NYC Water

When you google “Why does NYC have…”, one of the top 5 results is about its water.  New York City has basically given itself a reputation of having amazing tasting and clean water.  However, as this Thrillist article discusses, New York doesn’t even make the top 10 list of water quality in the United States. (Note: The data being used is from 2009).  As the video mentioned, New York’s bagels and other baked goods’ popularity is commonly attributed to New York’s water quality, but is more about craft.  Furthermore, as the article mentions, our baked goods are probably hurt more than they are helped by the water quality.  Its incredibly interesting that despite seemingly being untrue, New York has a reputation for having great water and its bagels and pizza are great because of its water.

As the article discusses, when New York had to rethink its water supply in the 1940s and 50s, it was actually this fabricated reputation for having great water that prevented New York’s water from being sourced from the Hudson. Since people thought the Hudson was a disgusting body of water, they did not want to get their water from there, despite the water source being 70 miles upstream. So instead of sourcing water from the river, the watershed that is currently used to give New York City its water was made.  It is incredibly ironic that it was this reputation that prevented the Hudson River from being New York’s water supply, despite this reputation for having some of the best water in the country being largely untrue.

 

How NYC Gets Its Water

With gravity and many other complex systems, water from the Catskill/Delaware watershed is brought down to NYC to supply 9.5 million people. Protecting the tributaries is just as important as protecting the water source itself. All along the pathway to NYC, the water needs to be protected from pollution and sometimes leaks. The content of the water needs to be evaluated constantly to ensure what is coming out of our taps. This is not an easy task with climate change drastically shifts the water’s availability as well as the quality as it passes through forests that have also been altered from climate change. The water passes through ultraviolet lights to cleanse it from micro-organisms.  So much energy and time is needed to bring NYC it famous water. The entire process encompasses so much from the Urban Water Systems class. From watersheds to the water cycle, the power of runoff and gravity in tributaries, and the major effects of climate change, this article brings up the background of the big issues in order to protect our water.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/24/nyregion/how-nyc-gets-its-water-new-york-101.html

Water Sustainability

Water is essential for the existence of all life on Earth. It is crucial to preserve water through projects like watersheds, and sewer treatment plants to control flooding and water contamination. New York City’s DEP has one of the most complex wastewater systems in the world. Our water system delivers one billion gallons  of drinking water to nine million New Yorkers every single day. The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability is working along with the DEP to install ad repair hundreds of new water fountains and bottle refiners in areas throughout New York, This will prevent unnecessary excess consumption of plastic bottles when refiners are available to the public. The use of plastic bottles add to pollution by increasing waste in our landfills when they are not recycled. In the 1970s alone, New York spent $1.7 billion water protection. Additionally, as an alternative method to capture storm water runoff, a Green Infrastructure program has been adopted. These “green areas” capture stormwater before it can enter the sewage system and cause flooding, and lead to unfiltered water because of the overflow.

urban-green-infrastructure_jpeg.jpg

https://twitter.com/SabrinaMHC2001/status/917516455889002501

Portland reduces CSO

I shared a graph of Portland, Oregon’s CSO between the years 1990 and 2011. Between those years, it has been reduced from 6 billion gallons to about .3 billion gallons a year, because of work on the CSO control program, a set of cornerstone projects designed to remove millions of gallons of stormwater from the combined sewer system before construction started on large tunnel and other control facilities.

They constructed a pipeline that diverts Tanner Creek and smaller west hills streams from the combined sewer system to remove about 165-million gallons of stormwater annually from combined sewers, a tactic called stream diversion. About 3,000 stormwater sumps and sedimentation manholes in combined sewer areas throughout north, east and southeast Portland collect residential street runoff, trap sediment and pollutants, and allow water to soak into the ground. Residents in combined sewer areas disconnected roof drains from combined sewers removing more than 1.2-billion gallons of stormwater per year from the combined sewer system. Environmental Services eliminated combined sewers in key neighborhoods by installing new pipes to separate stormwater from sewage.

Seeing a successful project should give us hope that New York can accomplish this too. However, it took Portland almost 20 years to complete, so I think we should get a move on.

https://twitter.com/GabiCohen6/status/917050559865204737

Lessons from Costa Rica; how to avert the apocalypse

Earlier this summer, a paper published in the journal Nature captured headlines with a rather bleak forecast. Our chances of keeping global warming below the 2C danger threshold are very, very small: only about 5%. The reason, according to the paper’s authors, is that the cuts we’re making to greenhouse gas emissions are being cancelled out by economic growth.

In the coming decades, we’ll be able to reduce the carbon intensity of the global economy by about 1.9% per year, if we make heavy investments in clean energy and efficient technology. That’s a lot. But as long as the economy keeps growing by more than that, total emissions are still going to rise. Right now we’re ratcheting up global GDP by 3% per year, which means we’re headed for trouble.
How banana skins turned on the lights in Lagos … and then turned them off again
Read more

If we want to have any hope of averting catastrophe, we’re going to have to do something about our addiction to growth. This is tricky, because GDP growth is the main policy objective of virtually every government on the planet. It lies at the heart of everything we’ve been told to believe about how the economy should work: that GDP growth is good, that it’s essential to progress, and that if we want to improve human wellbeing and eradicate poverty around the world, we need more of it. It’s a powerful narrative. But is it true?
Costa Rica is the most efficient economy on earth: it produces high standards of living with low GDP and minimal pressure on the environment. After all, once we have excellent healthcare, education, and affordable housing, what will endlessly more income growth gain us? Maybe bigger TVs, flashier cars, and expensive holidays. But not more happiness, or stronger communities, or more time with our families and friends. Not more peace or more stability, fresher air or cleaner rivers. Past a certain point, GDP gains us nothing when it comes to what really matters. In an age of climate change, where the pursuit of ever more GDP is actively dangerous, we need a different approach.

