Lake Pollution: Types, Sources, and Solutions

Here's a great piece on how you can help reduce lake pollution levels and protect their surrounding landscape. 

by Frederic Beaudry

In an extensive sampling effort, the Environmental Protection Agency, with the help of state and tribal agencies, coordinated water quality assessments for the country’s lakes. They evaluated 43% of the lake surface area, or about 17.3 million acres of water. The study concluded that:

• Fifty-five percent of the study’s water acreage was judged to be of good quality. The other 45% had waters impaired for at least one type of use (for example as drinking water supply, for recreational fishing, swimming, or aquatic life support). When considering man-made lakes alone, the proportion that was impaired jumped to 59%.
• Water quality is sufficiently high to allow swimming in 77% of the waters assessed.
• Aquatic life was not supported adequately by 29% of lake waters.
• For 35% of the lake waters surveyed, fish consumption was not recommended.

For the impaired lakes, the top types of pollution were:

• Nutrients (problematic in 50% of impaired waters). Nutrient pollution occurs when excess nitrogen and phosphorus make their way into a lake. These elements are then picked up by algae, allowing them to grow rapidly to the detriment of the aquatic ecosystem. Overabundant cyanobacterial algae blooms can lead to toxin build-up, oxygen level drops, fish kills, and poor conditions for recreation. Nutrient pollution and the subsequent algae blooms are to blame for Toledo’s drinking water shortage in the summer of 2014. Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution comes from inefficient sewage treatment systems and from some agricultural practices.

• Metals (42% of impaired waters). The two main culprits here are mercury and lead. Mercury accumulates in lakes mostly from atmospheric deposition of pollution coming from coal-fired power plants. Lead pollution is often the result of accumulated fishing tackle like sinkers and jig heads, and from lead shot in shotgun shells.

• Sediment (21% of impaired waters). Fine-grained particles like silt and clay may occur naturally in the environment but when they enter lakes in large quantity, they become a serious pollution problem. Sediments come from the many ways soil can be eroded on land and carried into streams then lakes: erosion can originate from road construction, deforestation, or agricultural activities.
• Total Dissolved Solids (TDS; 19% of impaired waters). TDS measurements can be interpreted as how salty the water is, generally due to high concentrations of dissolved calcium, phosphates, sodium, chloride, or potassium. These elements most often enter the roadways as road salt, or in synthetic fertilizers.

Where do these pollutants come from? When assessing the source of pollution for the impaired lakes, the following findings were reported:

• Agriculture (affecting 41% of impaired waters). Many agricultural practices contribute to lake water pollution, including soil erosion, manure and synthetic fertilizer management, and the use of pesticides,
• Hydrologic modifications (18% of impaired waters). These include the presence of dams and other flow regulation structures, and dredging activities. Dams have extensive effects on a lake’s physical and chemical characteristics, and on aquatic ecosystems.

• Urban runoff and storm sewers (18% of impaired waters). Streets, parking lots, and rooftops are all impervious surfaces that do not allow water to percolate through. As a result, water runoff speeds up to storm drains and picks up sediments, heavy metals, oils, and other pollutants, and carries it into lakes.

What Can You Do?

• Use soil erosion best practices whenever you disturb soil near a lake.
• Project lake shorelines on your property by preserving the natural vegetation. Replant shrubs and trees if needed. Avoid fertilizing your lawn close to a lake’s edge.
• Encourage the use of sustainable farming methods like cover crops and no-till farming. Talk to farmers at your local farmers market to find out more about their practices.
• Keep septic systems in good working order, and have regular inspections conducted.

• Encourage local authorities to use alternatives to road salt in winter.
• Consider your nutrient inputs from soaps and detergents, and reduce their use whenever possible.
• In your yard, slow down water runoff and allow it to be filtered by plants and soil. To accomplish this, establish rain gardens, and keep drainage ditches well vegetated. Use rain barrels to harvest roof runoff.
• Consider using pervious pavement in your driveway. These surfaces are designed to let water percolate into the soil below, preventing runoff.
• Choose alternatives to lead when selecting fishing tackle.

