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Crossing Disciplines to Address Mercury Pollution

Four members of Dartmouth’s engineering, business, and arts and sciences faculty are collaborating to help curb the social and ecological impacts of mercury pollution in New England.

An interdisciplinary research team at Dartmouth has received a grant to identify indicators of mercury pollution. From left: Darren Ranco, Richard Howarth, and Mark Borsuk. Not shown is Andrew King. (photo by Joseph Mehling '69)

Even at Dartmouth, where interdisciplinary projects abound, this one stands out, says principal investigator Mark Borsuk, an assistant professor at Thayer School of Engineering. “Not only are we from four different departments, we are overseen by three different deans. The grant proposal needed three times the typical number of signatures.”

The team includes Borsuk; Darren Ranco, assistant professor of Native American studies and environmental studies; Richard Howarth, the Pat and John Rosenwald Professor and professor of environmental studies; and Andrew King, associate professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business.

The project is funded by a three-year, $300,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability program.

The group will apply a combination of economic and social scientific theory, environmental modeling, behavioral experiments, and interviews with “stakeholders,” or those affected by mercury pollution. The goal is to identify compelling “indicators” of mercury pollution—ways of characterizing the pollutant’s impact that are especially meaningful to the public. For example, a “biological indicator” might be the mercury levels in a popular fish or wildlife species, while a “social indicator” may range from the average number of IQ points a child loses when exposed to high levels of the pollutant, to the number of public meetings attended by members from impacted communities to implement the regulations.

A core aspect of the project is the involvement of traditionally underrepresented minority groups, including rural Native American and urban African American communities. These communities may suffer disproportionately high exposure to pollutants, especially under “cap and trade” rules, which set an upper limit for the total amount of a particular pollutant but do not regulate the locations or exposure routes for that pollutant.

“A lot of my work has been about critiquing regulatory approaches with regard to environmental justice concerns,” says Ranco, who is a member of the Penobscot Nation of Maine. “This project offers the possibility of creating a solution. I don’t think there’s an inherent conflict between regulatory efficiency and environmental justice.”

The group chose to focus on mercury pollution in New England because it remains a significant health threat in the region. Dartmouth investigators have been studying environmental health aspects of mercury for more than a decade.

Each member contributes different methodologies and fields of knowledge. “We really do speak different languages and have different backgrounds, but, ultimately, that’s what makes the project exciting,” says Borsuk. “We see it as a good example of what the emerging field of ‘sustainability science’ can be. For any kind of environmental policy to be sustainable in the long term, it must include these different perspectives.”

By REBECCA BAILEY

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