In partnership with Wayne State University, Cleveland Water Alliance is part of a multi-organization effort funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund to reduce microplastics in the Great Lakes. This project includes collaboration with two existing members of CWA's Lake Erie Volunteer Science Network (LEVSN). This project will help develop a tool that will test for microplastics and assess various risk factors associated with microplastics. CWA contributes to this effort by providing our testbed perspective and market intelligence to help evaluate how these methods can best align with market needs and be effectively integrated into broader water monitoring systems. We will also help support testing this tool in real-world environments with our partners in the LEVSN program.
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Wayne State University researchers recently received a grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund to team with the Huron River Watershed Council, the Cleveland Water Alliance, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper and Resource Recycling Systems to help communities combat microplastics in water sources.
The project, “Mobilizing a Great Lakes Microplastic Action Network,” is led by Yongli Wager, Ph.D., associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Sustainable Water-Environment-Energy Technologies Lab in Wayne State’s College of Engineering. The project’s goal is to create a Great Lakes-focused microplastic action network that will use proven reduction strategies and new analytic tools — including a new open-source analytic engine, or “library” — for identifying environmental microplastics. The library will empower communities with the ability to identify local pollution sources for the first time, offering new opportunities for microplastic pollution mitigation at a local level.
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