Top 2017 Stories on Sustainability/Final

8. Companies went to court.
This year large companies dove into legal battles on social hot-button issues to an unusual degree. Tech companies big and small filed an “amicus brief” to fight the president’s first executive order on immigration (biotech firms spoke out as well). Fifty big companies asked a New York federal appeals court to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation. Companies also lobbied for pro-environmental and social policies. Companies went local as well, with seven big guns — Procter & Gamble, Walmart, Unilever, General Mills, Target, General Motors, and Nestle — pushing the state of Missouri to pass a bill to make it easier for them to buy renewable energy.

9. The super bowl of sustainability advertising was… the actual Super Bowl.
A surprising number of big brands used the most expensive, most viewed advertising time in the world to do something different this year: Instead of pitching products the old-fashioned way, focusing on how great it tastes or will make you feel, they chose to say something about an important aspect of social sustainability. And they took risky stands, in often not-so-veiled ways, against the policies of the new U.S. president.

Budweiser’s ad told the story of their founder and proudly pointed out his immigrant status. Little-known 84 Lumber went viral with a five-minute video about the journey of a family from central America. Coca-Cola focused on diversity and inclusion with its multi-lingual ad. And Audi’s ad “Daughter” lamented the lack of pay equity for women (though Audi then took heat for its own record on pay and women in leadership, showing that sustainability-focused ads can be risky).

10. Unilever fights off a hostile takeover bid.
Unilever is the consensus corporate leader on managing sustainability for business and societal value. That’s why I consider the attempted takeover of Unilever by Kraft Heinz and 3G Capital an important sustainability story.

It is unlikely that a firm like 3G would continue supporting the sustainability strategy at the heart of Unilever, even though the strategy has been wildly successful (the company’s market cap was at an all-time high — and then went up another 20% after the takeover attempt). As Unilever’s CEO, Paul Polman told the Financial Times, it was “clearly a clash between a long-term, sustainable business model for multiple stakeholders and a model that is entirely focused on shareholder primacy.” Everyone interested in seeing companies lead the charge to a thriving world breathed a sigh of relief. (Full disclosure: I’ve been an advisor to Unilever North America, but I had zero involvement on this issue.)

So what’s next?
It’s risky to say anything definitive about the future. But I do believe that some mega-trends have too much inertia for any one stakeholder to completely disrupt. So some light predictions for 2018:

• The climate will continue to get more volatile. Any remaining business leaders who don’t understand climate as a systemic risk and opportunity will have to get on board.
• Millennials and Gen Z will continue to push for purpose and meaning in work and life.
• AI, big data, blockchain, and other tech will change how we understand companies, products, and services, leading even more to embrace “clean labels” (like Walmart, Target, and Panera did this year).
• To meet ever-rising expectations, and drive business value, companies will set more and more aggressive sustainability goals.
• Clean tech will be under attack by the U.S. administration, but it will continue to prevail globally.
• Finally, the #metoo movement against sexual harassment, which is sweeping through politics and media, will hit big business. We may see some senior Fortune 500 execs fall.

Trump Moves to Open Nearly All Offshore Waters to Drilling/NY Times

Right now natural gas prices are skyrocketing in the US as winter blast most of their states.  Yesterday we reported on our failure to replace coal and nuclear power plants with more gas, which has led the grids to burning oil right now to meet electricity demand.

So, how does Trump's move to drill offshore fit into this complicated energy puzzle?  Certainly more domestic production is good for the economy and steady, predictable delivery of supplies.  There is a gap between supply and demand, at least in peak times, as we transition away from our dependence on fossil fuel.  The question is, how to fill it?

The primary goal of building a smarter, greener commercial base is to better balance economic development with environmental protection.  Can we do this while drilling for oil and gas in the Artic?  Based on prior history, probably not.  We are simply increasing the odds of spills and destruction of our natural habitat.

