03/24/2009

Global Water Watch Receives Grant to Improve Water Quality in Gulf of Mexico

AUBURN, Ala. — Global Water Watch, which coordinates a worldwide network of community-based water monitoring groups through the Auburn University International Center for Aquaculture and Aquatic Environments, has been awarded a $300,000 grant to fund a project aimed at reducing the impact that livestock production in Alabama and in Veracruz, Mexico, has on water quality in the Gulf of Mexico.

The grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Gulf of Mexico Program will support a three-year project titled “Fostering Environmental Stewardship of the Gulf of Mexico: A Trans-Boundary Network of Water Education and Monitoring for Animal Producers, Classrooms and Community Volunteers. "

Auburn’s Bill Deutsch, research fellow in the Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, is leading the project. Deutsch co-founded and manages the Alabama Water Watch program and is director of Global Water Watch, both at Auburn and internationally.

Auburn will collaborate with Global Water Watch–Veracruz, Mexico, on the project, the goal of which is to help livestock producers in Alabama and in Veracruz develop management practices that can lower the industry’s impacts on the Gulf of Mexico. Both states border the gulf.

In 2007, Alabama had more than a million head of cattle and produced more than a billion broiler chickens and 2 billion eggs. Veracruz had an estimated 5 million cattle, 1.2 million hogs and 600,000 goats as well as a large number of trout-farming operations. The Mobile River Basin, which by flow is the nation’s fourth largest basin, drains about 70 percent of Alabama and contributes a million gallons of water per day to the gulf. Veracruz claims 500 miles of coastline, or 25 percent of Mexico’s entire gulf coas

"This project will benefit the Gulf of Mexico by reducing the impacts of livestock production related to excess nutrients, pathogens and sediment loads while providing customized management practices for each farm,” Deutsch said.

Workshops and site visits will be held in both Alabama and Veracruz to emphasize the use of water quality best management practices and on-farm water monitoring to ensure those management practices are working.

To aid in water-monitoring efforts, middle- and high-school students and community groups in both Alabama and Veracruz will become certified in water monitoring via several sessions held in both Alabama and Veracruz. At least 20 students will become certified water monitors and will learn more about watershed protection and the importance of protecting the Gulf of Mexico.

The certified monitors will be strategically selected to provide coverage for watersheds that drain into the Gulf in both states. As an added bonus for Veracruz students, the highly successful “Living Streams” curriculum, designed through the Tallapoosa Watershed Project to enhance aquatic science education, will be translated into Spanish and adapted for Mexican waters.

Bryon Griffith, director of EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Program, said the Global Water Watch project and all other top-quality projects selected to receive grants this year represent strong commitment to protecting the Gulf environment.

"Whether it is educating our youth about the coastal environment, or decreasing nutrient loading to our estuaries or making better decisions concerning critical habitat, these projects move us closer to the kind of Gulf of Mexico we want our children and grandchildren to inherit,” Griffith said.

The Global Water Watch grant is part of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Regional Partnership Projects and supports the Governors’ Action Plan. For more information about the Gulf of Mexico Program, visit www.epa.gov/gmpo.

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OFFICE OF AG COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 COMER HALL, AUBURN UNIVERSITY
AUBURN, AL 36849
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AgComm@auburn.edu

Contact: Katie Jackson, 334-844-5887 or smithcl@auburn.edu