Good Steward Newsletter - March 2007

The The June Newsletter announces a meeting the Florida DEP is having on The The April Newsletter gives some tips on being a good steward of the .. The June Newsletter explains the important aspects of the Judges's .
Table of contents

Oakland Work, Grant info.

Oakland Meets for Clean Air. Mai-Lan Ha, and More July Amount of water used to, New video series on corporate water stewardship in Asia, and More May Water Policy Conference, and More October Year in Review — Momentum into December Hidden Business Risks, and More February River and Air March For Love of Water January Water; EJ in the Bay February Freight Transport, Water in the News August Check the caulking around all windows, doors and other openings. That shrinkable plastic film to place over windows may waste some plastic in the spring, but it can reduce drafts around the windows and raise the R-value to that of double- or triple-glazed windows.

Also it can be programmed to warm up the house before you get up in the morning. Turn it down to save money, protect the environment and fight climate change. Not the paint color but how environmentally friendly is it? Washing dishes by hand in a dish pan is more energy and water efficient than the dishwasher, but both are more efficient than using throwaway, single-use paper and plastic plates, cups, napkins, etc. When buying at the grocery store, check for place of origin.

Several stores in Racine sell southeast Wisconsin produce when available. And do we really need fruits and vegetables that are shipped halfway around the world? Preparing from scratch is generally better than serving commercially prepared foods or ordering in. Refrigerating leftovers instead of throwing them out is both economical and environmentally friendly. Homemade soups can be a flavorful and eco-friendly way to use up leftovers.

Food scraps that can not be reused, other than meat products, should be composted and thus returned to the garden or lawn. Not only do they emit more climate changing carbon dioxide than any other source, but they also are the largest source of human-generated mercury, a potent neurotoxin affecting the learning ability of our children.

They produce more than million tons of ash, slag and sludge annually — roughly the same amount as all municipal solid waste disposed in U. To obtain the coal, mountaintop mining in Appalachia has buried more than miles of some of the most biologically diverse streams in the country. And fine particulate pollution from U. Power plants cuts short the lives of approximately 24, people each year — 50 percent more than are murdered annually. Environmental stewardship should also mean good citizenship. I was reminded of one of the first articles I wrote for this newsletter.

A walk around the neighborhood on any trash collection day shows us the tremendous amount of material we throw out every week. How much is typical of an extravagant and affluent life style? Many of us are trying our best to recycle as much as possible, but many are not. Recycling saves raw materials, energy and landfill space. In the City of Racine, we can keep the hazardous waste out of our ground water, our neighboring land fill and the environment in general, by taking advantage of the Household Hazardous Waste HHW collections on the third Saturday of each month, April through October.

Wind Point has a HHW collection only every other year and this is not the year. Would you like to be one? A locovore is a person who eats locally produced foods as much as possible, rather than food shipped hundreds or thousands of miles from their place of origin. It has been said that eating just one-quarter of our food from locally grown sources saves more energy than recycling all of your household waste. Growing your own food in your own garden is about as local as you can get, but Community Supported Agriculture CSA may be the next best thing. CSA is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm and a community of supporters which provides a direct link between the production and consumption of food.

You, the consumer, pays up front for fresh produce to be delivered or picked up weekly usually from mid-June to mid-October. The farmer agrees to supply you with fresh vegetables that are generally grown organically and guaranteed to be local. The consumer, in essence, becomes part owner of the farm for the year. Two such farms nearby are: You need JavaScript enabled to view it or www. Why not investigate these or other CSA locations to see whether you want to become a locovore.


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According to the U. Geological survey, the total amount of water used in Wisconsin for home, industry and agriculture is over one billion gallons per day! So it is good stewardship to protect both our ground and surface water. Two ways each of us can help is the use of rain barrels and rain gardens, both of which reduce the run-off of polluted water while increasing the amount of water that percolates into the ground, recharging the aquifer.

