Water flows into our homes every day. We use it to wash our hands, do dishes and, of course, drink. Eventually, it ends up at a wastewater facility where it is treated, filtered, and safely discharged. Stormwater is different. Runoff from pavement, agriculture, and other human activity (think roads, golf courses, etc.) bypasses water treatment facilities. It flows directly into the environment, carrying the micronutrients, metals, and other contaminants picked up along the way.
“Any time major metropolitan populations reside near bodies of water, we raise concerns over how to best protect that water from the inevitable contaminants that arise out of human activity,” says Dr. Brandy Stewart, a University of Minnesota researcher who works in Dr. Brandy Toner’s Low-temperature Geochemistry lab. The group studies how nutrients and metals move through oceans and sediments, including the role microbes play in this complex process. Continue reading the story from the BioTechnology Institute.