Waterworks Archive

A New Look for the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute (KWRRI)

by Lyle V.A. Sendlein
Director, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute
University of Kentucky

The Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute has evolved over the last two years into a major institute for the University of Kentucky. KWRRI now has five programs and 31 employees, who interact with faculty and research staff from more than two dozen departments located in eight colleges in both the Medical Center and the Lexington Campus. The Institute has an operating budget of approximately $1.6 million per year, of which about 90 percent is grant and contract funds.

The KWRR1 started in 1972 when the federal government established Water Resources Research Institutes in all of the states and some U.S. territories. The U.S. Geological Survey provides an annual allotment grant to each institute to operate its program. Each institute can distribute the grant money as it wants and needs to, so the Water Institutes have become highly individualized.

The Kentucky institute consisted of a faculty grant program for most of its history. In the early years, the U.S.G.S. allotment was much larger than the current funding level, so Institute grants were significantly larger. The allotment grant decreased over time and has been reduced once again to approximately $80,000 for the current year.

The allotment grant provides the only basic research funds available to the Institute, but increased efforts to secure other sources of funding in the last two years has resulted in the allotment program being only one of five activities of the Institute.

The programs of the Institute are:
1. The USGS Allotment program
2. The Federal Facilities Oversight Unit
3. NREPC Scholarship program
4. The Environmental Systems Certificate program
5. Research program

The allotment program consists of the awarding of four to five $15,000 grants to faculty members to assist in the development of a research idea that can be developed into a larger proposal or for the solution of small problems. In each of these projects, students are supported for work on M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. The projects are directed toward water resource problems identified by the state as priority problems. Funds from this program are also utilized for technology transfer. A monthly seminar is held off campus for private sector and state agency personnel and faculty and students. An annual conference is held as well as short courses on selected topics.

The Federal Facilities Oversight Unit is a program designed to assist the Division of Waste Management in the environmental oversight of federal facilities located in the state. The focus of this program is six Department of Defense facilities and one Department of Energy facility. The activity involves hydrogeologists, biologists, civil engineers, and, chemical engineers, who review studies and reports produced by contractors for the facilities' owners. Faculty members and researchers from five faculty units and one center are involved in the review and assessment process.

The Natural Resources and Environmental Protect Cabinet (NREPC) Scholarship program is a unique program that fully supports students at the undergraduate and graduate level.