Comments for ENST-320 Water and Soil

Comment on Environmental Risk: Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by Jack Koppa

Jack Koppa — Mon, 13 May 2013 05:08:45 +0000

Your post was absolutely a pleasure to read. The divisions were a wonderful way of organizing your observations and research, and made reading much more rewarding. The primary benefit of your style and research was highlighting the immense complexity of the Bay Delta issue. Putting aside mining, farmers, oil companies, and the effects of climate change, among many, many other contributing factors, one can look at just the Delta smelt in particular and be overwhelmed by the remaining complexity. On the Bay Delta Conservation Plan website you linked to, a new version of the environmental impact statement was just posted yesterday. The section on the impacts to aquatic species alone (which itself is just one of 20 similarly long sections) is 491 pages long. And this isn’t even just about the smelt. References to alternative plans, to stressors, and to potential effects are rampant. In short, by picking out just one tiny part of your post, and expanding it to its most detailed, we can see how involved the Bay Delta issue truly is.

Bay Delta Conservation Plan. “Chapter 11: Fish and Aquatic Resources.” 10 May 2013. Web. http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/Libraries/Dynamic_Document_Library/EIR-EIS_Chapter_11_%E2%80%93_Fish_and_Aquatic_Resources_Setting-Alternative_1C_5-10-13.sflb.ashx

Comment on Clean Beaches: In the Hands of the People by Jack Koppa

Jack Koppa — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:21:51 +0000

I really liked this post, especially the well-explained introduction. Near the conclusion, you quoted and linked to an article about the effects of decreased federal aid on a particular location: Door County, WI. Coming from Wisconsin, and having been to Door County multiple times with my family for vacation, I thought this example was quite an appropriate case study in the multitude of factors that go into water testing: who should pay for it (and why), who should conduct it (and how), and who should be affected (and when). Door County is one of the largest tourist havens in Wisconsin, with visitor spending of over $270 million in 2011, and tax revenues over $30 million (Wisconsin Department of Tourism). Most of these visitors come for Door County’s beaches (which are the majority of truly swim-able areas in Wisconsin). So, the beach testing is primarily for the protection of tourists, and thus the protection of state and local revenue. Hardly any of this revenue is federal, and thus it makes sense for funding to come from a local entity – perhaps the cutting of EPA funding makes sense, then.

Wisconsin Department of Tourism. “The Power of Wisconsin Tourism: Economic Impact Fact Sheet.” 9 May 2012. Web (PDF). http://www.doorcounty.com/images/uploads/siteuploads/Door-County-Eco-Impact-Fact-Sheet-2012.pdf

Comment on Trouble on the High Seas: Climate Change and Shipping by Jack Koppa

Jack Koppa — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:02:59 +0000

Your post is excellent: very well-researched, follows a logical progression, and carefully takes the reader from problem to potential ramifications. The only suggestions I can make are ways to make the impact of these changes feel more tangible for the reader – namely, numbers and examples. These numbers can measure economic costs, while examples can be drawn from stories of those ports destroyed by Katrina, or perhaps ways in which infrastructure is not prepared to handle a general rise in sea level. This last point, that rising sea levels could potentially throw off a wide variety of functions at seaports, drew most of my attention, so I’ll focus there: in actuality, most modern ports are currently high enough above sea level to handle a rise of a couple meters, since they have already been building their wharves higher to deal with larger ships (Homeland Security News Wire). The problem instead often lies with secondary facilities, such as the toxic waste storage at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports (Homeland). With the addition of similar example sets for other topics that you covered, I think the post would feel more tangible for readers. Overall, however, this was great work.

Homeland Security News Wire. “Rise in sea levels threatens California ports, infrastructure.” 15 Dec. 2009. Web. http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/rise-sea-levels-threatens-california-ports-infrastructure?page=0,0

Comment on The Sierra Snowpack: Losing Snow, Losing Species by Olivia Trombadore

Olivia Trombadore — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:10:12 +0000

I found your blog post very informative, but at the same time a little depressing. If all these animals and plants are suffering essentially because of the negative impacts of climate change is there really anything we can do to help them? We cannot simply reverse climate change. From the descriptions in your article about how the animals are being affected it seems as though the environment is evolving along with the effects of climate change. It seems as though this may just be the course of evolution, although altered by our own actions, which increase the effects of climate change. In other words, if there is no snow on the Sierra Nevada Mountains and rain increases annually then the environment will be completely different, and while this is the fault of humans and the reason these animals are suffering, one cannot simply make it snow.Are there alternative solutions to this issue? At the moment tt appears as though these species will have to adapt or die.

Comment on Environmental Agencies: Lack of Oversight makes Law Meaningless by Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:33:23 +0000

I agree that the disconnect between mandated standards and actual conditions should be examined. I think the Reading Guide article, “Water Shortages: Is the U.S. Facing a Crisis?” gives a lot of insight into why this reality persists. It notes that regulations enforcement waned as the agencies like the EPA yielded to industry lobbyists that were sanctioned by the Bush administration. In addition, the lack of federal funding is prohibitive; in a tight economy, federal agencies are more inclined to mandate high standards and shift the cost of those improvements to local governments, especially for low visibility issues like water infrastructure. I’m sure the relationship between agencies and local government is different for such a high visibility issue like offshore oil drilling, but I think the article illustrates the importance of understanding the role of nuanced politics when studying regulations enforcement.