Roughly one in seven U.S. residents relies on a private well for drinking water.¹ Unlike the rest of the population served by the nation’s many public water systems,² these 44.5 million Americans are not protected by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act,³ which regulates 87 biological and chemical contaminants.⁴ This has significant implications for public health, according to the authors of a new review in Environmental Health Perspectives,⁵ and although solutions exist for ensuring that well water is safe to drink, it is unclear how and whether they can be implemented.

At best, private wells receive minimal oversight from local and state authorities, such as limited testing upon installation and, in some states, when properties change hands, write authors Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Kelsey Pieper of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Many wells escape regulation altogether, leaving the onus entirely on individuals to screen for pollutants and to mitigate them when they are discovered.⁶

Although precise statistics are not available, most well owners do not perform or pay for recommended tests at regular intervals, MacDonald Gibson says. This neglect is partly due to a simple lack of knowledge: “A lot of people assume that if their water looks and tastes okay, that the water is safe,” she says. But common contaminants such as bacteria, arsenic, and nitrate are colorless, odorless, and tasteless, and they can easily go undetected.^7,8,9

Cost can be another barrier to keeping well water safe. Testing for volatile organic compounds, pesticides, metals, nitrate, bacteria, and radioactive contaminants could exceed $500, says Lynda Knobeloch, a former toxicologist with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services who was not involved with the paper. Effective in-home filters can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, and well replacement can cost $10,000 or more, Knobeloch says. Furthermore, in some states, including Wisconsin, well contamination must be disclosed upon the sale of the home, providing an additional disincentive for some homeowners to ever test at all.

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey. 2017. Domestic Water Use. https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wudo.html [accessed 29 September 2017].

2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2015. “Providing Safe Drinking Water in America: 2013 National Public Water Systems Compliance Report.” EPA Document 305R15001. Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-06/documents/sdwacom2013.pdf [accessed 29 September 2017].

3. Maupin M, Kenny J, Hutson S, Lovelace J, Barber N, Linsey K. 2014. “Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2010.” U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1405. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Geological Survey. https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1405/pdf/circ1405.pdf [accessed 29 September 2017].

4. U.S. EPA. 2017. Ground Water and Drinking Water: National Primary Drinking Water Regulations. https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/table-regulated-drinking-water-contaminants [accessed 29 September 2017].

5. MacDonald Gibson J, Pieper KJ. 2017. Strategies to improve private-well water quality: a North Carolina perspective. Environ Health Perspect 125(7):076001, PMID: 28728142, 10.1289/EHP890.

6. U.S. EPA. 2017. Private Drinking Water Wells. https://www.epa.gov/privatewells [accessed 29 September 2017].

7. PennState Extension. 2017. Lead in Drinking Water. http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/water/drinking-water/water-testing/pollutants/lead-in-drinking-water [accessed 29 September 2017].

8. U.S. EPA. 2016. Drinking Water Requirements for States and Public Water Systems. Chemical contaminant rules. https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/chemical-contaminant-rules [accessed 29 September 2017].

9. Minnesota Department of Health. 2017. Nitrate in Well Water: Well Management Program. http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/wells/waterquality/nitrate.html [accessed 29 September 2017].

10. Knobeloch L, Gorski P, Christenson M, Anderson H. 2013. Private drinking water quality in rural Wisconsin. J Environ Health 75(7):16–20, PMID: 23505770.

11. DeFelice NB, Johnston JE, Gibson JM. 2016. Reducing emergency department visits for acute gastrointestinal illnesses in North Carolina (USA) by extending community water service. Environ Health Perspect 124(10):1583–1591. (2016), PMID: 27203131, 10.1289/EHP160.

12. U.S. Census Bureau. 2012. 2010 Census Urban and Rural Classification and Urban Area Criteria. https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/ua/urban-rural-2010.html [accessed 29 September 2017].

13. Lichter DT, Parisi D, Grice SM, Taquino M. 2007. Municipal underbounding: Annexation and racial exclusion in small Southern towns. Rural Sociol 72(1):47–68, 10.1526/003601107781147437.

Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) is an open-access publisher.

While winter sea ice in the Arctic is declining so dramatically that ships can now navigate those waters without any icebreaker escort, the scene in the Southern Hemisphere is very different. Sea ice area around Antarctica has actually increased slightly in winter — that is, until last year.