Call Jeff at or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The collected rain water is great for watering house and garden plants and washing your hair. Rain gardens might be a bit more work, but it is well worth it to see the water from your roof producing healthy plants and flowers instead of running down the gutters picking up debris and pollution along the way.

To learn how and where to build a rain garden and what to plant in it, attend one of the two remaining Rain Garden Workshops sponsored by the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network: Saturday, May 9, 9: They are free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required.

Call or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. In some parts of the world, water shortages are a matter of life or death. We on the shores of Lake Michigan do not face these problems. Still, we are encouraged to turn off the faucet when brushing our teeth, throttle back the shower and install low volume toilets. This is all the water used to raise the food we eat and to make the products we use. Chicken and pork are somewhat better, requiring and gal.

Wheat requires only gal. Fruits and vegetables use even less water. A pound of potatoes requires gallons and an orange or apple requires only 13 or 18 gallons. It should be noted that these crops may be using all this water in regions of the world where water is in short supply. We can save a lot of water, virtual or otherwise, by reducing waste and changing our eating habits. These are advertised as renewable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics and we need to reduce our use of fossil fuels. Bioplastics are designed to be composted, not recycled.

Mixing any of them in with conventional plastics for recycling will ruin the whole batch. The bacteria in most home composting will not work at all on some of the bioplastics. Most may require the high heat and humidity of an industrial composting plant. As noted above, bioplastics are currently made from food crops, using large amounts of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that pollute our air and water, while many people in the world go hungry to meet our want for convenience.

Someday, we may have bioplastics in our grocery bags and other plastic items that are made from renewable, nonpolluting and nonfood materials. So here are a few ideas for keeping cool without excessively warming up the outside. Whole-house fans installed in the ceiling can pull in cool evening and morning air, forcing hot air out, using only one-tenth the electricity of an air conditioner. Even if you use an air conditioner, the use of a ceiling fan permits setting it four degrees higher for the same comfort level. Install an Energy Star-rated fan inches from the ceiling. Plant deciduous trees on the south side of the house for passive cooling in the summer.

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Trees reduce the air temperature by as much as nine degrees. Keeping an air conditioner in full shade can increase its efficiency up to ten percent. Solar screens on the windows can block up to 90 percent of incoming solar heat without obscuring the view. Awnings on west facing windows can reduce solar heat by 77 percent according to the DOE. If you decide you must have an air conditioner, be sure that it is an Energy Star-rated model sized to your needs.

If all room air conditioners in the USA were Energy Star models, it would avoid , tons of global warming emissions — the equivalent of taking , cars off the road. That is about ten per person and nearly all of them end up in landfills. The Union of Concerned Scientists suggest that the next time you need to power up your gadgets, be good environmental stewards and choose rechargeable batteries instead. Unlike disposable alkaline batteries, rechargeable batteries can be reused hundreds of times, which not only saves money and resources, but also reduces global warming pollution associated with battery manufacturing and transportation.

According to an independent study, using a disposable battery to create one kilowatt-hour of electricity has a global warming impact equivalent to driving a car miles. Using a rechargeable battery for the same power is equivalent to driving 10 miles! Nickel-metal hydride NiMH is the most common rechargeable battery and comes in most sizes. Nickel-cadmium NiCad rechargeable batteries have more problems because of the toxicity of Cadmium. Lithium-ion batteries are currently used mostly in high-end electronics, are more expensive, but have greater energy density.

Solar-powered battery chargers require no power off the grid at all. In any case, unplug the charger when not in use, since it will otherwise still draw current. When a battery has finally fulfilled its lifetime, dispose of it correctly where it was purchased, at a hazardous waste collection 3rd Saturdays in Racine , or at volunteer sites such as Battery Plus. Add to that the cost to the pocket book and the environment in water and soil pollution of the millions of pounds of fertilizer and pesticides spread on lawns each year. So what to do? Deciduous trees on the south and west sides of the house will give shade in the summer and let the sunlight in during the winter.

