Category Archives: Environment

Global Warming—the New Normal

Globally, this year is shaping up to be the fourth hottest on record. The only years hotter were the three previous ones.

Since modern record-keeping began, seventeen of the eighteen warmest years have occurred since 2001.

WAKE UP CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS, because temperatures are going to continue to rise, heat waves will only grow hotter and more intense, fires and floods will forge on, annihilating everything and anything in their path.

Make no mistake about it: Our world is getting hotter and will threaten and ultimately destroy our basic necessities for survival like food, water, and electricity.

Prepare for Climageddon because diminishing food supply, water scarcity, and unreliable electricity is in our future.

Ice caps are melting, wildfires are raging, and some of the most beautiful places on earth will cease to exist.

Places like Key West, Florida, the Rhône Valley in France, the Alps, California’s Nappa Valley, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Venice, Italy, Glacier National Park in Montana, the Dead Sea, the Maldives, the Amazon, and Alaska are suffering severe global warming consequences, with some facing the prospect of vanishing entirely.

And what’s so incredibly frightening is that so far efforts to tame the heat have all failed miserably.

But the absolute scariest part about all of this is that WITHOUT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, the rest of the world has united to fight climate change.

Thanks for the win, Donald.

The Hurricane Club

I hope you never become a member of our quickly expanding club.

But as someone all too familiar with the hurricane/flooding/seepage drill, I have some tips for the newcomers to our unfortunate alliance.

We flooded out in Hurricane Irene and then got hit again, less than one year later, during Hurricane Sandy.

The first thing you’ll need to do is throw away your furniture, all your soggy remains of irreplaceable keepsake memories, your precious photo albums, rugs, clothing, shoes, computer monitors, appliances, pretty much everything.

Then, remove all affected drywall, which for us always meant “to the studs.” Look it up.

Carefully lug and pile the thousands of pounds of the putrid, sodden remnants of your belongings into a mountain shape to avoid your used-to-be valuables from spilling onto the street.

And most importantly, immediately eviscerate the quickly growing black mold that will undoubtedly pop up and spread out. It’s nasty and hard as hell to get rid of. If you can afford an expert to take on the removal task, I recommend that you do so. Any attempt to DIY can be dangerous. If the black mold doesn’t mess up your breathing, the bleach and other chemicals you will need to use to annihilate it will surely wreak havoc on your lungs.

Oh, and keep a close watch out for termites. I learned the hard way that they love wet wood, duh.

When Hurricane Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, it frighteningly and ferociously plummeted our house. As the water swiftly raged down my usually quiet street, it  carried metal generators, garbage cans,  huge pieces of wood and tree branches, and nearly covered the parked cars. My husband and I were alone and regretting our decision to remain in the house.

As the water lapped onto our lawn in waves, it inched closer and closer to our front door.

We were in a panic, and grabbed towels and sheets from our linen closet, and stuffed them against our front and garage doors. The linens didn’t work out so well.

The water seeped into our garage but mercifully stopped at our front door.

That was the nightmare happening in the front of the house.

In the back of the house, right off our kitchen, I was monitoring the movement of the 70 foot Oak tree in my neighbor’s back yard.  The wind was howling through the tree’s 100-foot canopy, causing it to whip back and forth in the wind, like a weed.  And there was no doubt that it was precariously thrashing and bending in the direction of our house.

Water was gushing onto our property in the front of the house, and a ginormous tree was readying itself to come crashing down on us in the back.  I was feeling panicky, but I wanted to appear in control of the situation.  It was my stupid idea to stay put.

Then our electricity went out so we could no longer see the torrent of water in the front of the house. I guess that was a good thing.

But it wasn’t dark enough in the back of the house to camouflage that damn solid Oak tree literally pulled from its roots, and looming in our direction.

I strongly suggested to my husband that we go up to our bedroom, which was the highest room in the house, to escape the treacherous storm surge.  He adamantly disagreed and suggested we go down into the basement. He was fairly confident that if the tree came down, it would in all probability crash into our bedroom.

