美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump's Budget Would Eliminate A Key Funder Of Research On Coastal Pollution

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

For millions of Americans, what they flush down the toilet goes into a septic tank. Septic tanks are convenient, but sometimes they pollute our waterways. Scientists are trying to track down that pollution with help from a federal program called Sea Grant. It's part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric¹ Administration, and it's a program President Donald Trump²'s budget would eliminate next year. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on what would be lost if that happens.

CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE³: I'm going to start in a yard next to the Severn River in Maryland. It's my yard, actually. Underneath⁴ my feet is a septic tank, my own personal sewer⁵, you could say. Hopefully it's not leaking. If it were, I wouldn't see it anyway. It's underground, and it would leak invisibly downhill. So let's walk downhill. We can listen to a little walking music along the way.

(SOUNDBITE OF ORNETTE COLEMAN'S "TURNAROUND")

JOYCE: OK, I'm in a little park now with trees and grass, a tiny stream here. The river is off to my left. And up above me are a couple hundred homes with septic tanks. And even if those tanks aren't broken, they will leak a little and pollute the water way here. And once pollution is in the river, it's really hard to tell where it came from. Although, there are some people who think they can track down the source of pollution. I like to call them septic detectives.

LORA HARRIS: (Laughter) Septic detective.

JOYCE: Lora Harris actually calls herself a coastal⁶ ecologist. But today she is in fact chasing septic waste along a wooded gully behind a housing development. She's looking for a particular kind of pollution - nitrogen.

HARRIS: A lot of it comes out of toilets, and a lot of it comes out of farms. And a lot of it comes falling out of the sky from us combusting fossil fuels. And so this particular project is focused on what's coming out of the toilets.

JOYCE: We find a small stream just a few inches deep.

HARRIS: Do you want me to start on those bottles?

ANDREW HEYES: Sure can.

JOYCE: Harris and colleague Andrew Heyes start filling bottles with stream water.

HEYES: (Laughter).

JOYCE: Harris explains that nitrogen in a river or bay is fine in the right amount, but too much of it creates dead zones. In fact, excess nitrogen is the single largest pollution problem in coastal waters from the Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf⁷ of Mexico. And everyone blames someone else for it.

So Harris's team at the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science is developing a chemical fingerprint⁸ for one source - septic tanks. It would help local officials pinpoint⁹ the sources of pollution and stop it.

HARRIS: They're keenly interested to know if the water quality problems are because of the septic systems, the farms or if they're because of problems happening all the way up in Pennsylvania.

JOYCE: OK, back on the road traveling to yet another site. It's pretty country.

Harris hopscotches (ph) all over the Chesapeake Bay area to sample water mostly near housing developments. Our second stream runs along a highway. As Harris wades¹⁰ through, Heyes explains that the septic fingerprint they're working on is more than just nitrogen compounds. It's a cocktail¹¹ of chemicals from your home and your body.

HEYES: Things like caffeine, some of the compounds you use in your soap, pharmaceuticals¹². All those things that you flushed down the toilet or pass through your body end up going through the septic system.

JOYCE: OK, mission accomplished¹³. Now back to the laboratory to find out what's in the water.

The lab sits on a peninsula overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. Chemist Michael Gonsior oversees¹⁴ this part of the work. Gonsior studies what's in water right down to the molecular¹⁵ level.

MICHAEL GONSIOR: The complexity¹⁶ in the water, even in natural systems, is absolutely mind-boggling. It's extremely diverse. And I love complex mixtures. It's my thing.

JOYCE: Gonsior has identified about 15,000 compounds in septic water. He shows me a paper plot that displays some of them as peaks and valleys. It looks completely different from a plot of bay water or even of treated sewage, and it's good enough to pick septic waste out of a lineup.

GONSIOR: Because you really want to say, OK, this team here is surely impacted by septics.

JOYCE: The team still has to prove the technique is ironclad. Whether they'll get a chance depends on continued funding through Sea Grant, which supports more than 800 projects like this one around the country. The Trump administration plans to eliminate all of them. Congress so far is keeping them running at least for the rest of this fiscal¹⁷ year. Christopher Joyce, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF A.S.M. AND WAX TAILOR SONG, "SAY YES")

1 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

5 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

6 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

7 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

8 fingerprint   

n.指纹；vt.取...的指纹

参考例句：

• The fingerprint expert was asked to testify at the trial.指纹专家应邀出庭作证。
• The court heard evidence from a fingerprint expert.法院听取了指纹专家的证词。

9 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

10 wades   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A lumi wields a golden morningstar with trained ease as it wades into melee. 光民熟练地挥舞钉头锤加入战团。

11 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

12 pharmaceuticals   

n.医药品；药物( pharmaceutical的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the development of new pharmaceuticals 新药的开发
• The companies are pouring trillions of yen into biotechnology research,especially for pharmaceuticals and new seeds. 这些公司将大量资金投入生物工艺学研究，尤其是药品和新种子方面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

14 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

15 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

16 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

17 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。