Trey Sherard is a Riverkeeper with Anacostia Riverkeeper. As an organization they aim to create meaningful encounters with the river for all people in order to open opportunities for enjoyment of the Anacostia River. Their primary programmatic goals are centered on trash mitigation, advocacy, water quality, stormwater reduction, and river access. 

The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel and ultimately empties into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. And the river itself is about 8.7 miles long. 

Within the episode we talk about what makes the river unique, the different jurisdictions it's under, what makes a healthy river, trash mitigation, and green infrastructure. 

Contact and connect with Trey: [email protected] 

Anacostia Riverkeeper: https://www.anacostiariverkeeper.org/programs/

Mike Ross is an assistant professor in the University of Tennessee Department of Plant Sciences’ Sustainable Landscape Design concentration and in the School of Landscape Architecture. Originally he was trained as an organismal biologist and evolutionary ecologist. And now, he translates ecological systems and relationships into design and management strategies.

In the episode we talk about city design in an environmental context. According to the United Nations, more than half the world’s population live in cities. By 2050, an estimated 7 out of 10 people will likely live in urban areas. Cities are drivers of economic growth and contribute more than 80 per cent of global GDP.

In our conversation we talked about a lot of different aspects of city planning and design from elements that make a city well designed, public transportation, and green infrastructure but ultimately we couldn’t talk about city planning without mentioning equity, poverty, homelessness, redlining, privilege, and more. It is all interconnected and complex so we mention some of those aspects as well.

We also discuss suburbs vs cities in an environmental context, and know both have their pros and cons. There is no right answer because again, it’s a complex system, we were just having a conversation about them. And we end it by discussing how we should change some of our languaging from sustainable cities to regenerative cities.

Contact and connect with Mike: [email protected] or https://archdesign.utk.edu/people/michael-ross/ 

More on sustainable cities: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/sustainable-communities 

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/

Julie Griffin and Julie Owen, are residents in Ringgold, VA where they have an industrial, open air landfill in their backyards. The landfill is owned by First Piedmont where they created the landfill after the community had already existed there for 50+ years. The residents have to look at that mess every time they come out of their houses’ and deal with the odor from it 24 hours a day. There is no fence around it so there is high risk with children and pets in this residential area, not to mention what is in the air and water from it. 

They are a chapter of BREDL called, Coalition for a Clean Dan River Region, where they are taking a stand to protect their family, homes and the air and water that we all depend on!

Industrial landfills have industrial waste in them which can contain metals, glass, asphalt, and more. Landfills produced gasses such as methane, carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and non methane organic compounds. Not to mention, they produce leachate which is a liquid produced by landfill sites, contaminating nearby water sources, which further damages the ecosystems.

I would highly suggest going to their facebook page “Save our rural community” to see pictures of the  landfill and what they have to deal with daily. 

Contact and connect with Julie Owens and Julie Griffin: [email protected] 

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/971369563328746/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=1599197337212629 

Information about damage of landfills: https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2021/04/15/hidden-damage-landfills 

https://www.epa.gov/landfills/industrial-and-construction-and-demolition-cd-landfills

We’re back with Jason Burns who is Executive Director at Last Call Foundation and he's been a Firefighter since 2006. He has spent much of his career advocating for better and safer working conditions for his firefighters. I talked with Jason at the end of last year in episode 24, about how there is PFAS in firefighters PPE. We ended the conversation on how when they wash their PPE, the PFAS ends up in their waterways. Now we’re picking the conversation back there.

In 2022, there was a test of 114 waterways from across the country, in which 83% were found to contain at least one type of PFAS—dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that are widely linked to serious public health and environmental impacts. 

These findings are an important step toward filling in a major data gap and validate the call to EPA for increased and widespread monitoring to gain a complete picture of PFAS contamination in all watersheds across the country.

In spite of the serious health risks, there are currently no universal, science-based limits on the various PFAS chemicals in the United States. For many PFAS chemicals, the EPA has not even set a health advisory limit that would give the public a baseline to determine what amount of PFAS is unhealthy in drinking water. In most cases, the EPA is not doing adequate monitoring for these chemicals, which is why these findings are so unique and important.

Contact and connect with Jason: [email protected]

Study/survery mentioned: https://waterkeeper.org/news/unprecedented-analysis-reveals-pfas-contamination-in-u-s-waterways-shows-shocking-levels-of-contamination/ 

Dr. Michael McKinney is the Director of Environmental Studies at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I personally did microplastic research with him on invertebrates in local creeks and the Tennessee River. And now, he is teaching a course on microplastics at UTK along with his research. 

Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that result from both commercial product development and the breakdown of larger plastics.  They are classified as less than 5 millimeters in diameter. The problem with microplastics is that—like plastic items of any size—they do not readily break down into harmless molecules. Plastics can take hundreds or thousands of years to decompose—and in the meantime, wreak havoc on the environment. They can be from sources such as synthetic clothing, fishing nets, food packaging, cosmetics, PPE, and so much more. There is still so much research being done about them and what dangers they impose.

With Dr. McKinney, we talk about his research on them, how washing clothes put microplastics into our waterways, how they affect wildlife and humans alike, bioaccumulation, and policy solutions.

Contact and connect with Dr. McKinney: [email protected]

Microplastic articles: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/microplastics/ 

Steven Lester is a Toxicologist and the Science Director at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, CHEJ.

We speak about the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment where 38 of its 150 cars derailed while carrying a variety of hazardous chemicals on February 3rd. A few days after the train cars derailed the company, Norfolk Southern, was afraid of a bigger explosion and decided to dump and burn the 5 cars carrying vinyl chloride. 

