EPA Releases Guidance to Help Federal Facilities Better Manage Stormwater

This comes from EPA news Release by Date - December 08, 2009
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/70E60DCB4B4712DD8525768600686449
Contact person: Enesta Jones, jones.enesta@epa.gov 202-564-7873, 202-564-4355


Today's announcement is a momentous victory for those who have done the Work in Rainwater Harvesting!

By including in the issued 'guidance', to minimize the environmental impact of Federally based projects on bodies of water that are near the sites.

This guidance also includes the wise decision to consider using and reusing stormwater runoff.

The suggestion that stood out the most to me is the recommendation to comply by using practices that are successfully greening desert places world and community wide. *

"...'green infrastructure' or 'low impact' practices including vegetation, and
green roofs, a 3,000 sq ft green roof, using rain gardens and cisterns to
capture and reuse stormwater"

At this time, in many States and communities, it is illegal to reuse and capture stormwater.

The data is in: having citizens and even parts of communities take a load off of the municipal works is a sound and wise idea. So, let us work together as citizens to assure that these guidelines are followed by our States and Cities...

Thank You...

*Brad Lancaster: Rainwater Harvesting; the Drylands & Beyond.

EPA: Greenhouse Gases Threaten Public Health and the Environment / Science overwhelmingly shows greenhouse gas concentrations at unprecedented levels

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/08D11A451131BCA585257685005BF252

Finally! The Elephant in the Room has been pointed out...! Woowie.

EPA Top Administrator Lisa Jackson has made the statement that Greenhouse gases must be addressed as a direct threat to human health.

As usual Administrator Jackson has compiled information from sources worldwide, once more she comes to the public after having done her homework.

Kudos to the EPA leadership in considering this one habitat we have...!

Greenhouse Effect in a Bottle

Greenhouse Effect in a Bottle *

This is an enjoyable yet informative bit of information [video] regarding greenhouse warming, and C02.

Posted using ShareThis

Enjoy,

*from daily feed from Permaculture Institute; Australia

Who is Watching American Recovery & Reinvestment Act Participants?

An anonymous comment asking who is going to be watching States, City's, Burgs, Parish when it comes to ARRA Funds?

Dear Fellow Citizen, we all can watch... I am posting my response just in case anyone else would like this information...

http://recovery.arkansas.gov/news.html is the Arkansas State site dedicated to showing transparency in use of ARRA funds / grants.

http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx is the Federal site. There are Contact us numbers and emails all through these pages. If your town, municipality or any other ARRA / Fed Grant recipient has received monies and you would like an accounting, you will be given that information.

If you do file or contact them to ask a question, give it about 10 days for a response, if it has been 21 days, recontact advising them of the first contact. When you do make contact, just keep it simple, try to go in order with as much documentation as you can [dates, times, amounts, agency, contacts you attempted, any responses by mail, or email...you can kind of build a case if there is a real problem.]

Don't be afraid to get involved, it is your Government, that is paid to serve you...

News Releases By Date

News Releases By Date!
Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. EPA Legislative Hearing on the Toxic Substances Control Act. (TSCA) to the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. (12/02/09).

Administrator Jackson appeared before The Senate Committee on the Environment & Public works. Administrator Jackson is coming to the Senate, part of the arm of government that makes or changes law. She comes with her homework done!

All in all Lisa Jackson is asking the Law Makers to untie the hands of the EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency is charged with protecting human health in the U.S. and globe. If they are unable to gain regulatory teeth, unable to get co-operation from those chemical producers, then something is very wrong.

I can hear the Brethren scream with no thought; "I suppose you want to see the end of the economy." "You don't want progress." "You're going to send us back a hundred years." It has all been said before, and it is still not true.

