Matt Zabik ’08 always knew he wanted to be a geology major, but not that it would lead him into research where he would meet his neighbors.

Zabik, of Stafford Springs, CT, was one of the few talented St. Lawrence students to snag a spot in last summer’s University Fellows program. The Stafford High School graduate worked with Associate Professor of Geology Jeff Chiarenzelli ’81 on determining groundwater quality in St. Lawrence County.

The project focuses on the inorganic qualities in the wells of rural homes. Zabik says it was funded not only by St. Lawrence, but also by the SUNY Potsdam Community Fund. In order to do the project legally, Zabik received permission from the St. Lawrence County Health Department and the county Planning Office.

Zabik says it wasn’t hard to find volunteers for the study. He explains, “We sent out a faculty and staff e-mail expressing our interest in taking samples from people’s homes. We were very happy to get about 70 responses.”

In the study, Zabik went door to door and collected pre-filtered samples from the faucets of rural homes. This way, he could detect any organic compounds that could potentially harm a home’s drinking water.

Zabik was ecstatic about the outcome of the project. More than anything, he said, “I met a lot of nice people. It was a really cool thing to be able to meet local people from the Adirondacks all the way to the St. Lawrence Seaway.”

Not only that, but the project could be helpful to the safety of local communities. Zabik exclaimed, “It was so important to me that this study directly affects people’s health!”