ISU student recovers usable nutrients from wastewater
Senior Illinois State University environmental health and sustainability major Rowan Carroll is addressing the widespread issue of nutrient pollution harming public health and aquatic life through a process she’s developed that not only removes nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater, but also creates a fertilizer for agricultural use.
Working with Associate Professor of Environmental Health and Sustainability Dr. LC Yang, Carroll began her research by testing an untreated effluent sample — a sludgy liquid that smells like sewage — taken from the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District.
After some five months of experimentation in Yang’s lab, the student separated water from the sludge and manipulated the pH level to produce a slow-release fertilizer containing the recovered phosphorous and nitrogen.
Illinois researchers trying to save box turtles
Illinois researchers are using dogs to track down a threatened species of turtle before they become extinct.
Researchers believe ornate box turtles, once living in half of Illinois’ 102 counties, now are found in fewer than 10.
“Ornate box turtles are sentinels of environmental and ecosystem health, so they utilize both land and water sources, just like humans do in this environment,” said Dr. Matt Allender, Chicago Zoological Society veterinarian and director of the University of Illinois Wildlife Epidemiology Laboratory. “So the health of the ornate box turtle is a reflection of the health of the environment that we draw our natural resources on.”
One known home for the species is in Lee County, and a team from the Chicago Zoological Society and the University of Illinois have surveyed the Nature Conservancy’s 3,800-acre Nachusa Grasslands.
Marquette University divests from fossil fuel
At Marquette University, students like junior Maddie Kuehn have been pushing for the university’s divestment from fossil fuels, and in late March the Milwaukee school announced a new investment policy for their $929 million endowment that prohibits direct investments in fossil fuels.
It’s an “incredible first step,” Kuehn told Earthbeat’s environment journalist Brian Roewe.
“I personally was really surprised,” said Kuehn, a member of Fossil Free Marquette that pushed for divestment. “We had no idea that this was even on Marquette’s radar or something that they were even talking about.”
Zero-emission could save billions of dollars, many lives
A new report details how a nationwide transition to a zero-emission transportation sector and renewable electricity generation would bring $1.2 trillion in public health benefits to the United States over the next three decades.
“Zero-emission transportation is a win-win for public health,” said Harold Wimmer, national president and CEO of the American Lung Association, which released the “Zeroing in on Healthy Air” report.
Besides saving billions, the report says 110,000 lives wouldn be saved, plus more than 2.7 million asthma attacks avoided.
Antarctica ice collapse alarms UN
Scientists with the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization last month expressed new concern about the climate crisis following the March collapse of East Antarctica’s Conger Ice Shelf, record warm temperatures, and other troubling signs of climate change.
“This is something like a dress rehearsal for what we could expect from other, more massive ice shelves if they continue to melt and destabilize,” said Catherine Walker, an Earth and planetary scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and NASA. “Then we’ll really be past the turnaround point in terms of slowing sea-level rise.”
EPA targets water, air pollution in poor Gulf Coast areas
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a series of enforcement actions to address air pollution, unsafe drinking water, and other problems affecting minority communities in three Gulf Coast states, following a “Journey to Justice” tour by EPA Administrator Michael Regan last fall.
The agency plans to conduct unannounced inspections of chemical plants, refineries and other industrial sites suspected of polluting and causing health problems to nearby residents, Regan told the Associated Press. It also will install air-monitoring equipment in Louisiana’s “chemical corridor” to enhance enforcement at chemical and plastics plants between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The region contains several hotspots where cancer risks are far above national levels.
The EPA also issued a notice to the city of Jackson, Miss., saying its aging and overwhelmed drinking water system violates the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and directing the city to “correct the significant deficiencies identified.”