STEPHENVILLE — Three Tarleton State University researchers, working under the auspices of the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research (TIAER), have received grants totaling nearly $375,000 from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Jimmy Millican, working with more than $122,000, collects fish, bugs, water quality samples, habitat assessments and other information from Nichols Creek, located within the Sabine River watershed in Southeast Texas. The project will provide information for TCEQ to determine the classification of Nichols Creek to assign appropriate Aquatic Life Use and dissolved oxygen criteria.
A TCEQ grant of nearly $112,000 is helping fund Dr. Michael Machen’s Surface Water Quality Monitoring (SWQM) project, which evaluates physical, chemical and biological characteristics of aquatic systems as a basis for effective policy.
SWQM, thought to be the only collaboration between TIAER and Tarleton State faculty, graduate students and undergrads, coordinates the collection, analysis and interpretation of physical, chemical and biological samples from more than 1,800 surface water sites in Texas.
The co-principal investigators are Dr. Kartik Venkataraman, Professor in Tarleton’s Department of Mechanical, Environmental and Civil Engineering, and Dr. Victoria Chraibi, a biological sciences Associate Professor and Assistant Director of Tarleton’s Timberlake Biological Field Station. The program continues through 2025.
Dr. Leah Taylor is conducting a recreational use attainability analysis on Ash Creek, Dosier Creek and Derrett Creek in the Trinity River Basin funded by more than $140,000. Elevated levels of E. coli have been found in all three creeks, and this may increase the illness risk from recreational activities in the water.
The project seeks to ensure that streams have the correct use classification in order to set bacteria criteria. Some Texas streams are classified for recreational use but are dry most of the year or are not used for recreation. In response to these and similar concerns, TIAER is helping TCEQ ensure the streams are being managed for the public good.TIAER operates an accredited environmental laboratory, and the data collected in the North Bosque River watershed continues to provide a long-term database for water quality model development and testing throughout the nation. TIAER’s efforts have expanded to at least 35 states, into Canada and around the globe to Chile, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ethiopia and Italy.
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