George Mason University’s Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge is raising funds for a new dock and a boat to enhance its environmental research and education efforts. Dr. Chris Jones, the academic director of the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center, discussed the initiative at The Health of Our Waterways Gala event on June 28, 2024, held at the science center in Belmont Bay.
The new dock will enable students and researchers to access the Potomac River for hands-on learning experiences. Dr. Jones emphasized the importance of fieldwork, stating, “Rather than just giving lectures or showing videos about sampling and studying aquatic organisms in their habitat, we go out and collect them, experience them, make measurements in the field, and demonstrate the concepts that they’ve learned in lab and lecture in the real world.”
The center’s current location poses challenges due to shallow waters extending 500 feet from the shore, making it difficult to launch boats. Dr. Jones explained, “We ended up here by a process. Let’s just say that we needed donation of land on the water, and there was not a lot of thought put into how would we access the water once we were there.”
The proposed dock will include a long raised walkway to deeper water, with five boat slips, including one at channel depth for larger vessels. “We have to have a long gangway, essentially just a raised walkway to get out to near where the water is deep enough to have boats,” said Dr. Jones. The project is estimated to cost between $1.2 million and $1.4 million. An initial architecture and engineering study is expected to cost $300,000.
In addition to the dock, the center aims to acquire a trailer-able boat, costing around $70,000, to facilitate access to different parts of the Potomac River, including areas near the Chesapeake Bay. “The boat that we’re asking for does not require a pier. It is trailerable, so we can keep it on a trailer out here and drive near where we want to sample, launch it, and go out and sample,” Dr. Jones said.
This boat will allow for more reliable sampling and studying of diverse aquatic environments. Dr. Jones highlighted the research opportunities, particularly in studying stratification in estuaries and the impact of anoxic (low or no oxygen) conditions on bacteria. “Up here, the river is well mixed from the surface to bottom. But in a classic estuary, you have stratification where the freshwater glides over the salt water, leading to potential anoxic conditions.”
The university has already received $100,000 from the College of Science dean for the initial design study but requires additional funding to complete the project. The center’s efforts to enhance its research infrastructure aim to provide students with valuable hands-on learning opportunities and contribute to understanding aquatic ecosystems.