I reluctantly agreed with his analysis.

But the basement?  The water was heaving itself onto our front lawn in wave after wave, and he wanted to move in the downward direction?

It was a surreal conversation.

Do we take our chances in the basement and hope that the water wouldn’t crash through the windows and drown us? Or do we move to higher ground and chance getting gored by Oak tree branches?

As we argued in the hallway about whether we should go up or down, there was a massive crash in the back of our house, which sent a shock wave through the entire structure.

After a long bear hug, my husband looked at me and weirdly casually said: “Well let’s see if the tree is in our house.”

As we crept up our stairs, we saw bright crackling and spits of flame through the kitchen window. That not so grand old Oak lay a mere three feet from our house, which was a miraculous thing.  The 70-foot behemoth with its 100-foot canopy had smashed onto our property, taking fences, trees, electrical lines, our deck, and everything else in its path with it.

It also took off a small piece of our jutting roof, but the rest of our house and our lives had thankfully been spared.

I recall grabbing my husband in terror as he calmly looked out at the crackling wires on the tree and then quietly announced: “We can go up to the bedroom now.”

The next few days were nightmarish. But as a member of the Hurricane Club, we had been down this devastating road before. So we began the arduous task of cleaning up.

Except one week later, we had an early season snowstorm which dumped more than a foot of snow on us.

Fortunately, the coastal flooding from the storm was minor, but it brought any hope of recovery to a screeching halt.

Immediately following Hurricane Sandy, gas stations were out of gasoline, there were slim pickings at the only walkable grocery store, whole boulevards had been washed away, and rebuilding seemed like an impossible task.

For close to three weeks we endured no heat, no electricity, and only ice cold water for showers. Thankfully our toilets were working.  But our cell phones were dead, so it was difficult to communicate with the outside world.

We were in survival mode. And it was freezing cold in our house. Our paltry supply of food and drinks were packed into coolers we found in our soggy garage, now strewn about on our destroyed deck.

And then of course there was that damned tree, a reminder of the work ahead of us.

 

But survive we did.

As we walked through our neighborhood, the devastation was heartbreaking. Amidst the snow drifts, downed trees cut off many of the streets, houses were demolished, rotting dead fish were oddly strewn about, and workers who had come from all over the country to assist in the recovery and rebuilding were assessing the damage.

Reminders of Hurricane Sandy are still everywhere. Five years later, many victims are still recovering and rebuilding.

With the arrival of Harvey and Irma, the Hurricane Club will sadly be expanding its membership.

Irma, who has already ripped through the Caribbean, now has her sights on Florida.

As someone who survived Sandy, I would strongly advise anyone in Irma’s path to get the hell out of dodge.

And then courageously prepare for the new normal.

Beware of Tick-Infested Acorns

Who knew Oak trees ladened with acorns could result in Lyme disease?

In 1969, the first case of Lyme disease in the U.S. was discovered in a grouse hunter from Wisconsin.

But the disease didn’t get its name until 1975, when there was an outbreak in children from Lyme, Connecticut.  And then in 1982, the bacteria responsible for causing the disease was finally identified.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s website states that in 2009 95% of reported cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. occurred in the following 12 states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, and Virginia.

According to the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, a bumper crop of acorns could be putting the U.S. on the brink of an unprecedented outbreak of Lyme disease. Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute, estimates that 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year, but that the illness is now on track to being the worst in 2017.

Because acorns are a critical food for white-footed mice, as acorn production surges, mouse population climbs, giving rise to more disease-carrying ticks. White-tailed deer also feed on acorns.

The mice and deer both carry ticks that drop off in the winter. The following year the female ticks lay their eggs and hatch larval ticks. Those larval ticks become infected when they feed on the mice and deer, so the whole process takes about two years.

