Water News from Near and Far

ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain has a new exhibit, funded by the Lake Champlain Basin Program, which showcases six animal and four plant invasive species.

“Invasive species are a significant problem in Lake Champlain. The past year saw the 51st non-native species arrive in Lake Champlain through human transport,” said ECHO Executive Director Phelan Fretz. “By presenting invasive species in Lake Champlain and how we all can help stop more from being introduced, we will help to maintain this critical ecological system.”

The 2,000 gallon tells the story of invasive species’ arrival in Lake Champlain, helping to educate visitors about the dangers and methods of their spread. The exhibit includes graphics, a tablet-based interactive game, and live in-tank webcam and interactive feature.

The SUNY Plattsburgh 2016 Senior Exhibition for students in the Bachelors of Fine Arts program features works inspired by invasive species from Lake Champlain by artist Colleen Doelger. One piece, “Clogged Up” is a sculpture of a garden hose with zebra mussels growing out of it. In her artist’s statement she writes:

“Within this one planet millions of different environments exist. Many times we look at the natural environment as something separate from our own, and we tend to forget how intertwined our ecosystems are. My body of work focuses on Lake Champlain and the invasive species that have made a home for themselves within this particular region. These alien organisms have become the inspiration for my installations, functional ceramic work, and design. The behaviors of these invaders are quite similar to our own. They have a way of multiplying into mass numbers, and learning how to adapt to their new environment. I find the repetition and patterns created by these organisms to be beautiful in their own way.”

The Exhibition opened in April and runs through May 14. Pieces can be viewed in three places in the Myers Fine Arts Galley. The Lobby Gallery on the first floor is open 7 AM to 10 PM weekdays and noon to 4 PM on weekends. Joseph C. and Joan T. Burke Gallery and the Slatkin Study Room, both on the second floor, are open noon to 4 PM every day. 

A chemical, PFOA has been found in drinking water supplies in the Northeast. It started last November when residents of Hoosick Falls, NY in Rensselear County were notified that water samples in the town tested positive for PFOA. PFOA stands for perfluorooctanoate. It has been used in the making Teflon and has been produced since the 1940s. In February residents of nearby North Bennington, VT became concerned that the chemical might also be in their drinking water. Subsequent water tests confirmed their fears. Fifty-two private wells and a municipal system in Pownal tested positive.

PFOA does not break down easily and persists for a long-time in the environment. PFOA has been found in the blood of more than 98% of Americans at very low levels, and at higher levels in chemical plant employees and those that live near chemical plants. The primary manufacturer began phasing out PFOA in 2002, and eight other companies agreed to follow suit by 2015. In Bennington, the substance was used by a company called Chemfab from 1970 through 2000 when they were purchased by Saint-Gobain. The plant closed in 2002.

Long-term effects of PFOA exposure are largely unknown. Studies in humans have found that people with workplace exposure have higher risks of bladder and kidney cancers. As a result, EPA has listed PFOA as an emergent contaminant, and set a provisional health advisory level of 0.4 parts per billion in drinking water. The Vermont Health Department established a health alert level at .02 parts per billion for drinking water. However, there is no requirement for drinking water facilities to test for the compound.

Since finding the chemical in Bennington drinking water, Vermont has expanded testing to 11 more locations around the state where the chemical is believed to have been used in manufacturing. The 11 sites include IBM (Essex), Phoenix Wire (South Hero), Champlain Cable (Colchester), Harbour Industries and unaffiliated former Harbour Industries sites (Shelburne, Colchester), SuperTemp (South Burlington, Winooski), Belden Wire & Cable (Essex, Williston), Pittsford Fire Academy, and National Guard Air Force Base.

The New York Times predicts the number of people found to be drinking water tainted by PFOA is almost certain to grow. “I think when people look,” said Arlene Blum, the executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, “they’re going to find it.”

The Spring 2016 CleanSweepNY collection event will take place on Wednesday, May 4 in Plattsburgh, NY and Thursday, May 5 in Hudson Falls, NY. CleanSweepNY is a program to safely and economically dispose of canceled, unwanted, unusable, or otherwise obsolete pesticides and other chemicals from agricultural or non-agricultural business activities. School chemicals and mercury-containing devices will also be collected.

Preregistration is necessary. Registration forms can be requested by email at info@ cleansweepny.org or phone at 877-793-3769. The program is not available for home and garden pesticides as they can be taken to Household Hazardous Waste collections. Since its beginning in 2002, CleanSweepNY has collected approximately 453,000 pounds of pesticides and hazardous chemicals, and recycled 1,467 triple-rinsed pesticide containers which would otherwise have been buried, burned or landfilled.

American Rivers, a non-profit river advocacy organization, has declared the St. Lawrence River one of the ten most endangered in the country. The group noted, “Outdated dam operations are putting the river’s rich history and biodiversity at risk.”

The Moses-Saunders Hydropower Dam was constructed on the St. Lawrence 50 years ago. Environmental considerations were not part of the planning for the structure at the time. Since then, the dam’s regulation of water levels has interrupted the natural variability of the system leading to a loss of wetlands, significant impacts to fish and nesting birds, and a resulting loss of biodiversity.

The International Joint Commission has developed a new plan for water management on the St. Lawrence which is awaiting implementation. The plan was recommended in June 2014, but has languished in inter-agency review since then with no action by either the U.S. or Canada. American Rivers said, “Fortunately, the U.S. and Canadian governments can remove the St. Lawrence River from the list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® with the simple stroke of a pen.”

Think twice before you seal coat your driveway. The USGS has recently produced a fact sheet on the health and water quality impacts of coal tar-based driveway sealants. Sealants are black, viscous liquids sprayed or painted on many asphalt parking lots, driveways, and playgrounds to protect and enhance the appearance of the underlying asphalt. Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), academic institutions, and State and local agencies have identified them as a major source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination in urban and suburban areas and a potential concern for human health and aquatic life.

As coal-tar-sealants age, they wear into small particles with high levels of PAHs that can be tracked into homes and incorporated into house dust. Inhaling or ingesting PAH-contaminated house dust and soil results in an elevated potential risk for lung, skin, bladder, and respiratory cancers. Affects are most worrisome for young children.

On the environmental end, runoff from coal-tar sealants, even more than three months after application, is acutely toxic to fathead minnows and water fleas, two species commonly used to assess toxicity to aquatic life. Exposure to even highly diluted runoff can cause DNA damage and impair DNA repair. These findings demonstrate that coal-tar-sealcoat runoff can remain a risk to aquatic life for months after application.

The weather has always been a topic of conversation and for centuries people have tracked meteorological events. Long-term records from distinct locations can be used to intuit changes in the regional climate. In 1442 Shinto priests living on Lake Suwa in Japan began recording freeze dates for the lake. In 1693 Finnish merchants began recording ice break-up dates for the Torne River. Today their notes represent the oldest known records of lake freeze and river thaw observations on record, and provide a picture of how such events have been affected by climate change.

A recent National Geographic blog post by LCC Advisory Council member Lisa Borre, describes what these records can tell us. Lisa was intrigued by this story of legends, lakes and ice and we hope you will be too.

One of the important findings relates to trends in ice seasonality. Both locations exhibited more rapid rates of change consistent with warming – later ice freeze and earlier ice breakup – following the start of the Industrial Revolution in the 1840s.

Another finding is that climate is not necessarily becoming more variable. What we now call extreme events are no more different from average events than they were in the past. It’s the average that has changed.