Emerging contaminants

Tag: Emerging contaminants

Stacked tires. Photo: Kool Cats Photography. https://flic.kr/p/ChFgxf (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Conference highlights latest findings on toxic chemical in tires

The International Conference on Emerging Contaminants (EMCON), hosted virtually this month by the University of Washington, focused on newly identified threats from chemicals and microplastics in the environment. The conference provided an opportunity to hear the latest research on the discovery of a tire-related compound deadly to Puget Sound’s coho salmon.
The cause of what scientists have labeled “urban runoff mortality syndrome” among coho had been a mystery for more than 20 years until it was solved last December by scientists at our affiliate organization the Center for Urban Waters. Their research, in collaboration with scientists at the Washington Stormwater Center and NOAA, identified the deadly chemical as 6PPD-quinone, a transformation product from a tire preservative known as 6PPD.
Since that time, the discovery has touched off a wave of new research. Scientists are looking at where the chemical is found, how it moves through the environment, and whether it is impacting species other than coho, including humans.
Speaking at the conference, Zhenyu Tian of Northeastern University reported that 6PPD-quinone is widespread. The compound has now been found across the West Coast in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and as far away as China. Scientists assume that it occurs throughout the world. It has turned up as expected in roadside streams, but also in airborne dust particles in homes and appears to move easily through the environment.

Slide from Tian presentation showing deadly concentrations of 6PPD-quinone
Slide from Zhenyu Tian’s presentation showing deadly concentrations of 6PPD-quinone

Here in Puget Sound, researchers at the Center for Urban Waters, including Tian, have been studying 6PPD-quinone in Miller Creek in Seattle. Samples taken from storms in autumn 2020 and spring 2021 showed that the more it rained, the more the chemical washed from roads into the creek, often in deadly amounts. Researchers found 6PPD-quinone at concentrations well over the amount needed to kill coho. “Even if you put this [amount of chemicals] in a raging creek, you still can have a toxicological effect on the coho salmon,” Tian said.
This high toxicity amplifies concerns about how the chemical may be affecting species other than coho. Since its discovery, however, scientists have been surprised to find that while 6PPD-quinone is deadly to coho, chum salmon appear to be unharmed by it. So far, that seems to be the case for other species as well.
A recent study from Japan shows that 6PPD-quinone is not lethally toxic to some freshwater species like the small crustaceans Daphnia magna or zebra fish. Researchers eventually hope to test the effect of the chemical on other species such as rainbow trout and Chinook salmon, which have shown general sensitivity to stormwater but not 6PPD-quinone specifically. Scientists are also investigating whether the compound may be harmful to humans who are exposed to recycled rubber from tires on playgrounds, sports fields, and other environments.
The subject of potential effects on other species has caught the interest of Congress. Last month, Representatives Marilyn Strickland, D-Tacoma, and Derek Kilmer D-Gig Harbor wrote a letter to House and Senate leadership requesting $1.5 million dollars to support additional research into the effects of 6PPD-quinone. [For more information about the letter and how the discovery of 6PPD-quinone has rippled across the policy and scientific landscape, read Christopher Dunagan’s blog, “Discovery of tire-related chemical that kills coho salmon sparks widespread response.“]
In the short term, Tian said, scientists are looking at ways to keep 6PPD-quinone out of local creeks. Bioswales have been shown to filter out up to 80% of the chemical, but “we simply cannot put bioswales everywhere,” he said. “For the long term, we still think 6PPD as an antioxidant should be replaced for a safer chemical.” Until that happens, coho populations are expected to remain threatened, and “it’s very less likely that coho salmon are the only species impacted by this toxicant,” Tian said.

