There is a balance to be found when both sides of the brain are used and that is what I felt after walking out of this year's National Environmental Conference at Tar Creek. Facts from researchers can be numbing, but also shocking and some just knocked the air out of me.

LEAD Agency hosted a conference and asked people to come. For the most part we learned hard science, or had it put upon us. We were impacted by what we heard from all who spoke.

People who know about our watershed want to tell us about what they know. We have laws to protect us and our environment, but they are not enforced or the laws are not protecting us because not every bad actor follows them or because the laws are just not strong enough yet.

Ga Du Gi is an old Cherokee term for working together, but we have it happening within the Tar Creek Superfund site where EPA talks with DEQ and US FWS can be in the room, tribes can sit at the table and the public sometimes has to wait for 10 years to even know there is a table. DEQ is working with the Ottawa County Health Department and at this conference got to see the Northeast Tribal Health System needs to be connected to both to be more protective to all the children here.

This was one of our goals from the beginning 19 years ago, to put people representing agencies and departments together in one room and see what can come from it for public good. But to also give the flexibility and opportunity to have these individuals meet us, the pubic and learn our hopes so they could then be our best advocates.

It is relationships, it is taking the time to know who you are sitting near and starting from there. One hundred people at a time put their minds together as one and can concentrate on how our lives and this place can be and we move it all forward. Someone who came to the first conference and returned this year saw the progress that has occurred. Some chat piles are gone, towns are gone, Miami has grown and the lead levels in children have gone down. But since the CDC changed the action level of concern we know now that in those early years MANY more of us and our children would have been deemed lead poisoned by the current standard.

Art must be woven into our lives even in a superfund site and art greeted all who registered with the banner and paintings created by Miami High School students. Music is still magical and can change everything. Music by Solace Unplugged with Colin Frayser, my nephew and Erin Fitzgibbon during the Fish Fry sponsored by the Afton Masonic Lodge # 76 took me back to the Cherokee Volunteers' Fish Tournaments on Tar Creek when they played at our early awareness events. Earl Hatley and I danced to their last song, just as we had all those years ago. Fish will be part of these events and one day the fish may be coming out of this Tar Creek like Colby Allen and many others remember.

There were many special moments, but one was having Dr. Wright return this year. He presented data on what has been learned from the MATCH Study and how the metal mixture our babies receive here is making statistically significant changes on birth weight and head size. We all listened and I remembered how smart he is and how kind he is to not notice what he says goes right over small headed people like me. He thinks we understand. And that is quite a complement to give.

At one time we lined up the health officials in the front of the room who have been with us since the big discovery was made that one in three Indian children here were lead poisoned and who are continuing that work now as those numbers have been reduced. They are still at it wanting NONE of our children to be lead poisoned.

To me they represented those people we had on the front of the shirts, the past and the present with the future next door testing children and adults for lead and the NEO nursing students who came between classes the high school environmental science students who showed up on a day out of school to take the Toxic Tour and the graduate students who brought posters of their projects. The true future were those 2 little children who ran quietly in tandem running straight into their futures clearly undaunted by the facts whirling around the room.

I looked out from the podium and saw a room full of people who cared and that should give us all renewed hope. We want this place better so make plans now to join us next year to learn of the year's progress, we will work on getting the Frisbees for the Tar Creek corridor that could be established by then by the City, take one last look at the mess at BF Goodrich, drive back through the chat piles because some of this will look different next September. Changes I am liking and a future to believe in.

Respectfully Submitted  ~ Rebecca Jim
 

Being a lifelong learner, learning sometimes  begins when the right question is asked.

I have lots of questions and partly because of that, I figure others would have some too. Using this as a guide, the National Environmental Conference at Tar Creek is loaded with people who are experts in their fields of study. People who have something we need to know.

Why is the Neosho River silted in? What is running down our stream? Are there any streams here or elsewhere around the state healthy enough to be swimmable and though many are fishable, are the fish edible? And since we talk about fish, we planned a Fish Fry and the Afton Masons with help from the Miami Masons are going to make sure we get to have some.

What happens to our children's brains when they grow up in this environment, crawling on our dusty floors and carpets? Are there very many children lead poisoned anymore or is the crisis over? What other metals could be affecting our children and what damages can they cause?

In 1997 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a study on chat in Ottawa County. They did visual finds, looking for chat and found lots of it and then turned it over to EPA. How many of those sites have been cleaned up? What is the plan to revisit this report Ed Keheley found  and  have they already started marking them off the list that DEQ inherited?

Who is reading the newspapers from 100 years ago? Fredas Cook is and is posting articles straight from the microfiche like the one about the Eureka mine, the one Harry Truman thought he owned for awhile. One hundred years ago that mine filled up with water causing operations to stop. What resolved it and brought the workers back? Getting rid of the water. Did they use pumps? No, they simply drilled a hole in the floor of the mine and let the water out. Where did it go? Did they drill down far enough so the water joined the vast Roubidoux aquifer, the current drinking water in use in northeastern Ottawa County. If so, did other early mines used this technique? and what are the consequences now?

