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Global Warming in the Great Lakes

Posted on April 14, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Global Warming, Great Lakes, Healthy Waters

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

I know that global warming is big and bad and will reshape our world - but for me, it really becomes tangible when I can understand how it will affect specific places. As Gary wrote last week, the Great Lakes are one of those places where we work and that inspire a great sense of place. Now, there’s some additional specific information about how global warming will affect the Lakes - and it doesn’t look good.

A conference at Michigan State University last week focused on the effects of global warming in the Great Lakes Region. Basically, as summed up in the Detroit Free Press, the effects include:

Lower lake levels;
Less ice cover;
More algae (that can be toxic and deplete oxygen levels);
More waterborne disease from storm-induced sewer overflows.

The Environmental Protection Agency has already issued a draft report predicting more sewer overflows in the Great Lakes region due to global warming, but MSU Professor and American Rivers Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee Member Joan Rose tied it together, explaining that strong storms increase the risk for spreading disease:

Increasing storms, combined with higher temperatures that make it easier for pathogens to survive, could bring more disease outbreaks in the future… Governments need to invest in better sewage treatment and plan for the future by monitoring what happens to public health now.

It’s clear from this conference that having enough clean and water is going to be the challenge for us going forward - in the Great Lakes and elsewhere. As I’ve written before - and in line with Dr Rose’s recommendations - investing in effective water infrastructure and galvanizing support for such investment through sewage right to know are two solutions key to making this happen.

Small Streams Matter - Clean Water Restoration Act Needed Now

Posted on April 11, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Government Affairs, Healthy Waters

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

I was listening to the hearing on the Clean Water Restoration Act in the Senate Enviro nment and Public Works Committee the other day - and what struck me was how little streams have so many powerful groups (and politicians) running scared! The legislation would reaffirm the traditional scope of the Clean Wa ter Act, which has been chipped away by confusing Court decisions and poor agency guidance, to ensure clean drinking water for millions. Some opposition groups are using tactics to scare their members - like claiming that puddles will be regulated - and these wild claims have made their way into the political debate.

But maybe these folks are right to be scared of small streams, because they are powerful after all…. powerful that is at cleaning the water and preventing flooding. A recent scientific article in the journal Nature added to the well established heap of science showing that small streams play a powerful role in removing pollution. One coauthor, Stephen Hamilton, said: “the trick is to allowing lazy, meandering rivers to do their job instead of diverting them into straight drainage ditches that act more like water pipes and less like filters.” Small streams are also powerful in keeping us safe from floods, no small feat in the face of global warming.

A majority of states strongly support protecting these small streams that flow together to become our big rivers. As part of her written testimony, Arizona’s Director for Water Quality, Joan Card, stated that over 200 million gallons a day of municipal and industrial sewage could be dumped by polluters into small streams flowing into populated areas if these streams are no longer covered by the Clean Water Act, which is likely given that 96% of the states streams are now at risk after 30 plus years of protection.

Federal safeguards are also needed for people in other states where clean water is already being challenged. In Tennessee, a proposed state law would severely restrict clean water protection and is being opposed by many including our colleague Rene Hoyos of the Tennessee Clean Water Network.

Small streams matter - to people upstream and downstream who rely on clean water. The Clean Water Restoration Act is needed now to reaffirm their protection and restore certainty to an increasingly ineffective regulatory system.

New report on Washington’s water future

Posted on April 3, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Global Warming, Northwest, Water Conservation, Water Supply, Water for Life

Amy Kober
Northwest Outreach & Communications Director

From my office I can see the peaks of the North Cascades, which in some places are covered with 40 percent above average snowpack. This is good news for the salmon, farmers, fishermen, and boaters who depend on water in our rivers through the summer.

But scientists tell us that with global warming and population growth, drought and water shortages will become more and more common in the coming years, even in the traditionally wet parts of our region.

That’s why we need to change how we think about and manage water. Our new report, Before the well runs dry: water solutions for Washington (PDF), covers the challenges – as well as commonsense solutions.

Solutions proposed in the report include:

Requiring the collection and reporting of basic information essential to smart water management
Securing adequate flow protections to support healthy rivers and streams
Closing loopholes that allow unsustainable water use and infringement of water rights
Requiring and promoting efficient water use
Promoting natural stormwater management
Requiring development to be consistent with a sustainable water supply
Preventing illegal water use

The report was created in partnership with Washington Environmental Council and Washington Rivers Conservancy.

Download the full PDF report or view the interactive report online.

Great Lakes - An environmental history lesson

Posted on April 2, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Great Lakes, Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

While my colleagues and I write and make videos on rain gardens, rain barrels, the importance of addressing stormwater pollution, and in general using green infrastructure to improve our rivers, I think it’s important to keep in mind why we do this. Ask anybody who is involved in conservation, whether it’s their job, they participate in a clean-up or they’re donating money, and they will tell it’s because they love being outdoors and they love the environment.

