Legislative Mandate* for DRI

• Foster and conduct fundamental scientific,

economic, social or educational investigations and

applied research for industry, governmental or

private agencies or individuals.

• Encourage and foster a desire in students and

faculty to conduct research.

• Discover and develop talent for conducting

research.

• Acquire and disseminate knowledge related to the

projects undertaken.

• And to promote all research within the system

generally.

“To contribute more effectively to the security of the nation and to promote the general welfare of the State

of Nevada and its citizens through the development of educational and scientific research, the Board of

Regents may establish… the Desert Research Institute.”

The primary purposes of the Institute are to:

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*(1959) NRS 396.795, 396.7951

Entrepreneurial Culture and World Class Facilities

• ~551 employees (331 FTE) with ~157 research faculty

• ~56 employees (10%) receive state salary support (administrative in nature)

• Non-tenure / soft-money structure:

• Faculty are not tenured and generate their own salaries

(no state-funded positions)

• Faculty bring ~$40M into Nevada’s economy

• Direct return on state-funded investment is $4.5-to-$1

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• Over 60 specialized labs & research facilities.

• DRI invests ~ $1.6M annually in non-state

dollars for support of UNR and UNLV

graduate students.

• DRI maintains primary campuses in Reno and

Las Vegas and two satellite research facilities in

Boulder City and Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Research Structure3

The range of DRI’s research extends

from the ice of Antarctica to the

impoverished countryside of Africa, but

some of the most significant work by

DRI scientists takes place in Nevada.

From the deserts of the Great Basin and

mountain watersheds in the Sierra, to the

atmosphere of the Las Vegas Valley, the

rivers and streams serving agriculture and

human consumption across the state,

historical sites and the forests and shrub

lands of the state’s diverse ecosystems.

Air

Land & Life

Water

Nevada National Security Site (NNSS)

DRI provides environmental characterization, restoration, and

monitoring expertise, cultural resources evaluations, and

support of nationally important missions of the U.S. Department

of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, and has

done so for more than 40 years.

Scope of scientific support on the Nevada National Security

Site, formerly the Nevada Test Site, includes: • Prehistoric and historic archaeology, Cold War archaeology,

historic building evaluations and documentation

• Environmental characterization and evaluation of contaminated

soil sites and processes such as fire that may affect them

• Groundwater investigations and computer modeling for water

supply and contamination issues

• Environmental monitoring in surrounding communities

• Stockpile stewardship and nonproliferation

Measuring runoff at a soil siteImpact:

Supporting DOE in protection of health and

environment of Nevada, while also contributing

to success of ongoing missions.

Location: Southern Nevada Primary Funding: Federal

DRI archaeologists examine the

tunnel where the world’s first

contained underground nuclear

test took place in 1957.

DRI model for groundwater flow under

an underground nuclear test area

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Community Environmental Monitoring Program

DRI’s work began as nuclear testing moved underground, with

DRI providing a strong geology and groundwater focus aimed at

characterizing subsurface environments that would contain

nuclear blasts.

• DRI conducted some of the earliest assessments of radionuclide

contaminant migration and helped establish monitoring programs.

• The community monitoring program, founded in 1981, is a network of

29 monitoring stations in communities surrounding and downwind of

the National Security Site, formerly the Nevada Test Site.

• Sites include a full suite of weather instrumentation in addition

to radiation monitoring sensors, state-of-the-art electronic data

collectors, and communications hardware enabling updates to a

publicly accessible web page every ten minutes.

• Providing real-time data for ranchers, farmers and the public.

Impact:

DRI monitoring stations have never detected any

downwind radiation from the NNSS.

CEMP public outreach activities help facilitate

ongoing education about the NNSS and monitoring.

Location: Southern Nevada Primary Funding: Federal

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Project Shoal Area Research

Impact:Provided DOE with advanced groundwater models to

determine rate of radionuclide migration away from the

nuclear test.

Research continues with DOE to develop effective

monitoring and stewardship approaches.

DRI was tasked by the U.S. Department of

Energy (DOE) to characterize the subsurface

hydrogeologic environment of the Project Shoal

area, and to construct a groundwater flow and

transport model. DRI continues to support long-

term monitoring and stewardship of the site.

• The Project Shoal area (PSA) is located about 50

km southeast of Fallon, Nevada. The Shoal test

consisted of a 12-kiloton-yield nuclear detonation

which occurred on October 26, 1963.

Location: Central Nevada Primary Funding: Federal

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Protecting Lake Mead from Quagga Mussels

In January of 2007, Quagga mussels were discovered in

Lake Mead, the first time west of the 100th meridian.

Dr. Kumud Acharya studies the lifecycle and establishment

of the Quagga Mussel at DRI’s Southern Nevada Science

Center in Las Vegas.

• DRI is fostering development of local expertise, critical

to addressing this serious ecological and economic

problem.

• Researchers are evaluating how pH alteration, UV

metering, and Chloramines inhibit Quagga Mussel

growth rates and reproduction.

• DRI assist with efforts to educate the public and try to

limit the negative impacts of the Lake Mead invasion.

Impact:

DRI research on Quagga lifecycles and growth is helping reduce

their impact on the Colorado River Aqueduct and Lake Mead.

Initial findings on Quagga survival rates in low calcium waters

are supporting efforts to keep the species out of Lake Tahoe.

