Blog – Page 5

Resources on Alabama Water Contamination

Our Ozarks Life

Water quality standards and regulations for Alabama (EPA.gov) site information

https://www.epa.gov/wqs-tech/water-quality-standards-regulations-alabama

EPA Reports on Decatur/ WMEL Area PFC Contamination

https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/region4/water/documents/web/pdf/epa_decatur_fact_sheet_final.pdf

WAFF 48

http://www.waff.com/story/32029021/epa-warns-cancer-causing-chemicals-in-west-morgan-east-lawrence-water-supply

Why isn’t the EPA Superfund being called upon to clean up the contamination in our river and in our waterways?

The Superfund Program is administered by EPA in cooperation with state and tribal governments. The program gives EPA the funds and authority to clean up polluted sites. Goals of the Superfund program are to:  Protect human health and the environment.  Involve communities.  Make those who are legally responsible pay for the work performed at Superfund sites.

Contact your EPA Environmental Justice Coordinator of EPA Region IV Cynthia Peurifoy at 1-404-562-9649. Without calls, the Superfund will NOT be engaged nor will the EPA continue to pursue the contamination.

Are West Decatur East Lawrence citizens at risk due to contamination?

The questions and answers below are excerpts from the EPA Document provided to Hoosick Falls, NY Residents regarding practices for safety with EPOA and EPOS Contamination.

Can the PFOS and PFOA as well as other chemical contaminants be “boiled” out of the water at homes?

NO. Boiling water contaminated with PFoA and PFOS may further release particles into your home’s air.

The following Questions and Answers are from the EPA regarding the Hoosick Falls Contamination, which is about the same contaminants in Alabama. The EPA has not created a Q/A for Alabama at this time. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-01/documents/hoosickfalls_faqs.pdf

Is it OK to shower or bathe with water from Hoosick Falls?

There is a lack of studies evaluating the human health effects from inhalation and skin exposure to PFOA. Regarding inhalation, the EPA does not believe that routine showering or bathing would cause a significant exposure. A minimal amount of inhalable water droplets (aerosols) are formed during showering or bathing. PFOA also has a very low evaporation rate, which further minimizes inhalation exposure. Nonetheless, the use of bathroom ventilation systems and opening bathroom windows while showering or bathing can help remove the water vapor/aerosols that form during showering or bathing. Similar to inhalation exposure, skin exposure from PFOA while showering or bathing is also not a significant exposure. Studies have shown very limited absorption of PFOA through the skin, and the movement of PFOA through the skin is extremely slow. However, as a precautionary measure and given the limited information on skin exposure, children or people with skin conditions (for example, rashes, cuts and abrasions) should avoid prolonged contact (such as long showers or long baths) with PFOA-contaminated water.

What about teeth brushing? Consistent with the EPA’s recommendation not to use tap water from the Hoosick Falls public water supply for drinking or cooking, the EPA recommends that bottled water be used for brushing teeth.

Can I use a humidifier? Until a treatment system is in place at the public water supply and confirmed to be consistently removing PFOA to acceptable levels, the EPA recommends the use of bottled water for a humidifier.

Can I do laundry and wash my dishes with water from the Hoosick Falls public water supply? Yes. Neither doing laundry nor washing dishes with water from the Hoosick Falls public water supply pose a significant exposure to PFOA. 3

Would an in-home treatment system help filter the PFOA out of the water? Carbon filtration and reverse osmosis are two technologies that can remove low levels of organic contaminants, such as PFOA, from water. While there are currently no commercially available point-of-use (POU) filters (filters attached to a tap) or whole house filters specifically certified by the National Sanitation Foundation to remove PFOA, it is expected that any activated carbon or reverse osmosis system will have the capability of reducing PFOA levels. The Minnesota Department of Health tested several POU water treatment devices and found many to be effective (visit http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/topics/pfcs/wateranalysis.html for a summary). If a treatment unit is used, it is important to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines for maintenance and operation. Moreover, testing of the treated water periodically would be necessary to ensure that the PFOA level remains below the EPA’s health-based level.

Has the soil been tested for PFOA and is the soil safe? There has been a limited amount of soil testing for PFOA in Hoosick Falls. Additional soil sampling may occur in the future. If PFOA is found in the soil, there are practical actions that would minimize exposure to PFOA. For example, where bare patches of soil are known to have PFOA contamination, grass, mulch, compost, etc. are effective ways to prevent direct contact with the soil. Additionally, don’t eat or smoke or engage in other hand-to-mouth activities while gardening. Is it OK to eat vegetables from my garden? To EPA’s knowledge, no gardens in Hoosick Falls have been tested for PFOA. In general, a number of studies have evaluated the absorption into plants of the whole class of perfluourinated compounds (of which PFOA is one). Absorption into plants depends on the size of the particular perfluourinated compound and its chemistry. Smaller compounds have more uptake. PFOA is a relatively large compound and has lower uptake. Absorption also differs by the type of produce. Root vegetables that grow in the ground and leafy green vegetables (for example, lettuce) generally have greater absorption of chemicals, including PFOA. Root and leafy vegetables also tend to adhere soil to the surface of the produce. If PFOA is found in soil, thoroughly washing root and leafy green vegetables with bottled water will further reduce the minimal exposure to PFOA from growing produce in soil contaminated with PFOA and/or watering produce gardens with PFOA contaminated water. One could also peel root vegetables prior to consumption.

