Protect EPA

Protect EPA?

We shouldn’t have to say it, or do it. EPA – the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – is supposed to protect us.

Yet, the EPA is under siege. And if we don’t help protect it, it won’t be around to protect us.

The threats EPA faces is real.

The new Administrator of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, has a long track record of suing EPA and trying to overturn the very laws he is now supposed to enforce. And as thousands of his newly released private emails show, he’d rather protect oil and gas polluters  than you or me. These are the same industries that are working to undercut our country’s efforts to stop climate change, keep our air safe to breathe, and our water safe to drink.

Members of Congress openly oppose EPA doing its job – so much so that Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida has introduced a bill to terminate the EPA as of December 31, 2018.

President Trump continues to attack EPA and the environmental laws and regulations it’s supposed to oversee.  Though he’s only been in office for a month, already he has allowed coal companies to delay cleaning up their polluted mining sites. He has given mining companies permission to dump their toxic waste into our streams and rivers. He has also okayed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, despite well-documented concerns about the potential for the pipeline to leak and pollute drinking water.

Read More: Exploding Coal Mines, Crashing Oil Tankers Make Clear the Need for New, Clean Energy

In short, Pres. Trump is happily giving toxic industries permission to pollute your water, your air, and your planet, your health — and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — be damned.

That’s just wrong.

It’s wrong to pollute our drinking water with toxic chemicals that could give us cancer.

It’s wrong to pollute our air with toxic emissions that give us asthma and respiratory failure.

It’s wrong not to do everything possible to stop climate change.

It’s wrong to pollute the planet, destroying Nature and the natural systems that sustain our lives, and the biological systems we need to thrive.

And it’s wrong to undercut the federal agency that’s been designated to keep us safe.

Thanks to EPA, the environment has gotten cleaner. Our air has gotten healthier.

Take a look at these photos pulled together by MomsCleanAirForce.org. They document how polluted our air was before the Clean Air Act was passed, when industries “treated our skies and water as cesspools.”

Does anyone really want to go back to a time like this? I sure don’t. And I can’t imagine you do, either.

That’s why we need to stand up for EPA: to protect the agency that’s been protecting us since it was created in 1970 – by a Republican president, no less.

CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
URGE THEM TO PROTECT EPA

Here’s what you can do:

First and foremost, contact your two U.S. Senators and your Representative in Congress. Let them know you support keeping a strong EPA working on our behalf to fulfill its mission to protect the environment and human health.

Find addresses for the President, Members of the U.S. Congress, state governors, state legislators, U.S. mayors and county executives all at USA.gov.

Second, attend town hall meetings with your Senators and Representative. Take friends and family with you. Make signs. Talk to the media. Make sure your elected officials know that you want them to protect EPA.

Check their website or phone their office to find out when they have a town hall scheduled. Or, ask when they’ll be back in their district and what their office hours are for meeting with constituents.

Want to see what it looks like to successfully use town halls to pressure Senators? Paige Wolf at SpitThatOutTheBook.com has documented her success organizing folks to hold Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) accountable. If she can do it, so can you!

We need the EPA.

But if we want it, we need to protect it.

Whether your Members of Congress are Democrats or Republicans, tell them today that if they want to protect their jobs, you expect them to protect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The post Protect EPA Against Efforts to Shut It Down appeared first on Big Green Purse.

There are many places around the world where people do not have access to safe drinking water. Here in the U.S., we often take safe drinking water for granted. After all, if you are thirsty all you need to do is to turn on a tap and fill up your glass. What was once considered a basic need fulfilled, however, has been called into question ever since the Flint water crisis occurred.

We invited Dynamic Water Technologies to provide some analysis of the Flint water crisis and also explain the solutions it’s developed for safer water treatment. Dynamic Water Technologies is a commercial and industrial water treatment company that is committed to healthier water treatment that eliminates toxic chemical additives and reduces water use by improving resource management. Here is their guest post explaining how the crisis in Flint occurred and the solution they propose.

How Did the Flint Water Crisis Occur?

In 2014, the city of Flint switched to the Flint River as its drinking water source. Previously, the city had been using Detroit River water, which was cleaner and healthier.

The first sign that something was wrong was when residents began to complain about the color and taste of the water. It was later announced that total coliform bacteria and e.coli were being detected in the drinking water. To address this issue, officials simply added chlorine to the water as a disinfectant measure.

There was, however, no anti-corrosive agent added to the water, as well. It was perhaps this considerable amount of chlorine that led to the lead pipes that carried the water corroding even more quickly. Unfortunately, this was not discovered until much later. It was months after the fact that the residents were informed about the dangerous levels of lead in their systems because they’d been drinking the contaminated water.

