Intersex Fish Are Not Sexy!

Did you know that sewage treatment plants can not filter out all pharmaceuticals, and discharge hormones, antibiotics and other similar substances into our waterways?  Not a pleasant thought about what goes into the very water we swim in, fish in, or in some watersheds actually drink from!

Until recently, consumers have been told to flush unwanted drugs. With technological advances and research, low levels of drugs are being found in our surface waters. Recent research by the U.S. Geological Survey now confirms that some drugs pass largely unaltered through our sewage treatment plants and enter our Bays and other waters.

Recent research has also shown that continuous exposure to low levels of medications has altered the behavior and physiology of fish and aquatic life. Male fish and crabs are being found with eggs or female organs, most likely caused by long term exposure to hormones and other endocrine disruptors. This phenomena is called 'intersex' and is becoming more common in rivers like the Potomac with its large urban sewage treatment plants, but intersex fish have also been found in Delaware ponds and lakes on the Delmarva Peninsula.

The preferred method for disposal of unused medications is incineration. While we obviously can't stop the introduction of some pharmaceuticals into our wastewater because of normal bodily functions, we CAN control what happens to medications that are not consumed!

That is why the Assateague Coastal Trust and it's COASTKEEPER program advocate for the safe disposal of unused and expired medications.  Our motto is:  "Don't Flush!  Hold It!" Dispose of them properly so our fish don't become confused about their sexuality.

In partnership with the Worcester County Sheriffs Department, Worcester County Health Dept and the Police Departments of Berlin and Ocean City, ACT co-hosted the 3rd Annual Fall Operation Medicine Drop event on Saturday, Oct 26, 2013.  While the daily total of medications turned in on Saturday was below average, everyone agrees this is the result of the two new permanent drop boxes in Ocean City and Ocean Pines actively being used by local citizens all year around.

As of July 2013, over 460 pounds of unused or expired medications had been turned in through the permanent drop boxes and during the spring 2013 Operation Medicine Drop event.   We fully expect by the end of 2013 Worcester County will have far exceeded the 524 pounds of medications collected in 2012.   This is a huge victory for clean, ‘fishable,’ waterways in the Coastal Bays watershed!  

#swimdrinkfish 

Permanent Drop Boxes in Worcester County, MD are located at:
     Ocean City Police Department, 65th St. Ocean City
     Ocean Pines Police Department, White Horse Park, Ocean Pines 

Taking Care of Nature

On January 24 in Annapolis Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, with the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network, addressed the 400+ people attending the 2012 Environmental Legislative Summit with the following remarks.  She was sitting to my left and I watched her tweak her notes a few times, but I wasn't aware she was a speaker for the event.   After she spoke, I thanked her for her truly inspiring words.  And now I have the opportunity to share her words with you.  Enjoy, and carry her thoughts with you going forward.

Environment Summit - 2012

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin

January 24, 2012

We live in the midst of a 4-billion year old mystery, an on-going miracle that we call Earth.  For all we know, no such miracle exists anywhere else.  Whatever we may be skilled enough to find out there, there is likely not to be another Planet Earth, or another you, or another me, or another Bay or the parade of moonrises and sunsets, or the cascade of creatures that have filled our air and seas and land and made our world what it is today.

We are the chosen ones, blessed with being alive at this awesomely rich and perilous time. We didn’t ask for this moment, we didn’t create it, we did not earn it, and we don’t even understand it.

What we do understand, however, is that something very dangerous – even wicked - is happening out there – and we are doing our share to cause it.

But the good news is, we can do our share to stop it.

We are Earth’s most aware beneficiaries and its most powerful stewards.

We are not its masters, we are not its owners. We are its tenders. We are called upon to use it, take care of it, and give it – healthy and robust - to our children, just as our ancestors gave it to us.

Thomas Berry, the Catholic theologian – taught that each generation has a Great Work. It is a work that we do not choose, but that we are dealt by the hand of history. It is a work that drives our ultimate purpose and inspires our days, a work that all future generations will judge us by, a work that is bound to “the larger destinies of the universe.”

Our generation’s Great Work is to learn to thrive within life’s sustaining cycles. Our Great Work is to build a world that is resilient, ever new and ever fresh to each generation, that matches our desires and consumption, our use and our waste, our progress and our joys, to the untransgressible bounds of nature. 