Additionally, the Lyme bacteria has also been found in Eastern chipmunks, short-tailed shrews, coyotes, raccoons, rabbits, and feral cats. Domestic animals including cats, dogs, cattle, and horses can also become infected.  The bacteria have also been found in many bird species including but not limited to the ring-necked pheasant, mallard, wild turkey, house wren, song thrush, American robin, gray catbird, song sparrow, and house sparrow.

With no Lyme disease vaccine available for humans there is not much that can be done to prevent the illness except for the standard anti-tick measures like head to toe clothing when in the woods and diligent tick-checks. There are Lyme disease vaccines available for pets.

Ticks can be as tiny as a pin prick, and easy to miss. Not everyone gets a rash, and flu-like symptoms are easily overlooked and/or misdiagnosed.

Bottom line? Stay far away from acorns.

Why Is My Water Brown?

Glass of water 2-19-16

Since my blog post on February 24 concerning my murky brown water, I am no closer to an answer as to why it continues to be the color that it is. See that post  here: We Are All Flint Michigan

Before I continue with this blog post, though, I feel compelled, as I did in my last  undrinkable water post, to once again protect myself:

All data and information provided in this blog post are for informational purposes only. I make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information in this blog post and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.  

Now I am ready to blast off.

To state it nicely, my water is unacceptable.

Here is my question.

Who is to blame, and why hasn’t sufficient money been spent to improve a fundamental need—and a human right—which is clean and drinkable water?

And sorry, but I don’t feel the government’s pain when they say they are out of money. And I blame both the Democrats and the Republicans for my brown and undrinkable water situation.

Since my last blog post, I have purchased a 10-cup Zero Water filtration system which seems to work well. I have been using the filtered water for coffee and boiling but will stick to Poland Spring for drinking.

I have also diligently continued my research as to why certain contaminants deemed unsafe in our drinking water remain unregulated by the EPA.

And more importantly, I have been researching so see if those contaminants are lurking in my dark brown and undrinkable water. And make no mistake about it, my research results have been fairly frightening.

To add insult to injury, my water company insists that:

There are State and Federal water quality standards that allow certain levels of “contaminants” to be present in the water.  I must stress that Nassau County Department of Health has strict regulatory oversight of the public water systems and that the water delivered to the county residents meets all drinking water standards.”

Huh? Thank you for your assurances, water company, but if all of the above is true, please explain why my water is brown?

I would like to share a recent example of people thinking their water is safe to drink based on testing and state assurances and then finding out otherwise.

The New York Times had an article on Tuesday, March 15, regarding tainted water in Vermont and New York.

Here are the cliff notes:

In recent weeks, several private wells in North Bennington, Vermont, have tested positive for the industrial chemical perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. This contaminant has been linked to cancer, thyroid, and heart disease, serious pregnancy complications, and birth defects, making North Bennington the latest in a growing list of American communities unsettled by a contaminated water scare.

PFOA was also discovered in the public drinking water in the village of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., prompting residents to rely on bottled water amid charges that the state took far too long to respond to the problem. It was also found in public wells in Petersburgh, N.Y., the site of a plastics factory south of Hoosick Falls.

Not surprising to me, the state of New York has repeatedly assured citizens of Hoosick Falls that their water was safe.

And last week, as environmental officials in New York and Vermont searched for other potentially contaminated areas, officials in Merrimack, N.H., announced that PFOA had been discovered there as well.

And the number of people found to be drinking water tainted by PFOA is almost certain to grow.

PFOA was once used to manufacture non-stick pans, microwaveable popcorn wrappers, and Gore-Tex boots— and practically anything that is non-stick, stain-resistant, or water-repellent. But the health effects PFOA causes and the way it spreads and contaminates are not well understood.

