Chemistry
Professor Receives Water Protection Award
President McMillan congratulates Phillip Dougherty, Ph.D., on receiving
a water protection award from the Schuylkill Action Network. photo:
Dave Markowski
If you have ever used water
on the Albright
College campus, you can thank Phillip
Dougherty, Ph.D., professor of chemistry
and biochemistry, for protecting its purity.
Dougherty was recently awarded
an
Educational Sector Source Water Protection
Award by the Schuylkill Action Network.
This award, presented to seven
recipients
in southeastern Pennsylvania, was given in
recognition of Dougherty’s efforts in
reducing water pollution in the Schuylkill
River. The commendation accompanies a
$3,000 award to Albright College.
Dougherty was also recently
awarded
a $5,000 grant from the Pennsylvania
Department of Community and Economic
Development. The grant, secured by
Representative Thomas Caltagirone, will
support Dougherty’s work this summer and
help fund a student research assistant.
For more than two decades,
Dougherty
and his students have tested the waters of
Blue Marsh, an Army Corps of Engineersmade
lake in western Berks County. It began
in 1980 when the late John Hall, Ph.D.,
professor emeritus of biology, discovered
that Dougherty had purchased a new powerboat.
Hall convinced Dougherty to
take to
the waters of Blue Marsh and do some
testing, giving them a baseline for future
testing by students. What they found was
an extremely unstable and unpredictable
body of water, one that has captivated
Dougherty ever since. In the late 1980s
the two professors partnered with the
Western Berks Water Authority to write a
comprehensive study on the water supply
and quality.
Dougherty recently added Lake
Ontelaunee to his testing pool as a way of
protecting the watershed in Berks County.
“It goes even further
than the county
limits,” Dougherty said. “Pennsylvania is
the largest source of pollutants to the
Chesapeake Bay, mostly through run-off
from farms. Someone must be dedicated
and vigilant about monitoring and protecting
our environmental assets.”
The Blue Marsh data is used
by the
Western Berks Water Authority while the
Lake Ontelaunee data is used by the Reading
Area Water Authority. Both bodies of water
are used as sources of drinking water
in Berks County. The data collected has
allowed the authorities to protect the purity
of the water.
Today, Dougherty has upgraded
his 1980
powerboat to a 22-foot water research craft
with electronic monitoring and testing
equipment. But while the equipment makes
his job easier, funding is still a challenge.
Grant monies received for
his projects are
diminishing quickly, thus limiting the
number of students who can work on this
project.
Despite the struggle for funding,
Dougherty plans to continue his work for
years to come.
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