Blasco Library debate: Gannon's argument 'does not hold water'

Why did Erie County Executive Brenton Davis and Gannon University take American Rescue Plan funds meant to help communities most adversely affected by COVID-19 to build a research lab and education center that we don't need on the waterfront?

I have read through all the past and updated literature Gannon provides for its $24 million Project NePTWNE. Everything I read seemed pretty scant on any details, including their glossy four-page color brochure "The Great Lakes Research & Education Center."

Prior to Erie County Council's Oct. 17 approval of the 25-year lease for space at Blasco Library, Gannon indicated that the $1.5 million from the county was to be used to offset the research center's construction inside the Union Fish Company building. The Gannon information was changed to say inside the Blasco Public Library in October, although at the time of this writing, the Erie County website still listed the Union Fish Company as the location of Project NePTWNE.

Why has Gannon been given priority over taxpayers to take the computer lab, meeting rooms and library staff offices, and move them to less desirable locations in our Blasco Public Library so they can have a prime first floor location?

A question in the Gannon brochure asks: "Why does Gannon University want a location on the bayfront?"

Their answer: Gannon has a research vessel — the Environaut — docked on the waterfront. Gannon maintains a laboratory that is proximate to the boat would aid researchers and their projects because researchers currently must transport everything to campus more than a half-mile away.

My answer: Gannon wants a research lab on the waterfront but they don't need one. All they need is a slip for their boat — and they already have one.

I spent more than 16 years working with researchers and educators to involve students and the public in Great Lakes science. I can tell you it is not in our best interest to spend $1.5 million to take space away from our public library.

Every Tuesday during the school year, I researched and wrote about environmental problems for the Erie Times-News in Education (NIE) page: "Connect with your environment." I had the pleasure of working with researchers and teachers all over Erie County and the Great Lakes. I wrote about research and solutions dealing with harmful algal blooms; water pollution caused by pharmaceuticals and personal care products; polluted runoff from streets, parking lots and agricultural activities; bacterial contamination from sewer overflows and leaking septic tanks; from industrial practices and poor land use and development.

That research was done by scientists in labs that are not located on the waterfront and their water samples had to be transported miles from where they were collected. Samples from tributaries, wetlands, coastal regions, and many locations on the Great Lakes are regularly taken back to labs located at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center, Penn State Behrend, Mercyhurst University and the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab in Ann Arbor, Mich., and many others. This proves Gannon does not need a lab on the waterfront. They could easily use their campus labs.

Another problem in the Gannon literature is that it does not show how a lab on the waterfront will solve microplastic pollution. That research has already been done by many experts, including scientists right here in Erie County.

I wrote about the plastic problem many times in the NIE pages starting in 2003 when I worked with the Pennsylvania Coastal Resource Management Program to involve students and citizens in the PA Lake Erie International Coastal Cleanup. Plastic had become the major source of marine debris, which had made its way into Lake Erie and waterways all over the world. Through the years we learned about the high cost of convenience because single-use plastic topped the list of items collected — such plastic does not decompose. It breaks into smaller and smaller pieces but never goes away.

Starting in 2013 I was fortunate to work with Sherri Mason, Ph.D., a leading researcher in freshwater plastic pollution, during my time working at Pennsylvania Sea Grant. Her award-winning work has drawn international attention to the threats posed by microplastics and led to the passage of national measures banning microbeads. Dr. Mason's research group was among the first to study the prevalence and impact of plastic pollution within freshwater ecosystems. She collected microplastics from the surface of all five Great Lakes, mostly aboard the U.S. Brig Niagara. Her research has also identified microplastics in treated drinking water, sea salt and bottled water.

Her work has expanded to include discovery of other non-biodegradable materials that are introducing chemical contaminants into water supplies and the Great Lakes food chain, including synthetic fibers. These tiny fibers are shed when fleece items are laundered and are ingested by fish. They enter the food chain, introducing chemical contaminants including endocrine disruptors, neurotoxins and carcinogens that are potentially harmful to both aquatic organisms and humans. Her work proves research can be and is done in labs far from the waterfront. She currently serves as Director of Sustainability at Penn State Behrend.

Building a new research lab in our library will not discover or solve microplastic pollution. But it will give Gannon an attractive selling point to bring students to their campus. So, in effect, will taxpayers be subsidizing Gannon to educate its students?

Gannon's claim that it will provide K-12 outreach includes no details. They could learn from the National Sea Grant College Program's Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL), a collaborative effort led by Sea Grant educators throughout the U.S. Great Lakes watershed.

The lack of any details or expectations for Gannon in the 25-year Blasco lease should worry us all. There are no measurable deliverables that Gannon must provide to the community. I fail to see how spending taxpayer dollars on building a research and education center on the waterfront will solve the microplastic problem, improve drinking water, grow the economy or provide K-12 outreach.

Gannon makes no guarantees in the lease of maintaining any public space or access, and in fact, we should ask if the lab itself will be publicly accessible.

Finally, there is no way to remove microplastics from the Great Lakes once they are released. Even if some filtration system was developed, I don't believe there is a feasible way to separate the microbeads from valuable phytoplankton and zooplankton necessary for productivity in the lakes. Given how widespread the negative effects of plastic and microplastic pollution are, there is no silver bullet solution to address the problems. Multiple policy changes at the local, state, and federal level are needed to combat this problem. In my view, single-use plastics must be banned and producers must be responsible for products that are used only for a few minutes but that pollute our environment and threaten all life on our planet.

We must re-examine the use of that $1.5 million ARP funding and we must rescind the lease.

It would also be helpful for Gannon leaders and Erie County officials to visit the existing labs working on Great Lakes water issues. They'd quickly learn that their own arguments about the need to locate the Gannon lab on our bayfront just don't hold water.

Anna McCartney is a resident of North East.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Gannon does not need a waterfront lab in a public library