The first question for most people I’m sure is “What is a ‘green road’?”  Do they paint the asphalt? What makes it green and why is it important?

Green streets and highways help mitigate the amount of pollution and damage caused by a road or highway to the environment. 

Greening a street may involve environmental practices and its surrounding habitat:

-Pervious (porous) pavement is used – This means that instead of straight runoff when it rains, the water percolates through the surface to reduce runoff- related problems and to help minimize the effect of paving an area.

-Stormwater management – Techniques such as Bio Retention and Filtration are used to minimize the impact of roads during storms.  These techniques help to re-route runoff from storm drains to specially landscaped areas on the side of the street.

-Recycled materials – By using recycled materials builders can reduce land filling, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Many reused and recycled materials perform as well or better than their conventional/virgin counterparts.

-Street lights use clean energy (i.e., solar or wind power)

-Increased native tree canopy and forest buffers

-Wildlife crossings to give safe passage for species

To learn more about green highways visit the Green Highways Partnership.

A particular project in the Mid-Atlantic that exemplifies green streets and low-impact development (LID) is in the town of Edmonston, Maryland.  They rebuilt their main residential street (Decatur Street) to be a green street.  Edmonston was a prime location to implement a project of this kind, due to its proximity to the Anacostia River and the Chesapeake Bay.  Edmonston is at the forefront of LID, being the first town in Maryland (and possibly on the East Coast) to build something of this kind.  Visit the Edmonston city website for more information on the project.

 Have any new ideas about what can be done to help ‘green’ your neighborhood?  Get out there and put them into practice! Plant trees at the edge of your yard, have a gravel driveway instead of a concrete one or plant a rain garden at the bottom of your gutter spout.  And don’t be shy about sharing what you’ve learned with your neighbors or in the comments section below.

If I told you a virtually limitless fertilizer was available from a recycled material would you be surprised?  Well, it is no myth! 

Thirty years ago, thousands of American cities dumped their raw sewage directly into our nation’s rivers, lakes, and bays (gross!). Today, because of improved wastewater treatment (as well as strict Federal and state standards), the treated leftovers from wastewater treatment (or biosolids) can be safely recycled. 

Sewage sludge is created through the treatment of domestic wastewater by sewage treatment facilities. The treatment of sewage sludge is a very long and thorough process to make sure that hazardous contaminants are removed.  Sometimes this process starts long before wastewater even gets to a wastewater treatment plant, with pretreatment at some industrial facilities. Once the wastewater reaches the plant, the sewage goes through physical, chemical and biological processes which clean the wastewater and remove the solids.  The treatment processes sanitize wastewater solids to control pathogens (disease causing organisms, such as certain bacteria, viruses and parasites) and other organisms capable of transporting disease.

This stabilization treatment includes such processes as digestion, lime stabilization, pasteurization and composting, which change the chemical and physical characteristics of the wastewater solids to a biosolids product that may safely be applied to the land.  Safe biosolids can even be made from residential septage (a nice term for human or household waste from septic tanks or cesspools) when treated and processed correctly.  It turns out that the end product of wastewater treatment is an extremely nutrient-rich resource – what a transformation!

Once it is ensured that the resulting biosolids meet specific quality criteria, they can be safely recycled and used as fertilizer to sustainably improve and maintain productive soils and stimulate plant growth.  Biosolids can reduce a farmer’s costs and replenish the organic matter that has been depleted over time.  Plus, the organic matter improves soil structure by increasing the soil’s ability to absorb and store moisture.  Some biosolids are applied to the land as a liquid, while others have water removed from them and are a consistency similar to wet soil. Still other biosolids are in the form of compost material and pellets.

Every state in the United States uses biosolids in some fashion.  Farmers and gardeners have been using biosolids for years.  Biosolids have been applied to reclaimed mining sites to promote quicker vegetation growth.  But, despite their benefits, only 50% of the biosolids produced are used and they are only used on one percent of America’s agricultural land.  Unused biosolids end up in landfills where this valuable fertilizer goes to waste. Check out who your state contact for biosolids is and  find more information on biosolids.

The National Biosolids Partnership (NBP) advances environmentally sound biosolids management practices. The program is operated by the Water Environment Foundation (WEF), in collaboration with the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) and local and regional biosolids management organizations across the U.S. and Canada with support from the EPA. The NBP serves as the information clearinghouse on effective biosolids practices and offers an Environmental Management System (or EMS) based certification program that requires participating organizations to go beyond regulatory requirements. 

Do you have any innovative ways to recycle waste?  Perhaps you have a compost pile?  Share your ideas!

At the EPA, we use geography all the time.  We have maps hanging all over the walls of our offices, showing the locations of wastewater facilities, delineations of watersheds, and impaired streams, just to name a few.  Very rarely does a day go by when I don’t use a map of some kind to do my job.  Because EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment requires a good spatial understanding how human populations interact with their environment, mapping and geography are integral to our work.

So, how does the EPA use geography?  Here are just a few highlights:

•  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (or “stimulus” bill) provided additional funding for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, which are administered by EPA to the Mid-Atlantic States.  These funds are then allocated to local projects like updating aging wastewater and drinking water infrastructure.  Visit the infrastructure  website  and click your state on the map on the bottom right side of the page to see maps of Recovery Act-funded projects.  Project locations are flagged on the map with balloons or pins according to the type of project (Clean Water, Drinking Water, projects with a green component) occurring at each location.  This map also includes a short description of each project and the funds allocated to it.  Maybe there is a project going on near you that you didn’t even know about!   You can also visit the EPA Recovery site to see maps with summaries of funding and job creation associated with Recovery Act projects.

• As we’ve blogged about in previous posts, EPA is in the process of setting a strict “pollution diet” for the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  Just one look at a map of the Chesapeake Bay will tell you how large this clean-up effort is; the drainage basin of the bay itself is over 64,000 square miles and encompasses at least part of six different states.  A number of public meetings were held to get public comments on the new nutrient standards that are being set for the Bay; to facilitate attendance at these meetings for the Chesapeake Bay TMDL, EPA created a map of meeting locations.  The map has information on dates and times as well as driving directions through Google maps.   Click the “Fall 2010 Public Meetings” tab.

• “Surf Your Watershed” is a great way to learn about the watershed you live in.  Enter your zip code, and find out what watershed your area is part of and lots of information about it, including how healthy your waters are, maps, citizen groups that are active in the watershed area, and much more.  Surf’s up!

• The Enviromapper for Water and Envirofacts have even more information about the waters of the United States.  The clickable and searchable map allows you to zero in on an area of interest and find out about water quality and locations of facilities that discharge into water bodies. 

Have you used these environmental mapping resources before?  Can you think of any maps that EPA could provide to help you learn more about your environment and geography? How do you use geography and maps in your life or job? 

November 14-20 is National Geography Awareness Week – Freshwater!  Let’s join together in learning about geography to help keep the waters of the Mid-Atlantic region healthy. This blog entry will also be posted as part of National Geographic’s National Geography Awareness Week Blog-a-thon. 

The San Francisco Giants were crowned the World Series Champions earlier this week, but if Planet Earth was crowning a champion, it would probably be the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals are hitting a homerun for the Anacostia River. What are you doing for your local river or watershed? Use the EPA website “Surf your Watershed” to find your local watershed and citizen-based groups that are making efforts to keep your water clean.