Plastic from the Mountains to the Sea
Researchers and Community Members Join Forces on Plastic Pollution in North Carolina
From plastic trash along creeks and rivers, to microplastics in waterways — and in our bloodstreams — plastic pollution is present on every continent, including Antarctica.
As we reported in the Summer 2023 issue of Coastwatch, plastic pollution is significant in North Carolina, as samples from the Neuse River have shown. The river, which flows into the second-largest estuary in the country, carries both macroplastics (pieces of plastic trash and debris) and microplastics (small particles of plastic that can be ingested by aquatic life). In fact, an estimated 230 billion microplastic particles enter the Pamlico Sound from the Neuse River Basin each year.
Unlike other materials, plastic takes a long time to break down. Although some harmful effects of plastic pollution are obvious — think turtles caught in six-pack rings and whales ingesting plastic bags — others are less apparent.
As microplastics accumulate in an ecosystem, they contaminate the food chain and can affect aquatic life adversely. Ingested microplastics can impact humans when they consume marine animals like fish and shellfish. Research suggests that microplastics may correlate with cardiovascular issues, endocrine system disruption, and more.
Two new Community Collaborative Research Grant projects, one in the mountains of North Carolina and one on the coast, are measuring, studying, and raising awareness about plastic pollution. The Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI), North Carolina Sea Grant, and the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology, and Science (KIETS) designed the CCRG program to facilitate collaborative research between scientific experts and communities.
Identifying Plastic Pollution in the Appalachian Mountains
Jerry Miller is measuring the microplastics in headwater basins in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. Until now, little research has explored exactly how microplastics enter waterways — especially not when it comes to headwater basins at the source of freshwater streams.
“Plastic contamination in marine coastal environments has been studied since the 1970s,” says Miller, an environmental scientist in the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources at Western Carolina University. But research on freshwater ecosystems only began in earnest after 2010.
Miller focuses on water quality and pollution in riparian ecosystems (the banks and wetlands adjacent to rivers and streams). For his Community Collaborative Research Grant, he has teamed up with Jason Love, associate director at the Highlands Biological Station, to track microplastic sources and quantities at seven sites along Richland Creek, near Waynesville.
Austin Gray, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Virginia Tech and former North Carolina Sea Grant and WRRI Graduate Student Research Fellow, first researched microplastics over a decade ago and will analyze the samples collected for the study.
“My role on the project has been extracting, isolating, and characterizing suspected microplastic particles using my lab’s XploRA Plus MicroRaman Spectrometer and Cary 630 FTIR,” Gray says. “A lot of natural particles can be collected through sampling. Confirming the captured particles and determining whether they are plastic is important to our findings and understanding which plastics are most prevalent.”
The project also includes Western Carolina University and Virginia Tech graduate and undergraduate students, collaborators from the local community through the Haywood Waterways Association, and students from Tuscola High School.
Miller, Love, and Gray’s project is not only collecting valuable scientific data, but also using new systems and processes that work for freshwater ecosystems. “We’ve kind of had to develop the methods ourselves,” says Miller.
Microplastics are durable, persistent, and typically less dense than other river sediment. This means that they don’t behave in the same way that other river sediment does, and models that describe the movement of sediment like gravel or organic matter fail to capture the unique ways that microplastics move in streams. “Microplastics are not uniformly distributed within the water column,” explains Miller. “And so that’s raised some issues in terms of how to get a representative sample at any given moment in time. Of course, we’re starting to work that out. But it’s been a bit of a challenge.”
Love says macroplastic debris is surprisingly abundant, even in remote places like the area around Richland Creek. “It was surprising to see how much trash there was,” says Love. “We found over 900 pieces of it, more than one piece of trash per square meter.”
The team worked with over 80 students from Tuscola High School, as well as volunteers from the Haywood Waterways Association, to collect the trash.
“The high school students really got into it,” says Miller. “They were amazed at how much stuff they got — and what they got.”
A unique finding of this project is that much of the microplastic content present in headwater basins like Richland Creek may come not from the breakdown of larger plastics littering the environment but from atmospheric deposition, a process by which microplastic particles are deposited from the atmosphere onto the earth’s surface. These deposits are flushed into streams and rivers when it rains.
“It’s kind of assumed that these larger plastic pieces of debris decomposed into the small microplastics,” explains Miller, but the lack of development near Richland Creek, coupled with the similarities between samples collected from the atmosphere and water in the area, point toward atmospheric deposition as a key driver of microplastic pollution in the area.
“I think one of the main things we found is that the concentrations of microplastics are particularly high,” says Miller. “We think atmospheric sources are a primary component. We knew it was a potential source, but it surprised us that it was such a significant source.”
Another surprising finding from this study: more than 85% of microplastics in rivers were fibers, mostly from clothing, carpet, and geotextiles. “We think a lot of it’s coming from the textiles like clothing, sleeping bags, tents, all the kind of stuff that gets dumped,” says Miller. But it’s not necessarily from local littering. “You have 8 billion people on the planet, and most of us wear clothes. That kind of adds up. It’s probably not local.”
Microplastics aren’t just present in the water itself. They also occur in the living organisms that make their home in the environment. In addition to measuring and analyzing microplastics in the stream itself, the project team is also studying how exposure to microplastics affects the larvae of caddisflies.
