Tau Beta Pi Grove

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Description

Beginning in 1998 and continuing for almost ten years, our chapter spent one Saturday each spring planting cottonwood and elm trees around the old Riley County, Kansas landfill as part of a bioremediation project in conjunction with Riley County Public Works. The project aimed to stop contaminants in the old landfill from leaching into nearby groundwater resources. One of our former advisors, Dr. Larry Erickson, was Director of the K-State Hazardous Substance Research Center back then, and he worked out a plan whereby vegetation would solve the problem.

Evapotranspiration was the name of the game. Cottonwoods and elms suck pollutants right out of the ground with their deep root zones. Kansas Gamma planted roughly 5,000 trees per day during these annual service projects: eventually planting about 60,000 trees in total across the 110-acre site.

Dr. Julia (Trowbridge) Keen was cataloger of Kansas Gamma in spring 1998, and it is thanks to her that the project got off the ground. She was working for Riley County at the time, and Kansas Gamma was in search of a new community service project. She made the connection, and as one can see in the map below, she quite literally put our chapter on the map when Tau Beta Pi Grove was born. You can see the full extent of our work in satellite mode.

By the time that Dr. Keen returned as a chapter advisor, the project had essentially eliminated groundwater pollution from the old landfill. Even with constant groundwater monitoring via perimeter wells, Kansas Gamma’s bioremediation project was so effective that no further action has been required since the last trees were planted some 15 years ago!

Many thanks go out to Dr. Erickson (KS-G ’60), Dr. Keen (KS-G ’98), and former head of Riley County Public Works Greg Lund for answering our questions about this project. Also, to our former historian Nathan Diehl (KS-G ’24) for his foresight in recording his interviews with those involved.

Articles

COTTON FILTERS

March 8, 1998

Cori Muth - THE MANHATTAN MERCURY

Melanie Little and Jenny Wright were among volunteers planting cottonwoods Saturday

County officials are turning to cottonwood trees to solve water contamination problems resulting from the former Riley County Landfill on South Manhattan Avenue. Nearly 40 volunteers and county employees braved cold temperatures Saturday morning to plant about 5,500 wild cottonwood trees on land easy of the former landfill. The trees were found growing wild in the Tuttle Creek Pond area.

Gary Naughton, a private forestry consultant hired by the county to oversee the plantings, said although it was bitterly cold and damp outside Saturday it was great tree planting weather. He said it's best to plant trees when the sun isn't shining bright, and it isn't too warm. Naughton said county officials expect the cottonwood trees to evaporate the soil contaminants by rapidly bringing them to the atmosphere without harming the tree.

The 80-acre landfill, now buried beneath a two-layer cap of rocks and soil, was closed in 1991 as a result of a U.S. District Court judge's order. The order came as a result of a lawsuit filed against the Riley County Commission by John W. Pratt, who owns a mobile home park southeast of the landfill. Pratt had discovered ground contamination in his well. Officials later concluded that methane gas was contained in the area.

Larry Erickson, K-State professor of chemical engineering and director for the Hazardous Substance Research Center, said K-State engineering students proposed that the county plant the cottonwoods near the landfill to soak up the contaminants. He said the trees would help protect water wells in the area and the Kansas River from contaminants. K-State students also proposed other solutions to the contamination problem that are already in place, including planting alfalfa on the land east of the landfill and a tree nursery by the county's trash transfer station.

About 30 prospective members and officers from K-State's Tau Beta Pi, a national engineering honor society, helped plant the trees Saturday as part of a spring service project. Troy Brin, president of Tau Beta Pi, said it's a worthwhile project for the group. "It was amazing that after we got done it didn't seem like much work, and we had a lot of fun doing it," he said.

Erickson said using trees to soak up contaminants has saved people about $400 million in the United States. He said the idea to use trees to soak up contaminants was introduced about nine years ago. He said on idea being tossed around once the trees are grown is to develop a local forest park for residents to enjoy.

GROUP PLANTS TREES AROUND RILEY COUNTY LANDFILL... SPENDS DAY PLANTING 5,600 TREES

March 9, 1998

Joe Hurla - THE KANSAS STATE COLLEGIAN

About 40 people planted 5,600 young cottonwood trees at 8 a.m. Saturday in a field near the Riley County Landfill. The group, consisting of officers and initiates of Tau Beta PI, K-State's engineering honor society, planted the trees to help curb the effects of possible leakage from the landfill into the city's water supply.

