Toxins in coal-tar-based sealcoats in parking lots may be the culprit in contaminated house dust, according to a USGS study.
PAHs - or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
PAHs are large molecules found in oil, coal and tar deposits, and can have toxic effects. It's long been known that PAHs are often found in house dust; however, the specific sources of these PAHs are largely undetermined.
Researchers found that dust from indoor areas near parking lots with coal-tar-based sealcoat had substantially elevated concentrations of PAHs.
SOURCE: USGS at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
This video give new meaning to "sustainable landscaping." This is one of the better tent cities in America...there are more. This is an eye-opener. Sustainable community is about more than green...it's also about practical heart and survival during tough times. How can you help the homeless in your community?
It can be done! One home at a time! Low impact family gardening makes a huge difference in our climate change strategy...and the health of our families:
Havana relies on 200 urban farms known as organoponicos
Cuba, on the brink of starvation when the Soviet Union collapsed 20 years ago, now produces 90% of its fruits and vegetable needs, using organic, low-tech inputs. The Cuban diet is healthier and uses 1/3 the energy to produce versus typical western food production.
Some of the plots are small - just a few rows of lettuces and radishes being grown in an old parking space.
Other
plots are much larger - the size of several football pitches. Usually
they have a stall next to them to sell the produce at relatively low
prices to local people.
I've followed the honey bee crisis known as "colony collapse disorder"
because of their close connection with our food supply, with nature,
and because bees are one of the few "domesticated" insects in our
economy.
Science is finally making headway on what is causing the die off of complete hives of bees.
Penn State researchers worked with the National Science
Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Agricultural Marketing Service
that already tests commodities such as milk and fruits and vegetables.
Honey has not regularly been analyzed, and bee pollen was not a
commodity and so was not analyzed at all. The researchers decided to
use types of screening the lab uses for milk and apples, which looks at
over 170 pesticides. What they found is quite astounding to me...
because of what it says about our agricultural practices.
All of the bees tested showed at least 1 pesticide and pollen averaged 6 pesticides with as many as 31 in a sample.
Honeycomb may contain pesticides applied years ago.
Scientists do not know that these chemicals have anything to do with
colony collapse disorder, but scientists have concluded that these
pesticides are definitely stressors. Penn State's Dr. Maryann Frazier
say, "Pesticides alone have not shown they are the cause of CCD. We
believe that it is a combination of a variety of factors, possibly
including mites, viruses and pesticides."
While beekeepers will have a difficult time controlling
pesticide exposure outside the hive, the Penn State researchers tested
a method using gamma radiation for reducing the chemical load in
beeswax and they found that irradiation broke down about 50% of the
acaricides, pesticides that kill mites.
Community development techniques -- both commercial and residential -- have a major impact on fresh water supplies and the surface and underground water system. Pavement is a big contributor to the problem. Now it can provide a solution.
Sustainable Solutions with Low Impact Development
L.I.D. is in. That's Low Impact Development, the standards by which the local ecosystem is minimally impacted by development, and water is preserved as a precious resource.
West coast microclimates are interesting. From rain soaked areas like San Anselmo, to rain starved areas like Bakersfield, each zone presents it own challenges for water issues. With each water challenge comes difficulties that municipalities, developers, and home-owners have to adapt to, and manage.
California Water Conservation Solutions
For example, water conservation is critical in California's central valley where each gallon of runoff can be a precious resource, if properly managed. Other areas of California offer surprising challenges -- such as Marin county, which is more like Portland, Oregon, which receives over 40 inches of rain a year.
LID offers workable solutions that developers and home-owners can implement to manage water issues whatever their situation -- dearth or deluge. Whether the issue is drought conditions or excessive runoff, sustainable water management is important to California.
Permeable Pavement allows water to rapidly pass through the pavement into a cistern or natural underground water supplies.
Modular Pavers Used in Hardscape Applications
Permeable pavement is a relatively new concept and product that reduces "impervious" surfaces from driveways, sidewalks and other hardscapes by allowing water to run through the pavement and back into the soil - not follow the hardscape to the street and eventually into our waterways. This solution retains more rainwater for our underground aquafers - but it also allows plants and the soil to filter pollutants out of the water naturally.
