Cat & Kate's Adventures 

Chapter 1 Reflection: 

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      This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about the war on cancer. Informing the public of the connection between toxic chemicals and cancer clusters, Thomas Belton tells the reader of his personal experience involving the dangers of carcinogens being dumped into the environment. Seeing it first hand with his brother who died of childhood leukemia, Belton was inspired investigate the outbreaks with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. One of the first ways that they began investigating these cancer clusters was with the Cancer Atlas. The atlas was a portrayal of organ-specific death rates from cancer that were both representative of state and county. They were used to test the hypothesis of cancer mortality, and encourage scientists to do a follow up study. With the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, Belton was tasked with determining the presence of carcinogens and doing the follow up studies for the cancer clusters that were found. Once they found the presence of carcinogens in the environment they were tasked with stopping the spread of the potentially deadly substances and fixing the problem.

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       Within the tristate area (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) studies were done that found there were excessively high rates of childhood leukemia, young adult Hodgkin’s disease and lymphoma mortality rates. The issue that researchers ran into was that it sometimes takes ten or more years between exposure to a carcinogen and a diagnosis of cancer to be reached. It makes it difficult to pinpoint what the environmental causes of the cancer are. The Science and Research team devised a three part research plan to study the substances that may or may not be causing cancer around the clusters. These studies exposed multiple industries. Research was understood for the first time that showed what types and quantities of toxic substances were being used by manufactures. Legislators were then able to find justification for laws to be made to monitor chemicals and inform neighborhoods about what types of chemicals were being used in their area. In places like Rutherford and Toms River, childhood cancer appeared significantly higher and because of new legislation that was developed these areas were able to get the help they needed by having researchers come in and take a look at the ambient air and water to determine what was causing the cancer. It is still not a fact yet that cancer clusters prove that the environment surrounding them is contaminated with carcinogens, and many researchers still believe that there is no association between the types of cancer reported and the suspected hazards. Overall, reports have shown that death rates from the four major cancer types are in decline, and there has always been significant reductions in public exposure to carcinogens.

Chapter 2 Reflection:

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     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about contamination among the fish population in the east coast. This chapter was about informing the public about the potential dangers of eating fish that were contaminated with PCBs. Growing up in Jersey City, Belton knew how important the fishing community was to the surrounding areas. The families that would be most affected by the news that their food had been contaminated and would possibly give then health complications were those of the fishermen. It would also destroy their business if people stopped buying fish when the news was released that their product was tainted. Belton needed the public to be aware of what they were consuming so he in conjunction with the USEPA and the department for Science and Research took a few steps to make sure that the public’s health was looked after while making sure they didn’t destroy the fish market. They first gathered enormous amounts of data that would help them prove that there were concerning amounts of PCB’s in the fish that people were consuming. The levels that they found passed that of the FDA’s and were found in a few specific species of fish. What they did with this information was go to the NJDEP commissioner and the governor who later released fishing advisories for striped bass, bluefish, American eel, white catfish and white perch. They advised the public to only eat one fish meal a week and that pregnant women, nursing mothers, women of childbearing age and young children should not eat any of the fish that were indicated as contaminated.

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     What makes me sad about this whole situation is that there should be no limitation on what people are able to consume. The public should not be afraid to eat fish because they will run the risk of getting cancer, or having adverse health effects. What this chapter made me more aware of was the migratory nature of fish. Due to fish moving up and down the east coast, this is not just a statewide issue, but rather a national issue. The fish will be contaminated up and down the coast, and if they keep running into more contaminants that are being dumped along the coastline then they will only continue to become even more of a health scare. The toxins that are being dumped into our waters don’t just disappear and that is what many large companies fail to recognize. They will show up again. Whether it be in the water we drink or bathe in or the foods we eat, they will show up with a vengeance.

