College receives grant for water quality study
College receives grant for water quality study
By Jerry W. Kram
Fort Berthold Community College will carry out a study on water quality across the Fort Berthold Reservation thanks to a $40,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The grant is part of the EPA’s Eco Ambassador program, which will fund professors at eight tribal colleges to work on environmental problems on their reservations and increase environmental awareness in their areas. Kerry Hartmann, director of science faculty at the college, applied for the grant and will be working with the college’s 20 environmental science students on the project.
“This is a new program by the EPA to improve their services to the tribal colleges,” Hartmann said. “I went to a meeting with the EPA and tribal colleges when they announced this program. I applied and was lucky enough to be accepted.”
Hartmann’s project will look at groundwater quality on the reservation with an emphasis on those areas with heavy oil development. The grant is for one year, but Hartmann said additional funding could be available in the future. He said he would like to continue monitoring the reservation’s groundwater quality after the project is completed, even if the school doesn’t get any more funding for it.
