Grantee Research Project Results
1999 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. , PFlugh, Kerry K. , Jaffe, Peter R. , Hawkins, George S.
Current Investigators: Tucker, Robert K. , Johnson, Branden B. , Choi, Jung H. , PFlugh, Kerry K. , Jaffe, Peter R. , Hawkins, George S. , Rowan, Andrew , Altomari, Chris , Hajdusek, Julie , MacKay, Noelle , Sankalia, Pria , Yergeau, Steve
Institution: Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association , Princeton University , Rutgers University - New Brunswick
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: March 15, 1999 through March 14, 2002
Project Period Covered by this Report: March 15, 1999 through March 14, 2000
Project Amount: $749,954
RFA: Water and Watersheds (1998) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water , Watersheds
Objective:
Watershed maintenance and restoration are critically dependent on public understanding and support for the vital role wetlands play in water quality and ecological integrity of watersheds. Wetlands play a vital part in sequestering toxic metals, thus inhibiting nonpoint runoff to surface waters. With an integrated systems perspective, we are studying the environmental quality perceptions of citizens with competing land-use interests, interactions of municipal policy, volunteer watershed restoration efforts, wetland plant community composition, and trace metal behavior. We intend to use an ecological model of metal behavior influenced by redox conditions in wetlands soils in education efforts about the function and value of wetlands. We will investigate how citizen perceptions may change with the benefit of information from the scientific research.Progress Summary:
We have been working with partners, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the New Jersey Water Supply Authority, and others in the characterization of the Raritan Basin, of which the Stony Brook-Millstone is one of four designated watershed areas. Characterization of the Bedens Brook, one of our selected sub-watersheds, to identify wetlands and investigate vulnerability to contaminants and to encroaching changes in land use is well underway, including identifying potential pollutants and their point and nonpoint sources. Much of the effort of the Watershed Association relies heavily on volunteers who participate regularly in characterization and measurement activities and in streambank restorations and reforestations. This fall we expect to start similar work on the other selected sub-watershed, the Millstone head-waters. We have been making substantial use of geographical information systems (GIS) for plotting and analyzing environmental and demographic information.The Watershed Association has been in the forefront of efforts to preserve critically important habitat including wetlands and to curb sprawl. The Association was instrumental in organizing successful opposition to a sewer extension proposed for a 3.5 million ft2 office complex on 450 acres of vacant farmland at the southern end of the Hopewell Valley. It had been suggested that the complex might better be built in "brownfields" areas of nearby Trenton, where it could help revitalize New Jersey's capital city. The Watershed Association also has been working in partnership with citizens in the area to investigate the environmental impacts and to determine if alternatives exist for a proposed road realignment close to wetlands along the Millstone River and the Delaware-Raritan Canal and its associated linear State Park.
Princeton has made significant progress on developing the model to simulate trace metal dynamics in wetland sediments. This model will be used to analyze our experimental results and to generalize the dynamics of trace metals in wetland sediments. We believe that the model is now at a stage where we need to compare it against the data that will be collected over the next 2 years before we make any modifications to it. We have constructed the gold amalgam microelectrodes and calibrated the electrochemical analyzer that will be used to measure the concentration profiles of electron acceptors and trace metals in pore water. A wetland was identified for our long-term monitoring, where we have obtained some initial concentration profiles, demonstrating that the key redox species as well as some trace metals of interest exist at concentrations that we can measure in situ.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) social scientists have searched the literature for relevant data (previous studies on wetlands beliefs; wetlands science texts; and New Jersey wetlands law?local land-use law and guidance to local planning boards) to provide background. They then interviewed 10 selected experts on wetlands, from federal and state government, academic, consulting, and nonprofit sectors, to provide background for planning subsequent interviews. All experts thought preservation of existing wetlands was by far the best management approach, although they differed on how fiercely to prevent wetlands development. Experts did not use arguments from ecology to support wetlands preservation, but rather emphasized benefits to humans (e.g., water quality, flood control, wildlife habitat, open space, and recreation). There were few consistent differences across employer type in expert beliefs or policy preferences.
Future Activities:
A major component of our planned education efforts, in implementing this grant, is outreach to municipal officials. The Watershed Association is working with Township and Borough Council members, planning and zoning board members, and environmental commission members to influence wetlands protection and restoration through decisions promoting environmentally sound development. The Watershed Association also has taken the lead in regional efforts through regular meetings with the Natural Lands Network, which played a substantial role in the campaign to pass the statewide open space and farmland preservation bond issue, and is now a forum for our wetlands education efforts. We have begun developing additional "River-Friendly" programs to involve citizens, businesses, and farmers in reducing nonpoint source pollution. Princeton scientists soon will begin extensive field work to collect data to validate their models and to develop the information for our education efforts. The NJDEP social scientists will survey via mail municipal officials (elected, planning board and zoning board members) and the general public in both Stony Brook-Millstone communities targeted by the Association for education and outreach, and "control" communities not so targeted. (Other audiences [e.g., farmers, environmental commission members] will be included in the survey to the extent that these subpopulations can be identified easily and such surveys fit within the budget.) The aim of the surveys is to provide a quantitative estimate of beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions, and to provide a baseline for evaluating Association education and outreach. Researchers also will conduct a Q analysis of the perspectives on wetlands of a subset of those interviewed, to further inform Association education and outreach. Then, the same populations will be surveyed a second time, preferably at least a year if not two after the first survey, to estimate the impact of the Association education and outreach (including awareness of the Association's efforts) on beliefs and attitudes.Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 34 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
Nonpoint metal contamination, redox conditions in wetland soils, wetlands protection, citizen involvement in watershed protection, land use decisions, linking ecological models., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Water, ECOSYSTEMS, Water & Watershed, Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Wet Weather Flows, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Ecological Risk Assessment, Watersheds, Social Science, fate and transport, transport containment, municipal policy, wetlands, human activities, ecosystem evaluation, man-made wetlands, runoff, wetlands restoration, community based, surface water, citizen perceptions, urban development, wetland restoration, urbanizing watersheds, GIS, non-point sources, water quality, outreach and education, public policy, stakeholders, active control, land managementProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.