Greenversations

A loud thump woke me up. I looked at my startled husband as he yelled, “Let’s go get the kids.” I stood as our concrete house shook, and grabbed an iron post from the bed to keep my stance. “An earthquake,” I mustered as we exited our room and noticed the hour:12:25 a.m. In the hallway, my eldest daughter hugged me while asking what was going on. Fortunately, our youngest children did not wake up. In our dining room, the window screens were on the floor and the chandelier was swinging from side to side. My brother-in-law phoned to say there was fire in the sky. My immediate thoughts were about an airplane accident. I opened our dining room side door to find the sky changing colors from red to orange to violet. We looked for a radio and soon learned the cause of such chaos: fire at the Caribbean Petroleum (CAPECO) tank farm less than a mile from our home.

What was a long awaited weekend all year long - we were holding our Halloween party - turned into an emergency response for me. Within ten minutes of the explosion, I called our Response and Remediation Branch Chief who in turn called the National Response Center.

As a public affairs specialist in the San Juan office of EPA, I had dealt with minor emergencies; this, however, was a real environmental threat since various drums containing jet fuel, Bunker C, diesel and other petroleum derivatives were on fire. The CAPECO facility is located on Road #28 in an area that encompasses three towns: Guaynabo, Bayamon and Cataño and is next to Fort Buchanan, a large military base. The San Juan Bay is two miles away and wetlands and minor water bodies are nearby. The reason this emergency hit home is because, aside from living nearby the facility, I drive down this very same road at 5 am to go to the gym at Fort Buchanan. The tanks are visible from the road.

The first few hours were frantic as federal, state and municipal agencies tried to contain the fire and activate all emergency protocols to ensure the citizens in this largely populated area were not affected. An Incident Command Center was established within 18 hours at a sports facility in San Juan, and we were deployed to work. The media and citizens needed accurate information. We worked hard to provide it.

I must say I have learned more from this experience than I have before in my seven years at EPA. While the fire is out, now the real work begins. I will keep you posted.

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.

I just got back from a brief family vacation in Puerto Rico. Since my 7-year old had never visited the island, I decided to play tour guide so she would “discovery” the Island.

In order to experience different sites and sounds, we decided to venture outside of the San Juan Metropolitan area. We started with a visit to El Yunque National Forest, the only rainforest part of the U.S. Forest Service. This area of 28,000 acres is well known for its biodiversity. More than 100 billion gallons of precipitation fall each year. My daughters were truly impressed by the luscious greenery and sounds of the rainforest. I had to convince the little one that the chirping came from little frogs, the coquis, not birds. We all enjoyed El Yunque. It has the potential of being designated as one of the new 7 wonders of the world!  Definitely has my vote!

Another escapade took us to the southeastern town of Salinas which faces the Caribbean Sea. My daughters were struck by the rich aquamarine colors of the sea. We had lunch at an open terrace restaurant right at the coast. The children were entertained by a family of crabs that was playing on the sea-bathed rocks.

During another day excursion, we walked through the cobblestone streets visiting the historic sites of Old San Juan including forts, museums, and a pigeon park. A short film at the San Felipe del Morro Fort described the role these forts had played in defending the capital of Puerto Rico during Spanish colonial times. After exploring the historical venues, we enjoyed tropical flavored Puerto Rican snow cones commonly referred to on the Island as piraguas.

During the course of our vacation, we took time to visit with family, attend my high school reunion, and enjoy the beaches. When it was time to bid farewell, we took one last drive along Piñones, an area along the northern coast outside of San Juan to enjoy some Puerto Rican culinary delights (alcapurrias and bacalaítos) which we washed down with some fresh coconut water. We drank it straight from the coconut. It was truly a memorable experience.

We packed many events during our brief sojourn in Puerto Rico. We’ll have to schedule day excursions to visit the karst region, Camuy Caverns, and the bioluminescent bay in Vieques. Next time.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Acabo de regresar de unas breves vacaciones familiares en Puerto Rico. Como mi hija de 7 años de edad nunca había visitado la Isla, decidí servir de guía para ayudarla a “descubrirla”.
Para experimentar sitios y sonidos diferentes, nos aventurarnos fuera del área metropolitana de San Juan. Empezamos con una visita al Bosque Nacional del Yunque, el único bosque pluvial tropical que forma parte del Servicio de Bosques de EE.UU. Esta área de 28,000 acres es conocida por su biodiversidad. Más de 100 mil millones de galones de precipitación caen anualmente. Mis hijas estaban impresionadas por el exuberante verdor y la riqueza de sonidos. Tuve que convencer a la pequeña que el supuesto gorgojeo que escuchaba provenía de pequeñas ranitas, los coquíes, no de aves. Realmente disfrutamos El Yunque. Tiene el potencial de ser designado como una de las siete maravillas del mundo! ¡Voy a él!

