On-Hudson.com

Philippines Volcano Set To Erupt

http://www.smh.com.au/world/1300-families-hold-out-as-volcano-gets-set-to-blow-20091221-l9ls.html

1300 families hold out as volcano gets set to blow

Glowing lava cascades down the slopes of Mayon volcano behind Legaspi city.Photo: Reuters

Several thousand villagers in the firing line of the Philippines' rumbling Mount Mayon volcano risk forcible evacuation unless they leave the danger zone, officials have warned.

Scientists say the powerful booms emanating from the Southeast Asian country's most active volcano were an indication that a massive eruption may be imminent.

The eerie glow of crimson lava could be seen oozing from the volcano overnight, and relief officials said farmers and other residents who have refused to evacuate also faced the danger of volcanic ash flow.

"We will personally remove the residents who refuse to evacuate to their designated evacuation centres," Albay provincial Governor Joey Salceda said after volcanologists raised the alert level to four on a five-point scale.

Giving new figures, Salceda said that roughly 1300 families were still in their homes within an eight-kilometre danger zone declared around Mayon. As a rule of thumb, officials said each family averages five people.

About 8600 families have already taken shelter in government centres beyond the zone mandated around the 2460-metre volcano.

The hold-outs include many villagers who do not want to leave their farms and livestock behind, officials said.

But scientists underlined the growing threat of ash and lava cascading down Mayon's slopes owing to the increasing frequency of booms from inside the volcano, audible as far as 12 kilometres away.

"We cannot say exactly when the hazardous eruption is likely to occur," chief government volcanologist Renato Solidum said in a television interview.

But he stressed: "The important thing is the distance from the volcano. That is why it is important that people not be inside the danger zone."

When Mayon last erupted in 2006, it oozed lava and vented steam for months. No one was killed by the eruption itself.

But three months later, a powerful typhoon dislodged tons of volcanic debris that had collected on Mayon's slopes. The avalanche of mud and boulders crushed entire villages, leaving more than 1000 people dead.

Mayon, renowned for its near-perfect cone, has erupted 48 times in recorded history. In 1814, more than 1200 people were killed as lava buried the town of Cagsawa.

AFP

Hudson River Properties Built On Old Ice Age Deltas At Risk ?

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091212/BIZ/912129988

Geologist says Hudson Valley landmarks in danger of falling into river

Stephen Sacco

A college geology professor has warned that some Hudson Valley landmarks could possibly slide into the Hudson River, most notably the homestead of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park.

Robert Titus, a professor of geology at Hartwick College, author of a number of books about geology and a geology columnist for Woodstock Times and the Columbia County Independent, says the Hudson Valley is particularly susceptible to landslides. This, he says, is because of the many Ice Age deltas formed in the region 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.

Titus says, all in all, old Ice Age deltas – formed from a glacial lake that flooded land thousands of years ago – are a good place to build, but the problem is there are steep slopes all along the edges of these deltas.

During heavy rains, the danger is that a heavily waterlogged mass of earth adjacent to a steep bank will form and cause the earth to fracture. The fracture could remain stable for years, but eventually rain will cause the land to sag, Titus said.

Such a slump formed around six houses in Schenectady, and the houses had to be condemned because of the “goehazard.” Titus calls these slumps “silent earthquakes.”

Most of the danger is north of the mid-Hudson region, in places like Schenectady and Rotterdam, which were built on old Ice Age deltas.

Hyde Park was also build on an Ice Age delta. And Titus says this leaves the Vanderbilt and Roosevelt mansions vulnerable to these “silent earthquakes.”

“They both may tumble into the Hudson someday,” he said.

But he can’t predict when.

“It could happen long after our lifetimes or tomorrow,” he said. “But the potential is there.”

Junk Odyssey

http://www.examiner.com/x-19196-Albany-in-Pictures-Examiner~y2009m11d30-The-Beauty-of-Scrap

The Beauty of Scrap

Bridget Streeter

Each year millions of tons of metal is deemed scrap.

From run-down cars to broken appliances, we are constantly trashing the old to bring in the new.

What I wanted to know is what happens to all that junk?

At a time when environmental awareness is entrenching all aspects of life, I assumed there was an avenue to recycle the metal. However, it wasn’t until I stumbled upon a scrap metal yard that I found my answer.

It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon and I was out with my Documentary Photography class shooting in Rensselaer. As I walked down Riverside Avenue, looking for something interesting to photograph, I heard the sickening crunch of metal in the distance. Naturally fellow photographer Kayla Galway and myself decided to investigate.

Passing through the gates marked Port of Albany the noise continued to grow as piles of metal began to tower over us. That is when I realized I had found out where all those old appliances and dead cars go to meet their final demise.

Looking around I couldn’t completely comprehend what I was seeing. Where did it all come from and where was it going? Were these just huge piles of trash or valuable material? Was I seeing waste management or recycling at it’s finest?

These questions and many more flooded my brain as we got chased off the lot for trespassing. Apparently we were not welcome, but I knew if I were going to get my questions answered I would need to go back.

As soon as we had escaped the gate I stopped and immediately called the Albany Port District Commission to figure out how to get access.

For the first time in my journalism career I found a public official who told me everything I needed to know. Richard Hendrik, the General Manager, gave me the numbers and names of the three scrap metal yards in the Albany area located along the Hudson. After being rejected by Rensselaer Iron & Steel and getting no answer from the Cohoes yard, Hudson River Recycling of Albany gave me my break.

Gary Chace, the General Manager, listened intently as I explained my project. He heard the word student and welcomed me to come by anytime. They would be happy to show me around.

I was excited and nervous all at once and told him to plan on me the following Monday. When I hung up the phone I felt like a real documentary photographer. I knew what I was doing was important.

Yes, there will be those who don’t care what happens to their ancient Buick when it finally dies, but I have always cared about the impact we are making on this planet and to me this isn’t just about metal.

Just think about it. In the last two months Hudson River Recycling has refined 92,000 tons of scrap metal. This is just one of three scrap metal yards in the Albany alone. Hudson River Recycling’s parent company, Sims Metal Management, produces around 13 million tons each year. Imagine if all that metal was just thrown into landfills. It would mean adding to the already enormous 220 million tons of garbage the U.S. produces annually.

Hudson River Recycling is one of the 230 metal refinery plants owned by Sims worldwide. Metal comes in from all over N.Y. and surrounding states, and refined metal gets shipped both nationally and internationally to various Sims plants.