In August 2015, the nonprofit organization, Environmental Working Group, found that the EPA’s “safe” level of PFOA is possibly thousands of times too weak and has been detected in 94 public water systems in 27 states, serving nearly seven million people. http://www.ewg.org/research/teflon-chemical-harmful-smallest-doses/pfoa-found-94-public-water-systems-27-states

And even more alarming was that when I checked out which 27 states had PFOA in their water, New York was one of them.

And guess what? It turns out that my county — Nassau — via the Town of Hempstead Water District, serving 110,000 people, has PFOA in its water.

Does that mean my water contains PFOA?    

And get a load of this:

Even though New York State was advised that there were concerning levels of PFOA present in the water going back as far as 2005, they claim that no one did anything about it because PFOA was and remains an unregulated EPA contaminant.

Sounds to me like someone is trying to pass the buck.

And according to scientists, even as the chemical PFOA continues to contaminate water across the country, government agencies, from local health departments to the federal EPA, have yet to grapple with the full extent of the problem or what it will take to clean it up.

It doesn’t take a scientist to tell me that the EPA needs to lower the level at which it says water containing PFOA is safe to drink. ASAP.

I mean, come on already. Can the EPA assure me that my water, which may or may not contain PFOA, is safe to drink? And can my water company give me the same assurance?

Is anyone accountable here?

And now that I’m on a roll, here is something else I want to share:

When I had my hot water heater and pipes flushed out a couple of weeks ago, the company I used— Hot Water Plus — told me that they usually offer a 60-day clear water guarantee. Oh, but not in my neighborhood.

Maybe my water company can give me some insight as to why not?

And speaking of my water company, I recently noticed a water main flushing advertisement in my local paper, letting customers know that New York American Water is preparing to flush the water mains in its distribution system to help them provide us with high-quality water service.

Oh, and by the way, customers may experience discolored water. The flushing will take place Monday through Friday between 4/11 and 4/21—a whopping nine days.

I can only imagine what color my water will look like after they flush.

The advertisement also suggested we go to their website and view our water quality report. Except that one needs to be a rocket scientist to read and understand it.

Here is what I have to say to my water company: Based on your claims, that the water delivered to my county residents may meet all drinking water standards, but that doesn’t mean it is safe and/or drinkable.

Many state officials, including New York, have suggested that the absence of strong guidelines from the EPA is at fault for the tainted water problems residents all over the country have recently uncovered.

And yet many of those residents had to aggressively push their local governments to look into the situation—instead of the other way around.

Our local government is responsible for managing and delivering a range of quality services to their communities, including drinkable water, correct?

The American water crisis is an example of government failure, unpreparedness, intransigence, inaction, delay, denial, and environmental injustice.

But never underestimate the power of citizen engagement and our ability to speak out and protest against government inaction.

Thankfully there are concerned Americans out there who are willing to question and challenge government leadership.

And thanks also to a free press, the watchdogs who uncover the injustices and shout them out to the masses.

As is the case with all other economic and social injustices, Shakespeare said it best: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

We Are All Flint Michigan

Laundry Room Sink A 2-19-16
The water in my laundry room sink on 2/19/16

For more information on the local Nassau County water, go to: https://blog.terischure.com/why-is-my-water-brown/

This blog post is going to be more like a slog post, but please bear with it because you will not believe our nation’s water situation.

Here is the million-dollar question: Do you know what’s in your tap water?

As you can see from the picture of my water last week, I certainly had no clue as to what was in my tap water. And after umpteen hours and days of research, I still don’t.

First things first, though. I would like to state a disclaimer right up front:

All data and information provided in this blog post are for informational purposes only. And since pouring through the various information on many governmental and water supplier websites was like trying to cure cancer, I make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information in this blog post and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.

Okay, now I’m ready to start at the very beginning.

Every year, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the legal basis for regulating public drinking water, requires all water suppliers to submit an annual report to every customer on contaminants in their drinking water (EPA 2006c).

But from my research, it doesn’t seem that these reports show us what’s really in our tap water. They don’t contain information on unregulated chemicals for which testing is not required by states or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and they provide only average levels of most contaminants.

