Field Retrieval 3

CERES completed Field Retrieval 3 without a problem. CERES staff in attendance included Adama, Marie, Anna, Sokhna, Makhfousse, Cheikh, and Emmanuel. Emmanuel had been occupied with another project so hadn’t been able to join us previously; but now every CERES lab member has experienced field training with PSDs.

CERES staff appear very comfortable and capable working with the PSD in the field. Their retrievals are coordinated, cooperative and efficient. This was the strongest aspect by far of the training.

We observed the same fouling pattern as before: Site 1 the worst, and Site 3 the best with 4 and 2 very similar. This gives no indication of contaminant load, but may be useful in the context of additional information such as pH, total dissolved or solids or salinity. It does demonstrate, however, that performance/permeability reference compounds (PRCs) will be important for maintaining accurate and comparable data.

We also observed the same activities as before: washing clothes and dishes, bathing, fishing, household water collection and watering livestock.

We leave for Dakar Friday morning and will head directly to the lab to clean the PSD and clean glassware (likely with hot solvent) to begin the dialysis on Monday. We hope to have retrieval 3 data by the end of the training on October 26^th.