Cast-off toilets flush with oysters after two years
In an unusual experiment two years ago, unwanted toilets, sinks and other porcelain products were smashed to bits and shaped into two artificial oyster reefs.
One potty-reef was constructed in the Back River, near the runway at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton; the other was built in the Lafayette River in Norfolk.
The results are in: Toilets are a good habitat for oysters.
In fact, they may last even longer in the wild than oyster shell—the material that Virginia has used for building dozens of reefs as part of its bid to revive native oyster stocks in the lower Chesapeake Bay. The native oysters have been devastated by decades of disease, pollution and lost natural reefs.
But there’s one catch. Even when the porcelain goods are donated by contractors and developers, as they were in 2002, the cost of moving and placing these tons of white, shiny scraps into public waterways is more than it is for shell, said Jim Wesson, director of oyster restoration with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. The same is true, he said, of other alternative reef-making substrates the state has tried in recent years, including chunks of coal ash and ground-up concrete.
For now, no one’s counting on the toilets. But if Virginia experiences a new shortage of oyster shells—which, under a state contract, are dug up from the bottom of the James River—porcelain potties may rise again, Wesson said. “Really, anything that’s made into the size of a shell, is hard, and doesn’t float, oysters will find it and grow there just fine.”
Wesson and a team of scientists, aides and divers recently inspected the reefs, bringing mud-covered samples aboard a research boat and checking them for baby oysters and overall health. Then they went to the Lafayette River site, near the Norfolk International Terminals at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. After they found the toilet reefs, Wesson handed Vernon Rowe, an oyster-restoration aide, a bucket of oyster shells mixed with pieces of moss- and sponge-covered porcelain, a sloppy stew of green, orange and black.
Rowe dumped the contents onto a sorting board. Then he and Melissa Southworth, an oyster expert with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, began taking notes and recording findings.
There were plenty of baby oysters, or spat, taking root on the surface of the toilet shards—just as many as on the real shells, Wesson and Southworth said.
The results were the same a few days before, when the team surveyed the Back River reef, they said.
The city of Hampton spent nearly two years collecting and storing porcelain goods in anticipation of the project. One environmental volunteer donated her grandmother’s china to the reef.
It quickly became a popular cause among local media, the city and local companies wanting to do something positive and public for the environment.
Conservancy buys Nassawango tract
The Nature Conservancy in September announced it had purchased a 1,583-acre tract at Nassawango Creek, expanding the size of the largest privately owned nature preserve in Maryland to 9,100 acres.
“Nassawango Creek is situated between Salisbury and Ocean City—two areas in the Delmarva Peninsula that are experiencing development pressures,” said Nat Williams, state director of the conservancy’s Maryland/ DC Chapter. “By protecting this area, we are maintaining the quality of life for residents of Worcester and Wicomico counties. Meanwhile, we are preserving part of Maryland’s natural heritage.”
The conservancy began protecting Nassawango Creek in 1978 after it received a 157-acre donation of swamp and forested uplands from E. Stanton Adkins. Since then, the preserve has grown through land purchases, conservation easements and generous donations from individuals and corporations.
The conservancy acquired the new 1,583-acre property in July from Sustainable Conservation Inc., which had acquired it from the York, PA-based Glatfelter Pulp Wood Company.
PA doubles use of green electricity
Pennsylvania has doubled its green electricity purchases to operate government offices from 5 percent to 10 percent.
Under four-year contracts with Community Energy Inc. and Strategic Energy LLC, the state will purchase 100,000 megawatt hours per year, or 10 percent of the state government’s electricity, from renewable sources—all at a premium rate of 0.34 cents per kilowatt hour.
Thirty-five percent of the purchase will come from new wind sources and 10 percent from burning waste coal in circulating fluidized bed facilities, which produce lower air emissions than conventional coal plants. The remainder will come from low-impact, run-of-river hydroelectric power from the “Susquehanna River.
“Investing in indigenous energy sources and advanced energy technologies stimulates our economy, creates good-paying jobs for Pennsylvanians, strengthens environmental protections and enhances homeland security,” said Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty.
