New $1.4 million Industrial Research Chair

Dr. Peter Dillon was recently named to a new $1.4-million Industrial Research Chair at Trent which is intended to provide environmental benefits.

Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) has committed $540,000 over the next three years, with an option for two more years, and NSERC (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) will provide matching support. OPG is one of the successor companies of Ontario Hydro. It owns and operates three nuclear stations, six fossil-fuelled plants and 69 hydroelectric generating stations.

Dillon will study the effects of acid gas emissions and the influence of climate stresses on watersheds. He will join the Trent faculty from his current post as manager of the Aquatic Sciences Section of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

Key areas to be studied under the direction of the Research Chair:

• Historical data will be analysed to establish a baseline from which to detect the impacts of current and future emissions.

• Representative lakes and rivers in central Ontario will be sampled to identify chemical and biological changes over the three to five year study period.

• The influence on water quality of periodic climate events such as El Nino will be studied. These events, which affect both temperature and precipitation, alter the cycling of elements in the environment.

• Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) levels will be studied. It is believed that climate changes related to El Nino events interact with acid deposition to alter DOC levels, which in turn affects many important water quality parameters.