Latest

11/13/12

The Passaic River in New Jersey isn’t one of those waterways with its source in a pristine mountain lake.

From its spring in Morris County to its mouth at Newark Bay, the Passaic’s shores are lined by suburban subdivisions, factories and depots.

The lower part of the Passaic is a federal Superfund site: during the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was manufactured on the Newark Waterfront.

When Sandy struck, the Passaic spilled its banks, sweeping into residential streets and mixing with waste from backed-up sewers. Dozens of houses were flooded.

“It’s stuff that’s washing into these people’s homes. And we don’t have a clue what that mix looks like,” said Ana Baptista, director of environmental programs at the non-profit Ironbound Community Corporation.

Baptista said the government has done a poor job informing people with flooded basements about the potential health risks.

“The only advisories that I saw were the advisories from the city condemning the properties because of flood and structural damage to their properties,” Baptista said. “No one came out and told them, be careful with the flood water because it could be contaminated.”

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection hasn’t directly addressed what’s in the water that has flooded homes. When asked about the flooding, the Department told WNYC concerned homeowners should seek testing, but that local authorities were responsible for assessing the risks.

Elias Rodriguez, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman, said in an email there is no immediate hazard connected with the superfund site, but that “the EPA is continuing to assess impacts from the storm throughout the area and we will reach out to the community to get more information about potential impacts to the community.”

But there may be a long-term health risk, according to Ryan Miller, a research engineer at Rutgers University who has spent two years studying the lower Passaic. Miller said if toxic sediment from the Passaic was churned up by the storm, it’s possible toxins like PCBs ended up in basements.  

“Soil particles or sediment particles at the bottom of the river act as colloids, they’re kind of like the car, and the contamination is kind of like the passenger, they bring it along for the ride,” said Miller.

Once inside someone’s basement, dioxins and PCBs can turn into gases, and start to poison the air. Toxicologists say this kind of exposure is dangerous only over a prolonged period of time.

And Miller said the risk that this has happened is probably low. Storm surges from the sea, like the one Sandy caused, tend to destabilize river sediment far less than heavy rains.

Last year, Hurricane Irene’s rains flooded the Passaic, exposing a seam of dioxin- and PCB-tainted sediment in the river at Lyndhurst. The EPA did testing and decided to decontaminate a section of river, but not an adjacent little league ball field.

With more mega-storms predicted for the years ahead, the Passaic will almost certainly flood again. Environmentalists hope the next time, the government will quickly tell citizens what it knows about what’s in the water.

Read More & Listen to the Audio

In Humboldt Bay, stories lurk within the rusting beaters and gleaming glories

12/6/12

Cody Hills leans back in the stern of the small boat owned by Humboldt Baykeeper, which is zipping north through the Eureka channel of Humboldt Bay. He looks as relaxed as if he were reclining on his living-room couch. Around him the water crinkles and winks, like smoothed-out foil gift wrap. Two frothy white tracks stretch parallel behind the moving boat, creating a broad path back in time.

Beyond the wake sits the Schneider Dock, which knew the bay when it was a working man’s paradise, full of mills and ships and fishing boats, even whalers, and ferries. The work has dwindled — there are mostly fishing boats now — but stories linger out here, sealed in the grain of old wooden boats, in the iron cells of former war ships like the World War II Navy landing craft Ten Ninety-One, now a civilian museum ship docked north of the Schneider dock, and even in some of the more modern boats.

There are boats in this bay that look like old beaters, ready for retirement in some quiet, forgetting cove. And others, seemingly in good shape, that never leave port. There are nameless boats. There’s a lovingly oiled wooden boat: “Admiral” Jim Blum’s 1965, 49-foot golden-brown crab and tuna boat, the Tempest. Rescue barges. Ordinary old fishing boats, and new ones made by Eureka boat builder Ken Bates. And more.

Hills knows many if not most of them — he’s spent his whole young life so far living and working on the bay, drinking in the lore like an essential nutrient.

Sure, he’s just a kid: 22. But he’s Leroy Zerlang’s kid: Zerlang, also reared on the bay, who owned the Crab Shack at the foot of C Street when Hills was young (he called Hills, to whom he’s been father since Hills was 1, the “Crab Kid”); Zerlang, captain of the Madaket, the oldest boat on the bay, which began as a ferry boat in 1910 and turned into a harbor cruise boat in 1972, after the Samoa Bridge was built rendering ferries useless. Hills learned how to walk on the Madaket and how to row in a little boattethered to the dock at the foot of I Street, outside his childhood home. Three years ago, he became the youngest licensed merchant marine captain in California (just like his dad before him).

Hills works for Brusco Tug & Barge and Knutson Towboat Co. and is one of just four remaining guys who operate tug boats to haul in the big ships. He also works for his dad at Zerlang and Zerlang Marine Services, the family’s boat-repair business on the Samoa Peninsula. The Zerlang boat yard is where volunteers and local boatwright Dave Peterson are helping Veterans for Peace restore the Golden Rule, the little peace-protest ketch that in 1958 tried to storm the Marshall Islands atomic testing grounds.

Veteran Chuck DeWitt, who coordinates that restoration, is piloting the Baykeeper boat that carries Hills, another Veterans for Peace volunteer named Skip Oliver, and a couple of Journal staffers on this late-November morning.