En otra escapada fuimos al pueblo costero del sudoeste de Salinas que mira al Mar Caribe. Mis hijas estaban impresionadas con la gama de tonos aquamarina del mar. Almorzamos en un restauran de terraza abierta frente a la costa. Las niñas se entretuvieron mirando una familia de cangrejos que jugaban sobre las rocas bañadas rítmicamente por las olas.

Otro día caminamos por las calles de adoquines para visitar los sitios históricos del Viejo San Juan incluyendo fuertes, museos y el Parque de las Palomas. Una breve película sobre el Fuerte de San Felipe del Morro describió el papel que desempeñaron estos fuertes en la defensa de la capital de Puerto Rico durante la época colonial española. Después de explorar los sitios históricos, disfrutamos de unas deliciosas piraguas* con sabores tropicales

Durante el curso de nuestras vacaciones, también aprovechamos para visitar a familiares, asistir a mi reunión de escuela superior, y disfrutar de las playas. Cuando llegó el momento de despedirnos, decidimos guiar por Piñones, un área a lo largo de la costa norte entre San Juan y Luquillo para disfrutar de especialidades culinarias puertorriqueñas como alcapurrias y bacalaitos que nos tomamos con agua de coco bien fría. El agua de coco la tomamos directamente del coco y nos comimos lo que en Puerto Rico se conoce como “la telita.”’ Fue una experiencia inolvidable.

Aunque tuvimos la oportunidad de realizar varias actividades durante nuestra breve estadía, todavía nos queda por visitar la región kárstica, las Cuevas de Camuy, y la Bahía Mosquito bioluminiscente de Vieques. Ya será la próxima vez.

*Piragua—un refresco granizado puertorriqueño

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

I recently returned from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where EPA had a strong presence. Our participation ranged from a “green chat”, a tree dedication, recruiters at the LULAC job fair, a forum on climate change, and, above all, Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s keynote address.

As administrator Jackson highlighted, EPA is urging all communities “to broaden the idea of environmentalism.” She emphasized the need to ensure that “EPA and the environmental movement in general represent the full spectrum of voices and concerns from across the country.”

In addition to the events surrounding the LULAC convention, Administrator Jackson met with the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, to discuss many of the environmental challenges facing the islands of Puerto Rico. During their meeting at La Fortaleza, Administrator Jackson announced that the Agency was awarding nearly $72 million to Puerto Rico through the Recovery Act for improvements in wastewater and drinking water systems.

EPA’s community engagement in the islands of Puerto Rico goes well beyond its participation at the LULAC convention. EPA’s presence has greatly improved the conditions of the San Juan Estuary. Stakeholders representing the local government, academia, business, community and environmental groups have collaborated closely over the years to restore and manage that body of water and surrounding land. The collaboration has benefitted the environmental health of San Juan residents. Furthermore, the Agency continues to work closely with local universities to address environmental concerns, such as asthma, air and water quality, to name a few.

EPA’s collaboration with Hispanic organizations and community leaders continues to be a priority for the Agency. The Beyond Translation Initiative is a prime example of the Agency’s efforts to actively engage Hispanic community leaders in this new environmentalism. Stay tuned.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Task Force.  Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Recientemente regresé de la Convención de la Liga Latinoamericana de Ciudadanos Unidos (LULAC, por sus siglas en inglés) en San Juan, Puerto Rico, donde la EPA tuvo una sólida presencia. Nuestra participación incluyó varias actividades entre las cuales figuraban una “charla verde”, una dedicación de un árbol, reclutadores a la feria de empleos de LULAC, un foro sobre cambio climático, y sobre todo, el discurso de la administradora Lisa P. Jackson ante la convención.

La administradora Jackson destacó que EPA está exhortando a todas las comunidades a “ampliar el concepto del ambientalismo”. Ella enfatizó la necesidad de asegurar que la “EPA y el movimiento ambiental en general debe representar una amplia gama de voces y preocupaciones provenientes de todo el país”.

Además de los eventos relacionados con la convención de LULAC, la administradora Jackson se reunió con el gobernador de Puerto Rico Luis Fortuño para discutir muchos de los retos medioambientales a los cuales se enfrentan las islas de Puerto Rico. Durante su reunión en La Fortaleza, la administradora Jackson anunció que la agencia otorgaba cerca de $72 millones a Puerto Rico de la Ley de Recuperación Económica para mejoras en los sistemas de aguas residuales y potable.

La participación comunitaria de EPA en las islas de Puerto Rico va más allá de su participación en la convención de LULAC. La presencia de EPA ha contribuido enormemente a mejorar las condiciones del Estuario de San Juan. Partes interesadas que representan funcionarios y líderes del gobierno local, las universidades, el sector privado, grupos comunitarios y ambientales han podido colaborar estrechamente a lo largo de los años para restaurar y manejar este importante cuerpo de agua y terrenos circundantes. Esta colaboración ha beneficiado la salud medioambiental de los residentes de San Juan. Además, la Agencia continúa trabajando de cerca con universidades e instituciones locales para abordar preocupaciones ambientales como el asma, la calidad del aire y del agua, entre otros.

La colaboración de EPA con organizaciones y líderes comunitarios hispanos continúa siendo una prioridad para la Agencia. La Iniciativa de Más allá de las traducciones es otro ejemplo primordial de los esfuerzos de la Agencia por entablar una comunicación activa con líderes comunitarios hispanos en este nuevo modelo de ambientalismo. Permanezcan sintonizados.

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentals.

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, my husband and I took the kids kite flying to El Morro Fort in San Juan. Our three year-old marveled at the hundreds of kites in the sky and flew his with our help. But what caught his attention and gave him the most thrills throughout the sunny afternoon was rolling down the hills that surround the El Morro’s esplanade. Soon he forgot about his colorful kite and left his father and sister to enjoy the afternoon while I watched him roll in the grass. By Sunday morning all fun had disappeared from his face as he had developed a full blown asthma attack. While trying to pinpoint what had been the trigger and reviewing our daily routine, only one thing stood out: rolling on the grass. I know that mold, strong odors, second hand smoke and Sahara dust particles can trigger an asthma attack in my son, but I was dumbfounded this time. After some research I found out that nearly 80% of adults and children with asthma are allergic to trees, pollen and grass. While browsing for information I stumbled upon EPA’s Asthma Research Strategy where scientists study and develop an understanding of exposure, health effects, risk assessment, and risk management of indoor and outdoor environmental pollutants linked to asthma. This site was very helpful since it provides additional resources and publications related to projects supported by EPA. Among the studies that caught my attention were those that linked susceptibility and genetic factors with environmental exposures.

Even though I have identified most indoor triggers, and EPA provides a great wealth of information in that area, I was working on identifying outdoor environmental stressors. My search yielded the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health site. One interesting, but simple thing I learned on its website was to avoid outdoor activities on windy days. That made perfect sense since February through April is the windy or “kite” season in Puerto Rico. I also learned that most common grasses can trigger an allergic reaction in asthma patients. Now armed with this new information I can work better on identifying other outdoor environmental asthma stressors for my child.

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.

Last night, while shopping with my family, my three year-old son asked an employee for a recycling bin to dispose of a plastic bottle he had been drinking water from. Needless to say, the store clerk was baffled by the request of such a young citizen. Unfortunately, neither the store nor the shopping center had recycling bins, despite the fact that thousands of people visit the mall on a daily basis. I had to take the bottle home with me.

While recycling has increased in various municipalities throughout the island, and outreach efforts by non-profit groups and environmental agencies such as EPA have made an impact on citizens, widespread recycling at public places is still not very common in Puerto Rico. A recent article in The Economist analyzes the fact that while recycling is good for the environment, it is costly due to the meticulous process of manual separation. Some countries and cities, concerned about those costs, are shipping the materials to other parts of the world where manual labor is less expensive.

Materials like aluminum, steel, paper and glass are easy to recycle and cost-effective due to the high cost and damage to the environment caused by mining and refining the raw materials. Recycling aluminum has turned into a profitable business, even for individuals who collect cans. These monetary incentives are having an impact. For example, in recent beach and river cleanups, aluminum cans are not among the commonly found items. Plastic bottles and related items, however, are easily found. While most glass is recyclable and some states provide an incentive for those who return glass items, it is not feasible in every place and I find myself collecting these at every cleanup too.

Even though the plastic industry has developed a series of markers to identify recyclable plastics, not all municipal and state programs recycle them. While researching some information for this blog, I learned that plastic needs to be meticulously separated. Even a small amount of the wrong type of plastic can ruin the melt of recycled plastic.

In our house, we recycle at a rate of 40% (sometimes it can be more) and we try our best to practice the 3 R’s. I think it is time to stress the first R: Reduce more. That way I won’t have to take a plastic bottle home to recycle it anymore.

About the author: Mark Reiss is a marine environmental scientist with the dredging, sediments and oceans team in EPA Region 2, comprising New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He is one of the principal investigators on the OSV BOLD’s Puerto Rico voyage.

As I had talked about in yesterday’s post, we wanted to have a little fun after all the hard work the crew and science members had put in to complete our surveys. So, we decided to see what would happen if we securely attached foam cups, signed by students from three science classes at a Manhattan middle school and by three teachers from Puerto Rico that joined us on the OSV BOLD, and drop them down on the CTD to 2,500 meters. The weight of all that water produces incredible pressure, just over 3,600 pounds per square inch (PSI). Our instruments are built to withstand this pressure, but foam coffee cups aren’t. The pressure causes the cups to shrink to miniature versions of themselves, as it forces the air in the foam out and sticks the plastic together.

Various items prior to being sent into the depths of the sea.

The crew had seen that before on other cruises so they knew what would happen to the cup. But this time we also sent down an uncooked egg, an unopened can of soda, an orange, a waffle, and a few floating key chains—basically anything that wasn’t tied down! Everyone on the boat made predictions about what would happen to the items, and they were hotly debated for the three hours it took to make the cast. We all gathered on deck waiting to see what happened.

I got mostly firm predictions about what would happen to the soda and the egg we sent down when I polled the boat and scientific crew (though a few people admitted that they just were guessing). And I got a lot of good theories to back those predictions up.

Various items after exposure to the incredible pressure of the sea.

Some confidently predicted that that the egg and soda can would be “toast.” Some people thought that only one would make it or that the egg would break if it went down lying on its side, but would be okay if it went down on its end. Some said that the items would explode. The best one came from our captain who pointed out that the shell of the egg is an engineering marvel of nature so it would withstand the pressure, but the soda can has a weak spot built in and that would make it explode.

Well, maybe the captain did predict the egg would come back fine, but then why did the soda can make it okay, too?

An egg shell is indeed a natural engineering masterpiece, but that’s not why it survived. The reason the soda can, egg and orange did not crush is pretty simple. (By the way, things do not explode under pressure). They are mostly filled with fluid, and fluids do not compress or squeeze together like air does. The fluid inside pushed against the can and the shell from the inside and kept them from collapsing while the pressure outside tried to crush it. If the egg were hollow, even the engineering properties of its shell would not have saved it. The results of our little experiment definitely surprised most of us.

Feb. 21, 2009 - 6 p.m. (Day 13)

About the Author: Doug Pabst is the chief scientist for the OSV BOLD’s Puerto Rico voyage. He leads the dredging, sediments and oceans team in EPA Region 2, comprising New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

We left Mayaguez yesterday at 6:00 a.m. and headed back to La Parguera to finish the sediment sampling, but the weather was too rough for small boat operations. The combination of the Trade Winds (Trades) and local thermal winds was producing rough seas and winds in excess of 25 knots (29 miles per hour).

The Trades are easterly flowing winds found in the tropics and get their name because of their importance to18th century England’s trade route crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Thermal winds are caused by the sun heating the air causing it to move fast and in some cases furiously. The combination of Trades and thermals made our sampling very difficult as we can only sample during the day with our small boats. Weather was our main obstacle for the survey and seemed to challenge us at every turn.

By 7:30 a.m. today, the Trades and thermal winds had diminished down to less than 10 knots (12 miles per hour). Our two small boats continued working until 9:30 a.m., when the winds picked up to 25 knots (29 miles per hour). Conditions were difficult and we were only able to collect a few more samples. We returned to the OSV BOLD to retrieve the small boats. We left anchor at noon and headed back to the “barn” (the home port of operations) in San Juan. As we left, winds were gusting over 40 knots (46 miles per hour). It’s frustrating when we are unable to achieve all our objectives, but the weather is one variable that is well beyond our control.

Our attention now focuses on de-mobilizing from our two week mission. We’re packing up our sampling equipment, supplies, and samples so they can be shipped back to our base of operations in New Jersey. It’s time to process the information we collected. We achieved most of our objectives, formed new partnerships, and return with high quality data. As the sun sets on our mission, it will rise over the next phase of the OSV BOLD’s Caribbean Mission with a new survey team beginning on February 23 in the Virgin Islands.

It’s hard to say goodbye to paradise, but I leave with the satisfaction that we have collected information that will provide for the further protection of Puerto Rico’s environment for many more sunrises and sunsets.

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.

February 20, 2009 - 8:20 am (Day 12)

In a previous blog titled “52 Ways to Save the Environment, Part II”, I suggested teachers and educators to take their lesson outside of the classroom to put their students in direct contact with nature. Yesterday, around 550 people, including nearly 30 teachers and many students, from the western side of the island came to have a science lesson outside of the classroom during EPA’s Open Ship event in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

Students learned about the ship’s layout and latest technology, and had the opportunity to ask scientists, EPA personnel from the San Juan Office, and University of Puerto Rico professor’s questions. All of us gladly shared our knowledge and experiences and spoke about life aboard the Bold, as well as many of our every day duties as environmental protection professionals.

I wish I had had the opportunity when I was growing up that these students were given yesterday. Science is fascinating even when taught from a book, but it really comes alive when you can see it in action. In most environmental science careers, people get to bring together science and creativity to work towards a greater good, protecting ecosystems and people’s health.

I hope that many of the students that participated in the Open Ship yesterday get a new perspective on science and with our shared experiences pursue a career in the environmental protection field.