In the Lab and the Bay: Navigating Water Contaminants Along the Texas Coastal Bend

April 17, 2024

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12:00 PM

As water travels through its watershed, it picks up and absorbs much of what it encounters. This can include an array of water contaminants such as microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and “forever chemicals” known as PFAS. These contaminants can impact aquatic systems and the creatures that live within them. For instance, fish can absorb these chemicals and pass them back into the people who eat them. The issue can be particularly acute in the Texas Coastal Bend region where so much water collects and so many source points of contamination reside. In this panel, we will discuss how researchers and managers at the Marine Science Institute and the City of Corpus Christi are working to shed light on the interplay between contaminants and aquatic ecosystems. The panel will also discuss techniques to trace contaminants' presence, their impacts on human and environmental health, and strategies for their mitigation.

PANELISTS

Frances Acuña

Climate Resilience Lead Organizer,

Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin

Frances Acuña has lived in southeast Austin for 25 years. She began advocating for the Dove Springs community in 2010 by working with Police Officers in crime and safety. In 2012, she became a Community Healthworker and started getting involved as a community leader and working as a Community Health Healthworker to advocate for healthcare and physical activity in childhood obesity. She also worked with fellow community members serving as first responders during the October 2013 and 2015 floods in Dove Springs. In 2017, Frances joined GAVA as a Community Organizer where she worked to increase access to healthy food and physical activity. Later with continued floods and residents being displaced due to flooding and Infrastructure issues, her priority became Climate Resiliency focusing on efforts to build community power to advocate for flood mitigation and the right to stay in the neighborhoods where residents are most impacted by natural disasters and social disparities. Now as the Climate Resilience Lead Organizer for GAVA, she is concentrating her efforts bridging the communication gap between residents and stakeholders emphasizing response and responsibility where equity and public safety is a mutual priority. When she is not spending her time in the community organizing or meeting with stakeholders, you can find her in her garden or spending time with her family.

Katie Landry-Guyton

Senior Service Hydrologist,

National Weather Service

Katie Landry-Guyton currently serves as the Senior Service Hydrologist for the National Weather Service (NWS) in Houston, TX. Her primary role is to serve as the liaison between the local weather forecast office, the West Gulf River Forecast Center, local emergency managers and hydrologic stakeholders in southeast Texas. In her tenure, she has worked numerous high-impact flooding events such as Hurricane Harvey and Tropical Storm Imelda where she provided hydrologic decision support services to core partners for resource placement, emergency response, and recovery efforts. Prior to joining the Houston office in 2017, Katie earned a B.S. in Geosciences from Mississippi State University in 2012, and worked as a Hydrometeorologist for the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell, LA, from 2012 to 2017.

Paola Passalacqua, Ph.D

Professor,

Cockrell School of Engineering

Paola Passalacqua is a Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering in the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Genoa, Italy, with a BS (2002) in Environmental Engineering, and received a MS (2005) and a PhD (2009) in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on transport processes along river and delta networks, with particular focus on flooding, river-floodplain connectivity, and coastal resilience. Dr. Passalacqua is the lead PI of SETx-UIFL, a DOE funded Urban Integrated Field Laboratory that focuses on the compounding effects of flooding and air pollution on Southeast Texas communities. Additionally, she is the Chair of Planet Texas 2050, a Bridging Barrier mission at the University of Texas to advance interdisciplinary research on resilience and to co-design adaptative strategies with stakeholders and frontline communities in Texas. Dr. Passalacqua has been honored with several awards including the Bagnold Medal of the European Geosciences Union (2022), a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2014) and the University of Texas Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award (2017).

Gabriele Villarini, Ph.D

Professor,

Princeton University

Professor Villarini's research interests focus broadly on flood hydrology, extreme events, hydroclimatology, and climate predictions and projections. He has received a number of national and international awards, including the Hydrological Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist Award by the European Geosciences Union (2013), and the James B. Macelwane Medal by the American Geophysical Union (2016). He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2016). He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, including articles in Nature, Science, Nature Climate Change, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the Editor-in-Chief for Advances in Water Resources.

RECORDING

PANELISTS

Kerri Lynn Ackerly

Research Associate,

University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute

Kerri Lynn is a Research Associate at the University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute. She studies the impacts of anthropogenic stressors on fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Her research focuses on multi-stressor impacts, including climate change and aquatic toxicants, on the physiology, development, and morphology of fishes. Her current work incorporates the occurrence, fate, and transport of “forever chemicals”, also known as PFAS, in bay and estuaries along the Texas coast. She is especially focused on how PFAS impacts economically and economically important fishes, including red drum and sheepshead minnows.

Valerie De Anda

Research Scientist,

University of Texas at Austin

Valerie De Anda is a 2023 Provost’s Early Career Fellow and a Research Scientist in the Baker Marine Microbial Ecology laboratory at UT Austin. She has conducted extensive studies on microbial communities in marine ecosystems including surface oceans, estuaries, marine sediments, and the deep subsurface. Valerie has also explored extreme environments such as stromatolites in oligotrophic lagoons, hot springs, and hydrothermal vent systems. By integrating data-science, software development and microbial ecology and evolution her research program uses microbial metabolism to understand the past, present, and future outcomes of life on Earth.

Kaijun Lu

Research Scientist,

University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute

Kaijun Lu is a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute. His research interests are focused on the organic matter, including both natural compounds and anthropogenic pollutants, in the aquatic systems. Through the application of various analytical tools, he tries to quantify the concentrations of different organic matter, understand their molecular structures, as well as their long-term fates in the system. Kaijun’s current work involves the occurrences, and the fates of various anthropogenic organic contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), microplastics, and tire-related toxins in the coastal systems in Texas.

Crystal Ybanez

Water Quality Manager,

Corpus Christi Water

Crystal Ybanez is the Water Quality Manager for Corpus Christi Water. She has a Master of Science in Environmental Science, a Master of Public Administration in Public Safety, and a Graduate Certificate in Homeland Security. Additionally, she holds TCEQ “Class A” Water Operator and “Class A” Wastewater Operator Licenses, which are the highest occupational licenses in the state. Crystal has worked for the City of Corpus Christi since 2008 and as the Water Quality Manager, she oversees the water quality division, a NELAP accredited laboratory, and the wastewater pretreatment division. Each division ensures the City of Corpus Christi meets state and federal regulatory requirements in drinking water and wastewater compliance.