U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Major General John W. Peabody, commander of the Mississippi Valley Division and president of the Mississippi River Commission toured the Jerry F. Costello National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC) Confluence Field Station last Thursday afternoon. Peabody (pictured left) discussed the field station’s innovative research projects with NGRREC scientists. As part of the tour, John Chick, director of aquatic ecology for NGRREC (center) and Dale Chapman, president of Lewis and Clark Community College, showed him a real-time water sampling device called Pisces, which field station scientists are preparing to utilize. Pisces is a lightweight pontoon platform which supports water quality and meteorological sampling devices. Chick said the use of Pisces will be the first water quality sampling platform to be used in a larger network of water quality platforms on the Mississippi River and large rivers around the world. For more information about NGRREC contact John Chick at (618) 468-2850 or visit
www.ngrrec.org.