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Chapter 3 Reflection: 

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     This week’s chapter of Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about the water that the people of New Jersey use to drink. This chapter was about the pathogens, and carcinogens that are in our drinking water that could impact our health and affect the quality of the water that we are drinking. There are many difficulties that go into procuring clean drinking water from New Jersey’s waterways due to the many contaminants that have been dumped into them. As Bolton explained, diving into places like the Boonton Reservoir became difficult because of the high volume of sediment that clouded the river and made the water pitch black the further down they went. Water treatment plants have to be aware of the quality of water to be able to adequately treat the water and make it safe to drink. The contaminants in the water have moved further away from waterborne diseases and more toward chemical toxins that have the potential to make it past the treatments at the treatment plants. To measure the amount of chemical toxins in the water, Bolton and his team compared the results from the raw water that was untreated to the water that was treated. In this water and the suspended sediments that were found in the water there were a whole host of damaging chemicals that had been known to various diseases in studies previously done on animals. As a solution chlorine began being added to the water to help remove it of the toxins that were a danger to the public’s health.

 

     My reaction to this chapter is one of nausea. It makes me sick to think that from drinking water from the taps in our homes I could potentially develop some affliction because the water could be contaminated and unclean. The stories in the beginning of the chapter that talked about people getting diseases like cholera from the feces that was being dumped in the water make me think about how despicable people could be to dump in our naturally beautiful and clean water sources. To contaminate something that gives humans life is saddening to me. Especially, when people have to die, like Bill Hoar, who have to investigate these contaminations in an attempt to help the public. I drink the water from my tap and I put it through a Britta, but it makes me question if that is even doing anything to help lessen contaminants in my water. It seems almost helpless that the water I am drinking that I believe is helping me, may hurt me in the long term.

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Chapter 4 Reflection:

 

     This week’s chapter of Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about protecting the environment from radiation. This chapter deals with issues like what happens to the environment and the people living around nuclear sites if disaster strikes or after prolonged exposure to radiation. The events that occurred at various nuclear power plants or superfund sites, such as the ones on the Three Mile Island, and the United States Radium Superfund made people aware of the awesome power that is energy that is created through radiation. The fall out that could have occurred over the surrounding areas of these sites would have a lasting impact on not only the people who live there, but on the surrounding environment as well. In the chapter Bolton details several instances where people were either ignorant to the effects of radiation or were aware and were utilizing it to make a profit. One of the examples that hit close to home was the radiation girls that were in South Orange. In the early 1900s the US Radium Corporation was using radium to produce luminous paints that would be used to decorate military watches. The women that worked in this factory were injecting this paint, either by licking the brush to get a pointed tip or by painting their teeth, face or nails with it to surprise people with the glow it created. The women were unaware that this paint was extremely toxic and would cause a multitude of health defects and in some cases death. Unfortunately, the people running the factory knew how toxic the material was but didn’t want to say anything, because it would cost more to properly suit up these women rather than hire more.

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     What makes me sick in this chapter was the amount of people who knew how toxic radiation was and is but still allowed it to be common place. The women working in the factories died because of people who didn’t want the truth to be exposed. They died because they were not educated on the proper handling of this substance, and other higher ups allowed this to happen. It again makes me sickened to know that big business values money over the lives of other, the lives of people who have families, friends, and children. Big business so very rarely cares about its workers and that is so evident here. I am happy to know that people are being more educated on this subject though and that radiation is being controlled more now.

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Chapter 5 Reflection:

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     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about political corruption and dirty deeds done to the environment. This chapter focused on the corruption that swept over Jersey City when it came to getting around laws that were passed to prevent the illegal dumping of toxic waste. Many times deals were struck up between corporations in the Jersey City area and the mafia to cheaply and discreetly remove waste from their sites and move them to new locations. The drums of hazardous chemicals would then be incinerated or dumped illegally in the surrounding waters. The mobs of Jersey City got away with this for a while until a deadly explosion was set of at the Chemical Control Corporation in Elizabeth, after it was discovered that they were improperly storing and collecting waste products. Clean up of this disastrous incident took decades, and is still effecting the ecosystems surrounding the area today. Other sites like the ones of Hudson County were also dangerous for the health for the residents in the surrounding area. Bolton would play here as a child not realizing the risks that were associated to coming into contact with such hazardous materials. Contact with the material, chromium, at sites like these could cause ulcers on the skin, irritation of the nasal mucosa, and gastrointestinal tract, and also have an impact on the functioning of the kidneys and liver. Many times the government was aware of what was happening but didn’t do anything about it because of red tape surrounding these issues. Fortunately, more and more restrictions have been put on the pollution of the environment and justice is being demanded.

