Microplastics increasingly found in Colorado’s snowpack
As the focus on the electron microscope resolved, Richard Reynolds found himself feeling more resigned than surprised. The slide before him was a snowpack sample collected from pristine Colorado high country. The sample revealed, at intense magnification, the snowpack’s expected sprinkling of rock fragments and spikey grains of sand. It also revealed what shouldn’t have been there at all: long, straight, human-made fibers of plastic. … A host of wildlife and water quality researchers are likely to descend on the study results to gauge impacts of invisible plastic fibers riding snowmelt into every crevice of the high country. They’ll also be looking for any dangers for the cities downhill that rely on that water.
Related article: