Glass shattered in an alley off of Court Street among a pile of trash in Athens, Ohio. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of stories examining where Athens County refuse goes.  Look out for a CG article examining where our recycling ends up in the near future. 

By Alex Card, CG Science Staff

Trash: it’s something that everyone produces and nobody wants to talk about.  Ask someone what happens to garbage after trash haulers take it away from the curb and chances are that person won’t have a very good idea.

 
The term “trash” – more properly referred to as municipal solid waste, or MSW – includes any number of household or office wastes from newspapers to hedge clippings.  According to the Center for Sustainable Systems, the average American produces 1,584 pounds of MSW per year.  This means that the city of Athens produces well over 37 million pounds of MSW every year.

 
Roger Bail, coordinator of the Athens County Recycling Center, says the city of Athens and Ohio University both turn over all their MSW to the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District, a local trash and recyclable collection agency.

 
Bail says Athens-Hocking utilizes a common method known in the industry as “single-stream”.  This system requires its clients to pre-sort their trash and recyclables into separate bins before pick-up.  Athens-Hocking then sends two different kinds of trucks around the city to collect waste. Workers transport trash to one facility and transport recyclable materials to another.

 
The reclamation center, located near Nelsonville, also imports waste from Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia according to the reclamation center’s website.  Several strict regulations exist, requiring the reclamation center to report various details on the waste they handle, from the size of the cargo, to the types of materials collected.  Unlike many other companies, Athens-Hocking does not export trash off-location the reclamation center website reports.

 
Bail explained that recyclable wastes are shipped to the Athens County Recycling Center, a clean materials recovery facility (MRF) where the materials are sorted further, and prepared for re-use, before finally being sold to an end-user.
In addition to the city of Athens itself, Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District also services Athens County. Since collecting and sorting the entire county’s trash would be a huge workload for one company, the city of Athens licenses four other trash collection agencies to service the rest of the county:  Rumpke, Waste Management (W.M.), Trace A-1 Sanitation and Farmer’s Refuse & Trucking Inc.

 
Farmer’s Refuse, a locally-owned and operated trash and recyclable carrier, only uses Athens-Hocking facilities for its waste.  “Our biggest clients are commercial businesses and industry,” says Thelma Farmer, though the company also offers residential services.  

Yesterday's dinner, week-old coffee grounds, empty boxes and whatever else beneath all has to go somewhere. Photo by CG Editor Austen Verrilli.

Bail says that Athens-Hocking “has no regulation as to where the trash ultimately goes,” in reference to waste being transported by the third-party carriers that Athens employs.

 
Linda Oros of the Ohio EPA says refuse management is left to the waste district. “Ohio requires the solid waste management districts to develop and implement a plan of how they will manage waste in their area,” Oros says.

These plans must include what facilities will manage the waste, what recycling methods will be utilized, and any state or locally-set goals for reducing waste.  The districts must also be able to “map out where the waste will go.” Oros says.
Bail says that the companies are required to transport their MSW to an EPA certified location.  From there, the waste may be shipped out of state, or even out of the country.

 
Statistics presented by the EPA show that waste districts across Ohio export waste to five different states: Kentucky, Michigan, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

 
The greatest importer of Ohioan waste is Kentucky, having imported 800,000 tons in 2010.  In a distant second is Michigan, which imported 400,000 tons of our waste in the same year.  In total, nearly 1.5 million tons of trash was shipped out of Ohio in 2010 to our neighboring states.

 
Considering the large amount of waste exported by Ohio’s various waste districts, it may be interesting to realize that the state actually imports more than double that figure.  In 2010, Ohio imported more than 4 million tons of waste from 13 states.  Topping the list in tons imported were New Jersey and New York, at 1.3 million tons and 1 million tons respectively.

Scientists discover new airborne particles

Scientists recently learned that a subset of fine atmospheric particles, called secondary organic aerosols, have a greater total mass that the other particles and are thus more dangerous. Fine atmospheric particles are the most lethal air pollutant in the United States, killing about 50,000 Americans each year through heart and lung disease. The EPA said it is reassessing the national air quality standards for fine particles, last set in 2006. Recent data from the EPA shows that airborne particles have declined 27 percent from 2000 to 2010. Several scientists said that emissions from coal do not play a role in the formation of these particular particles.

