Right now,
state scientists across California are working to protect public
health, the environment and California’s natural resources.
At the
Department of Public Health Lab in Richmond, a handful of
scientists are working 7 days a week to respond to the
Swine Flu outbreak. Those state scientists are handling more than 100
samples every day from patients showing flu symptoms. The
samples come in from all over the state. In fact, the Richmond
lab was among the first in the nation to be certified to test
for Swine Flu.
Here’s a
look at some of the other important work done by state
scientists everyday.
Jon B.
Marshack, Staff Environmental Scientist, State Water Resources
Control Board
State
Scientist Jon Marshack is currently working to provide the
public with critical information regarding the safety of our
coastal beaches and waters through the California Water Quality
Monitoring Council.
Marshack
and other state scientists are set to launch a new web site that
will tell the public when it’s not safe to go into the water due
to contamination from sewage spills, runoff and other waste.
The
Council collects beach water quality information from local,
state, federal and non-government agencies, and will use the web
site to share that information with the public in a convenient
way including interactive maps.
Californians will be able to find out which waterways are closed
and check how clean their favorite beach has been in the past
week or month.
The group
is also working on a similar web site covering what fish and
shellfish are safe to eat when pulled from California waterways.
Robert
Larsen,
California Regional Water
Quality Control Board,
Lahontan Region
Summer vacations at Lake Tahoe wouldn’t be the same if the water
didn’t have that world-famous clarity.
But that clarity has declined in recent years in part due
to development and runoff. That’s
where Environmental Scientist Robert Larsen comes in.
Larsen has
devoted much of his career as a state scientist to keeping Lake
Tahoe clear for visitors to enjoy year-round. Larsen is the
most senior staff on a team at the regional water board at South
Lake Tahoe charged with identifying the cause of clarity decline
and developing a plan to restore Lake Tahoe’s transparency.
Their work ensures the Tahoe Basin remains a major tourist
destination and environmental gem.
Fred Lorey, Ph.D., Acting
Chief, Generic Disease Screening Program, Department of Public
Health
As acting Chief of the Genetic Disease Screening Program,
Doctor Fred Lorey and his staff of research scientists work to
provide the best prenatal and newborn screening program to all
Californians. Each year over 560,000 newborns are screened for
up to 76 genetic disorders, which are treatable if detected in
the first few days of life. Approximately 750 such disorders
are detected each year, and early detection and treatment can
prevent mental retardation, neurological damage, or death. Dr.
Lorey and his team in the Department of Public Health expanded
the prenatal screening program in April 2009 to include an
integrated first and second trimester screening program which
will improve detection of Down syndrome and other birth defects,
decreasing the anxiety for families and allowing for immediate
specialty hospital care when the baby is born.
Jim Agnew, Senior Seismologist,
Department of Water Resources
Future large earthquakes may cause major damage
to businesses, homes and California’s extensive infrastructure.
Senior Seismologist Jim Agnew, along with a team of six
seismologists, data analysts and field technicians from the
Department of Water Resources (DWR), monitors for earthquakes
along the State Water Project (SWP), which includes several
large dams, the entire California Aqueduct system, along with
several Power Generating Plants and Pumping Stations.
Over 120 seismic recorders are currently deployed
along the SWP, from the Oroville Dam area to Perris Dam in
Riverside County, with additional recorder installations planned
for the future. These seismic sites require regular maintenance
to assure uninterrupted data transmission. Each recorder’s
multiple sensors are used to detect, locate, and assign
magnitudes to earthquakes, as well as to determine the degree of
shaking that the SWP facilities may experience during larger,
nearby earthquakes.
When a potentially damaging earthquake hits
California, the technology and systems must be in place and
working reliably to ensure the continued safe operation of SWP
facilities, and to warn local field personnel, other interested
state agencies and utility providers. The SWP seismic network is
currently being upgraded to state-of-the-art field equipment to
assure reliable collection of high-quality data.
Ted Sommer, Senior
Environmental Scientists,
Department of Water Resources
The
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta supplies drinking water to over 23
million Californians and supports a multi-billion dollar
agriculture industry. Senior Environmental Scientist Ted Sommer
works to ensure this safe and reliable water supply continues to
flow while maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems. Sommer is
part of the Department of Water Resources team involved in a
major investigation to determine the cause of the collapse of
the threatened delta smelt and other fishes, which in turn has
resulted in severe restrictions on the water supply. Their job
is to develop regulatory and policy recommendations to deal with
the deteriorating conditions in the Delta and to develop a
long-term solution so the flow of water can continue to reach
the people up and down the state.