Evergreen trees planted on the north and windward sides can reduce heating costs. One can further reduce outdoor water usage significantly by replacing some or all of your lawn with native plants and groundcovers. Mulching around trees and in flower beds will save water and keep the soil cool. Use hand and leg or electric-powered lawn equipment.

Cowichan Land Trust

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that gas-powered push lawnmowers emit as much nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons per hour as eleven cars; riding mowers emit as much as thirty-four cars! An appointed task force replaced old light fixtures and appliances with energy efficient models. Professional assessors showed that their site was not a good one for wind power, but was situated in a perfect position for solar power.

So with a partial grant from Focus on Energy, they installed a 2. For others, especially those with allergies, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and other lung and heart diseases, it has meant misery, illness and retreating into the house. The hydrocarbons include seven which are known to cause cancer. Among the products of combustion are several polyaromatic hydrocarbons and benzo a pyrene, a known carcinogen.

Carnow at the University of Illinois, benzo a pyrene is found in oak leaves in the same concentrations which exist in tobacco leaves and is directly related to the incidence of lung cancer. So what to do with all those leaves? They are of great value for mulching and composting. You will not only be a good environmental steward but a good neighbor, too. What a pleasant and energy saving way to be good environmental stewards! If every family in Mt. Pleasant Lutheran Church replaced just one watt incandescent that is on for an average of six hours per day with a six watt LED, we would keep more than LEDs generate about 97 percent less heat than incandescent bulbs and so are advantageous in enclosed fixtures and other heat sensitive places.

CFLs last about ten times longer than incandescents 6, to 15, hours vs. But why not try one? At the most recent meeting of the Green Team Congregations, a program called Meatless Mondays was discussed. In place of beef, chicken, fish or pork, substitute protein from beans, other legumes, eggs, nuts and seeds. Going meatless once a week can reduce your carbon footprint, save money and precious resources such as fresh water and fossil fuel especially with corn-fed beef , and may reduce your risk of chronic, preventable conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity through better nutrition and lower saturated fats.

We reduce our personal calorie intake by calories and the energy to produce 8 ounces of beef rather than soy by 23, calories. Need more information or meatless recipes? Appliances consume different amounts of energy at different times and the bills may be weeks after the fact. Then I discovered that there are a growing number of plug-in devices which permit one to track electricity usage in real time. A friend had a meter that I could borrow that tracks energy use of individual devices in real time.

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Many appliances, such as TVs, microwave ovens, computers and the like continue to draw current even when nominally off. For these, one must still go out and check the electricity meter as, for example, the air conditioner runs vs. Find the energy hungry appliances in your house and see if you can be a better environmental steward. If there is enough interest, possibly the church could buy such a meter to lend out. But we know that others will say it is a necessary purchase to watch all those nature programs and intelligent talk shows on public television. There is an energy price with any new TV.

This is equivalent to the total output of more than 10 coal-fired power plants! There are three HDTV technologies on the market today. So look for the Energy Star label and check the energy use both when the set is on and when on standby. Reducing energy consumption is good environmental stewardship. The above data are from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Apparently, many well-educated people have had difficulty these first few weeks following the well-distributed directions. The city is divided into two zones, green generally on the east side and gold on the west, for the alternate week pickups. The bins have ID numbers on them because they are city property and, if lost or stolen, the numbers will aid return to the proper residence. You can co-mingle all your recyclables according to the very complete listing on the top of each bin.

To keep down odors and not attract pests, it is recommended to rinse food containers before placing them in the bin. If you tend to fill the bin too quickly, you might consider flattening tin cans, milk bottles, soft drink and beer containers. This not only saves space, but can be a great way to release any violent urges.

Recycling is required by state law; it is against the law to place a long list of recyclables into landfills. Recycling will make our landfills last longer, save money for municipalities and taxpayers, and make our finite natural resources, including energy and fossil fuels, last longer. Recycling materials is generally much more fuel efficient than using virgin material. Recycling saves money and resources and is the right thing to do. Here are my picks in no particular order. Drive a higher mileage car and reduce the total miles driven by walking, biking, carpooling, and limiting idling.