Permeable Pavers
One LID product that can provide solutions for water runoff and infiltration issues, large or small, is permeable pavers from Permapave Northwest.
Different from traditional concrete pavers, Permapave NW pavers have an actual flow-through rate of over 1 gallon of water per second. The pavers are manufactured from natural rock, with an acrylic polymer binder similar to the clear coat on your automobile. The finished product is a completely inert paver which returns water directly to the soil, or underground storage, without adding alkalinity, zinc or hydrocarbons to the runoff.
When permeable pavers are installed over properly prepared secondary filtration in the sub-grade, they will capture and filter 100% of gross pollutants and up to 70% phosphorus, 80% of heavy metals and 98% of hydrocarbons from the water that flows through them.
Residential Applications
Alleys, Driveways
Walkways
Patios
Camper Parking
High Traffic Grass Areas
Pools / Hot Tubs
Courtyard
Rooftops
Sidewalks / Pathways
Foundation Drainage
Commercial / Industrial Applications
Parking Areas
Pedestrian Walkway
Bike Path
Plaza / Entryway
Bioretention / Rain Garden
Rooftop
Tree Grates
Rooftops
Roadways / Median Strips
Large Public Spaces
Modular Permeable Pavers for Sustainable Landscaping
Modular pavers over an advantage over "poured" pervious pavement by allowing edges of permeable pavement to be installed in many locations - under downspouts, along sidewalks, along driveways, around trees, around rain gardens, and on or around patios.
Modular Pavers Used in Landscape Applications
Permapave NW pavers are available in a number of colors/aggregates to enhance building and landscaping aesthetics.
PermapaveNW's Permeable pavers come in a modular, 12x12x2" standard size, with widths up to 16" and thicknesses up to 4" for heavier vehicle loads.
The pavers, while extremely pervious, provide the hard surface needed for normal urban activities.
The surface not only performs well for sidewalks, biking paths, parking lots, and driveways but also handles water efficiently in both drought and flood conditions.
The EPA has long noted the benefits of pervious pavers, highlighting them in their Best Management Practices: "depending on the design, pervious pavements (pavers), when used in combination with other techniques such as vegetated swales, or vegetated filter strips, may eliminate or reduce the need for land intensive BMPs, such as dry extended detention or wet retention ponds." (EPA Best Management Practices- porous pavements)
Both residential and commercial developers may find that the use of pervious pavers, which can range up to $8 per square foot, can actually make money for them, by eliminating detention ponds and increasing the amount of land that can be developed.
Home-owners can install the easy-to-use permeable pavers themselves, providing drainage areas for driveway or patios that may be puddling, or as a pervious cover for an underground water storage cistern.
The pavers can also be used as stepping stones, in pet areas, in gardens, along walkways, as parking areas for RVs -- the landscaping possibilities are endless.
Some municipalities are offering rebates for the purchase of LID products like Permapave. Check with your local city or county city and county governments, as well as water providers (ie: Metropolitan Water District) to find incentives and rebates to improve water quality, reduce runoff, or retain stormwater.
Sustainable Solutions to Stormwater Runoff
Retaining rain water for your landscape can be especially helpful during California's prolonged droughts. By protecting your landscape with adequate water supplies from a cistern, and from focusing the available rain into specific rain gardens, your plants will not suffer as much - and your water bill will thank you, too!
Sample permeable pavers by Permapave Northwest
CONTACT:
Permapave Northwest
Distributor for Western US
1-877-694-0141
815 NE 172nd Ave
Vancouver, WA 98684 www.permapavenw.com
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally recognized the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency (NN EPA) in 2009 for their efforts to protect and preserve the environment over the past 30 years.
"For over 30 years we have partnered with the Navajo Nation to protect public health and precious natural resources," said Laura Yoshii, acting regional administrator for the EPA's Pacific Southwest region. "The EPA applauds the Navajo Nation EPA not only for their achievements on their land, but for their leadership role in the development of tribal environmental programs nationally. The Navajo Nation continues to build and implement its programs, has enacted seven of its own environmental laws, and set a national precedent for tribal sovereignty and environmental protection." Navajo Nation leaders met with federal officials to discuss
environmental priorities for the Navajo Nation which administers
several of the country's largest and most sophisticated tribal
environmental programs.
