San Diego Outreach Activities
In the fall of 2001 the Schroeder laboratory at UCSD begun a collaboration with
the San Diego Baykeeper organization to
assist the grassroots organization in monitoring water quality at sites
throughout San Diego county. The San Diego Baykeeper was established to enforce the
provisions of the federal Clean Water Act of 1972. The organizationmeasures levels
of bacteria and toxic metal contamination, and when contamination is found reports
these to governmental organizations (such as the EPA and the cities of San Diego
and Encinitas) responsible for the pollution. As some areas of the San Diego Bay are
polluted, the work of the San Diego Baykeeper is instrumental in preserving the water
quality in San Diego. A graduate student, David Lee, and a high school student, Josephine
Aguilar, of the Schroeder lab have joined Baykeeper in collecting water samples for Paleta
and Chollas Creeks, both designated toxic hot spots by the State Water Quality Board, and
process these samples along with others collected from around the country. The water
samples are being measured on the ICP-AES machine in Jeff Harper's laboratory at the Scripps
Research Institute, and further analyzed in the Schroeder laboratory to determine the levels
of dissolved metals such as arsenic and lead. The data we are generating has been presented
by Baykeeper to the City of San Diego.
Here are the various levels of metals at the different locations.
Here is a view of site 10 where water samples have been collected.
