Fix a Leak Week 2012: What I Do to Save Water
By Elona Myftaraj
I lived in Albania until I was about six years old, and one of the few things I remember is how scarce water was. There was very little indoor plumbing, and every Saturday was spent walking up the mountain carrying water, an all day trip. All water was stored in huge barrels, each specified for drinking, bathing, farming, or household chores. The water had to be carefully rationed so it didn’t run out.
When we moved to the United States, my sisters and I were fascinated with the indoor water systems. Since water was now abundant, we started to get carried away with our usage. We could control the temperature of the water instead of waiting for the sun to warm it up, and we could finish the dishes unbelievably quickly. There were no more trips up the mountain and, seemingly, no need to conserve. We had all of the water we wanted, whenever we wanted it… that is, until our dad saw the water bill. He reminded us of the way we used to live and explained to us how important conserving water was, even if we live in a place where its supply is not scarce. We learned to do simple things to save water, like not letting the sink run when we brush our teeth, and remembered that we didn’t need to waste so much.
Working as a student at the EPA has taught me a great deal about how important water is, along with many ways to conserve. I learned that a toilet leak can waste as much as 200 gallons of water every day, and that washing your car with a bucket and sponge instead of a hose saves a lot of water. Replacing old or broken showerheads, sink faucets, and toilets with the WaterSense labeled products can be a big help. Just taking a few simple steps can help save a lot of water.
That’s how I learned to save water. What’s your story? Share it with us in honor of Fix a Leak Week (March 12-19, 2012).
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.
Green for Green in the Chesapeake Bay
By Nancy Grundahl
Are you interested in pursuing green streets, green infrastructure and green jobs in your community? Are you located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed? If so, you’ll want to read on.
The Chesapeake Bay Trust, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the state of Maryland have unveiled an expanded Green Streets-Green Jobs-Green Towns grant initiative to help cities and towns in the Chesapeake Bay watershed accelerate greening efforts that improve watershed protection, community livability and economic vitality.
More than $400,000 will be awarded this year. For each project, up to $35,000 is available for infrastructure project planning and design, and up to $100,000 for implementation and construction.
The grant program is open to local governments and non-profit organizations in urban and suburban watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
This is a great opportunity to boost the local economy and protect water resources!
The request for proposals and more information is available on-line at the Chesapeake Bay Trust website. The deadline for applications is March 9, 2012, so don’t wait!
About the author: Nancy Grundahl has worked for the Philadelphia office of EPA since the mid-80’s. 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. Nancy likes to garden and during the growing season brings flowers into the office. Nancy also writes for the EPA “It’s Our Environment” blog.
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.
Giving Pollutants the Pretreatment
By Steve Copeland
Industry needs a place to send the wastewater it produces. But, conventional wastewater treatment plants can’t handle hazardous industrial pollutants such as arsenic, mercury, and volatile organic compounds. These pollutants can pass right through wastewater treatment plants untreated and discharge to rivers and streams, which can harm aquatic life and human health. These untreated pollutants can also interfere with the functioning of the wastewater treatment plants so that they are unable to do what they are designed for — treating sewage.
In order to prevent these problems, the Clean Water Act requires industrial users of wastewater treatment plants to have permits requiring their discharges to be effectively pretreated. EPA works closely with state and local governments ensuring that industries treat their own wastewater before it makes its way to larger treatment plants.
Effective pretreatment protects our waters so they are safe for swimming, fishing, and drinking. For example, pretreatment can neutralize the acidity of the wastewater, strip out harmful metals, or dilute the wastewater before it is discharged so that it is no longer harmful. To comply with their permits, industrial users must remove these pollutants before sending their wastewater to sewer systems because wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove these harmful compounds.
EPA provides training to wastewater pretreatment plant operators on developing successful pretreatment programs. The operators who attend the training and conferences we sponsor have indicated these sessions enable them to implement effective treatment programs. This is another example of EPA reaching out to industry and local governments, and working with them to protect public health and the environment.
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.
Your Comments Sought on Drinking Water Quality Report
By Christina Catanese
Each year by July 1st, you should receive a short report (called a consumer confidence report or drinking water quality report) in the mail from your public water supplier that tells you two main things: where your water comes from and what’s in it. It’s an annual water quality report that a community water system is required to provide to its customers each year. The report lists the regulated contaminants found in your drinking water, as well as health effects information related to any violations of the drinking water standards.