New NSF grant supports toxics research

Researchers at our affiliate organization the Center for Urban Waters have received a $797,107 National Science Foundation grant for the purchase of new equipment to identify toxic contaminants in Puget Sound. Ed Kolodziej is the project’s principal investigator. Co-principal investigators include David Beck, Allison Gardell, Jessica Ray, and Andy James.
The funds were awarded on July 8th and will cover the cost of a new Liquid Chromatograph-High Resolution Mass Spectrometer, an ultra-sensitive device that identifies molecules by their atomic weight. The spectrometer can measure the presence of chemical compounds at amounts in the parts per trillion and is a critical tool for finding what scientists refer to as contaminants of emerging concern. Those contaminants include compounds such as pharmaceuticals or industrial byproducts that enter Puget Sound through wastewater or stormwater. Some may occur in only trace amounts but have potentially significant effects on wildlife and humans.
The new spectrometer will replace an older model of the instrument that has been in use at the lab for the past seven years. That model contributed to several high-profile discoveries at the Center*, including last year’s identification, led by Kolodziej, of a previously unknown chemical from tire wear particles called 6-PPD-quinone. That compound has now been implicated in the deaths of large numbers of spawning coho salmon in Puget Sound and was the subject of congressional hearings earlier this month in Washington D.C.
The scientists anticipate that the new device will continue to support extensive collaborations with other groups working to unravel chemical mysteries in the region. Over the past several years, scientists at the lab have identified thousands of contaminants in Puget Sound waters ranging from opioids to birth control pills and flame retardants.
“This project will use advanced instrumentation to characterize contaminants in the environment and biological systems, enabling the design of appropriate mitigation strategies,” reads the grant’s project summary. The equipment will also “support undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and training in environmental and analytical chemistry, environmental engineering, environmental health, and data science.”
More details about the grant are available at the National Science Foundation website.
*The Center for Urban Waters is the Puget Sound Institute’s parent group and is housed at the University of Washington Tacoma.
Project summary (published as part of the NSF award)
Pollution discharged by industrial processes impacts human health and the health of ecosystems, and mitigating their effects requires considerable cost in time, effort, and dollars. This project will use advanced instrumentation to characterize contaminants in the environment and biological systems, enabling the design of appropriate mitigation strategies. It will support undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and training in environmental and analytical chemistry, environmental engineering, environmental health, and data science; and (3) foster new collaboration and community engagement opportunities, especially with the regional Native American communities, local and state government agencies, and industries impacting stormwater quality. UW-Tacoma is a primarily undergraduate institution, a non-PhD granting institution, an urban serving, a Carnegie community engaged, and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution. It has a student body comprised of many underrepresented minorities, veterans, and first-generation college students.
The system to be acquired is a Liquid Chromatograph-High Resolution Mass Spectrometer, specifically an Agilent 6546 UPLC-QTOF-HRMS instrument. The instrument will be used to understand and improve management of various forms of pollution, especially for stormwater and roadway systems, innovative treatment materials development, ecotoxicology and bioassay development, and water disinfection. For example, the instrument will be used to identify toxic transformation products from stormwater and quantify sources. Another use is to study the oxidation of persistent organic compounds in urban stormwater using ferrate-coated sand media and PFAS defluorination. Yet another study focuses on the fate of organic pollutants in the aquatic environment and their occurrence and impacts in the marine environment. With so many potential environmental pollutants, high throughput, analytical capacity, and reliability are critical limiting factors to research effectiveness. Because of the richness, depth and breadth of the data generated, screening techniques employing high resolution mass spectrometry have now become key methodologies for environmental chemistry and engineering studies.

Fluoxetine hydrochloride. Photo: Meg (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/disowned/1125134972

International conference at UW will focus on emerging contaminants

This year’s International Conference on Emerging Contaminants will be hosted virtually at the University of Washington from September 13-14 in partnership with the Center for Urban Waters, the Puget Sound Institute and the Washington Stormwater Center. Abstracts are due June 16th and the deadline for early registration is July 1. The full announcement is available below.
Emcon 2021
7th International Conference on Emerging Contaminants
Virtual Event, September 13-14, 2021
On behalf of our Scientific Committee, we cordially invite you to Emcon 2021, the 7th International Conference on Emerging Contaminants (https://cvent.me/7kvWG9). This event will be held virtually on September 13-14, 2021, where you can expect to hear the latest research news and discoveries about the environmental chemistry of emerging environmental contaminants and their management. We welcome you to EMCON where you can virtually reconnect with old colleagues and meet new friends from around the world while discussing your exciting research and ideas together as a community.
EMCON 2021 will cover all aspects of emerging contaminant research while emphasizing cutting edge and novel research on microplastics, biomolecules, roadway runoff, transformation products, ecotoxicology, advanced mass spectrometry and other new analytical techniques, and new emerging contaminants as conference themes. We have an excellent group of keynote speakers, and we look forward to your hearing your science and contributions to these areas. You can expect scientific talks, a virtual poster session (with five £100 prizes for students!), a round of lightning talks, “what went wrong in lab” stories and opportunities for informal meetups. Pre-recorded content will allow both synchronous and asynchronous attendance and interaction. Abstracts are due June 16th and early bird registration July 1, we look forward to hearing from you! Please email emcon2021@uw.edu to submit your abstract ASAP or if you had any questions for us.
Sincerely,
Ed Kolodziej and the Emcon Scientific Committee Emcon 2021
 

