Volunteers needed for rain monitoring network
THE TIMES NEWS
June 16, 2007
Whether you’re on a municipal water system or a private well, all your water comes from precipitation, which can be rain, snow, sleet or hail.
During the summer, with thunderstorms rolling through Carbon County, rainfall amounts vary widely from place to place. It’s important to know the rainfall amount differs not only in your backyard, but also at various locations throughout the county.
Carbon County is fortunate to have a network of dedicated volunteers who collect precipitation on a daily basis, but more volunteers are needed for better data.
This is a community project. Everyone can help young, old, and in-between. The only requirements are an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can effect and impact our lives.
The information collected allows county, state and federal agencies to make predictions of possible floods or droughts on a state and local level. It also is used by county Emergency Management Agency to determine forest fire danger, by local farmers and anyone who is impacted by precipitation.
There is a network of monitoring stations across Pennsylvania. They supply daily precipitation reports via the Internet to Penn State University’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. The program is called FROST and it is administered by the Pennsylvania State Climatologist.
FROST is part of a larger, national network called CoCoRaHS, which is an acronym for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network and is based at the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University.
CoCoRaHS is used by a wide variety of organizations and individuals. The National Weather Service, other meteorologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities (water supply, water conservation, storm water), insurance adjusters, USDA, engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor and recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community are just some examples of those who visit our Web site and use our data.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a major sponsor of CoCoRaHS.
It’s fun to know what happens in your own backyard, compare it to your neighbors, and fill in a piece of the weather puzzle that affects many across your area in one way or another.
The Carbon County Groundwater Guardians coordinate the network in Carbon County. However, it is a program in itself and you do not have to be a member of the Groundwater Guardians to participate.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, contact Frank, who is the Carbon County Coordinator for FROST.
Carbon County urges landowners to preserve land
Note: I’m publishing the entire article as it appeared in the Times News on June 7, 2007. Land preservation is vital to the future of Carbon County for many, many reasons. Please see Ten Things Wrong With Sprawl
Frank
Tax incentives under a new government law will end in six months
By AMY ZUBEKazubektnonline.com
Carbon County landowners have a new incentive to preserve their land federal income tax deductions.
During an informational workshop Wednesday evening, Attorney Michael Henry of Gross, McGinley, LaBarre and Eaton of Allentown and Diane Matthews-Gehringer, land preservation manager for Wildlands Conservancy, spoke to the county landowners in attendance about tax benefits the government has created for preserving Pennsylvania farm and woodlands. The new law, which went into effect in 2006, will expire at the end of 2007. Members of the Wildlands Conservancy urge landowners to consider utilizing this incentive that will end shortly.
Matthews-Gehringer explained that landowners have a variety of different options when deciding how to preserve their land. These include conservation easements, land donation, bargain sales or a combination of the above options.
If a landowner decides to enter into one of these agreements, a contract is drawn up with specifications that the landowner wants. The plans are flexible.
The property is then appraised twice, once to obtain the unrestricted value, and once to obtain the restricted, or “best other use” value of the property. The donation price is the difference of these two figures. For example, if a property is worth $400,000 unrestricted and $250,000 restricted, the total amount of the donation will be $150,000. This value is the amount landowners can use in the tax deductions.
Once properties are preserved, landowners can continue to work the land but have a few restrictions such as subdividing the property, which would be negotiated at the time of the donation.
Henry, who specializes in local, state and federal taxation, tax and estate planning and real estate law, also explained that under the new law created by the government for 2007 donations only, landowners who choose to participate in this program can deduct 50 percent, (and up to 100 percent for farmer or ranchers who have met the income requirements,) from their adjusted gross income on federal income tax forms. This applies to the year of the donation plus the next 15 years.
For example, he said if a landowner has a “$50,000 income and a donation of easement valued at $200,000,” non-farmers can deduct $25,000 a year for eight years. For farmers and ranchers, they can deduct $50,000 a year for four years or until they have met their deductions.
For more information on the Wildlands Conservancy or preserving your land, visit www.wildlandspa.org.
Disposal of unneeded prescription drugs
The common disposal practices used for unneeded drugs are throwing them into the garbage of flushing them down the drain. These practices can lead to abuse or water pollution.
