Student Opportunities at Illinois Water 2014

One of the biggest reasons we started holding Illinois Water conferences on the University of Illinois campus is because it's easier for students to attend. In addition to all the talks and plenaries, we’ve created several opportunities uniquely for students. We hope you’ll take advantage of them in October.

Poster Session: The student poster session will take place on the evening of October 14. Students will have an opportunity to present their research to fellow conference attendees and compete for best poster awards. The deadline for poster abstracts is July 9, 2014. You can submit a poster abstract through this form.

Registration Scholarships: If you have submitted a poster or presentation, you are eligible to submit an application for a registration scholarship. While we try to keep the registration costs as low as possible, sometimes low isn’t low enough where you are a full time student. And if you’re not presenting, you’re still welcome to apply for a scholarship, although we try to accommodate presenting students first. If you only want to attend one session or wander through the posters, don’t worry, you don’t need to register at all. Do stop at the registration table and say “hi,” though. We love to know who attended the conference, and we could probably get you a free pen.  

Water Careers Panel: As you know by now, we here at IWRC love talking about water jobs, so of course we organize a career panel every Water Conference. This year we’ve even invited a Water Jobs alum to join our panel and tell you about the joys of water planning. Other guest speakers may include an aquatic ecologist at a nonprofit, a stormwater engineer, and a college professor. The panel will take place during lunch on Wednesday, October 15 and include lots of time for questions.      

Legislative Round-up of the General Assembly Spring Session

The Illinois General Assembly recessed at the end of May, so here’s a summary of water-related measures that progressed through Springfield this spring:

Updates on past bills: please see the March blog post for summaries of these measures

Water Pollution Control Loan

HB 4382

Passed in the House, referred to assignments in the Senate on April 7

Coal and Coke Regulation

HB 5939

Acquired several co-sponsors within the House of Representatives

Nuisance Organisms

HB 5869

Passed both houses on May 28

Fox Waterway

SB 2696—no changes

HR 0934—was placed on the House Calendar Order of Resolutions on 4.8.14

SB 2732—no changes

Recent Legislation

Hydraulic Fracturing:

SB 649

Synopsis:

• Amends the Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act, which was signed into law by Governor Quinn last year
• Some changes to the regulations governing the hydraulic fracturing process, including a two-year moratorium on fracking around Chicago
• Remove the responsibility of creating fracking rules from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and give it to a committee comprised of General Assembly members.
• For media coverage of this measure, see here

Status:

• Passed the Senate on 5.1.2014 and progressed to the House
• The House re-referred this measure to the Rules Committee on 5.30.2014

Boater Safety Courses:

SB 3433

Synopsis:

• Amends the Boat Registration and Safety Act
• Beginning January 1, 2016 no person born on or after January 1, 1991 can operate a motorboat with over 10 horse power without a Boating Safety Certificate

Status:

• Passed both houses on 30 May, 2014

Public Water Supply Operations:

SB 2770

Synopsis:

• Amends the Public Water Supply Operations Act
• Defines “Responsible Operator in Charge”
• Provides that every community water supply in Illinois shall have a responsible operator in charge to supervise the treatment and distribution facilities of the community water supply

Status:

• Passed both houses on 29 May, 2014

Water Loss Accounting:

SB 3047

Synopsis:

• Creates the Water Loss Accounting Awareness Act
• Provides that the IEPA, IDNR, and ISWS shall submit a report that reviews and evaluates the latest regional available information on water loss in Illinois to the General Assembly before July 31, 2015

Status:

• Introduced on February 7, 2014
• Currently referred to the Senate Assignments Committee

Illinois Water Related Scholarships, Fellowships, and Grants

The following is a list of possible future funding sources available to students from and in Illinois. If your organization is not listed here and you would like to be included, please contact us.

Illinois Only:

• The Illinois Water Environment Association awards two annual $1,000 scholarships to students preparing for careers in the water environment. Applications are accepted December 1, 2014 until January 31, 2015. Scholarships are awarded at the IWEA Annual Conference in March. Full information can be found on IWEA’s website.
• The Illinois Section of the American Water Works Association provides a variety of scholarships, including undergraduate, adult continuing education, and high school enrichment. While the 2015 scholarships are not open, yet, the application deadline is usually January 31. Complete information can be found here.
• The Illinois Groundwater Association provides small research grants on a biannual basis to both graduate and undergraduate students attending a college or university in Illinois. Research must address topics relevant to Illinois groundwater and grant recipients can present their research findings at IGA meetings.
• The Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts provides a $500 award to agriculture students enrolled in an Illinois state college. Applications are due in May and awarded for the fall semester.
• The Illinois Lakes Management Association offers an Undergraduate/Graduate scholarship of $1,000 for students enrolled in an Illinois college or Illinois residents attending college in Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, or Wisconsin and studying lake or watershed related topics. They also provide the Robert Esser Student Achievement Scholarship for $500, which is offered to Illinois residents attending Illinois colleges. Both applications are due December 31. Full information about both scholarships is available here.
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is offering a $500 scholarship opportunity for students enrolling in their one-year Water Quality Control Operations Program. This scholarship is offered through the Environmental Resources Training Center for any relative of a water or wastewater professional. The program begins August 19^th, so applications can be filed online here.

