CUNY Interdisciplinary Research Grant Supports Removal of Harmful Algal Blooms in NYC Ponds and Lakes

Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) Science Professor Abel E. Navarro (right, above) is the lead Principal Investigator (PI) on an Interdisciplinary Climate Crisis Research Grant (ICCRG) from the CUNY Office of Research.

Additional PIs are BMCC Health Education Professor Yuliya Shneyderman, and Medgar Evers College (MEC) Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science Oluwaseun Salako.

The grant amount is just under $40,000 and the grant period extends from April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021.

The project, “Harmful Algal Blooms in NYC Ponds: Bioremediation, Climate and Public Health Concerns,” will combine public health education, environmental engineering and innovative bioremediation treatments that introduce microorganisms to water sources and break down their pollutants.

“Our idea is to clean up the ponds of New York City,” says Navarro. “We also hope that through public surveys and raising awareness, people will better understand their role in keeping the ponds free of, not only heavy metals, but nutrients, such as the kind that exist in run-off water from barbecues.”

Those nutrients, he says, encourage algae to bloom, and that algal bloom produces a toxin that is harmful for birds, fish and turtles.

“Even a dog allowed to wade in or drink the water could be at risk, not to mention migratory birds that depend on our urban ponds and lakes,” Navarro says. “There are important ecological and public health concerns that our project intends to address.”

As Navarro puts it, the work they have in mind could provide a model for urban environments across the world.

“This kind of thing happens in cities all over the country,” he says. “In New York City, changes in rainfall and warmer water temperatures, as well as rising carbon dioxide levels and drought, have allowed harmful algae to grow at a rapid rate in our urban ponds and lakes. This reduces aesthetics and recreational opportunities — but it also creates public health concerns.”

Shneyderman will lead the public health awareness and analysis part of the project by surveying people who visit the ponds about their concerns, as well as to inform them of the negative health issues of algal blooms and advise them on how to play a role in reversing the pollution.

Those surveys will occur alongside the water quality analysis Navarro will conduct with the ponds and lakes of Central Park, Manhattan, while Salako does the same for the lake in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

The project will also include BMCC and MEC students, Navarro says. “They will not only collaborate on the elimination of algal blooms from NYC ponds, students that are part of the project will be trained in routine water analysis techniques in the field, to strengthen their STEM formation, and will learn first-hand, the preparation and administration of public health surveys in the health education discipline.”

In the lab, Navarro and Salako will work with the water samples to eliminate phosphates — which serve as an algae nutrient — as well as harmful ammonium ions. They will also improve the pH, or level of acidity in the samples, and in the process, move their turbidity, or level of transparency, to a healthier level.

In a later phase of the project, Navarro and his team will apply the bioremediation methods used in the lab, to the ponds themselves, to reduce the algal blooms choking them out.

Staying flexible as a global pandemic limits lab access and in-person research collaboration

While a project to clean up the ponds and lakes of New York City has considerable public health and environmental benefits, it is eclipsed, for now, by the fact that New York state has emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, with more than 60,000 cases as of now, and at least 2,254 deaths in New York City alone, according to the city’s health department.

“We know the impact our project could have on the City of New York, but obviously, a research project that involves surveying the public, as well as close collaboration in a lab setting, will be affected by a pandemic that prohibits gatherings and necessitates the closing of our colleges and research labs,” Navarro says.

For now, he says, “We will do what we can through what is available to us — Zoom meetings, email and other virtual options. Our timing might have to adjust, but things are changing fast and our grant extends into 2021. We’re staying flexible as to what’s next.”

An October 2020 conference in which environmental projects will have even more relevance

In a best case scenario, Navarro and his team will be able to join colleagues at a proposed CUNY Conference on Climate Change Education (C⁴E) in October 2020.

The conference is funded by an ICCRG grant of $10,000 and will bring together K-16 educators from the New York City metropolitan area to discuss how to better teach climate change to a wide audience.

BMCC Science Professor Luis González-Urbina is one of the co-PIs for the grant.

He is joined by co-PIs across CUNY including Guttman Community College Science and Math Professor Derek Tesser; Bronx Community College Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Science Professor Neal Phillip; Hostos Community College Natural Sciences Professor Julie Trachman, and Queensborough Community College Physics Professor Paul Marchese.

Lead PI for the conference grant is LaGuardia Community College Natural Science Professor Holly Porter-Morgan.

“It’s possible that our project and climate-change education in general will be even more important, even more of a priority in New York and across the country by then,” Navarro says.