Location: Southern Nevada Primary Funding: Federal

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Monitoring Lake Tahoe’s Nearshore Zone

Recently, changes in Lake Tahoe’s Nearshore Zone have become

increasingly evident and stakeholders are interested in addressing

the environmental, social and economic impacts.

Dr. Alan Heyvaert, an associate research professor and director of

the Center for Watersheds and Environmental Sustainability at DRI,

is coordinating the effort of scientists and resource management

agencies to develop an effective monitoring framework that will track

progress and inform management decisions.

DRI research in the Lake Tahoe basin has included everything from

monitoring Tahoe’s air quality and assessing the basin’s increased ozone

levels to tracing the impact of stormwater runoff on nearshore water

quality. DRI scientists have provided critical support to the TRPA’s

Environmental Improvement Projects, BMP evaluation and Regional

Stormwater Monitoring Program

Impact:

For more than 30 years DRI scientists have helped guide

preservation and restoration efforts in the Lake Tahoe basin.

Currently leading Nearshore Zone monitoring efforts to assess

water quality, impact of invasive species and climate change.

Location: Northern Nevada Primary Funding: Federal (SNPLMA Round 10)

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Truckee River Monitoring Program

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Development and implementation of an

integrated water quality monitoring

program for the Truckee River

• For the past 30 years, DRI has been

collecting monthly water samples in the

Truckee River, from Lake Tahoe to

Pyramid Lake. Samples are collected

along the entire reach, from Tahoe City,

California to Nixon, Nevada.

• Data reported to NDEP's Bureau of

Water Quality Planning

Impact:

Providing agency water managers with

accurate, 30-year dataset of water

quality changes in the Truckee River

System from Tahoe to Pyramid Lake.

Location: Northern Nevada Primary Funding: Federal, Local, (State supported ended in 2012)

Walker Lake Basin Project

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DRI, in partnership with University of

Nevada, Reno, assembled the necessary

environmental, agricultural and economic

expertise to meet the challenge of analyzing

and describing the physical, ecological and

economic environments of the entire basin.

DRI provided scientific expertise and support

to the NFWF and BLM in implementing the

Walker Basin Restoration Program.

Impact:

Development of a Water Rights GIS database and

Watershed Decision Support Tool to determine how

best to deliver water to the lake while sustaining the

basin’s economy and ecosystem.

Supporting NFWF’s strategy for water rights options.

DRI research areas:

• Geomorphic and hydrologic

studies of the basin’s water system

• Remote sensing and GIS

• Microbial Ecology and

Biochemistry

• Human impact and invasive

species establishment

• Alternative agriculture

• Plant, soil and water interactions

Location: Northern Nevada Primary Funding: Federal

Mapping Agricultural Water Consumption

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METRIC Program

Map of northern Mason Valley, NV showing irrigated fields (polygons)

“This will help create much needed jobs throughout the

state and allow for opportunities to partner with the

state’s universities along with national and international

agencies to develop technological advances that will

keep Nevada on the forefront of scientific innovation,”

- Governor Brain Sandoval

Impact:Solving critical water issues and mapping agricultural

consumptive water use across the state.

Making it economically feasible for water resource

monitoring of vegetation and groundwater use over

large areas of Nevada in real-time.

Location: Northern and Southern Nevada Primary Funding: Federal, Private

DRI hydrologists are using Google Earth Engine and

Google cloud computing resources to analyze Landsat

Satellite imagery and climate data to better understand

the long-term variability of water use by vegetation and

agriculture throughout Nevada; and to monitor and

forecast drought conditions across the state.

Cloud Seeding Program

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Drought conditions in 1977 prompted

then- Nevada Governor Mike

O’Callaghan to authorize the first

Emergency Cloud Seeding Project, with

DRI at the helm.

• This emergency measure evolved into

the State of Nevada Cloud Seeding

Project, which seeds clouds nearly

every winter in northern Nevada

watersheds to increase spring runoff.

Impact:

Augmented snow water has averaged

64,000 acre-feet during the last 15 years.

That’s enough to supply 140,000

households with water annually.

Supporting cloud-seeding operations

throughout the Colorado River System.

Location: Northern and Southern Nevada Primary Funding: Local, Private, (State funding ended in 2008)

Examples of other research benefiting Nevada Public Lands

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• Traced selenium toxins in Clark County wetlands adjacent to Vegas wash

• Baseline Data Collection for the McCarren Ranch Restoration

• Characterization of Periphyton and Macronutrients in the South Fork of the Humboldt

River and Limnological Assessment of the South Fork Reservoir, NV

• NDEP Analytical Support and the Development of Indices of Biological Integrity for

Algal Populations in the Lower Truckee River, Nevada

• Visibility and Air Pollution characterization in the Las Vegas Valley

• Erosion control monitoring for the Dept. of Transportation

• Finalizing a Nevada Wetland Program Plan (WWP) and Assessing Biotic Integrity of

the State's Priority Wetlands: Isolated Great Basin and Mojave Desert Springs

• Watershed-Based Plan for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe

• DRI strives to be a global leader in providing science, technology

and innovation to sustain Earth’s environment and to improve

people lives throughout Nevada and around the world.

• Our faculty, students and staff provide a profound economic impact

to Nevada, by leveraging ~ $5 for every state dollar invested.

• DRI has long been, and continues to be, the “Go To” non-profit entity

to support fundamental scientific, economic, social or educational

investigations and applied research throughout Nevada.

• How can we help you?

Thank You