A collaboration between Chico State and Northwestern University researchers investigates water contamination caused by the 2018 Camp Fire, which nearly destroyed the nearby town of Paradise, California. At Chico State, Dr. Sandrine Matiasek, assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences, and Dr. Jackson Webster, assistant professor of civil engineering, are collecting a benchmark set of water samples and assisting Dr. Julius Lucks, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University, with implementing a new synthetic biology platform to quickly monitor water quality in the field, as opposed to in the lab.
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, droughts and, most recently, wildfires are increasingly affecting water quality. The Camp Fire released toxic metals and chemicals from burned houses, industrial structures, cars and other infrastructure into the environment, but the impact on water quality remains unknown. Currently, no technologies exist for fast and cost-effective water quality monitoring outside of a controlled lab environment.
To address this issue, Dr. Matiasek and Dr. Webster are working with Dr. Lucks and Dr. JeanFrançois Gaillard of Northwestern to implement a synthetic biology platform using regulated in vitro transcriptional sensors that can detect toxic compounds such as lead, copper, zinc and cadmium in water samples. The Lucks Laboratory at Northwestern University, along with collaborators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Indiana University, developed the low-cost platform for use from the lab to the field for faster and more efficient water-quality monitoring.
The Northwestern research team visited Chico State in June 2019 to test the platform in the field with guidance from Webster and Matiasek, who monitored water quality in creeks affected by the Camp Fire throughout the 2018-19 rainy season. The Chico State team conducted more field testing of the platform over the summer and in October 2019. Each field test involved Chico State undergraduate and graduate students.
The field tests were successful and preliminary results were presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in December, 2019.