Before Dr. Paul Mankiewicz had visited us in class, I had never thought I’d be introduced to an organization dedicated to bringing better harmony between human communities and the natural environment. Dr. Mankiewicz is the executive director of such an organization known as the Gaia Institute. As we all already know, most of our city’s soils have been continuously tired out and contaminated proving unfit for growing. This is usually man-made destruction on our environment. However, we have been discussing a lot about how storm water can become an issue. As a New York City resident, I am no stranger to seeing our sidewalks flooded so a storm water problem is evident. Even on Brooklyn College Campus, it is a dread to walk on rainy days when the ground is covered with yard long puddles that rather seem like small swimming pools. I have realized the Gaia Institute has a very important mission.
In pursuit of this new interest, I looked up more about he projects the Gaia Institute has been working on. One of the recent projects, beginning in 2002, involved the development of a storm water capture park called El Jardín del Paraíso in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They restored a local community garden which had high lead contamination and enhanced it by allowing it to capture stormwater. They would accomplish this with a special layering of the soil which has two very important components: lead-binding chemicals and porous soil. The chemicals include phosphorous, iron, and manganese which also help increase root growth and encourage burrowing worms and insects. This in turn allows for a porous soil layer which holds the storm water from nearby rooftops and gray water from nearby buildings which would be collected in a manner which transfers them to the soil. As a result of this design, the Gaia Institute is able to promote ecological diversity and health in the urban city of Manhattan.
Recently, protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) have garnered mass publicity via social media and the press. Newspapers and websites are covered in photographs of injured Native American protesters. The #NoDAPL movement has a running petition with over 350,000 signatures. Celebrity activists like Shailene Woodley, Mark Ruffalo, and even Bernie Sanders have expressed their opposition to the DAPL. In this blog post, I will attempt to elucidate the two sides of the dispute regarding the environmental debate on DAPL, which centers around the possibility of an oil spill.
First, what exactly is the Dakota Access Pipeline? This controversial $3.8 billion project aims to build a pipeline crossing 200 rivers that will connect oil production areas in North Dakota to pipelines in Illinois. It is about 60% constructed already. If completed, the network will transport nearly 470,000 barrels of sweet crude oil from Bakken and Three Forks in North Dakota to major US markets. However, the pipeline’s construction runs through the reservation lands of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The first Americans of this tribe claim that completion of the DAPL project will pollute the water supply, threaten public health, and violate the sanctity of the reservation.
Native Americans protest the DAPL.
Looking away from ethical arguments, the DAPL raises unclear environmental implications. Energy Transfer Partners, the company at the helm of the project, claims that the DAPL will significantly reduce truck and railroad transportation usage in the long term because the pipeline will serve as a more efficient mode of oil transfer. In turn, domestic oil production will go up and domestic energy independence will increase. Energy Transfer also says that the “new advanced pipeline technology” contains “tremendous safety factors” to protect against any risk of an oil spill.
On the other hand, the Standing Rock Sioux and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cast these illustrious claims into doubt. When the US Army Corps of Engineers originally presented the draft for DAPL to the EPA, the EPA warned them that the oil could leak into rivers – a warning that the Army Corps dismissed. Additionally, the recent shift of the pipeline path to under Lake Oahe concerns the Sioux because an oil spill there could contaminate the water supply for the rez inhabitants and ruin the aquatic ecosystem.
The Standing Rock Sioux have a strong environmental argument to avoid an oil spill in their waters. Oil spills are notorious forms of pollution because of the permanent damage they can wreak on a body of water and the organisms that rely on that water. They can block sunlight from passing through the water surface, which can be fatal to marine organisms. The oil can get stuck in the feathers and fur of nearby animals; many animals cannot float, choke to death, or become blind. Baby animals run the risk of starving to death if their parent cannot detect their scent under the coat of oil.
The level of environmental risk the DAPL poses to the reservation area differs depending on who you ask. Still, it’s clear that an oil spill would be catastrophic and the Standing Rock Sioux would have more to lose should one occur. I personally stand with the #NoDAPL movement in more ways than one, especially factoring in this nation’s history of Native American oppression and the shaky scientific basis that the pipeline technology rests on. For now, the Obama administration has asked Energy Transfer Partners to temporarily halt the progression of the pipeline, leaving the fate of the DAPL in limbo until all details are above ground.
Recent studies have shown that climate change is a problem that is very relevant and apparent in our world today. One of the steps that our city is taking towards conserving our resources and fighting climate change is the development of the NYC Green Infrastructure Program, which is led by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Green infrastructure is useful in that it is able to manage storm water runoff from streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and rooftops in order to conserve our water supply. Likewise, according to the article, “Importance of Water Conservation”, conserving water supply is great for our environment because fresh, clean water is a limited resource and converting salt water into “usable” water is an expensive process. With the Green Infrastructure Program, we will be able to reuse our water, thus, cutting down overall costs. The DEP also looks to use green infrastructure to reduce polluted runoff from running into our bodies of water. This is beneficial in several ways as it’s good for water animal lives as well as it helps to prevent global warming. Although I think this is a great program, one thing I’d like to see is the program being used more and for the DEP to spread the word about the program. In my opinion, I feel like not many people know about this program and how beneficial it is for our city. This could be because we’re not always seeing the program at work.
Here is the presentation from today on designing a poster. Below are more links that might be helpful. Don’t hesitate to write me an email or make an appointment if you need any assistance.
Title: Subaqueous Soil Survey for Barnegat Bay, NJ
by Dr. Rob Tunstead, USDA NRCS
Description: Subaqueous (permanently submerged) soils are defined as having “a field observable water table 2 centimeters or more above the soil surface for more than 21 hours of each day in all years.” Dr. George Demas conducted research in Sinepuxent Bay, Maryland where he proved that these soils undergo the 4 major soil forming processes of additions, losses, transfers and translocations / transformations. Dr. Demas’ research helped pave the way for current subaqueous soil survey mapping and inventory projects. USDA – NRCS recently had the tremendous opportunity to continue subaqueous soil survey inventory and mapping in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. The Barnegat Bay project was recently completed and the focus of this presentation is to present our final project and findings for this subaqueous soil survey in New Jersey.
Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant and Kingsland Wildflowers Greenroof Tour
Date: Saturday October 15th, 2016 Time: 11:00AM – 1:00PM Location: Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant, 327 Greenpoint Avenue & Kingsland Wildflowers Greenroof, 520 Kingsland Avenue
Come to the City’s largest waste water treatment plant to find out where the water goes after you take a shower! Then, come enjoy the wildflowers on the roof of Broadway Stages at 520 Kingsland Avenue to learn what plants do to help clean the water in Newtown Creek.
The tour will start at the waste water treatment plant. We will then walk over to the greenroof.
For my first blog post, I am going to discuss the problems we have with urban agriculture. There are many positives, like making sure that there is food in the city, and the positive impact it has on the environment. However, there are some downsides. There’s not enough space in the city! Cities are meant to hold many people and that does not leave enough room for a field to grow crops. And if there is room for agriculture in the city, it could be very expensive compared to a space in a rural area. Another problem is that that urban agriculture requires water just like all other kinds of agriculture does, but it could create a shortage of water in the city since there are so many people. There is also more of a risk for soil and water pollution in the city. And one more thing that I’ll mention which seems like a non-issue but that actually bothers some people, is that it is not aesthetically pleasing. Especially when these agricultural areas are not tended to properly.
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