“As Trump Overhauls Mercury Regulations, Toxic Emissions Could Rise”: Check out Dr. Celia Chen interview on the New England News Collaborative show, NEXT, at 19:40 in the broadcast.  On April 16, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overturned the Agency’s prior determination and deemed that it is not “appropriate and necessary” to regulate mercury and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from oil- and coal-fired power plants under section 112 of the Clean Air Act. According to legal scholars, this decision undermines the foundation of the MATS rule and invites challenges to the emissions standards themselves. More details are available in Mercury Matters 2020: A Science Brief for Journalists.

Data literacy education using arsenic in private well water led by Mt Desert Island Biological Lab and the Dartmouth Superfund Program reports well testing results.

Tens of thousands of people in Maine may be exposed to very high levels of As (Arsenic) in their drinking water. In response, ME legislators are considering legislation “…that would help low-income Mainers get wells tested for the substance and require the state to consider lowering the currently acceptable contaminant level for arsenic in water provided by municipal systems.” More information.

Research from the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program, supported by data from the New Hampshire (NH) State Cancer Registry, informed the passage of 2019 legislation which decreased the arsenic maximum contaminant level for public drinking water from 10 to 5 parts per billion in NH. House Bill 261, signed by Governor Sununu, will be effective July 2021. Read More.

Dr. Mary Lou Guerinot, Dartmouth SRP researcher and Dartmouth Professor of Biological Sciences, is profiled in the January 13, 2020 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The profile of her career accompanies the publication of Dr. Guerinot’s recent paper, “The iron deficiency response in Arabidopsis thaliana requires the phosphorylated transcription factor URI.” According to the study, researchers have discovered a gene that controls the regulation of iron uptake in plants. This discovery could be important to increasing the iron potency of crops such as rice, wheat and cassava that form the staple diets of more than half the world’s population.

176 people attended the annual Poster Session for the Dartmouth Superfund Research Program’s Dragonfly Mercury Monitoring Project which was held on January 10, 2020 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. Students from Woodstock High School in VT and Stevens High School, Rivendell Academy and Pelham High School in NH presented excellent posters. The keynote speaker, Dr. Jennifer Brentrup, Postdoctoral Fellow at University of VT and Dartmouth College, spoke about her work sampling lakes to understand climate change. This community engagement effort puts mercury research into the hands of local high school students to educate them about mercury in our world and the importance of clear, data-based scientific research and communication to mitigate mercury risks. The Dragonfly Project is supported by the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program and the Wellborn Ecology Fund. More event photos.  More information about the Dragonfly Project.