Unused drugs thrown in the trash can be picked out and abused. Abuse of prescription drugs to get high has become increasingly prevalent among teens and young adults.
Flushing down the drain can pollute water because treatment plants are not designed to remove them.
While EPA continues to research the effects of pharmaceuticals in water sources, one thing is clear: improper drug disposal is a prescription for environmental and societal concern,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “Following these new guidelines will protect our Nation’s waterways and keep pharmaceuticals out of the hands of potential abusers.”
The new Federal prescription drug disposal guidelines urge Americans to:
* Take unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs out of their original containers.
* Mix the prescription drugs with an undesirable substance, like used coffee grounds or kitty litter, and put them in impermeable, non-descript containers, such as empty cans or sealable bags, further ensuring that the drugs are not diverted or accidentally ingested by children or pets.
* Throw these containers in the trash.
* Flush prescription drugs down the toilet only if the accompanying patient information specifically instructs it is safe to do so.
* Return unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs to pharmaceutical take-back locations that allow the public to bring unused drugs to a central location for safe disposal.
For more information, see Disposal of Prescription Drugs
Wildlands Conservancy to host tax workshop in Palmerton
Preserving open land is vital to rural communities that rely on groundwater. Excess development increases the demand for water and, at the same time, prevents recharge of the aquifers because of runoff caused by impervious surfaces.
Wildlands Conservancy will host a Tax Incentive Workshop at Palmerton’s Borough Hall, 443 Delaware Avenue, in Carbon County on Wednesday, June 6, 2007 from 7-9 p.m. Interested landowners are welcome to attend and receive the latest information on time-limited incentives available to landowners who preserve their property in 2007.
Speakers: The lead speaker at the workshop is Attorney Michael Henry of Gross, McGinley, and LaBarre and Eaton. Attorney Henry specializes in local, state and federal taxation, tax and estate planning, and real estate law. Diane Matthews-Gehringer, Land Preservation Manager for Wildlands Conservancy, will also speak to attendees about preservation options. The workshop is funded in part by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
In 2006, Congress added tax incentives for landowners choosing to permanently preserve their land. Among these changes are provisions raising the income tax deduction allowed a landowner for donating a conservation easement from 30% of their adjusted gross income in the year of the donation plus 5 more years, to 50% in the year of the donation plus 15 more years. It also allows qualifying farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to deduct up to 100% of their taxable income (e.g., pay no federal income tax) for the year of the donation plus 15 more years. These added incentives are available until the end of 2007.
Registration: To register for the workshop or for more information about the workshops of Wildlands Conservancy, please contact Debra Lermitte at (610) 965-4397, ext. 11.
Read full story HERE
Bald Eagle Recovery Tribute to Rachel Carson
The updated estimate is based on information gathered by the states in 2004 or later.
Minnesota tops the list with 1,312 pairs of eagles, followed by Florida with 1,133 pairs and Wisconsin with 1,065 pairs.
There are also eagles now breeding in the District of Columbia and the state of Vermont, which was the only state in the lower 48 which lacked eagles until the first eaglets hatched successfully in 2006.
The bald eagle, which is protected as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act, once was on the edge of extinction due to the widespread use of the pesticide DDT that thinned the shells of eagle eggs so they could not hatch.
For years after World War II, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, DDT, was used to control mosquitoes and agricultural pests. When it rained, the DDT would wash off the soil and into the waterways where it was absorbed by aquatic plants and animals. Fish ate the plants and animals, and eagles ate the fish.
When ingested, the chemical compound would build up in the fatty tissues of female eagles and prevent the formulation of calcium necessary to produce strong eggshells. Widespread reproductive failure and a steep decline in numbers followed.
Rachel Carson, a biologist and writer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, became aware of the dangers of chemical pesticides including DDT, but was also aware of the controversy within the agricultural community which needed pesticides to support crop production.
Carson made the decision to write her controversial book “Silent Spring” documenting the dangers of DDT after years of research across the United States and Europe.
As a result of her research and the publication of Silent Spring in 1962, the federal government banned the use of DDT in 1972.
May 27, 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of Carson’s birth. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says its proposed removal of the bald eagle from the federal list of threatened and endangered species is a fitting tribute.
