Diagnosing Urban Stream Syndrome: Identifying Novel Contaminants and Toxicants in Our Stormwater

在美国快速城市化的地区，雨水径流是一个主要的水质和处理问题，因为它在向下游流动的过程中积累了许多来自我们的家庭、道路和城市的有害化学物质。虽然这种“城市河流综合症”已知对鱼类和水生生态系统有害，但人们对城市雨水径流的化学组成知之甚少。该项目将侧重于查明城市雨水中的有毒化学物质，特别侧重于了解雨水污染与太平洋西北地区在经济和文化上具有重要意义的成年鳕鱼死亡率观察之间的联系。该项目将测量雨水中的有害污染物，目的是更好地管理城市水质，保护银鲑等鱼类。公民科学家将在鲑鱼死亡发生时帮助监测流域，并提醒项目研究人员在急性死亡事件发生时收集水和组织样本。Edward Kolodziej的研究小组将与公民科学团体、地区机构和城市水域中心（Tacoma， WA）合作，与当地、地区、州和部落社区合作，这些社区出于经济和文化原因对保护鲑鱼感兴趣。相对于研究得很充分的城市污染源，如城市污水排放，人们对城市雨水径流的化学成分知之甚少，尽管它是接收水化学污染物的主要来源。在太平洋西北地区，一种无法解释的急性死亡现象广泛发生在城市化流域，50-100%的成年银鲑在城市雨水暴露后迅速死亡。该项目将侧重于利用高分辨率质谱技术鉴定城市雨水中新型污染物的身份和数量，以识别具有问题结构的雨水污染物，如抑制线粒体电子传递和诱导细胞缺氧的代谢毒物。市民科学家收集的水和组织样本将使用广谱、可疑和非目标分析进行筛选，以确定城市雨水中的新污染物。化学生物活性将通过硅受体对接选择性筛选，从高兴趣检测中检测新的生物活性。随着生态毒理学的不断努力，选择性分离和化学筛选将用于识别毒理学活性样品中的候选毒物，并将毒物化学特征与典型的雨水径流处理系统联系起来。项目成果将通过与地方和区域公民科学项目的合作和外联努力得到广泛传播。通过与城市水域中心的项目合作，将与地方、区域、州和部落的利益相关者进行更多的接触，其中许多人出于经济和文化原因对鲑鱼的健康非常感兴趣。项目合作将包括区域市政当局和机构，如普吉特海湾伙伴关系，以及NOAA-NMFS研究人员和监管机构，重点关注经济上重要的鲑鱼种群的健康。通过项目表征工作，可以通过增强化学源控制能力和优化处理技术来改善城市雨水质量管理。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In rapidly urbanizing areas of the Unites States, stormwater runoff is a major water quality and treatment problem because it accumulates many harmful chemicals from our homes, roads, and cities as it flows downstream. Although it this "urban stream syndrome" is known to be harmful to fish and aquatic ecosystems, the chemical make-up of urban stormwater runoff is poorly understood. This project will focus on identifying toxic chemicals in urban stormwater, focusing particularly on understanding the link between stormwater pollution and observations of mortality in the economically and culturally important adult coho salmon in the Pacific Northwest. This project will measure harmful pollutants in stormwater with the goal to better manage urban water quality and protect fish such as coho salmon. Citizen scientists will help monitor watersheds for salmon mortality as it happens, and alert project researchers to collect water and tissue samples during acute mortality events. The research group of Edward Kolodziej will work with citizen science groups, regional agencies, and the Center for Urban Waters (Tacoma, WA) to collaborate with local, regional, state, and tribal communities who are interested in protecting salmon for economic and cultural reasons. Relative to well-studied urban pollutant sources such as municipal wastewater effluent, little is known about the chemical composition of urban stormwater runoff despite its importance as a major source of chemical pollutants to receiving waters. In the Pacific Northwest, an unexplained acute mortality phenomena occurs widely in urbanized watersheds where 50-100% of adult coho salmon quickly perish after urban stormwater exposure. This project will focus on characterizing the identity and quantity of novel contaminants in urban stormwater using high-resolution mass spectrometry to identify stormwater contaminants with problematic structures such as metabolic poisons that inhibit mitochondrial electron transport and induce cellular hypoxia. Water and tissue samples collected by citizen scientists will be screened using broad spectrum, suspect and non-target analyses to identify novel pollutants in urban stormwater. Chemical bioactivity will be selectively screened via in-silico receptor docking to detect novel bioactivity from high interest detections. Along with ongoing ecotoxicology efforts, selective fractionation and chemical screening will be used to identify toxicant candidates in toxicologically active samples and link toxicant chemical characteristics to typical stormwater runoff treatment systems. Project outputs will be broadly disseminated through collaboration and outreach efforts to local and regional citizen science programs. Through the project affiliation with the Center for Urban Waters, additional outreach to local, regional, state, and tribal stakeholders, many of them very interested in salmonid health for economic and cultural reasons, will occur. Project collaborations will include regional municipalities and agencies such as the Puget Sound Partnership as well as NOAA-NMFS researchers and regulators focused on the health of economically important salmon populations. Via project characterization efforts, the management of urban stormwater quality can be improved by enhanced capabilities for chemical source control and optimization of treatment technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.