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Update from Healthy Waters Initiative at the St. Anthony Falls Lab of University of Minnesota

It’s been a busy few months for the Healthy Waters Initiative team and we’re happy to report many positive steps forward:

First, last Wednesday we presented our Phase 3 proposal to the Legislative Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). The presentation went well with many questions from the members. This 3-year project is now under consideration for funding by this program, which would allow us to greatly expand the efforts of Phase 1 and Phase 2 work, and begin to make connections to environmental impacts. Keep your fingers crossed as we wait to find out if our project will be selected for the funds that would become available June 2023. Our LCCMR proposal presentation can be watched here (time 39:17).

Second, we have exceeded the halfway point of our crowdfunding campaign for Phase 2 propeller wash research. As of today, we’ve raised just over $100,000 from more than 72 donors. We need to continue raising funds to ensure that we’re able to execute our scope of work plan in its entirety. However, with the funds raised to date, we are moving forward with planning and preparing for our field deployment which is scheduled for the end of September. We are currently focused on planning test day logistics, identifying test sites, determining test conditions, purchasing water quality sensors, and selecting boats to test. It’s exciting to back at the table, preparing for field work!

Third, our undergrad student Bryce has made some amazing progress in developing our Citizen Science wave monitoring mast. The mast is deployed in Spearhead Lake thanks to our collaborators Peter Buesseler and colleagues at the Mississippi Headwaters Audubon Society (MHAS). Check out our recent update on the Citizen Science page.

You can learn more about this work and make your own contribution on the Healthy Waters Initiative website.

September 2022 Newsletter
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