A dramatic drop in Antarctic sea ice almost a year ago, during the Southern Hemisphere spring, brought its maximum area down to its lowest level in 40 years of record keeping. Ocean temperatures were also unusually warm. This exceptional, sudden nosedive in Antarctica differs from the long-term decline in the Northern Hemisphere. A new University of Washington study shows that the lack of Antarctic sea ice in 2016 was in part due to a unique one-two punch from atmospheric conditions both in the tropical Pacific Ocean and around the South Pole.

The study was published Aug. 24 in Geophysical Research Letters.

“This combination of factors, all these things coming together in a single year, was basically the ‘perfect storm,’ for Antarctic sea ice,” said corresponding author Malte Stuecker, a UW postdoctoral researcher in atmospheric sciences. “While we expect a slow decline in the future from global warming, we don’t expect such a rapid decline in a single year to happen very often.”

The area of sea ice around Antarctica at its peak in late 2016 was 2 million square kilometers (about 800,000 square miles) less than the average from the satellite record. Statistically, this is three standard deviations away from the average — an event that would be expected to occur randomly just once every 300 years.

The record low was not predicted by climate scientists, so UW researchers looked at the bigger picture in ocean and atmospheric data to explain why it happened.

The previous year, 2015-16, had a very strong El Niño in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Nicknamed the “Godzilla El Nino,” the event was similar to other monster El Niños in 1982-83 and 1997-98. Unlike the 1997-98 event, however, it was only followed by a relatively weak La Niña in 2016.

Far away from the tropics, the tropical El Niño pattern creates a series of high- and low-pressure zones that cause unusually warm ocean temperatures in Antarctica’s eastern Ross, Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas. But in 2016, when no strong La Niña materialized, researchers found that these unusually warm surface pools lingered longer than usual and affected freeze-up of seawater the following season.

“I’ve spent many years working on tropical climate and El Niño, and it amazes me to see its far-reaching impacts,” Stuecker said.

Meanwhile, observations show that the winds circling Antarctica were unusually weak in 2016, meaning they did not push sea ice away from the Antarctic coast to make room for the formation of new ice. This affected ice formation around much of the Southern Ocean.

“This was a really rare combination of events, something that we have never seen before in the observations,” Stuecker said.

The researchers analyzed 13,000 years of climate model simulations to study how these unique conditions would affect the sea ice. Taken together, the El Niño pattern and Southern Ocean winds explain about two-thirds of the 2016 decline. The rest may be due to unusually big storms, which a previous paper suggested had broken up ice floes.

Scientists predict Antarctica’s ocean will be one of the last places on Earth to experience global warming. Eventually the Southern Ocean’s surface will begin to warm, however, and then sea ice there will begin its more long-term decline.

“Our best estimate of the Antarctic sea ice turnaround point is sometime in the next decade, but with high uncertainty because the climate signal is small compared to the large variations that can occur from one year to the next,” said co-author Cecilia Bitz, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences.

Stuecker noted that this type of big, rare weather event is useful to help understand the physics behind sea ice formation, and to learn how best to explain the observations.

“For understanding the climate system we must combine the atmosphere, ocean and ice, but we must focus on more than a specific region,” Stuecker said. “If we want to understand sea ice in Antarctica, we cannot just zoom in locally — we really have to take a global perspective.”

The other co-author is Kyle Armour, a UW assistant professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, administered by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research’s Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science.

For more information, contact Stuecker at stuecker@atmos.washington.edu or Bitz at bitz@uw.edu and reach either scientist at 206-543-1339.

Arctic sea ice has not only been shrinking in surface area in recent years, it’s becoming younger and thinner as well. In this animation, where the ice cover almost looks gelatinous as it pulses through the seasons, cryospheric scientist Dr. Walt Meier of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center describes how the sea ice has undergone fundamental changes during the era of satellite measurements.

Eight million tons. That’s a lot of plastic to swallow, and a lot of straws to bear even if you’re the world’s oceans (yes, who knew we use 300 million plastic straws a day?). Or rather, especially if you’re the ocean, according to the startling data that Lia Colabello delivers in this talk on the global marine crisis of plastic pollution. But Colabello doesn’t just sound alarms (though those come through loud and clear), but she offers hopeful solutions based on innovative development of single-use plastics/resins that are marine degradable.