We must do this and we can do this, for we are not alone.

It is crowded in here.

It is crowded with your passion and persistence, your hard work and hopes, your wisdom and commitment.

And it is crowded with the concern and confusion, the hunger and the worry, the needs and prayers of hundreds more, thousands more, millions more who have never heard of you, but who depend upon you, and who need you to pursue this sacred work.

For all of us work on behalf of everyone who takes a breath of air, who wants a sip of clean water, who works to put food on their table, who takes refuge from the cold, seeks a good day’s work today and tomorrow, anyone who relies upon this awesome, giving world for their manifold, mundane needs.  And that is everyone.

The names we use to describe our work might be throwing people off. It seems to me that Senator Carter Conway’s and Delegate McIntosh’s committees might need to be renamed:

Perhaps something like the:  Education, Health and Environment, Economy, Jobs, Energy, Equity, Life’s Well-being, Earth Stewardship and Children of Tomorrow Committees.

The world of tomorrow will not be the world of yesterday. It will take more than science and knowledge, more than money and regulations to get us from here to there. It will take our trust, it will take our will, and it will take our faith.

We are not engaged in an us-vs-them agenda.  It is not about jobs vs the environment; enviros vs progress, government vs the people. 

Our task can be stated simply:

It is about us taking care of nature so nature can take care of us.

There is a great future waiting for us; we must find the way, and we must all get there together.

That is our Great Work.

That is our sacred work.

And that is why you are here.

Thank you!

You can follow her Blog in the Baltimore Jewish Times

New Year Resolutions

The Progger is back.   2011 was a lost year for my blogging efforts.  With so much activity on our Clean Water Act citizen lawsuit against Perdue, I was advised to keep a low profile and so I did.

But this is a new year, and as it is the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act!  I am making a 2012 New Year Resolution to keep this blog active and get back to the business of progging about and exposing the good and the bad of my watershed.

This past fall the Coastkeeper was 'shadowed' for a week by a photo journalism student, resulting in a senior project titled "A Day In The Life Of The Assateague Coastkeeper."  Meaghan Morgan-Puglisi, of Bennington College in Vermont, contacted me last July.  She's a Maryland resident with a love of Assateague Island and the Coastal Bays.  Sitting in my office today, I realize it won't be long until it's time to put the boat back in the water.   Here's a few of her images from last August.

Here's to a new year working towards clean water that is swimmable, fishable and drinkable!  Happy Birthday Clean Water Act.

Watch the new CWA40 Waterkeeper Alliance PSA here!

It IS The Economy, Stupid.

The Coastkeeper has been negligent for months and has ignored her blog.  Not the best way to keep my followers following.   Please accept apologies.

The 2011 Maryland General Assembly began it's session shortly after the new year.  I had intended to post updates, news, information about all the exciting environmental bills that were introduced this year, keeping you informed and asking for help with letters/emails/phone calls when needed.

But this year's Session turned into a real slogfest (is that word?) and it was all I could do to take care of matters from my desk and in Annapolis, leaving little time to even try and create a blog posting or two.  Hopefully most of you caught my cries for help on the Coastkeeper Facebook page and I thank all who did write letters, make phone calls or sent emails to their legislators when I asked.

2011 will go down as one of the worst legislative sessions for the environment in history.  Our legislators, who all ran on a 'green' platform promising to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and our other waterways,  caved to industry lobbyists on every important environmental bill.

~Despite all the testimony, facts and an incredibly successful campaign in Washington, DC our lawmakers decided it was ok to keep all those plastic bags flying around our roadsides, forests and in our waterways in Maryland because the plastics industry cried 'foul.'

~Despite peer reviewed studies, facts and analysis presented by scientists and researchers who were experts, but apparantly were NOT highly paid Industry witnesses, our legislators decided it was ok for the chicken produced in Maryland to have arsenic in it when the chemical companies cried 'fowl.'

~And with incredible lack of long term vision, our legislators decided it was ok to burn trash as a 'renewable' resource but offshore wind was going to have to wait.

~State funding to preserve agricultural land was deeply slashed, in a wonderful little bit of budget trickery in which millions of  tax dollars that were paid into a dedicated fund for land preservation were robbed because a loophole allows the State to transfer the money at will into the General Fund in order to 'balance' the budget.

