Mountains Environment Research Institute kicks off speaker series
Elizabeth Balgord spoke at Western about how glaciers receding in the Andes mountains is affecting Peru’s water quality on Thursday, Oct. 26.
This past summer, Balgord and a crew of other geologists went high up into the Andes to an area named the Cordillera Blanca, to study how receding glaciers are affecting the ecosystems nearby.
The Cordillera Blanca and the glaciers there are one of the major water sources for the people of Peru.
“The glaciers are retreating and the implications of that is not just in the amount of water, but also the quality of water is what we are exposing and as we melt those glaciers,” Balgord said.
When these glaciers recede, new rocks and minerals are exposed, and those minerals are going straight into the glacial runoff, affecting the pH and drinkability of the available water sources in Peru.
Here in Bellingham we live near quite a few glaciated mountains and receding glaciers could potentially end up affecting us and our water quality here in Whatcom County if we are not careful.
“When we think about what’s going to be happening with climate change, it’s not just that those glaciers are going to melt. You want to be thinking about what they are exposing as they’re melting. There’s a whole bunch of hazards associated with this as well. We need to know and have a plan for what we are going to be exposing and what that’s going to mean as far as our water quality,” Balgord said
Junior, Matt Lubar had the opportunity to join and assist Balgord with her tests during the expedition. He was also able to see first hand the damage that has been caused to these glaciers by climate change.
“The extent to which the glaciers are retreating and how fast they are retreating, having been there and seen that she did a really good job at stressing that point,” Lubar said. He also enjoyed how she took all the raw data and was able to expand on what he learned in the field.
Around 40 people attended the hour-long presentation in the Environmental Studies building room 418, many of whom were students. Senior Sverre “Scooter” Oseberg-Finney was one of the many students in attendance who found the presentation to not only be informative, but also helpful with applying what he is learning in class.
“I enjoyed [the presentation],” Oseberg-Finney said . “It puts things I’ve been learning into context. In terms of geologic processes and seeing field work related to those terms. I’ve also never thought of mineralogy changing the water pH and people’s ability to drink fresh water.”