About

Environmental microplastic contamination is a significant problem, as microplastics have been found all over the world, from within deep sea creatures to protected wilderness areas at altitude. The plastic cycle at the watershed scale, from atmosphere to ocean, has significant data gaps. Environmental microplastics take many pathways into the environment including roads, agriculture practices, stormwater run-off, and wastewater systems. There is a disconnect between microplastics sources, public awareness, and existing policy and management strategies.

This planning grant project aims to scope out research on microfibers in the Columbia River Basin in order to understand deeply microplastic sources and their connectivity. The project also has the goal of creating a regional network of scientists, industry, agencies, and nonprofits engaged in understanding environmental microplastic contamination, as well as recommending policy, management, and technology solutions to reduce or eliminate microplastic contamination sources.

Our objective is to collect preliminary physical and social data to inform a series of workshops to engage diverse stakeholders in developing a project scope for understanding microfibers in the Columbia River Basin. We will hold a series of three workshops throughout the project. The goals of these workshops are to provide participants with an overview of the state of the science on microplastics; to enlist their respective professions, disciplines, and regional and cultural perspectives in identifying future microfiber research priorities; and to identify practitioner-leaders for co-developing microplastics research with the project team. Workshop participants will help synthesize lessons from the planning process and to finalize goals for a full-scale project.

Contributing Universities