By Ryan Toomey
I want to summarize my experience first by thanking AHS and Damian Gosch as well as Marla Odom for selecting me and serving as my contacts. The Leonard Halpenny Internship is as unique as internships come by requiring the student to work for four different companies. This is what enticed me to apply, and I can safely say it was the best decision of my academic career.
I began work with Montgomery & Associates with Marla Odom as my supervisor. Her expertise and patience allowed me to get situated comfortably. I learned new tricks with excel, helped review loads of data, and became acquainted with the cadastral system. I became familiarized with various hydrologic computer applications (Grapher, Surfer, and AQTESOLV). In addition, I worked with Gary Woodard and helped find a trend between pet dogs and turf (grass) in home owners’ yards. I was fortunate to help Gary in his study which yielded useful information dealing with water use and homeowner trends. Learning about the amount of data available was the most surprising to me. It seems to be unlimited.
The next company in line was Tucson Water Company. I worked under Dick Thompson and shadowed him for a few days. We toured the Sweetwater Wetlands site as well as SAVSARP/CAVSARP where he taught me about the data loggers used at their research sites. I spent a day with Ricardo and Mario in the field as well. We pumped wells affected by TARP and worked with a team of consultants. A few days later I spent time at Sweetwater Wetlands with Ricardo assembling and installing mosquito traps. Bruce Springstein was also kind enough to take me out to the Roger Rd. Wastewater Treatment Plant. The equipment and processes were all new to me. It was amazing that such large and important equipment can be controlled with ease. The software at the operations desk was truly user-friendly, with respect to the complexity and functionality of what it was controlling. My favorite part of the tour was looking at the grid to see where the water from the plant was being sent to.
Next, I worked with Evan Canfield and Akitsu Kimoto at Pima County Flood Control. I was able to tune up my GIS/ArcMap skills as well as my excel experience. I was fortunate enough to even present at a meeting for the Living River Project in Tucson. The charts I helped put together showed a spatial analysis of the Santa Cruz River in relation to water quality and vegetation data. My memo describing my charts and findings is currently in progress.
Lastly, I worked at GeoSystems Analysis under Phil Calabrese and Mike Yao. My work was spent in the lab aiding with soil physics tests, on the computer analyzing images of ore samples, and construction of lab equipment. I received a real project proposal and budget and was able to review most of the SOP’s for the various lab tests. Everything was hands-on, which I especially was fond of. I was able to see how the functions and terms learned within the classroom reflected over to the real world. Soil testing is crucial. Mining and building operations need these tests to receive confirmation to begin work. To see how these tests are run behind the scenes was enticing and I am currently using this experience in my soil physics course this semester.
After completing the required 200 hours, I can truly say that this internship was a once in a lifetime experience. I was able to work in four completely different environments and experience the diversity of work involved in the field of Hydrology. The internship helped confirm that I was in the right field and has motivated me to work harder in the classroom. My thanks go out to everyone involved with the internship process and I am proud to have been able to represent all four companies as well as AHS for this period of time.