Walking onto the scrap yard I couldn’t have felt more out of place. There I was a student photographer, rocking jeans, a hoodie, and canvas sneaks, surrounded by men in hard hats and steel-toed boots. Each wore the same mask of skepticism as they assessed Kayla and myself. Each was wondering what the hell we were doing there.

When I walked onto the yard I had extremely limited knowledge of the scrapping business. With the help of Operations Manager, Bill DeFoe, I developed a sound understanding by the end of the day. DeFoe took the two of us around the entire lot, explaining the different sections over the drum of heavy machinery and the tearing of metal. There was no place that the sound of metal being worked over couldn’t be heard.

I’m sure we were a sight the two of us, armed with out digital cameras and recorders, orange vests and hard hats draped awkwardly over our civilian clothes.

Walking through the metal yard, surrounded by mounds of scrap, colossal machines, and an eeriebarrenness, I learned that a shredder could squish my 2003 Mercury Sable to the size of Kayla’s camera-bag. 75% of a car can be re-used. There have been no accidents on the yard in the last year and DeFoe has only seen two men get hurt on the job in his 20+ years. Nelson, one of the injured men, recovered fine and still works the machines.

It takes roughly the same amount of machinery as men to do the job of refining scrap and no company takes safety more seriously than Sims. Safety meetings are held each day and management will not tolerate anything more than a 15-minute respond time for any oil spills.

Hudson River Recycling will take steel in any form, but does not accept radioactive material. From Albany residents with pick-up loads of scrap to 18-wheelers from private companies, everyone has useful metal that the yard can use.

Of all the material taken in, less than 5% is determined waste. 75-80% of all steel used in the production of goods is refined scrap.

As an outsider it may be hard to see why any of this would be important, but after spending the day with DeFoe and talking to the other workers I began to think more people should know what is happening down by the river.
 

 

New-York"s 490 OverFlow Pipes For WasteWater & RainWater Run With The RainFall

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/business/23sewer.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=sewers%20at%20capacity&st=cse

Sewers at Capacity, Waste Poisons Waterways

Damon Winter/The New York Times

A worker maintaining a tank at a Brooklyn wastewater treatment plant. Half the rainstorms in New York overwhelm the system.

CHARLES DUHIGG

It was drizzling lightly in late October when the midnight shift started at the Owls Head Water Pollution Control Plant, where much of Brooklyn’s sewage is treated.

A few miles away, people were walking home without umbrellas from late dinners. But at Owls Head, a swimming pool’s worth of sewage and wastewater was soon rushing in every second. Warning horns began to blare. A little after 1 a.m., with a harder rain falling, Owls Head reached its capacity and workers started shutting the intake gates.

That caused a rising tide throughout Brooklyn’s sewers, and untreated feces and industrial waste started spilling from emergency relief valves into the Upper New York Bay and Gowanus Canal.

“It happens anytime you get a hard rainfall,” said Bob Connaughton, one the plant’s engineers. “Sometimes all it takes is 20 minutes of rain, and you’ve got overflows across Brooklyn.”

One goal of the Clean Water Act of 1972 was to upgrade the nation’s sewer systems, many of them built more than a century ago, to handle growing populations and increasing runoff of rainwater and waste. During the 1970s and 1980s, Congress distributed more than $60 billion to cities to make sure that what goes into toilets, industrial drains and street grates would not endanger human health.

But despite those upgrades, today, many sewer systems are still frequently overwhelmed, according to a New York Times analysis of environmental data. As a result, sewage — including human excrement and dangerous industrial chemicals — is spilling into waterways.

In the last three years alone, more than 9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage 

systems — including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency.

But fewer than one in five sewage systems that broke the law were ever fined or otherwise sanctioned by state or federal regulators, the Times analysis shows.

It is not clear whether the sewage systems that have not reported such dumping are doing any better, because data on overflows and spillage are often incomplete.

As cities have grown rapidly across the nation, many have neglected infrastructure projects and paved over green spaces that once absorbed rainwater. That has contributed to sewage backups into more than 400,000 basements and spills into thousands of streets, according to data collected by state and federal officials. Sometimes, waste has overflowed just upstream from drinking water intake points or near public beaches.

There is no national record-keeping of how many illnesses are caused by sewage spills. But academic research suggests that as many as 20 million people each year become ill from drinking water containing bacteria and other pathogens that are often spread by untreated waste.

A 2007 study published in the journal Pediatrics, focusing on one Milwaukee hospital, indicated that the number of children suffering from serious diarrhea rose whenever local sewers overflowed. Another study, published in 2008 in the Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health, estimated that as many as four million people become sick each year in California from swimming in waters containing the kind of pollution often linked to untreated sewage.

Around New York City, samples collected at dozens of beaches or piers have detected the types of bacteria and other pollutants tied to sewage overflows. Though the city’s drinking water comes from upstate reservoirs, environmentalists say untreated excrement and other waste in the city’s waterways pose serious health risks.

A Deluge of Sewage

“After the storm, the sewage flowed down the street faster than we could move out of the way and filled my house with over a foot of muck,” said Laura Serrano, whose Bay Shore, N.Y., home was damaged in 2005 by a sewer overflow.

Ms. Serrano, who says she contracted viral meningitis because of exposure to the sewage, has filed suit against Suffolk County, which operates the sewer system. The county’s lawyer disputes responsibility for the damage and injuries.

“I had to move out, and no one will buy my house because the sewage was absorbed into the walls,” Ms. Serrano said. “I can still smell it sometimes.”

When a sewage system overflows or a treatment plant dumps untreated waste, it is often breaking the law. Today, sewage systems are the nation’s most frequent violators of the Clean Water Act. More than a third of all sewer systems — including those in San Diego, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Philadelphia, San Jose and San Francisco — have violated environmental laws since 2006, according to a Times analysis of E.P.A. data.

Thousands of other sewage systems operated by smaller cities, colleges, mobile home parks and companies have also broken the law. But few of the violators are ever punished.

The E.P.A., in a statement, said that officials agreed that overflows posed a “significant environmental and human health problem, and significantly reducing or eliminating such overflows has been a priority for E.P.A. enforcement since the mid-1990s.”

In the last year, E.P.A. settlements with sewer systems in Hampton Roads, Va., and the east San Francisco Bay have led to more than $200 million spent on new systems to reduce pollution, the agency said. In October, the E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said she was overhauling how the Clean Water Act is enforced.