So the water companies are able to tell their customers that they are delivering clean, high-quality drinking water, an incredible accomplishment considering the subpar quality of the water in many cases, including mine.

Yellow Bathroom Tub Cold Water 2-19-16

How is this possible?

Because the federal standards that the SDWA has set don’t necessarily guarantee your water is perfectly safe to drink.

According to what I was able to find on the EPA.gov website, over seven hundred substances have been cataloged as potential contaminants, yet under the 1974 SDWA, there are only 90 contaminants public water systems need to worry about, report, or test.

Additionally, since 2004, more than half of the chemicals detected through testing can legally be present in any amount because they are not subject to health or safety regulations.

More disturbing than the slim picking and choosing of contaminants—the Safe Drinking Water Act has a Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) of 100 chemicals and 12 microbial contaminants that are currently not subject to any drinking water regulations whatsoever but are known or anticipated to occur in public water systems. This list includes pesticides, disinfection byproducts, chemicals used in commerce, pharmaceuticals, and waterborne pathogens.

And get this one-liner pulled directly from the EPA.gov website:

“Once the CCL is published, the SDWA requires the EPA to determine whether or not to regulate at least five candidate contaminants from the list within five years after the completion of the previous round of regulatory determinations.”

Say that again? At least five in five years?

According to the advocacy organization Environmental Working Group’s website EWG.org, “The majority of current drinking water standards were set in 1991 and 1992 and our government hasn’t set a single new drinking water standard since 2001.”

Over the years, I have taken many photos of my discolored water and even called New York American Water to complain about and report the problem. Each and every time I called, I was reassured that my water was safe and that the discolored and sometimes foul-smelling water was temporary due to the flushing out of their pipes.

Except that my water can be brown or smell funky much more often than just when New York American Water flushed their system. And it wasn’t just the water. I have, on many occasions, been forced to throw out my ice because it looked completely fine, but the smell was so rancid that it stunk up my freezer.

And the water has wreaked havoc on my toilet bowls, discoloring them with stripes of dark brown, leaving me paranoid that my guests think that I don’t clean well.

For those of you who know me personally, it’s no secret that I am a manic germaphobe and a neat freak. So how did this horrendous water situation sneak past me?

When buying a refrigerator a few years ago, I made a point of staying away from any models with a water dispenser. After ditching my smelly refrigerator ice, I certainly wasn’t rushing to drink water from any fridge. Thanks but no thanks.

And I long ago stopped drinking my tap water. But let’s be real here. I shower and brush my teeth with it, bathe in it, use it for cooking and coffee, and wash my raw fruits and vegetables in it.

This water is in every pore of my body without ever having to drink a drop of it.

A month or so ago, the flow of my hot water seemed compromised and I noticed that when taking a shower, it was running cold very quickly. I also noticed a weird metal-like taste combined with a strong chlorine smell in the water and started to see dirt-like sediment sitting on the bottom of all of my toilet bowls.

Last week, my hot water became so brown and foul smelling that I made an emergency call to a plumber, who recommended that I empty out my water heater and flush my pipes—immediately.

“This is what you’ve been drinking,” the plumber repeated over and over again as he emptied the filthy, sludgy water out of my cold and hot water pipes.

Master Bathroom cold water 2-19-16

And he was adamant that everyone should flush out their systems once a year.

Who knew? When was the last time you emptied your hot water heater and flushed your pipes?

Once the plumber left, I went to the New York American Water website and eventually found two sentences buried in the Water Quality & Stewardship heading and then Iron in Your Drinking Water on a drop-down menu. “Flush your water heater on a regular basis. It is important to flush the heater on a regular basis according to the manufacturer’s recommendation.”

I then jumped right on my hot water heater company’s website to see if they had any manufacturer’s recommendations and found absolutely nothing.

Getting back to New York American’s website. There is a section on what they are doing to improve the water. Except that it’s dated 2013.

