You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you,'
          ...Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun." -  Carly Simon
 
The big news this summer is the solar eclipse that will occur on August 21, the first time visible across the US since June 8, 1918, five months before the "Great" war ended, 99 years ago. Interesting and exciting. People are making plans to be in the band width across the nation where the best viewing will occur. My son and my niece are pretty excited as well since they share that day as their birthdays. They were born 7 years apart. And 7, though a lucky number is also special as being the number of Cherokee clans.

We are making plans, too. Since the Path of Totality starts in Oregon and arches through St. Louis to the east coast, we are thinking Cahokia for sure for 2 minutes beginning at 11:46 a.m. Cahokia, a historical site of a city as large as London in the 1400's right across the river from St. Louis. No one knows which tribe lived and thrived there. When they left, perhaps they scattered, perhaps they were Cherokees and rejoined our tribe in the southeast. They erected mounds and earth structures and abandoned them.

When my son was in high school he participated in National Indian Youth Leadership Project summer leadership camps held in New Mexico for Native American youth from around the country. I went as a parent, but also to introduce Say It Straight to the campers. A couple of those camps created lifelong memories. During the 1991 summer camp near Zuni Pueblo we experienced a partial solar eclipse and one year the camp was held at Camp Shaver, a YMCA facility established right after WWII near Los Alamos in the mountains of New Mexico.

When the series of articles on the nuclear industry came out this week, I could hardly stop reading them since our campsite one year was so very close to the sole U.S. site that makes plutonium cores for the warheads of nuclear bombs. The Plutonium Facility-4 is a 2 story building 2 blocks square in the middle of a 40-acre campus in the mountains above Santa Fe that was built during World War II to coordinate the construction of the two nuclear bombs used in Japan. Los Alamos has a national security mission where warheads are designed and where plutonium-based power supplies for deep-space probes are made.

We worry a lot about earthquakes here in Oklahoma, at least for the last few years due to man-made activities by the oil and gas industry. But the hundreds of nuclear physicists at Los Alamos not only worry about their work and safety, but also have been made to understand that a rare, large earthquake which could occur because of their active seismic zone, could collapse the roof and the plutonium could react and radioactive, cancer-causing plutonium particles could be released to nearby residential communities. Gulp.

Back to the recent articles, mistakes have been made at Los Alamos, but also at other facilities dealing with nuclear material, but as one person stated, with it being a legend, an icon everybody notices what is done there and standards should be high and penalties for mistakes should be, too. According to Los Alamos  nuclear physicist Charles McMillan “DOE and its contractors have repeatedly shown they are not capable of anticipating and preventing serious criticality safety problems,” which has caused building 4 to have been shut down since June 2013.
The year we camped just across the mountain the forest fire began when a single tree was struck by lightning while the campers were sleeping in their tents. Each one woke and looked out to see the tree ablaze. My task the next day, after these youngsters had "baby stepped" down the mountain  in total darkness to safety as the fire was spreading behind them, was to process their experience in the group during a Say It Straight session. Say It Straight resulted in empowering communication skills and behavior as was certainly demonstrated during that day. They will never forget what happened, and I will never forget the incredible power they felt as they took care of each other, conquered fear and survived. Those fears and those feelings must also have been taking place across the mountain that same night as Los Alamos dealt with the possibility of a fire. Those fears and feelings must have been felt by those nuclear physicists during their everyday work, but especially when critical mistakes were occurring.

Perhaps one day when the buildings at Los Alamos are discovered in the future when we are all gone for whatever reason, explorers will find that exceptional Building-4 and wonder why suspected intelligent beings would mess with uranium and expect to thrive. Just as we will be wondering what happened to Cahokia's former inhabitants as we enter those grounds on August 21: for the Path of Totality for 2 minutes beginning at 11:46 a.m.

Respectfully Submitted  ~ Rebecca Jim

https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/delayed-warheads/
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/repeated-warnings/
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/light-penalties/
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/inhaled-uranium/ 
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/nuclear-negligence/repeated-warnings/

Our Senator Inhofe dove into Grand Lake while his niece refused to get into the green water. He reported July 1, 2011 he had gotten deathly ill from the water in the lake.  The water was sampled and an extremely high level of toxin was found.   