But widespread problems still remain.

“The E.P.A. would rather look the other way than crack down on cities, since punishing municipalities can cause political problems,” said Craig Michaels of Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group. “But without enforcement and fines, this problem will never end.”

Plant operators and regulators, for their part, say that fines would simply divert money from stretched budgets and that they are doing the best they can with aging systems and overwhelmed pipes.

New York, for example, was one of the first major cities to build a large sewer system, starting construction in 1849. Many of those pipes — constructed of hand-laid brick and ceramic tiles — are still used. Today, the city’s 7,400 miles of sewer pipes operate almost entirely by gravity, unlike in other cities that use large pumps.

New York City’s 14 wastewater treatment plants, which handle 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater a day, have been flooded with thousands of pickles (after a factory dumped its stock), vast flows of discarded chicken heads and large pieces of lumber.

When a toilet flushes in the West Village in Manhattan, the waste runs north six miles through gradually descending pipes to 136th Street, where it is mixed with so-called biological digesters that consume dangerous pathogens. The wastewater is then mixed with chlorine and sent into the Hudson River.

Fragile System

But New York’s system — like those in hundreds of others cities — combines rainwater runoff with sewage. Over the last three decades, as thousands of acres of trees, bushes and other vegetation in New York have been paved over, the land’s ability to absorb rain has declined significantly. When treatment plants are swamped, the excess spills from 490 overflow pipes throughout the city’s five boroughs.

When the sky is clear, Owls Head can handle the sewage from more than 750,000 people. But the balance is so delicate that Mr. Connaughton and his colleagues must be constantly ready for rain.

They choose cable television packages for their homes based on which company offers the best local weather forecasts. They know meteorologists by the sound of their voices. When the leaves begin to fall each autumn, clogging sewer grates and pipes, Mr. Connaughton sometimes has trouble sleeping.

“I went to Hawaii with my wife, and the whole time I was flipping to the Weather Channel, seeing if it was raining in New York,” he said.

New York’s sewage system overflows essentially every other time it rains.

Reducing such overflows is a priority, city officials say. But eradicating the problem would cost billions.

Officials have spent approximately $35 billion over three decades improving the quality of the waters surrounding the city and have improved systems to capture and store rainwater and sewage, bringing down the frequency and volume of overflows, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection wrote in a statement.

“Water quality in New York City has improved dramatically in the last century, and particularly in the last two decades,” officials wrote.

Several years ago, city officials estimated that it would cost at least $58 billion to prevent all overflows. “Even an expenditure of that magnitude would not result in every part of a river or bay surrounding the city achieving water quality that is suitable for swimming,” the department wrote. “It would, however, increase the average N.Y.C. water and sewer bill by 80 percent.”

The E.P.A., concerned about the risks of overflowing sewers, issued a national framework in 1994 to control overflows, including making sure that pipes are designed so they do not easily become plugged by debris and warning the public when overflows occur. In 2000, Congress amended the Clean Water Act to crack down on overflows.

But in hundreds of places, sewer systems remain out of compliance with that framework or the Clean Water Act, which regulates most pollution discharges to waterways. And the burdens on sewer systems are growing as cities become larger and, in some areas, rainstorms become more frequent and fierce.

New York’s system, for instance, was designed to accommodate a so-called five-year storm — a rainfall so extreme that it is expected to occur, on average, only twice a decade. But in 2007 alone, the city experienced three 25-year storms, according to city officials — storms so strong they would be expected only four times each century.

“When you get five inches of rain in 30 minutes, it’s like Thanksgiving Day traffic on a two-lane bridge in the sewer pipes,” said James Roberts, deputy commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.

Government’s Response

To combat these shifts, some cities are encouraging sewer-friendly development. New York, for instance, has instituted zoning laws requiring new parking lots to include landscaped areas to absorb rainwater, established a tax credit for roofs with absorbent vegetation and begun to use millions of dollars for environmentally friendly infrastructure projects.

Philadelphia has announced it will spend $1.6 billion over 20 years to build rain gardens and sidewalks of porous pavement and to plant thousands of trees.

But unless cities require private developers to build in ways that minimize runoff, the volume of rain flowing into sewers is likely to grow, environmentalists say.

The only real solution, say many 

lawmakers and water advocates, is extensive new spending on sewer systems largely ignored for decades. As much as $400 billion in extra spending is needed over the next decade to fix the nation’s sewer infrastructure, according to estimates by the E.P.A. and theGovernment Accountability Office.

Legislation under consideration on Capitol Hill contains millions in water infrastructure grants, and the stimulus bill passed this year set aside $6 billion to improve sewers and other water systems.

But that money is only a small fraction of what is needed, officials say. And over the last two decades, federal money for such programs has fallen by 70 percent, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which estimates that a quarter of the state’s sewage and wastewater treatment plants are “using outmoded, inadequate technology.”

“The public has no clue how important these sewage plants are,” said Mr. Connaughton of the Brooklyn site. “Waterborne disease was the scourge of mankind for centuries. These plants stopped that. We’re doing everything we can to clean as much sewage as possible, but sometimes, that isn’t enough.”

London"s River Thames Undergoes Clean Up As Well

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aR4vM06CXnPg

Salmon Do U-Turn in London River as Thames Water Fixes Sewers 

Alex Morales

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Twenty thousand juvenile salmon were released in a River Thames tributary outside London last year to see if they would migrate to sea and return home to breed. Only three came back.

Sewage spilling into the river that bisects Europe’s financial capital may be the reason, said Darryl Clifton-Dey, head of a program to reintroduce the migratory fish to the Thames after a 176-year absence. Sewer owner Thames Water Ltd.estimates 32 million cubic meters of waste flow into the river a year, enough to fill 12,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

“Sewage could be the straw that’s breaking the camel’s back” said Clifton-Dey, a scientist at the Environment Agency, the government watchdog for water quality. “Because they need lots of clean water all the way along, salmon are a very good indicator species of the general health of the whole river.”

With Victorian-era sewers failing to control overflows that occur about once a week, Thames Water plans a 2 billion-pound ($3.2 billion) upgrade. Final bidders for the first 400-million pound contract include Vinci SA, the world’s largest builder, andHochtief AG, Germany’s biggest, with work to begin in 2010.

Like New York’s efforts to clean up the Hudson River, whose bass werecontaminated by mercury, and attempts to revive the Huangpu River where Shanghai gets most of its drinking water, London is trying to restore an historic waterway whose health has suffered from population pressures and industrialization.

