RPI professor joins drinking water council
TROY, N.Y. » Sandra NierzwickiBauer, professor of biological sciences and associate director of the Darrin Fresh Water Institute at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been appointed to the state Drinking Water Quality Council by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
The council will guide New York’s actions to ensure all communities across the state have access to clean drinking water.
“As a microbiologist who has spent my scientific career working to help protect New York state’s freshwater resources, I am honored to serve on this important council,” said Nierzwicki-Bauer.
Nierzwicki-Bauer joined the RPI faculty in 1985, and her research interests include molecular studies of microbial and picoeukaryote communities in lakes and rivers; basic and applied studies of invasive species, in particular, zebra mussels; and water resource management and environmental remote sensing. She was co-author of a landmark 30-year study of Lake George, published in 2014 by the Darrin Fresh Water Institute, that was part of ongoing research documenting changes in the lake’s chemistry and ecology.
The council’s first task will be to make recommendations to establish enforceable maximum contaminant levels for three pri-
ority emerging contaminants that have been found in New York, including perfluorooctanoic acid, which was found to have contaminated municipal water supplies in Hoosick falls and Petersburgh. The council will review the science and provide guidance to the state Department of Health on setting limits for such contaminants.