Prior to the lead being discovered, there was still something for Flint to worry about. This was the presence of total trihalomethanes in the water supply. This dangerous substance occurs when chlorine combines with organic matter present in the supply. TTHM has long been considered a carcinogen. Despite being aware of the TTHM, officials were slow to make adequate changes.

Hundreds of People Suffer

It took a long time for people to get the answers that they wanted. When the dust settled, what became apparent was shocking. Through sheer oversight and the lack of necessary equipment, disaster descended upon Flint. Hundreds of people, including children, suffered because relevant safeguards were not in place.

What happened in Flint was a tragedy, but not completely unheard of. This is because when cities or corporations use outdated methods of water treatment, issues like corrosion and infection always arise. To prevent such problems from occurring in the future, communities, companies, and industries need to find a better way to cleanse and treat the water they drink.

The Solution to Future Water Problems

There are many innovators who witnessed the Flint water crisis and decided to create better, cleaner ways of giving people pure, fresh water. Companies like Dynamic Water Technologies have designed systems to ensure that the issues plaguing Flint become a thing of the past.

Essentially, what the company has come up with is an improved way of processed water treatment. This is an automated system that protects and improve water quality in two important and unique ways.

√ First, it balances the pH of the water. This is important because it is an imbalance of the pH that leads to corrosion. In turn, this is what causes metals like lead to leach into the water supply.

√ Second, there will be no more need to put any harmful chemicals into the supply with this system in place. Sanitation will be maintained, but there will be no use for disinfectants that are typically harmful to humans.

What is revolutionary about the methods that Dynamic Water have used is that it does not require external chemicals to kick start reactions.

Instead, all that is done is that an electrical current is introduced into the water supply.

This is done with the help of electrodes that are made up of either iron or aluminum and situated in the supply.

When the current is passed, partial electrolysis of the water takes place. In turn, this causes the contaminants to approach a more stable state that tends to be more solid in nature.

The hydrophobic tendency of the new state of the contaminants will make them easier to remove from the supply. The contaminants that can be removed with this method include lead, mercury, chromate, and even domestic sewage.

These are easy alterations that water treatment facilities can implement within their current processes. In addition to helping to keep the supply clean, it will also help these facilities save money in the long run.

Of course, just because the solution exists does not mean that municipalities will use it. It is important for more people to be aware of modern water safety technologies that are currently available. With citizens advocating for safer, healthier water treatment, drinking water in every city in America can be protected.

NOTE: We believe it is important to bring additional sources of expertise to you so you can make better choices for yourself, your family and your community. We look forward to your feedback and will be happy to respond to requests for information on the issues you care about most.

The post What You Can Learn About Water Treatment from the Flint Water Crisis appeared first on Big Green Purse.

 If you’ve been wondering what fracking is and whether it’s good or bad, you’re not alone. It’s a complicated, high tech process whose advocates say it produces abundant clean energy. As an environmentalist as well as a consumer, though, I’m concerned about the impacts fracking is having on drinking water, clean air, and farmland.

To try to chip away at my confusion, I electronically interviewed expert Maya van Rossum. Maya is the Delaware Riverkeeper, the spokesperson for and leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), a nonprofit environmental organization working to preserve, protect and restore the Delaware River Watershed, an area that extends into four states: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Here’s what she had to say.

Maya, in a nutshell, can you explain what fracking is and why it worries you?

Fracking is the process of discharging massive volumes of water under high pressure into a drilled well in order to fracture the shale found under ground.

The fracking process requires 5 to 9 million gallons of water for each well frack. Often this water comes from aquifers, streams and rivers. To that fresh water has been added toxic chemicals.

Water that stays underground after the fracking has occurred is highly toxic, but the water that comes back to the surface is even more toxic.

The toxified fluid trapped underground can make its way to our freshwater aquifers, threatening drinking water supplies. Toxified water that gets back to the surface of the earth is often stored in open pits or transported to other sites by truck or piping. In all of these activities, failures happen, contaminating streams, farmlands, our air and our communities.

 I’ve heard that toxic methane gas is released during fracking. How serious is that?

Fracking increases the presence of methane gas underground, contaminating drinking water and homes (the photo above, from the excellent film Gasland, shows how water coming out of the faucet in a fracked community contained so much methane, it caught on fire).

In some cases, families have experienced explosions in their homes as a result. Methane is also a dangerous greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and climate change. In fact, in a 20-year time frame, methane is 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide at causing waring.