In order to ensure the eagle will be protected upon delisting, the Service is working to finalize the definition of “disturb” and the bald eagle management guidelines under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
Under terms of a court settlement agreement, the Service is to make a decision on delisting the bald eagle by June 29, 2007.
Glug and Toss Water Bottles Clog Landfills
WASHINGTON, DC, May 14, 2007 (ENS) –
Environment News Service
Glug and Toss Water Bottles Clog Landfills
May 14, 2007
Bottled water is not only costly at the cash register, it is environmentally costly, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute.
Millions of tons of oil-derived plastics, mostly polyethylene terephthalate, PET, are used to make the water bottles, most of which are not recycled.
Each year, about two million tons of PET bottles end up in landfills in the United States, Worldwatch estimates. In 2005, the national recycling rate for PET was only 23.1 percent, far below the 39.7 percent rate achieved a decade earlier.
To add to the environmental bad news, excessive withdrawal of natural mineral or spring water to produce bottled water has threatened local streams and groundwater, and the product consumes significant amounts of energy in production and shipping.
“Bottled water may be an industry winner, but it’s an environmental loser,” says Ling Li, a fellow with the Institute’s China Program who authored the update to the annual Worldwatch Vital Signs report.
“The beverage industry benefits the most from our bottled water obsession,” said Li. “But this does nothing for the staggering number of the world’s poor who see safe drinking water as at best a luxury, and at worst, an unattainable goal.”
An estimated 35–50 percent of urban dwellers in Africa and Asia lack adequate access to safe potable water, according to Worldwatch’s State of the World 2007 report.
Bottled water can be between 240 and 10,000 times more expensive than tap water, Worldwatch says. In 2005, bottled water sales in the United States alone generated more than $10 billion in revenue.
Global consumption of bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005, making it the world’s fastest growing commercial beverage.
The United States remains the largest consumer of bottled water, but among the top 10 countries, India has nearly tripled its consumption, while China more than doubled its consumption between 2000 and 2005.
In the United States, regulations concerning bottled water are generally the same as for tap water, but are weaker for some microbial contaminants.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration permits bottled water to contain certain levels of fecal matter, whereas the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not allow any human waste in city tap water, the Worldwatch report points out.
Earth Day 2007: The Pill is Gone!
Environment News Service
Earth Day 2007: The Pill is Gone!
May 7, 2007
MARQUETTE, Michigan (ENS) — –> In an effort to protect drinking water and the Great Lakes, northern Michigan residents honored Earth Day by turning in tens of thousands of prescribed pills plus narcotics with an estimated street value of $500,000 during the third annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep.
The 2007 Pharmaceutical Clean Sweep targeted out-of-date and unwanted medications of all kinds, according to Carl Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed Partnership. More than a ton of pharmaceuticals and personal care products were turned in by the public.
About 2,000 people turned in items but the many had also collected pharmaceuticals from other family and friends, organizers said.
Since Earth Day 2005, the annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweeps have collected nearly 400 tons of hazardous waste for recycling or proper disposal. Federal officials say the projects have all set records for hazardous waste collections in the Great Lakes area, and are an important tool for protecting the environment.
The 2007 clean sweep went off without a hitch thanks to the U.P. chapter of the Michigan Pharmacists Association, and numerous law enforcement agencies including the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and Michigan Sheriff’s Association, organizers said.
Pharmacists and law enforcement officers were present at all collection sites to ensure security and proper collection of the pharmaceuticals, Lindquist said.
“This is what would have been a doctor’s traveling pharmacy,” said Marquette pharmacist Kent Jenema, showing a leather zippered case to an EPA observer. “This has a lot of old patent type medications from mostly natural sources that predates some of the pharmacy that we know today.”
The EPA and Lindquist said the clean sweep targeted medicines because trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are turning up in America’s rivers, lakes, and drinking water. Most treatment plants are not designed to filter out these medications.
When leftover and waste pharmaceuticals get flushed down drains, research is detecting them in lakes and rivers “at levels that could be causing harm to the environment and ecosystem,” said Elizabeth LaPlante, senior manager for the EPA Great Lakes National Programs Office in Chicago, Illinois.
“Specifically, reproductive and development problems in aquatic species, hormonal disruption and antibiotic resistance are some concerns associated with pharmaceuticals in our wastewater,” LaPlante said.
