Author: Alex Kellogg

FERC Approves Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 45

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given the green light to the construction of the contentious Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a multi-billion dollar energy project designed to transport fracked natural gas from the shale-rich Marcellus basin in West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina.

This comes less than a month after North Carolina governor Roy Cooper and the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality rejected the ACP’s environmental plan submitted by regional energy companies Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas on the grounds that it did not meet the state’s erosion and sediment control requirements.

Under the Clean Water Act, states have the right to deny permits to large-scale projects if they deem them a threat to their water quality, though FERC has the authority to override the states’ decision. The energy partners have 15 days after receiving the letter of disapproval to resubmit the plan with additional information required by the N.C. DEQ, or 60 days to challenge the agency’s decision and request a court hearing.

The FERC’s decision, while consistent with its past record of approving the majority of pipeline proposals it reviews, was not unanimous. In a surprise dissenting vote, Obama-appointed commission member Cheryl LaFleur, who had never voted against any proposal in her previous seven years of working on the commission, determined that the ACP developers had not provided sufficient evidence that the pipeline “as proposed is in the public interest.”

The proposed 600 mile pipeline is set to pass through thousands of streams and creeks, many of which feed into the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and into North Carolina’s coastal wetlands. The proposed route also passes through West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest and Virginia’s George Washington National Forest in addition to 2,900 private properties in all three states.

Dominion energy and their partners argue that the ACP will “support 17,240 jobs during construction and 2,200 operation jobs” in the economically depressed areas that the project will pass through, and highlight that the project is necessary to support the growing natural gas demand from public utilities, small businesses and a growing population in Virginia and North Carolina.

Yet many prominent environmental groups and companies say that the economic benefits of the pipeline are exaggerated; the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates that only 39 permanent local jobs will be created by the project’s construction, and PJM, the company charged with managing the mid-Atlantic region’s electric grid, projects that demand for natural gas will remain flat for the coming decade as sources of renewable energy become cheaper.

Of particular concern to landowners in the path of the ACP, many of whom are minorities who rely upon agriculture for a living, is the potential for Dominion Energy to exercise eminent domain over their lands now that the FERC has deemed the pipeline “in the interest of the public.” Dr. Ryan Emanuel, a member of the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina and professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University, highlights the issue in a letter to Science magazine, writing that “the Atlantic Coast Pipeline developer’s preferred route disproportionately affects indigenous peoples in North Carolina. The nearly 30,000 Native Americans who live within 1.6 km of the proposed pipeline make up 13.2% of the impacted population in North Carolina, where only 1.2% of the population is Native American.”

As of now, due to the permitting set backs from the N.C. DEQ, Dominion Energy and partners have pushed back the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s starting date from late 2018 to late 2019. Unless the FERC eventually decides to override North Carolina’s decision, however, the future of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline remains unclear.

Sources:

Puerto Rico’s National Forest Devastated by Hurricane Maria: Long Recovery in Sight

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 43

After being devastated by hurricane Maria last September, Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rainforest in the United States Forest Service system, may take a long time to fully recover according to ecologists from the International Institute of Tropical Forestry and the US Forest Service.

El Yunque, pronounced “el jun-kay”, is a 28,000 square acre forest on the eastern side of the island that was almost completely defoliated by Maria’s 155 mph winds. It is home to 240 different species of trees, 23 of which are only found in Puerto Rico, as well as 50 species of birds including the endemic and critically endangered Puerto Rican Parrot.

In past hurricanes, bird populations have suffered temporarily as the fruit bearing trees that they rely upon for food struggle to regrow. After Maria, however, ecologists surveying the forest found scores of dead birds lying on the ground, suggesting that they had been killed by the hurricane’s vicious winds rather than by starvation.

This population reduction could in turn hinder the proper regrowth of the forest; as pollinator species, birds, as well as bats, assist in plant reproduction and forestation by consuming fruit and dispersing their seeds via excrement to other parts of the island. If these pollinator species’ populations sustained large enough losses during the hurricane, the natural process of seed dispersal could be compromised, ultimately taking the forest longer to recover.