"The basic problem is that when there is a lot of rain, this whole area floods," said Larry Erickson, director of the Center for Hazardous Substance Research and coordinator of the event. "Since there is so much water, it can't all evaporate, so it seeps into the groundwater, along with whatever chemicals it may pick up from the landfill. "What these trees will do is, they will absorb the water and hold it in them until such time as they can evapotranspirate it into the air."

With this problem facing them and a solution in mind, a group of K-State engineering students designed the project, which they hoped would not only solve the problem but also be cost-effective. "We estimated the normal cost of each tree to be two dollars, installed. But we've done it much cheaper because all of these trees were found along Tuttle Creek," Erickson said. Student labor also helped keep the cost of the project down. All of the students who helped with the project were volunteers.

Elizabeth Verderber, junior in chemical engineering and vice president of Tau Beta Pi, was in charge of organizing the labor for the event. "We require all of our new initiates to participate in a service project, and most of them were here today," she said. "My biggest fear was whether or not people would be able to get up so early, I'm kind of surprised, but I think everyone made it." After everyone was accounted for and a brief lesson in the art of tree-planting was given, they went to work. They had planned to finish around 3:30 p.m., but the last tree went into the ground around 11 a.m.

"It sure didn't feel like 5,600 trees," said Jason Hartman, junior in chemical engineering. "Once we got going, it all went really fast." Gary Naughton, the consulting forester for the operation, said he thought the planting went well. I've been involved with a lot of tree plantings, but this is probably the smoothest I've seen," Naughton said. Verderber said the ease with which the event was executed can be attributed to the participants' attitude. "Everyone really liked the idea that we were actually helping in the community. It's hard to find ways to do that sometimes," Verderber said.

Although there are no immediate plans to use the area as anything other than a natural water pump, group members said they would eventually like to see it used for recreation, such as for a park or arboretum. Most importantly, they said they want to make sure it does what it was designated to do by protecting the groundwater from hazardous toxins in the landfill. "This is a problem that's right here in our backyard and directly affects us," Verderber said. " I don't just want it solved because it's a good thing to do, I want to fix it because it concerns my safety and the safety of everyone around me."

Pictures

2006

April 1

2003

April 5

2002

February

1999

March 13

Project Reports

2006

April 1

This project consists of planting trees as part of a bioremediation project at the old county landfill. The old landfill is located in very close proximity to the Kansas River, and though it has been closed, the last several years have revealed that contaminants are leaking out of the landfill and polluting the river. As a result, Tau Beta Pi in Conjunction with Riley County, plants nearly 5,000 trees to attempt to contain those pollutants. The trees are seedlings and consist about half cottonwoods and half elms.

This project gives back to the community and nature. It teaches members important work ethics.

In conjunction with Riley County

No cost was incurred. Riley County provided the trees and equipment. Only the labor of planting the trees was required by Tau Beta Pi.

Since the beginning of the project, nearly 30,000 trees have been planted, and with the exception of one year’s crop are doing extremely well. The bioremediation is working. Tau Beta Pi has received some very positive publicity for this project as well.

Organizing Member:

Maggie Lock

Participating Advisors:

Dean Richard Hayter
Dr. Larry Erickson

Participating Members:

Sam Bruner
Nick Potenski
Maggie Lock
Mark Lindgren
Jeff Newlin
Jon King

Participating Electees:

Lisa Beck
Steven Bollin
Jarret Brinker
Andrew Cott
Christopher Dawson
Allison Day
Jonathan Draheim
Alexander Fox
Justin Gomez
Yahui Jin
Lisa Mercurio
Andrew Pritchard
Amanda Roodhouse
Derek Wassom
Kristen Wenzel

2004

April 17

Our annual spring service project consists of planting trees as part of a bioremediation project at the old county landfill. The old landfill is located in very close proximity to the Kansas River, and though it has been closed, the last several years have revealed that contaminants are leaking out of the landfill and polluting the river. As a result, Tau Beta Pi in conjunction with Riley County, plants nearly 5,000 trees to attempt to contain those pollutants. The trees are just seedlings and consist of about half cottonwoods and half elms. Since the beginning of the project, nearly 35,000 trees have been planted. With the exceptions of one year’s crop, they are all doing extremely well. Tau Beta Pi has received some very positive publicity for this project as well.

