Nature on human beings

After reading the two essays in Listening to Earth, I see that every person has a different view of how nature is connected to them. Edward Abbey was writer of the essay “The First Morning,” which I found to be very interesting. It was very descriptive of the sunrise he was waiting to see and how close to nature he was as he was sleeping. He lived out in nature in a tiny housetrailer. I loved how he started the essay by saying, “This is the most beautiful place on Earth.” I believe that was my favorite line from the whole essay. His view on nature with human beings was very close, he described all of the animals that he lived so close with including the mice and rabbits.

The second essay “Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination” written by Leslie Marmon Silko was a bore. It was very hard for me to even keep my eyes open to read it. I felt like I was reading a history lesson and I didn’t like it at all. The way she was describing the life of the Pueblo people was showing that they are extremely close to nature, so close that they “become dust.” She was describing how everything in nature is connected to each other and to Mother Earth and everything becomes dust in the end.

My views on how nature is connected to human beings are not as complex. I believe that everything is connected but I won’t go as far as saying that we become the dust flying around. I don’t think we are as connected to nature as much as the pueblo people. We may be connected to nature more closely to Abbey’s version. I would love to be around animals, living on a nature preserve now on the college campus I get the chance to see animals I would never see back at home. I get to see armadillos on an almost nightly affair; I had never seen an armadillo until I moved to the University of West Florida. I see plenty of squirrels back home and I’d see the occasional raccoon if they ventured out of the forest a couple of blocks from my house.

But every person definitely has a different view on how nature is connected to human beings.

Sunshine Law Survey

My assignment was to go to the Pensacola Police Department and ask for the daily cop log for any day and then after reading through the cop log, pick out five incidents and get the details for them.
My roommate drove me over to the police department after Festival on the Greens finished for the day, so I had an equality heart on my face from the Gay-Straight Alliance booth and "amor" written on my arm from the To Write Love On Her Arms booth as I walked into the building.
I was shocked to see so much glass blocking me off from the officers, I guess it's for their protection. The officer behind the desk asks what I need and I asked him who would I need to talk to, to get the daily cop log? He asked me what I meant by a cop log so I just explained it and he told me that I would have to go to another office that is only opened Mondays-Thursdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. I thought I wouldn't be able to get anything because it was a Friday afternoon. I was about to leave with nothing but then there was another person behind the desk messing with lots of paperwork and said to the officer, "I think this is what she's looking for." The officer asked me what day did I want and I told him Wednesday. He also asked why I needed it but when I went back and said do I really need a reason he didn't push it and he willingly copied the sheet for Wednesday and handed it to me. I of course couldn't get all of the full details because I would need to come back to the office that was closed at the time.
I believe he complied with me completely. I especially didn't think he was going to make a copy of the paper for me and just hand it to me. I was really expecting him to ask me more questions but he simply gave me the paper and I left. He did have a confused expression on his face the whole time probably because of the heart on my cheek.

*By the way, I'm not naked in my photo, I promise.

Sea Grass is Dying

Sea grass is a dying ocean organism. Today there is an organization that is trying to fix the decline in the Pensacola area.

Shelley Alexander from the Northwest Florida Aquatic Preserve Office came to speak about the decline of sea grass and its importance on March 17.

“It takes 20 or more years for sea grass to grow back,” Alexander said.

The decline of sea grass has progressively been getting worse since the ‘50s. This was because of the large industrial point sources.

The Northwest Florida Aquatic Preserve Office has been taking action towards the decline and has enforced a new law into the Florida statutes.

“All those years, from 1950 to 2010, we just now got regulations,” Alexander said.

There are signs located around the Gulfbreeze peninsula stating, “destruction of sea grass in Aquatic Preserves is a violation of Florida law (section 253.04(4a)F.S.) and carries a penalty of up to $1,000.”

The main causes of the decline in sea grass is overfishing and the boats going through lower water level areas and pulling at the sea grass.

“Pensacola Bay has lost all of its sea grass,” Alexander said. “The Gulfbreeze peninsula is where all of the sea grass is now in salt water.”

Some people may be thinking, what is the importance of sea grass. Sea grass acts as a habitat for many smaller fish.

“Sea grass habitat is very important for shellfish,” Alexander said. "Major oyster harvesting going on in the turn of the century also led in the decline.”

