Research team maps Harvey's toll on Galveston Bay
GALVESTON - As the R/V Trident sped northwest through Galveston Bay, students and researchers from Texas A&M University's Galveston campus donned blue latex gloves and bright orange life vests, silently mouthing the words to Foreigner's "Cold As Ice" blaring over the boat's loud speakers.
Just ahead was Morgan's Point, at the entrance of the Port of Houston, the first stop of 10 planned to catalogue the chemical and biological effects on Galveston Bay of one of the worst storms in U.S. history. This station is the closest in proximity to the cities that took the brunt of Harvey's rage: The San Jacinto River starts here, the Buffalo Bayou dumps into the bay here and the San Jacinto Waste Pits are closer than is comfortable.
If contaminants have reached the bay, said Karl Kaiser, an assistant professor at the school, their concentration likely would be the highest here.
The group started gathering their samples, throwing orange buckets over the railing of the 65-foot catamaran and filtering the water into labeled bottles for future testing.
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