According to increasing research, so much methane is lost from the drilling process, and so much pollution is released from trucks, compressors, loss of trees, and chemical use, that shale gas is a greater contributor to climate change than coal.

How extensive is the fracking problem?

It’s massive. We’re not talking about a well here, and a well there. We’re talking about a proliferation of wells throughout our communities. In just the 8,700 square miles of the upper portions of the Delaware River watershed that lie partly in Pennsylvania and partly in New York, we are talking about 32,000 to 64,000 wells. That means 160 billion to 320 billion gallons of water and 800 million to 3.2 bilion gallons of toxic chemical additives. It means 128 million to 256 million truck trips through our towns, and thousands of miles of pipelines and compressors.

It means devastating quality of life, ecotourism, recreation, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars that depend upon a healthy Delaware River, not to mention putting at risk the drinking water supply of over 17 million people in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

What about the waste fracking generates – if any?

It’s toxic, and radioactive. UItimately it ends up in our waterways or being injected into underground caverns that are increasing earthquakes in our communities.

It’s simply not worth it.

Back to the energy question, as horrible as these impacts sound, don’t we need to frack for gas to obtain energy independence and increase our national security?

No. Contrary to the folk tales the gas companies spin, shale gas development is not about energy independence, increased jobs, or protection from climate change. It’s about profits for the gas companies regardless of the harm or costs to the US and us citizens. Many fracking companies plan to export the gas they recover because they can sell it abroad for as much as 3 times the price they can get in the U.S.

I don’t live in Delaware. How can I find out if companies are considering fracking in my part of the country?

It’s pretty easy to find out if you are in an area subject to potential fracking and drilling. Just search “fracking + name of your state/town/community.” I guarantee you’ll find more information on what is happening in your area than you care to read!

What can I do to protect my community from the pollution fracking causes?

The only way is to stop the industry in its tracks. Politicans are receiving a lot of money from the drillers, pipeline companies, LNG facilities and others who are profiting from this polluting industry. We need to ensure that those politicans understand that if they take that money and act on behalf of the drillers and frackers, they will be voted out of office.

We also need to demand increased investment in sustainable energy, and get our politicans to pass stronger environmental laws that wipe out the special exemptions that the natural gas industry enjoys.

Finally, you can help spread the word by talking with your friends and neighbors. A good way to open people’s eyes is to hold a house party and show them the movie Gasland, then have a follow-up part and show the recently released Gasland II (available on demand, on HBO, and for sale).

 Once everyone is educated and energized, write letters, attend events, support local organizations working on this issue, and vote!

GET MORE INFO HERE:

Maya hosts a Shale Truth River Series on YouTube. Take a look.

Fracking: A Clear and Present Danger

What the Heck is Fracking? And Why Don’t You Want It Anywhere Near Your Water?

The post What’s so bad about fracking? Here’s what you need to know. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

I’ve just returned from a seven-day trip to Beijing, China’s capital, and Xi’an, the country’s cultural heart and soul and home to its famous terra cotta soldiers. In that entire time, I never saw the sun or sky. Nor was I able to drink the water that came out of any tap.

Why? The sky was cloaked in grey smog so thick it obscured the tops of buildings, not to mention the heavens above. The air, while not exactly putrid, smelled dank and dangerous — a result of massive numbers of polluting cars on the road and regional industrial plants that spew contaminants into the air.

I could have worn a surgical mask like many of the city’s permanent residents. Instead, I opted to be a “guinea pig” and see how much the smog would affect me as I went back and forth to various business meetings and tourist destinations.

After just three days in Beijing, I developed a sore throat and itchy eyes, and lost any desire to explore the city’s beautiful parks. I could have easily walked distances of a mile or two. Instead, I took the subway to avoid breathing the outdoor air unnecessarily. Back at my hotel, I kept the windows closed, choosing a stuffy room over a polluted one.

The water coming out of my faucet looked cleaner than the air — but I would have been a fool to drink it. Water treatment anywhere in China is thoroughly inadequate. The country’s drinking water is tainted not just by household waste but from relentless industrial run-off.

Some government figures estimate that over 70 percent of the nation’s rivers have been contaminated by the discharge of heavy metals and other toxins directly into streams and tributaries that feed into China’s waterways. Water treatment facilities remove a smattering of contaminants but never clean up the water to the point where it is drinkable. And this creates another problem.

Independent companies are privatizing the water, purifying and bottling it, and selling it to the public by the tons. What happens to all the empty plastic water bottles? They end up back in the rivers and streams when they’re trashed.

