Jeff Am-is – Undergraduate – Hydrologic Sciences
Water Contamination via Abandoned Wells in San Joaquin Valley, California

​A characteristic of water is that it is one of Earth’s natural solvent. This means that water is able to dissolve some minerals and other materials that it contacts. In addition, water is effective at transporting materials. In the case of groundwater, as it flows contaminants can migrate as well. Pumping tends to accelerate the velocity of groundwater as well as potentially change the direction of flow and this influences contaminant transport as well. As a result, it is generally preferable to prevent groundwater from being contaminated than try to remove contaminants from a groundwater system. In this poster, I examine how abandon wells in California’s San Joaquin Valley facilitate the migration of contaminants from the surface into groundwater and consider this within the context of the Central Valley as a whole. Patterns of contaminate migration are examined to better understand how these contaminants migrate and which well(s) will be affected.

Hannah Larson – Undergraduate – Hydrologic Sciences
Pollution Management in Malaysia Rivers 

​Malaysia is a coastal nation sharing the island of Borneo and is known for their beaches, islands, and water sources. However, with the population continuously rising rivers in Malaysia are increasingly polluted. Plastic pollutants can include plastic bags, bottles, and non-recyclable materials. Human activities can negatively affect urban rivers due to poor solid waste management, recreation and tourism, and logging. Agriculture includes pollutants from agricultural runoff, poor irrigation systems, and livestock farming. Agriculture runoff can add pesticides and insecticides to water sources which increases pollutants. In this presentation I will cover river pollution in Malaysia from plastics, agriculture, and some solutions for waste management products. Plastic pollutants can decrease if the public is educated on the issues it causes to their water resources. Solid waste management can start in local households and progress up from there to improve urban rivers. Stakeholders, such as farmers, the general public, and industrialists, need to make changes, and become more involved and aware of the pollution issues in rivers. Government involvement needs to start on a local level to educate and raise awareness to the general public and local residents, then progress to a state and federal level to plan, implement, and enforce policies and laws for larger stakeholders, such as industrialists. Malaysia needs better management on several different levels to reduce pollutants in urban rivers. 

Elenora McLaughlin – Undergraduate – Hydrologic Sciences
Nuclear Waste Remediation Efforts in the Snake River Plain Aquifer

​Nuclear waste and groundwater are two things that should never cross paths. Not only does an area of nuclear waste disposal risk contaminating soils, but because contaminates migrate in groundwater, a more spatially expansive set of concerns is created. This is what has happened in eastern Idaho, particularly in the Snake River Plain Aquifer. An area of 890 square miles near the small town of Idaho Falls currently known as the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), has been a disposal site for nuclear waste since the 1950s. Nuclear waste was created, not only from nuclear testing projects at the lab, but also sent from research centers, universities, and hospitals. It was dumped in an area where a narrow layer of sediments and a layer of fractured basalt are the only barriers keeping it from moving into the groundwater within the Snake River Plain Aquifer. A nuclear power plant has recently been proposed in this area, with the waste once again disposed at the INL. This imposes even more concerns for the 300,000 people in SE Idaho who depend on potable water from the aquifer. This poster addresses the history of nuclear waste contamination within the Snake River Plain Aquifer, as well as past and current remediation initiatives that address nuclear waste contamination. This will not only bring into focus nuclear contamination that harms the environment, but also the impacts to people who have been living on the surrounding lands.

Liam Schilling – Undergraduate – Environmental Science
Arsenic Removal Methods for Domestic Wells in Nevada and their Effectiveness 

​Arsenic is a common groundwater contaminant in the United States, affecting upwards of 2.1 million people each year. Long-term oral ingestion of arsenic can lead to skin thickening and a change in its pigmentation, with more serious side effects including digestive tract issues and an increased risk of lung, bladder, and skin cancer. The geogenic nature of arsenic groundwater contamination (leaching into groundwater through the surrounding rock) can make it hard to avoid, as regulations that would limit the amount of arsenic being released into the environment would do little to prevent the problem. This poster examines methods to remove arsenic from water for rural Nevadans who rely upon domestic wells for potable water and discusses their effectiveness. Methods covered include in-situ removal methods, where iron or magnesium is injected directly into the well, forming oxides that absorb the arsenic, and ex-situ methods, like anion exchange, coagulation filtration, and reverse osmosis. More work is recommended to identify and test effective methods for arsenic removal from groundwater.