Stormwater picks up contaminants from vehicles. Photo: Daniel Parks (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/parksdh/7014755513

Could tire discovery go beyond impacts on coho?

Scientists have suspected for several years that chemicals from tire wear particles are to blame for the deaths of thousands of coho salmon that have returned to spawn in Puget Sound’s urban streams. Sometimes referred to as “pre-spawn mortality” or “urban runoff mortality syndrome,” these deaths typically occur in streams near roads, and scientists have been analyzing a wide variety of automobile-derived chemicals to see if they produced similar toxic effects.
Now, thanks to some painstaking detective work by our partners at the University of Washington Center for Urban Waters (our groups are affiliated and share lab space) and many other collaborators, researchers can point to 6-PPD-quinone, a derivative from a preservative in tires called 6-PPD. The finding is as unexpected as it is fraught with implications. The chemical comes about only when the tire preservative is exposed to naturally occurring ground-level ozone in the environment creating a “transformation product” not previously identified. A paper outlining the discovery is published today (Dec. 3) in the journal Science and you can read more details from Christopher Dunagan in our magazine Salish Sea Currents.

A dying female coho salmon in the Lower Duwamish spotted by Puget Soundkeeper volunteers in October 2017. Photo: Kathy Peter
A dying female coho salmon in the Lower Duwamish spotted by Puget Soundkeeper volunteers in October 2017. Photo: Kathy Peter

In some ways the research on 6-PPD-quinone is just beginning. What started out as a local mystery could now catalyze studies around the world. Scientists wonder if the newly identified chemical is harming more than just coho.
“This is the first thing I’ve worked on in my career where I have no idea where the story ends,” says the paper’s co-senior author Ed Kolodziej. “It’s kind of what keeps you up at night. You’re wondering, ‘How wide is it?'”
Tires and similar rubber products are found everywhere in the world, he points out, and while 6-PPD-quinone has not been shown to kill some other species of salmon (it doesn’t appear to harm chum, for example) there is speculation that the impacts could be more widespread.
“We just have no idea,” he says. “All these questions are just totally wide open because there’s just no information out there.”
Given the potential ramifications, scientists may now begin to search for similar impacts among often vulnerable species such as stream invertebrates and amphibians, but it is also clear that humans are sometimes exposed to similar 6-PPD compounds. “We know the 6-PPD parent compound [has been documented] in house dust,” Kolodziej offers as an example. It also occurs in recycled tires that are used for crumb rubber playing fields and gym mats. “We’re generating a billion tires a year globally that need to be disposed of,” says Kolodziej. “All these things and all those recycled products likely contain some level of 6-PPD and the 6-PPD quinone as well. So, humans, I think, have a variety of exposure pathways.”
Could that endanger human health? “Again, we just have no idea,” Kolodziej says. 
What is known, however, are the implications for coho salmon. In the short term, Kolodziej hopes that the revelations in the Science paper will at least lead to more “salmon safe” tires.
“Tires need these preservative chemicals to make them last,” Kolodziej told UW News. “It’s just a question of which chemicals are a good fit for that and then carefully evaluating their safety for humans, aquatic organisms,” and other species, he says. “We’re not sure what alternative chemical we would recommend, but we do know that chemists are really smart and have many tools in their toolboxes to figure out a safer chemical alternative.”

View a video about the discovery below.

Toxics in Fish report cover.

