Land & Environment

Studying Water from China to Cache Valley

By Sarah West
Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2005, in The Utah Statesman
 
 
Kevin Randall, a senior majoring in hydrogeology, is already making a difference in the environment with his valuable knowledge about water, even before he's graduated.
 
He said he's in between undergraduate and graduate status, which is called split form, because he takes both types of classes.

As a freshman, Randall said he took an intro to geology class taught by Tom Lachmar that he really enjoyed. After his first year of college, Randall said he went to Peru on an LDS mission where "being in the Andes, it was really neat to see that aspect of geology. It was fun to wet my whistle on what there is out there."

After he came back from his mission, Randall took a few more courses and thought geology was what he really wanted to do.

He said this is the kind of job where he'll get to spend a lot of time in the field and spend a fair amount of time in the office analyzing and preparing data and results.

"It's a great job to be able to get out and play with dirt and trucks and rocks."

Randall said this summer he's going to analyze springs that are either slowing in flow or have dried up in the southeastern part of Cache Valley. He said the question is whether the large volume wells that have been recently put in on the east side of the valley have been affecting the springs. He said it's going to be his job to monitor these springs long term and do geo-chemical analysis of whether these are being affected by a nearby well, or if it's unrelated. He said there are a few theories right now of what's going on, but until he gets data, it's just speculation.

Peter Kolesar, associate professor of geology, said the work Randall is going to be doing this summer is going to be an important contribution.

"I don't have one single driving goal. It's [hydrogeology] the type of career where you can really contribute to society," said Randall. "That's not just my opinion, but water determines where people can live. Water determines where a city can be developed. Everything, especially in the West, is determined by water. It's a valuable knowledge to have."
 
Randall said he's not limited with the jobs he can get because there are lots of routes he could go with hydrogeology. He said he could do environmental consulting, which is basically the contamination of aquifers, which "is becoming a lot more of an issue in our society." He also said oil is a good route to go as a geologist.

"You never know where life is going to take you but I enjoy it enough that I would enjoy doing geology for all of my career and as a hobby."

As a member of the geology club, Randall said he put together a charity racquetball tournament and raffle on Feb. 4 to help the survivors of the Logan family who lost some of their family in the fire on Jan. 19. He said his connection was his wife, who teaches second grade at Ellis Elementary. She teaches the young boy whose mother and siblings were killed in the fire and Randall decided to help the family out.

With the help of the geology club, even with no current president, the racquetball tournament had 23 participants and they raised $365.

He said, "It's not a huge amount of money, but it'll help them [the family] out a little bit."

Randall said he was amazed at how quickly people responded. He also said most of the donations were made by people in the department, like undergraduates, graduates, and professors.

Associate Professor of geology Tom Lachmar said Randall is "a bright fellow who is also quite humble. He's very hard working, has a good sense of humor and doesn't take himself too seriously."

Randall was in China for one month from July to Aug. of 2004, doing his senior thesis, where he got to study in the middle of what he said was "the driest climate you can imagine." He said he was also able to help graduate students while in China and see what they were doing and learn about their projects as well as his own.

Randall has a large range of responsibilities for the department as a lab technician, including sample processing and lab work.
 
Randall is originally from Mendon and loves living in Logan with the change of seasons and the mountains but wouldn't mind living in Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, or Montana. He said he loves the West.

"I've got to stay close to mountains."

In addition to geology, Randall said he likes to hike and plays racquetball about twice a week. He said he's also been building an 18-foot kayak for three years, which has turned out to be a 500 hour project. He also said he likes to cross country and downhill ski.

Randall said his favorite thing about Utah State University is "even though a lot of people cry out about tuition going up, I think you get a really good education compared to the amount of money that you pay, I really do, because there are a lot of other schools out there where you're going to pay a lot more and probably get the same level of education. We are really lucky to have a good school where we have good professors and a good student body."

Randall and his wife are expecting a little boy in the coming week.

sarahwest@cc.usu.edu
Kevin Randall

Media Credit: Photo by Jamie Crane. Kevin Randall explains his plans for the summer which include studying the effects new wells have had on streams in the area.

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