It has been hot, of course in summer you have to expect to get hot, but heat can kill you and heat alerts should be abided. They always say it is important to drink lots of water to stay hydrated.

Being dehydrated puts a heavy strain on kidneys and can damage them. Kidney disease becomes more intense and heat stress-related chronic kidney disease is on the rise in rural communities in hot regions around the world, especially for agricultural workers, enough to now be called the next public health crisis.  All gardeners must pay attention, and remember we are doing agricultural work.

Heat stress nephropathy or chronic kidney disease may be one of the first epidemics due to global warming. Another impact is more cases of kidney stones. This painful condition results from salts crystallizing in the kidneys, often caused by dehydration. In the US, around 50% more cases of kidney stones occur in the warm climate of southern regions than northern states.

The number of cases has been rising since temperatures began to warm noticeably in the late 1970s, especially in the summer. As the climate warms further, the high-risk zone for kidney stones is expected to expand northwards, with many more new cases predicted.  We have additional risk factors in Ottawa County due to the exposure to cadmium and lead, metals found in the mine waste which are linked to kidney disease. This is another reminder to have your yard sampled for lead by calling the EPA number 1-800-533-3508.

At one time several years ago I had five friends were hospitalized with kidney issues including kidney stones. My niece who had been a Miami High School cheerleader had a huge stone. Just last year Bess, my dog even had to have kidney stones removed.

When the children from the Boys and Girls Club come in the mornings to the LEAD Agency this summer to work in our garden we have had to change our ways, working at most seven minutes, then to the shade on the front porch to cool down with a round of ice water and a bit of reflection on what they had done and what to do next. They planted some of the tomato plants Roxanne Weldon had brought for them. She has had a second kidney transplant and is without doubt demonstrating giving forward.

It's the people who enrich our lives and make this life worth living, that make it interesting, mix it up and then grow up or move on.

I had a problem with my house and needed a real carpenter. A person at T.H. Rogers Lumber Co. in Vinita suggested a name and gave me a number.

Allan Mills had moved to Vinita with his wife Beth from New York about 10 years ago. Allan could have been the star in a sit-com since almost every word out of his mouth would be dialog you would expect had been written by a team of writers dead set to crack you up with New York humor. Then add his wife Beth and their exchanges and start laughing. It will be hard to say goodbye, when they leave soon to move back to New York.

It won't be hard to remember him because he is leaving a monument in my backyard. Attached to the raised garden beds I purchased from the Northeast Oklahoma Community Action Agency he constructed New York Adirondack cedar branches twig style and added a screen door. When you stand inside it feels like a fairy's house the breeze blows through and the rain falls undeterred. AND he taught me how to add to it and there will be no stopping me.

The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival. ...
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond. - Rumi

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_158680.html
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/jun/20/claimate-change-bad-kidneys-weatherwatch
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080714172158.htm

I think about Tar Creek and know there are plans in the making to correct the soiled image it has had from the heavy metal discharges it receives everyday from the lead and zinc mining legacy  known as the Tar Creek Superfund site. There has been a turning point just recently, local people are getting protective of the creek. Who would have thought it would ever happen? Tar Creek is known by residents -- what it is and where it is, but for a visitor they would have to find it on a map since there is no signage. It has become the stream with no name all through its path, with the one exception on Hwy 69 before crossing into Commerce.

Without a name, one can become invisible and ignored. But this last week that may be changing. All these years and with all my pushing to start a movement, there is a spark of a start. NEO received a warning letter from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to immediately stop all dumping of oil through a garden hose from a maintenance building into a storm drain  that feeds into Tar Creek and to clean it and additionally to remove yard waste from the banks of Tar Creek.

There is some discussion, perhaps to the level of dispute on the amount of oil released in that incident, but there is ample reason for concern. "One drop of oil" is a phrase I heard most of my life. The power of one, actually the disruptive power of one, since a single drop of used motor oil can contaminate a million drops of water and a single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to two million gallons of fresh water. NEO is actively removing all the oil from the storm water drains and they have oil absorbing material called "pigs" doing some of the dirty work.
 