Deeper Than Subways

Thames Water is owned by Kemble Water Holdings Ltd., itself owned by an investor group led by Australia’s largest investment bank, Macquarie Group Ltd. The utility is planning two tunnels to collect overflow from the capital’s original sewers. Builders will dig as far as 75 meters (250 feet) under London, deeper than any of the city’s subway lines.

The first tunnel will stretch for 7 kilometers (4.4 miles), passing under the River Lee, a tributary of the Thames, to channel overflow to the utility’s Beckton sewage treatment plant in East London. The Lee winds through the site of the 2012 Olympic Games and into the Thames east of Canary Wharf, home to the city’s second financial district and skyscrapers housing offices for banks includingBarclays Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc.

Rod Kirwan, a London lawyer, rowed on the Lee for four years and said its course through fields in east London meant it could be “quite leafy and lovely.” It could also be an unpleasant experience on certain days.

“After heavy rainfall, there were stretches of the river that stank and gas was bubbling up,” said Kirwan, a partner at the London law firm Denton Wilde Sapte. “If you closed your eyes, you had no idea you were in central London. Yet in the water it was definitely urban reality.”

Condoms, Bacteria

Thames Water, formerly owned by Germany’s RWE AG, aims to pick a builder for the Lee tunnel as early as November, said Nick Tennant, a spokesman for the Tideway Tunnels unit. “It’s a massive project, set to be the biggest contract that Thames Water has ever let.”

Overflows into the Thames and its tributaries happen about once weekly. Officials say they’re triggered by as little as 2 millimeters (1/13th inch) of rain that washes down drains to the sewers, which spill over into the river because they were designed when London had less sewage and more unpaved areas to absorb rainwater. In the Thames, bacteria break down excrement, using up the water’s oxygen and stifling fish.

Plastic bags, prophylactics, sanitary napkins, tampons and Q-tips blight the waterway and river shores, said Chris Coode, river programs manager for the litter-cleanup charity Thames 21.

“If tourists and local residents look off a bridge after an overspill and they see condoms floating past, what does that say about the Thames?” Coode said. “It’s still an open dirty sewer.”

‘Great Stink’

The 215-mile river, the U.K.’s second-longest, though far from pristine has come a long way since the “Great Stink” of 1858. The river’s smell then disrupted work in Parliament and lawmakers considered adjourning to Oxford.

The following year, the capital’s chief engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, began plans for the sewers that remain in use today. It’s the 57 outlets from that system that allow sewage into the Thames when it rains and which the new tunnels must intercept.

Fish life has recovered since the early 1960s, when stretches of the Thames were classed as biologically dead, said Tom Cousins, an Environment Agency biologist. Now, 125 species including flounder and gobies populate the river even as sewage discharges can kill thousands of fish, he said.

“It’s quite a unique environment having a tidal river through such an urban environment, and it’s a real wildlife superhighway,” Cousins said. “The tunnels will be a major further step in its recovery.”

Swimming to Greenland

Local salmon, which migrate as far as Greenland and the Faeroe Islands before returning to their native river, were once found in such numbers in the Thames before industrialization that thousands were caught and sold yearly in London’sBillingsgate fish market, according to Clifton-Dey.

Salmon were absent from the Thames from 1833 until 1974, when a stray was observed, he said.

The reintroduction program, in the Thames tributary the Kennett about 60 miles upstream from tidal limits in west London, began five years later. It currently costs 50,000 pounds to 60,000 pounds a year, Clifton-Dey said.

In 2008, tagging showed nine adult salmon returned. Just three have come back this year, Clifton-Dey said. Returning fish are captured in traps that catch about 60 percent of them, he said. Fish that don’t come back may remain in the estuary and die without breeding, he said.

Internal metal tags that can be scanned are used to identify the river of provenance while external tags enable fishermen who catch the salmon to call the Environment Agency.

Dodging Seals, Fishermen

Challenges faced by the salmon aren’t limited to sewage. The 1-year-old smolt released in the river must avoid predators including birds and other fish as they swim from their release point through London, past Big Ben and Tower Bridge. Others are caught in the estuary and at sea by seals and fishermen.

After one or two years at sea, returning salmon must jump up 37 weirs, and fish ladders have been built to help them. If the fish bred in the river naturally, about 1,000 out of 20,000 could be expected to return, he said.

Once the sewage problem has been sorted, Clifton-Dey said he hopes to see 200-300 of the farmed salmon return to the Thames a year, enough to establish a viable breeding population.

Higher Water Bill

The Lee tunnel will accommodate half of the excess sewage and the Thames tunnel the rest. Hochtief has joined with the London-based Murphy Group. They’re vying for the Lee deal with a group including Vinci, based near Paris, Soletanche Bachy, another French company, and Rugby, England-based Morgan Est Plc.

Thames Water won’t apply for the second tunnel’s planning approval until 2011 and aims to build it by 2020. That project is more complicated than the Lee sewer because it passes through 13 local authorities and requires about 10 access entrances.

The whole project, which Tennant said will add about 40 pounds to a typical London household’s annual water bill, is a “very necessary” addition to the sewage network, said Murad Qureshi, who chairs the London Assembly’s environment committee.

“In recent times Londoners have rediscovered the main artery of the city, which is the Thames,” Qureshi said. “The more we improve it, the more it becomes a feature of the London landscape.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London atamorales2@bloomberg.net.

The Last Gorillas Of The Congo Saturday May 9-August 2 2009 Fovea Exhibitions Beacon NY 4-7PM

www.foveaexhibitions.org

 

Join acclaimed photographer Brent Stirton at Fovea Exhibitions in Beacon from 4-8pm Saturday May 9th for an artist talk and the opening of his exhibition ‘The Last Gorillas of the Congo'

The mountain gorillas of the Virunga National Park live surrounded by violence. Heavily armed soldiers of guerilla warfare, poachers, illegal charcoal makers, all roam the forest poised to destroy what gets in their way. Still a village and the world were outraged when a family of the gentle primates was murdered in cold blood in July 2007. Just over 200 of the extremely rare mountain gorillas, of which there are only 680 in the world, live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, virtually the epicenter of humanitarian crisis and civil wars that have left almost 6 million people dead in the last 15 years. Last autumn a peace treaty was signed, and rangers discovered 5 babies gorillas have been born.