~One bright spot, of sorts, was the passage of a watered down (sorry, pun intended) fertilizer bill that is a good start at reducing phosphorus loads to our waterways.

And while most of the hand wringing and furrowing of eyebrows in the General Assembly these past two months was because all these decisions were made in the 'best interest of the economic situation in Maryland' or because it was feared there would be 'impacts to jobs' in the State, any bill that smacked of regulation was passed down to Committees like a hot potato to be killed by inaction. (Sparing our legislators having to get involved in messy stuff like debate and voting.)

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently published Briefing Paper #305, written by Isaac Shapiro and John Irons, titled: 'Regulation, Employment and the Economy - Fears of job loss are overblown.'

Shapiro and Irons state in the opening Executive Summary of the report,  'In the first months since the new Congress convened, the House has held dozens of hearings designed to elicit criticisms of regulations, introduced legislation that would dramatically alter the regulatory process by requiring congressional approval of all major regulations, and passed a spending bill that would slash the funding levels of regulatory agencies and restrict their ability to enact rules covering areas such as greenhouse gas emissions.'

They further noted, 'In support of each of these steps, opponents of regulation argue that agency rules are damaging to the economy in general and job generation in particular. Some say specific regulations will destroy millions of jobs and cite a study (critiqued later in this paper) purporting to show that regulations cost $1.75 trillion per year. Regulations are frequently discussed only in the context of their threat to job creation, while their role in protecting lives, public health, and the environment is ignored.'

They stated,  'Well-designed and strongly enforced regulations are often necessary for the economy to operate effectively, a proposition supported by the history of regulation.....' and pointed out how lax regulations have resulted in such economic disasters as our recent financial market meltdown, major food poisoning outbreaks, and the mother of all environmental and economic crisis - the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The report is not very long and very worth the read.

But let's bring this back to Maryland's 2011 Legislative Session.  Taking a lead from their Federal counterparts, environmental regulations or programs at the State level were labeled as a threat to the economy and a job killer.  It has long been a favorite activity in Annapolis to plunder funding sources for the Maryland Department of Environment or attempt to take regulatory oversight away from MDE and place the control in another agency that has no enforcement authority.

So this leads me to a final question - how often do you follow what is happening in Annapolis during the legislative sessions each year?  Do you know who your District Delegates and Senators are?  Do you ever write to them, or call them, or better yet pay a visit to them in Annapolis?   The second most important thing to an elected official is YOUR VOTE (the first most important thing is the industry that contributes the most to their campaigns and the lobbyist representing that industry.)  If your elected officials are hearing from industry lobbyists on a daily basis, who will continue to foster this myth that regulation results in job loss, it just might be a good idea for greater numbers of ordinary citizens to make their voices heard during the sessions.

Our great natural resources-water, forests, wetlands and the air we breath do not have a voice.  They don't have a highly paid lobbyist.  They can't vote.  You must be their voice and speak out,  not only by paying an annual membership to your environmental group of choice or showing up at the polls, but by making your voice heard in person with some face to face time with your elected officials.  Make yourself heard!

Season's Greetings - Ask Santa for More Fleece!

Have you missed The Progger?  My apologies, I did indeed fall off the grid this past fall, but hopefully I'll be back on a more regular basis in 2011.

A few things to end out 2010.....first, a greeting card from all of us at Assateague Coastal Trust:

Next - has it been cold enough for you this December?   Well, here are some interesting blog postings from others that I think are worthy of re-posting for your reading pleasure.   Next time you're putting up with someone who pooh-poohs 'global warming' or 'climate change' just pass these along.

