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Post Archives
Tag: Water Quality

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Marine Debris

Sea Grant Marine Debris Grantee PolyGone Announces the Grand Opening of its Microplastic Removal Pilot

PolyGone Systems is pleased to announce the Grand Opening of the Microplastic Removal Pilot Project and the Educational Pavilion at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA)! The Grand Opening will take place on September 12, 2024, at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority Wastewater Treatment Facility.

The event will showcase PolyGone Systems’ industrial-scale microplastic removal pilot project within the Atlantic County Utilities Authority’s Wastewater Treatment Facility. Alongside the pilot deployment, PolyGone will unveil the Microplastic Educational Pavilion, an on-site exhibition for public visitors and students to learn about microplastic pollution and PolyGone’s environmental mission. Keynote speakers from the NOAA Sea Grant Office will be featured at the Grand Opening.

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Education

Training Volunteers to Assist Chesapeake Bay Cleanup

Maryland and other states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are currently engaged in a multi-billion dollar effort to improve water quality by meeting Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) targets for nutrients and sediments. To accomplish this, municipalities around the region need help from trained and dedicated volunteers who can implement watershed restoration practices. Such practices include stormwater management tools like rain gardens and barrels.

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Healthy Coastal Ecosystems

Coastal Ocean Hypoxia Model

A large percentage of South Carolina’s economy is driven by the popularity of beaches as tourist destinations.  Hypoxic (low-oxygen) conditions have been documented in the nearshore coastal waters of Long Bay, South Carolina, during summer months over the past several years.  To maintain a healthy environment for recreation it is necessary to assess the impacts of land use on groundwater discharge to the area.  Researchers measured radon activities of shallow beachface groundwater and nearshore bottom waters to estimate mixing rates and submarine groundwater discharge in Long Bay.  They successfully developed a mixing model based on these measurements, which helped determine that natural phenomena such as limited mixing and submarine groundwater discharge (both previously overlooked) can significantly influence nearshore water quality and lead to hypoxic conditions.  This model can be applied to other types of marine environments to help determine the causes of hypoxia, and as such could be a valuable tool in maintaining coastal water quality, especially in highly developed (urban) areas. 

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Great Lakes

Plastic fibers emerge as Lake Michigan pollutant

Microbeads have drawn a lot of public and political attention since 2012, when researchers from New York and Wisconsin discovered millions of the tiny particles in several Great Lakes. But this new study suggests microfibers may be an even larger concern in at least a few areas.

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Real Time Lake Monitoring
Great Lakes

Real Time Lake Monitoring

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant maintains a buoy off the coast of Lake Michigan in Indiana and will soon be installing a second buoy in waters on the Illinois side. The buoys are equipped with sensitive scientific instruments that help scientists, managers, and local community members understand how the lake works, how things look today, and how things will look in the future.

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Healthy Coastal Ecosystems

Mesocosms, Sensors and Otoliths: Tools to Improve North Carolina Water Quality

North Carolina Sea Grant develops varied techniques and technologies that address water quality issues. Research teams study the ability of restored wetlands to control runoff, test new sensor technology to monitor water quality in tidal marshes, and verify that fish ear bones, known as otoliths, can identify early-life habitats of fish.

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Great Lakes

Diatom Drama and Superior’s History

With funding from Sea Grant and other agencies, Euan Reavie, Senior Research Associate with the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resource Research Institute, and his colleagues have been examining sediment cores to reveal the extent to which they have captured the story of Great Lakes water quality over the past several centuries.

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Healthy Coastal Ecosystems

Help from Kelp

USC Sea Grant is helping to fund Kelp Watch 2014, a research initiative that uses fast growing kelp forest species as living dosimeters of the Fukushima released radioisotopes. Co-founder Dr. Manley hopes Kelp Watch 2014 will provide the public with immediate data as to whether there are any direct human health risks to the small amounts of radioactivity in the ocean.

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NHSG-funded research at the University of New Hampshire is revealing more information about pathogenic Vibrios in oysters to prevent human illness.  Credit: Rebecca Zeiber
Healthy Coastal Ecosystems

Vibrio research in Great Bay: a complex problem

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire are studying two illness-causing species of bacteria found in oysters to obtain a more detailed understanding of microbial life on the half-shell.  The ultimate goal is to minimize risks to human health without having to close shellfish beds for long periods of time.

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Great Lakes

Are Beach Contact Advisories for the Birds?

Backed by Minnesota Sea Grant’s commitment to research Dr. Michael  Sadowsky and his colleagues have shown that Escherichia coli and enterococci, the bacteria responsible for "Water Contact Not Recommended" beach advisories, can often be traced back to waterfowl and other animals. Water sullied by waterfowl might be nasty, but it is not a serious human health concern.

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