ERIS

The Environmental Research Institute of the States

water quality

U.S. EPA Highlights Collaborations with State Partners

U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) coordinated videos to highlight examples of how ORD research and technical assistance, in partnership with states and regions, helped tackle environmental challenges and deliver the solutions they need. The videos, published at the ECOS Fall Meeting in 2024, showcase interviews with state environmental agency leaders, including Katrina Kessler (MN) and Leah Feldon (OR) who serve on the ERIS Board. The 4 videos highlight how each state collaborated with ORD to tackle a priority challenge and exemplify how other states can learn about available EPA resources and science-based tools to assist them in protecting human health and the environment.

  • EPA ORD & MPCA Collaboration on St. Louis River Area of Concern
  • EPA ORD & UT DEQ Collaboration on Detecting HABs with the CyAN App
  • EPA ORD & NJ DEP Collaboration on Legionella in Drinking Water
  • EPA ORD & OR DEQ Collaboration on Wildfires

PFAS Rule Implementation and Treatment

1 – 1:30 PFAS Treatment Requirements in New Jersey

1:30 – 2  PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation Implementation in Kentucky

2 – 2:30 Decision Trees for PFAS Mitigation Selection After Exceedances Detection (AZ)

2:30 – 3  Break

3 – 3:30  PFAS Breakthrough and NOM Effects from Pilot-Scale AEX Columns

3:30 – 4  EPA’s Open-Source Treatment Performance Modeling Tools for PFAS Treatment

Characterizing Microplastic Hotspots from Apalachicola Watershed to Apalachicola Bay

Microplastic (MP) pollution is an issue that has recently gained the attention of environmental scientists and researchers around the globe. MPs have been an underlying issue since the creation of plastic in the 19th century, but the awareness of MP’s vast distribution in environments and organisms wasn’t discovered until recently. MPs are identified by their physical structure, size, and chemical properties. This research project characterizes emissions of MP hotspots within the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system in Florida.

Twelve sites along the Apalachicola River between its origin at Lake Seminole formed by the Jim Woodruff Dam at the border of Florida and Georgia and Apalachicola Bay were sampled. The sediment and water samples were processed through sieving, density separation, and vacuum filtration. Each processed sample was analyzed to gather information on sediment grain size, MP identification, and density. The data show the abundance, concentration, and the types of MPs in the Apalachicola River’s water and sediment. The results support the hypothesis that dams like the Jim Woodruff Dam serve as potential MP sinks. There is also evidence that MPs are present in the surface water and sediment of every site sampled. The majority of the MPs collected were black fibers or strains that were less than 500m and were found in the sediments.