If we all averaged 40 mpg, we would save 3 million barrels of oil and 3. Insulate, weather-strip and caulk the leaks in our homes and install a programable thermostat, set no higher than 68 in the winter and no lower than 76 in the summer. It takes gallons of water to raise one pound of beef vs.

Keep household hazardous waste out of our landfills and ground water by taking the appropriate items to the collections on the third Saturday of the month and medication drop-offs twice a year. Support renewable energies -- solar and wind -- rather than polluting fossil fuels -- coal and oil. Plant natural areas in your yard which will reduce herbicide, pesticide and fertilizer use; install rain barrels and rain gardens to reduce runoff.

As a verb with the accent on the second syllable, it means to turn down or decline to do something. As a noun with the accent on the first syllable it means the junk or trash of which we produce too much and recycle too little. How are they related to environmental stewardship? You can probably add much more to that list if each day you look to find what you can refuse to reduce the refuse. For a two adult household that is 82 pounds of paper. I assume that you are recycling all those catalogs and offers of things you may not want.

But there is a better, more environmentally sound way to handle all this waste than shredding and recycling Save all those trees or recycled paper, water, and energy, both in manufacture and in transportation. There are several ways to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. One is to contact a web site specifically set up for that purpose such as CatalogChoice.

Building the 21st Century Grid

According to their web site, 1,, people use Catalog Choice to communicate with 3, companies. Or, the Privacy Council can have your name removed from ten major mailing lists and keep them off. For more information on this service go to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. They charge a fee, but one-third of it is donated to the environmental or community organization of your choice. These cards probably should not be sent in. Many contests and raffles are also fishing for names and addresses. For sexually oriented advertising, fill out USPS forms and you can define what is explicit for you.

This should stop mail for five years from all member organizations from which you have not specifically ordered products. It is good environmental stewardship. Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. We also summarize what we hope to accomplish by continuing to exist. August Newsletter The August Newsletter contains a survey for our members to fill out. It also has an article about what Perdido Bay meant to families in the 's. A second look at PCB profiles and dioxin found in sediments of Perdido Bay reveals that this is material from scrubbers dumbed into wastewater treatment ponds.

June Newsletter The June Newsletter explains why IP's wetland discharge may help them get different limits so that they may be able to get a permit without a Consent Order, and it looks at an ally of paper mills, the forestry industry. February Newsletter The February Newsletter looks at the recent health of Perdido Bay and describes the new International Paper permit application which contains information about toxicity of IP's effluent.

December Newsletter The December Newsletter discusses how the environmental agencies are hiding the truth about the health of Perdido Bay; announces that chlorine was found in mile Creek; and gives preliminary results of our dioxin testing. September Newsletter The September Newsletter explains why old polluting paper mills continue to exist; it looks at the St.

Joe Company and the new 2nd largest landowner in Florida; tells why you should support Amendment 1 on the Florida ballot; and gives tribute to Joy Morrill. May Newsletter The May Newsletter looks at some of the damage from the recent floods; shows an aerial photo of IP's aeration stabilization basin with aerators which are not operating at complete horsepower; prints a dissenting opinion about climate change; and talks about the faulty science we have seen on Perdido Bay.

March Newsletter The March newsletter looks at changes which are being made in insurance and policy due to climate changes and rising sea levels; discusses the flushing of duckweed into the bay after heavy rains; and asks for volunteers for a crab watch program. January Newsletter The January Newsletter reaffirms that the major source of pollution into Perdido Bay is the International Paper mill in Cantonment FL; looks at some heavy metal testing in the sediments, and describes what the northern end of Perdido Bay looks like.

October Newsletter The October Newsletter contemplates what Friends of Perdido Bay's direction for the future will be; looks at an old lawsuit filed in , and discusses the increased premiums from the flood insurance. An article describes how IP is increasing production at the Cantonment mill and more. The article talks about the logging industry on Perdido Bay just after the Civil War and describes the little railroad which carried logs and lumber from Perdido Bay to the Port of Pensacola.

