SECURED FUNDING TO INVESTIGATE TOXIC CHEMICALS THAT ARE HARMING SALMON
In her work to protect our salmon and restore a healthy and working Puget Sound, Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland secured federal grant funding for the University of Washington Tacoma’s (UW Tacoma) Center for Urban Waters (CUW) to help protect salmon from toxic chemicals.
“Puget Sound is a national treasure that is vital to our economy, wildlife, tribal treaty rights, biodiversity, and our water supply, ” said Congresswoman Strickland. “In Congress, I secured funds to research the harmful effects of toxic chemicals like 6PPD-quinone in stormwater runoff, to help protect and restore the Puget Sound.”
“The funding that Rep. Strickland secured for the Center for Urban Waters at the University of Washington Tacoma will help us upgrade and replace older analytical instrumentation with more capable, sensitive, and reliable instruments. Modern instruments will allow us to better detect and measure chemical pollutants as we work to improve water quality to protect ecosystem health throughout the Puget Sound region. These instruments and related support help to transform the Center for Urban Waters into one of the most-capable and well-equipped environmental research laboratories in the Pacific Northwest,” said Dr. Edward Kolodziej, Professor, Principal Investigator at UW Tacoma Center for Urban Waters.
Dr Kolodziei is one of the three lead investigators that discovered the substance from rubber tires (6PPD-quinone) in stormwater runoff that kills coho salmon in freshwater streams before they spawn.
This Community Project Funding grant will allow the University of Washington to purchase equipment to further their research in identifying and investigating what is contributing to our declining salmon population, like their breakthrough research on 6PPD-quinone.
In late 2021, research conducted UW Tacoma CUW identified the ubiquitous pollutant 6PPD-quinone as impacting salmon and salmon habitat. This pollutant is commonly used in the manufacturing of tires and was found as the primary toxic chemical that is directly responsible for widespread Coho Salmon deaths and declining populations in the Pacific Northwest.
This grant award is one of 14 FY23 Community Project Funding (CPF) grants Congresswoman Strickland secured. Read more about these here: https://strickland.house.gov/media/press-releases/strickland-secures-19-million-south-sound
To learn more about the University of Washington Tacoma’s Center for Urban Waters, visit their website: https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/cuw
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