New guidance for cleanup of toxics in Puget Sound

An EPA-funded team of scientists and other experts has completed draft recommendations for the future cleanup of toxic chemicals in Puget Sound. The group’s Toxics in Fish Implementation Strategy addresses pollutants such as PCBs and a slew of emerging contaminants that can affect species throughout the waterway. The strategy will be available for public review until October 16th after which it may be revised and submitted to the Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council for approval.
The Washington State Department of Ecology is co-developing the strategy with the Department of Commerce and the Washington Stormwater Center. [Puget Sound Institute scientist Andy James was a member of the core team that wrote the report.] The new recommendations, if approved, will address the Puget Sound Partnership’s Toxics in Fish Vital Sign which tracks contaminants in adult and juvenile Chinook salmon, English sole and Pacific herring.
Policy discussions of toxics in fish have often centered around the occurrence of cancer-causing PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the environment, particularly as they turn up in salmon. The state has been under pressure to reduce PCB levels to meet federal water quality standards and to address healthy fish consumption rates for humans. The governor’s orca task force also identified PCBs as a serious threat to Puget Sound’s endangered southern resident orcas, which feed mostly on contaminated Chinook. While PCB reduction continues to be a high priority, the new strategy will address a much wider array of chemicals that affect wildlife across the spectrum.
Among the new concerns are contaminants known as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs).  These include pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other products that can pass through wastewater treatment plants and have biological effects on species throughout the ecosystem. The strategy recommends increased monitoring and prioritization of these contaminants to overcome what it calls “key data gaps” regarding their toxicity in Puget Sound.
EDCs may have wide-ranging effects on species. Estrogenic compounds in the water, possibly from pharmaceuticals like birth control pills, are causing male species of English sole in Puget Sound to produce egg proteins not typically seen in that sex. Scientists are looking for similar impacts on juvenile Chinook salmon and Pacific herring. Thousands of chemical compounds ranging from illicit drugs and opioids to personal care products and pesticides pass into Puget Sound waters every day. Researchers say they hope to determine which of these compounds will do the most harm to species. If the strategy is approved, this will be the first time that such contaminants will be included in the state’s Vital Sign measurements.
The strategy also addresses two additional categories of toxic chemicals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs). PAHs occur naturally in coal and crude oil and are commonly found in creosote that has been added to wood pilings or railroad ties as a wood preservative. Such chemicals can harm fish embryos in ways that mimic the effects of an oil spill. PBDEs are often used as flame retardants and can wash into Puget Sound through stormwater and wastewater or can be deposited as dust particles. Although banned from many products, PBDEs are still in circulation and can cause neurological problems in wildlife and humans. [Read more about these and other harmful “rogue chemicals” in the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound.] 
In addition to identifying these key concerns, the strategy proposes management solutions such as “finding and fixing toxic hotspots; incentivizing redevelopment in high loading areas to reduce toxic loading; and accelerating in-water near-water cleanup of toxics.” The report was developed as part of a series of state and federal implementation strategies designed to provide a roadmap for Puget Sound recovery efforts.
The draft strategy is available for review at the Puget Sound Partnership website.

Toxics in Fish report cover.

