Metro East Sun

Two Greenville University students earned top honors for their water quality research presentation at an American Chemistry Society meeting at the University of Illinois, a release on the Greenville University website said.

Over the summer, the two students – Hannah Frerker, class of 2019, and Jonathon Adams, class of 2018 – tested water from nine municipal sources and 25 private wells in the Greenville area and found that 66 percent of the samples taken from the private wells had signs of coliform bacteria and approximately 30 percent showed signs of E. coli, the release said.

“EPA standards call for no coliform or E. coli bacteria,” Darrell Iler, chemistry department chair at Greenville University, said in the  release. “Well water is not regulated. It is solely the responsibility of the property owner to get it checked.”

Darrell Iler

There were 48 poster presentations held at the University of Illinois by students who traveled from Purdue, University of Indiana, Southern Illinois University and many others – only eight of them received top honors, the release said.

“This has given Hannah and Jonathon a big confidence boost,” Iler said in the release. “It indicates to them that they are doing something important that matters, and that others recognize that.”

Frerker and Adams were inspired by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the schools website said.