One of the experts who I wish would come is David Cates, with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. I call him Mr. Roubidoux, knowing the history and ways of the deep aquifer and the dangers from Boone aquifer encroachment. He could talk about hydraulic head and pretty soon everyone in the room would be shaking their head like, "I am getting this."

Suzanne Dunn from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called today and wanted to come. She has an important announcement, but saw on the leadagency.org site that the agenda was really full. She claims she can talk fast  while people are eating but her announcement is one that she believes the public deserves to hear. I believe that, too, so we wedged her in.

Kelly Hunter Foster, the attorney for the Waterkeeper Alliance has learned how nutrient loading is pollution that harms the waters we depend on, what the sources are and how to resolve this national problem.  Reminding us all that we are all downstream people and what happens in our watershed affects us and everyone who ultimately drinks from our source.

Choosing the colors for the conference shirts each year is done early based on current issues. We decided right after the blue green algae in Grand Lake closed Bernice State Park right before July 4, that blue green had to be one of the colors and a good rust orange the other, since we continue to deal with the mine water discharges coming down Tar Creek.

Larry Tippet works with the Peoria Tribe in their environmental department. He always comes to these conferences, never takes his cowboy hat off and  inevitability  asks the questions I wish I could have thought clearly enough to have conjured up.  I talked recently to Jim Shine one of the chemists from Harvard who did research here a decade ago telling him our annual conference is coming up. He got quiet then said, that fellow with the cowboy hat always asked me questions that made me have to think about the answer.

Over 700 mothers and babies were part of the MATCH study and will want to know what has been learned from their involvement. Many journal articles later, we have lots to learn from Dr. Robert Wright and what his team have found.

I have been wondering what is the status on the BF Goodrich site and how the Eagle Picher Laboratory cleanup is going, and we will find out together from the city of Miami and DEQ. The list goes on because the 2-day conference is full.

Come take notes, wear your thinking hat like Larry Tippit does and we will see you Sept. 26 and 27 at NEO A&M in the Ballroom. Call LEAD Agency at 918-542-9399 to register early or go on line www.leadagency.org, that way you won't miss a moment or anybody else's question.

Respectfully Submitted  ~ Rebecca Jim
 
 
 
 

When the Chocolate giant Mars says they will GO ALL IN to fight climate change, well, I had to pay attention and ask, what's that about?

It is really about chocolate, the family owned business, and staying in business. If climate change is real and the planet is warming, their products, my favorite food group will melt easier and people will not buy it. The bottom line. It gets serious when thinking about a world without Snickers.

Chocolate is unique chemically and irresistible because its melting point is slightly below our body's temperature, so cocoa butter dissolves first in your mouth and distributes the rest of the chocolate ingredients over your taste buds quickly, starting with the sugar.

Makers of chocolate have understood their product sales were limited because of its unique properties. Thirty percent of the Earth has high temperatures year-round and at any given time, one-quarter of the earth is dealing with SUMMER.

Before the advent of air conditioning chocolate makers had to close up  shop when the thermometer reached 78 degrees Fahrenheit, the melting point of cocoa butter. U.S. chocolate sales in the southern states had always lagged. Growing up in Texas back in the day I remember going to the city swimming pool with a quarter in order to get something out of the vending machine after getting out of the pool. The choices: Paydays, Zeros and sacks of peanuts. NO CHOCOLATE.

In the 1980's there was a rush to figure out how to change chocolate so it didn't melt as quickly when it got warm. There would be money in it. The race was on and some produced candy that tasted and chewed like paraffin. I bet there are lots of people who don't even know what paraffin is now. Lots of paraffin was used in everyday kitchens this time of year, to seal jars of jelly and foods from the garden that were canned. There are still recipes for making chocolate candy that contain paraffin on the ingredient list to as they say, stabilize and add a shine.

My kitchen is a catch all and I found some Paraffin not too long ago on the shelf. It came by the pound in a box about the size of 4 sticks of butter. Right on the side of the box it says it is a product of GULF the oil giant. Sure enough, paraffin is totally an oil product made from the waste after everything else is processed from oil. EPA lists it a hydrocarbon. 

Paraffin isn't commonly used now for home canning. The big candy manufacturers tried using it but for taste and mouth feel got away from it.

World War II popularized candy as a treat for soldiers, and War meant candy sales and profit for the makers who produced it. War in the middle east decades later became a challenge to the companies since the region meant hotter temperatures. Mars worked with the Pentagon during the first Gulf War providing M & M's which "melted in your mouth, not in your hands" and provided Frozen Snickers bars packed with the Thanksgiving Day meal for every U.S. soldier.

Mars just announced it is pitching in a billion dollars to fight climate change so they must think this is the real deal. They want a company that is still thriving in 100 years, and to do that they are going to change what they can and make their own company have a smaller carbon footprint. Barry Parkin, Mars' chief sustainability officer said, "We believe in the scientific view of climate science and the need for collective action."

They are going to help the 1 million farmers around the world who are growing their ingredients to farm in a more sustainable way and they want companies around this world to make changes now, too.