Can PFOA coat the inside of my home’s pipes? Based on the high solubility of PFOA (ability of the chemical to dissolve) in water relative to the concentration found in Hoosick Falls drinking water, it would be unlikely for PFOA to coat the inside of pipes.

Can PFOA be removed from the public water supply? Treatment technologies exist that can remove PFOA from public water supplies. One such technology is granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration. Another is called reverse osmosis. The Village of Hoosick Falls and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics are negotiating an agreement under which Saint-Gobain would pay for the installation of GAC systems at the Village’s water treatment plant. The systems need to be designed carefully to ensure that they will successfully treat the water to remove PFOA to acceptable levels. The New York State Department of Health will be working closely with the Village of Hoosick Falls as the treatment systems are designed with the goal of removing PFOA to the minimum reporting limit that can be reliably achieved by the 4 analytical laboratory when using EPA Method 537. Until the treatment systems are in place and confirmed to be consistently removing PFOA to acceptable levels, the public should not use the Hoosick Falls public water supply for drinking or cooking.

What is being done to address the groundwater contamination? The EPA has begun discussions regarding steps that need to be taken to: a. identify, control and clean up the source or sources of the PFOA contamination of the groundwater; b. determine the full extent of the PFOA contamination; and c. achieve a permanent cleanup remedy for the groundwater contamination and any other possible contamination. How would these actions be paid for? In this case (Hoosick Falls, NY), the EPA expects one or more private parties liable for the pollution to pay for addressing the problems.

The information will be on-going. For now, I can only rely on reports for our area, and data from areas like ours who are further down the road legally and environmentally. We’ve much to learn and to do to stop the contamination, deal with the past contamination and prevent future contamination.

The more I seek information, the worse it gets.

Our Ozarks Life

The more I read what the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has put out in information for the public in Michigan, Vermont, New York, and in Alabama, the more it is clear that we must be vigilant to call, email, write, and show up as citizens. They are telling us in print in the reports that our own fields have been sludge and leech contamination sources for decades. No one is going to voluntarily take responsibility for the contamination…and multiple agencies FAILED to protect our land, our river and our citizens.

How to’s and Why’s

Uncategorized

Isn’t learning a powerful thing? I work with entrepreneurs weekly who are actively seeking to learn new skills. The remarkable thing I’ve come to notice the last few years is there are multiple components of the successful learner. The first component has to do with desiring to learn. The individual or team has an open mind, an inquisitive spirit that says “what can I do to change the outcome?” It’s a simple thing but that “I” in the middle of the question has a significant impact on the next actions that happen. You see we are each responsible for the actions that matter in our own lives.

Learning can happen, skills can be learned, but if one does not understand the scope and sequence of the skills involved, there can be much effort without outcome. Scope and sequence understanding allows the individual or team to construct and deconstruct areas of their training, business offerings or product processes. When you know what value each part of a business or skill sequence is, it’s much easier to identify what is working and not working in your business. Many entrepreneurs I work with have spent years on building things: websites, papers, products, programs, but they did not understand the value of audience share, pre-marketing communications, sales scripts, or easy user interface, and such so the products simply didn’t have anywhere to go. A restaurant can have the best recipes and service in town but it will not be found if no one knows what it serves or where it is located. Components of success often involve communication both internally and externally.

In sales trainings, we often are told we must know our “why’s”. I think this is true on many levels in business. We thrive when we have a solid set of foundational understandings or “whys” of the reasons we choose to be in business. Our decisions are more easily made when we have a clearly communicated knowledge of “why” we do the steps we do in business. Our trainings and service procedures are more often followed when the user or employee understands the value or the “why” of what is required of them or the service to achieve success. When we identify and affirm the “whys” of our daily life actions, it is easier to accommodate the need for them in our own daily actions. When we know the “how to’s” and “whys” of our actions, we build a strong alliance in our daily lives.

