The Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute (OEWRI) is partnering with the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks (WCO) to collect data on the effects of modifications to local storm water basins, including one on the Missouri State University campus near Greenwood Laboratory School. The planned changes to the basins are designed to increase filtration and filter pollutants in order to reduce the pollution going downstream.

“The monitoring station installed at the Greenwood detention basin is part of a larger grant the WCO received from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to implement storm water best management practices to reduce water pollution in the urban areas of Springfield and Greene County,” said Marc Owen, research specialist at the OEWRI. “We are now in the process of collecting pre-implementation data to compare to data collected after the modifications are made.”

During storm events, Owen will measure the amount of water flowing through the Greenwood basin, nutrient and sediment concentrations plus precipitation before and after the basin is retrofitted to measure pollutant removal. OEWRI is partnering with several local entities on the project including the WCO, the City of Springfield, Greene County, the James River Basin Partnership, Missouri Project WET and Ozarks Greenways.

For more information, contact Owen at (417) 836-3197 or visit the project website.