Read the full article

Nothern Gateway pipeline causes debate

President Obama’s veto of the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline has caused debate over the Northern Gateway, not only between the United States and Canada, but among Canadians as well. The Northern Gateway project is in works as a companion to Keystone XL. It would carry 525,000 barrels a day from a town near Edmonton to a new port on the British Columbia Coast. The pipeline would let Canada end its dependence on American buyers by opening up markets in Asia and attracting foreign investments to develop the tar sand oil. By some estimates, Canada has the third-largest oil reserves in the world. In British Columbia, the debate over the Northern Gateway is especially intense. Many residents want the tax revenue and the thousands of jobs but many others are concerned about the important streams and tributaries that are in the pipeline’s path.

Read the full article

ExxonMobil is fined due to carbon dioxide emissions

ExxonMobil was fined for failing to report carbon dioxide emissions from its plant in Fife, Scotland. The Scottish EPA said there was no direct environmental impact. The fine is from 2010 and is believed to be the largest ever in the United Kingdom. ExxonMobil said that they reported the emissions as soon as they were identified. The money from firms that misreport their emissions is passed to the Scottish government to fund environmental projects. The hope is that the large fines will deter companies from misreporting their emissions.

Read the full article

As part of a final fundraising push for College Green's drop party on February 23rd some of the CG staff spent a couple of hours on Court Street selling gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

Mastermind and master chef, Editor in Chief Austen Verrilli, grills up a variety of vegetables for CG gourmet grilled cheese. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

The smell of grilling vegetables drew in anywhere from one person at a time to entire groups who wanted a piece of what CG had to offer. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

The gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches were free to passers-by, though CG staff members highly encouraged donations. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

Despite there being a number of organizations on Court Street selling various types of food from hot dogs to cookies to Ohio University students and their siblings, the CG team held its own among the competition. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

A gourmet grilled cheese sandwich. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

Ethan King (left) a Ohio University freshman of biological sciences was extremely excited to finally get his grilled cheese sandwich with, "all the fixin's".

Having only a single camp burner, CG was hard pressed at times to keep up with the amount of people who wanted a sandwich. Photo by Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

Kenny Schooley (third from right), Dayne Linhart and Renee Brasher, and friends celebrate Linhart's twenty-first birthday with a stop by CG's booth. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

Kenny Schooley almost couldn't wait for his own sandwich, decided to try and 'share' his friend, Dayne Linhart's, sandwich. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

A Dolomedes triton, or Six-spotted water spider in Emeriti Park pond. Photo by CG Phtot Editor Elizabeth Linares.

By CG Editor Austen Verrilli

Arachnids usually fail to make people warm and cozy inside.  Spiders’ eight legs, venomous fangs and matrix of eyes cause some people to scream and run away in fear. But spiders aren’t around to waste their time scaring us. Instead they use our dwellings to their advantage as they feed on insects that feed on our leftovers. One scary spider keeps several more six legged bugs off kitchen floors and walls.

The Six Spotted Fishing Spider weighs in at less than a gram and stands a maximum two and a half inches in diameter, an educational website of Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools reports.  It prefers to keep away from dingy basements, drafty hallways, dusty couch-covered corners and showers.  The species instead lives by shallow slow-moving water sources like ponds, marshes and slow-moving streams. The spiders walk on water due to their light weight and hunt small minnows and insects.

The surface tension of water, which occurs because water molecules are attracted to each other, helps the Six Spotted Fishing Spider walk across the water. A Natural History journal article by Carl Zimmer explains that the a waxy coating on the spider’s legs and their light weight help keep the spider from breaking through the surface of water. The article also said that the spider’s long legs help to spread the spiders weight out more so it does not pierce the surface of the water. Check out this link to see a photo of Dolomedes titron jump on water.

Photo of the Six Spotted Fishing in Spider from Photobucket.com user russell888.

Fast Facts

•  According to the Fairfax County Public Schools website Dolomedes triton has two white stripes on the front of its body, 12 spots on the rear section of its abdomen and six spots on its bottom side.
• Six Spotted Fishing Spiders can row across water using some of their legs as paddles according Fairfax County’s site.
• The spiders hunt on land and water.
• Fairfax County’s site also reports that the Six Spotted Fishing spider can also dive into the water to hide or catch prey .
• The spiders can gather a bubble of air around their bodies and swim beneath the water for over a 30 minutes.
• Six Spotted Fishing Spider’s water repellant coating and tightly spaced hairs on its body help trap air around them under water.  Check out this MITnews article for a more detailed description.
• Female Six Spotted Fishing Spiders may eat a male approaching her to mate if she has already mated.
• Females stay with their egg sack until spiderlings emerge. 
• Dolomedes titron is found all across the United States.
• Six Spotted Fishing Spiders do not build webs.