Sweetie Berry Decluttering is a popular topic on all fronts of living. Successful learners have a great need for decluttering as well. To learn effectively, we each must identify and remove all that clutters the process of attention or actions. Recently I had to make difficult decisions about my life in business. There were many emotional clusters of clutter around a set of a specific organization and decisions. When I put on paper the outcomes I needed to achieve and deconstructed the known process to achieve the goals at hand, I recognized many unproductive items and relationships that were “cluttering” the process of daily life and business. Whether it is unnecessary time disruptors or too many activities that prevent ease in action, decluttering our business and personal lives to reflect what we truly value matters.

For too long I had carried some activities that were neither business nor friendship, those activities were often emotionally draining, physically taxing for time, and financially expensive to support, but I had allowed emotional clutter to keep the activities in my processes of weekly work and schedule. However when I looked at the operation activities for business, that which was producing enjoyment and success in my life and the life of my business, I found that too often the desire to avoid emotional push backs had overridden good business decisions.

Once I decluttered the emotional concerns of releasing the non productive parts of relationships, and in some cases, the relationships themselves, to the requirements of a client to be “good for business” and “supporting positive interactions” changes were easy to enact. Our “whys” provide an easy to compare value when decisions must be made. “Does this align with my personal and professional values?” “Am I committing to something that is a win for our client, for our team, for our community?” These types of questions certainly helps my business engage and release opportunities that may or may not be a fit for our business. Like a shoe that is the wrong size, a client or potential project that isn’t a fit for your business or values is better left on the shelf than removed after pain is suffered.

As we learn we grow. As we gain experience we have the opportunity to revisit what is working and not working in our lives. The joy of learning is that we can choose to take time to improve, relearn, or release wrong learning from our lives. I highly prize the gift of learning, for it brings almost unlimited possibilities if I am willing to engage its gifts.

How many hats do you wear in your life roles?

Our Ozarks Life

How many roles are you performing in your life? I don’t know about you, but in mine, it’s like one woman play some days and I’m the starring performer, the understudy, the crew and at times it seems the ticket box staff, too. I think I am the comic relief as well. 🙂 Can you relate? As an entrepreneur trainer, one of the most important conversations I encourage my staff and my clients to have is this one:

What matters to you?

What roles bring you the experience of joy?

What are the unexpected happies that happen in your world when you do what you do?

Personally, if I am with creatives who are focused on their gifts, their intentional actions to build whatever they are building and there’s great fellowship while we do the work, I’m a happy camper. What does that for you?

Folks like to talk about defining your role as in “I’m a plumber”. That is a one word answer that spans hundreds of different skills. That may be an identifiable term for many folks, but really, do you KNOW what a plumber does? Is a plumber who works in your home different from one who works for the city? What about a corporate plumber versus a rural one? Nothing is as easy as defining a life with a word. Perhaps the better mode is to identify what it is you seek to be or become. The answers may change as you go, for once I was simply a teacher, later I could say a training professional, and later still I could say a hybrid strategist for authors, speakers, and creatives.

At fifty-one there are many more hats that I could wear, and most times the goal is simply to recognize which ones still fit and which ones need to be retired. Isn’t it important to choose carefully how we spend our time? It’s such a precious resource and as I focus more on my own well-lived life, there are many hats I am beginning to retire. Hats such as the one who is willing to work harder for other’s success than my own. Hats that are for skills or talents that are not my personal ones and are better served by those who flourish for that gifting. Hats that are too small now, like limited perspectives and narrow views that I previously didn’t know better than to believe Experience is a wonderful teacher if you’ll allow wisdom her space in your life.

How Many Hats

In my world I cultivate projects that empower people. It is tremendously happy work for me, though taxing it times. Often it is speaking into life and then following through with actions that matter consistently tough things to do. It is a wide definition, but so are my skills and projects.. If you want to narrow the focus, I will tell you that I work with well-able thinkers who are creatives and desire to enact their ideas. Even narrower still is I am a ghost writer, a wordsmith, a copy and content creator, an educator who works with well-able creatives and entrepreneurs, and an adept platform and curriculum builder who enjoys identifying and actuating strategic alignments for experiential and product sales success. Whew, that’s a mouthful, maybe I should look at the book for one word answers again. That still doesn’t cover all the roles I do, but it gives on the concept of where it all comes from.

What hats do you wear? Daily I’m a bride to my husband, a mom and stepmom to our four original children and about eight other chosen ones who have come through our doors in life as young adults, I’m a business owner of two businesses, a writer, and success strategist. …and I like to throw in and a full time avoider of laundry. I’m a friend, a lover to my husband, a community member and a singer and lover of music. The hats just go on and on. I bet you have many hats to wear in the roles of your life too.

However the most important hat I wear? The one that says I’m me, the one that knows I am uniquely human, flawed, and learning as I go to live this life obediently to the God I worship and so adore. That hat fits no matter what size I am, no matter where I go or what I do.

What hats are you wearing these days? Which ones bring you joy?