Researchers to Lead Discussion About Region’s Water Quality and Resources

From the battle over Toll Brothers’ plans to build student housing on 45 acres in Ferguson Township to the since-shelved proposal for a Nestle bottling plant in Spring or Benner townships, Centre County’s water resources have been at the center of high-profile debates in recent years.

With the ongoing interest in the issue around the area, a discussion of the region’s water quality and resources will be the focus of an upcoming workshop led by Penn State researchers and hosted at Schlow Centre Region Library.

‘Water Wisdom: Water Data and the Community’ will be held at 4 p.m. on Monday, June 11, in Schlow’s Downsbrough Community Room. No registration is required.

Led by Jack Carroll, director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, researchers from Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology have been collaborating with local groups that are engaged in issues involving the Spring Creek Watershed to increase visibility and access to water quality data in the community.

Carroll said the June 11 workshop is a step toward expanding the discussion of that data and what can be done to protect the watershed.

‘We have been working with community volunteer groups during the past year, discussing environmental activities in the watershed and our use of resources,’ Carroll said in a release. ‘We have been trying to move that discussion toward an agenda of things we as a community can do to understand and protect the watershed. We want to expand that discussion to include members of the general public. This workshop is our first step in that direction.’