The University of New Hampshire's Cooperative Institute for Coastal & Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET) has awarded six grants totaling to $1.9 million to various environmental research projects across the country to protect coastal environments and coastal communities.
ICEET is located at UNH, and is a partnership of UNH and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This year the CICEET awarded money to Louisiana State University, the University of Connecticut, Villanova University, the University of Illinois, the University of Massachusetts, and Texas A&M University.
"The environment on the coast is under pressure from development, and people need tools and resources to know how to manage the environment in these rapidly developing areas," said Dolores Leonard, a member of the CICEET. "I think all these projects get at that."
Leonard said that around 150 million people already live on the coast in the United States, and in the future a projected 20 million more people will move to coastal areas.
The grant given to Louisiana State University totaled to $268,000, and is allowing the university to help develop a tool to evaluate the process of restoring wetlands that have submerged.
"How to restore wetlands is a big issue in the Gulf area," said Leonard. "This project will help to find the most effective approach, and will have a huge impact because of the amount of restoration that is needed in that area."
The grant given to the University of Connecticut totaled to $205,000, and will allow the university to find a way of measuring the mercury pollution in the atmosphere when it is not raining. Leonard said that many people are usually concerned with mercury pollution that is found in rain; however, mercury can also stick to land when it is not raining.
The grant given to Villanova University totaled to $442,000, and will allow the university to access the effectiveness of storm water management.
"Storm water runoff is the biggest threat to water quality nationwide," said Leonard. "It carries all pollution from roads and parking lots into streams and rivers and lakes."
Villanova University will be looking at the effectiveness of possible solutions to storm water runoff such as rain gardens and green roofs.
Richard Langan, CICEET's UNH co-director, said that he feels development also has a huge effect on storm water runoff.
"We are not providing any place for the water to go," Langan said.
The University of Illinois was granted $322,000, and will be researching ways to reduce the amount of phosphorus pollution found in septic systems. The university is hoping to find a low technological way of taking the phosphorus pollution out of the septic systems before the pollution can hit the environment.
The other two grants given to the University of Massachusetts, totaling to $397,000, and to Texas A&M University, totaling to $275,000, will be looking at the toxic chemicals found in the environment. UMass will be looking at where and how these pollutants spread into the environment, while Texas A&M will be focusing on how toxic the pollution is. Leonard said that although toxins may be present in the environment, sometimes they cannot be taken in by plants or animals.
Leonard said that she is very excited about all the projects that the CICEET granted money to this year, and is happy to be a part of the UNH campus.
"I think that UNH is one of the leading green campuses in the country," said Leonard.
Although we are nationally focused, it is great that we are here at UNH."
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