If you’ve looked at these reports in the past, have you ever felt like there was information that wasn’t in them that you wished there was? Or you wished you could read the report online instead of in print? How could these reports be more valuable to you?
EPA will be holding an online public meeting on Thursday, February 23, 2012, to get your thoughts on these reports. EPA periodically reviews its existing regulations, and is right now seeking public input on the consumer confidence report rule.
Topics on the agenda include:
- electronic delivery of the reports,
- resource implications for implementing report delivery certification,
- use of reports to meet public notification requirements,
- how contaminant levels are reported in the consumer confidence reports,
- and more!
YOU are invited to participate in this information exchange on the consumer confidence report rule and make your voice heard!
To participate in this listening session, you can register here. Can’t participate in the live meeting? You can also join the web dialogue discussions community. You can share and post comments on the dialogue in this online forum from February 23, 2012, to March 9, 2012.
For more information, please email CCRRetrospectiveReview@epa.gov.
About the Author: Christina Catanese has worked at EPA since 2010, and her work focuses on data analysis and management, GIS mapping and tools, communications, and other tasks that support the work of Regional water programs. Originally from Pittsburgh, Christina has lived in Philadelphia since attending the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Political Science and an M.S. in Applied Geosciences with a Hydrogeology concentration. Trained in dance (ballet, modern, and other styles) from a young age, Christina continues to perform, choreograph and teach in the Philadelphia area.
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.
Save the Date: Energy Roundtable Conference
By Matt Colip
Drinking water and wastewater systems account for approximately 3% of energy use in the United States, and are typically the largest energy consumers in communities, sometimes accounting for 30% of total energy consumed. Energy as a percentage of operating costs for drinking water systems can reach as high as 40% and is expected to rise in the coming decades. So you may want to give your neighborhood wastewater treatment plant a heads-up about a way it can save money and save energy.
EPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are sponsoring an Energy Roundtable Conference in Harrisburg, PA. This event is for wastewater treatment operators interested in reducing their facilities’ energy costs and ultimately carbon footprint, and will highlight several areas related to energy efficiency. This innovative and collaboration-oriented event will start with a primer on Understanding Your Energy Bill, followed by a Discussion of Tools to Assess Energy Use, Energy Audits, and Available Funding Sources. This conference is not your run-of-the-mill lecture – no, we want to hear from real, live wastewater treatment operators and help others learn from success stories at saving energy and reducing costs! This event will be an open discussion roundtable. If you are an operator and would like to be involved in the Roundtable as a “Champion” of energy efficiency or as a Mentor, please send an email to the contact below.
Here are the essential details:
May 8, 2012
Penn State University– HARRISBURG CAMPUS
Science & Tech Building – Room 128
777 West Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, Pa.
For more information on energy efficiency, please visit our website. For information about this event, please contact Walter Higgins at Higgins.walter@epa.gov, or by phone at 215-814-5476. We hope to see your water treatment operator there!
About the Author: Matt Colip works in the region’s NPDES Enforcement Branch and focuses primarily on enforcing wastewater and stormwater regulations. Originally a Texan, turned Pennsylvanian, Matt graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., with a BA in Special Studies – Public Health and is currently working on an MS in Environmental Protection Management at Saint Joseph’s University. He is also interested in technologies that promote efficient living, strives to practice what he preaches, and is moving to a house on a pervious pavement street in Philadelphia. Matt’s love of bicycling took him on a solo cross country tour (riding from San Francisco to the New Jersey shore) as well as around Puerto Rico and across Ohio with colleagues and friends.
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.
Flush or Drain, Will Cause a Strain
By Trey Cody
Do you, like many other Americans, look into your medicine cabinet and see bottles of unused prescription medicines and over-the-counter drugs? Being in the bathroom with a sink and toilet readily available, your first thought may be to simply flush or dispose of them down the drain. Yes, pills are water soluble, but this solution may have negative outcomes.