The better solution is for Washington to marshal resources to cut energy use in half while growing all the latest smart technology to reach this goal--efficiency measures, including converting commercial offices to hybrid buildings; use of smart grid, micro grid, heavy investment in renewables and storage and investments in proven equipment like fuel cells that create lots of kilowatts without using a lot of fuel.



WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Thursday it would allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States coastal waters, giving energy companies access to leases off California for the first time in decades and opening more than a billion acres in the Arctic and along the Eastern Seaboard.

The proposal lifts a ban on such drilling imposed by President Barack Obama near the end of his term and would deal a serious blow to his environmental legacy. It would also signal that the Trump administration is not done unraveling environmental restrictions in an effort to promote energy production.

While the plan puts the administration squarely on the side of the energy industry and against environmental groups, it also puts the White House at odds with a number of coastal states that oppose offshore drilling. Some of those states are led by Republicans, like Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, where the tourism industry was hit hard by the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in 2010 that killed 11 people and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Governor Scott vowed on Thursday to protect his state’s coast from drilling, saying he would raise the issue with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.


“I have asked to immediately meet with Secretary Zinke to discuss the concerns I have with this plan and the crucial need to remove Florida from consideration,” he said in a statement. “My top priority is to ensure that Florida’s natural resources are protected.”

The governors of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon and Washington have all opposed offshore drilling plans. Virginia’s governor-elect, Ralph S. Northam, a Democrat, said in a statement Thursday that expanding drilling would jeopardize his state’s tourism and fishing industries, as well as military installations. Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, also a Democrat, called drilling a “critical threat” to his state’s economy.

Mr. Zinke said the drilling plan was part of “a new path for energy dominance in America,” but said he planned to speak with Governor Scott and other state leaders before the proposal was finalized. “It’s not going to be done overnight,” he said.

Oil industry leaders cheered the reversal, calling it long overdue.

“I think the default should be that all of our offshore areas should be available,” said Thomas J. Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance. “These are our lands. They’re taxpayer-owned and they should be made available.”



The Obama administration blocked drilling on about 94 percent of the outer continental shelf, the submerged offshore area between state coastal waters and the deep ocean. Mr. Zinke charged that those restrictions had cost the United States billions of dollars in lost revenue and said the new proposal would make about 90 percent of those waters available for leasing.

The Interior Department would open 25 of 26 regions of the outer continental shelf, leaving only the North Aleutian Basin — which President George Bush protected in an executive order — exempted from drilling.

Interior officials said they intended to hold 47 lease sales between 2019 and 2024, including 19 off the coast of Alaska and 12 in the Gulf of Mexico. Seven areas offered for new drilling would be in Pacific waters off California, where drilling has been off limits since a 1969 oil spill near Santa Barbara.

President Trump signed an executive order in April requiring the Interior Department to reconsider Mr. Obama’s five-year offshore drilling plan, which had invoked an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to block new lease sales in large areas of the Arctic and Atlantic. The ban “deprives our country of potentially thousands and thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in wealth,” Mr. Trump said at the time.

Finalizing the new plan could take as long as 18 months, experts said, and in the meantime challenges are expected in the courts and in Congress.

Photo

Top Stories on Sustainability, 2017, Part 3

4. Investors woke up about climate risk and benefits of sustainability.
I know, I know, Wall Street only cares about short-term earnings performance. And yet there’s something brewing among big institutional players, the economy’s risk assessors, and even some Wall Street types. For example, Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock (with $6 trillion in assets under its management) asked business leaders to focus on “long-term value creation” in his third annual letter to S&P 500 CEOs. BlackRock also said its “engagement priorities” for talking to CEOs would include climate risk and boardroom diversity.

Shareholder resolutions on climate disclosure and strategies succeeded for the first time at Occidental Petroleum and ExxonMobil as well. Fund giant Vanguard, which led the charge at Exxon, also declared climate risk and gender diversity “defining themes” of its investment strategy. Institutional investors continued to drive climate action also, with hundreds signing a statement of support for the Paris agreement. And Norway’s $1 trillion Wealth Fund is forcing banks to disclose the carbon footprint of loans and will divest from fossil fuels. In late-breaking news, the World Bank will stop financing upstream oil and gas projects after 2019.

