Nature Walk in Chumuckla

I walked the woods of the Panhandle today. It was quiet, peaceful and relaxing. The temperature seemed just right, and the cloud cover was almost too perfect.

As I began to walk, I realized that it was not so quiet alone in the woods, and as a matter of fact, I was not alone at all. Life was all around me and it was quite amazing. I could hear birds chirping like I have never heard before. The wind was rustling through the trees, making sounds almost as if the trees were talking to me, telling me stories of the sights they have seen. I could hear a dog howling in the distance, letting everyone know about the things he has gone through. It seemed as if my ears were in an entirely different place.

But that was not all; all of my other senses began to become more active, as well. I could smell things that others in their everyday lives cannot smell. The wind had a unique smell, a fresh smell of a new day and new season. The trees smelled so fresh and inspiring. And I began to see things that not just anyone can see. It was nature at its best, untouched and pure. The trees seemed alive, almost as if they were walking with me. The birds seemed as if they were at home, as they flew from tree to tree, not having to worry about anyone or anything interfering with their everyday lifestyle. Ants were marching in a straight line, each doing their job and not one swayed from the line.

That brings me to feeling, and it was a feeling that everyone gets, but it is rare. A feeling of pureness, freshness, cleanness and a feeling of being alive, all at once. Being with nature in its habitat, not my habitat. Letting nature do its work as I watched, not it watching as I did my job. I felt as I was part of nature, and I belonged right there in the woods. Now, I know whenever I need to get away from the stress of everyday living, all I have to do is take a walk in the quite, peaceful, wonderful woods of Chumuckla.

 

Legal Ad Story - Title V Revision for IP

As of March 16, residents of Escambia County may notice some new, different smells circulating in the air.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection Northwest District approved a Title V Air Operation Permit Revision to International Paper Company for the Pensacola Mill in Cantonment.

The mill has been converted from a hardwood and softwood facility to a completely hardwood facility, increasing the mill’s pulp and paper production to a peak level of approximately 2,500 air dried tons of unbleached pulp per day.  

This conversion to completely softwood facilities will result an increase of 109.40 tons of toxic emissions into the air.

These emissions include volatile organic compounds, mono-nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, sulfuric oxide mist and particulate matter.

Volatile organic compounds and particulate matter are suspected to be carcinogens, while all of the chemicals are suspected to be respiratory toxicants, according Scorecard.org, a pollution information website.

Softwood is used to make a harder, thicker paper, such as cardboard, that is generally dark in color and not bleached to turn white, while on the other hand, hardwood is used to make smooth, soft, white paper, which requires bleaching.

“They are in business to make money,” said Jack Fleck, an Engineering Specialist for the Florida DEP. “And I assume that this is a cost cutting move.”

IP is a global paper and packaging company that is ranked No. 93 among the Fortune 500 companies. The company operates 16 pulp, paper and packaging mills, including the Pensacola location, which has been in operation since 1941. Through 2007, IP has over 51,000 employees worldwide, with just over 31,000 of those being employed in the United States.

IP failed to comment on the Title V revision after numerous contact attempts were made.

The process to convert the Pensacola Mill to a completely softwood facility began in November 2006, with IP submitting a request for an application for construction that explained the process and how things were supposed to occur during the revision.

After the DEP approved the construction application, IP began the conversion, which began physically in September 2007 and was completed physically early in 2008.

As usual with any Title V revision, the long, drawn out part of the process begins after the construction, according to Fleck.

“After the actual construction, things get bogged down,” Fleck said. “Tests are run on the emissions, which can take up to three months depending on the difficulty of the tests and the size of the tests.

“After the tests are run, the company then gets 75 days to receive and report the results, along with their application, to the DEP. Then the DEP begins their review of the results and questioning process, which can take anywhere from 30, 45, 60 days.”

Once the DEP approves the results, the company must publish a public notice of the change. At times, the notice comes months after the DEP approves the results.

IP published their notice for a revision in The Pensacola News Journal on December 19, 2008.