From pollutant to bio-fuel- in kitchen cabinets everywhere

Olive oil has long been a popular kitchen staple. Yet producing the oil creates a vast stream of wastewater that can foul waterways, reduce soil fertility and trigger extensive damage to nearby ecosystems. Now scientists report on the development of an environmentally friendly process that could transform this pollutant into ‘green’ biofuel, bio-fertilizer and safe water for use in agricultural irrigation.
During processing, olives are crushed and mixed with water in mills. The oil is separated out of this mixture, and the dirty water and solid residue are discarded. In Mediterranean countries, where 97 percent of the world’s olive oil is produced, olive mills generate almost 8 billion gallons of this wastewater annually. Disposing of it has become problematic. Dumping it into rivers and streams can potentially contaminate drinking water and harm aquatic life. Pumping it onto farm land damages the soil and reduces crop yields. Some researchers have tried burning the wastewater with mixtures of solid waste from the mills or waste wood. But these approaches have either been too costly or have produced excessive air pollution. Mejdi Jeguirim and colleagues took a different approach. They wanted to see if they could convert olive mill wastewater (OMW) from a pollutant into sustainable products for practical use.

Journal Reference:

Khouloud Haddad, Mejdi Jeguirim, Boutheina Jerbi, Ajmia Chouchene, Patrick Dutournié, Nicolas Thevenin, Lionel Ruidavets, Salah Jellali, Lionel Limousy. Olive Mill Wastewater: From a Pollutant to Green Fuels, Agricultural Water Source and Biofertilizer. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2017; DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b01786

Capitalism & Environmental Sustainability – inherently incompatible?

Inspired by today’s discussion about sustainability and capitalism,  here are some links to articles about corporate environmentalism:

Alternet: Will Big Business Help Fight Trump’s Anti-Environment Agenda? (December 25, 2016)

American Prospect: Volkswagon’s Big Lie (Spring 2016) – A recent example of one corporation’s attempts at getting around environmental regulations. 

USA Today: Impossible Environmentalism: Green groups promote utopian fantasies (September 7, 2017) – Particularly interested in reactions to the characterization of “utopian fantasies”? How and why are the ideas in the article considered “utopian”? Why or why not is this a fair description?

American Bar Association: The Business Case for Environmental Sustainability (January 2015)

The New Republic: The CEOs Won’t Save Us (August 22, 2017)

Sustainability

I was super interested in this fantastic new way to package water! I am always so upset at friends who use a lot of plastic water bottles, especially when they don’t recycle. I am a strong proponent of reusable water bottles, but am very excited about this even more advanced way to reduce waste.  I cannot wait to get to try this edible water bottle! They’re made out of seaweed extract (which is cheaper than plastic!!), and it will allow for so much waste reduction if it becomes implemented in our daily lives. Check out the video below to learn more about this great, SUSTAINABLE way to transport and consume water in the modern age!

 

Antarctic iceberg split exposes new realms of biodiversity. -Maryia Shaban

Ecosystems still foreign to us exist all around us. The bottom of the ocean being notably difficult to map and to understand, imagine the complexity of life at the ocean floor underneath an iceberg sheet. This July, a spectacular event has set the stage for great exploration in the field of biological oceanography. An antarctic iceberg has broken off from the Larsen C ice sheath and is moving into the Weddell Sea. Similar icebergs have broken off from Larsen A and B in 1995 and 2002 respectively, yet at those times technology was not yet so advanced and the sea ice conditions were dangerous for planned expeditions. By the time it was safe to travel, scientists arrived to a completely altered ecosystem adapted to the new ocean life without ice. It is crucial that researchers make it to the site as soon as possible. A research mission is currently in the process of being approved for sail to Antarctica in early 2018.  Many nation-states are currently trying to get involved exploring the foreign  biodiversity. The forerunners are South Korea, which plans to divert an expedition for the Shetland Islands already planned, and Great Britain. If scientists are able to make it there they could find themselves in the presence of an incredible ecosystem over 5,800 square kilometers of sea floor, new to our eyes, which has been hidden beneath the Larsen ice sheath for more than 120,000 years.

To read the full article first printed in Nature magazine, visit…

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/giant-iceberg-rsquo-s-split-exposes-hidden-ecosystem/

Converting Waste Toilet Paper into Electricity

Not only can toilet paper be used for the expected bathroom activities, but now thanks to chemists at the University of Amsterdam, it is possible to convert the waste toilet paper into electricity. By using gastrification and then reaction to air in a fuel cell, the used toilet paper is recycled into electricity.

Being a rich source of carbon, companies are often paid to take the waste toilet paper. This is also considered a renewable resource considering the cellulose that makes the paper comes from trees. All around, if this new conversion of waste toilet paper can be expanded upon, it would definitely help lessen the waste we leave on this planet.

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170915170204.htm