Marine Sciences Laboratory -a prized resource- expands capabilities

What is unique about MSL's capabilities?
Pearson: Our location, facilities and staff are our prized assets. MSL's location is close to ideal, with pristine water in Sequim Bay and a physical site on the water with room to grow. We are somewhat remote and have a reliable supply of excellent quality seawater, the perfect combination for environmental work. MSL facilities include several unique features--in particular, the ability to conduct flow-through bioassays with sophisticated delivery of the pollutant. At most labs, when exposing aquatic organisms to pollutants, test water must be changed frequently to maintain chemical levels because pollutants often volatize into the air. At MSL, we can go beyond static renewal (of test water) to perform flow-through bioassays, and we have maintained such bioassay systems reliably for months.

Another unique feature is our ability to treat our effluent. When we conduct bioassays, the water goes through a purification system that removes the contaminants from the water. MSL is one of only two labs on the West Coast that has this capability. MSL's wet lab is well-designed to accommodate diverse studies, from basic research on chemical sensory abilities of fish and crab to large-scale studies that examine the toxicity of dredged material. We also have on-site analytical chemistry capabilities, which complement our bioassay programs. Through these capabilities, we are better able to provide comprehensive services to our clients and meet the quick turnaround requirements that are critical to our work. MSL has the ability to analyze ultra-low trace levels of mercury, arsenic and other metals, and to perform speciation techniques that can determine what form the metal is taking in the environment. If these metals are bound or in a form that is not bioavailable, they might be less toxic to the environment. MSL's speciation capability allows us to provide information to our customers that will enable them to perform better risk assessments. The staff are what make this place tick, however. They bring a diverse set of skills, and they work as a team. We have biologists and chemists talking about projects, designing them and executing them together. That's a capability that's often called for but not often achieved. I'm proud of our staff's ability to do that. Finally, as part of PNNL and Battelle, we're able to call upon the capabilities and resources of the entire institute. Silva: From a national security standpoint, the Marine Sciences Laboratory is unique because of its location on the Pacific Northwest coast, which makes it ideal for anyone wanting to do national security research and development with a national laboratory. Our goal is to marry MSL's strong environmental assessment and restoration capabilities with PNNL's crosscutting science capabilities and apply them to solve national security challenges.

How has MSL's focus evolved over the past 36 years?
Pearson: Our ecotoxicology group conducted a lot of the pioneering research in oil spill fate and effect. Now the group is looking at other chemicals and biological organisms of environmental and national security concern and the bioavailability of metals. The ecotoxicology group also moved into dredged material evaluation in the 1980s and developed methods that are now standard in the field. The group recently transformed itself again and is developing a program to screen endocrine disruptors--chemicals in the environment that can disrupt hormonal systems in humans and wildlife, including fish, amphibians, mammals and birds. One of our other core groups--environmental chemistry--has maintained its expertise in metals and geochemistry. The group has developed many analytical techniques that have become standard practice in mercury and arsenic speciation detection. We've also added a marine resources group that focuses on natural resource issues in the coastal zone. The group is looking at how to restore coastal habitat and the metrics necessary to determine whether a restoration is successful. What issues and challenges does MSL currently face? Pearson: The main challenge is renewing ourselves. Being at the cutting edge of new technology and applying those new technologies to the resolution of pressing environmental problems is what we do best. This requires major investments by Battelle, investments by the individual investigators in developing new science and technology and success in winning new projects.

Silva: Another significant challenge is managing growth. There is a potential for tremendous growth if we are successful in expanding our national security programs along with the projected growth of current core business. Having the infrastructure in place to accommodate that growth also is going to be a big challenge. If successful, we will eventually be asking ourselves when is the right time for new office and laboratory space.

Another challenge for MSL is balancing the project portfolio. We hope that we can use the national security work to diversify client sets, which will help us weather downturns in other business areas.

What is your vision for MSL?
Pearson: Our plan to transform MSL has three components: coastal assessment and restoration, the Coastal Security Institute and marine biotechnology.

Coastal assessment has been our core work, and we've been successful in it, but because we are at full capacity in our labs and offices, we need investment to keep MSL growing. The Coastal Security Institute builds on a lot of the skills and capabilities of our coastal assessment work. Coastal assessment helps us understand the environmental processes and environmental structure of the coastal system. This knowledge and experience can be applied to resolving coastal security issues. Of the three components, marine biotechnology has the most long-term potential for transforming business within the environmental arenas. Two aspects to marine biotechnology are of interest to us. One is the application of marine biotech to environmental issues--using the tools that are emerging from marine biotech, for example, to remediate contamination in marine environments. We also are interested in research and development of industrial products. We hope to develop a niche that helps us move beyond bench-scale discovery to scale-up studies that prove one can produce a useful product from marine organisms in sufficient quantity to meet a demand in the marketplace and at a cost that will be economically viable.

Silva: On the national security side, we envision building coastal security programs related to homeland and national security, coastal analysis and military operations. MSL will become a focal point and resource for R&D in a coastal environment for the Pacific Northwest. We'd like to draw upon the core capabilities being done in coastal assessment, apply them to solve national security problems and reapply the new capability to address environmental challenges. We see Sequim as a focus for developing various types of measurement and signature capabilities in a marine environment. Collecting this type of data in a marine environment is quite challenging because the complexity of saltwater makes it difficult to analyze for targets of interest. But the coastal environment, including rivers and inland lake reservoirs, is an area we need to be concerned about. We also envision Sequim as a potential resource to test new concepts and technologies for the U.S. Homeland Security Department. We're interested in netted sensors, for example, where a group of sensors talk to each other and to a central location. The suite of sensors could be chemical, radiological or biological. They may be floating on the surface, below the surface or below the surface and come up every now and then. The concept is open. For example, if something was moving through the water, like a chemical spill, different sensors would pick it up at different times. Because there's a time lag between each sensor picking up the movement, and each sensor "knows" its location, you get dynamic information. You can track the speed and the direction of the chemical spill. Netted sensors on the surface also could pick up something moving through the air.

How do MSL and PNNL's Richland campus work together?
Pearson: We have a well-developed connection with the Environmental Technology Directorate in Richland, our parent unit and one of PNNL's four research directorates. We have identified, proposed and won projects that use our combined capabilities. Very often that same client comes back to us later with a different project. We now need to move from the project level to the institutional level. Our work with other directorates, such as our collaboration with the National Security Directorate, will accomplish this objective. Working together at the institutional level will transform MSL from being a shop that works on individual projects to an integrated laboratory that takes advantage of all its resources.

Silva: We envision growing the business at MSL, but we also realize that we will team with staff in Richland to help complement Sequim's capabilities. Early on in the growth, there are going to be strengths in Richland unavailable in Sequim; for example, classified capability, which includes the ability to hold secure meetings. Our ability to work together as a national laboratory with a wide range of capabilities in science and engineering is what makes PNNL such a unique asset.