Search :

The River Doctor Is In
A UGA scientist has spent a career helping to restore the health of U.S. waterways-rural and urban alike.

by Kathleen Cason

EMAIL THIS     PRINTABLE VERSION

Intro  |  The Urbanization of Judy  |  Elements of Restoration   |  Guiding Policymakers

"Lawn fertilization and wastewater runoff, for example, add excess nutrients to local streams, and that can then have effects as far-reaching as algal blooms in West Point Lake, Ga., and the 'dead zone' of the Gulf of Mexico," said Meyer, a Distinguished Research Professor of Ecology.

Intro

As a child growing up in the 1950s, Judy Meyer enjoyed collecting tadpoles, trapping crayfish and building little rock dams in the river near her home in Wauwatosa, Wis. In those days, it was safe to splash around in the stream that ran through the Milwaukee suburb.

“I could play in the Menomonee River,” said Meyer, who is now a stream ecologist at the University of G “In fact, I know two other river conservationists who also played there as kids.”

But today, the Menomonee joins a growing number of American rivers that are impaired or polluted, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Nationwide, that’s one out of three rivers. I

eorgia.n Georgia alone, some 600 streams fail to meet Clean Water Act standards.

“Lawn fertilization and wastewater runoff, for example, add excess nutrients to local streams, and that can then have effects as far-reaching as algal blooms in West Point Lake, Ga., and the ‘dead zone’ of the Gulf of Mexico,” said Meyer, a Distinguished Research Professor of Ecology. “As long as a stream is healthy, it is self-cleansing. The community of plants and animals in and adjacent to a stream can absorb and process nutrients and pollutants. But if too much is added, the system breaks down.”

After the Clean Water Act passed more than three decades ago, billions were spent on sewage treatment plants, loss of wetlands slowed, and the most severely polluted waterways began to recover. Even so, more than 40 percent of the nation’s freshwater rivers and lakes are unsafe for fishing or swimming today. And rapid urbanization and suburban sprawl pose new challenges to river health.

So, from big rivers like the Mississippi to small streams like Tanyard Branch running below UGA’s Sanford Stadium, public and private groups are working to restore the health of U.S. waterways.

Meyer has spent nearly 30 years at UGA investigating how river systems work and how to keep them healthy. Her research has focused on nutrient pollution in rivers, on the ecological processes that contribute to water quality, and on the effects of manmade disturbances to river ecosystems.

Her research has earned her many honors. She was elected president of the Ecological Society of America. She is a 2002 National Clean Water Act Hero, recipient of the 2003 Award of Excellence from the North American Benthological Society (“benthological” refers to aquatic life on lake and river bottoms), and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

NEXT

Intro  |  The Urbanization of Judy  |  Elements of Restoration   |  Guiding Policymakers

EMAIL THIS     PRINTABLE VERSION


CONTENTS| BROWSE | ARCHIVE | SUBSCRIBE
UGA | OVPR | NEWS | CONTACT
Research Communications, Office of the VP for Research, UGA
For comments or for information please e-mail: rcomm@uga.edu
To contact the webmaster please email: ovprweb@uga.edu