UW-Superior is the recipient of an Enbridge $42,330 Ecofootprint Grant. Funds will support efforts to continue studying the microplastic sources to Lake Superior in the Superior and Duluth area being led by Dr. Lorena Rios Mendoza with the collaboration of undergraduate students at UW-Superior.
The University of Wisconsin-Superior is the recipient of an Enbridge $42,330 Ecofootprint Grant.
Funds donated to the UW-Superior will support efforts to continue studying the microplastic sources to Lake Superior in the Superior and Duluth area being led by Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Lorena Rios Mendoza with collaboration with undergraduate students at UW-Superior.
Dr. Rios Mendoza has gained national and international attention due to the unique work she and her team at UW-Superior are doing to understand the sources, impacts and solutions to increased plastics in oceans and the Great Lakes. Microplastics, microbeads and plastic fibers, are being found in water worldwide. These tiny plastics attract toxins, are eaten by aquatic bugs and fish and make their way up the food web to our dinner plates. Dr. Rios Mendoza and her plastics research was involved with legislation in Wisconsin that bans microbeads in the water.
Enbridge has provided a total of $3 million in funding over three years to help protect and restore the natural environment in communities in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin along existing and proposed pipeline routes. Eligible organizations include non-profit 501(c)3 organizations, Native American tribes, local governments and post-secondary academic institutions. Enbridge enlists the Minnesota Association of Resource Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils to administer the grant program.