Yet charismatic flora and fauna are not the only ones who will suffer from the rainforest’s destruction. Due to the canopy’s almost complete defoliation, the moist, acidic soil of the forest floor that is normally shaded is now exposed to the sun’s withering heat for the first time in decades, desiccating the soil and potentially interfering with the ecosystem services the rainforest provides to humans.

Chief amongst these services is the capacity to absorb, filter and distribute into rivers the billions of gallons of rainwater that fall on the island annually; El Yunque is the headwaters of eight other rivers that provide drinking water to 20% of Puerto Rico’s citizens.

Yet this ecosystem service relies upon the growth of bryophyte mosses on the trunks of trees to capture that rainwater, a service now hindered after Maria stripped most of the trees’ bark bare of the moss. With only 60% of the island’s wastewater treatment centers functional and 37% of residents lacking access to clean water after the hurricane, the damage to the rainforest’s water processing capabilities only exacerbates the island’s growing humanitarian crises.

In the long term, El Yunque’s slow recovery could do harm to Puerto Rico’s already beleaguered economy, which relies heavily on tourism and increasingly on eco-tourism. An estimated 1.2 million people visit the national forest annually to hike, camp, bird watch and hang glide, contributing to the $1.8 billion the territory earns annually from tourism. As large swaths of the forest remain inaccessible by road from debris scattered by hurricane Maria’s rain and winds, the national forest remains closed to visitors for the foreseeable future.

Sources:

  1. Ferré-Sadurní, Luis. “Another Victim of Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico’s Treasured Rainforest.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 October 2017. Web. 14 October 2017.
  2. Roig-Franzia, Manuel and Arelis R. Hernández. “Three weeks since Hurricane Maria, much of Puerto Rico still dark, thirsty and frustrated.” The Washington Post. The Washington Post (WP Company LLC), 11 October 2017. Web. 14 October 2017.

WOTUS Repeal Could Devastate Pocosin Wetlands

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 41

As the Trump administration moves forward with an executive order repealing the Obama-era Waters of the United Sates (WOTUS) rule, which clarified and expanded the kinds of bodies of water the federal government is responsible for protecting from pollution, a unique yet little known wetland habitat may be endangered of being eradicated.

Pocosins, meaning “swamp on a hill” in the indigenous Algonquin language, are found from northern Florida to Virginia, though they are particularly concentrated in North Carolina. Unusual compared to other wetlands in that they are not connected to larger bodies of water and are often less than a square acre in size, pocosins are essentially peat bogs elevated on hills above the water table of surrounding ecosystems in the coastal plains of the southeast. Ecologically, they serve as refuges for endangered flora and fauna, such as white-tailed deer, black bears, and alligators, and provide a number of ecosystem services including regulation of the salinity of coastal waters, aquifer recharging, flood and erosion control, and carbon sequestration.

They are also coveted by farmers for their incredibly fertile soil, and as such have been drained to make way for farming and development since the 19th century, resulting in the loss of 70% of North Carolina’s pocosins until state legislation was enacted to protect them in 2001. Since Republicans won a supermajority of the North Carolina legislature in 2012, however, wetlands protections have been largely rolled back in response to the oil and gas, agribusiness, and real estate sectors complaints that compliance with such restrictions unfairly burdens their businesses.

Under the Obama-era WOTUS rule, which has not yet been implemented due to a stay imposed by federal courts, the federal government would have the authority to prevent “navigable waters”, as stipulated by the 1972 Clean Water Act, from being polluted in addition to head waters, tributaries, and certain wetlands, potentially including pocosins.

The rule was intended to clarify the federal government’s authority over certain bodies of water after two Supreme Court decisions regarding water protection in 2001 and 2006 created legal confusion over the jurisdiction afforded by the Clean Water Act’s “navigable waters” clause. The 2006 decision by Justice Anthony Kennedy, favored by the Water of the United States rule, found that any wetlands sharing a “significant nexus” with navigable waters were covered by the Clean Water Act, while a 2001 ruling by late Justice Antonin Scalia determined that the act’s scope only covers “relatively permanent” wetlands.