A native of Hawaii and lifetime surfer, Lia Colabello grew up loving the water, a love that continued at the University of Southern California, where she earned degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Anthropology, and played for the Women’s Varsity Water Polo Team. After college, she worked around the world in the sports industry, managing projects with the PGA TOUR, NFL and the World Surf League. She earned an MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, specializing in the international non-profit sector. She’s worked for the Surfrider Foundation and for SecondWave Recycling and now advocates for reducing plastic pollution with 5Gyre from her home in Charleston, SC.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Oceanographer Uta Passow demonstrates that contaminants from Deepwater Horizon lingered for months in subsurface water before sinking to the seafloor

The oil slick from Deepwater Horizon as seen from NASA’s Terra satellite on May 24, 2010.
Photo: NASA

Even scientists who question findings say ‘we ignore James Hansen at our peril.’

Dr. James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who is widely credited with being one of the first to raise concerns about human-caused global warming, is a co-author of a new report predicting that the world will undergo devastating sea level rise within mere decades—not centuries, as previously thought.

The report, published Tuesday in the open-access journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, paints an even bleaker picture of the planet’s future, positing that continued high fossil fuel emissions will “increase powerful storms” and drive sea-level rise of “several meters over a timescale of 50 to 150 years.”

Hansen, who now serves as the director of the Climate Science Awareness and Solutions program at Columbia University Earth Institute, published the findings along with an international team of 18 researchers and academics.

As the abstract states, the predictions “differ fundamentally from existing climate change assessments.” For example, the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013 predicted three feet of sea level rise by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated.

A draft version of Hansen’s paper released last year provoked wide debate among climate scientists.

Nonetheless, Michael Mann, a renowned climate scientist with the University of Pennsylvania, who is among those questioning some of the report’s “extraordinary” claims, told the New York Times, “I think we ignore James Hansen at our peril.”

The peer-edited report examines growing ice melt from Antarctica and Greenland and studies how that melting has historically amplified “feedbacks that increase subsurface ocean warming and ice shelf melting.” Taking into consideration “rapid, large, human-made climate forcing,” the study predicts a much more accelerated rate of sea level rise of several meters, beyond that which humanity is capable of adapting to.

Or, as Hansen put it, “We’re in danger of handing young people a situation that’s out of their control.”

These staggering claims come as climate scientists continue to reel from the frightening speed at which the Earth is warming. On Monday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO, issued a report warning that climate change is occurring at an “alarming rate” and that world leaders must act to curb greenhouse gases now, “before we pass the point of no return.”

In a video released alongside the new report, Hansen, who left his position at NASA in 2013 so that he could fully commit himself to fighting climate change, says that the paper explores the consequences of continued greenhouse gas emissions. These include “superstorms stronger than any seen in modern times,” sea level rise that will erase “all coastal cities,” and, finally, “how soon we will pass points of no return.”

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This marvelous infographic, created by the scuba magazine DiveIn.com, is a deep-dive into the wonder, mystery and vital importance of our earth’s oceans.

50 fascinating facts about the ocean – Graphic by the team at DIVE.in

At this rate, plastics production will account for 20 percent of total oil consumption and 15 percent of the global annual carbon budget by 2050.

A plastic-strewn beach on the Midway Atoll. Photo: Kris Krüg/cc/flickr

The weight of plastic waste clogging the world’s oceans threatens to exceed all fish by 2050 if the world’s seemingly insatiable appetite for the material continues at the current explosive rate, warned a new report presented on Tuesday.

In fact, according to the study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation along with the World Economic Forum, “plastics production has surged over the past 50 years, from 15 million tonnes in 1964 to 311 million tonnes in 2014, and is expected to double again over the next 20 years.”

The study—The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics (pdf)—introduced at the opening day of the WEF’s annual summit in Davos, Switzerland is the first of its kind to comprehensively assess global plastic packaging flows. The report makes an economic case for what it calls the “New Plastics Economy,” described as “a new approach based on creating effective after-use pathways for plastics; drastically reducing leakage of plastics into natural systems, in particular oceans; and decoupling plastics from fossil feedstocks.”

