2025: Water Scarce Communities

Don't let this be the future of many lakes and rivers!

H2O Scarcity
By 2025, 38% of the world will encounter water scarce communities. If we really want to prevent this unlivable future, we must act now. According to the article "7 Easy Ways to Save Water" by. Yoneda (Click here!), some small changes can be made by anyone who lives in a house or apartment  in order to reduce water consumption and fight the drought especially in California. One solution that can be easily done by most of the population is taking shorter showers or installing low-flow showerheads to reduce water use by 30%. Another way the U.S. wastes so much water is actually through a daily activity (we all do!) of flushing the toilet. A great solution to this is to install low-flow toilets that only uses 1.6 gallons per flush.


Even though we are surrounded by miles and miles of ocean water,
there is only 2.5% of that water that is freshwater and able to be accessed.
One of my solutions to this problem is to enact a worldwide water conservation law to reduce the water consumption of each participatory country (especially the U.S.!) It is imperative that we start saving water and take necessary action that will ultimately change our future outcome. Also, we should try to implement a worldwide law to limit the amount of meat produced and the water allowed per family. Ultimately, we should start a world effort to educate the population on water consumption and start implementing reduction programs now. (Do your part and watch below!)

There's no watering it down- New data collected by our class may rain on your parade (Soil Leaching)

So just what is all this talk on the news of "Acid Rain" and Carbon dioxide emissions. I mean, in our everyday life, do these concerns of supposed experts hold any bearing on how we are to live our lives? So what if company X or Y is so called "polluting" our atmosphere- what does that even mean? Well our soil leaching lab that our Environmental Chemistry class performed, we collected data to asses just what is going on in our soil and how it is affected by the seemingly irrelevant concept of pollution. First lets talk CO2. How exactly does the crap that comes out of my car become a killer of aquatic life? Lets have a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aEx067YkDE. In this video we see how different forms of man-made pollution contributes to the growing acidity of soil and the inevitable damage to aquatic life. The excess carbon dioxide steals an oxygen from water and becomes a weak acid- meaning that it's not ugly enough where its going to repulse the sexy hydrogen atoms away, but is mildly attractive to the point where it can hold a mediocre relationship with some fine hydrogen atoms. These hydrogen atoms can be potentially dangerous to aquatic life by destroying shells and passing through fish gills.

    But what can be done? Doesn't mother nature have its own means to suppress the growing acidity in the soil and water. The answer to that question is yes and no. Certain mechanisms (ways to prevent those hydrogen atoms from being single) that neutralize the hydrogen atoms include ion exchanges with aluminum hydroxide and calcium carbonate.
       Another way are ion exchanges-(trading one hydrogen for another atom with the same charge), with giant cage like structures that have an overall negative charge. These cages have trapped within them different positively charged atoms such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Such exchanges release these potentially harmful ions into water which may end up in rivers and streams.The picture below shows what these "cages" look life.

     To gauge exactly how the acidity has effected the amounts of these metals in San Diego, we collected soil samples from multiple sites and ran them through an amazing contraption known as the atomic absorbance spectrometer. Essentially, metals burn at different pretty colors. If the solution burns a certain pretty color, then we know that it contains that certain metal. This was done for all samples collected.

      Ultimately, we found there were lower concentrations of ions such as Zinc, Lead, Ca and Cadmium that could not as easily remain in the cage as hydrogen could and were thus displaced. However, other stronger metal ions that were too tough to be pushed out such as Magnesium, and potassium remained. This is because their charges were comparable or stronger then that of hydrogen and were thus not displaced by ion exchange. In layman's terms, the bigger, the weaker- the weaker get removed. 

     This lab should convey the importance of reducing the amount of pollution in the atmosphere! What we do, both scientist and non scientist alike matters! Do not let it get to the point of no return!

Plant - Vacuum Cleanser of Soils

Soils and sediments are known as the ultimate sink for many organic compounds and heavy metals. Heavy metals in soils can be taken up by roots of crops and therefore gets in food and harm people’s health. Heavy metals in contaminated soils could also leach into the groundwater and bio-accumulate in the food chain. Nowadays the soil contamination has raise concerns on environmental, agricultural, and human health problems worldwide. In a recent article, Phytoremediation: Using Plants To Clean Up Soils (http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/jun00/soil0600.htm), Kochian discusses how plants can help clean up soils contaminated with heavy and toxic metals.

