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2000 Progress Report: Integrating Models of Citizens Perceptions, Metal Contaminants, and Wetlands Restoration in an Urbanizing Watershed
EPA Grant Number: R827288Title: Integrating Models of Citizens Perceptions, Metal Contaminants, and Wetlands Restoration in an Urbanizing Watershed
Investigators: Tucker, Robert K. , Hawkins, George S. , Jaffe, Peter R. , Johnson, Branden B. , PFlugh, Kerry K.
Current Investigators: Tucker, Robert K. , Altomari, Chris , Choi, Jung H. , Hajdusek, Julie , Hawkins, George S. , Jaffe, Peter R. , Johnson, Branden B. , MacKay, Noelle , PFlugh, Kerry K. , Rowan, Andrew , Sankalia, Pria , Yergeau, Steve
Institution: Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association , Princeton University , Rutgers University - New Brunswick
EPA Project Officer: Levinson, Barbara
Project Period: March 15, 1999 through March 14, 2002
Project Period Covered by this Report: March 15, 2000 through March 14, 2001
Project Amount: $749,954
RFA: Water and Watersheds (1998)
Research Category: Water and Watersheds
Description:
Objective:The overall goal of this project is to use the scientific information from the research to increase public understanding and support for the vital role wetlands play in the integrity of watersheds. Our approach involves scientific investigations of metals interactions in wetlands, education, and social science assessment of our outreach efforts. One focus of our research is on nonpoint source pollution, particularly toxic metal impacts on wetland function and water quality. The social science component of the project aims to identify wetlands beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions of residents of selected areas in the Stony Brook?Millstone watershed; and provide data to the Stony Brook?Millstone Watershed Association (SBMWA) staff so that they can design wetlands modules for use in the Association's education and outreach efforts. The social scientists also will evaluate the impact of the SBMWA's education and outreach efforts. Progress Summary:
We believe the results of this project already are making a substantial difference in environmental decision making at the local and state levels. Sprawl development is rampant in our area of central New Jersey, despite the enactment of the State Planning Act?which promotes redevelopment of urban centers?and the passage of a billion dollar bond program to preserve farmland and open space. The Stony Brook?Millstone Watershed is directly in the path of this suburbanizing sprawl, both from the greater New York metropolitan area to the north and the encroaching Philadelphia complex from the south. The SBMWA has been in the forefront of efforts to preserve critically important habitat, including wetlands, and to curb sprawl. Information from our research has played a key role for local citizens in opposing such environmentally harmful projects as a sewer extension into a largely undeveloped and environmentally sensitive area of the Hopewell valley. One of our wetlands sites, near the confluence of the Stony Brook and the Millstone River in Princeton, is threatened by a proposed road; information from our research and active participation by some of our volunteers in educating citizens in the area have been instrumental in persuading former Governor Whitman, now EPA's Administrator, to require a more thorough evaluation of possible alternatives to their proposed route through wetlands along the Millstone River. We drafted a model stream protection ordinance for area municipalities, and developed environmentally protective "River Friendly" strategies for residents, golf courses, and other businesses. Venues for dissemination of information include the Natural Lands Network (NLN), which the Association helped organize, and the Watershed Institute, which provides support and assistance to growing watershed associations. On January 29-30, 2001, we sponsored a seminar, entitled "Preserving This Place Called Home," that was held for local municipal officials at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. The seminar, which was attended by over 300 people, included information on wetlands protection.
Nonpoint contamination is closely related to the degree of development and intensity of human activity within the watershed. We have documented this in a comprehensive assessment and characterization of one of our sub-watersheds, the Beden Brook. We include data on water quality, threatened and endangered species, invasive species, contaminated sites, land use and management, and area geology and demographics. Research by Princeton University is giving us detailed information on metals behavior in the oxygen-depleted soils of wetlands, particularly as affected by the roots of plants. The research aims to obtain a mechanistically based understanding of the dynamics of trace metals in wetland sediments. The long-term goal is to assess how changes in either water quality or vegetation affect the sequestration or release of trace metals in wetland sediments. Mobility of trace metals in wetland sediment is controlled by the vertical redox profile that develops in these sediments. This profile is determined by the transport of different electron acceptors into the sediments via diffusion and advection, and, for oxygen also, the transport through the roots of wetland plants. Reactions affecting the electron acceptors include their utilization by bacteria during the degradation of organic matter. We are developing a numerical model and conducting laboratory and field measurements to relate the many processes that affect the redox profile in wetland sediments to the fate of contaminant metals in these sediments. A reactive transport model consists of a set of coupled, steady-state mass-balance equations, accounting for advection, diffusion, bioturbation, and reaction of an organic substrate, electron acceptors, corresponding reduced species, and contaminant metals of interest. The model accounts for release of oxygen and uptake of nitrogen by plant roots, as well as flow induced by evapotranspiration.
Our social science team sent a survey to 1,000 randomly selected residents of the watershed to obtain baseline data on citizens' knowledge and perceptions of the function and value of wetlands. A return rate of 48 percent was achieved for this survey. Results from the survey will assist the SBMWA in designing a comprehensive education program on wetlands for the general public. In addition to the general population survey, a random sample of perhaps 400 municipal officials from the watershed will be surveyed, including planning board, zoning board, and environmental commission members.
Future Activities:The next steps for the project include field measurements of metals and intensive characterization of another of our sub-watersheds, Rocky Brook, in the headwaters area of the Millstone River. We will conduct additional education efforts and surveys of the effectiveness of our educational outreach. Results from the first mailed survey now are being analyzed, and we are awaiting the return of a survey mailed to municipal officials. Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 38 publications for this project
Supplemental Keywords:sediments, river, stream, lake, riparian wetlands, groundwater, soil, chemical transport, ecological effects, stressor, heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorus, decision making, community-based, environmental chemistry, biology, northeast, Atlantic coast, New Jersey, NJ, EPA Region 2. , Water, Scientific Discipline, RFA, ECOSYSTEMS, Water & Watershed, Social Science, Ecology, Ecological Risk Assessment, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Wet Weather Flows, Watersheds, Environmental Chemistry, runoff, water quality, stakeholders, human activities, fate and transport, public policy, active control, wetlands, surface water, land management, man-made wetlands, outreach and education, municipal policy, wetland restoration, citizen perceptions, GIS, transport containment, urban development, wetlands restoration, metals, non-point sources, ecosystem evaluation, urbanizing watersheds
Relevant Websites:
http://www.thewatershed.org 
http://www.beesinc.org
Progress and Final Reports:
1999 Progress Report
Original Abstract
2001 Progress Report
Final Report