Among the findings, which are based on interviews with over 180 experts and on analysis of over 200 reports, the study estimates that roughly 8 million tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean each year—”which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute.” This amount is expected to double by 2030.

“In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain 1 tonne of plastic for every 3 tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish (by weight),” the report continues.

What’s more, the report estimates that only 14 percent of plastic packaging is collected for recycling and even less for plastics in general. After sorting, only 5 percent is ultimately retained for subsequent use, which is far below global recycling rates for paper (58 percent) and iron and steel (70–90 percent).

Further, the report examines the carbon impact of plastics production, given that over 90 percent are derived from “virgin fossil feedstocks.” Plastics production represents roughly 6 percent of global oil consumption and “If the current strong growth of plastics usage continues as expected, the plastics sector will account for 20% of total oil consumption and 15% of the global annual carbon budget by 2050.”

The report argues that single-use plastics, and plastic packaging specifically, represents a net loss for the economy, as its limited value is outweighed by these negative impacts. It states:

After a short first-use cycle, 95% of plastic packaging material value, or USD 80–120 billion annually, is lost to the economy. A staggering 32% of plastic packaging escapes collection systems, generating significant economic costs by reducing the productivity of vital natural systems such as the ocean and clogging urban infrastructure. The cost of such after-use externalities for plastic packaging, plus the cost associated with greenhouse gas emissions from its production, is conservatively estimated at USD 40 billion annually – exceeding the plastic packaging industry’s profit pool.

“Linear models of production and consumption are increasingly challenged by the context within which they operate, and this is particularly true for high-volume, low-value materials such as plastic packaging,” said Ellen MacArthur, an accomplished British yachtswoman turned foundation chair.

The researchers conclude that in order to get closer to the goal of a “circular economy”—where “consumption happens only in effective bio-cycles; elsewhere use replaces consumption”—both the public and private sector must work towards the goal of creating plastics that can be both recycled and composted.

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• Giant icebergs leave trail of carbon sequestration in their wake – a month after they have passed

• Geographers analysed 175 satellite images of ocean colour which is an indicator of phytoplankton productivity at the ocean’s surface

Giant icebergs are responsible for storing up to 20 per cent of carbon in the Southern Ocean, a new study has found.

Pioneering research from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Geography discovered melting water from giant icebergs, which contains iron and other nutrients, supports hitherto unexpectedly high levels of phytoplankton growth.

This activity, known as carbon sequestration, contributes to the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide, therefore helping to slow global warming.

During the study, which is the first of its kind on this scale, a team of scientists led by Professor Grant Bigg analysed 175 satellite images of ocean colour – which is an indicator of phytoplankton productivity at the ocean’s surface – from a range of icebergs in the Southern Ocean which were at least 18 km in length.

The images from 2003-2013 showed that enhanced phytoplankton productivity, which has a direct impact on carbon storage in the ocean, extends hundreds of kilometres from giant icebergs, and persists for at least one month after the iceberg passes.

Professor Bigg said: “This new analysis reveals that giant icebergs may play a major role in the Southern Ocean carbon cycle.

“We detected substantially enhanced chlorophyll levels, typically over a radius of at least four-10 times the iceberg’s length.

“The evidence suggests that assuming carbon export increases by a factor of five-10 over the area of influence and up to a fifth of the Southern Ocean’s downward carbon flux originates with giant iceberg fertilisation.

“If giant iceberg calving increases this century as expected, this negative feedback on the carbon cycle may become more important than we previously thought.”

The Southern Ocean plays a significant part in the global carbon cycle, and is responsible for approximately 10 per cent of the ocean’s total carbon sequestration through a mixture of biologically driven and chemical processes, including phytoplankton growth.

Previous studies have suggested that ocean fertilization from icebergs makes relatively minor contributions to phytoplankton uptake of CO2.

However this research, published January 11, 2016 in Nature Geoscience, shows that melting water from icebergs is responsible for as much  as 20 per cent of the carbon sequestered to the depths of the Southern Ocean.

What we throw into the trash bin might end up into the sea. Our understanding is growing on the global issue of marine litter, which has impacts on marine wildlife but also human health and the economy. Watch this video by EEA to find out more.