Kochian’s “green” technology is very cost-effective compare to some current engineering-based technologies used to clean up soils such as the removal of contaminated topsoil for storage in landfills which is usually very costly. It is known as phytoremediation which uses plants to “vacuum” heavy metals form the soil through their roots and concentrate them in the stems, shoots, and leaves. And latter these plant tissues can be collected and stored for later use. One challenge of this technique is that the plants must be able to tolerate and survive from the high levels of heavy metals in soils which are usually toxic to plants. Recently Kochian’s team found that Thlaspi known as alpine pennycress is a potential vacuum cleaner since it can survive on soils having high levels of zinc and cadmium and is able to accumulate excessive amounts of heavy metals. By planting the plant, zinc and cadmium can be removed from contaminated soil, and by harvesting the plant’s shoots these metals can be extracted from them and recovered. Kochian also found that for cleaning up soils with high levels of uranium, adding the organic acid citrate to soils significantly increase the solubility of uranium and make it easier for plants to uptake and store them in their tissues.

One of the major goals for agricultural scientists is to increase food production to keep up with the rapid growing world population. As much of the best agricultural land has been used or is being contaminated, there is an increasing pressure for farmers to plant crops in the less arable lands such as acid soils that are not currently used for production. Kochian’s team is trying to find ways to grow crops on acid soils. However, in acid soils aluminum forms Al³⁺ which is soluble and very toxic to plant roots therefore limit the crop production. “Aluminum toxicity limits crop production on acid soils, which cover well over half of the world’s 8 billion acres of otherwise arable land, including about 86 million acres in the United States”, Kochian said. He and coworkers have identified the aluminum tolerant mutants in Arabidopsis, and their goal is to isolate this gene and use it to improve the tolerance of aluminum-sensitive crops such as barley.

The phytoremediation technique Kochian discussed in the article is an attractive alternative to current cleanup methods that are energy intensive and very expensive. This technique not only can remove heavy metals from the contaminated soils, but also can economically recover these metals elements by collecting the plants tissues and extracting from them. In addition, as more researches being done on studying crop genotypes that tolerate the suboptimal conditions of the marginal lands, it could become a very effective way to significantly increase the food production.

Pesticides and Sediment Types in Tecolote Canyon

Little did we know but March was adventure time for our lab.  Groups trekked through trees, hedges, rocks and dirt across the trails of Tecolote Canyon.  We braved the sunny hike, ever alert of the possibility poison oak could threaten around the next bend.  Our goal?  Collect dirt to test for presence of the pesticide chlordane.  

some of the sites explored approximated by red dashed lines

Chlordane is a pesticide with a rather complicated looking structure (pictured at right).  For about forty years, from 1948 to 1988, chlordane was widely used until it was limited to termite fumigation.  Its use was halted because chlordane is like gum stuck on the bottom of your shoe - hard to get rid of once it's around.  It persists in the environment, which is not a good thing especially if there are worries that at high levels the chemical can harm human health.

In addition to chlordane hunting, we tested our dirt to find out some more information about their "personality types" - like how much water they had and how sandy they were.  For example, when you take a closer look at dirt you will notice its basically a bunch of tiny beads, or particles.  The composition and therefore how "sandy" a dirt sample is varies, depending on the amount of different sizes of these particles present.  The types we focused on were sand, silt and clay.  Basically, sand is the biggest while clay is the smallest in size (illustration is for comparisons, not actual size).

We did some tests on our dirt for chlordane; yes, they involved some color changes (yay!).  We compared those results to the characteristics of each dirt sample.  It was important for us to analyze the dirt in order to get an idea how good it would be at letting stuff (like pesticides and other contaminants) stick to it.  

In the end, one trend that appeared to pop up was that the more silt and clay a dirt sample had, the higher the chlordane concentration relative to the other samples.  Further, the concentration of chlordane in Tecolote Canyon has increased slightly from the 2005 levels past environmental chemistry found (there was a decreasing trend but that was reversed sometime after 2010).  What these results tell us is that (1) finer dirt (as opposed to rougher, sandier dirt) seems like a better magnet for the chlordane pesticide; and (2) chlordane sure does take a long time to get rid of, no exaggeration.  

Something else I learned was how big Tecolote Canyon is.  I was convinced it was limited to the stretch of scratchy wilderness behind USD; and wow was I wrong!

It's time for a lifestyle change!

The gluttony of our lifestyles has truly gotten out of control. The statistics for the amount of waste we produce and food we throw away is disgusting. In an article by National Geographic it was estimated that the average American throws away over 4 pounds of trash daily. (http://energyblog.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/15/five-ways-to-make-recycling-pay/) Not only is this wasteful but we often forget to think about where our trash is going. Does it go to a landfill or incinerator? What about toxic wastes, are they properly dealt with? All of these questions are important, but I want to back up one step. What if we stop these wastes before they even get to the landfill?