State officials said the purchase came in at $163,693 below budget.
The new purchase more than triples the amount of wind purchases in the state while helping to clean up a major source of water pollution and reclaim otherwise useless land through the purchase of waste coal.
Snakeheads reproducing in region
Scientists’ worst fears about the northern snakehead were confirmed in late September when a 3-inch fish was found in the Potomac, confirming that the species is reproducing in the area.
Until then, all of the fish captured had been adults, although some were egg-bearing females. The discovery of the young fish pulled from Dogue Creek, in Fairfax County, biologists say, means the fish may be nearly impossible to eradicate.
They have expressed fear that the voracious predator from Asia, which can grow up to 40 inches long and weigh up to 15 pounds, could alter the river’s ecosystem. Wildlife officials in Virginia and Maryland have asked anglers to kill, and not release, any snakeheads they catch.
The exotic species began raising concern when they started turning up earlier this summer. So far, anglers have caught 19 adult snakeheads in the Potomac and its tributaries.
Scientists aren’t sure where the first snakeheads came from, but believe it is likely they were imported for food or as aquarium fish, and then dumped.
Concern is not confined to the Bay region. In October, biologists reported that an 18-inch-snakehead had turned up near Chicago.
Potomac’s male bass producing eggs
Scientists believe that pollution in the South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia is causing male bass to produce eggs, although they are unsure of the exact cause. Potential culprits include chicken estrogen in poultry manure or human hormones that end up in the river from wastewater treatment plant discharges.
Scientists from state and federal agencies discovered the problem when they were investigating reports last summer that fish in the river were developing lesions and dying. When they dissected the fish, mainly smallmouth bass, they were surprised to discover that 42 percent of the male bass had developed eggs inside their sex organs.
“We always have, and still do, look at this as one of our highest-quality fisheries,” Patrick Campbell of the state Department of Environmental Protection told the Washington Post. “It’s counterintuitive to think we would have this type of problem out there.”
Yet a follow-up survey this spring found even higher rates of “intersex” bass, as the affected males are called. Of 66 male smallmouths from the South Branch, 79 percent showed such symptoms, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.
Scientists are uncertain what the findings mean for the bass, including whether the affected fish will still be able to reproduce.
Researchers are analyzing water samples from the South Branch and the Cacapon River—a nearby tributary where the problem has not been seen. They are looking for signs of “emerging contaminants,” such as prescription drugs and hormones, which have been linked to developmental problems in wildlife, but are generally not the target of pollution monitoring programs.
Human consumption outpacing Earth’s ability to renew resources
People are plundering the world’s resources at a pace that outstrips the planet’s capacity to sustain life, the group World Wide Fund for Nature said in October.
In its regular “Living Planet Report,” the WWF said humans currently consume 20 percent more natural resources than the Earth can produce.
Consumption of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil increased by almost 700 percent between 1961 and 2001, it said. But the planet is unable to move as fast to absorb the resulting carbon-dioxide emissions that degrade the Earth’s protective ozone layer.
“We are spending nature’s capital faster than it can regenerate,” said WWF chief Claude Martin. “We are running up an ecological debt which we won’t be able to pay off unless governments restore the balance between our consumption of natural resources and the Earth’s ability to renew them.”
Populations of terrestrial, freshwater and marine species fell on average by 40 percent between 1970 and 2000, the study said. It cited the destruction of natural habitats, pollution, overfishing, and the introduction by humans of nonnative animals, such as cats and rats, which often drive out native species.
The study, WWF's fifth since 1998, examines the “ecological footprint”—or environmental impact—of the planet's 6.1 billion-strong population. To calculate the average size of each person's footprint, it measures land use, pollution, energy consumption and the level of carbon-dioxide emissions.
The impact of an average North American is double that of a European, but seven times that of the average Asian or African.
The biggest culprits are the residents of the United Arab Emirates, followed by the United States, Kuwait and Australia. The least damaging are residents of Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti, Tajikistan and Bangladesh.