 

The non-profit charity Fovea Exhibitions will host Stirton's internationally award-winning photo essay through August, documenting the story of the tragedy and the renewal of some of the last mountain gorillas on the planet. The reception will celebrate both Fovea’s second year anniversary and the 2009 Year of the Gorilla.

New York Area Garden Tour ShortList

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/garden/30webtours-001-001.html

Homes and Gardens, Open for Gawking

Jennifer Rish

BROOKLYN The May 31 Prospect-Lefferts Gardens tour includes yards with lush landscaping and waterfalls, above.

SHELLY FREIERMAN

THE season of house tours, garden tours and show houses is here, when visitors are invited into skinny row houses, sprawling apartments and vast estates to study their gleaming kitchens, burnished woodwork, antiques and artworks and city or country views. Gardens from urban town-house yards in Wilmington, Del., to acres of working farmland in the Hudson Valley of New York offer greenery, specimens, fragrance and flowers. Unless otherwise noted, tours are self-guided; some details may change, so check with a tour’s organizer before making plans.

New York City

UPPER EAST SIDE, THROUGH MAY 17 The 2009 Kips Bay Decorator Show House is at a 1927 limestone mansion at 22 East 71st Street. The hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday; (until 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday); Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Participating designers will include Charlotte Moss, Juan Montoya, Christopher Corcoran, Christopher Maya, Eileen Kathryn Boyd and Joe Nye. No children under 6. Tickets, to benefit the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, $30. More information: (212) 755-5733 and kipsbay.org.

MANHATTAN, MAY 2 Eight residences will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., including the Greenwich Village triplex apartment belonging to Todd Merrill, an interior designer, which is decorated with American and European antiques; and the studio of Hunt Slonem, a painter and sculptor, which houses art, antiques and several of his parrots. The event includes a buffet brunch, a silent auction and a reception. Proceeds will benefit the Junior League of New York. Tickets, $95, at the league, 130 East 80th Street. Advance tickets by April 29, $85. Information: (212) 288-6220 and nyjl.org.

CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN, MAY 3 Thirteen sites, including several brownstones and apartments, the Kelso Brewery, the Charles Pratt mansion at St. Joseph’s College and the gothic Queen of All Saints Catholic Church, will be open noon to 5 p.m. Tickets, $25, at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 259 Washington Avenue, between DeKalb & Willoughby Avenues. Advance tickets, $20, at (917) 292-8042 or societyforclintonhill.org.

GREENWICH VILLAGE, MAY 3 The former home and studio of the painter Edward Hopper, which overlooks Washington Square; the 1804 Federal style row house that was built for newlyweds from New York’s powerful Stuyvesant and Fish families; and a three-floor penthouse decorated with art from Latin America are three of seven residences that will be open from 1:30 to 6 p.m. The tour, to benefit the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, will be followed by a reception. Advance tickets, $150 for the tour and $300 for the tour and the reception, at (212) 475-9585, extension 39, andgvshp.org/benefit. Same-day tickets, if available, $175 for the tour and $350 for the tour and reception, will be sold starting at 1 p.m. at New York Studio School, 8 West Eighth Street (between Fifth Avenue and Macdougal Street).

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, MAY 9 Five houses and their gardens will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. for the 24th annual tour of the Brooklyn Heights Association. There will be an 1842 Greek Revival house on a street once known as Mansion Row, with its original mahogany woodwork and a collection of contemporary art by American and German artists, and an 1846 house on a corner lot with formal-style gardens, interior front and back staircases and a Federal doorway that was salvaged from a neighborhood building. No children under 13 except infants in front packs. Reservations are recommended. Tickets, $30, by calling (718) 858-9193 and brooklynheightsassociation.org. On the day of the tour only, tickets will be sold starting at 12:30 p.m. at 129 Pierrepont Street (near Clinton Street).

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN, MAY 17 The 50th annual tour of the Park Slope Civic Council will begin at Poly Prep Lower School, an 1892 Romanesque Revival mansion built by the architect Montrose W. Morris, at 50 Prospect Park West (First Street). Nine houses will be open on the tour, from noon to 5:30 p.m., including an 1886 three-story house renovated so its rooms look out on a central shaft topped by a large skylight and an 1878 Victorian house with Lincrusta wallpaper and glass tile. An 1880s frame house is decorated with objects from the owners’ travels, including African statues, a copper vase from Mexico, Cambodian textiles and a Venetian chandelier. A lecture about the history of the Slope will take place at 6 p.m. after the tour. No children under 10. Tickets, $25, at Poly Prep Lower School. Advance tickets, $20. Information: (718) 832-8227 andparkslopeciviccouncil.org.

PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN, MAY 31 Eleven houses will be open from noon to 5 p.m., including a 1907 limestone house renovated with a mix of pocket doors, antique chandeliers, an exercise room and a contemporary galley kitchen; a 1911 townhouse with original Arts and Crafts interior details and a staircase decorated with vintage maps; and the home of the 2006 Silver Award winner of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, which has a back garden with two waterfalls, charming seating areas and winding paths. Infants in front packs only. Tickets, $25, at K-Dog & Dunebuggy Cafe, 43 Lincoln Road (between Flatbush and Ocean Avenues). Advance tickets, $20. Information: (718) 284-6210 or (718) 462-0024 and at leffertsmanor.org.

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS, JUNE 13 AND 14 Nine private gardens will be open from noon to 4 p.m. June 13. There will also a display of historic photographs, and a lecture on the history of Jackson Heights at 10:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.

On June 14, there will be a guided walking tour starting at noon. Tickets for the June 14 tour must be reserved or purchased in advance. Tickets for one day, $10; both days, $15. All events start or take place at the Community Church, 35th Avenue at 82nd Street. Information: (718) 565-5344 and jhbg.org.

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, FORT GREENE AND CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN, JUNE 14 The Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District’s Garden Walk, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., will feature a dozen private and five community gardens. This year’s sites include two gardens that occupy neighboring yards behind adjacent town houses. One evokes ancient Rome, with shards of masonry, sculptural fragments and embedded plaques set among perennials and tropical plants. The other, centered by a cherry tree planted by the jazz singer Betty Carter, features perennial plantings and flowering trees.

Tickets, $20, at the Forest Floor, 659 Vanderbilt Avenue (Prospect Place) in Prospect Heights; Greene Grape Provisions, 753 Fulton Street (South Portland Avenue) in Fort Greene; and Root Stock and Quade, 471 Myrtle Avenue (Washington Street) in Clinton Hill. Advance tickets, $15, and information: (718) 858-7968, e-mail tobrownstonebgd@gmail.com or bbgd.wordpress.com.