Finally, a few big developing stories could create long-term ripples. First, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (or TCFD) — chaired and led by financial giant and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg — issued a critical set of guidelines for investors and insurers to understand climate risks. On the heels of TCFD, a group of 225 global investors with $26 trillion under management launched “Climate Action 100+” to “engage” with large emitters on their management and disclosure of climate risks. And in fascinatings new on the debt financing front, Moody’s told cities to address climate risks or face downgrades on their bonds. Could shifting rates on company debt be far behind?

5. China accelerated its clean tech advantage.
On the fifth day of 2017, China announced it would spend $360 billion on renewable energy by 2020. The rest of the year brought even more leadership: China cancelled 103 coal plants, committed to cut coal by 30%, made big moves in electric vehicles (see #9, below), erected the world’s largest land-based and floating solar farms (becoming the world’s largest solar producer in the process), and – in one of the most fun stories of the year — built a solar farm in the shape of a giant pandajust for the heck of it. Essentially, in 2017, China took over the role of global climate leader and then, to top it off, committed nearly a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending to connect China to the rest of the world.

6. Clean tech continued its relentless march (and coal continued to die).
As a whole, the economics of every major green technology got radically better. (Morgan Stanley predicted an “inflection point” in 2020, when renewables become the cheapest energy source globally.) But to focus on two intertwined areas, look at what happened with electric vehicles (EVs) and battery storage.

On the former, some large economies, including France, India, Britain, Norway, and China, committed to ban diesel and gas vehicles. Automakers moved quickly as well, with GM and Ford announcing major investments in EVs and Volvo phasing out conventional engines starting as soon as 2019. A group of multinationals with big logistics operations launched EV100, an initiative to speed up the switch to EVs. One big city, Shenzhen, China, moved its entire bus fleet to EV. In total, EV sales were up 63% globally.

The economics of batteries (needed for EVs and, critically, the grid so we can store clean energy) continued to get much better—50% cheaper since 2014. Tesla built grid-scale storage for Southern California and quickly erected the world’s largest lithium ion battery storage in Australia. The end result is going to be the end of coal, bolstered by commitments from states like Michigan to go coal-free—and the entire EU, which will build no new coal plants after 2020.

The Role of Business in Society

7. Famous CEOs took moral stands.
One group of business leaders faced a tough decision this year: stay in the president’s CEO advisory councils or protest his policies by pulling out. A few, like Tesla’s Elon Musk and Disney’s Robert Iger, left in the spring after the Paris climate decision. But most stayed on — that is, until the Charlottesville, Virginia white nationalist marches. When the president said there were “some very fine people” among the white supremacists, the CEO Advisory Councils disbanded quickly, with the leaders of Pepsi, IBM, GM, BCG, Merck, 3M, and others walking away (a few wanted to stay, but the momentum was clear).

One CEO in particular, Apple’s Tim Cook (who was not formally on the councils) denounced the “moral equivalence” of white supremacists and human rights protesters, but he also went on to say something more important about business: “We have a moral responsibility to help grow the economy, to help grow jobs, to contribute to this country and to other countries that we do business in.” In essence, Cook made a blended argument for sustainability that isn’t about philanthropy and the polar bears, but about the core business and its role in society. And yet, Apple had its own challenges. Proving that no company’s actions are black and white, the world discovered that Apple has stashed a quarter of a trillion dollars in cash outside the U.S. to avoid taxes. Yes, it’s legal, but is it right? Given Cook’s own argument, it’s an uncomfortable disconnect.

America’s power grid shows signs of strain amid deep freeze/Bloomberg

Today we brought you some good government policy that will spur faster installation of renewables.  Here, though, we see not so good regulation as we have failed to modernize and upgrade out grid systems, including needed sources of clean power.

