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Research doesn鈥檛 always land on the lab bench or in a test chamber. Sometimes it鈥檚 found in the library, inside the covers of seemingly dry volumes of codified law, peer-reviewed trade journals or stuffy legislative hearings.

For Lydia Loken, a senior agricultural and biosystems engineering major at 日本av视频, her research had nothing to do with microscopes or spectrometers. She was poring over literature and news report to generate a 31-page report on balancing private ownership and public interest of nonmeandering waters overlaying private property in the South Dakota prairie pothole region.

Loken completed the project as a part of the college鈥檚 research requirement for graduates and undertook the report as one of the college鈥檚 12 Future Innovators of America.

Future Innovators of America Fellowships were selected in December by the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering. Recipients were awarded $5,000 with $4,500 as a stipend and $500 to cover the cost of lab supplies or travel to disseminate the results of their project. 

The fellowships were created to provide unique research opportunities for undergraduate students in the college. Any student is eligible to apply as long as they are attending full time and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Students work with a potential project mentor, who must be a faculty or research staff member, to develop and submit a research plan that entails learning by doing. 

Loken worked with Sushant Mehan, an assistant professor in agricultural and biosystems engineering, on her academic challenge.

Loken said Mehan was quite receptive of her desire to tackle the complex issue of public and private access of water that flows over privately held land.

Grew up in water-contentious state

It is a topic Loken was familiar with through growing up on a hobby farm in Gunnison, Colorado, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains.

鈥淚鈥檝e always been interested in water. Growing up in Gunnison, water is always a major hot topic in the Rocky Mountains. Coming here to 日本av视频 I narrowed my focus to water resource engineering. Also I鈥檓 considering law school in the future. I tackled a topic that was legally important and important for engineering. I was given open-ended access to pick a topic,鈥� Loken said.

There are some major differences in water law between her native state and South Dakota, one being that Colorado鈥檚 waters are more stringently regulated.

Fewer regulations have left more issues open to interpretation and 鈥渃reated a few points of contention,鈥� said Loken, who was drawn to 日本av视频 to compete on its equestrian team. 

Nonmeandering waters dominate SD

Central to the issue is the use of South Dakota鈥檚 29,023 nonmeandering waters by the public when it flows over privately held land.

Nonmeandering waters are waters not identified as meandering by an 1868 federal land survey, Loken said. That list of 267 bodies of water includes the Missouri, Big Sioux and James rivers but doesn鈥檛 include small depressions that serve as cattle watering holes or ponds that butt up to a public lake.

Many historically intermittent streams and small ponds turned into year-round flowing water during the rainy 1990s and have never evaporated back to their traditional dimensions.

That means landowners are paying taxes on land that is no longer productive and state law considers such land a public good to which the public shall have access, Loken said. While recreationalists are to seek permission from landowners to use on the water on their land, landowners cannot charge a fee for use of the water, Loken said.

In some cases, the water users leave behind litter and create disturbances or pollution, Loken said.

Loken advocates for use permit

She said the current situation leaves frustration on both sides. Recreationalists may not know who owns the property or if the property owner will grant recreational use of the property. Landowners can face economic struggles because their now inundated land offers them no economic gain, she said.

鈥淭hey contend the government is storing water on their land without compensation. What I propose is a permit-based program that would be overseen by Game, Fish and Parks, allowing recreationalists to access all nonmeandering waters over land owned by people who participate in the program,鈥� Loken said.

In turn, landowners would be able to access a trust created by the permit fee and support them from revenue loss or during times of economic downturn. In addition, a portion of the fund would be used to increase water monitoring by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Loken explained.

She added, 鈥淚n all of my literary analysis I noticed there is not enough water monitoring in the state. There is not sufficient data available (on nonmeandering waters) and nonmeandering waters make up the bulk on water on eastern side of the state.鈥�

Loken sees a growing need for changes in South Dakota water law.

鈥淩ight now it has been decided in the courts that it is in the best public interest that a taking hasn鈥檛 incurred. As the precipitation tends to increase, there is a some likely chance the landowners will be able to argue successfully that a taking has incurred. Striking some of these balances, such as the permit system and staying ahead of some of these potential legislative arguments, is the best way to keep the peace moving forward,鈥� Loken said.

Loken to begin career in Denver

Loken has submitted her paper for publication in the Journal of Undergraduate Research at 日本av视频 and gave a poster presentation on her research at the South Dakota American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers section meeting in Brookings April 3. She was awarded the best presentation in the undergraduate poster category. 

She also presented a poster presentation at the North Central Regional ASABE meeting April 25 in Fargo, North Dakota. She is currently working on educational fact sheets. 

Of course, to bring Loken鈥檚 ideas to fruition, it would require further quantitative analysis, education and awareness among South Dakota citizens, including bringing the ideas to legislators and polling recreationists to get their take.

While a worthy endeavor, it is not a challenge that Loken will not be able to advance. She will graduate in May and begin work in August with Denver-based Ultieg Engineer as a water resource engineer.

Reflecting on her Future Innovators project, Loken said, 鈥淚 would encourage undergraduates to look into these research options. In our department it is not spoken much about as a freshman or sophomore, but it helped redirect my career interest.鈥