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Green Roofs - My Ah-Ha Moment

Posted on May 9, 2008 | Filed Under Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Mid-Atlantic, Sewage

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

Standing with Barbara Deutsch on the green roof at Casey Trees here in Washington, DC, I had my ah-ha moment. Now, Gary has done a great job of explaining what a green roof is and how it works, but I needed to experience one for myself. So we went on a green roof mini-tour visiting Casey Trees as well as the green roof at the American Society for Landscape Architects (ASLA). At Casey Trees, the roof was green, or at least brown-green, covered with sedum plants that cool the building, extend the life of the roof and reduce polluted stormwater runoff.

“Just look at all these other roofs,” said Barbara pointing out toward the buildings surrounding McPherson Square. “All of that prime rooftop real estate is just wasted space.”

Wow. A whole new perspective, the bird’s-eye view of real estate. We’re wasting a whole dimension of our cities by leaving rooftops flat and devoid of life. If every building had a green roof, cities would be greener, more attractive, and cooler. In fact, Casey Trees and Limno Tech (pdf) found that if 80% of eligible rooftops in DC had green roofs combined sewer overflows to the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers would be reduced by 15% and air pollutants reduced by almost 17 tons.

So with all these benefits the real question is - why aren’t we doing this all the time to increase the effective green infrastructure of our communities? The usual barriers exist, like lack of familiarity, although that’s waning and there is now quite a green roof industry in the U.S.

But what are the best ways to institutionalize green roof techniques so they are the norm for all new construction and roof replacement. Ideas, anyone?

Contemplating Global Warming on the Chesapeake Bay

Posted on April 22, 2008 | Filed Under Global Warming, Healthy Waters, Mid-Atlantic

Betsy Otto, Senior Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Water Efficiency & Policy

I spent this past weekend on Maryland’s Eastern Shore near the historic town of St. Michaels, in a lovely place called Tilghman Island. It’s an old-fashioned place, where older fellows hang out in rockers at the combination gas pump and general store. They greeted me genially, never batting an eye at my city slicker bike shorts and fluorescent shirt.

The history of this entire area of the Eastern Shore is inextricably linked to the bounty of the Chesapeake Bay. Sitting on Adirondack chairs overlooking the channel from the Tilghman Island marina, I saw osprey building nests, a loon diving over and over again for dinner, and so many species of ducks I lost count. There was also a steady stream of boats, kayakers paddling through the marsh grass, fancy new fishing boats, and hard-working watermen’s craft heading through the channel out to the bay.

Saturday night, I ate three of the best oysters on the half shell I’ve even had. They were cultured nearby in the Choptank River. Oyster harvests are a proud tradition and were a mainstay of the local economy, along with the Chesapeake’s famous blue crabs, for hundreds of years. But pollution and development pressures have hurt the natural oyster production and the blue crab harvest is in real trouble this year.

The struggles to Saving a National Treasure and make it cleaner are well-known. But you get a different picture of that when you actually visit a place whose people have directly depended on this ecosystem for many hundreds of years. I saw a whole lot of second home development around St. Michael’s and on Tilghman Island. While that brings in new property tax revenue and customers for shops and restaurants, it can also cause damage unless that new development is carefully managed.

American Rivers has talked with local leaders in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and we’ve been working around the country, especially in the Great Lakes region, to help leaders understand the impacts of development and to take steps to reduce the harm from stormwater runoff (read about the Rain Barrel distribution event last month).

At the Maritime Museum in St. Michaels a plaque at the water’s edge noted that the Bay’s waters had risen one foot over the past 100 years due to a warming climate and natural land subsidence since the last ice age. This land is flat, dead flat. I started to think about what would happen to this place if sea levels continue to rise as scientists predict they will over the next century from global warming. What will happen to the marshes and countless small creeks and inlets on the Chesapeake that are the oyster and crab and rockfish nurseries, that feed and shelter the ducks and other birds, and what will happen to the way of life that depends on all that?

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.

Rain Barrel Sale: a Success in Toledo!

Posted on April 10, 2008 | Filed Under Great Lakes, Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters

Katie Swartz, Conservation Associate
Healthy Waters Campaign, Great Lakes Region

As a follow up to my previous blog, Are Rain Barrels needed in the Great Lakes, I wanted to let you know about American Rivers’ first rain barrel distribution event.

It was a sunny, yet chilly day in Toledo. In fact, it had just snowed the day before. Jack and Joan Freele of New England Rain Barrel Company came in from Massachusetts with nearly 100 rain barrels and were ready to give installation instructions or “Rain Barrel 101″ to everyone who had purchased a barrel or two.

The Mayor of Toledo, Carty Finkbeiner, stopped by the event (see photo above). He spoke about the conversations he has been having with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur about our water resources in the Maumee River watershed and Lake Erie.

He also mentioned Toledo’s sewer systems and how the aging pipes could benefit from rain barrels by stalling the first rush of water after a large rain event. Before he left, he purchased a barrel for his home and offered to put a demonstration in his office. I would like to thank the Mayor for his continued support of “green” practices in relation to storm water.

Over all, it was an exciting day to see people take initiative and responsibility to reduce their storm water impact and conserve water! Thanks to the volunteers from City of Toledo Environmental Services, Nature Conservancy, and Start High School who came to help load the barrels into cars and trucks.

Due of the overwhelming response of those who missed the first sale, we decided to continue the sale with a second distribution on August 2^nd, at the Erie Street Market in Toledo.

You may begin to order online at www.nerainbarrel.com or call 1-877-977-3135.

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.

Are Rain Barrels needed in the Great Lakes?

Posted on March 27, 2008 | Filed Under Great Lakes, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Katie Swartz, Conservation Associate
Healthy Waters Campaign, Great Lakes Region

It is no surprise that the Great Lakes have been hit pretty hard with rain and snow the past few months. The rivers are rising so quickly that flood watches and warnings are a part of everyday life (scary!).

So, why would people in the Great Lakes be interested in conserving water when we seem to have such abundance?

Part of the allure of living in this region is being able to enjoy all four seasons, which means it still gets very hot and dry during the summer months. Gardeners search for ways to keep their plants looking healthy without putting a strain on their wallet. Rain barrels are an affordable and easy way to temporarily store water to reuse later.

So, where do I find one? Good question.

This Saturday, March 29th rain barrels will be distributed to those who pre-ordered at the Erie Street Market in downtown Toledo from 9am until noon. There will be a few extra for purchase, so come early! The barrels are 55 - 60 gallons, blue, and outfitted with all the necessary gadgets and gizmos. Go to New England Rain Barrel Company for more information.

Thanks to everyone who helped advertise this opportunity! Including Man With The Muck-Rake.

If you are outside the Toledo area, look to watershed groups and soil and water conservation districts for information and advice on where to purchase barrels and how to make them yourself.

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.

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