This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This award will fund the acquisition of an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES) in the HDR Environmental Engineering Laboratory located at South Dakota State University (SDSU), which will be used to support research, teaching and outreach activities within the Water and Environmental Engineering Research Center (WEERC). Analysts have been using radially viewed ICP-OES and atomic absorption instruments for over 20 years. The improvement in sensitivity with an axially viewed plasma typically yields a 5- to 10-fold improvement in detection limits while providing near simultaneous identification of multiple ions at ug/L concentrations. A host of emerging issues are planned to be researched using the ICP-OES including the following studies: impact of corrosion on existing and new water storage and delivery systems; identifying low levels of lead and copper in drinking water due to changes in disinfection chemicals; quantification of the low level concentrations anticipated for various metal contaminants which occur naturally as well as anthropogenically from industrial and mining operations; expansion of research in the characterization of the airborne deposition of heavy metals, surface water transport of heavy metals, and analysis of bio-indicators of heavy metal contamination. This research support will enable South Dakota to attract and support qualified graduate students and to provide training and research experience to undergraduate students as well as increased outreach to rural water systems and to the environmental science program at Oglala Lakota College (OLC). The mission of the WEERC is to enhance the habitability and economic development of the Northern Great Plains through multidisciplinary research of the region's water and related land resources. The center supports this mission through the conduct of engineering and related research on significant issues affecting water resources by working to foster interdisciplinary work on the conservation, development, management and use of water and related land resources. Finally, the equipment will be used in direct collaborative research activities between SDSU and OLC researchers involving project-based service learning in support of land grant missions of both institutions serving under-represented students in the sciences and engineering.