Once the notice goes public, the community has 30 days for public comment. If there is no public comment, the DEP approves the revision.

No public comment was made on the revision for IP, resulting in the approval.

IP’s current Title V Air Operation Permit expires October 27, 2011 and they must apply for renewal by March 16 of the same year.

 

Toxic Town

They say I live in a toxic town. Well, whoever “they” are is probably right. While I do not live in Escambia County, I spend a good bit of time there at school and for work, and look at Escambia County. It is ranked the number one county for toxic chemical releases in Florida, winning this probably unwanted title by nearly 13 million pounds. It is also in the top 10 in the country, and I don’t think that can be good for me or the people around here. But I do live on the safer side of the river in Santa Rosa County, which checks in at 21^st in Florida, and who knows where in the nation. Releasing only 645,000 pounds of toxic chemicals looks a lot better than that 38 million that Escambia is releasing. So they say I live in a toxic town, but I feel I will be just fine. I will live my life, enjoy it and try not to think about these toxic chemicals being released. But maybe I should just spend some more time at home in Santa Rosa County.

Arizona Chemial Co. TRI Story

Arizona Chemical Co. continued their trend of lower releases of toxic chemicals in Escambia County in the 2007 Toxic Release Inventory report by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The TRI is a publically available database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and waste management activities annually by certain industries as well as federal facilities. The database can be accessed at www.epa.gov/triexplorer.

Arizona Chemical Co. released 11,441 pounds of toxic chemicals in 2007, down 16 percent from the 13,696 pounds released in 2006.

The results were the lowest for the company since 2000.

Arizona Chemical Co. credits their reduction is toxic chemicals released to its recognition and awareness of its releases.

“We have focused on two things aggressively,” said Khalid Hasna, an environmental engineer at Arizona Chemical Co. in Pensacola. “First, in 2000 we went to equipment with emissions control and second we are focusing more on waste minimization.”

The company continues to release ethylbenzene, phenol and xylene. All three toxic chemicals are suspected to be toxicants that have human health hazards.

Ethylbenzene is the only recognized carcinogen, while all three chemicals are suspected to be a cardiovascular or blood toxicant, a developmental toxicant and a neurotoxicant according to Scorecard.org, a pollution information site.

Cardiovascular or blood toxicants are known to cause adverse effects on the nervous or hematopoietic (blood) systems, while developmental toxicants are known to have effects that include birth defects and biological dysfunctions, among others.

Arizona Chemical Co. was founded in 1930 and currently employs more than 1,400 people worldwide with its headquarters located in Jacksonville, Fla.

According to the company’s official website, it is the world’s largest producer of naturally derived specialty resins and pine-based chemicals for the adhesives, inks and coatings, lubricants, fuel additives, mining and oleochemicals markets.

While the manufacturing location in Pensacola, located at 411 S. Pace Blvd., released 11,441 pounds of toxic chemicals on-site, it handled a total of 11,158,167 pounds of waste, which is also on the decline in the past decade.

The company feels that is can handle such a large amount of waste with little release because of its efforts, once again.

“We have streamlined our processes to optimize efficiency,” Hasna said. “It is a combo of things, from recycling more to off-site transfers.”

Arizona Chemical Co. transferred 35,718 pounds of toxic chemicals off-site for further waste management, attempting to become a more environmentally-safe company.

“Byproducts get sent to treatment storage facilities, which are landfills, fuel blenders and waste incinerators,” Hasna said. “Fuel blenders recover liquid waste and energy and resell it as a fuel while waste incinerators are used to recycle waste to produce electricity and steam.”

 

 

 

Fossil Creek Restoration

Fossil Creek had its flow diverted to power plants for around 100 years, until 2005 when the Arizona Public Service Company (APS) decommissioned the power plants and returned the flow to its normal state.

