I and the Bird

I and the Bird #99 is online at the Migrations blog.

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A Bathing White-throat

Now that April is drawing to a close, we will not have our winter visitors, the White-throated Sparrows, with us for much longer. So to honor their impending departure, here is a series of scenes from a sparrow taking a bath.





All photos taken with the Birdcam. More at Flickr.

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Bringing the Bush Administration to New Jersey

In New Jersey this year we have a race for governor. Like New York City, the state of Virginia, and a few other jurisdictions, we do our local races in odd-numbered years. The current incumbent has been uninspiring but about as effective as one might expect under the economic and fiscal circumstances. Arrayed against him are several Republican challengers.

Apparently one of the challengers decided to distinguish himself from the pack by launching an attack on the Department of Environmental Protection. Now there are various reasons why one might criticize that agency. Many environmentalists in the state feel that it has been ineffective in fulfilling its duties, especially in protecting waterways and cleaning up toxic waste sites. Staff at the DEP has dropped by 12% over the past four years, reducing its ability to enforce environmental regulations. A plan to reduce costs and speed remediation by privatizing toxic waste cleanup has also sparked controversy.

But no, our candidate objects to none of those things. He objects to the DEP doing its job.

Layoffs of state workers, beginning with those in the Department of Environmental Protection, would be among the first cost-saving measures to reduce government's size, Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie said Tuesday.

Christie said the DEP takes too long to process permits and levies indiscriminate fines only to negotiate them down, a strong-arm tactic he said one business owner he spoke with likened to dealing with organized crime.

"We have people at the DEP who have forgotten the basic tenet of public service, and that is they work for the public, not the other way around. They're too big, and they're too unfriendly, and they're killing business in this state," Christie said, following a State House news conference where he criticized Gov. Jon S. Corzine's record on taxes.

Thank goodness we do not need the DEP for anything, like cleaning up the state! After all, we already have clean air, right?

New Jersey's air was given failing grades for a 10th consecutive year by the American Lung Association in its annual "State of the Air" report, which again found that people in rural corners of the state suffer as badly as they do in the grittiest urban areas....

South Jersey was ranked 16th with the Philadelphia region in general on a list of "25 Most Ozone-Polluted" cities, and North Jersey was ranked 17th on the same list with the New York City area.

North Jersey was additionally grouped with the New York City area to rank 22nd among the "25 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution."

On the list of "25 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-term Particle Pollution," North Jersey was again lumped with the New York City area for a 16th ranking, and South Jersey was linked with Philadelphia for a 20th ranking on the same list....

The lung association also issued an F grade to every county measured for the health hazard called "ozone" pollution, which involves oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds being heated up by sunlight.

Alright, maybe we do need a functional DEP for something.

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House Sparrows Don't Like Thistle

Or so I have heard...

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Endangered Species Protections Restored

Last year, the outgoing Bush administration pushed through a regulation removing the need for federal agencies to consult with biologists on environmental reviews. This afternoon, the Interior and Commerce Departments jointly announced that they would restore the old rule under special authority granted by Congress.

President Obama called for a review of the rule last month. Today, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Kempthorne's successor, and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a joint statement that scientific evidence justified restoring the independent reviews that Fish and Wildlife and NOAA had conducted for decades.

"By rolling back this 11th hour regulation, we are ensuring that threatened and endangered species continue to receive the full protection of the law," Salazar said. "Because science must serve as the foundation for decisions we make, federal agencies proposing to take actions that might affect threatened and endangered species will once again have to consult with biologists at the two departments."

This is obviously good news for threatened species, though how good depends on how strictly the new administration enforces the Endangered Species Act. It would help if the Interior Department could start to work through the long backlog of species needing protection.

Here is the joint press release (pdf).

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New Jersey Water Worries

New Jersey residents get water from several sources. Here in Highland Park, we get our water from the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Some communities get water from reservoirs or from the Delaware River. Shore communities depend on desalinization. Still others, particularly in the more rural areas of the state, get their water from wells.

A federal study has found excessive levels of contamination in well water in northwestern New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania.

The study released last month by the U.S. Geological Survey turned up potentially harmful signs of arsenic and radon in the aquifer going through Hunterdon County, as well as radon and nitrate in the aquifers of Warren and Northampton counties, according to Leslie DeSimone, the lead scientist working on the study.

Of roughly 2,100 private wells sampled in 48 states between 1991 and 2004, the geological survey tested seven wells in Northampton County, two in Warren County and 14 in Hunterdon County, DeSimone said.

"The only way you can really be sure is to have your water tested," DeSimone said. Residents "might not be aware there's potential contaminants."

New Jersey residences were subject to further testing:

Out of 286 samples last year, only four exceeded allowable standards for arsenic, or 1.4 percent, department spokesman Lawrence Hajna said. In Hunterdon County, 127 out of 747 samples surpassed standards, or 17 percent, Hajna said. The samples came from wells involved in real estate transactions.

Between September 2002 and April 2007, private wells in Warren and Hunterdon counties tested positive for fecal waste, nitrates and contaminants known as volatile organic compounds, such as degreasers and components of gasoline, according to a DEP report. Arsenic was tested for in Hunterdon County, but arsenic testing was not required in Warren County until March 2008.

None of these substances belong in drinking water, but their sources are not always known. Substances like arsenic probably have natural sources, while gasoline components would have human sources. Nitrates most likely derive from fertilizers, used either for farming or growing grass.

Contaminants are not the only problem affecting well water at the moment. Natural gas extraction is making some wells rather unstable.

Norma Fiorentino’s drinking water well was a time bomb. For weeks, workers in her small northeastern Pennsylvania town had been plumbing natural gas deposits from a drilling rig a few hundred yards away. They cracked the earth and pumped in fluids to force the gas out. Somehow, stray gas worked into tiny crevasses in the rock, leaking upward into the aquifer and slipping quietly into Fiorentino’s well. Then, according to the state’s working theory, a motorized pump turned on in her well house, flicked a spark and caused a New Year’s morning blast that tossed aside a concrete slab weighing several thousand pounds.

These two concurrent issues reveal the problems associated with energy production and the very real vulnerabilities of our water supply.

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