New guidance for cleanup of toxics in Puget Sound

An EPA-funded team of scientists and other experts has completed draft recommendations for the future cleanup of toxic chemicals in Puget Sound. The group’s Toxics in Fish Implementation Strategy addresses pollutants such as PCBs and a slew of emerging contaminants that can affect species throughout the waterway. The strategy will be available for public review until October 16th after which it may be revised and submitted to the Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council for approval.
The Washington State Department of Ecology is co-developing the strategy with the Department of Commerce and the Washington Stormwater Center. [Puget Sound Institute scientist Andy James was a member of the core team that wrote the report.] The new recommendations, if approved, will address the Puget Sound Partnership’s Toxics in Fish Vital Sign which tracks contaminants in adult and juvenile Chinook salmon, English sole and Pacific herring.
Policy discussions of toxics in fish have often centered around the occurrence of cancer-causing PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the environment, particularly as they turn up in salmon. The state has been under pressure to reduce PCB levels to meet federal water quality standards and to address healthy fish consumption rates for humans. The governor’s orca task force also identified PCBs as a serious threat to Puget Sound’s endangered southern resident orcas, which feed mostly on contaminated Chinook. While PCB reduction continues to be a high priority, the new strategy will address a much wider array of chemicals that affect wildlife across the spectrum.
Among the new concerns are contaminants known as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs).  These include pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other products that can pass through wastewater treatment plants and have biological effects on species throughout the ecosystem. The strategy recommends increased monitoring and prioritization of these contaminants to overcome what it calls “key data gaps” regarding their toxicity in Puget Sound.
EDCs may have wide-ranging effects on species. Estrogenic compounds in the water, possibly from pharmaceuticals like birth control pills, are causing male species of English sole in Puget Sound to produce egg proteins not typically seen in that sex. Scientists are looking for similar impacts on juvenile Chinook salmon and Pacific herring. Thousands of chemical compounds ranging from illicit drugs and opioids to personal care products and pesticides pass into Puget Sound waters every day. Researchers say they hope to determine which of these compounds will do the most harm to species. If the strategy is approved, this will be the first time that such contaminants will be included in the state’s Vital Sign measurements.
The strategy also addresses two additional categories of toxic chemicals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs). PAHs occur naturally in coal and crude oil and are commonly found in creosote that has been added to wood pilings or railroad ties as a wood preservative. Such chemicals can harm fish embryos in ways that mimic the effects of an oil spill. PBDEs are often used as flame retardants and can wash into Puget Sound through stormwater and wastewater or can be deposited as dust particles. Although banned from many products, PBDEs are still in circulation and can cause neurological problems in wildlife and humans. [Read more about these and other harmful “rogue chemicals” in the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound.] 
In addition to identifying these key concerns, the strategy proposes management solutions such as “finding and fixing toxic hotspots; incentivizing redevelopment in high loading areas to reduce toxic loading; and accelerating in-water near-water cleanup of toxics.” The report was developed as part of a series of state and federal implementation strategies designed to provide a roadmap for Puget Sound recovery efforts.
The draft strategy is available for review at the Puget Sound Partnership website.

PSI researcher receives EPA funding to study contaminants of emerging concern in the Columbia Basin

Reprinted by permission of the Environmental Protection Agency:
Puget Sound Institute senior scientist Andy James and his colleagues at the Center for Urban Waters are the recipients of a $76,601 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate and prioritize contaminants of emerging concern in the Lower Columbia River (OR, WA)
. James and his team will use the funding to monitor previously unmonitored contaminants, such as endocrine disruptors, in the Columbia River to determine whether they harm important species. Monitoring will take place from the Portland metro area to Wauna, Oregon, and also at locations in the Willamette River. Key partners include the Columbia River Basin Restoration Working Group and the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program.

News Releases from Region 08

EPA awards $2 million in grants to reduce toxics throughout Columbia River Basin

09/16/2020
Contact Information: 

Bill Dunbar (dunbar.bill@epa.gov)

206-553-1019
Laura Flynn Jenkins (jenkins.laura@epa.gov)

303-312-6256

(Seattle and Missoula) – Today,  the Seattle and Denver offices of the Environmental Protection Agency announced they are awarding $2,053,903 in grants to 14 organizations, universities, and government agencies to reduce and assess toxics affecting the Columbia River Basin watershed. (See below for the list of grantees and the work they will be performing.)
The grants are the first from the Columbia River Basin Restoration Funding Assistance Program which was established by Congress in 2016 in part to reduce toxics that have long affected the health of the waters throughout the basin. Human activities have significantly altered the Columbia River Basin’s ecosystem where dozens of local, state, tribal, and federal agencies, universities, conservation districts, community groups, and NGOs have spent decades mitigating impacts on fish and wildlife.
“These grants represent a critical new component of EPA’s efforts to protect and restore the Columbia River Basin,” said EPA Region 10 Regional Administrator Chris Hladick. “We expect that these grants will encourage others to invest in complementary work that will provide significant reductions in toxics in the Basin.”
“EPA Region 8 has a strong history of working with our state and tribal partners to enhance environmental and human health in the Columbia River Basin,” said EPA Regional Administrator Greg Sopkin. “I am pleased to announce this grant award to the University of Montana to monitor methylmercury in fish from Flathead Lake and impacts on users of local food pantries in western Montana.”
The Columbia River Basin Restoration Program was created in 2016, through an amendment to the Clean Water Act. It established both a Funding Assistance Program and a working group made up of state governments, tribal governments, industry representatives, and others.
Under the Clean Water Act, water quality is addressed by reducing pollution, including toxics that can accumulate in water, sediment, and fish tissues. Tribal people and other populations who rely on fish for a substantial portion of their diet can be particularly affected by pollution in the basin.
Grant award totals range from $67,597 to $200,000, with an average award of $146,707. Below are the organizations that will receive funding:
IDAHO

