Northwestern University chemistry professor Franz Geiger and a small group of interns will collaborate with Groundswell and stakeholders on Navajo Nation to create a rich new website with information about the quality of water on Navajo Nation.

This new, interactive website will incorporate a large US EPA dataset with photos and video and will be useful to Navajo residents looking for information about their local water supplies.

The US EPA made extensive measurements of water sources in the late 1990s (many of which were contaminated by nearby Cold War-era uranium mining), but the wealth of data they produced has not been available in an easily-understandable web format for residents of Navajo Nation. This project will solve that problem and help fill a void of reliable information about water quality in Navajo communities.

In addition to the design and programming of the new website and all the data inputting that this entails, this project will also include collaboration and outreach with Navajos to ensure the usefulness of this groundbreaking new website. For participating Northwestern chemistry student interns, this project will serve as a prime example of chemistry making a tangible impact in people’s lives.

The website will be publicly accessible in September 2010.

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