MOUNT MORRIS PARK, HARLEM, JUNE 14 The 20th annual tour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. will feature the Ephesus Church, an 1885 Gothic-style church topped by a 37-foot lead-coated steeple, as well as several other apartments and brownstones. A guided tour of the neighborhood at noon and 2 p.m. will include historic sites such as the home of the poet Langston Hughes. Tickets, $25, Pelham Fritz Community Center, West 122nd Street and Mount Morris Park West. Advance tickets, $20, at (212) 369-4241 and mmpcia.org.

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN, JUNE 14 At least 10 houses will be open from 1 to 6 p.m. for the annual Victorian Flatbush house tour. Shuttle buses will be available. Flatbush is home to four historic districts, with Craftsman, Victorian, Colonial Revival, Tudor and Queen Anne houses. Tickets, $25, at Temple Beth Emeth, 83 Marlborough Road (near Church Avenue). Advance tickets, $20, and information: (718) 859-3800 andfdconline.org.

CROWN HEIGHTS NORTH, BROOKLYN OCT. 4 Eight houses, two churches and a community garden will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets, $25, at St. Gregory’s Parish School, 991 St. Johns Place (between Brooklyn and New York Avenues). Advance tickets, $20, and information at (917) 748-4664 and crownheightsnorth.org.

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN OCT. 18 Approximately 10 Victorian brownstones, including those in the Neo-Grecian, Neo-Romanesque, Italianate, Eastlake, Queen Anne and Second Empire styles, will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets, $25, at 659 Vanderbilt Avenue (Park Place). Advance tickets, $20, and information at (718) 393-7653 and phndc.org/house-tour.

New York Region and New Jersey

SEA CLIFF, MAY 17 Ten houses will be open for a tour from noon to 4 p.m., including a Gothic Revival pink gingerbread cottage built as servants’ quarters in 1883; an Arts and Crafts three-story house overlooking the Long Island Sound, and a Victorian house with a wraparound porch, a garden waterfall and a stone patio. No children. Tickets, $25, in advance by check and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Sea Cliff Landmarks Association, 19 Locust Place, Sea Cliff, N.Y. 11579, and on May 17 at the village green at the corner of Sea Cliff and Central Avenues. Information: (888) 475-1049. There is no Web site.

LLOYD HARBOR TO CENTERPORT, MAY 20 Six houses along the North Shore will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., to benefit the Family Service League of Long Island. They include an 1897 rambling house that borrows from several architectural styles and has barely changed in some 100 years. It has multiple wings, shingle and clapboard sheathing, and variations in its window design and exterior details. No children under 12. Tickets, $60, on the day of the tour, at the Thatched Cottage, 445 East Main Street (near Washington Avenue) in Centerport. Lunch, by reservation, is available for $25. Advance tickets, $55, and information: (631) 427-3700, extension 255, and fsl-li.org.

SOUTHAMPTON, JUNE 13 AND 14 The annual garden symposium and tour sponsored by the Parrish Art Museum starts at 9 a.m. on June 13 with a symposium on color in the garden, at the museum, 25 Jobs Lane. On June 14, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., six private gardens in Southampton will be open for a tour. Tickets to the symposium and tour are $175 (members, $125); those contributing at a higher level, from $300, are invited to a reception June 13. Tickets and information: (631) 283-2118, extension 42, andparrishart.org.

SOUTHAMPTON, JULY 26 TO SEPT. 6 The Hampton Designer Showhouse, to benefit Southampton Hospital, will open on July 25 with a preview (tickets, $225). The show house, at 179 David’s Lane in Watermill, will be open daily 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $30. Information: (631) 745-0004 and hamptondesignershowhouse.com.

DUTCHESS AND COLUMBIA COUNTIES

POUGHKEEPSIE, JUNE 6 Eleven sites will be included on the annual Silver Ribbon Tour sponsored by the Dutchess County Historical Society. The properties, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., include a loft in a converted 19th-century piano factory on Falkill Creek, two Arts and Crafts houses and the Reformed Church, which is the starting point for the tour and features a stained-glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tickets, $50, at the church, 70 Hooker Avenue (near Hanscom Avenue). Advance tickets $45 (members, $40), and information: (845) 471-1630 and dutchesscountyhistoricalsociety.org.

ANCRAM, AUG. 2 The 2009 edition of the Ancram Preservation Group’s Working Landscapes tour features working farms and gardens, including an ornamental garden with vegetables and orchards, a horse farm and a hilltop rock garden. The sites will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a picnic lunch of organic produce and grass-fed barbecue will be served at noon. Tickets, $50, at Ancram Town Hall, 1416 County Route 7 (1/4 mile north of the intersection with Route 82). Family discounts are available. Advance tickets, $45, and information: (518) 398-6435 or at ancrampreservationgroup.org.

ORANGE COUNTY

WARWICK, JUNE 6 The garden tour and plant sale will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sites will include a terraced garden with stone walls; an English country-style landscape with paths connecting small garden areas; and a garden planted with several specimen trees, perennial beds and a variety of grasses. There will be two gardens to see in nearby towns. Rain date is June 7. Tickets, $15, at the Railroad Green, corner of Railroad Avenue and Main Street. Information by e-mail to info@warwickvalleygardeners.com andwarwickvalleygardeners.com.

GOSHEN, JUNE 20 Six private gardens will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to benefit St. James Episcopal Church. They will include a patio garden, a garden planted to attract wildlife and a large formal flower garden around a hilltop home. There will also be a display of blooms from the Mid-Hudson Valley Orchid Society. Tickets, $35, including lunch, at the church, 1 St. James Place (at Church Street). Advance tickets, $30, and information: (845) 294-6225 or stjamesgoshen.org.

NEW JERSEY

RUMSON, THROUGH MAY 31 Sheep’s Run, a 25-room country house with a steeply pitched roof, ornamental metalwork of birds and other animal motifs, 10 bathrooms and a 40-foot living room, will be the site for a show house to benefit the Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey. The house was designed in 1915 by Harrie T. Lindeberg, an architect who trained with McKim, Mead and White. No children under 12. Tickets, $35; senior citizen admission is $25. The house, at 99 Rumson Road (Bingham Avenue), will be open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Information: (732) 224-6791 andstatelyhomesbythesea.com.

