Many creeks and streams that run through and around UT campus face high levels of pollution. Photo by Heidi Hill • The Daily Beacon
Local streams provide pollution challenge for student activists Connor Barnhill Contributor
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
Volume 130 Issue 41
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 col-
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lected 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. See POLLUTION on Page 3
Wednesday, October 21, 2015