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      What can be gleaned after reading this chapter is that once again big business is almost always willing to engage in shady deals and operations to save themselves money to make a large profit. The issue will always be that someone is in the know about the potential health dangers that are surrounding a certain area, but they will be unwilling to let the larger community in on this knowledge if it means that they will have to change their mode of operation, and pay more money to make sure that they are abiding by the rules. It makes me upset to know that this corruption occurred so a long long time before anyone caught on or gathered enough evidence to convict these felons of their crimes against the environment. The people of New Jersey are still feeling the effects of these deals that were made decades ago, and although it has gotten a bit better I doubt that these deals have completely stopped. Somewhere someone is unjustly harming our environment to turn a profit. It blows my mind that people can be so selfish, so to endanger the lives of thousands and millions of people, because they want to make some extra cash. It sickens me to my core knowing that this is human nature and that it may never stop.

 

Chapter 6 Reflection: 

     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about the Dioxin Toxicity and contamination that occurred in the area surrounding the Diamond Alkali facility. This chapter focused on the dioxin contamination that occurred in the city of Newark after it was discovered that the Diamond Alkali facility was contracted to manufacture about 75% of all the Agent Orange that was used during the Vietnam War. This lead to an investigation of the area in which soil samples were taken from the spillage area near the facility. The soil samples taken from this area were sent to one of the only test facilities that were able to detect how much dioxin was in the sample. They concluded that the soil was so highly contaminated with this chemical that it actually caused the testing facility to close to decontaminate its equipment. The area surrounding the Diamond Alkali facility was highly populated by families and other residential businesses. The government was not able to just take over and begin a cleanup operation. This chemical is a major health concern for the people living in the area, it could cause birth defects, mental retardation, and various cancers when exposed to the substance. The issue became large scale when it was discovered that it was contaminating the water of the Passaic River as well as Newark Bay. People were injecting this water and the fish that inhabited these water ways. The governor signed a dioxin emergency order, that then lead to more legal cation, and laws that were put in place to prevent the dumping and manufacturing of this harmful chemical. Those facilities who continued to pollute the water ways would have to pay for their environmental crimes, and take responsibility for their actions.

     What can be learned after reading this week’s chapter is that many big businesses are unaware of the gravity of their environmental impact. To them if the problem is out of sight it is also out of mind. This is the entirely wrong approach to these issues because it is the contamination that we can’t see that are the issue that affects people the most. This chapter is called environmental warfare because it has to do with the threats that are unleashed on the environment from human made substances and the wars that are waged on areas like the Passaic River. These areas try to fight to return to a state of homeostasis but it is hard for the environment to not be affected when they are being altered at a rate that is too quick for it to be able to adapt. The more I read this book the sadder I become at the fact that all of this environmental degradation occurred right next store to where I go to college. It is scary and disheartening because I am curious as to how these events are still affecting the area because it is not so far off that these contaminations were discovered. Even these events occurred 20 to 30 years ago that really isn’t that long of a period of time for the environment to be able to heal itself. If makes we wonder if we will ever reach a healthy balance in the environment.

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Chapter 7 Reflection: 

     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about new ways of tackling the issue of pollution in our environment. This chapter discusses some of the ideas of Buckminster Fuller, a so called cultural radical who spoke of ideas on progressive thought. Fuller’s ideas focused on looking toward the future, and expanding our minds to create more innovative technologies that would benefit humanity. He believed that sometimes it is what we know that is the issue because it gives us parameters that hinders our progress. Sometimes our actions that are believed to help the environment have unintended consequences that hinder us later down the road. Bolton gives the example of the Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act. This law expanded liability of property to beyond the owners, making it more expensive to clean up sites that have been contaminated. This made investors leave places around the city and go develop in the suburbs because they did not want to pay for the cleanup of these sites. People also felt that businesses were held at a different standard than residents which did not sit well with them. New Jersey eventually left up on the polluter pay laws in an effort to help areas like Camden. Developing the empty lots or brown fields was important to helping urban/suburban areas in not just leaving land to rot.