So does that mean they haven’t updated this section for 2+ years? As we saw from Flint, Michigan, a lot can happen in two years.

Now I consider myself to be an intelligent and healthy-minded woman. I am, however, appalled and embarrassed that I had absolutely no clue that I was supposed to flush anything but my toilets. But after witnessing the muck and gunk that oozed out of my faucets and water heater, I’m on official 12-month flushing notice. Make that a 6-month notice.

Plumber recommendation or not, I am honestly afraid to wait 12 months, despite the fact that according to New York American Water’s own claims on their website: “We hold ourselves to the highest standards in delivering clean, high-quality drinking water to the people we serve.”

American Water ad

Just as a reminder, take another look at my water.

Yellow Bathrrom A Cold Water 2-19-16

Additionally, New York American Water had this to say about their regulation compliance: “When it comes to complying with strict federal regulations, we’ve consistently scored among the highest of all water companies. Last year, New York American Water’s compliance record for meeting primary state and federal drinking water standards was 100 percent.”

New York American Water scores among the highest of all water companies? The sludge and filth in my photos surely tell an entirely different story.

After carefully scrutinizing the New York American Water website, I kept going back to my photos and videos and couldn’t help but wonder what score the federal regulators would give the dregs that spewed out of my pipes and hot water heater.

BathroomHot Water Faucet 2-19-16

I doubt they would give it a 100.

I also kept going back to Flint, Michigan. For nearly two years, the residents there have been slowly poisoned by lead in their drinking water. If our federal regulators dropped the water ball there, maybe they missed something in my little hamlet.

And if my photos are any indication of what my neighbors may have lurking in their pipes and hot water heaters (according to the plumber who flushed out my system, they all have what I have), I sincerely hope they are reading this blog.

I continued to do my due diligence and spent days researching various sites hoping for some shred of good news. But that wasn’t in the water cards. All I found were more and more alarming tidbits.

The bottom line is that sewer overflows and aging infrastructure are significant contributors to drinking water quality problems in our country. And our nation has failed to invest the funds needed to renew and replace our essential drinking water infrastructure. The result is an antiquated system that not only poses serious health and safety risks but is also prone to dangerous leaks and failures.

Ten long years ago, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave American drinking water infrastructure an overall grade of D-minus. According to the study, our declining water system, including aging wastewater facilities and leaking drinking water pipes, is a threat to the nation’s prosperity. The study went on to say that time was working against our country’s infrastructure and that it would cost untold billions of dollars to replace aging facilities that are near the end of their useful lives and to comply with existing and future federal water regulations.

And speaking of federal water regulations: From what I read, legal limits are established by the Safe Drinking Water Act, although a stricter health guideline for drinking water quality has been created by the World Health Organization. A least, I think it’s the WHO. It was near impossible to get a precise fix on who does what.

So in many cases, your water may contain contaminants below legal limits but above health guidelines. This part of my research was very clear.

Does my water look legal and/or healthy to you?

Glass of water 2-19-16

According to the Environment Working Group website, the water in my county from test data available from 2004-2008 was not as high-quality and clean as New York American Water would have me believe.

There were 16 contaminants in our water. The National contaminants average is 4.

And get this one:  All 16 contaminants exceeded the health limit.

And the dreaded Lead was one of those contaminants.

Of the 16 contaminants, 2 exceeded the legal limit:

Manganese (Industrial contaminant)

Aluminum (A metal released from metal refineries and mining operations)

Now if these contaminants exceeded the legal limit, they must be unhealthy, correct?