One of the main contributors to the restoration of Fossil Creek was Northern Arizona University. NAU had a team that collected baseline data and tracked changes over time. They wanted to reintroduce native fish and reestablish travertine pools created by the calcium-rich water of Fossil Creek. They also worked with the U.S. Forest Service on adaptive management strategies.

The Game and Fish Department closed Fossil Creek to fishing until 2007 to give the native fish time to recover and adapt.

The restoration was a success, as it has become a model for succeeding restoration work on old dams throughout the nation. It has also seen the native fish population grow beyond expectations.

There was also a documentary made about the restoration by NAU, which can be seen more in-depth at http://www.mpcer.nau.edu/riverreborn/.

Others involved included the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as the Yavapai-Apache Nation, American Rivers, Arizona Riparian Council, Center for Biological Diversity, The Nature Conservancy, and Northern Arizona Audubon Society.

Muir and Leopold

After reading Muir and Leopold, I have to say that Muir spoke of nature in an interesting way. Not that his writing was very interesting, but the way he spoke of storms and wind made it somewhat interesting.

I felt as if Muir admired the power of nature. He says in the book that “Nature always has something rare to show us”. He also seemed to really be in touch with nature. He frequently talks about nature and uses his senses to describe it. He talks about the “delicious sunshine” and talks about hearing the different sounds and music of nature.

Muir thinks of nature and man as equals. He talks about a “universal struggle for existence”. I feel that here is talking about the struggle between man and nature. He follows that statement by saying “but no struggle in the common meaning of the word was manifest here; no recognition of danger by any tree; no deprecation; but rather an as from fear”. I feel that he is trying to show that he realizes that nature is struggling in their battle with man, but there are still places that nature is “winning” and untouched. He furthers his belief that man and nature are equals by invincible gladness as a remote from exultation saying “We all travel the Milky Way together, trees and men”.

Leopold is more protective of nature in my mind. Yes, he was still in admiration of nature, but he I also felt that he felt that mankind had a right to protect nature and that they were abusing it. I feel that he also feels that man and nature are equals, though. He states “That man is, in fact, only a member of a biotic team is shown by an ecological interpretation of history. Many historical events, hitherto explained solely in terms of human enterprise, were actually biotic interactions between people and land. The characteristics of the land determined the facts quite as potently as the characteristics of the men who lived on it.” In this statement, not only does he stress the equality of men and nature, but he is stating a reliance that man has on nature, and that nature has on man.

Leopold feels that nature and man should live together, but not step on each other’s boundaries, that man should respect nature. He said, “The combined evidence of history and ecology seems to support one general deduction: the less violent the man-made changes, the greater the probability of successful readjustment in the pyramid.”

 

Vanishing Wetland Presentation

I feel that the entire Vanishing Wetlands multimedia presentation is very well laid out, pleasing to the eyes and gets the message out very clearly. I felt that the convergence on most of the stories worked well, and the print stories were picked out well and written well. Personally, the graphics added a lot to the entire presentation. It put things in an easy to understand way, and they were done very well as far as graphics go.

I think that we can use all of the different aspects that they use in recycling. Graphics will be great to display how it works in a quick and easy to understand format. Videos will bring things to real life, and pictures always seem to speak a thousand words, and a photo gallery could be great for a presentation on effects of not recycling. But of course, you need the backbone, the article to sum everything up and make sense out of all of the multimedia presentations.

As far as the mitigation story, I feel that just shows how money and reputation can overcome anything. If they did not have the last name Levin, would things have went their way? But on the other hand, they were the ones with the money, and they are able to do with it as they please. I still think they could have made more of an effort to cater to the environment, such as building them closer instead of building them further apart because they liked “distance” between the condos.

Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was not the most interesting writer in my opinion, but he did have his moments where he would catch my attention, but he also seemed to wander around at times.

He was a great observer, a naturalist. He always seemed to see things that others did not see, or did not take the time to see. He took amusement in the mouse in his home that was native, not introduced, and how an otter managed to grow to four feet long without a human getting a glimpse of the otter.

