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Photo: Staci Martin-Wolfe
Fred Davis, a Kansan senior staff writer and advanced reporting student, asks Chris Mammoliti a question about the watershed during a boat tour of Clinton Lake.

Professor Rick Musser took his environmental reporting course to Clinton Lake for a lesson aboard a floating classroom on the first day of summer school Tuesday.

The Lawrence Journal World, including its website ljworld.com and Sunflower Cablevision Channel 6, has agreed to partner with the University of Kansas School of Journalism in an in-depth reporting project that examines water quality issues in the Wakarusa River watershed. The area feeds Clinton Reservoir, a major source of water for the city of Lawrence and surrounding communities.

This project will unfold during the summer and will produce a multimedia report on the issues affecting water quality in the area. Students will work with editors to determine which issues merit major coverage and then research, report and write stories, scripts and design graphics to tell the stories to the Douglas County audience.

Funding from a WaterLINK mini-grant made it possible for the School of Journalism and Mass Communications to schedule this limited enrollment, specialized course without the budget constraints that tend to limit summer offerings to classes that serve broad numbers of news and strategic communications students.

Chris Mammoliti, a biologist and partner in the Watershed Institute Inc., provided information about various effects of the Clinton dam on the biological systems in the watershed.

Aimee Polson a coordinator for the Kaw Valley Heritage Alliance, and one of the cooperating partners in the grant, suggested Mammoliti as guest expert and helped arrange the tour at Clinton.

It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny morning and the students agreed this was the best first day of class ever — despite being stranded in the middle of the lake with a dead battery before Mammoliti's WaveRunner escort roared to their rescue.