Upgrade of Sanitation and Communication Systems at Shoals Marine Laboratory

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Cornell Univeristy is awarded a grant to improve the Shoals Marine Laboratory (www.sml.cornell.edu), a seasonal field research station on Appledore Island, Maine. Wastewater treatment will be upgraded to increase capacity for research and training in a unique intellectual community focused on undergraduates. Installation of commercial composting toilets, together with a septic field built in 2009, will: 1) eliminate ocean discharge of wastes as mandated by Maine DEP; 2) reduce freshwater use; 3) reduce energy use; and 4) reduce operating costs. Funds recovered from reduced costs will be reinvested to support academic programs. The mission of Shoals Marine Laboratory is education, research, and conservation training for undergraduates. Appledore Island, a 95 acre island six miles southeast of Portsmouth, NH in the Gulf of Maine, is an extraordinary physical location that offers easy access to intertidal, subtidal, oceanic, and terrestrial habitats and opportunities to study sustainable engineering and integration of power, water, and wastewater systems. Operated by Cornell and the University of New Hampshire since 1966, the station has an alumni base of 6,200. Each summer, ~170 undergraduates from all over the world enroll in ~20 credit courses. The internship programs target undergraduate researchers, engineering students, and conservation biologists with a successful proactive approach to diversity and inclusiveness. The facility serves long-term ongoing major research and survey programs, conserves Appledore's rich environments, and provides an oceanic platform for AIRMAP's atmospheric observatory (http://airmap.unh.edu/). Low environmental impact technologies are used not only to protect Appledore Island and surrounding waters but also to demonstrate them to all island visitors.