Sea grasses can be destroyed by boats just “plowing” out quickly through lower water level areas.

“Instead of plowing out of there real fast, tilt your engine up,” Alexander said.

She said there are many things that regular people can do besides being careful with their boats.

“When they’re snorkeling, people think sea grass is boring or not as cool as coral, we don’t have coral reefs but we have sea grass,” Alexander said. “The best thing you can do is pass this information along.”

NFAPO is working with the Emerald Coastkeeper group replanting sea grasses and enforcing the laws in the preserve areas.

March 27 is Seagrass Awareness day. For more information on sea grass issues visit NFAPO’s web site at http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/yellow.

Sea grass preparedness

Questions:
1. What do you hope for the future of the water bodies in Escambia county?
2. How are you working towards cleaning the water?
3. Explain your job.
4. What have you noticed with the sea grass decline?
5. How much sea grass is actually out there right now compared to years ago?
6. What is your organization doing about the sea grass decline?

In the 1999 air and water quality grand jury report it was shown that Pensacola Bay’s water isn’t as bad as Perdido Bay’s water but the water still isn’t the best. According to the report, paper mill sludge, butchered animal carcasses, trash, road fill, household garbage, and runoff from farms and dirt roads were found in area water bodies. All of this trash has affected the habitats of many fishes and sea grasses. The sea grasses need the water to be cleaner to survive and throughout the years the water has just gotten worse, not better.

FPL makes change throughout the years for less pollution

In downtown Ft. Lauderdale there’s a power plant where most of Broward County residents get their electricity from, but these consumers don’t know what else they’re getting.

Florida Power and Light Port Everglades Power Plant spews out over 100,000 pounds of emissions into the air a year, according to Toxic Release Inventory reports of 2008 filed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents shouldn’t fear though because in the past 10 years the emissions have dropped fourfold. Back in 1998, FPL was emitting 433,000 pounds of chemicals such as hydrochloric acid which is a suspected immunotoxicant, sulfuric acid which is a suspected respiratory toxicant and nickel compounds which is a known carcinogen which can cause cancer later in life, according to www.scorecard.org.

Between 1998 and today FPL decided to clean up their act and produce less emissions.

“We added in electrostatic precipitators which keep the smoke from the smokestacks cleaner,” Idayna Stokes, FPL public contact said.

Today FPL emits a total of 105,039 pounds of sulfuric acid and lead into the air while 2,561 pounds of lead and polycyclic aromatic compounds are taken off-site to landfills in the area.

Lead, which is a known cancer causing agent, is mostly transferred off-site to Central Sanitary landfill of Waste Management in Pompano Beach. Of the 2,632 pounds of lead emitted from FPL, only 113 pounds is actually emitted into the air a year. And every year, less chemical emissions are going into the air because of the new technology that FPL is incorporating.

The biggest pollutant from FPL is sulfuric acid which emits over 104,000 pounds into the air and none of it is taken off-site. All of the sulfuric acid goes straight into the air. Sulfuric acid may not be a known cancer causing agent but it is suspected to “cause adverse effects on the muscles, bones, and joints” according to www.scorecard.org, it may also be a respiratory toxicant and skin or sense organ toxicant.

The last most emitted chemical is polycyclic aromatic compounds or PACs. A little over one pound is emitted into the air a year while the other 42 pounds are transferred off-site to Atlantic Industrial Services in Pompano Beach. PACs is suspected of being a cancer causing agent along with cardiovascular or blood toxicant, gastrointestinal or liver toxicant, reproductive toxicant, respiratory toxicant and skin or sense organ intoxicant, according to www.scorecard.org.

“PACs are from the oil,” Stokes said.

FPL is one of the biggest electric companies in the state of Florida with 13 power plants spread across the state from Miami-Dade to St. John’s. FPL Port Everglades power plant is just one of the many and uses natural gas and oil as its fuel to create electricity.

The Port Everglades plant produces 1,205 megawatts of power from the total of 24,997 megawatts of power produced by all 13 power plants.

FPL employs over 15,000 in 27 states and Canada and had revenues of over $16 million. For more information on the company visit www.fpl.com or www.fplgroup.com.

The power plant is located at 8100 Eisenhower Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316.


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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.”