He also seemed to have a true, sincere respect and for nature. In Walden:, or Life in the Woods, he shows talks about the “ignorant or reckless” sportsman who leaves the innocent partridges to a fall a pray or decay. He almost takes respect to ownership when he talks about the hens and chickens being his. In Walking, he actually speaks for Nature, and says man is just an inhabitant or a part and parcel of Nature.

I feel that he believes in nature and that it should be respected. He actually says, “I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows.” He even goes further into his belief about nature by saying that the most alive is the wildest and that “all good things are wild and free”.

He comes off as a tree-hugger to me, so I definitely think that there is a place for him in today’s environmental movement, just maybe not one that is mainstream. I feel that he would like everything to go untouched and to be 100% in its natural setting and ways, which today is nearly impossible in certain aspects.

Emerald Coastkeeper

Emerald Coastkeeper may be the best-kept secret in the Pensacola area.

Sure, you have never heard of it, what they have done or what the group is attempting to accomplish, but you have most likely felt the effects of their achievements.

The Emerald Coastkeeper is the local chapter of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a national group that is dedicated to connecting local Waterkeeper groups, such as the Emerald Coastkeeper, to provide a voice for waterways and their communities worldwide.

Emerald Coastkeeper is a non-profit organization that was formed in 1999 and serves to protect the fourth largest estuarine system in Florida. With their headquarters in Pensacola, the Emerald Coastkeeper protects from the Perdido Bay to the St. Andrews Bay, as well as many local rivers.

One recent victory for the group went relatively unnoticed.

When CSX Transportation decided to build new railroad tracks through Bayou Texar in Pensacola, the company decided to not remove its creosote, a carcinogenic that is also linked to stomach pains and burning of the mouth and eyes when someone eats food or drinks water that is contaminated with the substance, pilings from the old tracks in an attempt to save money.

Emerald Coastkeeper stepped in and took the company to court and forced CSX to remove the creosote pilings from the water.

Providing a voice for the local waterways comes crucial, and Coastkeeper and marine biologist Taylor Kirschenfeld feels this area needs it now more than ever.

Kirschenfeld gave the local water quality a C grade, and knows there is still work to be done.

“I still think there is a lot of room for improvement,” Kirschenfeld said.

“We don’t have a sophisticated population,” Kirschenfeld said, “they don’t look at the environment; they look at their job and money.”

The water quality of the area is an ongoing issue for the Emerald Coastkeeper, and they have fought for improvements in storm-water runoff and improvements in the sewer and septic systems.

A major obstacle that the group is ready to face upcoming is offshore drilling. The Coastkeeper is strictly opposed to offshore drilling.

The Coastkeeper argues that the benefit of offshore drilling, a slight relief of prices at the gas pump, is not worth the risk of ruining Florida’s tourism-dependent economy and pristine beaches.

The Emerald Coastkeeper is in its tenth year and continues to push forward for the better of the local waterways, donating all profits to current and future missions.

With around 1,000 members, the group is strong, but continues to grow through the help and awareness of the community.

“We keep up with the environment by the eyes and ears of the community,” Kirschenfeld said.
Kirschenfeld recognizes the awareness level is growing in the area, but still wishes that university students would get more vocal, as well as the general public.

“I am jealous of counties that are progressive towards the environment,” Kirschenfeld said.
But when it boils down, he understands that everyone is in the fight for the same thing, the environment.

“It’s here for our enjoyment,” Kirschenfeld said, “and we make sure it doesn’t get used by any one entity.”

Waterkeeper Alliance/Emerald Coastkeeper

The Waterkeeper Alliance, http://www.waterkeeper.org/, is a group that looks over local groups that are involved in providing a voice for waterways and their communities worldwide. They support Waterkeeper organizations to protect communities, ecosystems and water quality, as well as promoting watershed protection worldwide.

