Greenversations

By: Nesmarie Negron

Last November, I traded in my NYC commuter shoes for my hiking boots and embarked upon a Central American adventure to help address water quality issues in Costa Rica.   I spent two months working in San Jose, as part of the American Fellows Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State and promotes the exchange of professionals throughout Latin America.    Facing many of the same water quality challenges as the U.S., the Costa Rican Ministry of the Environment (MINAET) was interested in learning about our regulatory and voluntary framework for addressing surface water contamination (the Clean Water Act), guidelines for developing watershed plans to restore and protect waters, and nonpoint source initiatives in Puerto Rico which could also be implemented in Costa Rica to address nutrient and pathogen contamination in water bodies.

In addition to sharing EPA’s experiences, I also had the opportunity to be involved with some of MINAET’s ongoing projects, including the United Nations Environmental Programme’s REPCar (Reduction of Pesticide Runoff in the Caribbean) Project and environmental management plan inspections, where we monitored the progress of energy, water, and recycling programs in a variety of industries.

¡Pura Vida!  It is no accident that this phrase meaning “full of life” is so commonly used in Costa Rica.  Ticos (Costa Ricans) are some of the most vibrant and welcoming people I have ever met.  My favorite activities in San Jose were admiring pre-Columbian gold and jade in the city’s museums, listening to musical performances at the National Theater, and learning how to dance the Costa Rican Swing at a local dance school.  However, the real adventures were outside the capital during offsite meetings.  It was then that I had the opportunity to see the beautiful natural resources MINAET is working hard to protect.

About the author: Nesmarie Negrón is an Environmental Engineer and has served in various positions at the EPA over the past five years.  She currently leads the Region 2 Clean Water Act 305(b) Water Quality Assessment Program.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

By Ian Bradley

What if, in addition to earning a degree from a top-ranked engineering program, you could actually change the lives of several million people? With the help of the EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet Award (P3), students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are doing just that.

For several years, the Mayan community of Socorro, Guatemala was afflicted with acute and chronic gastrointestinal diseases stemming from poor drinking water quality, soil-transmitted helminthes (worm) infections, and malnutrition. These illnesses resulted in missed school, emotional and economic hardship, and in some cases, death.

In an attempt to alleviate this crisis, the people of Socorro assembled a council and, with the help of Wuqu’ Kawoq, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization, contacted the University of Illinois Engineers Without Borders (EWB-UIUC) requesting assistance. As a result of a three-year partnership, relief has come in the form of a simple, effective, and ever-evolving water treatment system: the biosand filter (BSF).

BSFs have been chosen by hundreds of humanitarian groups as the best method for improving water quality in developing countries and, as of 2009, it is estimated that over 300,000 BSFs have been implemented in over 70 countries. Surveys reveal its wide acceptance by users due to the improved appearance, smell, and taste of the treated water. However, research has identified a critical shortcoming: BSFs are not highly effective in removing viruses.

Current research performed at the University of Illinois has shown that the incorporation of iron shavings, a product available commercially across the world, can remove more than 99.999% of viruses in water. The iron rusts, forming positively charged oxides to which negatively charged viruses attach. Because of the water chemistry, the iron doesn’t re-enter the water and the user never tastes the iron in the filtered water. The only end result is cleaner, safer drinking water.

In 2009, students from the University of Illinois completed a P3-supported project to install 120 traditional BSFs in Socorro. Over the next two years, the research is being expanded with the help of partners such as the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) to bring iron-amended filters to those in need.

For little cost and effort, currently implemented BSFs could be amended with locally available iron sources, providing a substantially improved barrier against waterborne viruses and, hopefully, bringing relief to millions of people in the process.

See winning projects at the National Sustainable Design Expo, April 16 and 17, 2011 on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

About the author: Ian Bradley is an environmental engineering graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been working with EWB-UIUC and The Guatemala Water Project for the last three years.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.