  • Nez Perce Tribe — $200,000
    • Clearwater River watershed
    • Monitoring contaminants (DDT, mercury, other metals, nutrients, plastics) in water and fish tissues
  • University of Idaho — $198,957
    • Spokane River Basin, Boise River Basin
    • Monitoring of mercury in crayfish

MONTANA

  • University of Montana — $128,992
    • Flathead Lake
    • Monitoring methylmercury in fish, impact on users of local food pantries

OREGON

  • PNW Pollution Prevention Resource Center – $88,304
    • Portland metro area
    • Reduction of pollutants from automotive and landscaping industries
  • Salmon Safe – $200,000
    • Oregon, eastern Washington, northern Idaho
    • Pesticide & erosion reduction, habitat protection & enhancement, farmer certification
  • Multnomah County – $174,045
    • Lower & middle Columbia River, Deschutes, Willamette, Hood watersheds, and southwest Washington
    • Pesticide reduction outreach with focus on Latinx community
  • Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership – $67,597
    • St. Helens & Rainier, Oregon, Longview, Washington
    • Deployment of Grattix boxes to reduce zinc and copper run-off to lower Columbia River
  •  Cascade Pacific Resource, Conservation & Development — $199,999
    • Eugene, Springfield, Lane County
    • Green stormwater infrastructure to reduce metals, PAHs, pesticides in run-off
  • Columbia Riverkeeper – $91,991
    • Hood River County, Wasco County, & Klickitat County (WA)
    • Pollution prevention education focused on youth education

WASHINGTON

  • Washington State Department of Agriculture – $200,000
    • Palouse River and Yakima River watersheds
    • Pesticides monitoring, reduction, and collection
  • Yakama Nation – $188,378
    • U.S.-Canada border to Bonneville Dam
    • Tracking of toxics in fish tissues, water, and sediments
  • Washington State Department of Ecology – $105,000
    • Vancouver/Clark County
    • Pollution prevention
  • University of Washington – Tacoma – $76,601
    • Portland to Wauna, Oregon
    • Monitoring of unmonitored contaminants, e.g., endocrine disruptors
  • City of Vancouver – $144,039
    • Columbia Slope sub-watershed within the city
    • Water quality and stormwater sampling

For more about the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program, as well as to read summaries of each grant recipient’s work, please visit:  https://www.epa.gov/columbiariver/columbia-river-basin-restoration-funding-assistance-program
To learn more about EPA’s work in the Columbia River Basin on tribal fish consumption, chemicals of emerging concern, and other related topics, please visit https://www.epa.gov/columbiariver

###

Distinguished Research Award recipient Ed Kolodziej.

Kolodziej wins UWT’s 2020 Distinguished Research Award

Puget Sound Institute collaborator Ed Kolodziej is the recipient of this year’s University of Washington Tacoma Distinguished Research Award for his work to identify toxic contaminants in the Puget Sound watershed. The annual award “recognizes a faculty member who has achieved a record of notable scholarship or creative activity, who has generated new knowledge or creativity that impacts their intellectual discipline, and who has contributed to the intellectual climate of the UW Tacoma campus and its communities.”
Kolodziej has been with the University of Washington since 2014 and holds a joint appointment as an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Seattle) and the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences (Tacoma). He is affiliated with the University of Washington Tacoma Center for Urban Waters where he is a regular collaborator with the Puget Sound Institute.
Kolodziej’s research includes screening of both freshwater and marine sources to identify contaminants that could harm wildlife. Recently, he has been working with scientists at NOAA and Washington State University to isolate the chemicals in tire wear particles that may be killing large numbers of coho salmon as they enter Puget Sound streams to spawn. “Our method allows us to detect hundreds to thousands of chemicals at once in a single sample,” Koldziej told UW News earlier this year. “On CSI when they have these instruments, they turn on the instrument and it tells them: ‘That’s ibuprofen.’ But in reality, it’s a lot of work to get to get to a point where you are absolutely sure you know what that chemical really is,” he said.
Other areas of Kolodziej’s research include “zombie” chemicals that change into dangerous forms after exposure to the environment and the identification of pharmaceuticals that are released into Puget Sound through wastewater.
In an announcement, the award committee recognized Kolodziej’s “impressive record of serving as the Principal Investigator on research grants and acknowledged his extensive publications in high-impact peer review journals and service on advisory and journal editorial boards.”
Read an earlier profile of Ed Kolodziej in the PSI blog. 