One of my concerns is the repeated comparison of the runoff that occurs from the parking lot by the sports fields, as if that oil is a given and free from penalties. This is non point source pollution as opposed to point source like the pipe that directly delivers a pollutant. Oil in parking lots is carried by rainwater down storm sewers and is the largest form of non-point source pollution poisoning our aquatic life. This oil then sticks or glues itself to sediment and bio-accumulates in our streams, rivers, lakes and oceans, poisoning the base of the food chain. The more numerous the cars, the more serious the oil leakage, the more serious the pollution.

Oil pollution may be the largest form of pollution killing our waterways. Each of us, every home or car owner, can do better to solve our part of the problem. The best management goal is simple. Don’t let anything go down the drain apart from clean water and don’t pick up waste and transfer it to the land fill; it ends up somewhere else in the water table.

Currently, the Fisheries Act in Canada and the Clean Water Act in the USA states clearly that discharging deleterious substances directly or indirectly into the environment is illegal and subject to stiff penalties. However, these are federal laws and in most municipalities, they are not enforced unless an Environmental Protection Officer stumbles onto the illegal activity or a person complains prompting an investigation. Every household and business should have the ODEQ Hotline number handy 1-800-522-0206.

NEO has not been fined for this discharge, but as the responsible party with the guidance from DEQ is following the steps to clean up and train staff on environmental practices to be used in the future: to develop a plan or reduction strategy and ultimately solve the problem, three key areas need to be addressed jointly: (1) Enforcement, (2) Education and Intervention, (3) Technology.

 They have every reason to work toward correcting the violations and they have every reason to know what they do matters and people care for the environment, tribal and non-tribal citizens and have hopes for the future. AND there are regulations and laws that protect our environment and investigators can enforcement them. How incredibly cool is that?

We are on the verge of dealing with the heavy metal discharges into Tar Creek and her sediments, with additional attention to the rest of the impacts she has received, the story is looking much better for this little stream.

The visit was 2 weeks early so the plan to practice standing on one foot with eyes closed and recalling random words hadn't begun. I was wrong, I should have been practicing all year long to be in shape mentally and physically for the NHATS Research annual visit. About 9,000 people are participating in the National Health and Aging Trends Study around the country. We were selected randomly, so learning there were other rural and small town Oklahomans enrolled made me proud of their openness to research. We are a representative group of people who made it to Medicare-age and our answers to the interview questions help researchers understand trends in health and functioning as we age.

Taking time with each of the questions asked this year gave me time to reflect on my current health status which brought to mind people my age or older who are struggling to do the simple movements I am finding natural and painless. I value the opportunity to age, and reported like the majority of older adults to feel younger than my actual age.

Gary Ice has got to have some of the credit for encouraging me and so many others in the community to get moving, and keep moving. Imagine the steps people are taking they never dreamed they were capable of doing which is truly moving us forward. Many are running and biking together, though he won't know of the private moments he has inspired in others like myself to get started on their own. There ought to be a question on the NHATS interview about positive change that may have occurred during the last year and see who these people are who are creating this kind of movement around the country.

Planning continues for the 18th National Environmental Tar Creek Conference which will be held September 13 & 14th at the Miami Civic Center with the Northeast Oklahoma tribes  co-sponsoring. Sixteen years ago at our annual conference, LEAD Agency received a Technical Assistance Grant from the EPA which allowed us to hire a technical advisor to read through the volumes of information on the Tar Creek Superfund site and reducing them into readable fact sheets community members could understand. LEAD Agency chose not to apply for another TAG, but have requested EPA's Technical Assistance Services for Communities Program (TASC).

Our organization's National Environmental Tar Creek Conferences allows the community to hear current updates from EPA, state and tribal efforts on our superfund site. Updates are important, but timely input from community is important, too. The TASC is a program which will allow community members to become even more informed about the progress and process of the planning of the future of this site being conducted by EPA. The next piece of the work is called Operable Unit 5 and will deal with the entire Spring River and Tar Creek watersheds stretching to Grand Lake o' the Cherokees. Beginning this TASC program now will actually allow community leaders to be involved before decisions are made and presented for "public comment." By the "public comment" time it is actually too late to have meaningful input.

LEAD Agency is hosting a meeting this week at our office at 223 A. St. S.E. to meet the technical assistance contractors and learn about this process. Seating is limited, so please call 918-542-9399 if you are interested in learning more about the program or would like to attend. Would hate to have you say years from now, "TISK TASC, wish I had gotten involved or said something way back then, when there was a chance to be heard."