The Science of Playing in the Rain
TTF has been working with BuildaBridge’s Artology program over the past few weeks, teaching students about watersheds and stormwater issues. By the looks of this video, it seems like they really get the message!
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Gasland
Last night, Ashley and I caught a screening of Gasland, a film that explores natural gas drilling and its effect on water quality, air quality and human and animal health. As we’ve written about before, natural gas drilling is done through a controversial process called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” — the Gasland website explains fracking here with a cool visual.
The film is thought-provoking and at times, quite disturbing. For example, some people who live near natural gas drilling sites are suddenly able to light their water on fire, straight from the tap. Nearby residents and pets are getting sick, losing their hair and losing weight. The chemicals used in the fracking process don’t have to be disclosed due to an exemption in the law — and this means that hundreds of unknown (and some well-known and proven unsafe!) chemicals end up in our waterways.
After the screening, filmmaker Josh Fox stayed for a Q-and-A session. In it, he noted that “the culture of convenience is leading us down this path.” It was heartbreaking to hear that we are sacrificing our water quality and air quality in large part to manufacture disposable plastic products.
You can find a screening of Gasland here or catch it on HBO and HBO On Demand. Fox told us there will be a theatrical release in the fall and a big screening in Philadelphia in late September. The DVD will be released in December, but you can watch the trailer here:
The Gasland website includes many ways to take action. The Delaware Valley River Basin Commission will be holding a public meeting regarding the Marcellus Shale next Wednesday, July 14, at 1:00 p.m. at the West Trenton Volunteer Fire Company in West Trenton, NJ. Many citizens will be there to call for a complete moratorium on natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Watershed. For more information, visit Delaware Riverkeeper.
Watch the Green City, Clean Waters Video!
Be sure to check out the video below, which explains the Philadelphia Water Department’s Green City, Clean Waters plan. The plan “envisions transforming the city into an oasis of rain gardens, green roofs, treescapes, and porous pavements, which advocates say is cheaper than tunnels and makes for a more liveable, prettier city with higher property values and better community health.” Watch out for TTF Executive Director Sarah RobbGrieco, who is featured in the film!
The Story of Bottled Water
We’ve been thinking a lot about bottled water lately. Sometimes, when we talk about the major problem with pollution in our streams and rivers, people think that means we shouldn’t drink local tap water. Instead, they think we should be importing bottled water from some supposedly pristine far-away place. As Ashley recently pointed out, this couldn’t be further from the truth. We need to be supporting our local municipal water systems who do a great job cleaning our water while we work towards cleaner local waterways. And we need to be reducing the amount of plastic waste that ends up forming islands of trash in our oceans.
Here is a great, eight-minute video that explains all of the problems with bottled water. Watch The Story of Bottled Water with Annie Leonard!
Watch Reverend Williams on NBC 10!
Longtime TTF partner and dear friend Reverend Chester Williams was recently featured on NBC 10 in recognition of all of his hard work in the community. Watch the video below — TTF staff members Ashley and Sarah make appearances in it as well!
Captain Charles Moore on The Late Show
Captain Charles Moore appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman earlier this week. Moore is the first person to document the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a gigantic gyre of marine litter that made up of 90% plastic waste. As Moore says, “Plastic is overtaking the natural world.”
Part 1:
Part 2:
Beth from Fake Plastic Fish has a great write-up of the segments, with some ideas about working towards a solution:
1) Commit to reduce our own plastic consumption as much as possible.
2) Talk to our family and friends about the problem and set an example that others can follow.
3) Support measures in our communities to ban plastic bags and other single-use packaging.
4) Support Extended Producer Responsibility legislation which would require manufacturers to provide for the entire life cycle of their products and remove the burden from communities and local governments. EPR laws in Europe have proven that when companies have to figure out how to recycle their stuff, they end up using fewer, less toxic materials in the first place.
This issue can seem depressing and overwhelming, but there are things we can do. What other steps can we take? We want to hear from you!
More Must-Read Water Articles from the New York Times
The New York Times has recently published some more truly fascinating articles in their “Toxic Waters” series. In “Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show,” Charles Duhigg explains how some water treatment systems have gotten away with illegal concentrations of harmful substances in drinking water. From the article:
More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.
That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.
Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials, including those at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has ultimate responsibility for enforcing standards.
In “Sewers at Capacity, Waste Poisons Waterways,” Duhigg explains the problem with combined sewer overflows, with a brief mention of how Philadelphia is addressing the problem through the Green City, Clean Waters program.
Duhigg explains the problem in a nutshell:
One goal of the Clean Water Act of 1972 was to upgrade the nation’s sewer systems, many of them built more than a century ago, to handle growing populations and increasing runoff of rainwater and waste. During the 1970s and 1980s, Congress distributed more than $60 billion to cities to make sure that what goes into toilets, industrial drains and street grates would not endanger human health.
But despite those upgrades, today, many sewer systems are still frequently overwhelmed, according to a New York Times analysis of environmental data. As a result, sewage — including human excrement and dangerous industrial chemicals — is spilling into waterways.
In the last three years alone, more than 9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage systems — including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency.
You can read all of the articles in the series here. Don’t forget to check out the accompanying videos as well!
Toxic Waters Journalist on Fresh Air
Today’s Fresh Air on National Public Radio features Charles Duhigg, a journalist working on the New York Times’ fascinating Toxic Waters series. In the interview, Duhigg notes that in some senses, the Times’ database of water polluters is more comprehensive than the EPA’s, because it includes raw data from all 50 states.
One of Duhigg’s recent articles explains that the EPA is vowing to work harder on enforcing water pollution laws. From the article:
The E.P.A. has come under scrutiny recently for not punishing tens of thousands of polluters over the last decade, and many of the lawmakers at the hearing on Thursday are longtime critics of the agency’s vigilance. In September, a New York Times investigation found that companies and other workplaces had violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times in the last five years, but fewer than 3 percent of polluters had ever been fined or otherwise punished.
On Fresh Air, Duhigg explains there are many reasons why the EPA hasn’t effectively enforced water polluters, including lack of interest from voters, limited funding, effective lobbying from polluters and loopholes in the law. Later in the interview, he explains some of the concerns we’ve talked about associated with natural gas drilling. He also reminds listeners that “water really is a local issue.”
You can listen to the interview indefinitely here and read the Toxic Waters series here. The next article in the series will be about an issue near and dear to our hearts: the combined sewer overflow problem in older American cities!
Howard Neukrug on Radio Times
Listen to Director of the Philadelphia Water Department’s Office of Watersheds (and TTF Board Member!) Howard Neukrug on today’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY Radio. The entire program is archived here. In the first hour of the program, Howard explains the combined sewer overflow problem in Philadelphia and how the Green City, Clean Waters initiative plans to address it.
Tapped
Check out the trailer for the new documentary, Tapped, which casts a critical eye on the bottled water industry. The film begins with this depressing statement:
By the year 2030, two-thirds of the world will be lacking access to clean drinking water. This is a problem every single person will be dealing with regardless of where they live in the world.
If that doesn’t shake you up, just watch the trailer below and see the images of the huge amounts of plastic floating in the ocean.
There are currently no screenings listed for Philadelphia, but we’ll keep checking back and let you know if we find any. We’re also working on hosting our own screening and discussion. For now, you can view more clips on the Tapped website and read Beth Terry’s great summary of the film at her blog, Fake Plastic Fish.
