Lawrence Tech wins grant to promote water quality

The Alliance of Downriver Watersheds (ADW) has awarded a $30,000 grant to Lawrence Technological University to provide technical support for efforts to improve water quality in the region. The grant is a component of a $600,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment to the ADW to implement water quality projects in Wayne County. LID techniques in southeast Michigan

The Lawrence Tech grant will be administered by Associate Professor Donald Carpenter of the Department of Civil Engineering, who is director of Lawrence Tech's Great Lakes Stormwater Management Institute and a leading advocate of low-impact development (LID) techniques.

Lawrence Tech's role includes developing an enhanced web-based inventory of LID techniques in southeast Michigan, establishing a monitoring and education program for a new vegetated roof in the Woodhaven-Brownstown School District, and assisting with planning a series of green infrastructure education conferences. The first ADW green infrastructure conference for stormwater professionals and municipal planners will be hosted by Lawrence Tech on Sept. 24.

The vegetated roof monitoring program will begin this summer and continue through 2011 to determine the effectiveness of vegetated roofs as a stormwater management practice. Lawrence Tech will help the Woodhaven-Brownstown school district integrate the roof data into the middle school science curriculum.

In addition to promoting LID, Carpenter is also a member of a statewide planning committee for an international event to promote water technologies and economic development in Michigan.

"I am very excited about the movement of the state as a leader in the water technologies sector as we embrace the blue economy," Carpenter said. "Michigan is blessed with tremendous water resources and Lawrence Tech will continue to be a regional resource for its citizens."

Lawrence Technological University, ltu.edu, offers more than 100 undergraduate, master's and doctoral degree programs in Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Management. Founded in 1932, the 4,500-student, private university pioneered evening classes and today has a growing number of weekend and online programs. Lawrence Tech's 102-acre campus is in Southfield, and programs are also offered in Detroit, Lansing, Petoskey and Traverse City. Lawrence Tech also offers programs with partner universities in Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.