Our failure to fully embrace natural gas as our bridge fuel now forces us to default to dirtier sources of fossil fuel to keep the heat and lights on during this period of extreme cold in the upper parts of the US.  That is an abysmal failure on the part of regulators and, honestly, the public.  Taking off huge blocks of coal, nuclear and oil fired plants and failing to replace those KW's has now left a huge void in our power supplies.

None of this is good for the economy or environment.  Our response should be to double down on our pace of investing in renewables, natural gas facilities, were needed as other, dirtier plants come off, micro and smart grid technology, energy storage and efficiency measures to cut overall demand and surges during peak times.

NEW YORK – America’s power grid is starting to show signs of fatigue as the nation grapples with a record-breaking cold snap.

In the Midwest, some natural gas plants are having trouble getting supplies, forcing outages and increased use of fuel oil, Dustin Smith, a spokesman for the Southwest Power Pool, said on Tuesday.

Some power plants in New England that have been burning oil are running short on fuel, according to Marcia Blomberg, a spokeswoman for ISO New England Inc., the region’s grid operator. Restrictions governing air emissions are also a factor limiting their use.

“As oil inventories are depleted, replenishment of these fuels will be important given the uncertainty around weather and future fuel demands for the remaining two months of the winter period,” she said by email on Tuesday.

Oil, a scant contributor to the nation’s power supply in normal weather conditions, has accounted for about 30 percent of New England’s electricity in recent days after temperatures plunged below freezing. A lack of pipeline capacity has constrained gas supplies to the region in recent years, causing prices to surge during severe cold snaps.

Nonetheless, spot power on PJM Interconnection LLC’s benchmark Western hub fell 3.7 percent to $124.96 a megawatt-hour between 10 and 11 a.m. local time, according to Genscape Inc. data compiled by Bloomberg. Across the PJM grid earlier Wednesday morning, the load exceeded 136,000 megawatts, up 1.8 percent from yesterday and the highest since February 2015.

PJM has experienced no fuel supply issues over the past two days, spokeswoman Susan Buehler said by email.

Still, two power generators said on Tuesday that they’ve been able to overcome challenges posed by the weather.

American Electric Power Co. has “been able to respond to demand as needed,” despite “equipment challenges that typically accompany very cold temperatures,” Melissa McHenry, a company spokeswoman, said in an email.

“With few exceptions, our plants are running well,” David Byford, a spokesman for Houston-based Dynegy Inc. said in an interview.

Jim Polson is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

RI Launches New Statewide Solar Permitting Process/NPR

This is important news for RI and the rest of the nation looking to design and install good government policy around expediting the installation of renewables.  A statewide, blended process helps investors, developers and installers.  Good news and a big step forward in bringing projects to this state.



State regulators have made it easier for solar companies to do business in the Ocean State with a new statewide permit application for solar projects. 

The application, which went into effect Monday, replaces a process that varied from city to city. 

Chris Kearns, chief of program development at the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, said a statewide application should help streamline the process for installing solar panels.

"Solar projects will potentially get built at a quicker pace because the permitting process has been clarified, so there is no longer any discrepancies or disputes from one local municipality to another," Kearns said. 

Kearns added a statewide permit could benefit Rhode Island’s economy.   

"Having a consistent application form where you’re not having to learn a new process with each local municipality is a big selling point for companies in terms of entering the Rhode Island market," Kearns said. 

The statewide solar permit application is a requirement for all residential and commercial projects, regardless of scale.

To date, 3,405 solar projects representing 50.03 megawatts of capacity have come online in Rhode Island. 

Some top stories from last year (continued)

4. Investors woke up about climate risk and benefits of sustainability.
I know, I know, Wall Street only cares about short-term earnings performance. And yet there’s something brewing among big institutional players, the economy’s risk assessors, and even some Wall Street types. For example, Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock (with $6 trillion in assets under its management) asked business leaders to focus on “long-term value creation” in his third annual letter to S&P 500 CEOs. BlackRock also said its “engagement priorities” for talking to CEOs would include climate risk and boardroom diversity.