Sources:

Fairfax County Schools Va.

http://issuu.com/ohioenviro/docs/oecvernalpoolguide

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/underwater-0729.html

DeWine calls for stricter fracking laws

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Mike DeWine, Ohio Attorney General, called for raising civil penalties from the current maximum of $20,000 per incident to $10,000 per day. DeWine believes that Ohio’s current laws on fracking are inadequate. He said that he supports fracking and the jobs that it brings, but he wants to be positive that the public and the land are protected.

Read the full article

Overfishing in the EU and the world

Overfishing is a major problem in the European Union, causing money and job losses. The New Economics Foundation did research, concluding that a third of Britain’s fish consumption could potentially be met if the stocks recovered. Other research suggested half of the fishermen would not be willing to give up their job. Another report, Lost at Sea, said overfishing was the most devastating force in the marine environment. Charlotte Cawthorne, the International Sustainability Unit marine program manager, said that for fisheries to survive there must be scientific comprehension of the ecosystem, money for the transition and firm management.

Read the full article

Citrus greening outbreak in Texas

The first known case of citrus greening disease in Texas was confirmed in Rio Grande on January 13.  This spread to 14 cases and then an outbreak occurred, halting the citrus harvest season while the US Department of Agriculture researches how far the disease has spread. Steve Lievens, who grows Rio Star grapefruits and Valencia oranges, is very concerned about being able to identify the disease in the fields. The greening disease is transmitted to trees by the Asian citrus psyllid. While the disease is harmless to humans, it kills citrus trees, but can take up to five years to do so, making the disease hard to detect.

Read the full article

Detail of a Recyclemania sign as seen in Jeffereson Hall. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

By Hannah Heekin, CG News

RecycleMania officially kicked off this year on February 5 following two exhibition weeks. This year, co-founder Ed Newman hopes for Ohio University to rank #1 in the MAC conference once again.

“We have been dominating the MAC every year. Kent is our strongest competition. Last year we were tied each week but ended up pulling away massively in the last week. I’m not sure what happened, but we did it,” said Newman.

RecycleMania has grown from eleven of the 13 MAC schools participating to full participation from all 13 schools this year.

Ohio University differs from most schools because all five of the regional campuses are competing, which helps encourage other schools get their regional campuses involved as well.

Last year, OU recycled 18.26 pounds of materials per student, staff, and faculty member. OU recycled 39.5% of all waste during the 8 weeks of RecycleMania.

“We are looking to market to everyone,” Newman said. The marketing team this year has not been as public and effective as previous years due to Newman being out on sick leave. “It’s an eight week competition, we still have time to get things in play,” said Newman.

In the past Newman had a RecycleMania van parked outside campus events such as basketball games. “Unfortunately, the same formula doesn’t always work,” he said. Newman plans on having three bikes on campus as billboards and possibly advertising on the Graffiti Wall for RecycleMania this year.

“Even though the marketing might not as strong as it could the fundamentals are better than usual,” said Newman. The vendors are more accurate this year and have been underestimating the amount OU actually recycled in the past.

RecycleMania started in 2001 between OU and Miami University. Now, it is a competition between 630 schools across the nation.

The Ohio University Composting facility is situated at the top of a hill in the Ridges beyond the Eco House and is responsible for much of the composting from Ohio University dining halls. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

In preparation for an upcoming story CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares visited Ohio University’s Compost Facility with CG reporter Gina Mussio. Here’s a little of what they found.

Clean food-waste receptacles await pick up to return to Ohio University dining halls for more discarded food. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

Grating to elevate volunteers of of the ground while power washing trays used in the two ton in-vessel composting system in use at the composting facility. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

Extra tools to pick up debris washed off of trays. Photo by Elizabeth Linares

Part of the mechanism used to separate compost material. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

Trays for the in-vessle composting system are used without the optional plastic lining for even less environmental impact. Aaron Mueller, one of the graduate assistants to the Office of Sustainability, commented that the liners are meant to cut down on the work of keeping trays clean but that volunteers working at the composting facility don't mind the extra work. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

A concrete area is situated behind the in-vessel housing and is where piles of processed food is left until leachate, excess liquids, have worked there way out of the mixture. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

From time to time unique items make it into the composting pile. This shoe hitch-hiked its way into the facility on a fallen oak. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

Nearly half of the electricity to run the composting facility is generated by the solar panels installed by Dovetail Solar & Wind. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares

Residents of Athens County voiced their concerns about possible hydraulic fracturing coming to the area at an Athens County Board of County Commissioners meeting on Thursday. While the discussion was dominated by community members who feared the effects of fracking in Southeast Ohio, landowners who decided to lease to drilling companies were also represented.

