Toxic Town Pensacola

Living in the Pensacola area for school has put me at risk for many chemicals to get into my system and I didn’t know until now. One of the top polluters in Escambia County just happens to be the university’s nearby next door neighbor, Gulf Power Co., which by itself generates over 10 million pounds of environmental releases.

These are the top 10 polluters in Escambia County which together generates over 38 million pounds of environmental releases. Solutia Inc. of Cantonment, Gulf Power Co. Plant Crist of Pensacola, International Paper of Cantonment, Huntsman Petrochemical Corp. of Cantonment, Reichhold Inc. of Pensacola, Pall Membrane Tech. Center of Pensacola, Blazer Boats Inc. of Pensacola, Arizona Chemical Co. of Pensacola, Wayne Dalton Corp. Pensacola Div. of Pensacola and U.S. Navy Pensacola Naval Air Station of Pensacola.

These are the top 10 major chemical pollutants of Escambia County which together there are over 36 million pounds of in the county’s environment; nitrate compounds, hydrochloric acid, farmic acid, methanol, cyclohexanol, N-butyl alcohol, ammonia, sulfuric acid, manganese compounds and acetaldehyde.

Nitrate compounds, which is reported as having over 17 million pounds in the environment is a suspected cardiovascular or blood toxicant which may cause many cardiovascular diseases and may lead to death.

Comparing Pensacola to where I’m from, it is more polluted. I live in a little city in South Florida called Margate. The second biggest polluter in Broward County happens to be Sun Graphic Inc. which is located in Pompano Beach, a 15-minute commute from my house but I did happen to drive past it every day when I was in high school. There is a road in my county called Powerline Rd and it is where all the big industrial companies are located, for example marble and tile companies, waste management, and water treatment centers are all located on this road. My friends and I used to always say, “You know you’re in Pompano because you can smell it.”

Compared to Escambia County, Broward County only releases 787,332 pounds of chemical releases from their top 10 polluters and only 802,577 pounds of chemical releases from their top 10 chemical pollutants.

After reading Hulen’s story “Toxic Town,” I know that we are living in toxic town as well in Pensacola. Something has to be done. First, Pensacola’s water is rated the worst in the U.S., what will happen next? Just think about what we’re breathing in from the power plant right off campus.

The two photos were taken from the dock on the UWF campus. The smoke plumes from the Gulf Power Co. destroy the serene view of trees and clouds from the dock.

Water forum tells Pensacolians “water is safe”

Step foot into the Clyde H. Hagler auditorium on the Pensacola Junior College campus in Pensacola last Wednesday night, you would have walked into a line of professionals explaining about our drinking water. Opposite of the professionals were a mix of students and worried adults hoping for an answer.

Wednesday night at PJC, there was a water forum held hosted by Chasidy Hobbs, Emerald Coastkeeper. There were eight panelists present to talk about the water we drink daily and the Environmental Working Group study that placed Pensacola’s water from Emerald Coast Utilities Authority number 100 on a list of 100 municipalities across the nation, meaning Pensacola has the worst water in the nation according to the EWG study.

“This panel was designed to move past that study,” Hobbs said.

After introducing the rest of the panel, Hobbs passed the microphone to Dan O’Lone from the Environmental Protection Agency. It was his job to explain how the drinking water standards are set at a federal level.
He explained that every five years there is a contaminant candidate list published which includes contaminants that may require regulations.

“We are on CCL 3,” O’Lone said. “There are 116 contaminants on CCL 3.”

According to O’Lone’s powerpoint presentation, the EPA has to choose five of the contaminants from the CCL to be regulated but before they are chosen the EPA has to find that the contaminant has adverse health effects, it occurs frequently at a level of public health concern and the regulation of the contaminant will have health risks reduced.

The microphone was then passed along to John Pope, drinking water supervisor of the Department of Environmental Protection. He spoke about all of the water systems that are regulated in this area. There are 5,800 public water supply systems throughout the state of Florida with 432 of those located in the Panhandle from Pensacola in Escambia County to Tallahassee in Leon County.