But for many people, including myself, the environment is more than just being outdoors or some abstract concept that needs protection because someone says it does. It is an active part of our lives. For my friend Patricia Pennell the Great Lakes are more than “the environment”, they are her history. Patricia is writing a series of blog posts on the Great Lakes Town Hall about her ancestors and the Great Lakes. It is a beautifully written series on how the environment, in this case the Great Lakes, runs through the blood of one family. She also has some really cool photographs, and I really recomend taking a look. Patricia first writes about the importance of the Great Lakes as a place, and then delves a little more into her family’s history there.

I think this is something we all have to keep in mind when we think of the environment. That vacation at Yellowstone, the honeymoon to Niagra Falls, or the hiking trip last weekend. These aren’t just abstract notions of the “environment”. These are all warm moments of life that we keep in our hearts and memories for our entire lives. And in Patricia’s case, generations.

Paddling for a purpose

Posted on April 2, 2008 | Filed Under Blue Trails, Clean Water, Events, River Heritage, Stories

Jamie Mierau, Director
River Heritage, Blue Trails

KUAM (Guam) - March 24: One couple has made a three-year commitment to promoting clean water awareness. Whether by foot or by kayak, Beachwalk Project is taking Bob and Evelyn Weinman around coastlines on the U.S. mainland to raise awareness for the protection of everyone’s right to clean water.

During two and a half weeks this month the pair is making their way around Guam, with the first part of their paddling tour here having taken place this past weekend during the East Side Relay put on by the Guam Kayak and Canoe Federation. Guam is the second stop on the Weinmans’ journey. Last summer they traveled 1,600 miles up the Atlantic Coastline from Miami to Manhattan Island.

A Spoonful of Medicine Makes the Water Go Down - part 2

Posted on March 24, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Healthy Waters, Sewage

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

A couple days back, we highlighted the alarming report from the AP that found pharmaceutical compounds in the drinking water of 40 million Americans. Although a Seattle comedian calls it “a clever way to tap into the drug supply,” it’s enough to get you worried. Given the increased reliance on medications, sewage treatment inadequate to remove these compounds, and improper drug disposal, our streams and rivers are going to continue to be a drug soup for a while.

So, what are some of the solutions? Here are two to start:

Make the Environmental Protection Agency complete their requirement to screen these compounds for their effects on humans - According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), EPA has missed numerous deadlines to test for endocrine disrupting compounds as required by federal law since 1996. Drinking water suppliers should be testing for the compounds - the AP report revealed that only some are doing so.

Improve drug disposal - 54% of Americans throw unused drugs in the trash where they can leach into groundwater supplies from landfills. Another 35% of Americans and many medical facilities flush unused drugs down the toilet and directly into local waterways. Drug take back programs at pharmacies collect unused drugs and dispose of them safely, usually through incineration. While these programs can’t eliminate pharmaceutical compounds excreted by humans, it is the easiest and most cost-effective way to begin tackling the problem. The Teleosis Institute has created safe disposal sites in California and others are starting as well.

What are your recommendations?

A Spoonful of Medicine Makes the Water Go Down

Posted on March 14, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Healthy Waters, Sewage

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

Big news this week from the Associated Press on pharmaceuticals in our drinking water. In an interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, American Rivers’ Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee member Dr. Joan Rose, summed it by explaining that the close connection between human waste, animal waste and our drinking water supply essentially “short circuits the natural environment and leads one to be concerned.”

Here’s the latest on this issue from my colleague Will Hewes:

The Associated Press released the first major report on pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies in the U.S. this week, and the results aren’t encouraging. Investigators found an array of pharmaceuticals from pain killers to antibiotics to mood stabilizers in the drinking water of 24 major metropolitan water suppliers. Even worse, thirty-four of the sixty-two water suppliers contacted by the AP couldn’t provide results as they had never tested for pharmaceutical compounds.

It’s not time to stop drinking tap water, but these results are certainly a cause for concern. As we noted in our newsletter article last spring, pharmaceuticals have been found in waterways throughout the U.S. While we know very little about how small concentrations of these compounds affect human health, effects on fish and wildlife are well documented. Male fish in the Potomac River near Washington, DC have been found with male and female sex organs, a mutation thought to be caused by pharmaceutical compounds. Laboratory tests have shown that human cells react to the small amounts of discarded medications found in waters throughout the U.S.