SUMMIT, MAY 7 Five houses, including an Arts and Crafts house and a restored 1912 center-hall Colonial, will be open for a tour 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets, $35, in advance with a check to Women of Calvary and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Calvary Episcopal Church, 31 Woodland Avenue, Summit, N.J. 07901. Information: (908) 522-0656 and calvary-summit.org.

WESTFIELD, MAY 16 Five houses will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a tour to benefit the Westfield Symphony Orchestra. Music will be performed at one of the houses, and there will be a plant sale. Tickets, $30, at Baron’s Drugs, 243 East Broad Street (Lawrence Avenue). Advance tickets, $25, and information: (908) 232-9400 andwestfieldsymphony.org.

RUMSON AND FAIR HAVEN, MAY 30 AND 31 The Two Rivers Garden Tour will feature six private gardens, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 30, and from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on May 31. They include a 100-year-old garden with many container plantings; the densely planted garden of a couple that owns a nursery; an estate garden with formal beds and statuary; and a garden alongside the Navesink River planted with several varieties of roses. Tickets, $25, may be bought at the garden sites, two of which are on Fair Haven Road between River Road and Clay Street in Fair Haven. Advance tickets, $20, and information: (732) 923-6886 and tworivershow.org.

In addition to the tour, there will be a cocktail party on May 29 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Two Rivers event, which benefits the Jacqueline M. Wilentz Comprehensive Breast Center at Monmouth Medical Center. Reservations are required for the cocktail party. Tickets, $125 in advance ($145 at the door).

HOBOKEN, MAY 31 Ten gardens will be featured on the Hoboken Secret Gardens Tour, a guided tour leaving from the Hoboken Historical Museum every half-hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The gardens include one that incorporates a stained-glass window set in a stone wall. Rain date is June 7. Tickets, $25, to benefit the museum, at 1301 Hudson Street (13th Street); children under 12 free. Advance ticket purchase, $20, is recommended: (201) 656-2240 and hobokensecretgardens.com.

MONTCLAIR, JUNE 5 AND 6 The From Roses to Rock Gardens tour will feature six private gardens, open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The tour will begin at Van Vleck House and Gardens, 21 Van Vleck Street (Upper Mountain Avenue). Tickets, $30 ($25, members). Information: (973) 744-4752 and vanvleck.org.

BOONTON, JUNE 6 The Boonton Historical Society and Museum will sponsor a tour of 16 sites from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour will include an 1854 octagonal Italianate-style house, which is topped by a cupola; an 1890s Queen Anne house with its original hardwood floors, banisters and moldings, and the original dining room fireplace; and the Miller-King house, a 1740 frame house that has been owned by only three families. There will be several churches on the tour, including Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, an 1860 Gothic made of rock from nearby quarries, and St. John’s Episcopal Church, an 1863 structure with three stained-glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Boonton Rail Car Restoration Yard, a museum, and the New Jersey Firemen’s Home Museum will be open as well. Tickets, $20, at the museum, 210 Main Street (Route 202). Advance tickets and information: (973) 316-0976 or by e-mail toboontonhistory@boonton.org.

CAPE MAY, JUNE 26 TO JAN. 3, 2010 Carpenter Cottage, an 1850s house in the Carpenter Gothic style popularized by Alexander Jackson Davis, a prominent architect, will be the site of a show house to benefit the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts. The house, which has eight bedrooms, a large kitchen, a dining room and a wraparound porch, has a steeply pitched roof and gable and gingerbread brackets and railings. The show house will be open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday to Friday. Admission, at 511 Franklin Street (Hughes Street), is $20 ($15, ages 3 to 12). Information: (609) 884-5404 and capemaymac.org.

HOBOKEN, OCT. 25 Eight to 10 residences will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a tour to benefit the Hoboken Historical Museum. Tickets, $30, at the museum, 1301 Hudson Street; children under 12 free. Advance ticket purchase, $25, and information: (201) 656-2240 and hobokenhousetour.com.

For The Full List Please GoTo:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/garden/30webtours-001-001.html

