Plastic Pollution in Surface Waters of Sonoma County

Presenter: Cesar Torres

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Manza Atkinson

Department: Chemistry

Funding Source/Sponsor: RSCAP

President's Strategic Plan Goal: Sustainability and Environmental Inquiry

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1czv-LR0cDGB2rFsE7Jx5bpVB_EF-8Kax

Abstract:
With the rise in the concern of plastic pollution in aquatic environments, namely oceans, this research aims to shed light on a less focused environment which is a freshwater environment. Plastics are synthetic polymers that are used widely around the world due to their flexibility and easy accessibility. Once these polymers enter the environment, they are non-biodegradable because they are said to persist for up to hundreds or thousands of years. In the present study, the types of plastic pollution from Driftwood Beach, CA, which is located in Northern California, was studied. The Russian River is a freshwater source that flows directly through Sonoma County and eventually bleeds into the Pacific Ocean at the location of Driftwood Beach. Therefore, any debris that is improperly disposed of gets picked up via the river and eventually makes its way to the ocean which adds to the global plastic pollution issue. There have been no prior investigations on plastic abundance in the Russian River. Based on the density of the plastic polymers, we suggest that the order of abundance is: polyethylene = polypropylene > polystyrene > polyvinyl chlorine > polyethylene terephthalate. We aim to provide insight on the surface water of the Russian River in order to strive away from the dependence of plastic polymers.