Greenversations

About the author: Charles LoBue serves as the chief scientist and diver for the US Virgin Island leg of the OSV BOLD voyage. He is an environmental scientist in EPA Region 2 in New York City.

Feb. 23, 2009 - 3:00 pm (Day 15)

As the Puerto Rico leg of the OSV BOLD’s survey winds down, the U.S. Virgin Islands leg is beginning. We’re staffed, equipped and ready to begin a nearly three-week survey to assess the condition of coral reefs around St. Thomas and St. John. We’ve reassembled this experienced team of divers and scientists to resume the work that began in 2006. Back then, EPA worked with V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) in St. Croix to initiate an inventive new coral monitoring program developed by EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Our team will include divers from EPA, DPNR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Nature Conservancy.

The waters that we are working in this year are new to us, which adds an element of adventure. Our plan is to perform strategic observations and measurements of corals and other biota at 60 stations around the islands. Water and sediment sampling will add to the mix. Each morning, we will assign dive teams to three small boats, which will be dispatched to different observation stations.

Here’s the basic process once we’re in the water. When a dive team arrives at a station, a snorkel reconnaissance is performed to assess whether the site has suitable coral cover. The team then enters the water and lays a 25-meter transect line to mark the domain of the observations. The team then makes a general assessment of the cover types, measures topography, counts other invertebrate species, and collects sediment and water samples throughout the transect area. Coral experts will identify every hard coral colony encountered within a meter of the transect line, measure its dimensions, and judge how much of it is thriving.

When the team returns to the OSV BOLD, data are entered into a computer for analyses and water samples are processed. This will go on for the duration of the survey.

Sure it may seem to be a cookie-cutter process, but the best laid plans are always at the mercy of the weather and sea condition. Of course, underlying all this field work is the logistics and procedures needed to maintain to safe diving operations. Our challenge is to find and assess 60 suitable stations over some 50 some-odd miles of coast around the two islands and assorted cays. So here’s to blue skies, calm seas, and healthy coral.

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.

Feb. 17, 2009 – 8:00 pm (Day 9)

We left Ponce at 6 a.m. and conducted more bongo net tows several miles offshore of Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. After the tows we proceeded west towards La Parguera to conduct sediment sampling operations.

La Parguera is a small fishing village in the town of Lajas on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. The waters off La Parguera consist of small coral encrusted islands topped with mangroves. It is also home to Phosphorescent Bay, where at night the water will glow brilliantly when disturbed. This is caused by a small organism (a dinoflagellate) that lives in abundance in the area and glows when subjected to movement, similar to a firefly. This place is like paradise, with its natural beauty and picturesque tropical settings. I can see why some license plates here bear the slogan “Island of Enchantment”

We decided to anchor the OSV BOLD and use our smaller rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBS) to conduct the sediment sampling. The OSV BOLD will serve as our platform to process and store the sediment samples. We dropped anchor at approximately 1 p.m.

We broke up into three teams. Two teams sampled in the RHIBS and one team stayed on board the OSV BOLD to process the sediment samples collected by the other teams. We will analyze the sediment samples of sand, silt and clay for grain size, total organic carbon (TOC), and benthic community analyses (organisms that live at the bottom of the ocean). The grain size and TOC samples are placed into a refrigerator and will be shipped to our lab for analysis. The benthic community samples are placed into a sieve, small round pan with a 0.02 inch (0.5 mm) screen on the bottom. 

The remaining material is gently scooped into a plastic container. The contents are preserved and stained, which allows for easier identification of any organisms. We then wrap electrical tape around the lids to further prevent leakage of the preservative. Our results will be utilized to help better protect and preserve the coral reefs and their associated ecosystems.

We ended the day with additional bongo net tows for marine debris off of Cabo Rojo. We’re schedule to do more bongo net tows at 6 a.m. and arrive at Mayaguez around noon. We will be in Mayaguez the rest of the day on the 18th and open to the public for tours from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on the 19th.

February 12, 2009 – (Day 4)

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.

When the OSV Bold was deployed Monday to do work along the northern coast of Puerto Rico, all EPA employees on board were asked to place themselves in various observation points throughout the ship and inform our Chief Scientist of any material floating around. About a half an hour into the sail, I spotted with binoculars a big box. The ship circled the item for a closer look and found out it was an old refrigerator floating in the ocean.

According to EPA’s Marine Debris website there are two sources of marine debris. The first comes from land related activities and it includes stormwater runoff and solid waste carried by rivers and streams. The second source of marine debris is from the ocean and it includes waste and trash from other ships and recreational boats, including fishermen.