Why is China so polluted?

In short, because it has neither a power federal environmental protection agency nor adequate laws for such an agency to enforce. Yes, the government gives lip service to reducing pollution and protecting public health. But local activists in Beijing told me that given the physical size of the country, a population of more than 1 billion people, and tens of thousands of “renegade” manufacturing facilities, neither air nor water quality will improve significantly until the government makes a real commitment to strengthen and enforce its environmental laws.

This is not to say that air and water in the U.S. are perfect, or even good enough. A recent study by Environment America, using data provided by the American Lung Association, reported that nearly half of all Americans — 48 percent — live in areas plagued by unhealthy smog pollution. A water quality analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council concluded that 22 million Americans may be drinking water that contains excessive levels of poisonous arsenic, among other chemicals.

Still, the same Environment America study notes that “air quality has improved significantly in the last decade as a result of policies at the state and federal level.” Likewise, the non-profit Environmental Working Group found over 90 percent compliance by water utilities in applying and enforcing standards that exist. Their recommendation: that EPA set even more effective standards so water quality will continue to improve.

We can continue cleaning up our air or water. Or, we can abolish the EPA and look a lot more like China. I suggest Michele Bachmann go to China before she decides.

Follow me on twitter @dianemaceachern.

(NOTE: This article originally appeared at Huffington Post.)

The post Michele Bachmann Wants to Crush EPA. First, She Should Go to China. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

The state of New Jersey is the only  state to ban fracking in the U.S., though the process is underway in 36 states.

Public opposition to fracking is growing as more people become aware of the environmental and human health problems it cause. That’s one of many reasons why it doesn’t make sense that New York state is set to make it easier to frack there, even though the state currently has some of the safest, cleanest drinking water in America.

Find out what fracking is doing to your state here.

On Capitol Hill, the FRAC Act would force natural gas fracking operations to at least comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, which they’re under no obligation to do now. You can sign a petition here to ask your Senators to support the FRAC Act.

The post France BANS Fracking. But New York is about to allow it. Huh? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Lori of Groovy Green Livin’ asks “What the heck is fracking?” You won’t like her answer anymore than she did. It’s like a “mini-bomb or earthquake exploding underneath the ground” that leaves behind extremely toxic waste water. “The quantities of fracking fluids used in a single well contain so much benzene and other toxic chemicals that they could potentially contaminate more than the amount of water New York State consumes in a day.  Water is so contaminated with methane and other chemicals from fracking that it can become discolored, bubble and could actually catch on fire at the kitchen tap….The chemicals from fracking can cause chronic illness, loss of sense of smell and taste, animals hair to fall out, severe headaches and cancer.”

Betsy of Eco Novice writes, “the big kicker for me in all of this is that fracking was exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act in the 2005 energy bill, which means that the entire process is happening with minimal regulation. So a process that potentially threatens drinking water is not subject to the regulation that is supposed to. . . protect our drinking water.”

Lisa of Retro Housewife Goes Green wonders if the increased number of EARTHQUAKES where she lives in Oklahoma are connected to the increasing amount of fracking going on there. What? Earthquakes? Think about that one for a minute. She also wonders whether the value of natural gas is being greenwashed. Sure, it’s an alternative to coal. But is it really any better? Fracking, plus nat gas’ own carbon footprint, make you wonder.

Karen of Best of Mother Earth got educated when she watched the Oscar-nominated film “Gasland,” which tracks the impact that fracking has had on people’s lives and the environment all over the U.S. “I found myself horrified, REALLY angry, and of course immediately frustrated…Once they frack, there is no going back,” she says. “The damage and destruction is done.”

There is some good news in the fracking debate. As Harriet at Climate Mama reports, the New Jersey legislature has banned fracking anywhere and everywhere in the state. Can you get your state to do the same?

Yes, you can! Over at Big Green Purse, you can find links to updates on what’s happening in your state, and sign a petition to get Senators to sign the FRAC Act.

And for more links to great resources and legislative updates, see Jennifer’s post at Care2.

Please. Take action today.

The post Fracking: A Clear and Present Danger appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Just scan the front pages of this week’s New York Times if you need to be convinced. “Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells,” documents instances of children contracting serious ear infections, some requiring surgery, from bathing in polluted water.  “Toxic Waters: Clean Water Laws Are Neglected at a Cost in Suffering” focuses on scabs and rashes being inflicted on children because their tap water contains barium, lead, arsenic and many other toxins that cause cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system. A Fight Grows Over Labeling on Cleaning Products addresses consumer concerns that the chemicals in common household cleansers are giving people asthma, acne, nervous disorders, and more.

