EPA Research in South Carolina

EPA researchers are working hard to protect communities across the nation. Learn about some of the work EPA researchers are doing in South Carolina.

• Partnering with Tribes to Deploy Air Sensors in Communities
• Stream Monitoring Network
• America's Food Waste Problem
• Sourcing Urban Soil Contaminants to Improve Cleanup
• Contaminants Caught in a Spider's Food Web

For more EPA work, see EPA in South Carolina.

Partnering with Tribes to Deploy Air Sensors in Communities

Partnerships can advance citizen science efforts that use innovative approaches to protect communities from health risks such as air pollution. EPA is working with tribal communities to deploy air sensors in a variety of venues, including on tribal lands, to help people learn about air quality issues in their communities. EPA scientists partnered with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Catawba Indian Nation, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and other state and local partners to host an air sensor collocation shelter. Read EPA Partners with Tribes to Deploy Air Sensors in Communities.

Stream Monitoring Network

EPA's Office of Research and Development is working with EPA regions, states (including South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control), Tribes, river basin commissions and other entities to establish Regional Monitoring Networks for freshwater wadeable streams. The objectives are to collect long-term biological, thermal, hydrologic, physical habitat and water chemistry data to document baseline conditions across sites and detect long-term changes. This data can be used for many purposes, including informing water quality and biological criteria development and setting protection planning priorities, refining lists of biological, thermal and hydrologic indicators, and detecting trends in commonly used water quality and biological indicators. 

America's Food Waste Problem

Every year in the US, approximately 133 billion pounds of food is wasted. EPA’s Net Zero Initiative is working with communities in Columbia, South Carolina, including military base Fort Jackson, to evaluate ways to reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfills. Read Net Zero: America's Food Waste Problem.

Sourcing Urban Soil Contaminants to Improve Cleanup

Identifying the source of soil contaminants is vital to decision-making during an environmental cleanup. That's why EPA scientists partnered with several southeastern states to figure out how urban background contaminants differ from industrial waste at urban sites. After successfully completing the project in the first set of cities, the researchers expanded to collect and analyze soil samples from Chattanooga, TN, and Columbia, SC.  Read Sourcing Urban Soil Contaminants to Improve Cleanup.

Contaminants Caught in a Spider's Food Web

EPA scientists have tapped unique “data collectors” in an innovative method of tracking the movement of contaminants across ecosystems: spiders. Contaminants can be spread through and across ecosystems via the food web. If a bird eats an insect from a contaminated aquatic ecosystem, contaminants (which may have accumulated in the insect’s tissues) are introduced to the bird’s terrestrial ecosystem. Using orb weaving spiders commonly found near water bodies, EPA scientists tracked the movement of contaminants from the aquatic ecosystem of Lake Hartwell, SC to the terrestrial ecosystem that surrounds it.