FROM MIKE TIDWELL, OF CHESAPEAKE CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK:
All,
See below some helpful blog posts explaining the recent cold weather in North America and Europe in the context of global warming. Turns out, the vanishing Arctic ice is creating a phenomenon similar to a refrigerator door being left open. The cold air is filling up the whole room but the refrigerator itself is being emptied of its vital coldness. The process is utterly unsustainable and leading to disruption and loss for the whole house.
Mike Tidwell
Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
------------------------------------------------

From Eric Haxthausen of the Nature Conservancy:
The cold weather we have been experiencing on the East Coast is likely to sow further confusion in the minds of some Americans about whether the Earth is truly warming. I put together the blog post below to highlight some of the recent science about this, and thought it may be of interest. -Eric

http://change.nature.org/2010/12/15/with-all-this-global-warming-why-is-it-so-cold/

Well, this is why we now use the term climate  change
http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/


Jeff Masters at the Weather Underground has a good post on what is happening with our weather that is making it so cold
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1710&tstamp=&page=1

And  there is a good graphic at NOAA website that explains it.
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/future/index_impacts.html


The explanation that is gaining currency among climate scientists is that low levels of Arctic sea ice during the summer are causing more heat to be absorbed in the Arctic during the fall, and changing atmospheric circulation patterns, driving cold Arctic air into Europe and the Eastern United States and funneling warm air up into the Arctic regions.

*This warm Arctic-cold continents pattern is likened to leaving the refrigerator door open. The room gets colder but the fridge warms up. *

This new pattern is very different from the one we are accustomed to. Case in point: the atmospheric circulation around the North pole actually reversed for a period of time last winter.
It also has the unfortunate byproduct that it generates a feedback loop that will tend to speed up warming, as it reinforces an atmospheric circulation that drives more warm air into the Arctic, melts more ice, allows darker land and water to absorb more sunlight, further warms the atmosphere in the Arctic, and thereby reinforces the new atmospheric circulation pattern.

So last night we had the unusual effect that the capital of Florida (Tallahassee) was colder (21° F this morning) than the capital of Greenland (with a low of 34° in the capital city Nuuk) or Iceland (43° in Reykjavik).

And as the globe continues to warm, we in DC and our counterparts in London might just need to get used to frigid winters.


*Eric Haxthausen is director of U.S. Climate Policy for The Nature Conservancy.*

MRS. CLEAN GETS RID OF DIRT AND CRIME

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS CONTACT: COASTKEEPER, BERLIN MD

ASSATEAGUE COASTKEEPER LAUNCHES AGGRESSIVE BAY CLEAN UP EFFORT

Ocean City, Maryland (EPI)- Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips, responding to criticism that she should, "stop suing people and just clean up the water," has announced an aggressive new campaign of water cleanup.


Noting the continued problems of agricultural, residential and industrial runoff, Phillips commented that, "It really is time someone rolled up their sleeves and cleaned up this filthy, filthy mess." Initially the cleanup will begin with the coastal bays surrounding Assateague Island, "They're the most accessible, I can wade right out and scrub away."

The cleanup campaign is not without its problems, however, with Phillips noting that, "This whole tide thing has me absolutely flummoxed. I no sooner scrub a section of the bay than it drifts off one way or the other and I can't really tell where I left off."

No matter, Phillips is known for her determination, adding, "If I can be accused of singlehandedly destroying the agriculture industry on the Eastern shore, this job should be a cakewalk."

#####

(Photos courtesy of Environmental Press International)

Jaws

The Natural Resources Defense Council released their 2010 "Testing The Waters" swimming beach water quality report yesterday, July 28, and that got me thinking about our Coastal Bays. NRDC's 'Testing the Waters' annual report is based on water quality data reported by municipalities and counties throughout the country, data that is required to be reported by the EPA for any entity that receives federal funding through the 'Clean Beaches Act' to be used for water quality monitoring.
Ocean City, which received a four star rating (out of a possible 5 stars) from the NRDC has a unique situation regarding its swimming beaches and the quality of the water its visitors swim in.

In California, New York, and indeed many Maryland swimming areas, stormwater runoff drains to pipes that empty into the same water body people are swimming in. After a rainfall, a lot of those swimming areas are closed because of high bacteria levels.

Ocean City, on the other hand, dumps all of its stormwater runoff straight into the bays, so its oceanfront beaches remain protected.

No wonder, year after year, Ocean City gets to claim it has the cleanest beaches in Maryland. Yet thousands of visitors to Ocean City and Worcester County also swim, fish and recreate in the water of the bays and creeks behind Ocean City, without knowing what the quality of the water is from week to week.


Remember the movie "Jaws?" The movie was set in Amity - A town so dependent on tourism the town fathers decided it was ok to let the big white shark pluck a few juicy tourists off their inflatable mats from time to time rather than announce the problem and shut the beach down.