When flushed and drained, it’s possible for pharmaceuticals to get into our streams, rivers and lakes. This is because drugs, including antibiotics, hormones, contraceptives and steroids are not always removed completely at waste water treatment facilities. Continued exposure to low levels of pharmaceuticals in our water systems may alter the behavior and physiology of the fish and other aquatic organisms who call it home. EPA has been working with other federal agencies and state and local government partners to better understand the implications low levels of pharmaceuticals in water, the potential effects on aquatic organisms and if there is an impact on human health.
Though flushing and draining is not the only way pharmaceuticals enter our wastewater, it’s one we can do something about.
April 28, 2012 is the next National Prescription Drug Take Back Day issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration. During this time you can drop off your unwanted drugs at many participating municipal locations, where they will be disposed of safely and properly. The last event collected over 188.5 tons of unwanted or expired medications at the 5,327 take-back sites that were available in all 50 states.
But you don’t have to wait until April to dispose of your old meds. You can contact your city or county government’s household trash and recycling service to find if there are drop off locations in your area. If all else fails, you can dispose of drugs in your household trash by following a few simple steps.
How do you dispose of your unwanted pharmaceuticals? Have you participated in any take back programs? Do you have any suggestions of how to improve programs like these? Let us know!
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.
Surfin’ Your Watershed
By Christina Catanese
For those who many not have the opportunity, or the ability to surf the big waves, there is an EPA website that allows you to do a slightly different type of surfing. The website gives you the tools you need to easily Surf Your Watershed!
Find your nearby watershed by using the simple form located on the page. Once you locate your watershed, there are many links filled with information for you to search. For example, I searched the Wissahickon Creek that I bike and hike near on the weekends. Then I followed the first link, “Citizen-based Groups at Work in this Watershed,” and found out that there were 36 different organizations that are working to protect its water quality. Now I can contact one of these groups to find out about cleanups, monitoring activities, restoration projects and other activities! This was only one example of the thousands of surfable watersheds in the country. You can surf until your legs…well, hand… gets tired! And there’s no risk of getting water up your nose or embarrassing yourself in front of a beach full of people.
Tell us what you find when you Surf YOUR Watershed!
About the Author: Christina Catanese has worked at EPA since 2010, and her work focuses on data analysis and management, GIS mapping and tools, communications, and other tasks that support the work of Regional water programs. Originally from Pittsburgh, Christina has lived in Philadelphia since attending the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Political Science and an M.S. in Applied Geosciences with a Hydrogeology concentration. Trained in dance (ballet, modern, and other styles) from a young age, Christina continues to perform, choreograph and teach in the Philadelphia area.
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.
Water Widgets for the Web!
By Trey Cody
Do you have a blog, website, wiki, social media profile, or other form of a web page? EPA has something that you might be interested in to jazz up your site! They’re called widgets (sometimes referred to as gadgets), and they are an easy way to keep your viewers interactive and entertained on your page.
“What’s a widget?”, you might be wondering. A widget is small piece of Web programming code that makes something interesting appear on your blog or Web page. Widgets can feature updated information (like a clock, countdown, or news ticker) or let the reader perform an action (like use a search box). EPA’s widgets allow users to see or search for environmental concepts.
Some cool water widgets offered by EPA are:
- WaterSense Tip – Get a new tip on water efficiency each month and get more information from the WaterSense Web site.
- Natural Lakeshores – This widget provides a series of ten tips for improved lakeshore stewardship, focusing on natural lakeshores – lakeshores with plenty of native trees, shrubs, and overhanging vegetation. Native vegetation along lakeshores provides food, shelter, habitat and shade for fish and protects the lake from the damaging effects of erosion and polluted stormwater runoff. This contributes to improved water quality, which can in turn help increase the value of lakefront property.
- Find Your Watershed – Enter your ZIP code to get information about the watershed(s) in that area.
If you’re interested in EPA’s widgets, check out the widget page containing more fun environmental widgets for everyone!
Do you have any environmental widgets on your blog or page that are not from EPA? What other kinds of widgets have you seen around the web that you’d like to see EPA create? Let us know about your experience with them!
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.
Take Winter with a Grain of Salt
By Christina Catanese
It’s about that time of year when the Mid-Atlantic region starts preparing the snow plows and pulling out the road salt. In most of our region this winter, we’ve had a lot of warm days and no big “snowmageddons” so far, but the season is still young!
