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Summer activities turn our attention to the swimmable, fishable waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Summer also is a time for high school and college students to take on internships that allow them to gain professional experience and learn more about the community around them. This summer, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) hired 18 interns to assist with various projects.
“Building a relationship with students where they gain hands-on knowledge of the important work we perform at MDE reinforces our mission to educate future environmental workers,” said MDE Secretary Kendl P. Philbrick.
Critter Sorters
MDE’s Technical and Regulatory Services Administration has an on-site laboratory designated to assess benthic (bottom-dwelling) communities collected from both tidal and non-tidal waters in Maryland. This summer, three students were chosen to help with the “bug counts” in the MDE wet lab at the agency’s Montgomery Park headquarters.
“I would like to teach biology and this will give me first-hand experience and background to share with my students,” said Meghan Hill, Havre DeGrace High School graduate who will be attending Towson University next year as a biology major. “Up until a few days ago, we just sorted samples. Now, we’re starting the count and it’s more fun.”
These students are assisting with the environmental assessment of the Hart-Miller Island Confined Disposal Facility (HMI). HMI was constructed in 1983 to provide a containment site for sediments dredged from Baltimore Harbor and its approach channels. The dredged materials that are likely to be contaminated with heavy metals and other toxics are being contained at HMI.
To assure water quality standards surrounding the facility are met, MDE, in partnership with the Maryland Geological Survey and the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, conducts annual assessments of aquatic environment surrounding Hart-Miller Island.
Critter Counts Indicate Health of Bay Waters
An altered benthic community can be an indication of impaired waters. As project managers for the HMI exterior monitoring program, as well as permit holders for the HMI facility, it is MDE’s responsibility to ensure that there are no HMI-related environmental impacts to the surrounding aquatic community. Benthic macroinvertebrates are one of the indicators used by MDE to assess such impacts.
“I plan to study biology next year and this is helping me get a head start,” said Marcus Davis, Emerson West Side High School student.
Worms, Crustaceans and Barnacles, Oh My!
The students sort sediment samples to separate benthic invertebrates into major groups for further taxonomic (genus or species) identification. “We’re learning to identify benthic organisms,” said University of Maine wildlife and ecology student, Lindsay Keener-Ech. “We get to have professional experience in a real-world environment. I plan to specialize in endangered species and this is a good start.”
According to Hill, scraping samples from shells without breaking them is the hardest part of the job. “It takes 5-10 minutes to scrape a barnacle off the shell each time.” In their one-and-a-half months with MDE, the students have sorted 120 samples.
“Without the help we receive every year from our interns, we would have a difficult time processing all of these samples,” said Matthew Rowe, environmental specialist in MDE’s Dredging Assessment Section. “Our interns help us do this in an efficient, economical way, and it allows them to see how biological indicators are used in a regulatory framework. The data generated by this project could have an impact on future facility operations as well as influence how dredged material is handled within the state. It’s pretty important stuff!”
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