The lies by the government agency which is charged with protecting the environment of Florida is disturbing.

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An example, is the statement that there were never any grassbeds in Upper Perdido Bay. This is a lie. Also discussed, are the new nutrient standards which have been set for Perdido Bay. The mercury problem in fish and the weakening of environmental rules is also discussed. The newsletter also looks at the new nutrient rule DEP is proposing for Perdido Bay and mentions heavy metals found in the sediments. The newsletter also looks at the recent permits issued to IP for approximately 27 wells to withdraw process water from the ground and more.

March Newsletter The March Newsletter looks back over the strange events which have occurred over the years which Friends of Perdido Bay has been involved. The newsletter also discusses the massive pollution contributed by the paper mill. January Newsletter The January Newsletter gives you an update on the nutrient rule Florida is trying to pass. Wonders if you will remember a clean Perdido Bay. And more November Newsletter The November Newsletter gives you an update on IP's progress on their wetland and treatment projects. We also explain why there is an increased risk of infection by swimming in Perdido Bay..

There is also an article about Emerald Coast's pipeline around the IP treatment ponds to the wetlands surrounding Perdido Bay.. The Florida DEP is proposing taking the bay off the impaired list for nutrients. There is also an article about the nutrient rule the environmental agencies are trying to pass for Florida The newsletter also explains how International Paper Company is putting more and more of their costs onto us, the public, in order to save money. February Newsletter The February Newsletter includes articles about how the EPA has declared a once beautiful creek permanently polluted, why the bay water is clear in the winter, and more December Newsletter The December Newsletter informs our readers about the building of the pipeline to the wetlands in spite of the fact that the permit has not been approved in the appeals court.

It also explains why biomass is a bad source of energy. The newsletter revisits the dioxin issue in Perdido Bay and summarizes our views on two amendments to FL and AL constitutions. July Newsletter The July Newsletter discusses the oil spill and how it has impacted Perdido Bay and local waters. The July newsletter also looks at the regulatory failures as regards the oil spill and Perdido Bay. The insert of Blowout prevention legislation is also included May Newsletter The May Newsletter gives you some pointers on how to live lightly in the spirit of Earth Day.

And our take on DEP's lack of enforcement. Also we talk about the judge's decision in the latest IP permit.


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Read the entire newsletter. Read the February Newsletter January Newsletter The January Newletter again looks at recent attempts by state and federal environmental agencies to weaken environmental rules and make pollution legal; the newsletter also highlights the local utility's attempt to increase the effluent going to wetlands surrounding Perdido Bay. Read the entire January Newsletter April Newsletter The April Newletter gives you an update on the administrative hearing progress, the challenge to the wetland rule and some past history on stakeholders involved with Champion.

Currently the Florida DEP is saying that the wetlands exemption rule does not allow IP to violate water quality standards in the wetlands. Read the April Newsletter November Newsletter The November Newletter looks at recent attempts by state and federal environmental agencies to weaken environmental rules and make pollution legal; the newsletter also explains why we think IP is fudging their results which they report to DEP Read the entire November Newsletter October Newsletter The October Newletter has the latest update on the completed administrative hearing challenging IP's permit to discharge to wetlands; it also looks at where some of the sewage is going and how it might impact the Perdido Bay watershed.

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Read the entire October Newsletter July Newsletter The July Newletter gives you information on the recently completed administrative hearing in which Friends challenged the proposed permit for IP to discharge to wetlands; there is information on nutrients in Perdido Bay and the giant rebate congress gave to the paper industry.

Read the entire July Newsletter April Newsletter The April Newletter gives you an update on the administrative hearing progress, the challenge to the wetland rule and some past history on stakeholders involved with Champion. Read the April Newsletter February Newsletter The February Newsletter gives you all the latest information about the administrative hearing, and about some of our witnesses.