Consultant BiographiesJim O. Peterson, Ph.D. Dr. Jim O. Peterson is a water chemist with over 39 years of experience as a Water Quality Specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW Extension. He has affiliations with the UW Environmental Resources Center (past Director), the Small Scale Waste Management Project and the USDA Forest Products Laboratory. He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in water chemistry from UW-Madison.
His fields of interest include: water quality, drinking water supply, domestic wastewater management, groundwater and lake and stream quality monitoring. He has worked on lake renewal, agricultural runoff, manure pits, urban stormwater and pond management projects. His educational programs worked with county UW-Extension faculty on water quality issues, teachers and youth leaders on water testing and interpretation, aquatic systems and groundwater contamination and movement, and state, county and private-practice personnel on treatment and disposal of domestic wastewater.
Dr. Peterson developed unique teaching models for demonstrating groundwater movement, contaminant transport in soils, septic systems and stream ecology, which have been useful for presentation to audiences from elementary school students through college classes, professional groups and the general public. Currently, he is a guest lecturer on groundwater flow systems, water supply and drinking water quality.