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Pasadena : Ocean Waste Study Grant

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A $245,000 grant has been awarded to Caltech for a two-year study of the physical and chemical aspects of waste particles released in the ocean by municipal sewage discharge.

Robert C. Y. Koh, a Caltech senior research associate who will be working with two professors under the grant from the Andrew F. Mellon Foundation, said they will study what happens to the discharge and what effect it has on the ocean. Although the movements of particles along the coastline will not be traced, the researchers expect to project where particles go by analyzing chemical changes that occur after sewage is discharged into the ocean.

Koh said laser holography will be used to measure particle velocity and chemical tests will be used to analyze the way particles coagulate and settle to the bottom of the sea.

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