Contact: Maridith Geuder
Using automated rain gauges, ultrasonic probes and other instruments, Mississippi State University researchers are collecting information to help guide environmental planning for a state lignite mine and power plant.
Researchers in the geosciences and civil engineering departments are providing baseline data on water quality and on watershed and surface flow for the Choctaw County site of the Red Hills Generation Project.
Contracted by Phillips Coal Co., the Mississippi State research team is led by geologist Darrel Schmitz of geosciences. The data, which the team will collect through the year, will be used in the permit process and in monitoring the environmental impact of the facility.
Groundbreaking for the generation project and power plant is expected in 1998. The State of Mississippi, Phillips Coal and CRSS Capital are developing the lignite mine and power plant, with an anticipated 40-year supply of lignite.
Soft and brownish-black in color, lignite is a low-grade coal usually found 50-200 feet below ground.
The research effort is being coordinated through the Mississippi Water Resources Research Institute and involves the State Chemical Laboratory, both located at the university.
The collaboration allows thorough data collection in a number of phases, Schmitz said.
Civil engineering professors Dennis Truax and Vic Zitta are working to characterize watershed and surface flow. Both are recognized authorities in water resources and environmental engineering.
Zitta has developed a mathematical model for calculations at several sites, including a 27-square-mile primary watershed that feeds a number of creeks.
"We've selected sites that will provide representative data on drainage areas within the project site," Truax explained. To capture continuous information, they have installed solar-powered instruments that record real-time phenomena, he added.
In a second phase, the researchers are taking stream flow measurements and providing water quality sampling, covering a range of seasons and a range of water flow, Schmitz said.
To assist high-flow data collection related especially to rainfall, the team has called on the State Climatology Laboratory located in Mississippi State's geosciences department, for up-to-the minute information about area weather.
Water samples taken in this phase are shipped to an out-of-state laboratory for chemical analysis. Field tests establish such qualities as acidity and alkalinity, dissolved oxygen and temperature.
In a third phase, the research team is inventorying and sampling water wells, springs and ponds. "We're locating these sources with a global positioning system and analyzing samples from those wells still in use," Schmitz explained.
For springs, the researchers elect to take water samples based on the rate at which water flows. The State Chemical Laboratory is providing the chemical analyses.
"Phillips' goal is to protect the water supply," Truax said. "The information we provide will establish a baseline to help ensure that."