This year has gone on record as the snowiest winter in Philadelphia. With the aftermath of back to back snowstorms (huge piles of snow and icy spots) still very much a part of daily life, the prospect of early Spring seems like a fantasy. Yet, even though it’s still February, Spring will come early – as it does every year – in the form of the Philadelphia International Flower Show.

The Philadelphia Flower Show is an annual rite of Spring that brings together garden exhibitors from all over the world, transferring the huge floor of the Pennsylvania Convention Center into a magical Spring display. It is a sight to behold, taking us from winter to spring as we step into a wonderland of gardens, plants, and floral designs. Billed as the world’s largest indoor flower exhibit and the oldest (1829) in the nation, the Flower Show annually attracts more than 250,000 visitors from all over the world. With its international appeal and audience, it’s very fitting that the theme of 2010 show is “Passport to the World.”

Traditional gardens, despite their beauty and appeal, can cause serious harm to the environment, including pesticide and nutrient runoff, and introduction of invasive species. That’s why since 1993, EPA has used this wonderful venue to educate gardeners on techniques that protect the environment and at the same time create beautiful gardens.

Each year, using native plants, and recycled materials, the EPA flower show team of volunteers designs, constructs, and creates an exhibit that vividly demonstrates the beauty and practicality of native plants, sustainable water usage, and beneficial landscaping techniques. In keeping with the Show’s 2010 international focus, our exhibit depicts an “East Meets West” theme, showcasing a Japanese style tea-house, set in a picturesque North American native garden. Our thousands of visitors are sure to be inspired by the splashes of colors and exotic textures of evergreens, azaleas, pitcher plants, phlox and a host of other native species as they adorn a cedar walkway and tea-house. The exhibit appears to be floating above a reflective pools.

As a Communications Coordinator and a Flower Show volunteer, I have coordinated outreach and education for the Flower Show team for more than 10 years. And while our exhibits always carry messages of sustainability, it is amazing to see unique exhibits year after year, conveying environmental messages in a special and beautiful way.

If you’re in the area, stop by and see for yourself the beauty and environmental benefits of green gardening. The 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show runs from Sunday, February 28th through March 7th at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Whether you are an aspiring gardener, an experienced gardener, or you just like to enjoy the sights of Spring, there’ll be plenty to see, learn, and enjoy.

See you at the Flower Show.

About the Author: Bonnie Turner-Lomax came to EPA Region’s mid-Atlantic Region in 1987 and has held several positions throughout the Region. She is currently the Communications Coordinator for the Environmental Assessment & Innovation Division.

About the author: Jessica Arnold joined the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration’s Environmental Technologies Team in 2007 as an associate team member. Last spring, she spent a month in Sub-Saharan Africa with U.S. companies on a multi-sector trade mission designed to help facilitate U.S. exports to the region.

If you search the Internet for images of Lagos, Nigeria, you’ll probably find many photos. With more than 120 million people living in Nigeria, it is the most heavily populated country in Sub-Saharan Africa and, until recently, has put very little focus on the environment. Nigeria’s president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, said in 2008 that, “the country’s annual losses stemming from environmental degradation total nearly $5.1 billion.”

In the spring of 2008, I participated in a multi-sector trade mission to three countries (Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa) in Sub-Saharan Africa led by the International Trade Administration (ITA). Trade missions are one of the key tools ITA uses to help U.S. businesses export products and services and enter new markets.

So, with President Ya’Adua’s comment in mind, I thought, “We’re off to visit three countries that want newer and more efficient technologies to help them clean their air, their water, and their waste.” I set a goal for myself to make sure that multiple U.S. companies focused on environmental technology products were part of the trade mission and would have the opportunity to begin or expand exports to these markets where their products and services could truly be helpful.

I was very happy to find that the U.S. industry was both enthusiastic about and capable of filling this need as four of the 13 companies on the trade mission were environmental firms or involved with environmental technologies in some way. I’m also thrilled to report that as a direct result of this trade mission, at least one company, a renewable energy company based in Michigan, secured contracts to develop solar efficiency projects in Nigeria and South Africa.