The Southern Appalachians are a hotspot of biodiversity, and, due to caddisflies’ ubiquitous presence at the bottom of the food chain, these small insects play an essential role in food webs.
In particular, the team will study whether exposure to microplastics affects caddisflies’ abilities to filter algae. “We found microplastics in both the caddisflies and their nets,” says Love.
“They’re in there, but what are they doing?” says Miller. “And that’s kind of the next question, right? What the impacts are.”
The team’s analysis of microplastics may inform decisionmakers. “I’m not involved with the policy aspect of it,” says Miller, “but I think some of the data we’re collecting with the large pieces of plastic trash have implications for plastic use that can be used by policymakers and others.”
The team’s research will continue through 2025 with another WRRI-USGS grant.
Combating Plastic Pollution in Coastal North Carolina
Zoom out a little, and follow creeks and streams through western North Carolina’s mountains, across the Piedmont, down toward the crashing waters of the coast.
Miles away from mountain streams and caddisflies, Liz DeMattia, lead research scientist for the Duke University Marine Lab Community Science Initiative, and Lisa Rider, executive director of the Coastal Carolina Riverwatch, are raising awareness about the impact of plastic in the environment and engaging local students and community members in stewardship.
DeMattia has 27 years of experience with environmental community engagement, creating environmental literacy programs, developing community workshops, and delivering environmental education. Rider is an expert in marine debris, recycling, and working with local stakeholders to maintain clean waterways. She runs the NC Marine Debris symposium and was integral in the creation of the NC Marine Debris Action Plan.
Their project educates students and community members about the challenges of polluted stormwater in coastal ecosystems, while fostering environmental literacy in the next generation of researchers and community members. It involves students from high schools to graduate schools and even includes community events and storm drain art installations.
One of the main components of the project is a series of art events centered around the Adopt-A-Drain program, which encourages students and community members to take ownership of individual storm drains. When runoff enters storm drains, it often carries pollutants like trash and macroplastics. Featuring the slogan “Only Rain Down the Drain,” decorated drains help to raise awareness about the environmental impact of litter and plastics.
After learning about plastic pollution, students from East Carteret High School, led by art teacher Michael Rhinehardt, participated in one such community event to decorate storm drains. “I was really amazed by the student art,” says DeMattia.
“The students were really into it,” says Rider. “They did a great job. And what’s really cool about this is now the students have ownership of this project. They have ownership of this drain because that’s the drain they put their mark on. Their families know about this drain. The community knows about the drain. The mayor of Beaufort was involved and was there and helped with the drain painting. And so now there’s this community ownership.”
Rider and DeMattia view this fusion of science and art as an effective way to convey scientific information to people who may not be scientists.
“I think the thing that really benefited this project the most was the art part of it, the visualization of the information,” says Rider. “It’s not just data collection. It’s not just medicine, science. It’s not just an art project, but all of those things combined.”
The project aims to involve not only students but also members of the community who are affected by pollution in taking steps to decrease the plastic in stormwater and to advocate for clean water. “Plastic pollution is one of the top five concerns amongst folks who fish at the coast as it relates to water quality,” says Rider, “and stormwater is also in that top five.”
Rider and DeMattia’s project also received praise from local government officials, establishing a foundation on which future events can build.
“Now the momentum is there,” says Rider. “I heard a quote from the mayor at one of the last events that we did where she said, ‘These are so wonderful, I really want these drains painted everywhere. I want all of the drains in Beaufort painted like this.’”
“The whole is more than the sum of its parts when it comes to community collaboration,” adds DeMattia. With engagement from high school students, community members, elected officials, undergraduate students, researchers, and more, the project crosses boundaries.
There’s also the potential to expand. “We’re hearing from other communities, saying ‘Hey, I want to do that too,’” says Rider. “No matter where you live, in coastal North Carolina or throughout the state, you can participate in this.”
While the events themselves have passed, there are still plenty of opportunities for North Carolina residents to get involved.
“All your community needs is an artist or an art teacher,” says Rider. “You need some supplies, and you need permission from the municipality that’s responsible for the drain. That’s really all you need.”
How to Get Involved
These two projects are doing important work to address plastic pollution in North Carolina — but there’s still much more work to do. For North Carolinians looking to get involved, both projects feature opportunities for community members to participate.
Miller, Love, and Gray have partnered with Haywood Waterways Association to engage local communities in helping to collect trash and assist with their research. Local residents interested in getting involved in the project should keep a look out for calls for volunteers on the Haywood Waterways website and in The Mountaineer. The team also works with organizations including Mainspring Conservation Trust and MountainTrue to connect with volunteers and members of the community.
Rider and DeMattia’s project also offers opportunities for community participation. There’s an Adopt-A-Drain app that allows residents all over the state and beyond to take notes on their own local drains and drainage systems, including not just sewer drains but also ditches, swales, and culverts. ECHS Environmental Club and Carteret County Community Environmental Club students will conduct research using data collected by the app in order to better understand how foot traffic affects plastic pollution in stormwater.
MORE
Duke University Marine Lab Water Quality Curriculum for 9th-12th grade students
Watershed Wisdom Lesson Plan for 4th and 5th grade students
Keeping Water Renewable Lesson Plan for 6th-12th grade students
North Carolina Marine Debris Action Plan
Margaret Wack is a graduate science communication intern with the North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute. In addition to her work with WRRI, she is also a poetry MFA candidate at NC State University.
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