Author Archives: Laura Toran

I gave a presentation at the Villanova Stormwater Conference in October about the benefits of long term monitoring on the I-95 stormwater basins.  I was joined in the panel discussion by Dr. Robert Traver of Villanova and Edwina Lam and … Continue reading →

Two publications were accepted over the past month and a half: Pope, G.G., Nyquist, J.E., and Toran, L. 2022. Time lapse resistivity monitoring of a simulated runoff test in a bioswale located in Philadelphia, PA.  Journal of Sustainable Water in … Continue reading →

Dr. Jon Nyquist and I performed an electrical resistivity survey along one of the stormwater basins next to I-95 to direct infiltration measurements in heterogeneous urban soil. We identified an extensive clay layer (blue regions) with a few pockets of … Continue reading →

Ashleigh and I preformed a follow up LiDAR survey at Roychester Park this month. The previous survey was conducted before the stormwater control measures were installed, thanks to former student Liz Cushman and Dr. Jon Nyquist. We performed the follow … Continue reading →

The dust collector we installed at Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust on Pennypack Creek had an interruption in sampling while they drilled geothermal wells onsite. That wasn’t the ambient dust we were trying to collect! We put the dust collector back … Continue reading →

I got to visit the Burren in Ireland this month! This famous karst area was created by deglaciation and deforestation removing the soil to expose limestone to weathering. That makes it a relatively young karst area. Also full of wild … Continue reading →

We tried to conduct one last ERT survey before Gina moved away from Philadelphia, but the water was too high in the Pennypack Creek!

I was asked to testify about the impacts of road salts on area streams for the Philadelphia City Council, who are considering alternative strategies for de-icing. Road salt has contributed to a steady increase in chloride concentrations in area streams, … Continue reading →

This month grad student Bojan Milinic and I collected urban soil cores for PNNLs 1000 Soils campaign. The researchers are trying to understand carbon cycling and soil microbiology and needed an urban site to include in their study. We collected … Continue reading →