So, of course, I looked up Manganese and Aluminum in water and found this information on the CT.gov website about Manganese:

Manganese: Exposure to high concentrations of manganese over the course of years has been associated with toxicity to the nervous system, producing a syndrome that resembles Parkinsonism. In addition, young children appear to absorb more manganese than older age groups but excrete less. This adds up to a greater potential for exposure in the very young. Since manganese’s effects on the developing nervous system have not been adequately studied, it is especially prudent for pregnant women and young children to have drinking water that is below the manganese AL. You may suspect that manganese is in your water if the water is discolored (brownish-red), causes staining of plumbing fixtures (faucets, sinks) or clothing, or has an off-taste or odor. If this is the case, you should have your water tested by a state-certified laboratory for manganese. When you get the results, you should contact your local health department to help you interpret the results. There are no enforceable federal drinking water standards for manganese. The CT Department of Public Health recently set a drinking water Action Level (AL) for manganese of 0.5 mg/l to ensure protection against manganese toxicity. This AL is consistent with the World Health Organization guidance level for manganese in drinking water.

And I found this information about Aluminum on the Pure Water Products website:

Aluminum: At high concentrations, there is evidence linking aluminum to its effects on the nervous system, with possible connections to several diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Lou Gehrig’s disease. The American Water Works Association recommends that concentrations of aluminum in drinking water should not exceed 0.05 parts per million (0.05 ppm or mg/L). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends that the level not exceed 0.2 ppm.

Okay, so I’m no scientist, but according to the test data from 2004-2008, Manganese exceeded the legal limit by 50 ppb, whatever that means. And Aluminum exceeded the legal limit by 200 ppb. Can someone who knows the difference between ppm, ppb, and mg/l help me out here?

Oh, and let’s not forget about the additional 14 contaminants that exceeded the health limit:

Dibromochloromethane (A disinfection byproduct)

Bromoform (A disinfection byproduct)

Lead (A metal that enters the water by corrosion of household plumbing systems, discharge of industrial pollution, and erosion of natural deposits)

Bromodichloromethane (A disinfection byproduct)

Alpha particle activity (A form of radiation released from mining waste pollutants and natural sources)

Radium-228 (A radioactive element usually found around uranium deposits)

Tetrachloroethylene (A common soil and groundwater contaminant used in dry cleaning and as a solvent in automotive and metalworking factories and other industries.)

Trichloroethylene (Used to remove grease from fabricated metal parts and in the production of some textiles, and comes from metal degreasing sites, metal finishing, and rubber processing industries.)

Arsenic (Contaminates water due to mining runoff, erosion of natural deposits, emissions from glass and electronics processing, and the use of arsenical compounds such as wood preservatives and pesticides.)

Chloroform (A disinfection byproduct)

Total halo acetic acids (Refers to the sum of five related disinfection byproducts)

Total trihalomethanes (Constitutes the sum of four disinfection byproducts)

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (A pollutant from rubber and industrial chemical factories and leachate from PVC pipes; it is classified by EPA as a probable human carcinogen.) FYI: Leachate is water that has percolated through a solid and leached out.

Radium-226 (A radioactive element usually found around uranium deposits)

There were also 13 additional contaminants found in the water, but none of them exceeded the legal or health limits. I won’t bore you with the gory details.

So as far as I can tell, the above information is what’s lurking about in our Nassau County tap water.

As if this news wasn’t bad enough, I received a 2016 Spring Flushing pamphlet in the mail from New York American Water this week.

It seems they will be flushing North Woodmere (my hamlet) Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm from April 11 through April 21.

According to the New York American Water pamphlet, flushing their system helps to clean out any buildup of mineral deposits and sediment inside their pipes. They went on to say that discolored water may occur because the sediment in the water mains gets stirred up. They assured in the pamphlet that the discolored water is not harmful and we should simply let our water run until it is clear.

After writing this blog post, I am beyond pessimistic about anything I am told about my water.

And when New York American Water flushes their pipes for TEN days, I have to wonder what corrosion and other dangerous materials are being dislodged from their systems and flowing into mine.

Sorry New York American Water, but I am not reassured.

