In The Field: EPA Program Brings Environmental Experts to Rhode Island

Published January 15, 2025

The United States encompasses 3,809,525 square miles, including 3,532,316 square miles of land and 277,209 square miles of water. While there are unique environmental conditions throughout the varied environments of the U.S., there are also many similar environmental challenges. It is important for those responsible for protecting human health and the environment to understand the issues faced in other regions and the strategies they use to address those challenges. To support collaboration and information sharing on priority science needs, EPA hosts the annual Regional-ORD Community of Science Networking, or ROCS-Net event.

ROCS-Net is an Office of Research and Development (ORD) orientation and networking program for regional, Tribal and state scientists and engineers. Participants, who have limited familiarity with ORD, visit an EPA research facility for discussions with ORD scientists about collaborative research opportunities, science priorities, and cross-cutting issues. The program establishes new connections, fosters a shared understanding of science issues, shares information about ORD research and science capabilities, and provides a path to future collaborative opportunities.

For EPA’s 2024 ROCS-Net events, participants visited EPA’s Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division’s (ACESD) research facility in Narragansett, Rhode Island, to explore collaborative research opportunities and discuss science priorities with EPA researchers. The event included overviews of EPA research programs, meetings with laboratory scientists, facility tours, research demonstrations, and information sharing sessions between participants. Check out photos from the 2024 event below and learn more about EPA’s research facility in Narragansett!

Day One: Welcome Session and Team Presentations

The team from EPA Region 5, including participants from EPA Region 5, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, Ohio EPA Lake Erie Commission, and the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, presented on their science issues. Each team comes to the ROCS-Net event with science topics of interest that will guide conversations and information sharing between participants and ORD scientists throughout the event.

Visiting participants also learned more about EPA’s work. Scot Hagerthey (EPA ORD) provided an overview presentation of ORD’s research, organization, and available opportunities.

Day One: Lab Tours

Participants visited EPA’s laboratories and heard directly from the EPA researchers about their ongoing research and the capacity and capabilities of the Narragansett lab.

The mummichog are used in experiments to look at the effects and molecular mechanisms of PFAS exposure during fish development and reproduction.

A ROCS-Net participant views microplastic samples using a microscope in the microplastics lab. Marissa Giroux (EPA ORD), Sandi Robinson (EPA ORD), Robert Burgess (EPA ORD), and Jimmy Farnan (EPA ORD) are researching how to measure microplastics from environmental samples and their effects on marine organisms.

Cotton lab coats are required in the microplastics lab to prevent plastic fibers from clothes shedding inside the lab environment. Hot pink and tie-dye cotton lab coats meant a mandatory group photo opportunity!

At another lab tour stop, participants listened to Morgan Schwartz (EPA ORD) and Bryan Taplin (EPA ORD) present on stable isotopes. Morgan is analyzing samples for bulk carbon and nitrogen isotopes, while developing a method for sulfur isotope analysis at the ACESD. Bryan also works in bulk carbon and nitrogen analysis but is using his expertise to help develop a method to measure dissolved inorganic carbon in water samples.

Both scientists are using these tools to help folks better understand nutrient dynamics in Narragansett Bay and other local projects.

With day one completed, the participants headed off to a group dinner to end the day!

Day Two: Group Discussions, Poster Sessions, and Research Presentations

Day two included time for small group discussions, where the participants had targeted discussions on high priority science needs and had the opportunity to collaborate with each other and ORD researchers.

Participants also heard from EPA researchers who presented on their ongoing research. Here participants hear from Anne Kuhn and Jane Copeland (EPA ORD) on the Chesapeake Coastal Resiliency Solutions Driven Research project. Participants asked questions and discussed how the research and resources may be applicable to their organizations and regions.

Also on the agenda were poster sessions where the ROCS-Net participants and EPA researchers discussed their research and science needs in an engaging setting.

Day Three: Field Visits

Stephen Shivers (EPA ORD) and Jeff Hollister (EPA ORD), presented on the Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) research being conducted at Mashapaug Pond near Providence RI. They set up a demonstration of the FLAMe (Fast Limnological Automated Measurements) system as well as a small monitoring buoy. The buoy features a YSI EXO 2s sonde that measures temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, pH, turbidity, chlorophyll and phycocyanin.

Sarah Burgess (EPA Region 10) asked a question during Kate Mulvaney’s (EPA ORD) presentation on social science research. Kate is working on human dimensions of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and other water quality concerns.

Autumn Oczkowski (EPA ORD) and Alana Hanson (EPA ORD) presented on EPA’s research and collaborations in the village of Wickford, RI.

Behind the North Kingstown Free Library, a focal point of an EPA study examining nutrient loading reductions, a water quality sensor is marked by a small white buoy.

Jim Hagy (EPA ORD) presents information about what the sensor is measuring and how the project is using data from the sensor to meet project objectives.

Day Three: Closing Sessions and Group Photo

After an engaging week of collaboration, participants came together to share their take aways, the information they learned from the visit, and discussed how to continue the conversations and collaborations going forward.

A group photo to close the event out is a must.

The lab’s green roof makes a great back drop!

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