While UT’s proximity to an urban area is great for a student’s social life, it may be quite another thing for the streams and creeks of Knoxville.
For many of the creeks that run through or around UT campus, levels of pollution are becoming a noticeable issue — the problem has attracted the attention of several Knox County and Knoxville government officials.
But that hasn’t stopped UT students from tackling the issue themselves.
Joanne Logan, an associate professor in biosystems engineering and soil science, is one of the researchers involved with analyzing the nearby creeks, including Third and Second.
The creeks around the campus may be heavily polluted, but Logan, other professors and grad students at UT are researching the rivers and are working to keep them clean and pollutant-free.
“We’ve all done a bunch of stuff with the creeks,” Logan said of the efforts from the faculty and students at UT. “We’ve adopted a section of Third Creek that my students take data in every semester, and then we report our findings to the Tennessee Clean Water Network.”
The Tennessee Clean Water Network is a non-profit organization that uses the data collected from places like UT to analyze certain streams — deeming them compliant with federal safety requirements. By enforcing standards set in articles like the Clean Water Act and the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act, the Tennessee Clean Water Network puts pressure on businesses and legislatures to follow practices that decrease pollution.
But while these regulations may decrease pollution, they also eliminate the ability for researchers like Logan to pinpoint exactly who or what is causing the pollution.
Prior to the proliferation of such regulations, pollution could be traced back to businesses and shoddy methods of waste disposal. However, the new regulations create highly concentrated, small levels of pollution, which create difficulties for tracking causes of pollution to a particular source and finding a specific fix for the pollutants.
True to its name, UT fortunately has plenty of volunteers willing to work on the issue.
Logan Terheggen, senior in chemical engineering, is the president for Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville, which has adopted a section of Third Creek and recently undertook a clean up initiative around the area.
“Streams and creeks are like nature’s highways of waste,” Terheggen said. “You’ll notice that, especially close to campus, some streams have a lot of plastics and cigarette butts in them that some students may just leave lying around.”
While the Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville works to clean the river of these obvious pollutants, Logan says there are several other pollutants which may not be as obvious to spot.
“It can be hard to identify exactly where the pollution is coming from, but several big contributors are agricultural waste, pollutants picked up by runoff water and the pollutants from the ongoing development around the campus and Knoxville,” she said.
While students are keen to blame the plethora of campus construction, the pollution is not entirely due to new building.
In fact, Logan explained the students themselves are largely responsible for pollution of local creeks, resulting in an issue that can lead to major problems if left unchecked.
“While few people drink directly from these streams, all of these creeks are tributaries to the Tennessee River, which is of course where we get all our drinking water from,” Logan said. “So if they’re polluted, it could affect our own water supply.”
Still, Logan suggests multiple habits and organization that can help halt pollution, such as washing the car in the front yard, allowing all suds and chemicals to be absorbed by the grass and preventing runoff into a storm drain.
Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville is also working on planting native species around the creeks and removing invasive species and, as Terheggen states, a stream conversion to an outdoor classroom behind Dougherty Engineering building and Min Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science building is also in the works.
To learn more about the Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville or upcoming events, visit their website.
Many creeks and streams that run through and around UT campus face high levels of pollution.