Lindquist said recent national studies show that over 80 percent of the rivers sampled “tested positive for a range of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, birth control hormones, antidepressants, veterinary drugs and other medications.”
The pharmaceuticals collected in Michigan will be taken to an EPA-licensed incinerator at Veolia Environmental Services near St. Louis, Missouri.
The third annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep was coordinated by the Superior Watershed Partnership and the Cedar Tree Institute, both Marquette environmental groups and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
The project involves the congregations of over 140 churches and temples representing nine faith communities – Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha’i, Jewish, and Zen Buddhist.
Reverend Jon Magnuson, Earth Keeper Initiative founder, said “one of the gifts that the faith community brings to the environmental movement is that the external damage done in the environment is a reflection of what is going on in the human condition, in the human heart – so as we heal and cleanse the Earth, we are also healing the human heart.”
Pesticides, Fertilizers Linked to U.S. Premature Births
http://earthhopenetwork.net/Pesticides_Fertilizers_Linked_US_Premature_Births.htm
Pesticides, Fertilizers Linked to U.S. Premature Births
ENS May 7, 2007
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana
The rising premature birth rate in the United States is associated with increased use of pesticides and fertilizers containing nitrates, according to research by a professor of clinical pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine.Paul Winchester, MD, reports his findings today at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in Toronto, Canada, a combined gathering of the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Ambulatory Pediatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. “A growing body of evidence suggests that the consequence of prenatal exposure to pesticides and nitrates as well as to other environmental contaminants is detrimental to many outcomes of pregnancy. As a neonatologist, I am seeing a growing number of birth defects, and preterm births, and I think we need to face up to environmental causes,” said Dr. Winchester.
Dr. Paul Winchester is a professor of clinical pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and medical director of Newborn Intensive Care Services at St. Francis Hospital, a community hospital in Indianapolis.
A premature baby is born before the 37th week of pregnancy. Premature birth occurs in between eight to 10 percent of all pregnancies in the United States.The rate of premature birth in the United States has risen about 30 percent between 1981, when the government began tracking premature births, and 2005, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The prematurity rate was 9.4 in 1981; it has increased every year since then except for slight dips in 1992 and 2000.
Winchester and his colleagues found that preterm birth rates peaked when pesticides and nitrates measurements in surface water were highest, from April through July, and were lowest when nitrates and pesticides were lowest, in August and September. More than 27 million U.S. live births were studied from 1996-2002. Preterm birth varied from a high of 12.03 percent in June to a low of 10.44 percent in September.
The highest rate of prematurity, 11.91 percent, occurred in May and June and the lowest, 10.79 percent in August and September. These results were independent of maternal age, race, education, marital status, alcohol or cigarette use, or whether the mother was an urban, suburban or rural resident.
Pesticide and nitrate levels in surface water were also highest in May-June and lowest in August and September, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Preterm births in the United States vary month to month in a recurrent and seasonal manner. Pesticides and nitrates similarly vary seasonally in surface water throughout the U.S. Nitrates and pesticides can disrupt endocrine hormones and nitric oxide pathways in the developing fetus,” Winchester said.
Prema
ture baby in an incubator, a controlled safe environment where it can grow until it is functioning independently.
Because they are born too early, premature babies weigh much less than full-term babies. They may have health problems because their organs did not have enough time to develop and need special medical care in a neonatal intensive care unit, where they stay until their organ systems can work on their own.”I believe this work may lay the foundation for some of the most important basic and clinical research, and public health initiatives of our time,” said James Lemons, MD, professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine.
Dr. Lemons is director of the section of neonatal-perinatal medicine at the IU School of Medicine and heads the Riley Hospital for Children of Clarian Health’s section of neonatal-perinatal medicine. “To recognize that what we put into our environment has potential pandemic effects on pregnancy outcome and possibly on child development is a momentous observation, which hopefully will help transform the way humanity cares for its world,” Lemons said. In young infants, ingestion of nitrates, components of fertilizers that are often washed into surface water and groundwater, can reduce the blood’s ability to carry oxygen.
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Today it is possible to minimize fertilizer applications. Mounted on a high-clearance sprayer, this crop canopy sensors monitor plant greenness, which is translated into a signal by an onboard computer that controls the application rate of nitrogen fertilizer to the soil.