Ms. Jackson sites the terrible time and trouble expended in trying to get rid of asbestos. Everyone knows that stuff is bad. Everyone. But as Lisa Jackson states, because of TSCA (that Act that was supposed to protect people from chemicals used in commerce...) there were so many hurdles experienced, and in 1989, a federal court over turned EPA's ruling against its use and hazards. There are so many road-blocks in obtaining information and testing on some 80,000 chemicals there is no telling what humans world wide are being exposed to.

Hopefully, your Senators will hear the voice of the people who put them into office. Lisa Jackson is doing the job she was appointed to do. She is not sitting behind a desk, pushing paper. She has been all over our Country looking at situations and problems first hand. She is working for the citizens of the U.S. and world.

Director Jackson makes six points of impacts, and six specific things she is asking of this Senatorial Committee. (Snippets of each point)
1. Chemicals need to be reviewed against known safety standards and health risk criteria...
2. The responsibility for being transparent regarding health and safety information to the public lies on industry...
3. The EPA should have a clear authority to take risk management actions when human health is at risk, especially the young and weak among us...
4. The EPA should have clear authority to set priorities for conducting inspections. The chemical companies should operate within a timely framework...
5. To keep an open book to the public, while working to develop green technologies and business practices...
6. The agencies that regulate the chemical producers should be funded and be given authority when it comes to human health, and chemical producers should remain transparent...

Overall, TSCA needs to be brought into the 21st Century...

I just paraphrased the six points presented, please read the entire announcement for exact quotes and phrases.

It is refreshing to see those who are paid to serve the public do just that! Kudos Lisa Jackson ~ The Mother thanks you.

[My two-cents: Going back to the inception of the TSCA in 1976, it was enacted at a time when those who were fighting major industrial polluters to remove lead from the air, and other particulate matter. It was a time of change when awareness of affects on human health when using polluted waters and take food from polluted water. It was in these late 1970's that we were learning that if you put a toxic substance on the ground, or in liquid into the ground, it can contaminate anything grown, and wells and aquifers.

It is obvious that Chemical producers, and all the commerce that includes, could see the writing on the wall. Instead of waiting to be next on the awareness movements agenda, they would go ahead and help pass the TSCA smoothly, exempting those who would have the most cleaning and answering to do. Tying the hands of regulators...The dirtiest polluters are usually the ones making the largest profits. I will give credit where credit is due; they have made some amazingly high paying positions and providing some jobs in the communities they inhabit.]

EERE News: New York Seeks Proposals for Offshore Wind Power in the Great Lakes

EERE News: New York Seeks Proposals for Offshore Wind Power in the Great Lakes

Advocating alternative energy sources is healthy for all parties.

We are being driven to greater energy demands daily. I love that bumper sticker; "want less". Amen brother.

Wind turbine power is a great concept. I think it is a source given to use, that is clean in and of itself. If we are all building wooden structures with canvas blades on our 20 acres, it remains harmless. When we put up thousands with the ultimate goal of millions, we can forget to weigh the entire picture. Now, that we have this newer wisdom, let us consider before it is too late, that we are not destroying another set of species. We can take time, use what has been learned in world weather patterns and find places and settings that will not do more harm than good in the long run.

Let us consider every energy source from it's inception, growth, production and finally closure. What waste is produced? How much energy (all energy) is expended to produce energy? How many species are harmed or destroyed? Are there pollinators that are in danger? What about the effects on human health?

If we consider energy as a part of all life source, then hopefully, we will not have over-used our quota.

Energy expended toward the earth and her good health is not energy wasted. Every little bit people do for good, makes a difference.

EPA Awards Over $700,000.00 to Arkansas Dept of Health!

Today (12-02-2009) the EPA announces that they have awarded $735,920.00 to the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH).

For Arkansas residents who are on a community water system, these funds are to "ensure" that they are recieving clean and healthy drinking water. These monies will be used to make sure that these community run water drinking systems will comply with the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations. These are federal regulations that supercede State regulations or non-regulation.

Arkansas is in the Region 6 of the EPA. For contact information, the contact given is Dave Bary at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/0BBEA527A31E05AF852576800057EA51