FT. PIERCE, FL -- After an eight month stay in the Indian River Lagoon, Kilroy is hitting the road.
"Kilroy" is the name for a water monitoring device developed by Dr. Edie Widder, founder of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association in Ft. Pierce.
The device is the size of a large coffee mug mounted on metal feet. Kilroy is a series of circuits encased in plastic, powered by the sun, and designed to measure water quality, temperature, wave dynamics and more.
In February, Widder deployed 10 Kilroys in the Indian River Lagoon as part of a pilot program. The Kilroys were linked via cell phone technology to her laptop, which she could monitor daily from her lab in Ft. Pierce.
"I was very excited to log onto my computer every day and just see what was going on," she said.
She said Kilroy did a good job of monitoring the water quality in the lagoon, but not a good enough job of determining where pollution was coming from.
"The thing we learned which was most critical was we needed to improve the flow meter in order to have the information we need for this tracking issue," she said.
Widder says tracking pollution is the key to enforcing the Clean Water Act, and identifying ways to protect local waterways.
She says her engineers managed to fine tune Kilroy and improve its sensors. But the economic downturn brought her project in the lagoon to a halt. Last month she had to pull all 10 Kilroy units from the Indian River Lagoon after losing her state funding.
She intends to deploy one unit in the northern portion of the lagoon and she's monitoring another test unit in the Florida Keys.
Next month, Widder and Kilroy will hit the road to tackle the troubled Chesapeake Bay.
"The Chesapeake Bay is an area of great natural interest," said Widder. "They’ve had horrendous problems in terms of farm waste and pollutants and run offs. The feeling is if we can’t fix this we’re not going to be able to fix anything."
Widder has high hopes for Kilroy. She's hoping local governments will see its effectiveness and invest in more of the units, which she says can be produced at a fraction of the cost of technology governments currently use.
Widder says she won't stop until there are Kilroy sensors lining every coast.
"I sat back and thought what can I do to protect the ocean I love and this to me seems like the solution," she said.
