Each day, employees of the Utah Water Research Laboratory cross a bridge over the Logan River to get to their offices and labs.

The rush and mist of the river is a refreshing start and end to each workday, but it is also a tangible reminder of the UWRL’s mission: to find solutions to Utah’s water problems.

“Water is such an important resource in Utah,” said Mac McKee, director of the UWRL.  “The idea of investing in water research at the university level took root first in Utah, and it helped propel the recognition of the need for the U.S. to come to terms with emerging water problems.”

Projects at the URWL run the gamut—water efficiency, conservation, system management, water quality, treatment for water supplies, wastewater—and most of them are targeted at solving an existing or emerging problem.

“Our primary focus is on water problems in Utah, but our base is in research—solving tomorrow’s problems,” said McKee.  “We don’t compete with the private sector to solve problems that everyone already knows the answer to.”

In the late 1950s, the UWRL grew from the idea of Dean F. Peterson, USU’s dean of the College of Engineering at the time, and Utah Governor George Dewey Clyde, who began development of the first large water research facility in 1959. 

It wasn’t until 1964 that the U.S. Water Resources Research Act was signed, authorizing water research centers in each U.S. state and territory.  Consequently, the UWRL predates all other 53 centers.

Not only is the UWRL looking to solve water problems in Utah, but it also has one of the widest international reaches of all USU research.  Water projects, for instance, have taken McKee to the Philippines, Samoa, Fiji, India, Sri Lanka, Albania, Uzbekistan, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, the UAE, and Egypt.

“Water problems in the Western world are insignificant compared to developing nations,” said McKee.  “Intellectually, the interesting problems are the ones overseas, and it’s cool to be part of the solution.  Politically, these are problems we need to solve.  Many of the world’s conflicts involve water, and solving them means that another piece is pulled off the negotiation table, paving the way, in some small part, for better relationships.”

International research is also closely tied to the quality of education being achieved at the UWRL.

“Utah State University is fundamentally in the business of educating,” said McKee.  “Our graduates, when they leave USU, will be in competition with people from around the world, and we have to acknowledge that competitive role.  We can’t do that if we don’t know what’s going on beyond our borders.”
And, when it comes to competition, the UWRL is winning the job race for its 100-plus students that work and do research there.

“The students who work in the hydraulics bay at the lab typically begin with some basic skill—like carpentry or welding—and they wind up assuming quite a level of responsibility,” said McKee.  “When they graduate, they can say that they’ve seen the principles in a classroom and have actually studied the real behavior of fluid in a major lab.  They really know what makes water move because they’ve made it happen.  That’s why our graduates typically get six to eight job offers when they finish school.  There are several firms that aggressively compete for our hydraulics students.”