As green technologies developed by U.S. industry continue to advance and the interest and demand for products and services derived from those technologies from foreign markets grows, ITA will be leading three green trade missions this spring: an environmental technology mission to Italy, Greece, and Croatia; a solar energy mission to India; and a green building products and services mission to Southeast Asia. I look forward to returning to Greenversations in the future to share experiences and report on successes from these trade missions. In the meantime, please visit us at: Export.gov.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Stephen S. Hale joined EPA’s Atlantic Ecology Division (Narragansett, RI) in 1995 as a Research Ecologist. Last spring, he spent two months in Portugal with the Embassy Science Fellows Program.

I gazed over the podium at the Portuguese faces waiting to hear how the U.S. EPA measures the health of U.S. estuaries and coastal oceans. A conference in the Azores was comparing the approaches used by the U.S. and the European Union (EU). A few opening pleasantries quickly exhausted my what-you-can-learn-from-ten-CDs knowledge of the Portuguese language and I switched to English.

A two-month Embassy Science Fellows Program brought me to Portugal. The U.S. State Department draws upon other federal agencies to provide scientific and technical expertise to American embassies around the world. Portugal held the revolving EU Presidency, and the Embassy in Lisbon requested help with coastal and ocean issues resulting from the EU’s Water Framework Directive (akin to our Clean Water Act) and Marine Strategy.

If I sailed due east from Rhode Island along the 41st parallel, I would bump into Portugal, a small country that could hold 23 Rhode Islands. My previous experience with things Portuguese—other than Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish that sometimes land on our shores—was a peripheral involvement with research my division conducts on the Superfund site in New Bedford Harbor, MA, an area with many people of Portuguese descent and common ties with (earlier) whaling, and now fishing.

In Portugal, I met with government agencies, universities, and environmental groups to learn how the EU directives are being met and to explore areas for collaborative research. Fueled by strong coffee (bica) and cream tarts (pastéis de nata), at universities all over the country, I gave seminars on developing ecological indicators for the U.S. National Coastal Assessment and on the EPA research that has led to the U.S. National Coastal Condition Report. The Portuguese were keen to adopt some of the study design and methods I shared. In turn, I learned about methods used to intercalibrate indicators among different EU countries.

While serving on two scholarship panels (Fulbright Commission and Luso-American Development Foundation), I saw a flotilla of bright Portuguese students who will come to the U.S. for graduate study.

Throughout my stay, I met dedicated and passionate people who were determined to turn Portugal’s proud sea-faring tradition into modern-day leadership on environmental research and policy to keep our oceans healthy. I returned fortified with different ways to advance our shared goals—better water quality and healthier marine ecosystems. Obrigado.

About the authors: Bob Dyer and Ella Barnes, Office of International Affairs, have managed work on the reduction of toxic and hazardous wastes in the Arctic under both the multilateral Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP) and the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) Program for over 10 years. Bob Dyer chaired the ACAP Working Group under the Arctic Council from 2004 to 2008, and Ella Barnes is the U.S. Representative to the ACAP Working Group.

If you stood with me at the northernmost point of the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia, on the shores of the frigid Arctic Ocean, what would we see? A star-filled sky, the Aurora Borealis, whales, walruses, perhaps a lost polar bear… But there is something that the eye cannot see: high concentrations of contaminants, from radioactive materials to pesticides.

A Chukotka family has set up residence in an abandoned hazardous waste tank.

The Arctic is fragile, and is an early warning indicator of the state of the larger planet. Almost all Russian rivers flow to the north, where contaminants accumulate in seaweed, fish, birds, and mammals. Through the subsistence food chain these contaminants quickly find their way into the bodies of indigenous people where they stay for years. Native Americans in the Arctic, who neither produced nor used these chemicals, are at risk.

Since 2004, EPA’s Bob Dyer has chaired and I have represented the U.S. at the Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP), which includes the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. Working together with our partners, EPA is helping to greatly reduce environmental contamination in the Arctic.

