I spoke with Minna Ho about her research on wastewater plume modeling. Minna's research focuses on understanding how Coastal pollution impacts the environment. Currently, wastewater is dumped into the Pacific Ocean from wastewater treatment plants through pipes buried 60 meters deep. When installed, the sewage dumped into the deep ocean was believed safe for the environment due to the massive volume of the Pacific Ocean. However, Minna's research shows that sewage is carried in high concentrations of wastewater nutrients to the nearshore via the California Current System.

The inspiration for Minna's research comes from the ocean acidification-hypoxia model developed by Jim McWilliam's team at UCLA's Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences. The oceanic acidification-hypoxia model eloquently answers questions such as how are marine life harmed by ocean acidification-hypoxia.

Minna said, "I believe that nutrient inputs from rivers and wastewater pipes into the coastal ocean is causing an exacerbation of ocean acidification and hypoxia on the US west coast regionally alongside natural upwelling and climate change. 

On the scale of the Pacific Ocean and other oceans, I believe that on a long enough timescale (hundreds of years), humans will see an overall acidification. The timescales are long because the oceans are all connected and take quite some time to circulate and overturn."

Minna's research will help wastewater treatment managers better understand how the dumping of sewage into the ocean negatively impacts the coastal environment.

By Benjamin John Eovaldi, DO, Advanced Medical Group, Hudsonville, MI.

Minna Ho is a Senior Research Technician in the Biogeochemistry Department at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) who specializes in assessing the impact of anthropogenic inputs on the ocean through modeling. Her research focuses on developing new wastewater pollution modeling methods to support sanitation management discharge decisions.

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Photo and video caption: Instantaneous concentration fields of ROMS high resolution, nonhydrostatic wastewater plume experiments at different cross flow velocities. 

References:

Ho, M. (2019). Modeling and Validation of Coastal Wastewater Effluent Plumes Using High-Resolution Nonhydrostatic Regional Ocean Modeling System. UCLA. ProQuest ID: Ho_ucla_0031N_18267. Merritt ID: ark:/13030/m5wm6hr0. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5ht6r7cf

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/dept/faculty/james-mcwilliams-to-lead-research-team-exploring-ocean-acidification