Alyssa Bernstein, associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at Ohio University, was the first to speak at the meeting. She read excerpts from her letter to the editor, which was published today in the Athens News.

“To allow intensive industrialization for fossil fuel production that would benefit a subgroup of current residents and yield financial profits to corporation owners outside this county, and even outside this country…would be to condemn Athens County,” Bernstein said.

With support from others at the meeting, Bernstein explained to the commissioners that only three to five percent of Athens landowners had decided to lease their land at this point.

“Please represent all of us,” she said, “especially the 95 to 97 percent who have no choice about this industrialization and will not gain any benefit from it, but will bear as great a cost as everyone in the county.”

Rich Tomsu, local organic farmer and member of the Athens Area Chapter of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, also spoke against fracking in Ohio. He said that allowing industrialization at this level would harm the production of farmers in Athens, which has been recognized as having one of the best farmer’s markets in the country.

“[A]nything we do that jeopardizes the production of food…is criminal. I’m sorry, that’s a hard word, but that’s the way I feel about it,” Tomsu said.

Another Athens County landowner, Smiles Welch, asked commissioners to do everything possible to protect the only place in which he and his wife, Space, “desire to live, raise our family, and establish community ties.” He vowed to remain in Athens County whether or not fracking in the area is banned, but said he hopes not to have to “suffer through” his life here.

Concerns about the enforcement of current Ohio issues related to fracking were also expressed. Elisa Young, an anti-coal activist from Meigs County, discussed her experience with different permit offices while checking the validity of injection sites that are used to dispose of recycled fracking water from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Young said that it is almost impossible to gain access to inspection records for these sites because the permit offices are so short-staffed. After much persistence, she finally found that one injection site in Troy Township had not been inspected since 2006, even though the site is very close to the Tupper Plains/Chester water source.

“It’s the largest drinking water district in the state,” Young said. “It serves Athens and Meigs County…. I’m a grandmother. I want my granddaughter to have drinkable water and breathable air. And I see that as being totally incompatible with this process.”

Matt Starline, organic farmer and Athens resident, contributed to the discussion of water safety. He cited an NRDC Staff Blog by Amy Mall which states that there are 36 known reports of contamination due to fracking nationwide. According to the blog, three of these reports were from the bordering West Virginia counties of Jackson, Marshall and Wetzel.

Michael Rinaldi, Athens resident and member of No Frack Ohio, read excerpts from the Athens Comprehensive Plan that support the preservation of underground water aquifers and discussed alternate sectors that could be expanded to support Athens County’s economic growth.

“I think for too long this debate has been a false dichotomy of either we drill or our economy is going to tank, and I don’t think that’s the case,” Rinaldi said.

Herman Schut, Athens County resident, was the sole representative for landowners who have chosen to lease to drilling companies. He discussed his dedication to environmental efforts through a sustainable lifestyle, such as his membership in the Athens County Grazing Council and his collaboration with the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

“We’re also members of a southern Athens land group, and we’re advised by the Southern Ohio Energy Consultants,” Schut said. “There are a lot of farmers in the group. We did some research into the oil and gas; when [fracking] is done like it should be, there aren’t any problems.”

Schut also said that while he supports bringing the fracking industry to Ohio, he is against using Ohio injection sites to dispose of fluids from Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The Board of Commissioners cannot choose whether or not fracking is banned in Ohio, but they can serve as representatives of Athens County and voice concerns from both sides of the argument.

Photo by CG Editor Austen Verrilli

By CG Editor Austen Verrilli

The Athens Messenger recently published an article detailing an Athens City Council meeting where local residents and Ibriham Alassaf, a libertarian candidate for Athens County treasurer, demanded that fluoride be removed from the city’s water system.

