Beach season is warming up and hopefully you have gotten the chance to get your feet a little sandy. Beaches get a huge amount of concentrated use during the summer season. Millions of people choose to make America’s beautiful beaches vacation destinations. With so many people flocking to the beach it is inevitable that the beach has trash buildup. Delaware has an innovative idea on how to keep their beaches clean for everyone!

 
Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) has partnered with volunteers to create the Adopt-A-Beach program. The program strives to be more than litter pickup and aims to educate and inform citizens about the responsibilities of land stewardship.

 
DNREC has divided some of Delaware’s beaches into 1/2-mile sections. These 1/2-mile sections have been designated for the adoption program. If a beach is adopted, the volunteers must commit to cleaning the beach up to four times over a two-year period. Clean ups take place in the spring and fall each year.
DNREC provides trash bags, gloves and report forms that are to be sent back to DNREC.

For more information on Delaware’s Adopt-A-Beach Program click here!

 
Check in with the Town Hall or Municipal Building at your beach of choice; they may have clean up opportunities you can participate in. As always, throw your trash away at the beach!

 
Have you participated in a Beach Clean Up Day? Leave a comment below and share what it was like!

EPA is offering your town a way to save money on energy costs.

Energy use at wastewater treatment plants (WWTP’s) and drinking water treatment plants (DWTP’s) contribute significantly to municipalities’ total electric bill.  These critical utilities operate large motors that run pumps and blowers used for treating and conveying water and wastewater 24/7.  These facilities offer opportunities for cost-effective operational changes and investments in energy-efficient technologies.

The first step to energy and cost savings is to benchmark current energy usage.  A free and easy way is for towns to use EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager.  This online tool allows managers of WWTP’s and DWTP’s to track energy usage, energy costs and associated carbon emissions and to compare energy usage with comparable plants.

The tool is also helpful in identifying efficiency opportunities within a facility. 

Towns will have an opportunity to learn more during a June 16 webinar.

Encourage your town to participate.  It’s free and it could lead to big savings.

The days are longer, the weather is warmer and Memorial Day is right around the corner. Memorial Day is the unofficial kickoff for beach season for millions of Americans. Whether you are going to your family’s traditional beach or making a first time visit to a more exotic locale, it is important to understand and learn about the beach you are visiting.

The EPA has a program called BEACH. The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Program focuses on improving public health and environmental protection for beach goers and providing the public with information about the quality of their beach water.

You can visit the BEACH program by clicking here.

The EPA also has a tool called BEACON (Beach Advisory and Closing On-Line Notification). Users can use BEACON to find beaches and learn more information about the beach. You can find beach closing notices, water quality data and even a map showing where the beach is. There are also state contacts listed with names of people that have more information. Click on the state below to begin researching the beach you frequent to cool off!

Delaware

Maryland

Virginia

Pennsylvania

How can you protect the beach while you are feeling the soft sand between your toes? Here are some eco-friendly reminders and ways to stay healthy at the beach!

• Use walkovers instead of walking across the sensitive dunes; this will help reduce erosion.

• Reduce, reuse and recycle the things you take to the beach – don’t leave them there
• Throw away your trash and pet waste — use public trash containers at the beach or take it home with you.
• Use public restrooms.
• Pick up trash.
• Cut the rings off plastic six-pack holders so that animals (like fish, turtles or seals) can’t get tangled in them — leave no solid plastic loops.
• Join local beach, river or stream clean ups.
• Dispose of boat sewage in onshore sanitary facilities instead of dumping it into the water.
• Don’t disturb wildlife and plants – you’re visiting their home.
• While you are at the beach, wash or sanitize your hands before eating.

What beaches do you enjoy visiting? What concerns you most about the beaches you visit? Share your thoughts and ideas below on our comments page!

If you were to guess how many dams there are in America, what would you say? Maybe a couple hundred? A couple thousand? The answer is that there are over 85,000 dams in the United States, the equivalent of building a dam on an American waterway every day since we declared our independence in 1776.

Over 2,200 of those 85,000 dams can generate hydroelectric power, an excellent source of renewable energy. But, while people reap the benefits of dams every day from the power they generate, irrigating crops or recreational purposes, dams can also have a detrimental impact on the environment.

Dams are designed to interrupt a river or stream’s natural flow which can cause numerous ecological side effects. They can increase water temperature by slowing water, and causing harm to native fish species.  When water is released from a dam, it’s usually from the bottom of the reservoir, which contains less dissolved oxygen, potentially harming or killing aquatic life.

Sediment also builds up behind dams, which can cover up vital fish spawning areas. In addition, dams can create barriers that inhibit fish returning from the ocean swimming upriver to spawn, and they block freshwater fish from their prime spawning, rearing and foraging habitat.

Currently, there is a growing awareness in the U.S. to remove dams no longer serving their intended purpose. Removing a dam from a waterway restores the natural flow and brings back the aquatic ecosystem. An organization called American Rivers, which has worked to remove dams for almost 40 years, has an abundance of valuable information, including videos about the benefits of dam removal for restoring rivers.

In 2006 a dam was removed in Manatawny Creek, in eastern Pennsylvania as a result of a conservation plan developed by the Berks County Conservancy.  Numerous partners and stakeholders, including EPA, contributed to removing this “orphaned” dam, which was no longer in use and becoming dilapidated. Removing orphaned dams is usually much easier than removing dams which are still in use because they are structures that do not have a modern day purpose.

Do you know of any dams in your area? Has a dam been removed nearby and you have seen the benefits? Share your thoughts on our comment page!