So how would you feel if you knew the beach towns all over the country were doing the same thing? OK, so it's not sharks and the danger may be more related to skin rashes and ear infections, but the fact still remains that _______________(insert the name of your local beach here) doesn't want anyone to know that the water might contain any type of hazard.

When I announced the Assateague Coastkeeper's "Swimmable Bays" program for the summer of 2010 you would have thought I was standing on the bridge screaming "Sharks!" at every passing car. No one actually wanted to know just how swimmable the waters of our Coastal Bays are. In fact, one business owner actually said, "Don't test the water near me, you'll put me out of business."

Worcester County regularly monitors the swimming pier at Public Landing for bacteria levels. Bacteria levels in 2006 exceeded EPA swimming beach standards so many times, Worcester County made the Natural Resources Defense Council's "Testing the Waters" list of worst swimming areas in the State of Maryland.

The county had known there was a problem in the water at Public Landing for years. Besides a small community of homes on aging septic systems with non-existent nutrient reduction technology, the worst offender seemed to be the large paved parking lot, that attracted seagulls and dogs, drained all rainwater runoff directly into Chincoteague Bay right next to the pier.

The county had been sitting on plans (and funding) to retrofit the parking lot storm drains with filters and install a vegetative buffer between the lot and the bay, but had relegated the work to the bottom of the to-do list. With pressure from the Coastkeeper and the funder after the release of the NRDC 2007 report the work was finally completed in 2008 and current testing by the county shows a marked reduction in unsafe bacteria levels in 2009.

State regulations only require Worcester County to monitor bacteria levels at 'public swimming beaches' and in the entire Coastal Bays watershed, only the pier at Public Landing is considered a 'public swimming beach.' In 2009 the County also began to monitor the water in Sinepuxent Bay adjacent to The Castaways Campground. Ocean City monitors the ocean swimming waters along their shoreline, and the State Park and National Park Service monitors their oceanfront shorelines.

Yet every summer, thousands of people swim or recreate in the waters of Herring Creek, Turville Creek, the St. Martin River, and Isle of Wight, Assawoman and Sinepuxent Bays. Kids are towed on floats, people jet ski or waterski, private campgrounds provide private swimming beaches in these waterways. Not exactly a 'public swimming beach', but these ARE our local water holes, after all.

Interestingly, all of Ocean City's stormwater runoff from streets, parking lots, roof-tops, storage lots drains straight into Isle of Wight and Assawoman Bays. None of this chemical/oil/bacteria/trash laden soup flows into the ocean waters off OC's pristine beaches. Lucky for Ocean City! If their stormwater drained to the ocean side, like so many other coastal towns, mandatory testing would cause swimming beach closures after heavy rainfalls.

Oddly, I don't actually expect to find the bay waters to be in bad shape, my expectation is that, except for a few places where there are problems related to things like lawn runoff or street runoff after storms, the bays will test out pretty well.

But who will know unless someone does this monitoring? My project has been funded by the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and other private funders. I've taken EPA and State courses on water sampling protocols. The actual analysis will be done at a lab, and I had hoped to partner with Salisbury University's lab for that part of the project.

However, even after a successful presentation of my project to the lab's directors and a plan ready to execute I found myself back to square one after the Directors of the SU lab informed ACT they would not be able to do the project with us. (** see my added comment, below.) 

And while I was assured it had nothing to do with the fact the lab is also partially funded and used by MDE for a source tracking project, it did make me realize this might have put them in an awkward position since my main objective over the last two years has been to attempt to get MDE to actually do the job they are charged with. Waterkeepers Chesapeake and Coastkeeper have been taking MDE to task for lax enforcement of state discharge permits and our legal challenge against MDE's poor administration of construction site stormwater management permits was settled with MDE improving many aspects of that program.

My "Swimmable Bays" project may have a delayed start this summer, and it may take on a different scope, but it will happen thanks to additional private funding to help pay for lab analysis of the samples.

Of course I'll be making this information public by posting to the Assateague Coastkeeper's website. Look for the launch of the Coastkeepers' 'Swimmable Bays' pages at www.assateaguecoastkeeper.org soon!

Just expect a typical response from business and government, "Pay no attention to that mangled corpse. It was just a boating accident!"