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Chapter 8 Reflection: 

     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about poverty and the ways that this affects the environment. This chapter discusses the idea of development plans on areas that have a high population of disenfranchised, very poor people who need a safer place to live. Belton had the opportunity to go visit these areas that were impoverished, and examine both the people who lived there and the environment they lived in. As a social worker, he had to determine what type of welfare the peoples of these area would receive, but many of the people that he visited needed more than just welfare, they needed an entirely new place to live. In current day, many of the homes that Belton visited are gone, and have either been developed over or have fallen down completely. The urban development that took over these homes caused there to be a flourish in prosperity in the surrounding areas. What was once an impoverished area has become gentrified towns that are drawing in revenue and industry. Sometimes this type of development was met with confrontation because it would mean the displacement of large amounts of people in the community. This could be seen in places like Camden. There had been a set plan to help redevelop some of the areas but that also called for there to be a seize in property which would cause the displacement of many Camden based families. After some attempts to compromise, the plan fell apart and the prospects of gentrifying the area became more difficult.

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     After reading this chapter, I have learned that not all communities are created equal. That is something that has been exceedingly evident to me while growing up. I grew up not too far away from Seton Hall. I lived in Woodbridge for a good majority of my life. In recent years it has gone through the process of gentrification. Growing up there it was not as clean, and safe as it is now. For this reason I moved to Manalapan which was a more affluent area. I was surrounded by farm land and a healthier environment. There was not as much pollution in the community and people too more pride in the area they lived in. It was vastly different. Coming back to the Newark area for college I once again see the differences that arise from areas of influence and poverty. Driving through Newark makes me sad to think of all of the unnecessary pollutants the people deal with because of the area that they are able to afford to live in.

Chapter 9 Reflection: 

     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about the impact of trees on an environment and the community. Growing up, Belton didn’t have many rich experiences with trees in his community because he grew up in an area that did not have many forests and woodlands available to him. Later in college, his professors exposed him to opportunities to be able to explore the great woodlands and national parks to get a deeper understanding of the impact of nature and trees on a community. The greatest threats to the forests that have been developing over the recent years are air pollution and global climate change. These two factors have been elemental in helping to kill foliage in the forests and cause mass amounts of change in the composition of the soil. The forests will not be able to sustain themselves, or adapt to the rising carbon levels and shifting of biomes at the rate that these changes are happening. Air pollution and acid rain have changed the fungi that were attached to the roots of the trees, the soil itself, the amount of species that inhabit these areas, and the overall biodiversity of the New Jersey Pinelands. These changes will be detrimental to not only Pinelands but to the state parks but the swamps of New Jersey as well.

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     After reading this chapter, I have learned that the woodlands of New Jersey are under attack from pollution and human interaction with the environment. From working at the Audubon for this semester I can understand how fragile the forests can be. There is so much that can go wrong in the chemistry of the environment that can have grave impacts on the vegetation that inhabits the area. Kaitlynn and I had learned that the amphibians in the area has been greatly affected by the acid rain and climate change that has changed the PH balance in the water. If the amphibians in the area are wiped out the entire ecosystem will change and possible collapse. It is so important that the trees are kept to help regulate the environment. By us cutting down more trees we will not allow the world to remain in homeostasis and cleanse itself of the toxins that we pump into the environment.

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Chapter 10 Reflection: 

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     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about the effects of human colonization on the animals that live around them. Bolton begins this chapter by telling a story about the time he went camping in the woods with the Boy Scouts and slept with snakes. The point of his story was to talk about the impact of his Boy Scout troop on the hibernation of snakes. Due to the boys invading the snake’s habitat, and their natural body heat warming the ground the snakes believed that it was time to wake up from hibernation. This issue goes deeper than just boys in the woods. The Bald Eagle population was almost wiped out of New Jersey due to human colonization and influence on the environment. Humans had been tainting the food that the Bald Eagle population would eat with DDT and other insecticides. Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring, bravely pointed out that DDT was helping to cause the decline in the eagle population as well as in other bird species because this chemical was a natural eggshell thinner. At one point in the 1980s there was only one active Bald Eagle nest left in the entirety of the state. Recovery programs were then created to help grow the population of Bald Eagles in New Jersey, and keep it at a sustainable level for the future. While the Bald Eagle is a success story, the efforts to help repopulate native wildlife should not stop there.