"Former Navajo Nation elected leaders and managers have provided the foundation for the partnership with U.S. EPA," said Steve Etsitty, Executive Director of the Navajo Nation EPA. "Under President Shirley's guidance the Navajo Nation EPA has truly emerged as a key implementer of environmental regulatory programs, and it will continue to protect the Navajo Nation and the south west United States from unhealthy pollution."
Abandoned Uranium Mine Cleanup
Navajo Nation EPA, four federal agencies and EPA are working together to implement a 5-year plan to address the legacy of over 500 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. Currently, NN EPA and EPA are working to
identify and cleanup mines,
assess potentially contaminated structures, and
conduct massive outreach efforts to warn residents of potential hazards from unregulated, contaminated wells.
Together, the agencies have assessed 113 structures and are in the process of demolishing and excavating 27 radiation-contaminated structures and 10 residential yards.
This year, the NN EPA, the Navajo Department of Water Resources, EPA, and the Indian Health Service are working together to provide
safe drinking water to 3,000 people and
wastewater infrastructure to 2,500 homes.
Over the past 25 years, Navajo homes with access to safe drinking water rose by nearly 20 percent.
Federal Drinking Water Program
The Navajo Nation remains the first and only tribal government that has EPA's authority to implement the federal drinking water program which ensures that the 162 public water systems serving approximately 150,000 people meet federal drinking water requirements. These groundwater supplies are also protected through NN EPA's underground injection control program.
Underground Injection Control Program of Disposal Wells
The underground injection control program regulates the construction, operation, permitting and closure of storage and/or disposal wells. In 2008, NN EPA took over the program to protect the tribe's groundwater resources. Together with their prior authorization to oversee public water systems, the Navajo Nation is the first tribe in the nation to implement the two main regulatory programs under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. In addition to the underground injection control program, the Navajo Nation also administers protects groundwater resources through their underground storage tank program.
Underground Storage Tank Lead Prevention Program
The NN EPA runs the most capable tribal, underground storage tank leak prevention program in the country with two federally credentialed inspectors and a field citation pilot program. Recently, federally credentialed tank inspectors began inspecting the Nation's 125 underground storage tank facilities on behalf of the EPA.
The pilot project allows the two inspectors to write EPA field citations for federal violations and is expected to increase field presence and improve compliance. A hole the size of a pinhead can release 400 gallons of fuel in a year's time, enough to foul millions of gallons of fresh water. To address leaking tanks, both agencies have cleaned up over 100 leaking underground storage tanks since 2004, using a combination of both federal and tribal leaking underground storage tank funds.
Title V Air Permitting
The Navajo Nation EPA has been successfully implementing their Title V air permitting program for 5 years, and collecting the permitting fees for 13 major sources. The NN EPA was the first tribe in the nation to achieve authority to implement this program.
Pesticide Inspections to Restore Land and Soil
Other programs protect and restore Navajo Nation's land and soil. Last year, Navajo Nation Pesticide Program's federally credentialed inspectors conducted 120 federal pesticides inspections and 25 tribal inspections. To address open dumps throughout the Navajo Nation, the EPA has invested $2 million dollars since 1990. To date, 41 open dumps have been closed using federal and Navajo Nation funds.
First Tribal Superfund Law
In February 2008, the Navajo Nation Council passed the Navajo Nation Comprehensive Environmental Response, and Liability Act (Navajo CERCLA) or Superfund modeled after the EPA's program. This is the first tribal Superfund law in the country, and is a huge success for the Navajo Nation, as it gives the Tribe the authority to address hazardous contamination across the Nation.
Golf courses frequently are large enough to include wetland areas. But until recently, the manicured course was the norm. More natural golf courses are beginning to emerge, but still need advocates to encourage the reduction of chemicals in landscaping, and preservation or restoration of natural and native flora and fauna.
This interview by Golf Digest with Robert Wood, the deputy director of the Wetlands Division, the EPA's representative
in the Golf & the Environment Initiative, and an 18-handicap
golfer.
