Staff Profile: Jerry Schoen

Cars often leak oil, antifreeze and other pollutants. Rain and melting snow wash this pollution off of roads and parking lots into streams, rivers, and other bodies of water. Stormwater runoff can also contain salt used on roads, and pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizer used on lawns and farms. The results are unsafe drinking water, fewer places to swim in summer, and harm to fish and other aquatic life.

But there are solutions to the problem of polluted stormwater runoff. Distributing information on these solutions is the job of Jerry Schoen of UMass Amherst's Massachusetts Stormwater Evaluation Project.

"Starting in the 1960s, a lot of people worked on cleaning up sewage treatment plants and factories that caused water pollution. We have done a pretty good job with that," Schoen said. "Now stormwater runoff is a major focus."

The Project's web site is used by companies that build homes, commercial buildings, roads, and parking lots, and by the municipal agencies who review these proposed projects. The companies and agencies want to learn how to comply with state laws that set limits on stormwater runoff pollution.

A database of stormwater treatment technologies at the web site includes information from product vendors. The searchable database includes a catalogue of various "Best Management Practices," their intended use and, significantly, the status of verification of their performance claims. Technologies submitted to MASTEP undergo a performance data review process before being added to the database.

There are three main ways to reduce stormwater pollution: first, site planning (for example, building close to an existing road to minimize the need for new road or driveway construction); second, "non-structural controls" (for example, using less road salt); and, third, "structural controls" like installing concrete devices similar to home septic tanks.

Schoen is also director of the UMass Amherst Massachusetts Water Watch Partnership, which provides training and other assistance to volunteers who monitor water quality on the state's lakes, rivers and estuaries.

Some of the services available are:

    * Development of standardized protocols for volunteers' measurement of a variety of physical, chemical, and biological water quality parameters;
    * Production of manuals and publications and videos on monitoring methods;
    * Consultations on study designs for individual watershed monitoring surveys;
    * A quality control program for field sampling and laboratory methods;
    * Workshops to train citizen groups to sample, analyze, interpret data and present findings to diverse audiences; and
    * Monitoring equipment on loan.

The stormwater and volunteer water monitoring projects are both projects of the UMass Amherst Environmental Institute.

Schoen has been working at UMass Amherst since 1991, when he was hired to run the volunteer water monitoring project. Since 2004, most of his time has been devoted to the stormwater project.

Before coming to UMass, Schoen worked for a small software development company in Williamstown, Mass. He earned a BA in English from UMass Amherst and a Master's in Resource Administration at Antioch University in Keene, New Hampshire. His father was in the military, so the first 14 years of Schoen's life were spent all over the nation. From age 14 until about 30, he lived in Williamstown, Mass. He has two daughters from previous marriages. He also has one granddaughter.

Schoen lives in New Salem, near Quabbin Reservoir. He enjoys fly fishing, hiking, and cross country skiing.
"My work helps the public understand science. That will have a positive effect on water quality," he said. "It's satisfying."

More information on the stormwater project is here.