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     After reading this chapter, I have learned more about the influence that humans have when colonize an area with a specific animal population. We have had effects on migratory patterns because we have taken over mating grounds, or depleted resources that have drawn animals in to the area. We have also had effects on causing the displacement of many species. It is important to understand the gravity of this situation and the implications that it has on future animal populations. I believe that humans should be establishing more wildlife reserves because the animals deserve just as much space to inhabit as the humans who are invading their habitats. Humanity needs these animals in order to keep the biodiversity that helps to keep the world in balance. Like in last week’s reading, we can’t have one species become extinct or endangered because that could cause entire biomes to collapse.

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Chapter 11 Reflection: 

     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about the quality of headwater streams and their importance in the environment. To understand the quality of the headwater streams, there first needed to be an understanding of how the stream works. Bolton believed that there needs to be a better way to separate streams so they could cataloged as they move from the headwater to the stream and finally to the river and the ocean. A method was created by a geosciences professor at Columbia University that was used to produce an ordering hierarchy that allows scientists to classify streams in a categorical fashion. Ordering the streams helps to label whether they are large rivers or small streams. The issue is that the federal and state water quality regulations only focus on the fourth and fifth-order streams due to the lack of maps that detail the smaller streams that could be polluted and polluting the larger streams as they join together. The watershed initiative was created to help to combat the spread of pollutants in the water and set higher standards in terms of sustainability management. The lack of quality assurance on all rivers was causing there to be greater pollution, and negative impacts that would occur downriver from the initial point of pollution. The initiative put a higher emphasis on community involvement and the public becoming more educated on the needs of their local rivers.

     After reading this chapter, I have learned more about the importance of keeping up with all rivers no matter what the size. It is of supreme importance that the rivers are maintained in pristine condition because if they are not that will greatly influence the rest of the water cycle. Reading this chapter I became more aware of the effect that pollution from once source could have on another and how multiple waterways could become contaminated when they meet with other waterways. I began to think about the Passaic River that is running through the New Jersey Audubon where Kaitlynn and I have been working this semester. The Passaic was considered to be one of the most polluted rivers because of the surrounding area and how many toxic chemicals were being released into the surrounding waterways. It makes me wonder if they had done a better job at cleaning up the pollution at the beginning of the streams that fed into the Passaic River would it have become as polluted as it is.

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Chapter 12 Reflection: 

     This week’s chapter in Protecting New Jersey’s Environment was about the barrier islands that are surrounding New Jersey. These costal barrier islands are meant to protect the mainland from the storms and wind that come off of the ocean. These islands move closer to the shore and are not meant to stay around forever. The way that the barrier islands are not meant to be stationary or permanent features off shore will soon become an issue due to the rise in global sea levels. The properties that are currently on the shore will be consumed by the ocean and beach towns will have to relocate. Bolton talks about the importance of keeping the shores of New Jersey healthy. There is a National Coastal Assessment that reports if the water has improved or worsened over a time period of two years. This method of assessment began in the year 2000, and in 2006 a version was created by the USEPA that would solely focus on the conditions of the estuaries. In these reports have shown that human activity has caused there to be habitat loss and a decrease in the fish and wildlife diversity that live in these estuaries and bays off the coast. While it is not well understood the implications of these losses it is clear that human development will cause further decline in the water quality because of pollution.

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     After reading this chapter, I have learned more about the environmental concerns that are surrounding the estuaries and waters along the shore of New Jersey. I have noticed the decline in the shore over the short span of my own life so over a fifty year period I can see why there should be even more of a concern over the waters. My family has a beach house down in Long Beach Island, there I have seen the shore erode immensely and large beaches turn into small sand banks. In recent years they have built back up to the size from when I was younger but they have done it through the process of beach nourishment. I have watched them take the sand from off shore and put it back on the shores. After Hurricane Sandy they focused even more on building up the shoreline because of the horrible flooding that occurred. The shorelines are not meant to stay the same but because of human intervention, we are going to try to keep it as unchanged as possible.

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