Extreme weather events are impacting countries where they get their cacao (cocoa), countries within 10° south and 10° north of the equator. Irma this week and the real possibilities of ever more hurricanes will occur in their producing countries.

Extreme weather is changing the formation of hurricanes, making the ones that form to be more intense.
This can impact not just chocolate producers and the livelihood of the farmers growing it. But it can start impacting chocolate lovers around the world with availability and cost.

 It gets personal.  As Earl Hatley says, "The last thing we need is for us to become like the planet Mars."

We'll have some chocolate out for you at the National Environmental Conference at Tar Creek September 26 and 27. The topics range from Tar Creek, lead exposure, impacts to families when a creek is ruined by a poultry processing plant, earthquakes, and you can be sure climate will not be denied a chance to be discussed.

The public is encouraged to attend. The event is free for Ottawa County residents, but register early so you can GO ALL IN to the Ballroom in the Student Union at NEO and not miss a bit. Call 918-542-9399 or online www.leadagency.org.

Respectfully Submitted  ~ Rebecca Jim

 A must read for fellow chocolate lovers:
The Emperors of Chocolate, Inside the Secret World of Hershey & Mars by Joel Glenn Brenner
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Water has been in the news. Too much of it and what it is doing to a big hunk of Texas and where else it is accumulating. We know too well that water is life, but we know clearly that water can take lives, too. In the latest hurricane impacted areas the lives lost may be mounting as the water recedes.

Miami residents know what water can do to homes and businesses and to the individuals who find water coming upon them. Our floods have been slow disasters, but never slow enough to prepare well enough to beat it. Water wins and consumes and can ruin all it touches. And this water leaves images and feelings many never want to visit again. But when big water makes the news and we see others struggling and walking through water to dry land with a look of astonishment and loss on their faces, memories come back, clear crisp harsh memories to those who have suffered high water.

That kind of suffering, I have never experienced, but spending all those years as a counselor, I certainly have had the opportunity to listen to those who have. But the grand scale of the numbers affected in Texas and surely Louisiana, the amount of water that kept falling, accumulating, rising. One third of Houston flooded, plus thirty other counties. Mind boggling.

That place in Texas is significant to Oklahoma. Bartlesville and Tulsa lost their special status in the oil and gas world when their corporate offices left moving to the "nest" in Houston, closer to where much of the refining and export of their product occurs. Chemical manufacturing companies located near their source material churning out products made from oil and gas. And a remarkable little known fact: Texas had the highest number of people living within a mile of an active well at 4.5 million people.

 As the water continues to recede more and more will be known on how these industries have been damaged and how much additional environmental  devastation they will have caused the area. The state lifted the reporting regulations as the storm was approaching allowing the companies to self-report their releases and losses.

 My dad saw a lot of change through those decades working as an electrician. Some of his first jobs were in Vinita, replacing the gas light fixtures in homes with electricity, while working in the county, perhaps not far from our land, rigging up an electric light in homes run by wind. Imagine, all those years and one day perhaps not that far in the future, we will all be using wind and solar to generate the electricity we use to run all of our home appliances.

We will put the oil and gas industry to bed. They can’t be proud of the changes to our earth’s atmosphere and the climate extremes linked scientifically to the use of fossil fuels over the last century. The denial of climate change Exxon and other companies claimed to the public didn’t match internal documents that have been discovered going back as far as 1979 revealing the industry knew continued use of these fuels would cause warming of our atmosphere and cause extreme weather events.

All those oil and gas operations located along and in the gulf coast of Texas and the corporate offices in Houston are experiencing the damages they and their own neighbors are experiencing in their homes and residential developments.  When It gets personal  it can start to make more sense.

Watching the scenes of rescues on the rivers streets had become, rescuers, regular people who got their boats out of the garage or from their backyards and answered the call. They developed a citizen navy, leading and walking their boats in many cases back into their own neighborhoods to bring their friends and strangers to dry land. Amazing scenes we will never forget and we only saw the images. What it must have been like to take themselves out of the victim role they had all been dealt, and become the hero to the boat load of folks they went out and retrieved. Talk about empowering. Talk about life changing. It certainly has been just to see it. The other striking images were the boats arriving on the highway, each lined up ready to serve.

The human emotions the flooded feel, we will experience with them. We have empathy and through this are becoming Texans (which of course is easy for me to say having been born and raised there).

We are understanding the power of water, too much water and the importance of clean drinking water.

LEAD Agency’s summer intern McKalee Steen reached out to PUR, a company that produces water filtration systems and made a donation request for 50 filtration systems with a year's worth of filters, and the company agreed! We will be working with the Ottawa County Health Department and the Northeast Tribal Health System to place these systems in homes first with children who may have been lead poisoned and secondly for some of our other families with health issues. We plan to have them available to be picked up during the 19th National Environmental Conference at Tar Creek September 26 and 27 where you know water will certainly be a topic on our agenda.

Respectfully Submitted   ~  Rebecca Jim

http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2017/aug/17-million-in-US-live-near-active-oil-or-gas-wells