IoES students share results of their stormwater pollution investigation with regional water agency

Environmental Science seniors recently presented the results of original research they conducted on water pollution to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the agency responsible for protecting coastal and inland surface and groundwater in the Los Angeles region. The undergraduate students, Zoe Filippenko and Jacqueline Ostermann, are part of an Environmental Science Practicum team charged with investigating industrial sources of stormwater pollution in the Dominguez Channel watershed in Southern Los Angeles County.

The channel, which drains to the Pacific Ocean at the Los Angeles Harbor, is heavily contaminated by metals and other toxic pollutants hazardous to the environment and human health. The communities surrounding the channel are heavily industrialized, and stormwater runoff, the mix of flowing water and the debris and pollution it picks up and carries with it after it rains, from these and other types of development is a leading cause of pollution in the channel. Unfortunately, little is known about the amount and type of pollution that industrial sites may contribute to the Dominguez Channel.

To help the Regional Water Quality Control Board and others in the community with efforts to clean up these waters, the students evaluated water quality data and conducted a GIS (geographic information systems) analysis of industrial activity in the region. Their work and recommendations for additional action they are developing will assist the agency in restoring the health of the area’s waters, and reflects the great work that student teams from the IoES are doing to provide solutions to environmental challenges all over California.