It seems odd to me that people oppose water fluoridation, especially as a person who has had too many cavities to count. A renege on fluoride would probably leave me sitting in my room toothlessly gumming pizza.  I’d cry in the corner as I used my last molar on sour candy, “Why didn’t I brush my teeth after each chewy morsel? Oh the sweet, sumptuous, raw tongued, teeth aching pain!”

A conspiratorial friend explained his theory on fluoridation to me.  He says fluoride is a governmental test. He says the all-seeing “they” fluoridate water as a base for future water additives unknown to the public.  Likewise the Athens Messenger article brought up the idea of “mass medication without consent.”

Who knows, our realities could slowly shift as the government and super-corporations add mind altering chemicals to our water. Eventually we could all become numb, smiling sheep blissfully unaware of the puppet-masters exploiting us for their own gains.

Rational thinking screams “NO WAY!” to this dystopian notion. Still manipulation of the public has happened before, look at North Korea. One could argue it happens every day through media as we get bombarded by commercials and newscasts.

You are getting sleepy… so sleepy.   The next time you read the word “fluoride” you will go and drink ten glasses of water.

Let’s get back to fluoride then. (Maybe hypnosis doesn’t work as well as I thought.)

Fluoride is in fluoridated water, most food, tooth paste and other dental products. The benefit of fluoridation is dental health. A report from the U.S. Surgeon General explains that fluoride makes tooth enamel more resistant to decay and fluoride can even reverse tooth decay.

Fluoride though is not without it’s bad effects on the human body.  Excess fluoride consumption early in life can cause dental fluorosis. It is especially prevalent in developing teeth of children from birth to age-eight according to Webmd.com.  Dental fluorosis causes teeth to be resistant to cavities but teeth also start to become lightly stained, pitted and eventually become brown or yellow.

Fluorosis also occurs in the bones.  People with high fluoride intakes over long periods of time have joint pain, deformed limbs, deformed spines and calcified ligaments according to a 2009 journal article in Clinical Toxicology that studied villages in India where high amounts of fluoride occurs naturally. Fluoride concentrations in the urine of seven severely affected village residents ranged from 2 mg/L to 5 mg/L.

The Athens Messenger article reported that Athens resident Greg Broadhurst says he had a heart valve replaced due to calcification. Fluoride could have been a contributing factor.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services even recommended last year that U.S.  heath officials reduce fluoride amounts in water from a range of 0.7 to 1.2 parts per million to a maximum of 0.7 parts per million.

The dangers of fluoride, then, are certainly real for those with excessive exposure.  But Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” vision of mass public doping is still in the distance somewhere.  At least we can gnash our pearly whites when that time comes.

Jesie M., a visitor to Ohio University interacts with a memeber of the local racoon population. Photo by CG Photo Editor Elizabeth Linares.

By Emma Dean, CG Science Staff

Raccoons are creatures without an urban or rural preference. These nocturnal animals, with their signature black masks and unmistakable ringed tails, will live most anywhere as long as a water source is easily accessible. Raccoons can be found all over North America and Ohio is no exception. In fact, they are present in all 88 counties of Ohio.

Early Ohio settlers hunted raccoons for both food and pelts. Raccoons are still trapped today for their fur, but to a much lesser extent, which has caused the population to explode. The decrease in hunting has also dampened the popularity of the coonskin hat which settlers such as Daniel Boone were famous for sporting. Raccoon fur was once so important that the sale of pelts that, in 1804, Athens County helped to purchase books for the start of the Western Library Association which would later be known as The Coonskin Library.

Fast Facts

• The diet of a raccoon is omnivorous in nature and includes fruits, nuts, grains, eggs, insects, crayfish, frogs and mice.
• Raccoons have five fingers on each foot and use their skilled paws to move objects as well as open containers and doors.
• In order to hunt, raccoons rely heavier on both their sensitive sense of touch and sense of smell than on eyesight.
• On average an adult raccoon weighs between 15 pounds to 18 pounds.
• Raccoons kept in captivity have been known to live longer than 10 years.  In the wild their life expectancy is between 3 and 4 years.
• They do not mate for life.  Instead, a male will mate with a female then move onto another female afterward.
• Raccoons’ breeding period lasts between late January and March with offspring being born between April and June.  Babies are known as kits.
• On average litters contain four kits, but can have as few as two or as many as seven.  Raccoons only have one litter per year.
• Kits’ eyes will remain closed for the first three weeks of their lives.

Sources

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1136

http://www.raccoonfacts.net/