New technique casts a wide net for concerning chemicals

By Sarah McQuate, UW News
Scientists are working to identify which of the thousands of chemicals that flow into Puget Sound are most harmful to the environment.
Researchers know that runoff from land in the urbanized areas of Puget Sound often contains harmful chemicals such as PCBs, but many other potentially dangerous compounds have gone undetected until recently.
Using a new “non-targeted” approach, researchers at the University of Washington and UW Tacoma screened samples from multiple regions of Puget Sound to look for other concerning chemicals. The team identified 64 chemicals never detected before in this waterway. Eight chemicals were at potentially hazardous concentrations that will need further investigation. The team published these results Dec. 30 in Environmental Science & Technology.
“Historically we’ve done a decent job of categorizing legacy chemicals in Puget Sound, but we also know there are a lot more chemicals that get into the water every day,” said senior author C. Andrew James, a research scientist at the Center for Urban Waters at UW Tacoma. “If we can understand what’s there and at what concentrations it’s occurring, then we can start to figure out which chemicals will likely impact the health of fish, killer whales and other marine organisms.”
The researchers collected water from 18 regions — from Port Townsend to Olympia — of Puget Sound’s nearshore, meaning the team collected the water samples while standing on docks or the shore, not a boat.
The researchers collected water at the 18 sites multiple times over 2018, leading to 78 water samples. Then they used a method called high-resolution mass spectrometry to help them identify what chemicals were in each sample.
“Our method allows us to detect hundreds to thousands of chemicals at once in a single sample. It determines a compound’s mass really accurately,” said co-author Edward Kolodziej, an associate professor in both the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the UW Tacoma Division of Sciences & Mathematics.
The researchers use the mass of each compound to figure out the chemical formula, and then use other information to identify it.
“On CSI when they have these instruments, they turn on the instrument and it tells them: ‘That’s ibuprofen.’ But in reality, it’s a lot of work to get to get to a point where you are absolutely sure you know what that chemical really is,” Kolodziej said.
The team found at least 205 different chemicals across their samples. Of those compounds, researchers were able to reliably confirm the identity of 75, of which 64 were reported for the first time in Puget Sound.
The 75 confirmed chemicals included pesticides, herbicides, food additives and pharmaceuticals — antidepressants and blood pressure medications, for example — and compounds related to vehicles, such as tire rubber chemicals.
“Our goal is to really figure out which chemicals matter from a biological perspective — how a fish or a shellfish will react,” James said. “So we compared the levels of the chemicals we found to concentrations toxicologists have deemed concerning for marine life.”
The eight chemicals found at concerning levels were:

  • Two vehicle-related contaminants that are found in tires and other sources
  • The antidepressant drug Venlafaxine
  • Two herbicides, including an aquatic one used for controlling weeds and algae
  • Two chemicals found in plastics
  • A persistent, well-studied chemical called PFOS, which is known to be harmful to humans and animals

These concerning chemicals were localized to specific “hot spots” in Puget Sound, and most of them weren’t always present in different samples from the same site. This is in contrast to other chemicals that the team found in almost all of the samples but deemed less of a concern, such as the artificial sweetener Splenda and a drug used to treat seizures and bipolar disorder.
The next step, the researchers say, is to dive into what these data mean for marine life in the nearshore, specifically in shellfish and salmon. The team also hopes to continue to investigate the eight concerning chemicals and better understand the hot spots.
“Some way or another, a huge fraction of the things we buy and use end up in the rivers and Puget Sound,” Kolodziej said. “Everyone thinks chemicals hit the ocean and disappear because there’s so much water in the ocean that the concentrations go way down. But if you took the concentration of a chemical in wastewater effluent or storm water, it’s not like you can just divide by total water volume of Puget Sound, and that’s the concentration you’d detect in Puget Sound. The concentration in the nearshore is a lot higher because there hasn’t been enough time for mixing to occur. So exposure levels for aquatic organisms in the nearshore can be much higher than you might expect.”