I have been wondering ever since how this refrigerator ended up in the midst of Puerto Rico’s north coast. Could heavy rains have carried it from somewhere up in the mountains to the ocean? Was it not properly disposed of – perhaps just thrown into an illegal dump next to the coast that had eroded with time? We will never know for certain, but one thing is clear – in addition to presenting a navigational hazard, this refrigerator must have leaked all of its contents into the ocean, affecting marine life.

They say a picture says more than a thousands words. From now on, I will bring this picture with me to presentations and let the picture speak for itself.

About the author: Kelly Leovic works in EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory and manages the Environmental and Community Outreach Program in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
 
I asked this question to the 3rd grade class at Y.E. Smith Elementary School at EPA’s Science Day on December 5th. EPA began hosting the annual Science Day at the downtown Durham school in 2004 as part of our outreach efforts to inspire students’ interest in science and the environment.
 
Twenty-two EPA employees, as well as four community volunteers, participated in EPA’s Science Day, by teaching hands-on environment science activities. Each presenter shared their lesson with three classes, linking their activities to the N.C. Standard Course of Study to supplement the grade level curriculum. Topics ranged from geology to energy consumption to water quality.
 
So, getting back to my 3rd graders…I give each student a fake $1 million dollar bill, a “piece of land,” and colored pencils to draw what they would build on their riverfront property with their million dollars. The idea is that each student’s piece of land is part of the ecosystem and what one person does on their land can affect others as the pieces are assembled. The activity is called “Sum of the Parts” and is from Project WET. As the students complete their million-dollar drawings, we put together the pieces of the river “puzzle” on the floor and then brainstorm about the types of water pollution that could come from what they built on their property. Types of pollution included run-off, litter, oil from boats, fishing line, and my personal favorite, sewage, which I referred to as pee and poop. We then begin to talk about how upstream development and the resulting pollution can affect those downstream.
 
Most of the 3rd graders built huge houses; some even drew “mansions.” Having done this activity with students of all ages, I always enjoy seeing their creativity followed by their recognition that consumption can affect the environment. In comparison, middle schoolers like to build malls and shoe stores, and adults tend toward solar homes and organic gardening. Regardless, “Sum of the Parts” is always a hit because it encourages the students to think about the impact of their personal activities on the environment. Plus, it gives them the opportunity to be creative with their drawings, and, much to their delight, they get to keep the fake $1 million!
 
To learn more about past EPA Science Days, go to the Durham Public Schools Partners in the Community link at http://www.dpsnc.net/channel-4/partners-in-education/epa-science-day. If you are located in the Research Triangle Park area and would like to have EPA come speak at your school or to your community group, check out our Speakers Bureau at www.epa.gov/rtpspeakers. Speaking topics include air quality, climate change, sustainability, and water quality, as well as science fair judging.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Stephen S. Hale joined EPA’s Atlantic Ecology Division (Narragansett, RI) in 1995 as a Research Ecologist. Last spring, he spent two months in Portugal with the Embassy Science Fellows Program.

I gazed over the podium at the Portuguese faces waiting to hear how the U.S. EPA measures the health of U.S. estuaries and coastal oceans. A conference in the Azores was comparing the approaches used by the U.S. and the European Union (EU). A few opening pleasantries quickly exhausted my what-you-can-learn-from-ten-CDs knowledge of the Portuguese language and I switched to English.

A two-month Embassy Science Fellows Program brought me to Portugal. The U.S. State Department draws upon other federal agencies to provide scientific and technical expertise to American embassies around the world. Portugal held the revolving EU Presidency, and the Embassy in Lisbon requested help with coastal and ocean issues resulting from the EU’s Water Framework Directive (akin to our Clean Water Act) and Marine Strategy.

If I sailed due east from Rhode Island along the 41st parallel, I would bump into Portugal, a small country that could hold 23 Rhode Islands. My previous experience with things Portuguese—other than Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish that sometimes land on our shores—was a peripheral involvement with research my division conducts on the Superfund site in New Bedford Harbor, MA, an area with many people of Portuguese descent and common ties with (earlier) whaling, and now fishing.

In Portugal, I met with government agencies, universities, and environmental groups to learn how the EU directives are being met and to explore areas for collaborative research. Fueled by strong coffee (bica) and cream tarts (pastéis de nata), at universities all over the country, I gave seminars on developing ecological indicators for the U.S. National Coastal Assessment and on the EPA research that has led to the U.S. National Coastal Condition Report. The Portuguese were keen to adopt some of the study design and methods I shared. In turn, I learned about methods used to intercalibrate indicators among different EU countries.

