Water Quality in the St. Joseph River

Hello Community,

            My name is Antonio Wheeler and I am a senior at Western Michigan University. I am majoring in biology and have recently decided to minor in anthropology. I am now registered in Dr. Nassaney’s Anthropology in the Community class. Our goal as a class is to provide research and design services to promote anthropological knowledge about the St. Joseph River community. This will include economic, social, political and recreational roles of the rivers and waterways. In August, our research will be displayed in a panel at Fort St. Joseph open house.

            My group including Megan, Dion and I were chosen to research contemporary uses of the St. Joseph River in today’s community. Our subtopics will explore issues such as dam usage as an energy source, recreational use, and water quality and how the community chooses to use them. To gain more information about the subject, we will meet with Community Development Director in Niles, Sanya Philips. This will give us relevant information to use on our panel board. My focus within the group is to research water quality in the St. Joseph River.

            I am exploring if the water is good enough to drink and use on a daily basis. I will look at how the community gets their water, either directly from the river or does it come from some other water source. I hope to find information on contaminates that may be present in the water and how the community can approach the situation. With my research I want to build awareness in the community on the water that is being used and consumed.

-Antonio Wheeler