Cyanobacteria are known as blue-green algae because of their distinct color and are closely related to bacteria and photosynthesize like algae, cyan means "blue-green." When cyanobacteria blooms begin to die and disintegrate they create a toxin which is called microcystin. And that was what made Senator Inhofe sick that summer.

GRDA acted fast with protective action and closed the lake to the public.  The lake was quiet that 4th of July weekend. Businesses around the lake complained, perhaps went ballistic would better describe their reaction. They and other tainted lake communities around the state that hot summer complained, lobbied and got results. The Oklahoma legislature passed SB259 and Governor Mary Fallin signed it into law a few months later just before the next summer.
Under the new law, officials from the state Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Quality are no longer responsible for issuing algae advisories. That responsibility was given to the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation, the same agency that promotes the use of state lakes and rivers. The new law raised the stakes for public health by changing action levels.

This week's notice was given because this is serious. Tests have been done and are being repeated and the numbers are HIGH indicating this is toxic by standards set by the World Health Organization. Relative Probability of Acute Health Effects are high at this time with the numbers they are finding in the samples and the response is to begin awareness level advisory while other states issue advisories and closures when there is even a visual sighting of the green masses in the water, to assure the safety of those who might have been in it. Many of the states do what Oklahoma did 5 years ago and begin actively closing access to the water when the levels are 5 times LESS than we are reacting now.

While most blue-green algae blooms do not produce toxins, it is not possible to determine the presence of toxins without testing. Thus, all blooms should be considered potentially toxic. Very small exposures, such as a few mouthfuls of algae-contaminated water, may result in fatal poisoning.

Let's talk dirty. Perhaps slimy would be more descriptive if you were to put your hands in that green stuff in the lake and touch it. Don't do it. Don't take your shoes off and go walking in it, make sure no one splashes you, or drives a boat through it to create waves to bring more ashore or spray from the rush through the water. Your dog and livestock should not enter or drink suspect water either.

Symptoms can take anywhere from hours to days to appear in people or animals but will normally show up within a week after initial exposure. While there is no specific treatment for microcystin poisoning.

All this to say, it is barely summer. No real hot weather has hit, but we already have blue green algae in parts of Grand Lake. Other lakes are bound to follow.

If you follow the evidence, the reasons are obvious.  We are feeding it with more nutrients such as phosphorus or nitrogen, naturally it will grow with some warm days and sunshine.

The Department of Tourism wants people to come visit, but we should want to protect our water so our lakes, rivers and streams will be swimable, fishable and drinkable for anyone to enjoy.

I was proud GRDA representatives are speaking up about the quality of the water in Grand Lake and glad DEQ is continuing to accept and encourage people to call either agency for more information or to report other sightings of algae. Those numbers are: DEQ at 800-522-0206 or GRDA at 918-256-0911. It would be especially helpful for Health officials like Dr. Bob Lynch at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center be allowed to speak and advise.
As Waterkeepers we advocate for our waterbodies. Tar Creek is going to get better, EPA has a plan and with funding Superfund will get it cleaned up. Watch for permit requests and question them. We do not want it to get loaded and downgraded before it recovers from what must seem like really bad karma. Those permits are really just papers giving permission to pollute.

Speaking of karma and thinking Grand Lake o' the Cherokees, as long as we continue to feed and fill it with nutrients blue green algae will continue to appear. All of us in her watershed must consider what we do since it can impact her. Use fertilizer on your yard? Own crop land? Eat chicken? Play golf? Forgotten to have your septic tank pumped out? and even replaced at that lake house? Now remember all the people upstream must begin being mindful too. Earl Hatley, the Grand Riverkeeper recently told a man in Leadville, Colorado, a contaminated mining sister-site. "Each of us impact people we will never meet," or in other words, we all either live upstream OR downstream.

Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/algae/publichealth/GeneralCyanobacteria.htmlhttp://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Contaminants/BlueGreenAlgaehttp://oclwa.org/pdf/2014Presentations/2_Clyde%20-%20Historical%20Overview%20of%20Cyanobacterial%20Blooms%20in%20Oklahoma%201996-present.pdf
http://www.grda.com/grda-expanding-blue-green-algae-advisory/
http://services.ok.gov/triton/modules/newsroom/newsroom_article.php?id=223&article_id=7585

Robert Kennedy Jr. recognized me as Waterkeeper Alliance’s Tar Creekkeeper on June 7th, and I reminded him we had met on Douthitt Bridge thirteen years ago. After that visit he was quoted to have said, "Tar Creek is broken and can't be fixed. I've been to dozens and dozens of Superfund sites located all over the country, but I have never seen anything like this.” He saw our damaged creek, but also had seen the towns of Picher and Cardin in the epicenter of the Superfund site. There has been progress. It is slow, but the voluntary buy-out of residents in the most at risk towns is impressive, chat piles are coming down, whole fields are being reclaimed, a few acres at a time.
 
While on that bridge that day, I spoke up about LEAD Agency’s pending application for a Waterkeeper and he assured me to just call his office and they would expedite it, which did result to the approval of the Grand Riverkeeper right away.
 
Last week’s Recycle Tar Creek Bike riders saw Tar Creek exactly as Mr. Kennedy had since no restoration efforts have been accomplished there yet, but they and the walkers learned last week from University of Oklahoma researcher Bob Nairn is bad water can be turned to good by allowing mine water discharge to flow by gravity through a series of “ponds” to passively treat the water to remove the heavy metals before it finds its way to Tar Creek. This is lessening the load Tar Creek delivers to the Neosho River and our Grand Lake.
 
June seventh held a great deal more significance to Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and he spoke of it that evening, recalling it was the anniversary of the assassination of his father Bobby Kennedy on the eve of winning the California primary while running for the Democratic nomination for President in 1968.
 
Powerful memories for all of us old enough to have remembered that day. Powerful moments for him to share. Years have passed quickly. He went on to reflect on other presidential campaigns and that the current administration leaves us “still with a fight on our hands.” With Waterkeepers from around the world surrounding him he said he wanted to continue to be our bull horn and serve us all as the president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He certainly is going to get my vote! It is a job that suits him. As another speaker had said earlier, being a Waterkeeper isn’t always a resume builder, it is a mission, as I have discovered myself.
 
I attended the orientation for “New” Waterkeepers and recognized myself in one of the suggestions given by the Mobil Baykeeper, when she said we have to be the voice for our waterbody, fulltime.
 
Lauren Wood from the Green River Action Network in Utah allowed us all to find our voices with song lyrics, “People going to rise up like the water… singing Climate Justice Now.”
 
We will perish without water, fresh and clean water sustains us throughout our lives as it sustained the lives of all of our ancestors. Forrest Cuch, a Ute tribal member spoke about his experience at his tribe’s Sun Dance, a religious ritual, where the participants fast from food and water for four days. It is the lack of water that intensifies the experience and in the dry heat of the southwest and can be deadly, but also may lead to spiritual visions that are life changing.
 
Water is life is more than a slogan that became popular with the Standing Rock movement to stop a pipeline. It is the truth as the Sun Dance participants learn in ceremony. Water is also fragile and must be protected from extraction of fossil fuels and other minerals, industrial and agricultural runoff.
 
People around the globe are speaking up for water, many have joined or created organizations to become stronger advocates. They began to give our water a voice. Waterkeeper Alliance is recognized as the most important organization in the world focused on the stewardship and protection of the world's water bodies.
 
Waterkeepers around the world fight polluters, but also we need to be advocates for clean energy, in order to save our atmosphere and save our planet from rising seawater as the planet warms. We are all going to have to “rise up like the water with voices singing Climate Justice Now.” Residents in two US states are facing relocation due to climate change. 350 Alaskan natives in Newtok  are moving because of rising seas and melting permafrost while the Louisiana island home for 29 homes of members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and United Houma Nation tribes is sinking.  
 