ACAP, under EPA leadership, organized the effort which to date has resulted in inventory, analysis and safe storeage over 4,000 metric tons of obsolete and prohibited pesticides in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Russia. Prior to this project, the contaminants were released directly into those northward-flowing Russian rivers and transported to the Arctic.

Thanks to the pesticides management program we initiated, Russian regions are now contributing their funds and manpower in development of creative solutions to pesticides storage. For example, they have converted an abandoned missile silo in Altai Krai, Southern Siberia, into an effective storage facility for legacy pesticides.

A Pokrovka former missile hangar was dismantled under the US Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. In 2007 it became an interim storage site for obsolete and prohibited pesticides under the ACAP Project.

Bob and I are particularly proud that, during the recent EPA chairmanship of ACAP, the program has created and implements a model environmental justice empowerment program in Russia called the Indigenous Peoples Community Action Initiative. This sustainable and replicable project has already resulted in the removal and safe storage of over a metric ton of PCBs and persistent organic pollutant pesticides from remote indigenous villages in Alaska and northern Russia.

A community elder in Chukotka, Russian Far East, told us that he lived with drums containing spent oils, lubricants, and transformer liquids all his life and they are a part of his landscape. EPA is helping to change that–this summer, through the ACAP Program, over 2000 drums were removed from two Arctic indigenous villages in Chukotka on the Bering Sea across from Alaska.

Residents of Lorino and Lavrentia, Chukotka Autonomous District removing hazardous waste drums.

About the author: Jacob Moss joined EPA’s air program in 1999 and has led a variety of air quality, energy, and international efforts since that time.

During my Peace Corps service in Togo, West Africa, in the late 1980s, I would often chat with local women while they cooked in their kitchens. These visits couldn’t last more than a short while simply because the smoke from the stoves was so dense I would start coughing, my eyes would sting, and I would have to go outside to breathe. These women, like nearly half the world’s population, cooked on rudimentary stoves using solid fuels. They typically used wood or charcoal, but in other regions of the world crop residues, coal and dung cakes are also used extensively.

In 2002, the World Health Organization ranked indoor smoke from cooking stoves as the 4th worst health risk factor in poor developing countries – after undernourishment, unsafe sex, and lack of clean water supply and sanitation. Breathing elevated levels of indoor smoke from home cooking and heating practices more than doubles a child’s risk of serious respiratory infection; it may also be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as stillbirth and low birth weight.

In 2002, I helped EPA start an initiative called the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA), to help galvanize global efforts to address these risks. Since its foundation, we’ve grown from 13 initial partners to more than 190 partners today. In India alone we have over 20 partner organizations from the government, NGO, academic and private sectors. Similarly, in the East African region (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), we work with over a dozen partnering organizations. EPA’s projects will bring cleaner cooking practices to over a million people, while our partners collectively plan on reaching about 30 million people in the next couple of years. We’ve worked with partners to ensure that the clean stoves and fuels being promoted are measurably and significantly reducing people’s exposure to this smoke.

Now I’m leading a process to expand PCIA to make it independent, sustainable, and capable of achieving large-scale results. In the next five years, we’d like to work with partners to demonstrate the ability to reach 50 to 75 million people who are currently exposed to poor indoor air quality. In the longer-term (say, 15 years), we’d like to work with our partners to design and implement a strategy to eliminate these risks for half of the affected global population – about 1.5 billion people.

I am happy to discuss some of our lessons learned from the field in future blogs. In the meantime, let me know what you think. How do you think we can most successfully expand PCIA?

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

Got wheels? There are as many reasons you have a car, truck, or whatever you drive, as there are types of vehicles from which to choose. But there are also trade-offs in your vehicle choice that affect the environment and your wallet.

What do you drive, and why?

.

En español: Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

¿Tienes ruedas? Hay muchas razones para escoger su medio de transporte, sea un automóvil, un camión, o lo que usted decida conducir, así como hay una gran variedad de vehículos que puede escoger. Asimismo, se hacen trueques al seleccionar su vehículo que afectan el medio ambiente y su bolsillo.

¿Qué tipo de vehículo conduce y por qué?