Saving Urban Lakes
Ellen Foley, '22
Ellen Foley, ’22, is off to a successful career in environmental studies after her work as a graduate student researcher at the Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute (AWRI).
While at AWRI, Ellen's research focused on Church Lake in Grand Rapids, MI, which receives large inputs of saline road deicer runoff from a nearby highway. The lake contains elevated concentrations of chloride (a component of road salt) at the lake bottom. This dense saline layer prevented the lake from completely mixing during the study period, leading to low oxygen conditions in the deeper regions of the lake.
Due to these low oxygen conditions, extremely high concentrations of phosphorus were also measured near the lake bottom.
The results of Ellen’s research suggest that elevated salt concentrations have the potential to exacerbate internal phosphorus loading in lakes, which can increase growth of plants like algal blooms and harm aquatic animals and fish. These findings will be important for informing a
management strategy for Church Lake and other lakes experiencing impacts from elevated salt and nutrient concentrations.
Ellen now works at Leeward Renewable Energy in Chicago, IL as a Development Associate for utility-scale renewable energy projects. The position undertakes the work from conception to construction of a renewable project, including securing land rights from landowners, executing environmental studies to acquire permits, and obtaining interconnection agreements.
As with so many of AWRI’s talented graduate researchers, Ellen attributes much of her success to her Grand Valley experience.
“I felt that AWRI provided an unparalleled opportunity to pursue my interests in freshwater resources,” she said. “ The institute not only embraces but encourages the interdisciplinary nature of aquatic science through collaboration, dissemination of research, and community engagement.”