And lastly, here is what they said I need to do to prepare for the ten days of flushing in my area:

    • Draw water for cooking ahead of time. (For ten days?!)
    • Store a large bottle of water in the refrigerator for drinking. (Just one?)
    • Check for discolored water before using the washing machine or dishwasher. (Seriously?)
  • Note: If your laundry becomes stained, rewash clothes immediately using a heavy-duty detergent and add a rust remover. (I should wash my clothes with rust remover?)

So, after all of my encyclopedic writing and research, I have hundreds of questions, but I’ll only ask two for now:

1) Please tell me how New York American Water scores 100?

2) Where can I get water testing data for 2009-2015? (BTW, I have exhausted all efforts to try to find anything whatsoever on the EPA site for New York American Water.)

And last but not least, here is what the Environment Working Group’s website had to say about the SDWA and the EPA:

Compiling national tap water information and providing full access to the public should be a requirement for the EPA. More than a decade ago, the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 included such a requirement, but it still has not done so.

The federal government has a responsibility to do a national assessment of drinking water quality. It should establish new safety standards, set priorities for pollution prevention projects, and tell consumers about the full range of pollutants in our water.

The policy gaps that hamper source water protection and enforcement of drinking water quality need to be remedied with innovative legislation and regulatory leadership by the EPA in order to protect public health, especially the health of the developing fetus and child.

All Americans deserve access to clean and wholesome drinking water. It is essential to dedicate more funding for water infrastructure and source water protection programs and to make it a national priority to safeguard public health. So long as unregulated contaminants remain unregulated and unmonitored, the safety and reliability of tap water will remain at risk.

You only need to look at my photos to know that Flint, Michigan, might be the first crisis of its kind in recent memory, but it definitely won’t be the last.

For more information on the local Nassau County water, go to: https://blog.terischure.com/why-is-my-water-brown/

 

New York American Water 2-19-16

Climate Change: Red States vs. Blue States. Again.

tidal-wave-cropped

According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, 69 percent of U.S. adults consider global warming a “very serious” or a “somewhat serious” problem. So what do the other 31 percent think is happening out there?

According to the Pew Research, Democrats are the believers—Republicans are the naysayers.

The Pew data also revealed that Democratic men were less interested in fighting climate change than Democratic women.

Why is it that most of the non-believers are Republican leaning, men, whites, evangelicals, and people over 50? What do they know that the other 69 percent don’t?

Why don’t  more Americans care about climate change? There is significant research out there pointing to worldwide chaos, rising sea levels and the possible end of civilization, yet many refuse to believe.

And why does it always come down to Republicans vs. Democrats?

Democrats have tried to pass climate bills—which caused many Republican-leaning voters to become even more hostile to any new climate policies.

Let’s be honest about this: As long as the Republicans control Congress, do not expect any significant legislation to address the issue. Bottom line: The majority of Republicans in Congress deny the existence of manmade climate change and oppose regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It seems to me that congressional members pass more blame than bills these days.

A new report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which took 300 scientists several years to put together, alarmingly outlines the “severe, pervasive and irreversible” impact of increased global warming. And according to them, 100 percent of the global warming over the past 60 years is manmade or human-caused.

The report further states that increased ocean acidity will likely decimate coral reefs and leave endemic species vulnerable to extinction. As temperatures continue to rise, animals and plants will be increasingly forced inland toward more mountainous terrain and will tend to migrate toward the poles. Crop yields of corn, rice and wheat will fall by 25% by 2050, with the trend predicted to worsen thereafter. The drop off in fish catches will be even more precipitous with projections suggesting a 50% reduction in Antarctic and Tropical waters. The IPCC also cited that the hottest year on record was 2014.

Changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level, and the frequency and severity of extreme events will likely affect how much energy is produced, delivered, and consumed in the United States. And increases in temperature will likely change how much energy we consume, as well as our ability to produce electricity and deliver it reliably.

Climate change may well be the world’s biggest news story, and no one seems to care. I hope someone decides to care before our planet gets baked to a crisp.