Welcome you all here today for presentations from the University of Houston.

I'm having a hard time seeing over that, I'm short.

University of Houston and the Department of Neighborhoods.

I'd like to welcome staff members from Council Members Castillo, Alcorn, Martinez, Peck, and Romeris' office today, and then online.

Oh, that's good.

Um, and then, oh, I'm sorry, and then uh also staff from Council Member or Vice Mayor Pro Tim, uh, Cassick Tatum's office.

So, first up, uh University of Houston, Professor Alex Landon and Zoya and Josh Josh are coming to present um on waterway pollution management.

And thank you all for coming down today for the bubble barrier on Buffalo Bayou.

I've actually taken that tour, which is pretty neat.

Oh, you have?

Yeah.

So come on by on.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Um good morning, council members and staff.

Thank you so much for having us.

I'm Alex Landon.

I'm a professor of practice in the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston, and I'm not here advocating for anything on the university's behalf, but I am here to introduce two exceptional engineering students who will present their ideas for a more resilient Houston.

And so, just for a little background, these students were among 20 participants in the most recent iteration of an annual learning abroad course that takes students to the Netherlands to study coastal resilience.

Before we flew to Amsterdam in May, we attended a resilience committee meeting just to learn how resilience decisions are made here in our city before we met with similar groups in the Netherlands.

And Chair Carter graciously invited us to return after the trip to share some of what we learned.

This was a really wonderful addition to the course, which is now in its fourth year.

Um it really motivated students to do excellent group projects, and it was hard to pick just two.

Um, so we appreciate that opportunity to create civic engagement as a part of our course, and we'd love to continue that in the future.

So now it is my great pleasure to introduce two UH Cougars, Zoya Ahmed, a recent biomedical engineering graduate, and Josh Brown, a mechanical engineering student and member of UH ROTC.

They will share two ideas shaped by their time in the Netherlands.

So over to you, Zoya.

Thank you, Professor Landon.

My name is Zoya, and I am honored to be speaking here today.

During our trip to the Netherlands, I became particularly interested in the Great Bubble Barrier, and I wanted to explore whether an idea like this could complement the work already happening here in Houston.

Houston removes over 2,000 cubic yards of floating trash from Buffalo Bayou each year, much of it washed in from city streets.

If not captured, this debris flows into Galveston Bay.

While we already have many impactful efforts like the Bayuvac, containment booms, and community cleanups, microplastic levels in Galveston Bay are still among the highest in the United States.

Next slide, please.

In the Netherlands, a similar challenge has led to an innovative system called the Great Bubble Barrier.

It works by pumping air through a perforated tube placed along the bottom of a river, creating a curtain of bubbles.

This bubble curtain generates an upward flow that lifts plastic waste towards the surface.

By placing the system diagonally across the waterway, the natural current then guides that floating debris to one side, where a catchment system collects it for removal.

The system itself has three main components the bubble curtain, an air compressor that powers it, which makes the bubbles go through the perforated holes, and a collection system, which is adapted to the local river.

Because it uses air and not a solid barrier, boats can pass through.

And studies so far have shown minimal disruption to aquatic life in the bubble barriers that already exist.

An added benefit is that the bubbles also increase dissolved oxygen levels in the water.

Oxygen levels in Buffalo Bayou vary widely by location, but are near zero in the downstream areas near the Houston Chip Channel, according to the USGS.

So the added benefit of increased oxygen levels could also be helpful.

In Amsterdam, over 70% of the material captured has been plastic, and pilot results show it can collect debris ranging from one millimeter to one meter, with capture rates of around 86%.

As I said earlier, Galveston Bay has among the highest microplastic levels in the United States.

According to the United States EPA, microplastics are classified as plastic particles, which range in size from five millimeters, which is about the size of a pencil eraser, to one nanometer.

So the size range of debris that the bubble barrier in Amsterdam has been able to successfully capture does include a large amount of microplastics.

Next slide, please.

In Houston, a similar system could be explored as a final interception point near where Buffalo Bayou meets Galveston Bay, working alongside our already amazing existing solutions.

The exact location, however, would require further study and collaboration.

Since much of the floating waste entering Buffalo Bayou is washed in from Houston city streets, one consideration would be placing the barrier downstream of the major sources of runoff so that it can intercept debris after it has entered the waterway.

There are still important questions around Houston's water fluctuations, storm conditions, and local ecosystems.

And those would need to be studied in partnership with the city, Buffalo Bayou Partnership, Galveston Bay, and also the support of the industrial companies which use the Houston port.

And moreover, initial systems, according to the Great Bubble Barrier website, start at around 400,000.

So this would be an investment towards reducing the interest reducing the flow of plastics into the bay.

But even as a pilot or study, this kind of system could begin intercepting debris before it reaches Galveston Bay, helping protect one of Texas's most important ecosystems while building on the strong foundation of work already happening here to protect it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Zoya, and good morning, all council members.