Kelsea Palmer of DuBois and Ashley Neptune of Greensburg to travel to Bolivia

LORETTO, PA (05/09/2011)(readMedia)-- Two environmental engineering students from Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pa. will be getting some very real experience in mining reclamation this month.

Kelsea Palmer, a sophomore from DuBois, and Ashley Neptune, a sophomore from Greensburg, will accompany Saint Francis engineering faculty members, Dr. William Strosnider and Dr. Joel Bandstra, to the mountains of Bolivia. The group will be building a water treatment system to help reclaim much-needed irrigation water as part of a two-week service project beginning May 14.

The Saint Francis group will be teaming up with the University of Oklahoma Center for the Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds and the Universidad Autónoma "Tomas Frías" Mining Engineering Department to lead this multinational coalition.

The indigenous farming communities in the Rio Juckucha watershed area have been adversely impacted by mining pollution for more than a century. Acid mine drainage has led to severe degradation of local water supplies, rendering crucial water resources unusable for human and animal consumption and agricultural use. This situation has led to increasing conflict between local farmers and miners.

The Saint Francis Environmental Engineering Department and multinational partners are working to resolve this difficult environmental and social problem by partnering with EMAK, a progressive mining company in the region that wants to tackle the water contamination issue and restore Rio Juckucha for the benefit of the local environmental, agricultural sector, and regional mining interests.

The hope of the Saint Francis group is that the experience gained through the Bolivian project may be applied to acid mine drainage issues back home in Pennsylvania and in other states.