Why do wetlands matter on golf courses?
Why shouldn't I be able to fill in the wetland on my golf-course project?
Wetlands are a vital part of any aquatic ecosystem. They
provide habitat to a wide range of wildlife from fish, shellfish, all
the way down to insect communities. Wetlands are the unique habitat for
something like 30 percent of all endangered species, and 50 percent of
endangered species spend at least part of their life cycle in wetlands.
They're very ecologically rich.
To most people, endangered species are things like snow leopards and
elephants, but there are more than 1,000 endangered species in the U.S.
alone.
That's right. People are not thinking about salamanders or vegetation
in a wetland. They're critically important as a habitat. And they're
critically important as a filter: We build all this infrastructure to
keep water clean, and wetlands provide very much that same kind of
cleansing capacity in a natural way. And they provide a buffering
capacity for storm events. We saw this very much with the Katrina and
Rita storms in the Gulf of Mexico.
Is there a figure for the size of America's wetlands? A lot of the wetlands have disappeared.
The first statistical wetlands status-and-trends report in 1983
estimated the rate of wetland loss from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s
at 458,000 acres per year. Wetlands then were largely thought of as a
hindrance to development. In the 1991 report, which covered the
mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, we were still losing wetlands, but the rate
had declined to 290,000 acres a year. The third report, from '86 to
'97, indicated that the rate of loss was down to 58,500 acres per year.
Now the 2006 report, which covers 1998 to 2004, shows that the wetland
area actually increased by an average of 32,000 acres per year. This
was the first report to show that we were in a period of increasing
wetlands. There was, however, some issue with this report over how
wetlands were defined.
[Note: The report states that the total area of wetlands in the
U.S. in 2004 was 107.7 million acres. Wood goes on to explain that the
claim of wetlands growth has been contested. A New York Times story,
for instance, explains that over the study period, 523,500 acres of
true wetlands, swamps and tidal marshes were lost, but this was offset
in the report by gains of 715,300 acres of ponds, including man-made
ornamental ponds -- hardly a fair trade.]
To some golfers, wetlands and wild areas are just a nuisance, places
where you're going to lose your ball. They'd rather see the golf course
mowed from fence line to fence line. What do you say to them?
When you provide a bit of education, you can get a very different
answer. You can say, for example, that not mowing certain areas is
better for wildlife, better for water quality and allows native
vegetation to thrive and maybe prevents an invasive species from moving
in. It might change the look of the course a little bit and the way it
plays a little bit, maybe not. I'm a golfer, and to me what's
intrinsically attractive about the game is that you are essentially in
a natural setting. And it's the restrictions and unique features of
that natural setting that make a particular course challenging, one
that you like and remember and want to go back to. That's been a design
principle of golf courses from the beginning. It's part of the game.
One of the influential landscape architects of the last century was Ian
McHarg, who was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He came
out with a book in 1969 called Design with Nature. The
audience was really urban planners and landscape architects, but it
applies to golf courses, too. It's the tradition of the game, and we're
rediscovering that tradition.
Celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the Nation's
ecological, economic, and social health.
May, American Wetlands Month is also a great opportunity
to discover and teach others about the important role that wetlands
play in our environment and the significant benefits they provide -
improved water quality, increased water storage and supply, reduced
flood and storm surge risk, and critical habitat for plants, fish, and
wildlife.
In organizing its activities this year, EPA is placing special emphasis on encouraging Americans to:
Learn about wetlands.
This is a great time to better understand what a wetland is, where
wetlands can be found, and the importance of wetlands. Activities may
include reading and studying about wetland areas, drawing maps or
illustrations of wetlands, and identifying native species found in
wetlands. Information on wetlands and the important benefits they
provide is available on this website, through EPA's wetland fact sheet series, or by visiting the websites of our partners.
Explore a wetland near you.
Unless you live in the most extreme climate zones, there is a good
chance a scenic wetland exists nearby for you to visit and explore
during American Wetlands Month and throughout the year. To find a
wetland near you, consult your local parks department, state natural
resource agency, or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (http://www.fws.gov/refuges). If you live in the Washington, DC area, a guide has been created to highlight wetlands and wildlife sanctuaries.
