Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - University of Wisconsin-Platteville students Joe Eichsteadt, Ben Wood and Luke Jones spend most of their Thursday mornings off campus. And while some students are sleeping in, these three are already hard at work in Dodgeville. This trio is working on completing the first phase of a two-year study that will create a stormwater management plan for the city of Dodgeville, a project initiated due to recent urban expansion. City officials initially began the investigation process by creating an aerial map of the city and locating some of the known major and minor runoff sites, which include storm sewers, culverts, ditches and other environmental drainage areas. The students are required to investigate these sites and report on any new sites they may find. In addition, they are to access the land use around these sites and study the water quality, which may include addressing any potential sources of erosion or pollutants. Strand Associates, an engineering firm out of Madison, will be using this information to develop a stormwater management plan for the city.

This senior design group had to work over approximately 900 acres of the city of Dodgeville, making it one of the more ambitious senior design projects in terms of size. Every week, the students rent a university car and drive to Dodgeville, a 30-minute ride from Platteville. They inspect all runoff sites in the city, from catchbasins to ditches to manholes. The students take detailed notes on each of the runoff sites, checking for gathered debris from water runoff. Later, they'll go back and analyze these findings in conjunction with the land use data they've collected to create a more perfect picture of the current stormwater runoff situation in Dodgeville. "Gathering data is harder than doing design," admits Jones. "Some of the sites were difficult to get to, like those in the middle of a highway." Already, the students have discovered that there are many more runoff sites to add to the stormwater map than they initially thought there would be. Of the three students, Jones was the only one with previous experience in water resource management; last summer, he completed an internship in Minnesota. The background knowledge he gained there assisted the group in their initial inspection phase of the stormwater runoff project. Despite the daunting task they've been faced with, the students believe they're benefiting from the experience and have a positive outlook on the project. "It's just the knowledge that once we're out of here in a few months, we're on our own," says Eichsteadt. "This is the first step to that ... the professors just really let us go and took a step back to watch how it would turn out." Wood agrees, also noting that Michael Penn, their project advisor, really pushed the students to their limits. "He only involved himself to a small extent, but that was a great compliment to our efficiency and progress."

This unique experience UWP offers to engineering students has been a step beyond the classroom for Eichsteadt, Wood and Jones. "We've picked things up while working on the project that we haven't had in class," notes Eichsteadt. The students took particular note of the high level of communication skills required for the job, especially as they were writing their report. "I sometimes feel like I'm a writer, rather than an engineer," jokes Wood. That's not to say that the classes weren't beneficial, however. "Nothing's been a surprise," says Wood. "It's all been familiar, some parts just needed further clarification at times." The students will continue to hone their communication skills over the next few weeks: in April, they'll be presenting their first draft report for inspection, followed by a project defense that will be given to their advisors and classmates. Eventually, the students will deliver their finalized report to the Dodgeville City Council and Strand Associates, the company that will utilize the data the students have collected to move on to phase two of the project. All three UWP students anticipate graduating from UWP in May 2006. Jones, the son of Jody Arman-Jones and Evers Jones of Farmington, Minn., graduated from Farmington High School in 2001. He is an environmental engineering major. A Platteville native, Wood is the son of Tim and Terry Wood. He graduated from Platteville High School in 2001, and is a civil engineering major with an environmental emphasis. Eichsteadt is also a civil engineering major, with an emphasis in transportation. He is the son of Michael and Debra Eichsteadt of Wisconsin Rapids, and graduated from Assumption High School in 2001.