The Iowa Lakeside Lab will dedicate a newly completed Water Quality Lab in Milford this Friday to act as a learning center for students of the three regent universities.

The Lakeside Lab, a field station cooperatively sponsored by Iowa State, the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa, will host a reception and tours scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. followed by the dedication ceremony for the new facility at 6 p.m.

“This new facility provides us with state-of-the-art water quality equipment we have never had before,” said Shelly Anstey, public relations director for Iowa Lakeside Lab.

The new Water Quality Lab contains a water chemistry laboratory, teaching laboratory, environmental education classroom and administrative offices, Anstey said.

Anstey said over 190 friends and alumni of the lab will help make this event possible through monetary donations.

Sue Richter, president of Friends of Lakeside Lab Community Support Group, played an instrumental role in helping to raise the finances needed to build the facility.

“The $400,000 challenge grant made by the Waitt foundation turned out to be a true collaboration between higher education and the local community,” Richter said. “We were able to raise over $872,000 through the campaign.”

The laboratory, which was established in 1909, is located on the west shore of West Lake Okoboji. It offers many undergraduate and graduate students a place to take classes and do research.

“The functions of this lab include monitoring and identifying nutrients and contaminants of the water in the Iowa Great Lakes area, the study of biological communities, monitoring land use and public education about water quality issues,” Anstey said.

“Students at each of the three state universities are more than welcome to come here in the summer and take classes. We want students to know this place exists,” she said.

This facility is not only a learning center for college, but it also can be a place to encourage experience in the biology field at a young age. Richter said one of the highlights of the new lab will be a residential camp for middle-school girls.

“You have to foster that interest [in biology] at a very young age,” Richter said.

The new facility will serve students and faculty from across Iowa and will be an invaluable resource in research and teaching, Anstey said.

“I am really pleased with the overall effort and excited that the new facility will focus its attention solely on water issues,” Richter said.