The Michael J. Kirwan Reservoir, known commonly as West Branch Reservoir, was built in 1965 by the Army Corps of Engineers. It was “developed for flood control, water supply, recreation and fish and wildlife management,” according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife. Since I was two years old I have been coming to West Branch [...]
Pipelines have become a national issue recently. Whether it be people protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline (which quickly became national) or even people conducting smaller, more local protests of pipelines, the nation is quickly beginning to pay attention. That being said, pipelines are prevalent everything — even in Ohio. Right now there are five active pipelines [...]
Illustration by Ella Abbott. Every once in a while I get an alert to my phone from one news source or another about an air quality alert. Being from Cleveland, I typically get the notifications from cleveland.com and they usually increase during the summer months. Even no longer living in Cleveland, those alerts could be [...]
The worst of the worst. The top of the National Priorities List (NPL). These hazardous sites are filled with carcinogens, neurotoxins and have been vacated to keep people safe. If you need a reminder, Superfund sites are defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “thousands of contaminated sites (that) exist nationally due to hazardous [...]
The "Vampire of the Great Lakes" has remained a dangerous invasive species for more than a century. Sea lamprey, are given their nickname for the way they feed. They latch onto a host fish with their suction cup like mouth and drain it. Sea lampreys originate from the Atlantic Ocean and began to enter the [...]
Last week, I wrote about the natural gas pipelines that pass through Ohio and safety hazards, if any, they pose to the environment. It became clear to me after combing through articles upon articles about spills and construction mishaps that pipelines can dangerous to humans and ecosystems alike. Take, for example, the Rover pipeline, which [...]
What happens to the body? When you consume lead in your water, it enters your digestive system and is dispersed throughout the body. The main parts that feel the impact of the lead are the brain, liver, kidneys, and bones. Many different factors such as age, sex, genetic makeup and amount of lead consumed determine [...]
An introduction to Clean Coal “Clean Coal” is a process of coal mining that uses the “carbon capture and storage” method. Coal mines that operate this way take the carbon emissions that are released during the removal of coal and bury them underground. New Gen Coal released a YouTube Video that explains the process in [...]
If you've ever seen images of a fish with a scary, tooth-filled sucker mouth, you've seen pictures of a sea lamprey. These long fish are an invasive species in all of the five Great Lakes, including Lake Erie. Sucking onto the side of fish in the lake, the lamprey destroys as it feeds. There is [...]
Take a deep breath in. Now, breathe out … it’s probably toxic. It’s possible every time we breathe we are inhaling particle pollution, a mixture of solids and liquid droplets floating in the air continuously. No one thinks about it. It’s not like we can choose the oxygen we breathe. Rather, we choose how far [...]
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