Take action to protect and restore wetlands.
Support and promote wetlands informing community members about
wetlands' vital roles, "adopting" a wetland, joining a local watershed
group, or participating in a wetland monitoring, restoration, or
cleanup project. There are many other actions Americans can take to
help conserve wetlands.To learn more about what you can do to help
protect and restore these valuable natural resources in your state or
local area, visit http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/awm/#you.
Plumbing conservation is widely accepted and routinely called for in federal, state and local legislation, ordinances for new development and agency rebate programs.
These devices are making a measurable difference. For example, Los Angeles saw a 25 percent decrease in demand in the 1990s with a plumbing retrofit program funded by water agencies.
The major benefit of low-flow plumbing device programs is that they can be implemented without requiring a change in the behavior of end users.
Outdoor Water Conservation
Saving water indoors with low-flow plumbing is easy compared to controlling outdoor water waste. Yet the vast majority of household water flows outside.
A study conducted by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) shows that 58 percent of residential water is applied to landscapes. Gardening, recognized as the number one outdoor leisure activity, is growing in popularity as a national pastime.
According to a report published in the journal Environmental Management, some 40 million acres of the U.S. are covered in lawns, making turf the nation’s most irrigated crop.
And according to the American Water Works Association, most landscapes are overwatered by 30% to 300%, accounting for 80% of all landscape damage...and water waste!
SOLUTION: Remove the TURF and replace it with DROUGHT TOLERANT GARDENS or NATIVE HABITAT, etc. that reduces water use.
See more research studies that can help you save water at the Independent Research Studies webpage provided by WeatherTRAK.
House 97: The Buck House, original home of the Center.
Campus Center for Appropriate Technology in California is a live-in demonstration home and educational
center for appropriate technology and resource conservation.
This home based center is
located on the Humboldt State University Campus in Arcata, California.
Motivated by an approach of "education by example," CCAT offers tours,
workshops, and opportunities for hands-on involvement to university
students and the general public.
CCAT began in 1978 when a group of students, with the support of
faculty and community members, renovated a dilapidated house on the
university campus and initiated an experiment that continues today.
CCAT works with fifteen HSU classes a year to incorporate new
appropriate technologies into this living laboratory in sustainability.
The Campus Center for Appropriate Technology uses less than five percent of the energy consumed by the
average U.S. house, produces almost no waste, and serves as a national
model for appropriate technology.
Just as important as what the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology does, is how it is done. Three
students live in the house and direct the program for one-year periods.
Eighteen student employees keep operations going. Being directed,
staffed, and funded by students makes CCAT a place where young adults
become leaders; it nurtures creativity and hones professional and
technical skills. CCAT helps to infuse their local university community with a practical idealism
and a desire to serve the global community.
In 2007, the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology began rebuilding in a new location, offering another generation of students the opportunity to develop skills that lead to a greener future at the hands-on environmental learning center and demonstration home for sustainability projects.
A variety of university course students spend classroom time at CCAT, where students learn about everything from renewable energy to organic agriculture to green construction and design. Little by little, workers are reshaping the yard into a miniature
eco-topia. “We joke that this is our little patch of South America or
Southeast Asia,” Hart says, standing in the terraced gardens behind the
home. The area used to be a bramble patch of invasive plants and weeds.
As well as common fruits and vegetables, the garden includes edible
native plants, herbs and wildflowers.
The recently installed solar panels should provide all of the home’s
electricity, and a solar hot water heating system will not only provide
hot tap water but also warm the house in winter by circulating the
sun-warmed H2O through radiant concrete floors on the ground level. The
concrete floors themselves are a thing of beauty, covered in a swirl of
natural pigments made from iron sulfate and coffee topped with a
soy-based sealant. The energy efficient home’s walls are filled with
blown-in cellulose—made from shredded recycled newspaper—rather than
industrial fiberglass.
Future projects include the
installation of a rainwater collector to gather and store runoff from
the roof, which will be used to quench the gardens.
For more information about the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology. Or stop by any Friday, volunteer day, to participate in the ongoing reconstruction effort.
Celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the Nation's
ecological, economic, and social health. 