Shareholder resolutions on climate disclosure and strategies succeeded for the first time at Occidental Petroleum and ExxonMobil as well. Fund giant Vanguard, which led the charge at Exxon, also declared climate risk and gender diversity “defining themes” of its investment strategy. Institutional investors continued to drive climate action also, with hundreds signing a statement of support for the Paris agreement. And Norway’s $1 trillion Wealth Fund is forcing banks to disclose the carbon footprint of loans and will divest from fossil fuels. In late-breaking news, the World Bank will stop financing upstream oil and gas projects after 2019.

Finally, a few big developing stories could create long-term ripples. First, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (or TCFD) — chaired and led by financial giant and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg — issued a critical set of guidelines for investors and insurers to understand climate risks. On the heels of TCFD, a group of 225 global investors with $26 trillion under management launched “Climate Action 100+” to “engage” with large emitters on their management and disclosure of climate risks. And in fascinatings new on the debt financing front, Moody’s told cities to address climate risks or face downgrades on their bonds. Could shifting rates on company debt be far behind?

5. China accelerated its clean tech advantage.
On the fifth day of 2017, China announced it would spend $360 billion on renewable energy by 2020. The rest of the year brought even more leadership: China cancelled 103 coal plants, committed to cut coal by 30%, made big moves in electric vehicles (see #9, below), erected the world’s largest land-based and floating solar farms (becoming the world’s largest solar producer in the process), and – in one of the most fun stories of the year — built a solar farm in the shape of a giant pandajust for the heck of it. Essentially, in 2017, China took over the role of global climate leader and then, to top it off, committed nearly a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending to connect China to the rest of the world.

6. Clean tech continued its relentless march (and coal continued to die).
As a whole, the economics of every major green technology got radically better. (Morgan Stanley predicted an “inflection point” in 2020, when renewables become the cheapest energy source globally.) But to focus on two intertwined areas, look at what happened with electric vehicles (EVs) and battery storage.

On the former, some large economies, including France, India, Britain, Norway, and China, committed to ban diesel and gas vehicles. Automakers moved quickly as well, with GM and Ford announcing major investments in EVs and Volvo phasing out conventional engines starting as soon as 2019. A group of multinationals with big logistics operations launched EV100, an initiative to speed up the switch to EVs. One big city, Shenzhen, China, moved its entire bus fleet to EV. In total, EV sales were up 63% globally.

The economics of batteries (needed for EVs and, critically, the grid so we can store clean energy) continued to get much better—50% cheaper since 2014. Tesla built grid-scale storage for Southern California and quickly erected the world’s largest lithium ion battery storage in Australia. The end result is going to be the end of coal, bolstered by commitments from states like Michigan to go coal-free—and the entire EU, which will build no new coal plants after 2020.

The Role of Business in Society

7. Famous CEOs took moral stands.
One group of business leaders faced a tough decision this year: stay in the president’s CEO advisory councils or protest his policies by pulling out. A few, like Tesla’s Elon Musk and Disney’s Robert Iger, left in the spring after the Paris climate decision. But most stayed on — that is, until the Charlottesville, Virginia white nationalist marches. When the president said there were “some very fine people” among the white supremacists, the CEO Advisory Councils disbanded quickly, with the leaders of Pepsi, IBM, GM, BCG, Merck, 3M, and others walking away (a few wanted to stay, but the momentum was clear).

One CEO in particular, Apple’s Tim Cook (who was not formally on the councils) denounced the “moral equivalence” of white supremacists and human rights protesters, but he also went on to say something more important about business: “We have a moral responsibility to help grow the economy, to help grow jobs, to contribute to this country and to other countries that we do business in.” In essence, Cook made a blended argument for sustainability that isn’t about philanthropy and the polar bears, but about the core business and its role in society. And yet, Apple had its own challenges. Proving that no company’s actions are black and white, the world discovered that Apple has stashed a quarter of a trillion dollars in cash outside the U.S. to avoid taxes. Yes, it’s legal, but is it right? Given Cook’s own argument, it’s an uncomfortable disconnect.