Robert Kennedy, Jr. thought Tar Creek was broken and could not be fixed, but if a billion dollars is made in profit and an expensive mess is left behind, it will take time and money to clean it up. We expect to see you at the 19th National Environmental Tar Creek Conference September 26 and 27 so you will find how it can be fixed and when it is going to happen and perhaps help you find your own voice for water and justice.
 
Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim

Prioritizing Tar Creek has rather been an occupation in my retirement so it was good news to hear the man in charge of the EPA stating his commitment to continued funding for our superfund site.

It is a math-thing when you start looking at the numbers. Lead and zinc companies made a billion dollars and as the numbers keep coming, it looks like it may cost that much to clean up the mess that was left behind. Cause and effect. Takes money to make money. It also took time and will take time to complete a cleanup.

And most of us were taught, if you make a mess, it is your responsibility to clean it up. The companies that left behind this mess in Ottawa County continued to operate the same way and have messed up places around the globe, our sister sites and for the most part did it as the mode of operation, cut and run. Dodge responsibility for as long as possible, then give in and pay for some of the cleanup, or in our case, dissolve and go bankrupt. It costs too much to operate badly, so they reorganize and pay some of the debtors pennies on the dollar.

This is one of the main reasons EPA established the Superfund, to be able to fund cleanup of abandoned sites while looking for the responsible parties for reimbursement. it was a tax on polluters and it built the fund that cleaned up many sites around the country. But the companies lobbied Congress and it worked. Congress failed to reauthorize the Superfund tax way back in 1995 and the fund got depleted since cleanups continued. EPA continued following the polluters responsible for messed up toxic sites, but their power had been diminished and cleanups slowed down.

Some of the companies responsible for the Tar Creek Superfund mess have kicked in some funding for the cleanup, but for 2 decades we have been dependent on Congress to find funding and that has been a slow process, bit by bit, since there are many needs around the country that must be met.

It is easy to get forgotten and left behind looking like another planet with all those other places exerting pressure with voices saying CLEAN US UP NOW and for the most part our silence. But remarkable as it may seem, even a few voices in the wilderness can be heard. Find yours. Speak out for justice for our damaged land. The Quapaw Tribe has spoken out and so have the tribes of Northeast Oklahoma and it has mattered. Imagine joining the chorus. What happens here will continue to affect the future generations until it is cleaned up.

Heavy metals will not dissolve or evaporate, they are here for the duration. Our metals and those from the other affected counties in Missouri and Kansas contribute to the loading of metals into the Spring and Neosho Rivers and then into the Grand River's dams.

Our heavy metals are lead, cadmium, arsenic and manganese. EPA decided years ago that they would use Lead here as the "contaminate of concern" and should be since we know it causes long term health affects, not only the loss of IQ or behavioral and neurological problems that may be identified in children, but also health consequences for adults. Many people say, "I have lived here all my life and lead never bothered me." It is hard to prove our lives might have been different if we hadn't been exposed as children to lead. But knowing the facts will help motivate us to help eliminate future exposures for others. No need to risk others' futures because our own exposure and consequences have not been evaluated.

Reading EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's comments to prioritize superfund cleanups must give many people living in them and downstream or downwind across the country some hope, it gives us some. In the Tar Creek Superfund site which was 40 square miles before they added the watershed down to Twin Bridges and the yard residual cleanup anywhere in Ottawa County.

We are big. So when they break us down to cleaning up a yard, and then an acre, it will take time. A lot of money has been spent here, and since the EPA's "lessons learned" phase, much more carefully. Still celebrating 600 acres is an accomplishment and over 3000 residential yards. We have 8000 more residential yards to check in the county and thousands of acres waiting their turn to be cleared of chat for the land beneath to see the light of day again.

LEAD Agency would ask you join the crew speaking up and just standing or sitting around looking interested. Put your feet to the ground or saddle up your bicycle for the Recycle Tar Creek Bike Ride (s) because there will be more of them. Mark your calendars for the National Tar Creek Conference which will be held at NEO this year September 26 and 27. Find out what is happening, what needs to happen next and how this stuff really can and may have already affected us all. Join the folks prioritizing Superfund cleanups.

Respectfully Submitted  ~ Rebecca Jim