10th Annual American Lung Association New-York State Of The Air Report

http://www.alany.org/site/c.kmKWJbNTJtF/b.2802033/k.BD49/Home.htm

State of the Air 2009

Note -- the map above denotes the worst grade received in each county for ozone, 24-hour PM or annual PM.   American Lung Association’s 10th Annual State of the Air Report   Details Air Quality in New York State  New Standards Provide New Insight into New York’s Toxic Air    The American Lung Association’s tenth annual State of the Air report, released  today, finds that over 12.5 million New Yorkers - a stunning 65 percent of the  state’s residents - live in counties where air pollution levels endanger lives.  According to the report, which applies new and stricter federal air quality standards,  22 out of the 33 counties with air quality monitors received failing grades.       “Cleaner air equals longer life, and the American Lung Association’s State of the Air  2009 report provides troubling proof of the unhealthy air that residents across New  York State are breathing,” said Deborah Carioto, President of the American Lung  Association in New York. “Now more than ever it is apparent that New Yorkers are  breathing in dangerously high levels of both particulate matter and ozone.”    The State of the Air 2009 acknowledges substantial progress in the fight against air  pollution in many areas of the country, but finds that nearly every major city is still  burdened by air pollution. The report includes a national air quality report card that  assigns A-F grades to communities across the country. The report also ranks cities  and counties most affected by the three most widespread types of pollution  (ozone—or smog, annual particle pollution, and 24-hour particle pollution levels)  and details trends for 900 counties over the past decade.    To determine the grades, the American Lung Association identified the number of  days that each county with at least one air quality monitor experienced air quality  designated as orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups), red (unhealthy), or purple  (very unhealthy), according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air  Quality Index.    Ozone, a gas formed most often when sunlight reacts with vapors emitted when  motor vehicles, factories, power plants and other sources burn fuel, irritates the  respiratory tract and causes health problems like asthma attacks, coughing,  wheezing, chest pain and even premature death.    Particle pollution is a deadly cocktail of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals  and aerosols that can spike dangerously for hours to weeks on end. The body’s  natural defenses, coughing and sneezing, fail to keep these microscopic particles  from burrowing deep within the lungs, triggering serious problems such as asthma  and heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and even early death.   For more information on air quality in New York, or to view an interactive map  showing air quality findings by county, visit us online at www.alany.org/SOTA.    Significant findings from the report for New York State, by region include:    Long Island  -- Nassau County had 5 orange particle pollution days, a decrease from 6 orange  days in last year’s report.      -- Suffolk County tied with Chautauqua County as the dirtiest counties in New York  for ozone pollution. Suffolk had 34 orange days for ozone, an increase from 30  orange days in last year’s report.  Suffolk also had 9 red days and is one of only  two counties in the state to have a purple day.      New York City  -- The New York City metropolitan area ranks 17th on the top 25 list of most  polluted cities by ozone.    -- The New York City metropolitan area ranks 16th on the top 25 list of U.S. cities  most polluted by short-term particle pollution.    -- The New York City metropolitan area ranks 22nd on the top 25 list of U.S. cities  most polluted by year-round particle pollution.    -- Bronx, Queens and New York counties have the highest number of particle  pollution days in the state - with the Bronx’s 31 orange days doubling the next  closest county.     -- Richmond County’s 33 orange ozone pollution days are the third most in the  state.    -- New York County, followed by Bronx County, are two dirtiest counties for annual  PM pollution and the only counties to fail on the annual grade.      Hudson Valley  -- Westchester County has 29 orange and 7 red ozone pollution days. This is a  drastic increase from 20 orange and 4 red in last year’s report.     -- Putnam County is one of only two counties in the state to have a purple day for  ozone pollution.     -- Orange County has 27 orange and 2 red ozone pollution days - an increase from  24 orange and 1 red day in last year’s report.    -- Dutchess County’s 15 orange days for ozone pollution are almost double as many  as in last year’s report.     -- Ulster County is the only Hudson Valley county to have a decrease in ozone  pollution days, with 13 orange ozone pollution days for this year, down from 15 in  last year’s report.      Capital Region  -- Albany County received an F for ozone pollution and a D for short-term particle  pollution.      -- Rensselaer County is the only county in the Capital Region to have a red day for  ozone pollution.    -- Schenectady County, which received a D for ozone pollution in last year’s report,  received a C this year with 6 orange days for ozone pollution.    -- Saratoga County’s 21 orange days for ozone pollution are the most in the Capital  Region.      North Country  -- Essex County has 2 red days for ozone pollution and ranks 16th on the list of the  top 25 cleanest counties for long-term particle pollution in the nation.     -- Franklin County, which received an F for ozone pollution in last year’s report,  received an F again this year with 13 orange days for ozone pollution.    -- St. Lawrence County is among the cleanest in the nation for short term PM, with  zero days of any elevated levels.    -- Hamilton County has 4 orange days for ozone pollution, the same number as it  had in last year’s report.    -- Jefferson County has 17 orange and 1 red day for ozone pollution, a significant  increase from 12 orange and 1 red days in last year’s report.     Central New York  -- Onondaga County has the second highest number of ozone pollution days in  Central New York, with 14 orange days.    -- Herkimer County had 3 times the number of orange pollution days in this year’s  report and saw its grade drop from a B to a C.    -- Oneida County has 3 orange days for ozone pollution, a decrease from 4 orange  days in last year’s report.  -- Madison County, which received an B in last year’s report, received a D this year  due to almost 3 times as many orange ozone pollution days.     -- Oswego County has the highest number of ozone pollution days in Central New  York, with 15 orange days.    Western New York   -- Erie County joins Bronx and Queens as the only counties in the state to fail for  both ozone and particle pollution.      -- Monroe County, which received an F in last year’s report, receives an F again this  year with 19 orange ozone pollution days. This is almost double the number of  orange ozone pollution days as last year.    -- Niagara County has the second highest number of ozone pollution days in  Western New York, with 32 orange and 1 red ozone pollution days.    -- Chautauqua County is tied with Suffolk County as the dirtiest counties in New  York for ozone pollution. There were 48 orange ozone days, the highest number in  the state. Chautauqua County also had the most days charted in orange /purple.    -- Wayne County’s 9 orange days for ozone pollution are a stark increase from 2  ozone pollution days in last year’s report.    -- Steuben County’s 3 orange days for 24-hour particle pollution are half as many  as in last year’s report.     -- Chemung County had the cleanest ozone pollution of any county in the state with  only 2 orange days and nothing else.

Eels, Aliens and Shipwrecks: An Evening With Chris Browser Friday May 8 @7:PM Beacon Sloop Club

Friday, May 8th, 2009  

7pm  

Beacon Sloop Club  

(next to the ferry dock) 

 

 

Everybody has their favorite Hudson 

River stories. Scientists have discovered 

some amazing new stories about the 

Hudson River.  

Chris Bowser, science education 

specialist with the New York State 

Department of Environmental 

Conservation Hudson River Estuary 

Program and National Estuarine 

Research Reserve will talk about some 

of the remarkable scientific discoveries 

under the Hudson and in its watershed. 

Much of this science is done with 

remarkably high-tech gear, and some of 

it is done by teams of enthusiastic 

volunteers and students.  

BEACON SLOOP CLUB ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION SERIES 

www.beaconsloopclub.org 

845-542-0721  

Eels, Aliens and Shipwrecks:  

Updates in River Science 

An Evening with Chris Bowser 

10 Foot 

Sand Wa 

ves 

and 

Shipwrec 

ks! 

Hiudson Highlands Nature Museum LetterBoxing WorkShop Sunday May 3rd 10:AM

www.hhnaturemuseum.org

SUNDAY FUN DAY LETTERBOXING WORKSHOP! Sunday,May 3-10am at the Outdoor Discovery Center This Sunday, May 3, 10am the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum presents: ALetterboxing Workshop at the Outdoor Discovery Center, entrance on Muser Drive, across from 174 Angola Road, Cornwall. Come find out about "letterboxing", the newest outdoor adventure activity that is fast becoming a popular family pastime! Letterboxing is an intriguing activity that consists of "treasure-hunts" in parks, forests, and cities around the world. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by cracking codes and following clues. The prize: a miniature piece of rubber stamp art-usually a unique, hand-carved creation. Letterboxers stamp their discoveries in a personal journal and then use their own rubber stamp, called a signature stamp, to stamp into the logbook found at with the letterbox. Workshop participants will learn the basics of letterboxing, make a simple letterbox stamp and actually find a box at the Museum’s Outdoor Discovery Center. This activity is not one to miss; it is fun for all ages. Recommended for adults with or without children and children ages 5 and up Cost: $5, Members: $3. Pre-registration requested. For information and registration, call 845-534-5506, ext. 204. Visit the museum’s website at www.hhnaturemuseum.org