Cornell Univeristy is awarded a grant to improve the Shoals Marine Laboratory (www.sml.cornell.edu), a seasonal field research station on Appledore Island, Maine. Wastewater treatment will be upgraded to increase capacity for research and training in a unique intellectual community focused on undergraduates. Installation of commercial composting toilets, together with a septic field built in 2009, will: 1) eliminate ocean discharge of wastes as mandated by Maine DEP; 2) reduce freshwater use; 3) reduce energy use; and 4) reduce operating costs. Funds recovered from reduced costs will be reinvested to support academic programs.
The mission of Shoals Marine Laboratory is education, research, and conservation training for undergraduates. Appledore Island, a 95 acre island six miles southeast of Portsmouth, NH in the Gulf of Maine, is an extraordinary physical location that offers easy access to intertidal, subtidal, oceanic, and terrestrial habitats and opportunities to study sustainable engineering and integration of power, water, and wastewater systems. Operated by Cornell and the University of New Hampshire since 1966, the station has an alumni base of 6,200. Each summer, ~170 undergraduates from all over the world enroll in ~20 credit courses. The internship programs target undergraduate researchers, engineering students, and conservation biologists with a successful proactive approach to diversity and inclusiveness. The facility serves long-term ongoing major research and survey programs, conserves Appledore's rich environments, and provides an oceanic platform for AIRMAP's atmospheric observatory (http://airmap.unh.edu/). Low environmental impact technologies are used not only to protect Appledore Island and surrounding waters but also to demonstrate them to all island visitors.
, DBI-0934141. Shoals Marine Laboratory is a seasonal field station located on 95-acre Appledore Island, Maine, six miles offshore from the coast of New Hampshire in the Gulf of Maine. Because of our isolation, we must generate our own power, purify our drinking water, and provide sanitation to allow occupation by as many as 100 students, faculty, and staff per night. As a direct result of funding made available under award DBI-0934141, we completed major construction of our new Water Conservation Building (WCB) ahead of schedule and were able to open the building for use by students, staff and faculty in May 2011. Attached is a photograph of the completed building. SML now has in place all four key outcomes anticipated by this FSML funding, which are: 1) elimination of ocean discharge of wastes as mandated by Maine DEP; 2) reduced freshwater use for sanitation; 3) reduced energy use for pumping water and waste and for heating water for showers, hand sinks, and dishwashers; and 4) reduce operating costs. We are already redeploying saved funds to support our academic programs. (Note that we were also able to separately fund the microwave communication system requested in our original proposal.) We look forward to many years of benefit from this highly successful project. These outcomes directly support our mission to provide outstanding courses, research internships, and conservation training for undergraduates. The extraordinary physical location of Appledore Island offers easy access to intertidal, subtidal, oceanic, and terrestrial habitats and opportunities to study sustainable engineering and integration of power, water, and wastewater systems. Operated by Cornell University and the University of New Hampshire since 1966, SML has an alumni base of 6,600. Each summer, we enroll as many as 200 undergraduates from all over the world in our credit courses. Our internship programs target undergraduate researchers, engineering students, and conservation biologists. We serve long-term research and survey programs, conserve Appledore’s rich environments, and provide an oceanic platform for AIRMAP’s atmospheric observatory. Our low environmental-impact technologies not only help to protect Appledore Island and surrounding waters but also to demonstrate them to all island visitors.
