Changing water levels due to nature, water management

Swan Lake

Lack of rainfall combined with practices to manage low levels of tritium in surface water on the Fermilab site have raised questions about water levels in Fermilab ponds and creeks.

Weeds are plentiful in Lake Law and the AE Sea on the laboratory's east side, where low rainfall amounts and unseasonably hot temperatures have contributed to rapid evaporation. Low rainfall totals are also responsible for dry areas of Indian Creek, in the southwest part of the site, which would normally receive surface run-off from Fermilab's flat lands when it rains. "During an average year, we have the same amount of evaporation as we get rainfall," said ecologist Rod Walton. "This year rainfall is a little below average."

But Walton also said that there is little to be concerned about in terms of the wetlands or the water-dependent ecosystem. "From a long-term perspective, the ecosystem is able to respond to a variety of weather conditions year to year," he said.

Swan Lake's lower than normal water levels have also produced weeds, but have less to do with rain. Some surface water at Fermilab, including Swan Lake, contains low but detectable levels of tritium. Although the tritium levels are far below state and federal standards and are not harmful, Fermilab has committed to ensure that water leaving the site contains the lowest possible levels of tritium -- if possible below detectable levels.

In part, Swan Lake's lower water levels are due to movement of water around the site in periods of low rainfall for fire protection water supply and other water make up needs. Additionally, as part of the laboratory's tritium management process, Swan Lake levels are lower than normal said Randy Ortgiesen, head of Facilities Engineering Services Section. He said FESS has plans to repair the south bank of Swan Lake and raise the water level, which will help prevent weeds from growing, improve aesthetics and help with the site's water management efforts.

During heavy rains, the water elevation in Swan Lake rises enough to allow the resident fish to swim into the "back ditch" - an area near the Lederman Science Center that is used for overflow. When the water evaporates and is moved around the site from Swan Lake, the water levels drop, leaving the fish behind. Ortgiesen said FESS is planning temporary measures to prevent the fish from entering the ditch until a higher water level is able to be restored.

-- Rhianna Wisniewski

ArchaeoGrid: a window to the past

A fusion of aerial satellite data with geophysical maps in Crete, Greece. Image courtesy of ArchaeoGrid

The life of an archaeologist never was very much like the life of Indiana Jones, and, as the field progresses, it becomes less so.

Research has grown more quantitative. Statistical resources such as large data sets, complex models, and abundant computing power are becoming as important to the archaeologist's toolbox as a notebook, dusting brush, and possibly even bullwhip.

"Starting in the 1960's the field of archaeology saw a change," says Pier Giovanni Pelfer, from the University of Florence, Italy. "Using new techniques and tools, such as carbon-14 dating, researchers were able to ask new questions."

Technology, Pelfer is careful to note, is no substitute for old-fashioned fieldwork. Instead, it is a support, and one that enables new routes of inquiry.

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- Danielle Venton, iSGTW

From Nature
July 18, 2007

Editorial: A unifying force

The questions to be explored at the Large Hadron Collider offer a chance to rekindle public interest in the fundamental principles of the Universe in which we live.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that is nearing completion outside Geneva, Switzerland, is a testament to two of the greatest human qualities: a fascination with the workings of the Universe and an ability to cooperate to achieve shared goals. After the machine - now the centrepiece of Europe's particle-physics laboratory, CERN - goes into operation next year, it should allow experimentalists for the first time in decades to blaze paths into areas on which settled theory stands silent (see page 269).

The physicists exploring this new world will do so as a unified global community. Although CERN is broadly a European achievement, in which the continent can take great pride, the LHC and its attendant detectors have received contributions in cash or kind from more or less every country with the capability to participate in this sort of frontier science. The LHC therefore sets a new high-water mark in disinterested global cooperation.

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