UW-Superior awarded Ecofootprint Grant
The University of Wisconsin-Superior is the recipient of an Enbridge $42,330 Ecofootprint Grant.
Funds donated to the UW-Superior will support efforts to continue studying the microplastic sources to Lake Superior in the Superior and Duluth area being led by Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Lorena Rios Mendoza with the collaboration of undergraduate students at UW-Superior.
Dr. Rios Mendoza has gained national and international attention due to the unique work she and her team at UW-Superior are doing to understand the sources, impacts and solutions to increased plastics in oceans and the Great Lakes. Microplastics, microbeads and plastic fibers are being found in water worldwide. These tiny plastics attract toxins, are eaten by aquatic bugs and fish and make their way up the food web to dinner plates. Dr. Rios Mendoza and her plastics research was involved with legislation in Wisconsin that bans microbeads in the water.
Enbridge has provided a total of $3 million in funding over three years to help protect and restore the natural environment in communities in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin along existing and proposed pipeline routes. Eligible organizations include non-profit 501(c)3 organizations, Native American tribes, local governments and post-secondary academic institutions. Enbridge enlists the Minnesota Association of Resource Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils to administer the grant program. More information about the grant program can be found by visiting www.minnesotarcd.org or Enbridge.com/ecofootprintgrant for details.
Over the past 65 years, Enbridge has become a leader in the safe and reliable delivery of energy in North America and is proud to be recognized as one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World for the eighth straight year.