Maybe it’s time fror Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to put their heads together and realize that America could reduce health care costs significantly if we focused on cleaning up the planet. And get some of those polluters to help foot the bill. The cleaning products industry alone is a $14 billion/yr enterprise.

The post Protecting the Environment is a Health Care Issue appeared first on Big Green Purse.

One person of every three on the planet today isn’t nearly so fortunate, according to the International Water Management Institute, given their lack of reliable access to fresh water (or, in the case of some 2.6 billion people by World Health Organization estimates, proper latrines). Even here in the U.S., the federal Government Accountability Office reported in 2003 that “water managers in thirty-six states anticipate water shortages locally, regionally, or statewide within the next ten years.”

The rest of the world looks equally thirsty. By 2025, worries the Water Management Institute, all of Africa and the Middle East, and almost all of South and Central America and Asia, will either be running out of water or unable to afford its cost.

They’ll also be contending with water safety. “Every day more children die from dirty water than HIV-AIDS, malaria, war, and accidents all put together,” says Maude Barlow, national chair of the Council of Canadians, a citizens’ advocacy group, and coauthor of Blue Gold: The Battle to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.

According to a 2003 survey by the European Environmental Agency, nitrates, toxins, heavy metals and/or harmful microorganisms contaminate groundwater in nearly every European country and former Soviet republic.

In the U.S., we count on our tap water to be safe, and for the most part it is. The EPA sets standards for approximately ninety contaminants in drinking water. Outbreaks from microbial contamination — the kind that give you a stomach ache or diarrhea — are rare, given how many people are serviced by the public drinking water system.

The bigger issue may revolve around chemicals that waste water treatment faciities weren’t designed to remove. The common fertilizer ingredient nitrate, for example, can seep into drinking water through runoff from lawns, gardens, and agricultural fields, causing “blue baby syndrome” if it depletes a newborn baby’s hemoglobin. Pregnant and nursing women and the elderly should also avoid water that’s high in nitrate content.

Meanwhile, as more and more pharmaceuticals get flushed down toilets, fish and other aquatic wildlife are feeling the effects. Smallmouth bass in the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have turned up sporting both male and female sex organs … on the same fish.

The National Academy of Sciences is worried. Its list of “naturally occurring and man-made contaminants in drinking water (that) are of concern to all of us” includes arsenic, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel and fireworks), copper and methylmercury, the scourge of parents anxious about learning disabilities and developmental disorders in their kids.

The ocean’s misfortune is also our own, for reasons that have to do with some factors we’ve already discussed, like climate change and chemical pollution. Twenty percent of coral reefs and 35% of mangroves have been lost since 1980, along with their capacity to buffer coastal communities from storms. With nearly half the world’s cities located within 50 kilometers of a coast, people are more vulnerable than ever before to extreme wweather events, like the Asian tsunami and hurricane Katrina. over half of the synthetic nitrogen ever used to fertilize American farmland has been applied in the last two decades. As much as 50% of it has run off, creating dead zones in great aquatic cauldrons like the Gulf of Mexico that make short shrift of those shrimp you like to serve for dinner.

What can you do?

* Take these easy and affordable steps to conserve water

* Use make-up, deodorant, shampoo and other personal care products free of polluting ingredients.

* Garden organically and design your landscape to minimize run-off.

* Buy organic food and clothes made from recycled or organic fibers to minimize chemical applications on land that seep into water.

* Get more ideas from Water. Use it Wisely.

The post Water. Use it Wisely. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency have found fish, frogs and other aquatic animals with both male and female sex organs, freaks of nature they attribute to the growing amounts of pharmaceuticals showing up in rivers, lakes and streams.

The pharmaceuticals include narcotics, birth control drugs, anti-depressants and other controlled substances that most wastewater treatment plants aren’t equipped to remove. One study found nine male smallmouth bass in the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.carrying female eggs inside their sex organs.

You can read all about it in the July/August issue of E Magazine (see “Water Worries: Drugs are turning up in drinking water and causing bizarre mutations.”).

Meanwhile, if you’re disposing of pharmaceuticals you no long need, toss them in the trash, not down the toilet. You can also contact Earth Keepers, (906) 228-6095, a grassroots group that organized a highly successful program in Michigan to collect old drugs to keep them out of the water.

The post Are the drugs you take giving the fish in the lake conniptions? appeared first on Big Green Purse.