This problem isn’t likely to go away any time soon as American drug consumption has increased rapidly in recent years. Americans already fill 3.7 billion prescriptions every year, likely to increase with an aging population. The chemicals in these drugs often end up in waterways after being excreted from the body or when unused medication is flushed down the toilet. Most sewage treatment facilities do not remove the compounds or even monitor for them. The federal government hasn’t stepped in to require testing or set safety limits, leaving us where we are today: with a lot more questions than answers. As a result of the study, several states and cities are now planning to test for these compounds.

You can check this map to see if pharmaceuticals have been found in your drinking water - which is also the source of much bottled water.

Where Has All the Money Gone?

Posted on February 29, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

Guess how much money is needed to fix our crumbling water infrastructure? Now guess higher. The Environmental Protection Agency’s now estimates that we need over $202 billion to fix sewer and storm water systems to meet Clean Water Act goals. Guess how much money the President proposed in his budget for clean water. $555 million - talk about fuzzy math…

The decline in funding for clean water infrastructure is felt all over the country as we’ve documented on our Act for Healthy Rivers site with more and more sewage spilling from old pipes into our local streams and rivers. We need more money at the local, state, and federal levels and it must be better spent, as American Rivers president Rebecca Wodder pointed out recently in the San Francisco Chronicle:

We can stretch those [federal] dollars even further with smart storm water management techniques such as rain gardens, permeable surfaces and by protecting our wetlands. These proven approaches capture rainwater before it becomes a problem, instead of allowing it to overwhelm the system and threaten public health and safety

Green infrastructure approaches are gathering momentum and create jobs that cannot be exported. Hopefully, this will be combined with the increased recognition that failing infrastructure is a national problem that will only worsen in the face of global warming forcing us to make smart investments in our water infrastructure for the future. Instead of promoting sprawl and creating more problems (as documented in a new report by Environmental Advocates of New York), federal money should be used to fix existing problems and fund infrastrcuture that can best adapt to emerging ones. As the Senate looks to reauthorize the federal clean water revolving fund and a new clean water trust fund is being proposed it will be key to keep sustainability at the forefront.

Paving Paradise with PAH Parking Lots

Posted on February 11, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Healthy Waters

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

Instead of plodding through D.C.’s slushy streets one weekend back in December, I was happily swimming in Austin’s Barton Springs during a trip with my sister, Rachel. Swimming outside in December is a rarity, but as a spring fed pool the water there stays at about 70 degrees year round, good enough even for me, someone who is not a fan of the cold.

But another reason I had dragged Rachel to the pool was a pilgrimage of sorts. Austin and Barton Springs are the sites of important research on the effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on water quality. In plain words, PAHs are a class of chemicals that are suspected human carcinogens and are known to be toxic to stream life. When elevated levels of these chemicals were found in and around the popular springs the City of Austin was worried.

Research led by the U.S. Geological Survey in partnership with the City found that the coal-tar based sealcoat that is used to coat parking lots and driveways is a major and previously unrecognized source of these pollutants as they are washed into local waterways once wear and tear loosens the sealcoat particles. Fortunately, there are more environmentally friendly alternatives including asphalt-based sealers. Acting on the problem, the City of Austin banned the sale of coal tar sealants as a way to protect their beloved Barton Springs and other waters.

Wow - if only problems could be solved so efficiently here in D.C.! Until then, I’ll just have to reminisce about my early-winter swim and let the tale of the spring be an inspiration until it warms up around here.

Iowa in the News - for rivers, not candidates

Posted on January 15, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Endangered Rivers, Healthy Waters

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

American Rivers listed the Iowa River on our America’s Most Endangered River list for 2007 (see video below). I was fortunate to be the river liaison for that river and had the chance to learn more about Iowa’s great rivers from our partners at the Iowa Environmental Council. The threat to the river was a failure to properly implement and enforce the landmark Clean Water Act. Iowa’s state environmental agency was considering adopting a much needed and stronger antidegradation policy, which aims to keep water clean and at least not let it be further degraded. The Iowa Environmental Council and others finally had to petition the state in an attempt to force them to enforce the law!

Now it looks as if there is another controversy brewing about how Iowa makes the Clean Water Act work. The state is now working on a different part of the law, the one that requires all waterbodies to have a designated use, which is then translated into different levels of water quality protection. Some are worried that the state is incorrectly reclassifying waters in a way which will leave them dirtier and unsafe for recreation.

Making sure that state agencies have all the information about how we are using streams for recreation - whether it’s wading, paddling, swimming, fishing - and other uses is key to protecting them. Otherwise, polluters would be happy to see these uses “downgraded” allowing more pollution to be added to our streams and rivers. This seemingly arcane concept of “designated uses” has real meaning for communities and clean water. So now that the Presidential candidates have left Iowa, hopefully the state will have the time to review its proposed changes and make the best decisions for clean water and human health.

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