Eco eNews July 2007, Issue 44

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Sucking up knowledge to save our waterways
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Vacuuming roads to find out more about the causes of pollution of our waterways is all in a day's work for Queensland University of Technology's PhD researcher Nandika Miguntanna. As well as running a vacuum cleaner over different urban surfaces, Ms Miguntanna is using a rainfall simulator to investigate how nutrient build-up on these surfaces is washed off with stormwater into waterways. Her aim is to mathematically replicate these processes in order to allow other
researchers to develop more effective ways to deal with the rise in nutrient wash-off brought by greater urban density. "I'm taking a vacuum to industrial, commercial and residential areas to collect nitrogen and phosphorus particles in order to work out the concentration of these nutrients which play a key role in water quality deterioration," Ms Miguntanna said. "The rainfall simulator is used to find out how much of the nutrients are washed off with stormwater into urban waterways." She said that nitrogen and phosphorus were among the main nutrients in water pollution that foster algal blooms. "These nutrients are found in garden fertilisers, waste, fallen leaves, detergents and other everyday substances," she said. Ms Miguntanna said a lack of knowledge about nutrient build-up and wash-off processes was hampering efforts to keep rivers, lakes and oceans from receiving excessive amounts of these pollutants after rainfall. "High concentrations of nutrients lead to excessive plant growth and when these plants die and decompose, they remove oxygen from the water which kills fish and other aquatic life". More Info: QUT Marketing and Communication \| www.news.qut.edu.au \|

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