Since its opening more than a year ago, the River Park at San Diego State University Mission Valley has welcomed runners, dog walkers, sports fans, youth leagues and everything in between.
But by spring or summer, an unexpected group of visitors will frequent the 34-acre parkland: students and researchers. They’ll study what often goes unseen or underappreciated by typical parkgoers.
Located throughout the park are bioretention basins, which treat stormwater runoff from the landscape and parking lots before it flows into the adjacent San Diego River and ultimately into the Pacific Ocean.
Students and researchers will take their data and observations of these water systems to a learning lab, which will be nestled just steps away from the park. On a recent Monday, construction crews began preparing the land where they’ll build the 480-square-foot modular building, known as the One Water Living Learning Laboratory.
It’s where SDSU envisions they could deepen their understanding of watershed science and hydrological systems.
“The challenges we face with drought, flooding, water quality and sustainable water management are complex, but they are not insurmountable,” Hala Madanat, vice president of SDSU’s Division for Research and Innovation, said in a statement. “Addressing these challenges requires not only scientific knowledge, but also hands-on experience with the technologies and systems that are shaping the future of water science.”
A $2.6 million grant from the San Diego River Conservancy is funding the construction of the lab. The facility will also have an outdoor space for fieldwork and water sampling on the river and other local, urban waterways.
Natalie Mladenov, an SDSU professor of environmental engineering who is spearheading the lab project, said she served on a committee that helped with the construction of the river park.
“I saw that all these really cool features were going into Mission Valley River Park, like biofiltration basins, and we have the San Diego River right there, Murphy Canyon Creek right there,” she said. “Then they put the sewer line in. There’s all sorts of water opportunities in the River Park.”
Mladenov said there are a lot of faculty at the university “who work on different aspects of water from hydrology, flooding, water quality after fires, to water reuse and getting energy out of wastewater.”
Much of that research is happening “at the lab scale and bench scale.”
But, Mladenov added, “to be able to bring this to reality and take some of our ideas to fruition and even some inventions that we're working on, we need to be working with real wastewater. We need to be looking at real water systems.”
The lab can also serve as a test bed for researching different types of water treatment technologies, Mladenov said.
“We have all the technologies right now to take any type of water, stormwater, wastewater, river water and turn that into drinking water,” she added. “So, this is a great opportunity for us to capitalize on that. And it really is the one water approach where all water is equal. There's no longer bad water or good water.”
Mladenov said the project comes with a call to action.
“Our water infrastructure is aging and is failing in many places,” she said. “Our water lines are leaking and cracked. There is a call to action to invest in infrastructure. We need to think about that because it is very easy once infrastructure starts failing, there’s a domino effect.”
SDSU said the laboratory will offer educational opportunities for the community and local K-12 schools.