The burning of this leads to dioxins in the air, soil, water, and farm animals there. “Dioxin” is the name given to a group of persistent, very toxic chemicals that share similar chemical structures. Dioxin is not deliberately manufactured. It is the unintended byproduct of industrial processes that use or burn chlorine. Dioxin exposure can have serious environmental and human health effects such as cancer, reproductive damage, developmental problems, type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, infertility in adults, impairment of the immune system and skin lesions.

The high exposure to this particular chemical puts the community at high risk, but also has the potential to travel through the air and water and have an effect on the produce and animals we consume as it's in the soils. Norfolk Southern and the EPA have been denying and delaying testing for this. Steven along with the community has been putting pressure on them to do accurate and timely testing. Steven also got invited by the community to attend public meetings and is in contact with residents on the ground there. We speak about their concerns and if the area will ever be safe again. 

Contact and connect with Steven: [email protected] 

News: https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/east-palestine-train-derailment/epa-not-testing-for-dioxins-scientist-calls-reason-lame/ 

https://www.nytimes.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-timeline.html 

Guardian article with Steven: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/02/epa-toxins-test-east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment-dioxins

Sabrina Webster is a resident of Piney Grove, NC - which is in the 1 mile radius of where the Winston-Salem Weaver Fertilizer Plant Fire that happened in January of last year.

I did four other episodes about the fire itself and stricter regulations that need to be in place, especially for Ammonium Nitrate that the community was exposed to, so listen to episodes 5,6,7, and 8 for that.

There is now a report out about the fire from the Analysis of Publicly Disseminated Air Quality Information During Facility Fire Incident highlights instances when local officials told the public that the air quality was okay and pollutants were just “irritants” when, in fact, levels of Particulate Matter 2.5 were in the EPA’s hazardous and very unhealthy categories. Yet, they told residents it was safe to go back to their homes four days after the fire.

With Sabrina, we talk about the day the fire happened, the process coming back, the rich history of the Piney Grove community, how the media portrays the community, the lack of compensation they got, and now the current situation.

Contact and connect with Sabrina: www.bredl.org

Report: https://archive.bredl.org/air/220803_Weaver_Fire_Air_Analysis.html

Emily Franc is the Vice President of Development & Philanthropy at Potomac Riverkeeper Network.

Freshwater mussels like Eastern Lampmussel, and Alewife floaters are among 16 species native to the Potomac River and its Maryland tributaries, and they once existed in the millions, similar to the oyster populations in the Chesapeake Bay. Like oysters, mussels are effective at removing nutrients and toxins, filtering out sediments and improving water quality. The mussels population in the Potomac has suffered due to climate change, increased urbanization, and stormwater erosion. Scientific opinion is unanimous that mussel recovery is an important part of improving the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay; both Maryland and Virginia’s departments of environment have expanded their commitment to the recovery of mussel populations.

With Emily we talk about the history and significance of the Potomac River, why mussels are a vital part of our ecosystem, why we’ve seen a decrease in them, their mussel restoration work, and how we can support this work.

Contact and connect with Emily: [email protected] 

Potomac Riverkeeper Network: https://www.potomacriverkeepernetwork.org/

https://www.potomacriverkeepernetwork.org/50-million-mussel-project/

We check back in with Kathy Andrews where 2 years ago when she was in the middle of the fight against Dominion Energy putting a pipeline through her land in Florence County, SC. Now she is Executive Director of BREDL and she is continuing her work on stopping this same pipeline and protecting people’s properties.

Dominion Energy, one of the nation’s top polluters, they have condemned the land of several African-American heirs and working class citizens as part of their proposed pipeline project, which would run along the Great Pee Dee River and through several communities, including Pamplico, SC.

And now Dominion has installed a gas pipeline in front of Kathy’s home — without notice. She’s lived in it for nearly two decades. Kathy said she walked out of her door to see Dominion Energy workers digging a hole in her front yard; something she said she never gave permission or received a notice for. We talk about this as well as how she is getting her community involved.

Contact and connect with Kathy: [email protected]

www.bredl.org 

This is New Mexico, a sacrifice zone for the nuclear industry. From the first testing of a nuclear weapon, the relentless mining of uranium, radioactive areas, and now transportation and storage of nuclear waste. New Mexico and the Indigenous Peoples have experienced far too much neglect and harm - all caused by the nuclear industry.

In September 2022 Jesse Deer In Water, based in Michigan, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and a leader in CRAFT (Citizen Resistance At Fermi Two) and I went to visit Leona Morgan in New Mexico, who is a Dine/Navajo woman who has spent a good portion of her life in New Mexico and is fighting against nuclear coming into her communities. (both of whom are co-hosting this 3 part series) Within the episodes and conversations we  learned about their history from the local people and those who are fighting against it.

I saw the injustice and hurt that has gone on here, but also immense strength that has gotten the People where they are today. This is a story of the People in New Mexico, who are fighting for justice and guiding a new generation of activists to write their own narrative. Los Alamos National Lab came into New Mexico in 1943 and were the ones who designed and tested that first nuclear weapon. Beata, who we hear from first, speaks about how Los Alamos National Lab was actually supposed to be a temporary site and they stole the land through eminent domain from the Pueblo Peoples. There is now a narrative from the Lab that the people in the area should strive to work for them, coming into schools and speaking of the good they’re doing. While leaving out the stolen land as well as the vast amounts of radiation they’re consciously exposing them to. Another aspect to this is that they don’t encourage the Native People to work in management roles, rather the clean up and remediation of it.

Contact with Jesse Deer in Water and Leona Morgan: [email protected] [email protected]

Resources: https://tewawomenunited.org/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/travel/new-mexico-atomic.html

http://www.dinenonukes.org/radiation-monitoring-project/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDgBUwhUAVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u0o48EWO-E

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6AHdI1RakU