Water education (WET) for Alabama’s black belt is an outreach project that provides off-campus environmental and water-education activities to middle school teachers and children from predominantly African-American families in some of Alabama’s poorest counties. Its main goal is to help students and teachers from resource-poor schools become knowledgeable about surface water and groundwater so they can identify and sustain “safe” aquifer zones, where clean water resources are available for long-term use and economic development. Activities are conducted at two field sites, Auburn University’s E.V. Smith Center in Macon County and the Robert G. Wehle Nature Center in Bullock County. Children from rural schools that lack scientific facilities and equipment are introduced to standard methods for assessing water quality and instrumentation for testing water quality at the field sites. Both hosting centers have easy access to surface water (ponds, wetlands, streams) for data collection. The E.V. Smith site also has access to groundwater through nested wells. Educational activities focus on determining groundwater flow, the interaction of groundwater and surface water, and the hydrologic properties (porosity and permeability) of different aquifer materials (sands, gravels, and clays). The project also incorporates simple laboratory exercises that reinforce learning objectives specified by the state of Alabama science curriculum for grades 6–8. Results of the project suggest that by partnering with local universities, low-resource rural school systems can provide their students with access to state-of-the-art equipment and to scientific expertise. However, schools may be less likely to participate if they must bear the costs of transportation and materials for the field experience themselves.

Abstract A numerical model is developed to calculate the rates at which minerals precipitate or dissolve in basin strata as groundwaters migrate along temperature and pressure gradients. The calculation is based on the assumption that minerals maintain local equilibrium with migrating groundwater and their solubilities depend only on temperature or temperature and pressure. The model integrates predicted groundwater flow patterns with geochemical reaction path modeling; this approach allows us to predict the rate at which minerals dissolve and precipitate in complex geochemical systems open to groundwater flow and mass transfer. The model is formulated and solved in geologic time and basin distance scales and can therefore be applied to study basin-wide diagenesis related to long-distance fluid migration. The calculation can adjust sediment porosity from the net volume of precipitation and dissolution, therefore accounting for feedback effects of chemical diagenesis on porosity, which in turn affects permeability and fluid flow. The model is used to study the rates and nature of diagenetic alteration in several hydrologic systems, including (1) diagenesis of quartz by flow through a wavy sandstone, a sloping aquifer and a faulted aquifer, (2) cementation of amorphous silica and its feedback effect on thermal convection, (3) cementation of anhydrite in the Lyons Sandstone, Denver basin, and (4) diagenesis by migrating brines in the deep aquifers of the Illinois basin. The sample calculations shed light on the rates and patterns of chemical diagenesis that Likely accompany fluid migration in sedimentary basins. When the predicted results can be compared to diagenetic patterns observed in basin strata, the model provides an interpretation for the origin of diagenetic alteration.