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Bill Arnold

@billarnold.bsky.social

EnvE Professor UMN, environmental chemist, working though ACL recovery

38 Posts383 Follower403 Folgt
Ben Maas@masbenmaas.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Removing PFAS from the aquifers of the east metro of the Twin Cities will be expensive and time consuming, which @billarnold.bsky.social, and other area experts, explains. Removing PFAS can be done, but it will take time. Gift link. www.startribune.com/mn-pfas-plum...

Minnesota finally has a plan for the east metro PFAS plume. There’s just one problem.

The proposed cleanup could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and no funding source has been identified.

startribune.com

David M Levinson ⁂@transportist.org · 4mo ago

Trends in Twin Cities Travel Behavior, 1970–2023 Recently published: LEVINSON, D. (2026) Trends in Twin Cities Travel Behavior, 1970–2023. Findings. [doi] Restoring the Twin Cities Travel Behavior Inventory back to 1970 and extending analysis forward to 2023 changes the long-run interpretation of…

Trends in Twin Cities Travel Behavior, 1970–2023

Recently published: LEVINSON, D. (2026) Trends in Twin Cities Travel Behavior, 1970–2023. Findings. [doi] Restoring the Twin Cities Travel Behavior Inventory back to 1970 and extending analysis forward to 2023 changes the long-run interpretation of regional travel behavior. The main behavioral change is a relocation of work within the day. For adults who worked on the diary day, home time rises by 194.5 minutes between 1970 and 2023, daily travel falls by 16.1 minutes, and on-site work falls by 196.9 minutes.

transportist.org

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5mo ago

AUCHINCLOSS: How do we get rid of PFAS in municipal water supplies with 90% fewer dollars? ZELDIN: Earmarks are a decision for you to make AUCHINCLOSS: So wait. Your EPA plan for clean water is to hope that members of Congress do it? Hope is not a strategy

Jacquelyn Gill@jacquelyngill.bsky.social · last yr.

The EPA has eliminated its research division, which for decades has provided the science behind regulations on clean air, clean water, and toxic chemicals. The US can afford to monitor, research, and regulate the impacts of industries on human and environmental health. We are just choosing not to.

EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

apnews.com

Bill Arnold@billarnold.bsky.social · last yr.

What happens when engineers and artists team up? Students (STEM, policy) learn new perspectives on issues and solutions. @aeesprofs.bsky.social doi.org/10.1089/ees.... #Openaccess

Circularity and Sustainability: A Course that Advances Critical Thinking and Teamwork via Art, Community, and Policy | Environmental Engineering Science

An opportunity exists for circular resource use, decreasing environmental impact and economic risk and at the same time enhancing biodiversity and global standards of living. When viewed from the pers...

doi.org

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · last yr.

The entire board tasked with overseeing the State Department's Fulbright Program has resigned — claiming political interference from the Trump admin.   The Board voted "overwhelmingly" to resign "rather than endorse unprecedented actions … impermissible under the law." substack.com/home/post/p-...

Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board Resignation Statement

Effective immediately, members of the Congressionally mandated Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board voted overwhelmingly to resign from the board, rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we beli...

substack.com

Colette Delawalla, PhD@cdelawalla.bsky.social · last yr.

Here's how we know this EO is a SNEAKY sinister thing: 1. When Trump wants people to know about something, it is very public. 2. It was released on the Friday evening of a holiday weekend 3. Cloaked under piles of sciencey language 4. First thing this morning, loud and proud: RFK's vax rollback

Stand Up for Science!@standupforscience.net · last yr.

🚨 URGENT RESPONSE CALL 🚨 Trump’s Fool’s Gold Science EO is a dangerous sham. It gives his appointees the power to dismiss entire bodies of research and punish researchers who fail to fall in line with his agenda. We’ve launched an open letter. SIGN & SHARE NOW: actionnetwork.org/petitions/op...

Dustin Poppendieck @poppendieck.bsky.social · last yr.

Cleaning can be messy. Cleaning indoor spaces can enhance the release of a chemicals with a range of volatility. Most persist for up to five hours in home testing. While not an excuse to not clean the bathroom, research has implications for cleaning professionals. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Influence of Cleaning on Indoor Air Concentrations of Volatile and Semivolatile Organic Compounds in Residences

Cleaning activities can affect indoor air composition long after the cleaning is completed. Utilizing data from detailed observational monitoring campaigns, conducted over 21 weeks, we explore the influence of cleaning activities in two normally occupied, single-family houses. To study emissions and chemistry, we quantified more than 200 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using a proton-transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer and 52 semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) using a semivolatile thermal-desorption gas chromatograph. During regular professional home cleaning, we observed postcleaning concentration enhancements in ∼60% of measured VOCs and ∼80% of measured SVOCs. Most of these concentration enhancements were not clearly linked to either primary emission from cleaning products or secondary formation through reactive chemistry. Instead, we infer that shifts in the sorptive properties of indoor surfaces account for most of these observations. Cleaning-associated enhancements mostly ebbed within a few hours, with some VOCs and lower-volatility SVOCs persisting more than 5 h, longer than would be expected for removal of inert species by ventilation. The use of carpet cleaner was associated with direct emission of 2-butoxyethanol, which persisted at elevated concentrations for days after the initial event. Home cleaning is potentially relevant for the health of professional cleaners and residents.

pubs.acs.org

Carolyn Bertozzi@carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · last yr.

This article does a great job describing the lives of young American scientists: “You roll up your sleeves, try to make or discover something useful and then let the scientific community try to punch holes in your work to make sure that it’s sound”

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD@prasad.bsky.social · last yr.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/o... Really important piece to share widely. Too many Americans don’t know how severe a threat this Administration poses to our scientific infrastructure, global leadership, and health security

Mariah Blake@mariahblake.bsky.social · last yr.

Seriously, it’s hard to overstate the importance of the work these EPA scientists do and how devastating their firing would be to public health. So much of what we know about #PFAS, for example, and many of the methods used to detect these toxic chemicals are thanks to these researchers’ work.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · last yr.

Holy shit. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say they’re trying to kill us all. “The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists”