Greenversations

I went hiking while visiting a park this past weekend and was reminded of just how relaxing natural water formations can be. I took in the sounds of water gurgling over rocks and under leaves and fallen trees. It reminded me of how I used to spend a lot of my time in my backyard in our creek. I would spend literally the whole day back there working on our ‘fort’ and/or ‘clubhouse’. I always anticipated the beginning of warm weather when my dad would annually, and dutifully I might add, rake all of the dead leaves and clear the path for our trail. Sometimes, I would pretend that I was living in a different century that required me to ‘live off the land’. Although I think to that extent, my ‘living off the land’ just included eating some onions and raspberries from our garden nearby. And while there was the impression of clean, drinking water all around our little creek that ran through the woods, I knew and was informed that it was not to be consumed by me or any of my neighborhood friends. We didn’t mind, though. I was so busy with my friends making more rooms for our outdoor palace and games that I rarely went up to the house that often. When I did, I welcomed the big glass of ice cold water. The risk of drinking water in the creek was more outweighed by my taste buds rather than the information of drinking water only from the tap, but one that I obeyed nonetheless. It is vital for children’s health to consume water on a daily basis. Therefore, it is important that children know where they should get their water and that clean water is readily available. Water is a win-win for all. It has no calories, caffeine, or sugar, and helps almost every part of the human body function. Here are some important facts to know about your drinking water:

• EPA’s current drinking water standards are designed to protect both adults and children.
• Standards for lead, nitrates, and nitrites, are specifically based on risk to children because they are most vulnerable to these contaminants.
• If you have a private well, you are responsible for testing your water to make sure it is safe and you should test it annually. Resources are available here.
• You can learn about your local drinking water by reading your Consumer Confidence Report to learn whether your water system meets all drinking water standards here.
• Get to know the source of your drinking water and get involved in activities to protect it.
• These include: taking used motor oil to a recycling center and properly disposing of toxic house hold trash e.g. batteries by taking them to special collection sites.

Water is essential for children and adults alike. Water can be fun in its natural state for viewing and admiring. (Or a place of play for all of my creek-stomping days). Just remember to only drink from safe water sources at your home or wherever you may be. And help children to remember to do the same!

About the Author: Emily Bruckmann is an intern at the Office of Children’s Health Protection. She is a senior attending Indiana University who will graduate with a degree in public health this spring.

How much do you know about the environment of where you live? That’s right, not the rain forest, not the polar icecaps, but your neighborhood. Lots of us take our environment for granted. Water comes out of spigots and waste gets carted or flushed away. Unless there’s an environmental problem nearby, like a polluting factory, most folks don’t give it a second thought. Our environment just is.

But environmental protection starts at home, and it is important to understand how one thing affects another, so here’s the challenge (actually a great project for a class to do) – find out and then write up a report so others can understand your local environment too.

I did this a few years ago for the town in which I live, Narberth, Pa. I looked into:

How our electricity is produced.

• Where the oil that runs my heater came from.
• Where the natural gas that runs my stove came from.
• The origin of my drinking water.
• Where my waste water goes.
• What happens to the recyclables (plastics, paper, glass) that are collected.
• What happens to our yard waste that’s picked up.
• Where my household waste/trash goes.
• The quality of the air I breathe.The levels of radon from the ground.
• What happens to our rainwater after it goes down the storm drains.
• The name of our watershed and the location of our streams.
• Our climate and planting zone.
• Where our gasoline comes from.
• What mass transit is available.
• Our topography and geography.
• How our town is zoned.
• The location of our historic buildings.

In the process I discovered some interesting things. Some streams had been piped underground and weren’t on the surface anymore. Our household waste goes to an incinerator where it is burned to produce electricity. Our rainwater goes directly into streams; it’s not treated first. The oldest intact structure in Narberth is a Swedish log cabin. But since it has had many additions, it just looks like a normal house now.

My report is on the web.  Feel free to use it as a model for yours. Go out and discover your local environment!

About the Author: Nancy Grundahl has worked for the Philadelphia office of EPA since the mid-80’s. She currently manages the web for the Environmental Assessment and Innovation Division. Before getting involved with the web, she worked as an environmental scientist. Nancy believes in looking at environmental problems in a holistic, multi-media way and is a strong advocate of preventing pollution instead of dealing with it after it has been created.

Recently, EPA was asked to defend the fact that dredging stirs up PCBs in the river, which causes more PCBs to go downriver and over the Federal dam in Troy. This is called “loading,” and we monitor it closely. If you live south of Albany, I’m sure you appreciate that we try not to send any more PCBs your way than we have to in order to get this work done.

The river bottom doesn’t keep the PCBs locked safely inside a mud sandwich. This river scours, floods and changes its course. So loading of PCB’s was always a problem. .It’s impossible to know for sure, but engineers estimate about 500 pounds of PCBs a year were loaded in the past. Now, because of dredging, we actually know the PCB levels in the river, and we know there’s much more contamination than we estimated, so the loading was probably more too. However, by dredging we’re finally doing something to lower the PCB levels, forever. I get a lot of satisfaction watching each loaded barge, because I know that contaminated sediment is no longer contributing to the problem.

Dredging opponents point out that the monitoring station nearest the dredging, and another about 18 miles away, have exceeded the PCB loading amount targeted for this year and so the project should stop. We explained the load target represents an overall requirement for the project and not for a single year. The higher loads during this dredge season will be addressed through lessons learned and improvements recommended for future dredging.

I’m a newcomer to Fort Edward and the dredging debate. Having never lived near a river before, I didn’t understand how important a river can be in people’s lives. Since moving here, I’ve spent hours and hours talking to people who are personally and, in some cases emotionally affected by the project. I‘m very sympathetic — they didn’t create the horrendous pollution problem, but they’ve been forced to deal with it for years, and it’s taken a stressful toll. I’ve spent countless hours on the river thinking about the far-reaching consequences of the PCB contamination. After five months of dredging, I’ve learned firsthand how persistent, shallow, mobile and voluminous the PCBs are in the Upper Hudson. But, as of September 5, there are about 190,000 cubic yards less of contaminated sediment contributing to the stress and loading problems, and I’m proud to be part of the monumental effort that made that happen. As intrusive and irritating as the project is for some people, it’s very important for the safety and sanity of future generations.

About the author: Kristen Skopeck is originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is an 11-year Air Force veteran and was stationed in California, Ohio, Texas, Portugal, and New York. After working for the USDA for three years, Kristen joined EPA in 2007 and moved to Glens Falls, NY to be a member of the Hudson River PCB dredging project team. She likes to spend her time reading, writing, watching movies, walking, and meeting new people.

It feels like going home when I arrive at the Washington County Fair near Schuylerville, New York. This year, the fair was held August 24-30 and I helped staff EPA’s information booth for the Hudson dredging project. Walking around the fairgrounds, I could almost see my Uncle Joe showing his prize Jersey cattle at the Southeast Missouri District Fair in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, my hometown. I also saw all the many distractions and temptations, like the 4-H milkshakes, livestock exhibits (the poultry barn is my favorite), Ferris wheels, and tractor pulls!

You can easily feel a strong sense of community and meet salt-of-the earth locals who tell it like it is. It’s EPA’s sixth year at the fair and a unique opportunity to gauge local issues outside of the media coverage and beyond what we hear at EPA’s public meetings. Many who came to the EPA booth had not been to our public meetings. Most folks seemed to really enjoy the chance to talk with us about dredging in a personal setting. It’s not every day that you can watch a tractor pull while discussing barge tugs pushing loads of sediment.

We spoke to 850 property owners, teachers, kayakers, retired seniors, children and others who paused from the fun and food to say hello, watch a dredging video, look at a map. “Where’s my property on this map?” ”When are they going to dredge there?” “Why did EPA select clamshell dredging over hydraulic?” A few of the typical questions asked. Some felt dredging is unnecessary. “Let sleeping dogs lie!” a few said, but then stuck around to learn more. What struck me was the number of “thank yous” (some whispered) and support for the cleanup. It was encouraging to hear in these dog days of dredging.

Sneaking over to the 4-H food booth, I remembered my dad, who worked as a riverboat mechanic on the Mississippi River. He taught me a lot about rivers. Summer mornings as a child were spent fishing the Mississippi. We set out trot lines baited with chicken liver. Every morning my heart would be racing as we pulled in the lines, mostly catching catfish (some taller than I was). Occasionally we’d get a real surprise when we pulled in a snapping turtle or an eel. My summers on the Mississippi ignited a love of and respect for rivers and a desire to clean and protect them for others to enjoy. I guess I also learned then, as I’m reminded now with the Hudson, that when it comes to rivers, be surprised if there are no surprises!

Like the midway rides at the fair, with their ups and towns, the dredging project has shown us some ups and downs and surprises. But EPA and its partners in the cleanup persevere, I believe, because on some level a river connects us all. And the fair reminds EPA who exactly the Hudson connects us with.

About the Author: David Kluesner grew up in rural southeast Missouri and graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Geological Engineering. He has worked for EPA for 22 years as a hazardous waste site cleanup manager in EPA’s Atlanta office, and in EPA Headquarters in enforcement and policy development, and presently serves as a Community Involvement Coordinator in EPA’s New York City office where he works on a number of sites in New York and New Jersey, including the Hudson cleanup project.

I have known and worked with Dan Mosley for almost 15 years, and every moment has been a great experience. In 1989, Peter Husby a biologist in EPA’s Richmond, California laboratory, and I started providing technical assistance to tribes. Our first task was to do a tribal bioassessment training hosted by the Washoe Tribe in Carson, NV. Little did I know there was a ringer in the crowd who knew more about aquatic organisms than I did, or ever will. So, what do you do with a ringer? Simple, we made him part of the tribal technical support team. It was the smartest move we ever made. Over the years Peter and I have learned more from Dan than he has learned from us. We learned about First Nation People, gained insights in working with tribal environmental programs, and acquired an appreciation and understanding of tribal cultural practices.

Dan has been working for Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (PLPT) since 1989. Dan recognized early the importance of bioassessments in detecting impairments from stressors on aquatic communities, and has applied his knowledge and expertise as an aquatic ecologist to the assessment of the condition of PLPT surface waters and biological resources. In his time at PLPT, Dan has worked to improve water quality and habitat for aquatic organisms and wildlife on the Pyramid Lake Reservation. Many of the concepts and programs Dan has established and managed at PLPT have been exported to other tribes. Dan has communicated his knowledgeable of ecology by teaching tribal members the benefits of establishing and sustaining a viable ecosystem using scientific evidence. The important component to understanding ecological function is to know tribal cultural practices, sacred sites and areas of natural vegetation cover present and past. Dan uses a practical approach in communicating these scientific concepts at the local level and to the scientific community.

As an aquatic ecologist, Dan has conducted trainings and provided technical assistance to Tribes, and has given presentations at numerous national and international workshops and conferences.

Dan was recently presented the Conner Byestewa, Jr., award for his environmental achievements. Conner Byestewa, Jr., was a strong advocate for new technology in agriculture, environmental protection, and water quality on tribal lands. Dan is also deserving of his recognition as an EPA Southwest Pacific Region Environmental Award winner.

About the author: Robert Hall is an environmental scientist for EPA Region 9’s Water Division. Robert provides technical assistance to all of Region 9’s tribes, which includes bioassessment training, strategic planning, grant writing and other water program trainings.

Did you know that water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface? With that much water, it may be hard to imagine that water could ever be in short supply. However, out of that total amount of water, only 2.5% is fresh water. And, more than half of that is locked up in the polar ice-caps, leaving just a tiny percentage of the Earth’s water available for our use. Ironically, this relatively small amount of fresh water is all there is to serve more than the 6.7 billion people that live on this Earth,

We need water to satisfy our thirst, bathe ourselves, wash our dishes, water our crops, and take care of our pets. For some of us, it is a fortune to be able to use water for these purposes with no fear of ever running short. However, for some 600 million people, satisfying their own thirst is an impossible task. Less than 50% of people in Africa have access to safe drinking water. 20% of people living in the giant continent of Asia lack access to safe water. In several villages in Vietnam where I come from, people have to use water in the same pond for bathing, cooking, and drinking. The government has not passed legislation like the US’s Clean Water Act to protect its citizens. There is no fund or expertise to upgrade the water treatment system. Therefore, many people are or will become susceptible to disease vectors, pathogens, or contaminants. Around the world, the number of deaths associated with unclean water has mounted to 2.2 million.

If you are the person with great heart and want to share your beautiful world with others, then it is time for you to start taking action. There are faucets in your home that need to be checked and fixed as soon as possible because one leaking faucet can waste up to 2,750 gallons of water per year. Likewise, if you are brushing your teeth, then turning off that running faucet in front of you is necessary because one stuck faucet can waste more than 2,500 gallons of water every day. Remember, there is no need to join an organization to start changing the world or to save someone’s life because you can do all these things yourself!

About the author: Thanh Pham is an undergraduate student at George Mason University. She is interning with EPA this summer.

My sister once asked me to speak to her fifth-grade class on career day. All the kids raised their hands when I asked them if they thought it was important to protect the environment. However, they were stumped when I asked them if they knew what I do as an environmental engineer at EPA. To be fair, this is a difficult question, as environmental engineering is a relatively new profession and it includes topics from many other studies like biology, chemistry and hydrology. I told the class that my job is to collect, organize, and analyze data so that decisions can be made on how best to protect the environment. To be a little more specific for all of you who think you are smarter than a fifth grader, my job is to help establish technology-based regulations to control industrial wastewater discharges to sewage treatment plants and to lake and rivers.

To better explain how I use science to inform EPA’s decision-making, I described to my sister’s class how I use wastewater sampling, industry surveys, and visits to industrial facilities to gather the basic data to help identify the best available technologies for treating industrial wastewater. My colleagues and I sample industrial wastewater to identify pollutants in the wastewater and to quantify the amount of pollution. Industry surveys help us identify available and affordable best management practices and technologies to reduce and treat industrial wastewater. Finally, visits to industrial facilities help us learn more from industry experts on how to better reduce and control industrial wastewater pollution. I use the data we collect and my engineering skills to identify the capabilities of different technologies to treat industrial wastewater and the related costs and pollutant reduction benefits. For example, some wastewater technologies like reverse osmosis can produce very clean water but certain pollutants must be removed prior to their treatment by reverse osmosis. The industry data we collect (wastewater sampling, industry surveys, site visits) help me identify how to configure different wastewater treatment technologies for the different wastewaters across all industry sectors for EPA’s studies and regulations.

One of my favorite site visits involved taking a helicopter to an offshore oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico. I went to this platform to see how they reduced their discharges of drill cuttings, the small bits of rock excavated by the well drilling, through use of newer and better technology. I gathered the information from this site visit and other data to establish a new rule to control the amount and types of wastes that can be discharged from offshore oil and gas platforms. We estimate that industry’s compliance with our new rule reduced the annual discharge of drill cuttings by 118 million pounds! Numbers like that helped my sister’s students understand how I use science and engineering to help protect the environment. And by the end of my career day talk, all the kids thought my job wasn’t so boring after all, as I get to visit interesting places, meet people from all over the country, and occasionally do cool things while protecting the environment.

About the author: Carey Johnston works as environmental engineer in EPA’s Engineering and Analysis Division within the Office of Water. The Division works to reduce industrial and municipal impacts on water bodies and aquatic life by identifying technological solutions.

On July 2, 2009, Administrator Lisa Jackson asked me, as the head of EPA’s enforcement and compliance program, to examine our water enforcement program in light of information showing that water quality goals are not being met and that there are too many violations in too many places. She asked me to report back in ninety days with recommendations to improve transparency, strengthen clean water enforcement performance, and expand our use of technology to increase efficiency and to provide useful information to the public. Our recommended action plan needs to improve compliance and address the problems that are having the biggest impact on water quality.

To help us achieve the Administrator’s goals, we invite you to share your ideas through our discussion forum. The blog can be found at http://blog.epa.gov/cwaactionplan Your ideas will be considered for recommendations to the EPA Administrator about the future direction for EPA’s water enforcement program. In all our discussions, EPA will be mindful of the need to focus on the most important work for protecting water quality and improving compliance with the Clean Water Act, given resource constraints that require us to place a premium on innovation and efficiency.

About the author: Cynthia Giles is Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

Day 3 – August 1, 2009

03:30 a.m. my alarm goes off. It didn’t take much to wake up as the rolling waves had me sleeping a little lighter last night. At 03:48 I rolled myself out of bed and had to do a bit of a balancing dance to stay upright, get dressed, and not wake up Kate.

As I entered the wet lab to greet the departing team and my group, I could tell the Bold was hauling its way to the next offshore station. The staff and crew hadn’t slowed down for a minute all night long.

We were headed “down East” as they say, up along the outer reaches of Penobscot Bay in northern Maine to station R1 -14, about 30 more minutes. Shifts have been light on the sampling as we’re working our way through the outer points which are fewer and far between. In a day or so we’ll be turning around to work our way down closer to shore, where the work will really pick up.

I found out that the last team had done another plankton tow for our budding marine scientists in New Bedford, MA around midnight. I wonder if they caught anything good? Chief scientist Matt Liebman says that the zooplankton tend to move up in the water column at night, whereas during the day they tend to trade places with the phytoplankton which relies on more sunlight.

Speaking of sunlight, it seemed to come up quickly. Though I have to admit I enjoyed the hour or so of darkness on the deck, it felt a bit special knowing we were doing this work round the clock. We all feel it’s incredibly important to study the water that seemingly is far away from the influence of human activity, sadly though we’re finding that it’s not the case. By gathering this data far offshore, we can compare it to the health nearer to the coastline. It is our hope that in future years we can come back and do the same sampling to see if conditions are improving or getting worse. Perhaps you’ll be doing this very same work someday!

At 04:37 we arrived on station, and we were told the water was about 470 feet deep! We deployed the CTD and rosette water sampler, everything went smoothly. I noticed the water I was bottling from the very bottom was freezing! Now might be a good time to explain that we’re taking water samples from three parts of the water column, the bottom, the middle and the surface. I’ll explain more tomorrow about what we’re looking for to determine where these levels are. Each of the three batches though is filtered to catch the chlorophyll, which we carefully contain for analysis at our lab in Chelmsford, MA.

We processed the samples as we took off for station R1-10, about a 5 hour haul away, even further north. To help the next team we cleaned the lab and labeled some extra bottles, I headed to the bridge to get some photos of the rising sun. Once I got there, I promptly decided I wasn’t going to miss another sunrise on this trip.

At 06:10 I sat up on the bridge with Derek, ordinary seaman and Doug, third mate, to record our latest data results from yesterday and this morning. They told me we were approximately 26 miles offshore and wouldn’t have an internet signal until this afternoon. Today’s sampling work will consist of a lot of offshore stations, fewer and further between. Sorry guys! Technology still can’t help us when we’re this far away. In between writing my eyes were peeled on the horizon for those telltale water spouts…

06:21 Doug and Derek, turned on the weather report for Captain Jere as he settled in his chair with a fresh cup of coffee. At 07:00 I went to wake my roomie, her shift was starting in an hour. I also figured it was a good time to take some sea sick meds to be on the safe side. We were rockin’ and rollin quite a bit, even though the seas were relatively calm, the swells were wide.

Before I knew it, I had zonked out with my jacket still on, but awoke to a gentle knock on my door. Even in my groggy state I knew it could only mean one thing! My team leader Ed had come down from the bridge to tell me that First Mate Doug had spotted a spout!
I didn’t even tie my shoes (don’t try this at home), and ran up the stairs using the walls and handrails because I wasn’t totally awake yet. Once I reached the bridge I squinted my eyes onto the horizon and sure enough, about 200 yards off the bow on the starboard side I saw the little, white puff of mist from the whale’s blow hole! I got some pictures and used my zoom lens as binoculars. We watched his dorsal fin come up and then disappear into the deep blue. While it was only a glimpse into this whale’s solitary travels, I hope it’s a sign of more to come today!

That was my first time seeing a whale in the Atlantic Ocean, and after consulting a whale identification book with Doug and Ed, we are fairly positive it was a Common Minke Whale, judging by the shape of the dorsal fin and even the shape of the spout cloud. Not all misty spout clouds are the same!

It’s a little past 1000 now, and I’m up on the “steel beach” as Captain Jere fondly calls it. The sun is bright, we seem to be able to see forever to the horizon. Now I can understand why so many early explorers thought the Earth was flat! Did you know that? Believe it or not it took humans a while to figure out that the Earth is round, and because of this you can’t see the other side of the ocean, it curves around very, very, gradually, which is one of the reasons you can’t see the other side.

Fellow EPA staffer Regina Lyons just joined me, and we traded stories of “sightings” today. Whereas I had been lucky enough to see a Minke whale, she said that as she was leaning over the side of the boat watching the waves, she saw four balloons go by in 20 minutes. Wonder how those got out here? It’s so pristine you’d never expect it, but balloons can travel hundreds of miles in the air before they fall back down. These ones were white and silver mylar, maybe they came from a birthday party or a wedding? We were going too fast to grab them, and it sadly tells another story about the ocean these days. We shouldn’t see garbage and plastics out here, especially in an area off northern Maine where less people live. Regina said they had started to degrade a little bit, but usually the bits of garbage just break into smaller pieces, especially plastics. They never really go away.
More on the rest of my day later! ~ Jeanethe, “aspiring Second Mate”

Jeanethe Falvey works in EPA’s Boston office.

As the Beach Program Coordinator for EPA’s office in Chicago, I’m often asked whether it’s safe to swim in Lake Michigan. My answer is yes, it is safe to swim in the lake, but there are things that swimmers need to know before they go to the beach to help keep themselves - and others - from getting sick at the beach.

When you’re at the beach, be sure to wash your hands as soon as you leave the water and always before eating anything. Don’t feed the birds, as their fecal matter can contribute to poor water quality and may cause beach closures. Also, be sure to use the bathroom facilities when nature calls, and encourage your friends to do the same. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at the beach and hear people tell their friends they have to go to the bathroom - then watch them get up and walk towards the shore! The most important tip is make sure that you stay out of the water if you are sick, as you may share your illness with others.

Even though many beaches are regularly tested for bacteria levels, it can take up to a day to get water quality samples back from the lab, so water quality results aren’t posted until the following day. Being an informed swimmer will help keep you healthy. I generally tell beach goers that a good rule to follow is to avoid swimming during, and up to a day or two after, a rainstorm. Pollutants, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste, may be washed off the land and into the water during the rain, which could pollute the beach water.

What do you do when you see a sign at the beach that advises against swimming? Swimming in contaminated water can make you sick, ranging from sore throats and diarrhea to more serious illnesses. EPA and CDC are currently studying the relationship between water quality and illness, and the results of the study, due out in 2011, will help better protect swimmers.

In the meantime, you can help make your favorite beaches better during your summer break by volunteering to adopt a beach! Go to the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ website to find out how you can become part of their Adopt-a-Beach program. Volunteers help collect data on different aspects of their beach to investigate pollution sources, collect and dispose of litter, and sample water quality; or check into the 24th annual International Coastal Cleanup on September 19. Let’s keep our beaches clean! Do you know of other ways to volunteer to keep our beaches clean? Share your stories and contacts with us here!!

About the author: Holly Wirick started with EPA in 1991 and has served as the Regional Beach Program Coordinator since EPA’s Beach Program was established in 1997.