“If a contaminant is found over a certain level, the public has a right to know,” Pope said. “We get our water from the sand and gravel aquifer that is recharged from rainfall. Every time it rains, it’s a good thing.”

The ECUA has done more tests on the water than any other utility company in the US. ECUA tested over 74,000 times throughout the four years worth of data the EWG published on their site. The average amount of testing according to EWG was 420 tests throughout the four years. There were 45 pollutants found in ECUA water with 21 of those exceeding health guidelines.

Water utilities nationwide detected more than 300 pollutants between 2004 and 2009. More than half of these chemicals are unregulated, legal in any amount, according to the EWG Web site.

“We don’t deny the data they used,” Bill Johnson of the ECUA said. “It is our data.”

He continued to persuade the audience that the water is safe.

“ECUA says your water is safe. ECUA’s water meets or exceeds all primary and secondary drinking water standards, and continues to be safe and of the highest quality,” Johnson said.

Enid Sisskin, a University of West Florida instructor, was brought in to tell about the health effects all of the pollutants can have on the people.

“We do not know what the health effects are of these contaminants,” Sisskin said. “Tetrachloroethylene is used for dry cleaning; in high concentrations it can cause dizziness.”

Tetracholoethylene is the most prevalent in ECUA’s water, along with Radium-226, Radium-228 and Trichloroethylene. Sisskin’s biggest point was that the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 needs to be reformed.

Carl Mohrherr, a UWF instructor, was brought on to talk about the aquifer where ECUA’s water comes from. He said that it is very easy for the sand and gravel aquifer to be polluted. All of the wells had nitrate and radium.
After all of the presentations the audience was able to ask questions and one concerned woman asked about the fluoride being put in the water.

“Remember don’t drink the water,” she said.

William Brown, an ECUA utility worker spoke up about the sludge found in the fire hydrants.

“I’m a Vietnam veteran and hate when people say we have clean water when we don’t,” Brown said. “Pure black crap comes out of the fire hydrants.”

Research Links

http://www.pnj.com/article/20100121/NEWS01/1210313/1006/news01/ECUA--Water-s-fine

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/v-print/story/1399440.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html

http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/pressrelease

The use of these four links as research for the panel discussion with the Emerald Coastkeeper will be able to keep me organized on what I want to actually write my article on. I plan on exploring how many tests were done on Pensacola's water compared to other communities around the US and how those numbers affected Pensacola's score on the list of best and worst water. Also there are many other chemicals that are in our water that are not regulated by the government and I would like to mention how these other chemicals can be regulated later on or even starting now. Lastly, all over the United States there have been issues on what is in our water. What's in our bottled water and what can actually be filtered out using a regular water filter at home?

SEJ article response

In the SEJ article entitled “Why the decline and rebirth of environmental journalism matters” it explains about the sudden decline of environmental journalists today.

Environmental journalists are a dying breed because there is not enough money to cover the climate and science issues that are being produced today. According to the article, the press would rather show and tell stories about crime instead of about environmental issues.

Many reporters today that worked on the environmental beat have all the same beliefs. They all believe that there should still be environmental journalists in the pressrooms.

“Heartbreaking” is the word Feanny used. “It frustrates me. At a time when, more than ever, the public needs science and environmental news to make informed decisions, the stories are not on the air.”

Environmental journalists becoming a dying breed have impacted the welfare and health of ordinary people by there not being many stories about the climate and weather on the air or in print. The ordinary people aren’t learning the important facts about the environment like they should be. They are instead being exposed to crime and “exciting” stories.

According to the article, “beyond the loss of reporters on the beat, coverage of climate change is a low priority for many news organizations.”

The article also believes that the future of environmental journalists will continue to decline until something major happens but hopefully this will change in time.

“Former CNN producer Camille Feanny believes new journalism ventures and social media are crucial, both for coverage of environmental issues and for the journalists who cover them” according to the article.