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Jim Bauder definitely digs his work (continued)
A complex relationship
Science shows a healthy soil as one in which organic debris, bacteria, fungi and insects mingle with geologically derived minerals, air spaces and pockets of water. Bauder's favorite description of healthy soil likens it to wadded-up paper. Wad up pieces of paper and throw them into a heap. Dribble water onto the heap, and some will trickle through and some will pool in the complex shapes created by the wad. This rich combination of living organisms, complex shapes and minerals provides the aggregate from which crops and native plants draw sustenance.
Water from a coalbed methane drilling operations can change the soil, turning it into something more akin to a stack of paper that sheds water.
As Bauder explains it, coalbed methane is trapped in water-saturated coal seams. The water is rich in minerals. It's not as salty as an ocean, but it's salty enough that when the water is discharged onto the ground or into nearby streams, it adds to the overall saltiness of both. The sodium within the salt breaks down the soil's complex structure, and the soil forms a crust strong enough to break plant stems, inhibit plant germination and emergence, and slow further water infiltration.
Over the years, as excess water from methane production became more of an issue, Bauder and his students and coworkers tested ideas about what landowners and methane companies could do to turn the water into something useful for land owners, mineral owners, communities and water rights holders downstream.
Three years after MSU's Plant Growth Center opened in 1987, Bauder and his students were hauling soil columns there from eastern Montana to set up experiments. His team worked to determine how much and what kind of salts in water and soil are compatible with keeping the complex systems functioning long-term. Under controlled conditions, his team developed data on how plant species tolerate and adapt to salinity. That information provided the rationale for salinity water standards. The team was the first to look closely at alfalfa seedling sensitivity to salinity as it related to the plant's survival. They also experimented with ways to get the salt out of the water so the water from coalbed methane could help, rather than hinder, downstream users.
"The coalbed methane research has been the burr under my saddle," Bauder says. "I could have done other research that might have been more profound in the scientific community, but this was the work that needed to be done, because there is a new audience to educate."
And what does Bauder do when he's not working?
"My wife and I love scuba diving. I love to be totally immersed in water!" he says.
Visit the following links for more information related to this article.
Jim Bauder receives national awards
Coal bed methane background
Frequently asked questions
Montana's water quality: the good, the bad and the beautiful
Recent professional publications by Jim Bauder
Photo gallery of MSU water quality work
Additional photos of Jim Bauder: photo 1, photo 2
> Fall 2007 Contents
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