National or International:

• The Society of Wetland Scientists provides student research grants of up to $1,000 to both undergraduate and graduate members of the organization. Grant applications are not currently being accepted, but check back for updates. Application packages require a proposal, budget, curriculum vitae, and two letters of recommendation.
• The Ivanhoe Foundation provides small fellowships to Masters students from developing countries conducting water related research in the United States. Applications include a description of the projects and a nomination letter from the student’s professor.
• The American Water Works Association provides information about a myriad of (mostly) graduate level scholarships. Deadlines vary, but for those of you interested in drinking water or water supply, make sure you take a good look at their Scholarship page.
• The American Water Resources Association makes two $2,000 scholarships to one graduate and one undergraduate student members of AWRA. Applications are due in April. Awards are based on academic performance, research, and water-related extra-curricular activities.
• Funding of up to $7,000 per year can be potentially awarded to an undergraduate mechanical or chemical engineering student that demonstrates interest to seek a career in the water technology field. Through the International Water Conference, the Joseph A. Levendusky Memorial Scholarship is available to any student of sophomore or higher class standing in an accredited U.S. institution. The deadline is September 5, 2014 and applications can be found here.

Summer Conferencing

We wanted to take a moment today to mention several conferences taking place this summer that may be of special interest to our audience.

• The joint Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR), National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR), and Consortium for Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) Conference will take place this June 18-20 at Tufts University in Medford, MA. This is the first time these three organizations have held a joint conference, and it promises to be a dynamic event. This year’s theme is Water Systems, Science, and Society Under Global Change, and it will feature multiple plenary speakers discussing everything from the world’s water challenges to water reuse to agricultural water security. A preliminary conference program can be downloaded here, while complete registration information is listed here. While it’s too late to submit posters and abstracts, you can still attend and soak in all the offerings. Don’t forget to send us postcards!

• The CUAHSI Biennial Colloquium 2014: “Water across the Critical Zone: Scaling from Local to Global Hydrology” will take place July 28-30 at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV. The conference will focus on integrating hydrology, ecology, and geological information to address Critical Zone science, and includes plenaries, concurrent sessions, a poster session, workshops, and special events. The National Conservation Training Center is located in a stunningly beautiful portion of West Virginia and an easy drive to attractions like Harpers’ Ferry National Historical Park. Early registration discounts apply until June 6, and abstracts for posters are accepted until May 30. There are also student funding opportunities available.  

Annual Small Grant 2014 Recipients

This year we received twenty creative, innovative grant applications from researchers all over Illinois. In fact, the submissions were so good that we had an incredibly difficult time ranking them. We even went over our deadline for responding to applicants. Finally, after a great deal of anxiety and consultation with our review panel, the following proposals were award small grants. We look forward to sharing the findings of these projects on the blog and our website.

Hydro-meteorological responses to tropical system precipitation in Illinois

Dr. David Changnon and Alex Haberlie, M.S. student

Northern Illinois University

While Illinois precipitation is seldom controlled by tropical weather systems, these events do occur with regular, and potentially destructive, frequency. This study will examine tropical precipitation by focusing on drought, stream flow response, and latent effects on the following warm-season by supplementing climate database entries with stream flow gauge data, local rainfall, soil moisture conditions, and surface hydrology responses.

Anthropogenic litter and microplastic in urban streams: abundance, source, and fate

Dr. Timothy Hoellein and Amanda McCormick, M.S. student

Loyola University Chicago

Microplastics are an abundant and ubiquitous form of anthropogenic litter in waterways, yet no one has measured their presence in river ecosystems. Using six streams draining a variety of land use activities near Chicago, this study will examine the sources and sinks of microplastics in urban streams and the potential ecological impacts of these pollutants.

Year-round wetland microbial activity impacts on nitrogen cycling annual budgets: Is restoration impacting greenhouse gas emissions in wetlands?

Dr. Angela Kent and Natalie Stevenson, Ph.D. student

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Previous studies have indicated that denitrification in wetlands may be less efficient during the winter months and, in restored wetlands, may be incomplete, leading to releases of greenhouse gasses rather than nitrogen gas. Monitoring restored and natural wetlands through the year should help determine what occurs in the nitrogen cycle in restored wetlands and provide insight in planning wetland restoration projects.

Epikarstic groundwater ecosystems in Illinois: a sensitive but unstudied faunal element

Dr. Steven J. Taylor and Scott Cinel, M.S. student

Illinois Natural History Survey and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Illinois epikarstic habitats are found between a soil layer and limestone bedrock, and, while largely unstudied, they are an important component of protecting delicate ecosystems and endangered species. This project will expand water collection methods for epikarstic areas in Illinois, develop a baseline for further Illinois study, and “expand on the groundwater hydrology and subterranean ecology of Illinois’ karst areas.”

Finally, we would like to recognize Dr. Jerry Kavouras for submitting the sole undergraduate project application. We know running a research program at a predominately undergraduate institution is challenging, and we’re excited to partner with him to help his students get experience in water sciences. We hope there are many more undergraduate applicants in the next rounds of Annual Small Grants. 

Changing food webs in Lake Michigan: Dreissena and the microbial loop

Dr. Jerry Kavouras and Erin Cox, undergraduate student

Lewis University  

Zebra mussels have dramatically altered the Great Lakes ecosystems, and they may have altered microbial food chains. A series of laboratory assays will determine if these aquatic invasive species modify the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter that fuels bacterial secondary production and what possible impacts these changes could have on invaded freshwater systems.