2008 Walter Barnard Hill Award for Distinguished Achievement in University Public Service and Outreach

Paul F. Vendrell

Paul F. Vendrell, program coordinator for UGA’s Extension Feed and Environmental Water Laboratory, has developed innovative methods and educational materials to improve drinking water safety and forage quality. His programs have had statewide impact on human health as well as home and farm economics.

Since wells are an important source of drinking water for most rural Georgians, Vendrell focuses on ways to ensure that private wells work properly and provide potable drinking water. He has implemented a program to test bacteria levels in well water from all Georgia counties, developed an expanded water test to determine appropriate water treatment systems, and created educational materials on private well-water issues and testing, including a video and printed materials.

In addition to testing, Vendrell uses underground cameras to detect common well problems and has developed an instructional WellCam video. He trains county agents to use the cameras, which are available in all four Georgia extension districts.

As a member of the Georgia Good Agricultural Practices program, Vendrell has been helping develop standards for microbial levels in water used in packing, irrigation, crop protection and worker hygiene in Georgia’s fresh produce industry.

He developed an on-site kit to quickly measure nitrate levels in hay and forage, reducing nitrate toxicity in livestock and helping producers evaluate their management systems. The kits are used throughout Georgia and have been adopted in six other states and two Canadian provinces.

Vendrell and his team have developed affordable, rapid, efficient forage quality testing using Near Infrared Reflectance spectroscopy. Since forage is used as animal feed in all Georgia counties and its quality is highly variable, inexpensive testing has the potential to change the marketing of warm-season grass hay across the Southeast.