Simal Ali
EPA Develops New Planning Approach to Improve Water Quality in U.S. Cities
Release Date: 10/28/2011
Contact Information: Stacy Kika, kika.stacy@epa.gov, 202-564-0906, 202-564-4355
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/68C9214FF1E0C157852579370055D62A
LINK TO PICTURE:http://www.adedgetechnologies.com/images/USGS%20County%20map.jpg
Description of picture: I found this picture to be really interesting because it is actually showing the arsenic concentration rates in America.
SUMMARY:In Washington today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a commitment, to begin using a planning process to help local governments deal with financial situations where they can identify opportunities to achieve clean water by controlling and managing releases of waste water and storm water runoff more efficiently and cost effectively. This new approach will address the most serious water quality issues and provide ways to fix them. As the sewer systems are getting older, it seems to be more obvious that they are not designed to handle heavy rain and snowfall in addition to handling the waste water from growing populations and local industries. They can overflow, releasing untreated sewage into waterways, onto city streets or into the basements of homes. As the runoff flows over the land, including paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops, it carries along with it remains of anything broken down like chemicals, sediment and other pollutants. Overflows and storm water can carry a variety of harmful pollutants, including bacteria, metals and nutrients that threaten communities' water quality and can contribute to disease outbreaks, flooding, and fishing or swimming warnings.
OPINION: I think it’s a great idea that the EPA is trying to find a better way to protect water quality. Like the article said the EPA will work with local governments to review the Clean Water Act requirements, so that each township will look for opportunities to improve the cleanness of their water. This is a good way to sit down and really think out what should be done. This was relative to class because as we were learning about what contaminates in our water can do, we talked about have they can contribute to disease outbreaks, flooding, and fishing or swimming warnings, just like the article. I believe this article ties in with my personal life because I always hear news stories about contaminated water in Africa, and storm water runoffs and this article actually helped me understand what action is taken after these events.
QUESTIONS OF MY OWN:
1.Is all the drinking water in America safe?
2.What are the most common contaminates found in drinking water?
3.What are a few results that can take place, if the community’s water quality carry harmful contaminates?
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The EPA's Website for Water Violations
EPA Releases Searchable Website for Drinking Water Violations / Agency to host webinar to show how to use the public health data
Release date: 05/16/2011 By: Stacy Kika (kika.stacy@epa.gov)
Picture: This picture is of dirty drinking water. Personally, I think this is absolutely gross and disgusting but it is what some drinking water does look like. This is what some organizations are trying to prevent. They want clean water for everyone.
Summary: The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has launched a new page on their website dealing with the contaminants in our local water. It is called the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) tool. This is something that the EPA is very excited about because it also goes along with President Obama's goal which is to let the people know what information the government collects. ECHO does that by telling us what the government finds out about our drinking water. The EPA feels as if this is information that should be shared because this is something that concerns our health. We need to know if the water we a re drinking is safe and will not damage our health. This new feature met the standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The website provides users with information about how clean their drinking water is, any serious violators, and the National Public Water Systems Compliance Report for 2009. The EPA's enforcement goal is to ensure that all of the communities have safe and clean water.
Opinion: I think that it is great that the EPA has decided to let us know how safe the water we drink is. In class today, we learned about different chemicals that could be found in our water that could harm us. These included substances such as Barium, Fluoride, Uranium, and more. We saw that there were many negative impacts if we consumed any of those substances. We need water, and we want to try our best to avoid any chemicals that could harm us. There were a couple that could kill children if it was consumed too much. By having this website, it warns us of any potential harmful substances in our water. Below is a picture taken of the website when you put in Horsham's zip code. When I scrolled down, all of the spaces in the column "Alleged Current Significant Violations" read "no". Our water in the Horsham area is clear and safe for consumption. After all, we do NEED water.
Picture #2: A screenshot of the EPA's ECHO site for Horsham, PA. As you can see, there are no violations.
Questions:
- How much consumption do you think it takes to be harmed by a contaminate in our drinking water?
- If you found out there was a contaminate in our water that could not be gotten rid of right away, what would you do? Why?
- How much water do you think is consumed per day in America?
- How much water do you consume per day? Do you think you should improve that number?
- Do you think that we, as Americans should be drinking more or less water? Or are we drinking a good amount? Why?
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
World Energy Use to Increase 53% by 2035, Despite Facebook Changes
Basically, in the article World Energy Use to Increase 53% by 2035, the writer is saying that based on the statistics that we have gathered, the world will begin to use more and more energy as time goes on. China has become the highest energy consumer in recent years. It is even proven that if it continues to increase at the rate it is now, it will use 68% more than the US by 2035! Despite the aggravations with social networking sites, such as Facebook, the energy consumption will continue to be on the rise. As much as we encourage conservation of energy, it is hard to persuade whole nation into doing so. Countries like China and India are in need of more energy due to their rapid growth in population. In order to lessen the amount of energy consumed, we need to rely heavily on fossil fuels and other alternatives.
In my opinion, i believe that humans as a whole consume way too much energy than necessary. If we began to lessen it only a LITTLE bit each day, the amount of energy used would extremely decrease, future generations would not have to worry about it being a huge issue, and the world would be a healthier place.
q1- Does it surprise you that the US isn't leading in energy consumption? Why or Why not?
q2- What else can we use as alternative energy sources?
q3- Do you think the country would willingly use less energy daily?
q4- What age group do you think is most responsible for the consumption of energy? Will future generations just be worse than we are?
Below is a picture of China's energy sources. Notice how small the "other renewables" section is compared to coal and oil
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