Colorado State University – Pueblo to commence water quality study 

Pueblo- The biology and chemistry departments at Colorado State University – Pueblo will receive $200,000 from the Lower Arkansas Valley Conservancy District as initial funding to conduct a comprehensive three-year study of water quality on Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River. The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District announced this week that it had chipped in $200,000 to launch a $1 million study. The money will help fund and attempt to convince other agencies to participate, said John Singletary, chairman of the Lower Ark board. “By initiating this study with the University, the Conservancy District has legitimized our place as a resource for this region and as a contributing player in the issues that impact this region’s future,” said President Joseph Garcia. “We are proud and excited to be given the opportunity to use our expertise in ways that benefit all of southern Colorado.” The Lower Ark will contribute $100,000 toward the purchase of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and another $100,000 to support water quality research for one year. The University will provide $50,000 in matching funds to purchase the ICP-MS instrument. According to Dr. Del Nimmo, adjunct research professor of biology, the ICP-MS will be used to provide chemical analysis of metals and other elements of interest using methodologies approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The additional $100,000 will be used to support experimental studies conducted by faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students during the first year of the research program. When fully funded the research project will include studies of the chemical constituents of interest in water and sediment samples; the identification and quantification of E. coli sources in water and sediment; the bioaccumulation of metals in plants, and toxicity in animal species, through assessment of the structure of macroinvertebrates - small creatures that form the foundation of the food chain for fish. The lead University faculty on the project will be Nimmo, Dr. Dave Lehmpuhl, associate professor of chemistry, Dr. Scott Herrmann, professor of biology, and Dr. Brian Vanden Heuvel, assistant professor of biology.


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