2008 An Environmental Crossroads

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Global warming clouds our future. Pollution degrades our air, soil and water. Environmental toxins compromise the health of our children. Misuse threatens the sustainability of our forests, fisheries, wetlands and coasts, and the health of species that live there.

But there is reason for hope.

Through sound science and policy research, we're finding answers to these problems. Airborne lead and acid rain have been dramatically reduced. Industrial water pollution has decreased. Habitats are being preserved.

Faculty members from the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University are part of the effort to help find these answers and establish new environmental practices and policies to safeguard our natural resources for generations to come.

To contact our experts or learn more about what we're doing in states across the nation, click on the state you're interested in.

Water Quality
More than 1,030 waterbodies – or nearly 15 percent of all of Pennsylvania’s surface waters – fall short of Clean Water Act standards. Excess nutrients, sediments, metals and low dissolved oxygen/organic enrichment are the most common problems. The state ranks second in the nation in the number of waterways impaired by metals, and fifth nationally for both sediments and nutrients. It’s also ranked 7th for pesticides and 10th for low dissolved oxygen.

Richard Di Giulio heads the Duke Superfund Basic Research Center. He studies the toxicology of certain Superfund chemicals that can leach into water and pose environmental and human health risks.
tel: (919) 613-8024: e: richd@duke.edu

Research focus: Environmental toxicology. Freshwater and estuarine pollution. Fish biology. Cancer biology. Special emphasis of his work is the elucidation of mechanisms of exposure and toxicity in humans and ecosystems to particular Superfund chemicals selected based upon their potential significance with respect to reproductive and developmental effects.

David Hinton studies the causes and effects of environmental contaminants on ecosystem health, particularly on fish. He has bred a strain of guppy-like Medaka fish that are highly sensitive to contaminants and can be used as sentinels to detect water quality problems in urban drinking water.
tel: (919) 613-8038: e: dhinton@duke.edu

Research focus: Mechanistic and integrative understanding of the manner in which environmental contaminants exert their effects. Pathobiology and toxiopathology of persistent environmental contaminants in fishes. Deciphering deleterious effects and establishing causal linkages.

Some of Hinton’s specially bred Medaka sentinel fish have been sent to Orange County, Calif., where they are being use to evaluate the safety of its drinking water. Any hints of lesions on or in their tiny bodies may hint of unseen toxic agents.

Kenneth Reckhow is director of the Center for the Analysis and Prediction of River Basin Environmental Systems.
tel:(919) 613-8026: e: reckhow@duke.edu

Research focus: Reckhow is an expert on water quality assessment and management, risk assessment, water quality modeling and decision analysis.

Recent work by Reckhow and his research team has focused on the assessment of nonpoint source pollution on surface water quality and the development of "Total Maximum Daily Loads" (TMDLs). One current project involves the modeling and assessment of allowable nitrogen loads to the Neuse River estuary in North Carolina in order to achieve compliance with the chlorophyll standard. Reckhow was recently chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee assessing the scientific basis of the EPA TMDL program.

Curt Richardson studies long-term ecosystem response to large-scale distrurbances such as acid rain, toxic materials, trace metals, flooding or nutrient additions. He is director of the Duke University Wetland Center.
tel: (919) 613-8006 : e: curtr@duke.edu

Research focus:Wetland ecology and restoration. Role of wetlands in water quality, environmental health and flood mitigation. Phosphorus biogeochemistry.