You have entered the website of the Water and Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific (WERI) at the University of Guam. We are currently six faculty and five staff and our mission is to seek solutions through research, teaching and outreach programs, to issues and problems associated with the location, production, distribution and management of freshwater resources in Guam, the CNMI and the FSM.
No abstract was published. A summary of the Introduction and Results follows.
The Pago River watershed is one of four major watershed-river systems on Guam. The watershed empties into the Pacific Ocean on the western side of the island in a shallow reef flat environment. A concern is that pesticides used in farming operations, or disposed of in Ordot Landfill, could find their way into the river and eventually the reef flat, potentially entering the food chain and affecting organisms and their reproductive cycles. It is also a concern that leachate from the landfill could contaminate groundwater, the source of most of Guam's drinking water.
Conductivity measurements were most useful in confirming the presence of leachate from the landfill. Analysis of water from the six sampling sites over six consecutive months resulted in no instance of detection of pesticides. Other water quality parameters indicated that leachate was present in downstream wells and the surface stream south of the landfill. Future work will focus on the identification of organic compounds, particularly priority pollutants and volatiles, in the leachate from the Ordot Landfill.
