USD President's Report 2002

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Fnci11g Page: Michel B011dri,,s collects samples ofoce1111 water in Mexico far n study 011 bench pollutio11. From Left: Boudrins studies wnter samples i11 n Mexicn11 lnb; sen lettuce, nfarm ofnlgne, thri1•es i11 polluted wnm,; }nmes Bolender n11nlyzes phos- phates i11 11 water snmple.

:i:: 1- z he stench of rotting fish guts hit Michel Boudrias from miles away, and as he approached abeach covered with three inches of fish scales, the marine and environmental studies associate professor almost became physically ill. Ir was his first experience with a fish cannery in Baja California's Puerto San Carlos. For 30 years, rhe cannery dumped tuna and sardine byproducts into Magdalena Bay, turning a portion of rhe once pristine area into a wasteland. Since 1998, Boudrias and his graduate stu- dents have studied rhe pollution's effects on marine life and worked w1rh the cannery to c!;an up the area. "People ear fish and clams from char water, so I knew something_h~d to be_ don:, sa~s Boudnas, currently on sabbatical in rhe area, where he's analyzing data and building relanonsh1ps wi th Mexican Community Science in the Community Science in , unity Science in the Community Scien [ ci~nce in the Community $ci~nce in the Gommunjt~ • - , . .. • c,. • . ·- •. .• I r ti .... •· . - ' "' ,t • • .· • , • S' . •·"" , . t • . . ,I I• t, . :,... • ·, • -.

"Before I got involved in this project, I was a (ypical chemist who worked in a lab and didn't know what it was like to work in the field. Now, I'm making 11 difference I can see."

"Before I got involved in chis project, I was a typical chemist who worked in a lab and didn't know what it was like co work in rhe field," says Bolender, who now is studying sensors char could detect the presence of pollution and heavy metals in water. "Now, I'm making a difference I can see." The professors and SFS representatives con- vinced cannery officials to begin cleaning up the surrounding beaches by rilling rhe sand, removing debris and improving facilities inside rhe cannery. Boudrias and Bolender currently are writing a grant proposal to fund research into how the can- nery can further reduce pollution, and they hope to find engineers to implemenr proposed changes. "They don't have the resources for a large-scale beach clean-up," Boudrias says, "bur they're doing a lot more now than they ever have before. " Two years ago, Boudrias and Bolender brought USD undergraduates inro rhe equarion. In 2001, they turned rhe project into a summer honors course, which will be offered again in 2003 . Fifteen studenrs went to Mexico for the three- week course, assisting in research and analysis of the area. Among the students in the inaugural course was senior Renee Umbdenstock, who collected water samples near the cannery, and reseed water temperature, salinity levels and rhe presence of various chemicals. "I love chemistry and the work that's associated with it, bur I always hated lab work," Umbdenstock says. "Bur down in Baja, we'd start in the lab at 7 a.m., and the professors were dragging us our at midnight. I was never more excited to see results and get more samples. "

researchers. 'Tm working closely with rhe cannery, and all parries are doing what they can to make rhe bay a better place. " Boudrias was hired in 1999 as a consultant to rhe School for Field Studies, which offers college students field study opportunities around rhe world, including in Puerto San Carlos - a town of 2,000 people more than 120 miles northwest of La Paz. The organization asked Boudrias to study rhe cannery's effect on nearby beaches, and compare the results to ocher beaches untouched by pollution. Boudrias found char while sediment-dwelling organisms, clams, crabs and stingrays are abun- dant in the clean waters on the far side of rhe bay, they don't live in the contaminated muck near the cannery, which is dominated by bacteria-feeding organisms and covered by mars of green algae. While Boudrias studied marine life, USD chemistry Associate Professor James Bolender, who joined the project in 2000, cracked chemical levels in the waste. Phosphate and nitrate levels in the water are higher than those in raw sewage, Bolender says. Phosphates and nitrates are nutrients, and not normally considered pollutanrs, but in the bay their ultra-high levels cause a vicious cycle - the nutrients cause an overgrowth of sea lettuce, and the decay of sea lettuce when it dies creates more phosphates and nitrates. The beaches near rhe cannery are turning black. Congealed fish guts choked the oxygen out of the sand and produced high concenrrarions of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic chemical char smells like rotten eggs and attracts bacteria. The bacteria feed off the sulfide and multiply uncontrollably, dot- ting the beach with pink and white parches.

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