The project takes very little time to organize, since the trees, equipment, and refreshments are provided by the county. It takes between three to five hours to complete, depending on the number of participants. We did the project on April 17 of the year, had eight active members, and 25 elects participate.

The tree planting is a fun project that gives back to the community. The members of Tau Beta Pi - KS Gamma enjoy planting the trees, when the weather is nice. The bioremediation is working, and the project will likely be continued in the future.

The list of active members follows:

Steve McClurg
Erin Pasold
Eric Carlson
Ross Stutterheim
Scott Rock
Cole Knudsen
Keith Moyer
Kenneth Norton

The elects included:

Jack Bauer
Justin Birkey
Jason Blakenship
Clay Crane
Trisha Culbertson
Amanda Day
Ashley Deforest
Justin Delp
Nicolette Dudley
Matthew Edwards
Michael Henley
Joshua Hubbard
Kelly Hughes
Cole Knudsen
Kyle Kuhlman
Jimmy Kummer
Luke Kunkel
Jason Landoll
Gina Mercurio
Brent Oxandale
Junius Penny
Brian Platt
Nyla Polli
Nicholas Potenski
Scott Rock
Kyle Stonebraker
Austin Wareing
Justin Williams

2003

April 5

Our annual spring service project consists of planting trees as part of a bioremediation project at the old county landfill. The old landfill is located in very close proximity to the Kansas River, and though it has been closed, the last several years have revealed that contaminants are leaking out of the landfill and polluting the river. As a result, Tau Beta Pi, in conjunction with Riley County, plants nearly 5,000 trees to attempt to contain those pollutants. The trees are just seedlings and consist of about half cottonwoods and half elms. Since the beginning of the project, nearly 30,000 trees have been planted, and with the exception of one year’s crop are doing extremely well. Tau Beta Pi has received some very positive publicity for this project as well.

The project takes very little time to organize, since the trees, equipment, and refreshments are provided by the county. It takes between three to five hours to complete, depending on the number of participants. We did the project on April 5 of this year, and had two advisors, eight active members, and 22 elects participate. The advisors were Dick Hayter and Eddie Fowler.

The list of active members follows:

Ben Sommers
Ben Downey
Derrick Brouhard
Kyle Grabill
Nathan Parker
Sarah Woodard
Max Lehman
Aaron Jones

The elects included:

Ryan Philbrick
Jared Mason
Brandon Frink
Clell Solomon
Nathaniel Burt
Nathan Candea-Kromm
Ross Stutterheim
Braden Snead
Erin Pasold
Eric Carlson
Adrienne Berry
Matthew Larson
Eric Goff
Kenneth Norton
Thomas Bondurant
Jared Wagner
Scott Terrill
Bryan Cless
Keith Moyer
Nicholas Leach
Russell Yarnell
Tricia Petr

1999

March 13

The Bioremediation Project is aimed at cleaning up the soil and groundwater at the old Riley County Landfill. The project was designed by Kansas State University faculty and is being implemented by the Riley County Public Works. Cottonwood trees are being planted in some areas, while alfalfa is being planted in other fields. These two plants were picked because of their deep root zones, which help in the evapotranspiration of pollutants out of the soil and groundwater. The Kansas Gamma chapter is helping in the spring of 1999 by planting 6,000 cottonwood trees.

The purpose of Kansas Gamma in this project is to provide a service project to new candidates for election that will be beneficial to the entire Manhattan community. Kansas Gamma believes that this contribution within the community is very much in the spirit of Tau Beta Pi.

This project was coordinated with the help of the Riley County Public Works.

This project was of no cost to Kansas Gamma. Riley County provided lunch to the participants. Water was available for refreshment.

There were no problems experienced in this project.

The project was very successful. Participants were on time to the project and participated enthusiastically. Over 6,000 trees were planted, doubling the total number of trees existent on the premises. Kansas Gamma was told that Riley County is eager for them to participate in the spring of 2000.