New technique casts a wide net for concerning chemicals

By Sarah McQuate, UW News
Scientists are working to identify which of the thousands of chemicals that flow into Puget Sound are most harmful to the environment.
Researchers know that runoff from land in the urbanized areas of Puget Sound often contains harmful chemicals such as PCBs, but many other potentially dangerous compounds have gone undetected until recently.
Using a new “non-targeted” approach, researchers at the University of Washington and UW Tacoma screened samples from multiple regions of Puget Sound to look for other concerning chemicals. The team identified 64 chemicals never detected before in this waterway. Eight chemicals were at potentially hazardous concentrations that will need further investigation. The team published these results Dec. 30 in Environmental Science & Technology.
“Historically we’ve done a decent job of categorizing legacy chemicals in Puget Sound, but we also know there are a lot more chemicals that get into the water every day,” said senior author C. Andrew James, a research scientist at the Center for Urban Waters at UW Tacoma. “If we can understand what’s there and at what concentrations it’s occurring, then we can start to figure out which chemicals will likely impact the health of fish, killer whales and other marine organisms.”
The researchers collected water from 18 regions — from Port Townsend to Olympia — of Puget Sound’s nearshore, meaning the team collected the water samples while standing on docks or the shore, not a boat.
The researchers collected water at the 18 sites multiple times over 2018, leading to 78 water samples. Then they used a method called high-resolution mass spectrometry to help them identify what chemicals were in each sample.
“Our method allows us to detect hundreds to thousands of chemicals at once in a single sample. It determines a compound’s mass really accurately,” said co-author Edward Kolodziej, an associate professor in both the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the UW Tacoma Division of Sciences & Mathematics.
The researchers use the mass of each compound to figure out the chemical formula, and then use other information to identify it.
“On CSI when they have these instruments, they turn on the instrument and it tells them: ‘That’s ibuprofen.’ But in reality, it’s a lot of work to get to get to a point where you are absolutely sure you know what that chemical really is,” Kolodziej said.
The team found at least 205 different chemicals across their samples. Of those compounds, researchers were able to reliably confirm the identity of 75, of which 64 were reported for the first time in Puget Sound.
The 75 confirmed chemicals included pesticides, herbicides, food additives and pharmaceuticals — antidepressants and blood pressure medications, for example — and compounds related to vehicles, such as tire rubber chemicals.
“Our goal is to really figure out which chemicals matter from a biological perspective — how a fish or a shellfish will react,” James said. “So we compared the levels of the chemicals we found to concentrations toxicologists have deemed concerning for marine life.”
The eight chemicals found at concerning levels were:

  • Two vehicle-related contaminants that are found in tires and other sources
  • The antidepressant drug Venlafaxine
  • Two herbicides, including an aquatic one used for controlling weeds and algae
  • Two chemicals found in plastics
  • A persistent, well-studied chemical called PFOS, which is known to be harmful to humans and animals

These concerning chemicals were localized to specific “hot spots” in Puget Sound, and most of them weren’t always present in different samples from the same site. This is in contrast to other chemicals that the team found in almost all of the samples but deemed less of a concern, such as the artificial sweetener Splenda and a drug used to treat seizures and bipolar disorder.
The next step, the researchers say, is to dive into what these data mean for marine life in the nearshore, specifically in shellfish and salmon. The team also hopes to continue to investigate the eight concerning chemicals and better understand the hot spots.
“Some way or another, a huge fraction of the things we buy and use end up in the rivers and Puget Sound,” Kolodziej said. “Everyone thinks chemicals hit the ocean and disappear because there’s so much water in the ocean that the concentrations go way down. But if you took the concentration of a chemical in wastewater effluent or storm water, it’s not like you can just divide by total water volume of Puget Sound, and that’s the concentration you’d detect in Puget Sound. The concentration in the nearshore is a lot higher because there hasn’t been enough time for mixing to occur. So exposure levels for aquatic organisms in the nearshore can be much higher than you might expect.”