While serving on two scholarship panels (Fulbright Commission and Luso-American Development Foundation), I saw a flotilla of bright Portuguese students who will come to the U.S. for graduate study.

Throughout my stay, I met dedicated and passionate people who were determined to turn Portugal’s proud sea-faring tradition into modern-day leadership on environmental research and policy to keep our oceans healthy. I returned fortified with different ways to advance our shared goals—better water quality and healthier marine ecosystems. Obrigado.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the author: Tracy Hadden-Loh is completing her Ph.D. at the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is looking forward to a career that will provide communities with more and better tools to plan for the future. Her work is funded by an EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Graduate Research Fellowship.

Many of America’s streams, rivers, and lakes are not clean enough for swimming or fishing. In the past, much of the nation’s water quality problems were caused by industrial and municipal dumping. Thanks to the Clean Water Act, however, many of these sources of pollution have been greatly reduced.

So why are America’s urban rivers still not swimmable and fishable?

The answer is that every time it rains, the streets and rooftops of developed areas are washed clean by the downpour. All that water has to go somewhere. Stormwater runoff carrying loads of various contaminants has been the top water quality problem in the U.S. since 1994.

One strategy for dealing with polluted stormwater runoff has been to keep it from flowing too far—using devices such as rain barrels, retention ponds, green roofs to catch, slow down, and treat it. While these engineering devices help a great deal, they apply to small, distinct points across watersheds that are spread out over large regions.

That’s where my work comes in.

I am building a computer simulation of urban development and hydrology in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (the home of the city of Charlotte) in order to explore how different regional urban forms of development could impact future water quality.

Rapid urban growth and its environmental consequences are a big concern in many American communities. I hope my work will help local decision-makers understand the tradeoffs involved with different policy directions.

A lot has been portrayed lately in the media-with a sense of urgency-regarding a possible future food crisis and water shortage due to the increasing demands of emerging economies. The world’s water consumption rose sixfold between 1900 and 1995 - more than double the rate of population growth - and keeps on growing as farming, industry and domestic demand all increase, specially in said economies such as India and China. Yet, every species living in the planet needs water for sustenance and it can’t be consumed by some and on the shortfall for others. Farming, which accounts for 70% of the world’s water consumption, is also essential to the life of all humans.

On the other hand, climate change has brought excessive rainfall to some areas and droughts in others affecting farming practices and the food supply chain. While many people have grown aware of the climate change issue, efficient use of water in our home to industrial and agricultural practices still needs to be taken into account. I recently read an article in The Economist that blamed the problem of a future water shortage on bio-fuels and while it correctly pointed out our that one third of the world’s population could be affected by the scarcity of water by 2025 it offered no real solutions to the issue at hand.

Climate change aside, we have to understand that every day activities also affect our fresh-water supplies. This is not a distant problem, but rather one for which every single citizen is responsible. Erosion from incorrect land use provides excess sedimentation which in turn diminishes our reservoirs accumulation capacity while introducing pollutants that affect not only water quality but ecosystems as well. According to the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service soil runoff can impact, directly or indirectly, water quality and water usage. Surface and stormwater runoff from urban activities also impact our rivers and lakes by delivering pollutants into them.

In my six years at EPA I have participated in countless beach, lake and river cleanups. The amount of trash and sediment from illegal dumping that goes into our water bodies might surprise anyone who has not seen it. Large toys, stoves, tires, construction materials and even cars, just to name a few, all have been retrieved from our reservoirs, creeks and rivers. Education is the key to prevent a water shortage in the future. After all water is finite and we all need it.

Sobre la autor: Brenda Reyes Tomassini se unió a la EPA en el 2002. Labora como especialista de relaciones públicas en la oficina de EPA en San Juan, Puerto Rico donde también maneja asuntos comunitarios para la División de Protección Ambiental del Caribe.

Informes presentados recientemente por los medios de comunicación advierten con sentido de urgencia acerca de una potencial crisis por escasez de alimentos ligada a una escasez de agua debido a las demandas cada vez mayores de las economías en desarrollo. El consumo de agua en el mundo aumentó exponencialmente-entre 1900 y 1995-más del doble del crecimiento poblacional y sigue en aumento debido a la creciente demanda que tiene para usos industriales, comerciales y agrarios en las economías antes mencionadas como India y China. Todas las especies en el planeta necesitan agua para vivir y no podemos segmentar su uso. La agricultura, que consume el 70% del agua a nivel mundial, es también esencial para nuestras vidas.

