The University of Memphis is also the home of the Ground
Water Institute (GWI). The Ground Water Institute will be our final tour
of the day. The mission of the Ground Water Institute is to "conduct research,
perform service, and develop education programs to ensure that the water
consumed by the general public in 2050 is as plentiful and high quality
as it is today." The GWI is located in the Engineering Administration Building
at the University of Memphis. Dr. Brian Waldron is our contact person at
GWI.
As with CERI, there is not a lot to "see" at the Ground
Water Institute. The Institute itself is made up of office space and computer
labs which are used to analyze 
information
obtained from the field.
Much of the work of the Institute is done in the field
where scientists and students from the University of Memphis conduct tests
on the groundwater in and around
Memphis. Here is a picture of a monitoring well used to check ground water
near an old landfill in the Shelby Farms area. The landfill hasn't been
used since the 80's, but researchers are concerned about a plume of contamination
that seems to be moving out from the landfill area.
After a quick tour of the physical part of GWI, we will have a briefing by a staff member of the institute. Using the display
pictured here and other visual aids, the staff member will lead a discussion about GWI, it's history and the history of Memphis' water supply.
The ground water from the Memphis
Aquifer is considered to be some of the best in the world. The Memphis
Aquifer is among a large group of aquifers in the southeastern United States
that lay in what is called the Mississippi Embayment. The Memphis Aquifer
also called the "500 foot" sands, contains an enormous amount of fresh
drinking water.
| Memphis Aquifer.
Next site on the trip. |
 |
 Questions/Comments? |
Smith, Larry, executive director, Wolf River Conservancy: personal conversation, (May 17, 2003).
Waldron, Brian, Ph. D., Ground Water Institute: personal conversation,
(May 16, 2003).
Graphics
Ground Water Institute,
University of Memphis, logo, as Retrieved from the World Wide Web, (May
15, 2003).
Photos:
Thomas, Donna (May 2003).
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