Water Partners

Baylor University and the City of Waco opened the new Baylor Experimental Aquatic Research facility at the Lake Waco Wetlands in September. The aquatic research center will provide researchers a place to test water quality experiments that could benefit the City of Waco and address the taste and odor problems of Waco's drinking water. 
"One important conviction underlying Baylor 2012, our 10-year Vision, is that we should encourage the understanding and care of the natural world as a matter of Christian stewardship," said John Lilley, Baylor president. "We hope that the work conducted here will allow our researchers to contribute to international efforts to provide clean water for everyone." 
The only one of its kind at an academic institution in the United States, the BEAR facility is outfitted with 12 miniature "real life" streams, which can be manipulated to look and act like streams found across central Texas and in other regions. Drawing treated water from the nearby wetlands, the model streams have "riffle, run and pool" sections that exceed 60 feet in length. 
Dr. Ryan King, lead principal researcher at BEAR and an assistant professor of biology, and Dr. Bryan Brooks, an assistant professor of environmental studies, will be able to put different levels of nutrients in each stream and study how each nutrient level might affect water quality and wildlife. State and local water managers will be able to use the data as the scientific basis for improved water quality management strategies. 
"This experimental facility will allow us to ask and answer some questions that can't be fully understood in the field or in the lab," Brooks said. "When we couple what the research tells us here with observations in the field, we will be able to link cause and effect." 
Funded by a grant from the Altria Foundation with significant matching support from Baylor and Waco, the BEAR facility also will allow researchers to study possible contaminants in the drinking water supply. Researchers will be able to study how long a certain contaminant stays in the stream, how it breaks down and the impact on wildlife and water quality. To date, there is limited research into the environmental fate and effects of many emerging aquatic contaminants. 
"We will be able to identify critical concentrations of a certain contaminant," King said. "We will be able know that if we have 'X' amount of a certain contaminant, what the impact would be on the stream, wildlife, and how we could prevent it from getting into the water supply in the first place." 
Part of Baylor's Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research, the new research center is a joint project with the City of Waco. The facility sits on city-managed land and was constructed by Baylor students, faculty and city workers, using city-donated and Baylor-purchased supplies. Waco city water managers also are planning to use the research as the scientific basis for local water management strategies. 
In addition to model streams, the research facility is outfitted with 24 model wetlands, which were developed by Dr. Robert Doyle, director of CRASR and chair of the biology department at Baylor. The wetlands will allow Doyle and other researchers to conduct similar nutrient tests.