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
Pollution and development have compromised the Old Dominion’s water sources: Virginia ranks sixth highest in the nation for amount of developmental toxins released into the state’s waters. The problems affect people as well as natural ecosystems: 81 percent of Virginia’s coastal waters and 30 percent of rivers, streams, and creeks are under fish consumption advisories due to chemical contamination, and half of the state’s 55 watersheds are at high risk for loss of wetland and aquatic species.

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.

Joseph Ramus studies the impact of nitrogen pollution from animal and human waste on estuarine and coastal marine health.
tel:(252) 504-7617 : e: jramus@duke.edu

Research focus: Algal ecological physiology, especially photosynthesis; estuarine and coastal ocean productivity; wastewater management; marine ecology.

As more land in coastal regions is cleared for suburbia or converted into intensive agricultural operations, water quality is suffering downriver, in environmentally sensitive estuaries and coastal waters, Ramus says. With "more and more land use change, more water comes off the watershed and it comes off faster," Ramus says. “One major consequence of this is that excess nitrogen runoff from automobile emissions, animal wastes and fertilizers enters the water, where it nurtures algae growth that robs the water of oxygen and promotes fish kills.”

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.