Read More

12/8/12

An Alaska senator wants $15 million for tsunami debris cleanup on the West Coast included in a federal disaster relief pack­age for states affected by Superstorm Sandy.



Sen. Mark Begich said it’s embarrassing that the government of Japan has put more funding toward the debris cleanup than the U.S. govern­ment has. He said the impact of debris from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan reaching U.S. shores is as much a natural disaster as a hur­ricane, drought or wildfire — it’s just unfolding in slow motion.



“We have to recognize that it’s different than any other type of disaster because if it’s like Sandy, you see it; it’s right there in your face, everything at once,” he said. “And in this situa­tion it’s kind of like climate change. Things don’t happen overnight, they happen over a period of time, and when it happens and accumulates you look back and say, ‘Why didn’t we do some­thing?’ “We have that option right now to do some­thing,” he said.



Japan has pledged $5 million for tsunami debris cleanup, more than the entire National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget for dealing with marine debris in gener­al in fiscal year 2012. Begich said he considers a three-to-one match of the Japanese funding “the very least” the federal government can do to help cleanup efforts in Alaska, Hawaii, Califor­nia, Oregon and Washington.



It’s not clear just how quickly Congress will take up the aid package, or how big it might be. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said he hasn’t taken a position yet on how much money may be needed for debris cleanup. “There are significant discussions yet to be had but I agree that there is a need for funds to help mitigate the effects of tsuna­mi debris impacting our shores,” he said in a state­ment.

Some states haven’t yet used their $50,000 grants provided by NOAA earlier this year. In Washington state, for example, after see­ing an increase in debris from May through July, offi­cials say things have quieted down and the state’s plan for dealing with the debris calls for conserving resources where possible. NOAA announced the grants to the five West Coast states in July.

In Alaska, the grant’s gone, having gone toward cleanup along 25 miles out of about 2,500 in the state before the weather turned too nasty for crews to be out. The work was done by Gulf of Alaska Keeper, which is dedicated to cleaning marine debris from the Alaska coastline. Moni­toring by the group found a huge jump in the weight of debris found at four sites it regularly visits.

“It’s just devastating, just sick,” said the group’s presi­dent, Chris Pallister, who worries about the impact of the debris on fish and wildlife.

Tsunami debris is difficult to monitor, given that debris can break up and winds and ocean currents consistently change. And it’s tough to dis­tinguish it from the everyday debris that has been an ongoing problem for coastal communities for years. At least 16 items from among more than 1,400 reports have been firmly traced to the tsunami, including a 20­foot boat, pieces of which were recovered earlier this month in Hawaii.

The Japanese government estimated that 1.5 million tons of debris were floating in the ocean in the immedi­ate aftermath of the tsunami, but it’s not clear how much is still floating nearly two years on or just what will U.S. shores, when.

NOAA estimates the bulk of what is coming either has arrived or will in the next year or so — but that’s a rough guess. The Japanese government last month pre­dicted the most buoyant debris, such as buoys that lit­tered some Alaska beaches earlier this year, has already arrived. Lumber from hous­es and boats is expected to begin reaching the West Coast around this month, and mostly submerged debris, like driftwood or waterlogged lumber, is expected around June next year.

In Oregon, after a fairly normal year for debris — save for the massive dock that washed ashore from Japan — a recent storm brought foam and other rubbish onto isolated sec­tions of shoreline, said Chris Havel, spokesman for the state’s Department of Parks and Recreation. State response teams were also recently activated to dispose of a gas can that washed up.

Havel shares Pallister’s concerns about the environ­mental impact of debris as it breaks up. Unlike in Alaska, where beaches are often remote and treacherous dur­ing the fall and winter, beaches in Oregon are large­ly accessible year-round, and Havel was placing orders earlier this week for another 10,000 bags that will be used in cleanup. He placed his last order in July, but anticipates needing more as the winter wears on.

“We do need resources now, people and money now, to deal with it here at the beginning of a two- to three-year effort,” he said.

Read Original Article

11/30/12

The Government of Japan announced today a gift of $5 million to the United States, through NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, to support efforts in response to marine debris washing ashore in the U.S. from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
The funds will be used to support marine debris response efforts, such as removal of debris, disposal fees, cleanup supplies, detection and monitoring. NOAA anticipates distributing funds to affected regions as the funds are received from Japan and will work to determine immediate needs and plan for future applications.

Since the disaster, NOAA has been leading efforts with federal, state and local partners to coordinate a response, collect data, assess the debris and reduce possible impacts to natural resources and coastal communities.

“We are extremely grateful to Japan for its generous support to the American people. The tragedy set in motion by the earthquake and tsunami continues to be tangible, but it brought our nations together. This gift is a powerful reminder of the goodwill, friendship and spirit of mutual support between our people,” said Jane Lubchenco, PhD., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator of NOAA. “We appreciate this partnership and collaboration with Japan as we work to keep our ocean and coasts healthy.”

Debris from the disaster has drifted across the Pacific and reached shorelines in the U.S. and Canada. In July, NOAA provided $50,000 each to Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and California to support response efforts.

Items from the tsunami that have drifted to U.S. shores include sports balls, a floating dock, buoys and vessels. Mariners and the public can help report debris by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with information on significant sightings. For the latest information on tsunami debris please visit: Japan Tsunami Marine Debris.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us at www.noaa.gov.