Browsing by Author "Parks, Ryan"
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Item Open Access Clean Water Through Conservation in the Jordan Lake Watershed(2019-04-25) Tucker, Emily; Ray, James; Parks, RyanWatershed management is becoming increasingly holistic. Novel approaches are needed to satisfy the interests of diverse stakeholders – including municipal water users, environmental groups, and agricultural communities. In the rapidly developing Jordan Lake Watershed, stakeholders are eagerly seeking comprehensive approaches to prevent further water quality degradation and the loss and fragmentation of ecological resources. We present an approach for identifying these opportunities. First, we identify high quality natural areas that should be protected to maintain water quality. Second, we highlight riparian restoration areas that maximize pollutant retention and bridge the watershed’s biodiversity hotspots. Finally, we evaluate the financial costs and benefits farmers face when adopting conservation agricultural practices to determine where they will be most successful. In combination, these practices can protect, connect and restore a high-functioning watershed.Item Open Access Water Quality Study at the Pauli Murray Center in Durham, North Carolina(2023-04-28) Parks, RyanThis project examined Maplewood Cemetery's effects on the groundwater quality of the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice (PMC). Maplewood Cemetery and the PMC are located in the West End neighborhood of Durham, North Carolina, a prominent and historic African American neighborhood. The PMC bridges history and human rights by honoring Pauli Murray's lifelong fight for peace and equity. At the heart of the PMC rests Pauli Murray's childhood home. This home is situated directly behind Maplewood Cemetery, created as a white-only burial ground. Based on literature examining the effects of cemeteries on groundwater quality, we hypothesized that Maplewood Cemetery might negatively affect the groundwater beneath the PMC. Water samples were collected from three monitoring wells—one at Maplewood Cemetery and two on the premises of the PMC–and a nearby stream from September 2022 to December 2022. Water samples were tested for thirty-three metals and total coliform bacteria. Lithium, manganese, arsenic, lead, and aluminum concentrations in the three monitoring wells and the stream exceeded various non-enforceable water quality standards, such as the North Carolina Groundwater Standards, but did not exceed enforceable drinking water standards. The concentrations of certain metals were generally higher in the samples collected from the well in the cemetery compared to the shallower well at the PMC, which tapped into the same surficial aquifer as the cemetery well. Total coliform concentrations in the three monitoring wells and the stream exceeded the EPA's Total Coliform Rule, and the cemetery had two-to-five-fold higher levels than the PMC. The stream had ten-to-thirty-fold higher total coliforms than the PMC and was the only water source that contained detectable levels of Escherichia coli, a type of coliform bacteria. Further investigation into a reference site and geochemical tracing is needed to determine whether the measured metals and bacteria naturally occur or derive from anthropogenic processes relating to the human burial process. This study contributes to the environmental justice literature regarding disproportionate environmental hazards in communities of color.