Keep in mind the four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover. Simple things like limiting the amount of documents you print out, reusing materials by donating and shopping at a thrift store, and recycling as much as possible will make a huge difference. A good friend of mine and her roommate are vegan, and try to live a very earth conscience lifestyle. They use all parts of the produce they buy, from including the carrot leaves in their smoothies to boiling down all vegetable scraps to make broth for soups. They compost any scraps they do not use, and also use this compost on a community garden, where they are starting to harvest vegetables. They recycle as much as possible, and always use reusable bags. Their total trash output for a whole semester? Four small bins of trash! Compared to the frightening four pounds a day of the typical American, I think we should all take a few lessons from these girls!

With the implementation of single stream recycling systems, and the availability of more information on how to dispose of toxic waste, and how to reuse items I think we are well equipped to make a change in our lifestyles that will result in a less wasteful, and healthier world.

Lead: An ancient foe or a modern threat?

 In a recent article, Lead dangers still lurk in unexpected places (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26559681/t/lead-dangers-still-lurk-unexpected-places/#.U0r9tPldUVc), Laurie Tarkan discusses some of the obscure places where lead exposure is still predominant in our society. Some unexpected sources of the deadly heavy metal include ceramic dishes, art supplies, and vegetables. This gives reason for concern. Even though we have considered lead a threat that has been contended with, it still can have adverse affects on human health- even more than we realize. Whats even more alarming is that lead levels that have been excepted as the threshold for human consumption may have been incorrect- they may in fact be lower! Just a minuscule amount such as 4 milligrams per deciliter can be enough to double your risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke.

     But if there are new ways for humans to increase their intake of lead, can preventative measures be made? This article claims there are. For example, homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead plumbing materials and even some built after this year still may have lead in their plumbing. An easy response is to test your water with a home kit. If you find that your water is over 15 ppb, run your water for thirty seconds to wash out and lead build that may have occurred over the night. Also, cook with cold water and use a NSF approved filter. If you are someone who is fairly confident that you have had unhealthy exposure to lead, it may lead to weak bones. This can be dealt with by keeping your bones strong via calcium and daily vitamin D. Obviously look for supplements that are USP-grade and not taken from bone or shellfish.
For the case of the ceramics, use glass dished when microwaving and make sure to purchase lead free dishes. Other common sources of lead in today's society is fishing and art supplies. For the common fisherman, leave gear outside when finished. Also lead free bullets should be purchased for hunters to prevent contamination of their prey. For artist, purchase supplies that are lead free materials and limit usage of glazes for they have a large amount of heavy metals
      Although a seemingly dull article, it provides some useful tips for dealing with everyday lead exposure. It also brings to light the fact the old threats may not be as dormant as expected and their side affects may not be as well understood as once previously thought. Ultimately, this article gives the reader the power to mitigate the amount of lead exposure in their bodies. If there is anything to take from this article, it is people can be proactive when it comes to there health in regards to heavy metals.

A price to pay for the riches we seek.

        What if the beauty we seek along with the Jewelry we wear has an adverse affect on our environment? What if the the most worn and sought after element for the purpose of profit and flattery is, in fact, the largest source of Mercury pollution in the world? In the recent article, "The most surprising source of mercury pollution," (http://www.livescience.com/39982-surprising-mercury-pollution-sources.html) David Main discusses one of the most lucrative elements sought in mining practices, Gold, and how it has been causing an exponential increase in the amount of mercury that is invading the environment. The ability for mercury to bind to most precious metals has made the small scale technique of "artisanal" mining an attractive means to extract gold from the ground. This extraction is accomplished by burning mercury off the mined gold, which subsequently releases it into the atmosphere. Due to the volatility of mercury, it can persist for centuries by reacting in the atmosphere, being rained out and recombining with the soil and ocean water, only to repeat the seemingly interminable process.

The reason these practices warrant great concern from many scientist is the amount of mercury that winds up in the ocean. This is due to the chemical processes that result in the highly toxic methlymercury that bioaccumalates into fish and eventually,  human beings. The health affects of such chemicals are severe and much is yet to be discovered about the pernicious affects they have on the human body. 

    But what is to be done? How can we stop such practices. Unfortunately, practices such as these are taking place in countries that lack the government oversight over the mining industries who utilize this technique.  Some countries have taken the initiative to reduce mercury in consumer products , set goals to reduce the amount of mercury being released in the environment and close some of the aforementioned mercury mines. The initiative is a certainly a step in the right direction but the short term will be more problematic. It will take decades for the mercury that has usurped our atmosphere to reduce. Fortunately for us, we can take steps to reduce our intake- primarily avoiding eating fish. 

     Like climate change, I find the apathy amongst most nations to be a reason for concern. Yes, if smaller steps by the individual to reduce their intake- thats great. But if there is going to be substantial change, there must be a global initiative and consensus about what is to be done. I also was surprised to learn of the high reactivity of mercury and to truly respect the element. I also didn't realize how something so trivial, like a gold necklace, can be the source of so much destruction to our environment (indirectly of course). I will certainly keep that in the back of my mind the next time I am at the mall!