UWM's Center for Water Security

by Laura Hunt

(Left to right) WATER Institute Director Val Klump, UWM Chancellor, Nancy L. Zimpher, and U.S. Rep. Gerald Kleczka.

MILWAUKEE - U.S. Rep. Gerald Kleczka praised the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) for joining in the development of new methods for safeguarding the nation's freshwater from bioterrorism. Kleczka made his remarks at the dedication of the university's new Center for Water Security this summer.

Events like the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon reshaped Americans' vulnerability, said Kleczka, who helped secure the federal funding of the center.

Housed at UWM's Wisconsin Aquatic Technology and Environmental (WATER) Institute, the Center for Water Security was launched last summer with $2 million in federal research money from the U.S. Department of Defense. Another $1 million has been appropriated in the U.S. House of Representatives for next year.

Eight projects are currently underway there.

Milwaukee is located on the shores of the largest, most valuable freshwater resource on the face of the planet, with nearly 20 percent of the world's drinking-water supply right at our back door, said WATER Institute Director and Senior Scientist J. Val Klump.

"This nationally unique center will have a local impact with a global reach, says Institute Director and Senior Scientist J. Val Klump.

The first batch of projects involves scientists at the WATER Institute and UWM faculty from four academic areas - biological sciences, chemistry, math and engineering. Some of the projects include:

• Using translucent zebrafish as toxin "sentinels" by genetically altering them to "light up," as a firefly does, when the fish encounter even small amounts of a particular toxin or class of toxins. Concentration levels of toxins in fish can be a thousand times higher than levels found in the water, making them useful specimens for measuring toxicity.

• Using fiber optics to continually monitor water supplies leaving the treatment plant. Sensors placed at various points inside water distribution pipes would be attached to optical fibers. They would be able to report chemical changes in the water at the molecular level, and potentially identify thousands of hazardous chemical combinations that the changes could be signaling. The information would be carried back to the monitoring site at the speed of light.

• Using the natural sensing ability of Daphnia, microscopic aquatic animals that have sensory hairs on their bodies. Daphnia "sifts" water internally, extracting algae to feed on and then expelling the remaining water and any inert substances which it might contain. Scientists want to test whether Daphnia can also distinguish harmful materials. By exposing it to a pollutant mixed with a chemical tracer, they will be able to tell if the animal senses and expels the pollutant based on the behavior of the tracer.
• Using an atmospheric and lake monitoring model to detect and predict the movement of "dirty bomb" materials that could contaminate bodies of freshwater. Besides the use of technology in developing sensors, the center also will study remediation techniques for areas affected by water contamination.

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