also had to start accounting for the large amount of leaves that were collected.
“So far, the water-quality tests that I conducted have not shown significant results because of only being able to take samples from September to October,” Graber said. “Once the net is reinstalled (hopefully in May), the next student who takes on this project can work on taking an even closer look at new results.”
In addition to Graber, OWU professor Sean Kay was honored at the Keep Delaware County Beautiful Awards with the Garrison-Brown Award for his volunteer work at the Northern Olentangy Watershed Festival, the Olentangy River Cleanup, and the Scioto River Clean Sweep.
In addition, entrepreneur Steve Flaherty earned the Recycling Award for his work to develop technology that turns non-recyclable plastics into asphalt paving. His business, necoPlastics LLC, is headquartered at the Delaware Entrepreneurial Center at Ohio Wesleyan University.
The Keep Delaware County Beautiful coalition, led by the Delaware General Health District, provides recycling and litter prevention programs and environmental education activities to residents and businesses in Delaware County. For a complete list of 2019 award winners, visit the health district news and events page.
Read more about Graber’s project and its potential water-quality impact below. Congratulations!
Originally Published September 9, 2019
DELAWARE, Ohio – Ohio Wesleyan University senior Brianna Graber has spent the past year planning and conducting water-quality research on the Delaware Run, which flows through the university campus and into the Olentangy River.
Her work included collaborating with the City of Delaware to install a 4-foot-high, 18.5-foot-wide, concrete-weighted storm drain net directly into the waterway. Put in place by crane Sept. 9, the 13,000-pound trapezoidal net is now capturing trash and green debris (organic waste such as lawn clippings and leaves). The net is one of the first installed in Ohio and the nation.
Graber, a zoology major and Spanish minor from Noblesville, Indiana, said she chose the project for her OWU Geography 360 class, “environmental geography,” because she wanted “to do something big.”
“This project spoke to me because I have a passion for aquatic life and marine life along with conservation,” Graber said, “and I thought it would be a great way to rope my passions into sustainability and environmental science.”
“My research involves observing the chemistry of a waterway by chemical analyses and aquatic insect sampling in order to check the water quality of the Delaware Run as a whole,” Graber said, who previously tested the water for orthophosphate, ammonia, nitrate, dissolved oxygen, free and total chlorine, pH (acidity), and temperature upstream and downstream of where the net was installed.
Much of Graber’s work was conducted during a summer internship with Delaware’s Public Utilities Department, where she was mentored by Watershed and Sustainability Coordinator Caroline Cicerchi, and, concurrently, as part of Ohio Wesleyan’s 10-week Summer Science Research Program, where she was mentored by Shala Hankinson, associate professor of zoology.
“This project feels like it’s been a long time coming,” Cicerchi said. “From a planning perspective, we worked through several versions of the net structure, worked through some permitting requirements, and had to roll with design customizations that weren’t anticipated. Brianna has been an excellent coordinator for the project and has worked really hard to make this research a reality.”
Approximately every two weeks, Delaware’s Public Utilities Department will collect the net and then separate the recyclables, trash, and organic material to help learn more about the health of the Delaware Run. Graber will examine the contents and conduct additional water sampling well.
“There is little research on this topic,” Graber said, “so the long-term results of this study will provide a new baseline data set that could be widely applied.”
Though she is graduating in May, Graber anticipates the net will remain in place for up to five years, with future OWU students expected to help to monitor the waterway.
The cost of the concrete-net structure was approximately $18,300, with the project being funded by the city’s Public Utilities Department and by Ohio Wesleyan through an OWU Connection project grant written by and awarded to Graber.
The project also was supported by the Delaware County Soil and Water District, which surveyed the installation site at no cost to determine measurements for the net, and by financial and other contributions from DelCo Water Co., Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW), and the American Kayaking Association. The storm drain net was designed and built by Cleveland, Georgia-based StormX Storm Water Systems.
John Krygier, professor of the Geography 360 class where Graber’s project originated, said he is excited to see Ohio Wesleyan students make such a positive difference in the environmental health of the community.
“Projects like this are important, said Krygier, co-director of OWU’s Environment and Sustainability Program, “because they are innovative solutions to environmental problems and can only happen through collaboration between campus, community, the private sector, and non-profit organizations. It’s terrific that an undergraduate student can be at the center of such a significant effort.”
A sign is expected to be erected at the net site soon to explain the significance of the project, which also could improve the health of the larger Olentangy River.
Learn more about the effort to keep Delaware’s water clean at http://www.delawareohio.net/about-the-public-utilities-department/olentangy-river-watershed/, more about Ohio Wesleyan’s Summer Science Research Program at www.owu.edu/ssrp, and more about OWU’s Environment and Sustainability Program at www.owu.edu/environment . Read the “Sustainability & Environment @ OWU” blog at https://sustainability.owu.edu.
