IPWR announces partnership with the National Center for Water Quality Research
July 21, 2008
The Institute for Public Health and Water Research (IPWR) and the National Center for Water Quality Research (NCWQR) at Heidelberg College have entered into a partnership committed to augmenting their respective missions. Dr. Jennie Ward Robinson, Executive Director of the IPWR and Dr. Gary Winston, Director of the NCWQR met on June 18, 2008 at the IPWR office in Chicago to outline this partnership.
Incorporated in 2005 as a not-for-profit, independent science and education organization, the mission of IPWR is to “improve public health through the consumption of quality drinking water.” Since its inception, the IPWR has successfully provided scientific direction, funds and support to investigators to encourage research and timely dissemination of scientific findings through publications and conferences. In its first three years the IPWR has become a world leader in dispersing information about water and health through discussions with appropriate interdisciplinary groups in public education and outreach. Major goals of the IPWR are “to identify and promote opportunities to construct an integrated research agenda; directly fund research to expand knowledge on water and health; and produce technical and non-technical information on water consumption and health.”
According to the IPWR, understanding the relationship between drinking water and good health is a “cornerstone of improved public health.” Along with pasteurization, sterilization and refrigeration of foods, vaccinations for childhood illnesses, and improvements in hygiene and sanitation, access to potable water is a critical ingredient for increasing the lifespan and general health and well-being of people. These developments, more than any other advancement in the field of medicine, have advanced human health.
Dr. Winston notes, “I first met Dr. Ward Robinson as an invited speaker at the inaugural conference of the IPWR in Houston, Texas in 2006.” The theme of that meeting was Water Contamination Events: Communicating with Consumers. At the time of this conference Dr. Winston was the Chief Toxicologist to the Israel Ministry of Health. Shortly thereafter, he learned that he had been elected to become the new Director of the National Center for Water Quality Research (NCWQR) at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, OH. One of his first acts, prior to leaving Israel, was to contact Dr. Ward Robinson because, “I knew there was enormous potential for collaboration between the IPWR and NCWQR.”
The mission of the NCWQR is to “support the sustainable use of our nation's water resources and the protection of human health and ecological integrity as they are affected by the quality of these resources.” Both Drs. Winston and Ward Robinson believe that the respective missions of their organizations mesh exquisitely. Through its mission NCWQR brings a 39 year history of water quality research at the watershed scale and has amassed the largest database in the country on tributary nutrient and sediment loadings. The databases are routinely used by USEPA, USGS, USDA and numerous academic institutions worldwide. NCWQR’s pesticides monitoring program was central to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s development of their Re-registration Eligibility Decision (RED) on Atrazine. This data used for development of the RED was also used for human and ecological risk assessment deliberations by EPA. Furthermore, NCWQR studies provided about 66% and 75%, respectively of the EPA position document and drinking water risk assessment data for Alachlor. The Center has continuously run a private well testing program, which extends to 25 States, for 22 years. These prodigious programs were honored by the 107th Congress, which designated Heidelberg Colleges Water Quality Laboratories as the National Center for Water Quality Research (107th Congressional Record).
Dr. Ward Robinson has more than 15 years of experience in research program development and administration. Her consummate skills in organizational psychology, leadership and management coupled with Dr. Winston’s scientific achievements as both a research biochemist/toxicologist and regulatory agency policy making are ideal compliments for undertaking initiatives related to drinking water and public health and well-being.
The commitment between the two organizations is to foster enhanced understanding of the interconnections between watershed health and human well-being by jointly sponsoring conferences and position papers with the theme of sustaining human well-being and improving the human condition through better recognition of water as a raw material for enterprise, a recreational vehicle, and an equal opportunity resource.