Research focuses on antibiotic contamination of surface waters
ALEXANDRIA, Va -- The Water Environment Federation (WEF) and ITT Industries have nominated Ashley Mulroy, a high school student from Moundsville, W.Va., as the 2000 U.S. finalist for the International Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP), the world's most prestigious water science prize for youth.
Mulroy will represent the United States as she competes with finalists from more than 20 countries for the Prize (including $5,000) awarded by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at the Stockholm Water Symposium in Stockholm, Sweden on August 15.
Established eight years ago to engage and support the interest of young people in water environment issues at the regional, national, and international levels, the SJWP is awarded annually to high school students who have contributed to water conservation and improvement through outstanding research. WEF and ITT Industries co-sponsor the Prize in North America; ITT is the international sponsor. Projects are judged on five different criteria: relevance, creative ability, scientific procedure, subject knowledge, and presentation. Nine semifinalists, including Mulroy, were selected on May 11 by a panel of water quality experts who are WEF members at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Detroit, Mich. The same panel then selected Mulroy as the finalist on June 15.
"Ashley's excellent work truly upholds the spirit and high academic standards of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize," said Charles Sorber, president of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and former president of WEF. "Ashley's project is quite sophisticated and will be highly competitive at the international level. Her investigation of how the antibiotic contamination of surface waters contributes to the development of drug-resistant microorganisms is an important and cutting-edge water quality issue."
Mulroy's paper, "Correlating Residual Antibiotic Contamination in Public Water to the Drug-Resistance of Escherichia coli," investigates the presence of three antibiotics -- Penicillin, Tetracycline, and Vancomycin -- found at trace levels in five Ohio River sites, two tributary sites, and in drinking water in three municipalities adjacent to the river. She determined that filtration of the drug-contaminated water through activated charcoal removed most of the antibiotics; but filtration through sand, the most common wastewater filtration method used, did not remove any of the three antibiotics from water samples. E. coli, a common bacteria, which was isolated from each of the seven outdoor sites, demonstrated resistance to the antibiotics with which it formerly coexisted in nature. This resistance was proportional to the antibiotic concentration present at each water site.
Mulroy recommends judicious distribution and use of existing, as well as new, pharmacology and points out that the failure to do so could perpetuate the condition in which pervasive, low level antibiotic contamination would provide just the right environment in which the world's microbes actively train to outpace new antimicrobial drug development. Her paper also may have repercussions for common wastewater filtration methods used today.
"Ashley's research is both timely and relevant because of recent outbreaks of E. coli in Canada and other areas," said Thomas Martin, senior vice president and director of corporate relations for ITT Industries. "Her project demonstrates that young people can take a true leadership role in solving today's problems."
A busy summer awaits Mulroy. She recently competed with her 1999 SJWP project -- "Biomining: Kelp, Pectin, and Bioengineering Assisted Phytoremediation of Selenium Contaminated Soil and Groundwater Utilizing Brassica oleracea" -- in this year's Junior National Humanity and Science Symposium. She was selected as one of the U.S. finalists in that competition and will represent the U.S. at the International London Youth Science Forum, in England, July 26-August 9.
WEF and ITT Industries will award Mulroy and an accompanying adult - John Bisbocci, her science teacher at the Linsly School in Wheeling -- an all expense-paid trip to Stockholm for the international SJWP competition, a $100 cash award, a plaque, and a one-year complimentary membership to WEF, a global technical, scientific, and educational society of water quality professionals.
For more information, visit the WEF web site at http://www.wef.org.
