Thursday, October 12, 2023
Grant awarded to develop commercialization expertise Kennedy Thomason News & Lifestyle Editor
Oklahoma. The grant, funded by the United States Economic Development Agency’s University Center’s program, will give commercial grant assistant to startup companies in the energy, aerospace & The Innovation Foundation at OSU autonomous systems, and biotechnology has received a $650,000 grant for com- and life sciences sectors through The mercialization expertise in northeastern Innovation Foundation and its Cowboy
Innovation Accelerator program. Elizabeth Pollard, executive director of The Innovation Foundation, said the grant will expand OSU’s reach throughout northeastern Oklahoma. “The Innovation Foundation at OSU focuses on maximizing applied research and the commercialization of innovation. The return allows for further
investment in research and development at OSU and across our state,” Pollard said. “This new award will allow The Innovation Foundation and its Cowboy Innovation Accelerator the ability to expand its commercial grant assistance to innovation-based startup companies in the northeastern region of Oklahoma.” See Commercialization on 6
EPA granted OSU $2M to research enhanced aquifer recharge Luisa Clausen Editor-in-Chief Oklahoma is the world’s center of groundwater and Todd Halihan and with a $2 million grant, he and other scientists will find the best way to get the water back into the ground safely. On Sept. 21, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Halihan, a geology professor at OSU, was the recipient of the grant that aims to study the use and risks of enhanced aquifer recharge to improve groundwater availability and quality. Halohan and his team will count on the collaboration from Oka’ Institute at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, and Texas State University in San Marcos to develop monitoring and analysis strategies for rural EAR structures. The institutes involved got together on Oct. 5 to celebrate the grant. The celebration put people from OSU, ECU, EPA, the Oka’ Institute, the Chickasaw Nation and the City of Ada in one place to show the impact of a collaboration among local, national and international impacts. Duane Smith, the executive director of the Oka’ Institute, said 40% of the drinking water in the United States comes from karst aquifers and said Halihan will focus his research on the karstic Arbuckle-Simpson in Ada. “So, when EPA looks at the ArbuckleSimpson, it’s not just for the city of Ada — it’s about world-class research that affects many millions of people across the United States. It’s why this research is so important.” Hailhan said Oklahoma is the world’s center of groundwater. The professor highlighted the long history of Oklahoma’s involvement with groundwater, including the Robert S. Kerr Environment Research Center in Ada and OSU’s Frank Eaton who dug wells with a shovel and dynamite. “It’s got the National Center for groundwater research sitting in Ada,” Halihan said. “You’ve got Oklahoma State that’s spent decades dealing with groundwater, including the interaction between groundwater and the petroleum industry. You’ve got major organizations like the American Association of Petroleum Geoscientists. The Nation-
al Ground Water Association is in Ohio, but they like Oklahoma so much they partnered with us to do NGWA University at Oklahoma State. People don’t realize Oklahoma has all this stuff, and Oklahoma has a focus on groundwater.” The people joining Halihan as co-principal investigators on the research grant are Dr. Sabrina Beckmann, OSU Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics; Drs. Tingying Xu and Yipeng Zhang, OSU Boone Pickens School of Geology; Dr. Robert Agnew, OSU Fire Protection and Safety; Dr. Robert Mace, TSU Department of Geography and Environmental Studies; and Dr. Guy Sewell, ECU (emeritus faculty) and the Oka’ Institute. Kris Patton, director of Chickasaw Nation Natural Resources, said that with the caliber of the scientists in the room for the celebration, there is no better team on the field. “This is a monumental day for East Central, but also for the community around us, and working together is the key aspect,” Patton said. Over the years, The Chickasaw Nation and the City of Ada have committed significant funds to water quality and availability in the region, bolstering the efforts of ECU, EPA and now OSU. Greg Sayles, director at EPA’s Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, said this is a challenging time for water availability. Sayles said this work will help secure water quantity. “But we’ll also study the vulnerability of that water so we can make good decisions and good plans ahead on how to use aquifer recharge responsibly and take care of the next generation,” Sayles said. The next step for the team is to meet with stakeholders and instrument research sites to watch storm events move through the subsurface. Halihan and his team will monitor natural and enhanced recharge locations for patterns associated with changes in water quantity. After that, they will evaluate artificially created recharge structures to determine how effective they can be in increasing recharge and determining if we can quantify the amount to credit landowners with increasing recharge to the aquifer. See EPA on 7
Tribune News Service Immigrants from Venezuela cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States on Sept. 30, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Police could arrest undocumented immigrants under bill advancing in Texas Senate Philip Jankowski The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas — State and local police would have the unprecedented power to arrest immigrants who enter the country illegally under a bill that took a critical step forward Tuesday. A committee voted 3-2 along party lines to advance the bill to the Texas Senate for a vote expected later this week. The bill would make entering the United States illegally a criminal offense of up to 180 days in jail. Gov. Greg Abbott named the proposed law as one of six he has demanded from lawmakers during a special legislative session that began Monday. Police and state troopers could arrest suspected unauthorized immigrants, a power that is reserved for federal law enforcement and border authorities, under the bill. If passed and signed into law as is, that could set Texas up for a constitutional legal battle
destined for the Supreme Court. Sen. Brian Birdwell, RGranbury, who presented it on Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Border Security, brought the proposal forward at a time when Texas has seen an increase in migrants coming through from the Mexican border. “We are trying to provide a deterrent to those that would try to cross across the river and make them pay a price in time and convenience for the cartels plying their wares into the state of Texas,” Birdwell said. During Tuesday’s hearing, the bill faced pushback for its potential to overload county jails with thousands of new offenders. Dallas County Assistant Administrator Charles Reed testified that counties such as Dallas would bear the brunt of the costs of the new criminal offense. “We are absolutely terrified that this bill will take us over our cap — our allowable capacity for our jail,” which would trigger significant fines, Reed said. “It is going to force us to raise property taxes,” he added. A financial analysis of the
bill notes that the cost to both the state and local governments “cannot be determined.” The Texas Department of Public Safety estimates that as many as 1.5 million people could enter the country illegally through Texas this year. Those immigrants would be exposed to possible prosecution by local authorities under the law. Steve McCraw, director of DPS, testified that roughly 72,000 immigrants could be arrested by his agency under the proposed law per year. That alone would have the potential to overwhelm county jails and does not take into account how many immigrants local police could arrest. Birdwell said he recognized the enormity of the power it would give state and local police to arrest immigrants in the country illegally. However, he said the focus would be on individuals with criminal records or those who might be easily identified as part of a cartel. McCraw agreed. “We don’t put children in jail,” McCraw said. See Immigrants on 8