Adicionalmente, el cambio climático ha traído exceso de lluvia en algunas regiones y sequías en otras, lo que ha afectado la agricultura y la cadena de alimentos. Aunque muchas personas conocen sobre el cambio climático, el uso ineficiente del agua en nuestras casas, industria y agricultura también ha impactado adversamente nuestros abastos de agua. Recientemente leí un artículo en la revista The Economist en el que se culpaba a los bio combustibles por las posibles carencias de agua en el mundo. Aunque ciertamente planteaba que un tercio de la población mundial sufrirá por escasez de agua en el 2025, este artículo no ofrecía soluciones reales al problema.

Dejando el cambio climático a un lado, tenemos que comprender que son nuestras actividades diarias las que afectan nuestros abastos de agua dulce. Este no es un problema distante o ajeno, más bien uno sobre el cual cada ciudadano es responsable. Por ejemplo, la erosión ocasionada por el mal uso de la tierra puede causar sedimentación, lo que a su vez reduce la capacidad acumulativa de nuestras reservas. Esto también arrastra contaminantes que afectan no sólo la calidad de nuestras aguas sino también nuestros ecosistemas. De acuerdo al Servicio de Conservación de los Recursos Naturales de los Estados Unidos  las escorrentías impactan, directa o indirectamente la calidad de nuestras aguas y su uso. Los contaminantes de las escorrentías urbanas también impactan adversamente nuestros ríos y lagos.

En mis seis años en la EPA he participado de muchas actividades de recogido de basura en playas, lagos y ríos. La gran cantidad de basura y sedimento que llegan de forma ilegal a nuestros cuerpos de agua no debe sorprender a nadie. Juguetes grandes, estufas, llanta, materiales de construcción e inclusive autos, por nombrar algunos, han sido sacados de nuestras reservas, quebradas y ríos. La educación es la solución para prevenir una escasez de agua en el futuro, real o potencial. Todos podemos hacer algo para proteger este valioso recurso. Después de todo el agua es limitada y todos la necesitamos para vivir.

About the author: Ashley Sims, a senior at Indiana University, is a fall intern with EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection and Environmental Education through the Washington Leadership Program.

The holiday season is the most exciting time of the year. I love to try to figure out which gifts to give to my loved ones back at home. Perhaps some cute earrings for mom or a hand-made scarf for one of my girlfriends could work for presents this year. And holiday sales can be a sweet treat too. As you shop for holiday gifts, try to keep in mind the most exciting gift of them all - a healthy planet. There are many actions we can take to reduce waste and save energy during the holidays. Here’s a look to what we can do.

You can reduce waste during the holidays. Thousands of shopping bags and Christmas trees end up in landfills each year. A way to reduce paper and plastic shopping bags from filling up our landfills is to simply ask store cashiers to not bag your small or oversized purchases or carry a reusable shopping bag with you. If you celebrate the holidays with a tree, get your parents to find a local solid waste department and see if they collect trees after the holiday. Some communities offer curbside pickup for trees. This is much better than sending it to the landfill.

When shopping, try to get your parents to buy home or office electronics that have the ENERGY STAR label on them. We learned that some electronics still use electricity when turned off. By replacing old items with ones that are energy efficient we can save over 25 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions which is good for the planet and our health too.

And lastly, cleaning up after the holidays can be a huge responsibility if not prepared. My family holiday meals require much more water than ordinary meals. While preparing food and washing dishes, we tend to run the water a lot. For every minute water runs, more than two gallons of water is used. However, this year we’ve came up with a way to reduce our water and energy usage. Take a look-

• Instead of using water to rinse dishes before you put them in the dishwasher, scrape them clean.
• If washing dishes by hand, fill the sink with a few gallons of soapy wash water, clean the dishes, and put them aside. Then rinse them all together afterward.

Sounds like a plan to me. Either of these practices can save up to 10 gallons of water.

Enjoy this holiday with the ones you love and don’t forget to do your part to help protect our environment. For additional information about winter tips to reduce waste and save energy, check out http://www.epa.gov/epahome/hi-winter.htm#reducewaste

En español: Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

El comprar instalaciones de plomería Watersense, el cerrar el grifo mientras se cepilla los dientes, el utilizar la toalla en los hoteles por dos o más días, el regar el césped temprano en la mañana…..Probablemente hay muchas maneras de conservar agua en cualquier época del año así como hay numerosas personas.

¿Cómo conserva agua?