| NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 18, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 2, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1743988 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Karl Rockne
krockne@nsf.gov (703)292-7293 CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $99,938.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $111,938.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2018 = $12,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
900 S CROUSE AVE SYRACUSE NY US 13244 (315)443-2807 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
151 Link Hall Syracuse NY US 13244-1240 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
EnvE-Environmental Engineering, Special Initiatives |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
A number of chemicals found in pharmaceuticals and personal care products find their way into waste streams and are becoming contaminants of emerging concern. This Citizen Science research project aims to develop an educational and training-based framework to facilitate citizen monitors to investigate the prevalence of contaminants of emerging concerns in aquatic environments. The project researchers are working collaboratively with the Statewide Lake Assessment Program in New York to recruit and train citizens to participate in on-site monitoring a class of chemicals found on the list of contaminants. The team is also exploring how participation in the citizen science project enhances citizen understanding and engagement with local water quality problems, and the project provides interdisciplinary training and education for citizens and undergraduate and graduate students as well as with other forms of outreach activities
This research project integrates citizen science into contaminants of emerging concern research in order to collect needed data on the occurrence of these contaminants in New York lakes. This research offers two important insights into citizen science research: 1) answering how established citizen science water-monitoring programs can be scaled up to integrate more challenging forms of data collection and analysis, as in the case of contaminants of emerging concerns, and, 2) a scalable framework for citizen-based contaminant monitoring that can be adopted by other water quality monitoring programs. Overall, this project not only collects vital information on contaminants of emerging concerns but also creates a monitoring methodology that can be used widely to improve lake and watershed management. Results of contaminants of emerging concerns monitoring and risk assessment are being communicated to citizen monitors and project partners in a timely manner to promote effective participation and enable knowledge sharing.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) comprise a wide array of organic contaminants that are found with increasing frequency at low levels in the aquatic environment, and which may have adverse impacts on ecosystems as well as human health. CECs include, but are not limited to, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, and commercial, household and industrial chemicals. Some naturally produced organic compounds, such as algal toxins released by harmful algal blooms, are also considered as CECs due to their known toxicological effects. CECs present an ongoing challenge to lake and watershed management programs because the majority of CECs are not regulated and routine monitoring of CECs is rare. This exploratory project brought citizen monitors who participate in the Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment Program (CSLAP) together with professional researchers from Syracuse University, SUNY-College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the Upstate Freshwater Institute to investigate the prevalence of CECs in New York lakes. Four important outcomes of this project include: (1) greater public awareness of the need for CEC monitoring in human-impacted aquatic environments; (2) a first statewide assessment of CEC occurrence patterns in New York inland lakes with active communities; (3) research training for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students in an interdisciplinary team; (4) a project website (http://monitoringcecs.org/) that provides general information about CECs and example project data and survey results; and (5) the new collaborative partnership between Syracuse University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Upstate Freshwater Institute, New York State Federation of Lake Associations, and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Overall, this project demonstrated that citizen-based monitoring approach offers a promising means to enhance the spatiotemporal coverage of CEC occurrence data that would otherwise be feasible through regular research projects or monitoring studies. This project also laid the foundation for developing a transferable and scalable OMP study framework that can be further adopted by other citizen-based water quality programs.
Last Modified: 11/29/2019
Modified by: Teng Zeng
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