This is a collaborative effort with the University of South Carolina – Beaufort. Dr. Alan Warren of USC-B serves as the Principal Investigator; P.A. Work is PI for the GT-Savannah component of the project and K. Haas of GT-Savannah is co-PI.

To say that the USMC is involved in a lot of weapons training would be an understatement. Many of the spent munitions go into berms, but this is not true at all sites. At some sites, bullets land in estuarine environments and there is some concern regarding the fate of the associated metals. The effort that is underway at three bases in NC and SC involves quantifying the locations and concentrations of the metals (copper and lead are the primary constituents of interest/abundance).

Our effort so far includes a lot of Zodiac inflatable rides to the ends of barely navigable creeks, where we climb out into pluff mud to collect samples at depths of 0-1.5 m below the sediment/water interface. The project also includes collection of water and biomass samples. A variety of analytical tools are being used to quantify metals concentrations. MS and Ph.D. students are assisting with field and lab work.