David was horrified to find out that runoff from homes, cars, and farms near his home dump directly into a nearby bay. He wanted to know if such pollutants hampered growth.
David chose nine residential pollutants—including pool cleaners, auto maintenance fluids, paints and thinners, and pesticides and herbicides. He exposed lettuce seeds to low concentrations of the pollutants over five days. He also grew lettuce seeds in stormwater samples. He found copper algaecide, a pool cleaner, was most toxic. Seeds grown in the presence of those pollutants failed to thrive. Seeds grown in stormwater also fared worse than seeds grown in clean water.
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