Here is a news link about the Waterkeeper Alliance - http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/bal-md.poultry24jan24,0,7526704.story

Emerald Coastkeeper, http://emeraldcoastkeeper.org/, is the local group here in our area that is involved with the Waterkeeper Alliance. They are dedicated to protecting the waterways of this area, and do so through education, outreach programs and leading by example, and at times through legal remedies.

Here is a news link about the Emerald Coastkeeper - http://www.pnj.com/article/20090106/NEWS01/901060314/1006/NEWS01

With the local problems with water pollution, a possible story angle could be how do they respond to and act against the local plants and companies that pollute into the local waterways.

Some key questions that could be asked at the news conference are:

1. Where does the majority of the problems come from in regards to pollution in the waterways in our area?
2. In what ways are the Emerald Coastkeepers actively fighting the pollution problems in our area?
3. What are the negative effects of pollution in our area that the group is aware of?

The way to connect with the readers would be to make it hit as close to home as possible. Make them feel like they are part of the story, and that the Emerald Coastkeepers are trying to prevent things that are happening in their neighborhood.

Reading 1

White, de Crevecouer and Bartram all had unique and differing views on nature and ways of portraying their views. I do not think any of the writers are “better”, but I feel that each of them are unique in their own way.

To me, the most interesting of the three to read was Bartram. Bartram had a true and natural enthusiasm for nature and he revealed that in the way he wrote. I felt he was the least knowledgeable of the three, but it did not stop him at all. He really enjoyed his encounters with nature and even put himself in danger with the alligators.

White was a definite scientist. He documented many his encounters with nature and he looked at nature as an experiment. He didn’t seem all that concerned with taking nature out of its environment or altering nature, but he always seemed to have a reason to do it.

De Crevecouer depended on nature, obviously as a farmer, but it almost seemed as if he felt bad at times for using nature to his benefit, like when he ate the egg. De Crevecouer was protective of nature, but realized that sometimes nature needed to be impeded with, such as when he killed the animals to protect his farm.

I feel that Bartram reflects today’s environmental consciousness more than White and de Crevecouer. Bartram enjoyed nature and his passion for it can be seen today in many naturists. But I do feel that White and de Crevecouer both had some characteristics that do reflect today’s environmental consciousness, such as White and his documentation and de Crevecourer and his protection.

Response to Sisskin

The League of Women Voters seems to be a good organization with the community coming first in their objectives. They work through the government to help combat their issues. They seem very organized and really believe in getting voters involved in all of their issues. I also noticed that they will not endorse candidates, but only back issues.

The Bay Area Resource Council seems as it is a fair and balanced organization that consists of elected officials from the local governments. They have different groups that have different purposes for the environment, from working with schools to working with environmental standards.

As far as Sisskin’s op-ed, I think she had some good and bad ideas, but all from a good heart. Synchronizing traffic lights and educating youth about the environment were two ways that I really felt were reasonable, but having alternative work hours and more carpooling may be a little too much. Many businesses have to get their work done at the “working hours” of the day, and asking them to change might hurt their business. And neighborhood carpooling is something that is hard for this area with how spread out the area is.

Response to coal ash story

I think this is a very feasible as a class project.

First of all, the plant is so close to the UWF campus that it makes it a legitimate story for a class at UWF to cover. With it being so close, it could be a danger for the students at UWF. Just imagine if an accident occured such as the one in Tennessee and the toxic materials reached the UWF campus, which is very likely considering the one in Tennessee went across 300 acres.

What effect would that have on the students and campus at UWF?That is the angle I would take as a reporter, a cautionary one. One that informs and warns the UWF students that something of that nature may occur, the ways to help to prevent it and the if something does happen, how to react.

As far as multimedia, I think videos of the plant and the proximity to UWF would work great, as well as a possible demonstration of the plant having an accident and the harm it could cause the UWF campus.

Obviously, you want to contact the highest authority possible at the plant, and let them relegate from there. I have learned that through contacts for stories at school and at work. When you go to the top, you may not get the top, but you cover yourself. Also some good contacts would be emergency management at UWF and the EPA, which is located in Gulf Breeze.