The Everglades Foundation in Florida released a video Tuesday highlighting the work for the $10-million George Barley Water Prize — the research for which is based out of the Holland Marsh.
“This is like American Idol for science geeks,” said Derek Davy, of Toronto-based Econse Water Purification Systems Inc., one of two Canadian companies in the competition, in the video.
Nine teams from around the world spent 90 days at the Art Janse Pumping Station in Bradford West Gwillimbury, wrapping up in May.
Their ultimate goal is to reduce water’s phosphorus levels that pollute nutrients and create green algae and duckweed.
Holland Marsh was chosen for the competition because the area experiences cold temperatures and warm climates.
“The cold and the mud have been pretty crazy this year. We’ve gone from -15 C one day to 9 C the next day. One day it’s frozen mud and the next day it’s mud that’s three inches deep,” said Jeff Bain, of the University of Waterloo, in the video.
The top four teams will be selected by October, and the final Stage 4 of the competition is expected to kick off at the start of 2020.
“Being a local, I drive by the Holland Marsh all the time,” said Andrew Fairly, of RePlenish Tech, in the video.
“You do see all the agriculture that’s going on. You see the run-off coming from that. It’s really positive for me to see a group of people coming together to try to solve that problem.”