When big snow storms strike, how do you fight back? Methods like shoveling, snow plows, snow blowers, and applying sand and deicing salt keep roads clear and people safe. But did you ever think about the environmental impact of clearing snow and ice?
Although rock salt is an effective way to clear roads and driveways, issues can arise when the snow is gone and the salt is left behind. As the snow melts in the spring, the salt dissolves and runs off the road into storm drains and nearby water bodies. This can harm aquatic life like fish and plants. Human health can be impacted as well if the salt reaches drinking water supplies.
Many towns have moved from applying to salt to highways and are now applying brine, which has less environmental impact. Check out this link to learn more about some innovations in snow removal, including a method being piloted by Maryland that sprays a mixture of sugar beets and brine onto highways.
So when the next big winter storm strikes, strike back, but in an environmentally friendly way. Here are some recommended actions to reduce salt application:
1. Use the Right Material: There are many options beyond salt and sand, like less toxic chemicals and even things like clean kitty litter.
2. Use the Right Amount: More isn’t necessarily better. Warmer roads need less salt, and roads below 10º F will not benefit from rock salt at all. Applying less salt is also a more economical choice. Snow clean-up costs are reduced, as are damages to cars, roads, and bridges.
3. Apply at the Right Place: Apply salt where it will do most good, like hills, curves, shaded sections of road, and bridges. Use discretion when applying salt near sensitive streams or in drinking water source water protection areas.
4. Apply at the Right Time: Don’t wait until snow is falling to get started. It takes more salt to melt accumulated snow than it does to prevent accumulation.
5. Use Proper Storage Techniques: Salt and sand piles should always be covered to prevent runoff, and should be located away from streams and wetlands.
Read more about best management practices for applying and storing road salt while protecting water supplies here.
Is your municipality practicing smart salt application with these actions? Are you practicing them at your home? Do you know of any other environmentally-friendly ways to clean up snow? Let us know how you’re staying both safe and green this winter season.
About the Author: Christina Catanese has worked at EPA since 2010, and her work focuses on data analysis and management, GIS mapping and tools, communications, and other tasks that support the work of Regional water programs. Originally from Pittsburgh, Christina has lived in Philadelphia since attending the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Political Science and an M.S. in Applied Geosciences with a Hydrogeology concentration. Trained in dance (ballet, modern, and other styles) from a young age, Christina continues to perform, choreograph and teach in the Philadelphia area.
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.
Green Tracks for Maryland’s Light Rail
By Nancy Grundahl
The Maryland Transit Administration is testing a “Green Track” concept, establishing vegetation between and adjacent to light rail tracks. Among the positive outcomes is a reduction in polluted stormwater running into local streams.
The question is: will the turf grass and/or sedums planted between the tracks survive in the railway environment and become established well enough to present a dense and attractive growth in Maryland? If so, green tracks are to be considered for incorporation into portions of the Red Line, a 14-mile light rail transit line proposed in Baltimore City. Additionally, the Green Track concept is being considered for portions of the Purple Line, a 16-mile light rail project in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties. (Read more about green initiatives proposed in, “Design Green! Best Practices for Sustainability, Safe Street Design for the Red Line.”)
Green tracks are not uncommon in Europe, most notably in France and Germany. The benefits are many. Some stormwater that would otherwise run off will be captured by the vegetation and soil. The temperature in the immediate area will be moderated, being a little cooler in the summer, reducing the urban heat island effect. And, the noise from the trains will be dampened. Regular monitoring of Maryland’s Green Tracks test areas is currently underway.
Interested in seeing the green track test segments in person?
In mid-town Baltimore go to the Cultural Center Light Rail Station which is near the intersection of North Howard and West Preston Streets. There are two test areas here.
There is another test area in the suburbs near the Ferndale Light Rail Station in Anne Arundel County. The test area is located between South Broadview Boulevard and Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard south of the station and the firehouse.
About the author: Nancy Grundahl has worked for the Philadelphia office of EPA since the mid-80’s. 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. Nancy likes to garden and during the growing season brings flowers into the office. Nancy also writes for the EPA “It’s Our Environment” blog.
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.
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