The Pacific Northwest Water Program welcomes Heritage University (HU) and Kazuhiro Sonoda Ph.D., the Dean of the College of Arts and Science, to the team of natural resource educators from the PNW land grant institutions. Heritage University, a private, liberal arts, and hispanic-serving institution, serves the Yakima Valley from its location on the Yakama Indian Reservation. Heritage is the only four-year institution in the valley, with the mission to provide quality, accessible education to multicultural populations that have been educationally isolated, which expresses HU’s commitment to meet the needs of disadvantaged residents. In fall of 2008, Heritage University completed a new 32,000 square foot Science and Technology Center, which replaced the previous inadequate science and technology classroom and laboratory facilities. Heritage University is in the process of modernizing the Environmental Science and Natural Resource Programs to meet the need for well trained environmental scientists who can be employed in areas such as water quality and natural resources. Heritage University’s initial project is to study an on-going problem in the Lower Yakima Valley, the proliferation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and large dairies. Monitoring and testing of the shallow wells in the valley has revealed that a very large percentage of wells are contaminated with nitrate and bacteria. Dr. Sonoda’s Environmental Science students will be the testers and ambassadors within a very diverse population that speaks predominantly Spanish and because of immigration issues are quite reticent to allow strangers onto their property for water well testing. With appropriate funding, Dr. Sonoda plans to have students collect bi-weekly well water samples from 20 to 30 domestic wells throughout lower Yakima Valley. Well water samples will be analyzed for nitrate-nitrite and total nitrogen concentrations. Data collection will continue throughout the year. He believes that these continuous comprehensive data sets will provide us with much needed detailed information on how nitrate concentration levels vary seasonally and spatially throughout the valley. He will utilize existing GIS data to complete analysis of relationships between land use patterns and nitrate-nitrite concentration levels in well water samples. A complete annual report on well water data will be compiled by the Heritage University science department and will be published (either online, downloadable from the university web site, or in hard copy). Scientifically significant findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore, students who are involved in this project are expected to present their findings at local and national conferences.

Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Coordination Project Partners Land Grant Universities Alaska Cooperative Extension Service Contact Fred Sorensen: 907-786-6311 http://www.uaf.edu/ces/water/ University Publications: http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/ Idaho University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025 http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html University Publications: http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html Oregon Oregon State University Extension Service Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316 http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ University Publications: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ Washington Washington State University WSU Extension Contact Bob Simmons: 360-427-9670 ext. 690 http://wawater.wsu.edu/ University Publications: http://pubs.wsu.edu/ Northwest Indian College Contact Charlotte Clausing: 360-392-4319 cclausing@nwic.edu or http://www.nwic.edu/ Water Resource Research Institutes Water and Environmental Research Center (Alaska) http://www.uaf.edu/water/ Idaho Water Resources Research Institute http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/ Institute for Water and Watersheds (Oregon) http://water.oregonstate.edu/ State of Washington Water Research Center http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/ Environmental Protection Agency EPA, Region 10 The Pacific Northwest http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/ Office of Research and Development, Corvallis Laboratory http://www.epa.gov/wed/ For more information contact Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or seago.jan@epa.gov
	The Project Land Grant Universities, Water Research Institutes and EPA Region 10 have formed a partnership to provide research and education to communities about protecting or restoring the quality of water resources. This partnership is being supported in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Our Goal and Approach The goal of this Project is to provide leadership for water resources research, education and outreach to help people, industry and governments to prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems. The approach to achieving this goal is for the Partners to develop a coordinated regional water quality effort based on, and strengthening, individual state programs. Our Strengths The Project promotes regional collaboration by acknowledging existing programs and successful efforts; assessing program gaps; identifying potential issues for cross-agency and private sector collaboration, and developing a clearinghouse of expertise and programs. In addition, the Project establishes or enhances partnerships with federal, state and local environmental and water resource management agencies, such as by placing a University Liaison within the offices of EPA Region 10.
	US EPA Region 10 and Washington State Ecology are developing a workplan to begin the monitoring and identification of polluting producers so responsibility can be placed on polluters and not the innocent well water users. The PNW Water Program Liaison is communicating with the several non-profits and user groups in the Lower Valley that have been working with this issue for several years. Additional information on Heritage University programs and students may be found at http://www.heritage.edu/.
	National Water Quality Program Areas The four land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest have aligned our water resource extension and research efforts with eight themes of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management Water Policy and Economics
	This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734.

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HOME | About | Calendar | Contacts | Links | PNW Water Updates | Sitemap NIFA National Water Quality Program This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734. all external sites will open in a new browser window page last modified on December 15, 2009