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The Southern California Bight 2008 Regional Monitoring Project is a cooperative regional-scale monitoring program off the coast of southern California. Nautilus is the primary contract lab and is currently conducting sediment toxicity tests from numerous locations within the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. TIEs will subsequently be performed on sediments that exhibit toxicity. The project will also incorporate recent advances to assess pyrethroid toxicity.
Nautilus is in the final stages of a large-scale chemical, biological, and toxicological evaluation of 21 urban wetlands in southern California for the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. To better understand the risks, considerations, and trade-offs associated with using wetlands to passively or actively treat urban runoff, sediment chemistry, toxicity, and benthic community structure were analyzed in southern California wetlands that receive runoff. The study has consisted of a large-scale laboratory and field-based spatial asssesment of sediment quality. Sediment chemistry suggests that pyrethroids may have been responsible for much of the toxicity documented and subsequent TIE work at Nautilus appears to confirm pyrethroids are the toxicants of concern.
Nautilus CEO Marilyn O’Neill will receive an honor during San Diego Metropolitan magazine’s 40 Under 40 Awards at the ninth annual awards ceremony, presented at the San Diego Convention Center on September 25th, 2008. This award recognizes the accomplishments of 40 of San Diego's brightest young business and civic leaders. These up-and-comers must be under 40 years old and residents of San Diego County.
Nautilus has been involved in the Phase I TMDL assessment within the main pier areas at the Pt. Loma Naval Station in San Diego Bay. The purpose of this study is to examine the magnitude and spatial extent of sediment contaminants, their impact on the benthic community, and to evaluate the potential for contaminants to bioaccumulate and impact aquatic-dependent wildlife and human health. Nautilus also worked with SPAWAR on the successful performance of variety of innovative in-situ toxicity and bioaccumulation test methods using mysid shrimp, mussel larvae, clam worms (polychaete), and bent-nose clams.
The Port of Los Angeles is currently pre-wrapping replacement creosote piles out of water and during the subsequent transport and driving of these piles, the wraps are frequently damaged and require labor intensive post-driving repair/replacement of the wrap, doubling the cost of a pile. As a possible solution, alternative coatings can be placed around the pile to provide short-term containment of the creosote treatment prior to applying the long-term protective wraps, preventing leaching during transport and installation and adding an extra layer of protection. Tests are currently underway in a new outside facility at Nautilus with controlled environmental conditions to quantify the short term leaching of primary organic components from a coated creosote pile.
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