By STEFANIE HILL

Staff Writer

Two professors in the School of Biological Sciences received grants to help study oil brine sites.

Dr. Milan Vavrek, an associate professor of biological sciences, is head of one of the grants received. His grant will be for the development of an oil brine spill restoration preliminary work and an oil brine symposium next March in Baton Rouge.

The other grant, headed by Dr. Wes Colgan, an associate professor of biological sciences, will be used to help study plant species after oil brine spills.

Oil brine is the water that is pumped up with oil, full of salt, metals and other agents harmful to plants. Colgan said these sites are hard to restore because of the high salt content.

“Salt has to be [drained] and plants help this process happen,” Colgan said. “So, it’s a matter of getting salt and oil-tolerant plants for these sites.”

Vavrek's grant is a continuation of a grant he received last year.

“Last year, we received a grant to put together the literature review about what is known about restoring oil brine spill sites,” Vavrek said. “This new grant follows up on it, holding a symposium to promote communication between researchers, oil site personnel and regulators.”

Vavrek said hopefully by exchanging ideas at the symposium they will be able to find the best restoration process.

“We want everybody to share ideas, especially about what doesn’t work,” Vavrek said, “because there is a lot a literary work out there about what does work, but rarely do you see something on what doesn’t work.”

Vavrek said with the new grant they will do the field work to find out what restoration techniques were used on oil brine spill sites.

“We are going to look at what was spilled and how much, and examine what restoration techniques were used and what the site is like,” Vavrek said. “This way we can find out if that restoration technique was successful or not.”

To help figure out what plants can be used to restore oil brine spill sites, Colgan said the grant he received would be used to do a broad survey to look at what plants have naturally re-colonized at Louisiana brine spill sites.

“So when spills do occur, we will have plants already matched and ready to go,” Colgan said.

Vavrek said the value of these grants is two-fold; one is helping Louisiana, the other is helping Tech.

“This will help reduce environmental impact and cost associated with oil and gas production in the state of Louisiana,” Vavrek said. “The symposium will be really good recognition for Tech to get our name out down South and attract students and new faculty.”