The association between nitrate-contaminated well water and inability of the blood to carry oxygen was first described by Hunter Comly, an Iowa City physician during the early 1940s. In 1974, the Safe Drinking Water Act set a maximum contaminant concentration for nitrates of 10-milligram per liter for public water supplies, but it does not apply to private wells. In a 1994 survey of 5,500 private water supplies in nine Midwestern states, 13 percent of the wells were found to have nitrate concentrations greater than the standard. The state of Wisconsin is well aware of the problems nitrates in drinking water can cause for premature babies, especially in rural areas. In 2006, the state Department of Natural Resources, DNR, issued a warning that nitrates that are washed into groundwater from fertilizer can be dangerous to infants, and especially to premature infants. “All infants less than six months of age are at risk of nitrate toxicity, but premature babies and babies with other health problems are more sensitive than healthy infants,” the DNR said.
Well owners are advised that the only way to know if their drinking water contains nitrate is to have a water sample tested by a certified laboratory. Testing is recommended for well water used by pregnant women and is “essential for a well that serves infants under six months of age,” the DNR says. The state of Indiana Department of Natural Resources does not address this issue.
At the Yakima Agricultural Research Laboratory in Wapato, Washington, a technician applies a test pesticide to a rapeseed variety being grown for canola oil production.
For the past four years, Winchester and colleagues have focused attention on the outcomes of pregnancy in Indiana and the United States in relation to environmental pesticides and nitrates in surface and drinking water. Last year at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting, Dr. Winchester reported that birth defects peak in Indiana and in the United States as a whole during April through July, the same months as pesticides and nitrates reach their maximum concentrations in surface water. This year’s presentation expands upon that work. Collaborating with Dr. Winchester on this study were Akosua Boadiwaa Adu-Boahene and Sarah Kosten of the IU School of Medicine, Alex Williamson of the U.S. Geological Survey, and Ying Jun, PhD of the University of Cincinnati. The work was funded by the Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics of the IU School of Medicine.
Glyphosate Testing – RoundUp in Drinking Water
Get Your Drinking Water Tested – Well Water / City Water
New EPA Web Site Makes It Easier To Be Good Environmental Stewards
News for Release: Wednesday, May 2, 2007
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Contact: Dave Ryan, (202) 564-4355 / ryan.dave@epa.gov
(Washington, D.C. – May 2, 2007) The new EPA Web site on stewardship programs, launched today, can help business, government and private citizens make intelligent choices on sustainable environmental benefits. Simple everyday decisions by organizations and individuals on such issues as recycling, reuse or choice of fuel support pollution prevention and environmental stewardship.
The Web site will enable users to find EPA partnership programs, such as the Energy Star energy saving program, which best align with their needs and interests. Businesses can search for EPA programs based on their industrial category, environmental issue of interest, and geographic area. One specific Web site, for example, shows businesses how they can help employees reduce the environmental impacts of commuting.
The Web site also provides information links individuals can use to protect the environment in different settings, such as home, work, school and shopping. One Web site shows citizens how they can use pesticides safely.
For more information see Environmental Stewardship Web Site
Everybody Has Homework on Healthy Schools
New DVD and Other Resources Available to Help Parents, Communities Make the Grade
Children are considered by most health experts to be among the most vulnerable to environmental threats. National Healthy Schools Day is April 30 and on this day, EPA is reminding communities to get involved with their schools to ensure that their facilities are not putting children at risk.
To help with such efforts, EPA is releasing a new, free DVD, “What Your School or Child Care Facility Should Know About Lead in Drinking Water” and a new document, “Water Quality Funding Sources for Schools – A Resource for K-12 and Child Care Facilities.” These materials explain how schools and child care facilities can test for lead in drinking water; report results to parents, students, staff, and other interested parties; and fund actions to address environmental issues in their facilities.
EPA has also developed a wide range of programs and tools, such as the HealthySeat program, dedicated to preventing or resolving environmental issues in schools.
If you need more information on this subject, Contact: Enesta Jones, (202) 564-4355 / jones.enesta@epa.gov
More information on the drinking water resources: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/schools/guidance.html
More information on the Healthy Schools Web Portal: http://www.epa.gov/schools
News Brief
From: “U.S. EPA”
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:33:47 -0500 (CDT)