Opponents of the WOTUS rule argue that it represents an overreach of federal power into the affairs of private landowners, who would be constrained by what they could and could not do on their own property if it happens to contain a wetland covered by Justice Kennedy’s reading of the Clean Water Act. Yet if Scalia’s interpretation is implemented by the Trump administration, not only will a variety of unique wetlands lose federal protection, such as pocosins and many ephemeral streams in western states, but so will a number of tributaries and headwaters that provide drinking water to as many as one in three Americans.

As it currently stands, Mr. Trump’s executive order will not have an immediate legal effect as the WOTUS rule makes its way through the court system, a process that could take longer than Mr. Trump’s first term in office. Yet with its federal protection in legal limbo and minimal protections from the state legislature, it is unclear whether North Carolina’s remaining pocosins will be around long enough to be impacted by the courts’ decisions.

Sources:

  1. Davenport, Coral. “E.P.A. Moves to Rescind Contested Water Pollution Regulation.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 June 2017. Web. 4 October 2017.
  2. Richardson, Curtis J. “Pocosins: Vanishing Wastelands or Valuable Wetlands?” BioScience. Nov. 1983. Web. 6 October 2017
  3. Wittenberg, Ariel. “Clean Water Rule: WOTUS rollback seen as death blow for ‘very unique habitat.’ Greenwire. E&E News, 2 October 2017. Web. 3 October 2017.

Wetlands Mitigate Property Damage from Hurricanes and Flooding

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 40

As the devastation wrought by this year’s hurricanes continues to be felt in the Caribbean and the Gulf states, a recent study finds that coastal wetlands have the capacity to substantially mitigate property damage due to flooding and storms, saving taxpayers millions of dollars annually in averted losses.

The study, jointly conducted by researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz and scientists from private insurance, conservation and engineering groups, assessed the value of the ecosystem services provided by wetlands to mitigate flood damage in the northeastern United States caused by hurricane Sandy in 2012. Through the use of advanced computer modeling of storm surge flooding and a vast database of properties damaged, the researchers estimated that $625 million worth of property damage was averted due to the presence of coastal wetlands from Maine to North Carolina, with a 22% average reduction of damages for each of the 707 zip-code areas assessed in the study.

Their findings established a clear positive correlation between the presence of wetlands and the value of nearby properties, as well as between wetland area and averted losses due to flooding. This was true even in heavily urbanized coastal areas that had lost most of its wetlands, such as New York, where wetlands cover only 2% of the land yet still saved the state $140 million.

Wetlands are able to provide this service by acting like a buffer between the ocean and inland properties. As the storm surge produced by a hurricane moves onto the land, wetland vegetation significantly reduces the wave energy and height, with some wetlands attenuating surge action by up to 70 centimeters per kilometer.

Despite the profound ecosystem service value provided by coastal wetlands, only about 3% of private and public monies spent on coastal infrastructure are invested in wetland restoration while the rest is spent on “grey” infrastructure, such as concrete seawalls that can be expensive to maintain and often only redirect flood water to other areas, potentially exacerbating the damages to life and property.

Aside from damages caused exclusively by hurricanes, the researchers also measured the annual flood mitigating benefits derived from salt marshes in Barnegat Bay in Ocean County, New Jersey. They found that properties buffered by wetlands experienced an average of 16% fewer losses than those not buffered from the ocean by wetlands, suggesting that wetland restoration is a good investment even if few hurricanes make landfall in the region.

In an affiliated report by Lloyd’s Tercentenary Research Foundation, who provided funding for the wetlands ecosystem service study, strategies for funding wetlands restoration based off of the latter study’s findings were assessed.

Such strategies included investing in flood mitigating wetland restoration and conservation before a catastrophic weather event, which would reduce the price of insurance premiums and securities, allowing the resulting savings to pay for the initial costs of restoration. Then, after a natural disaster does occur, a portion of the public and private recovery and rebuilding funds would be allocated towards further wetland restoration efforts, making the coasts even more resilient and reducing flood insurance premiums further.

By quantifying the monetary value of the ecosystem services provided by wetlands, wetland conservation is made legible to politicians, investors and laypeople, increasing the likelihood that these areas will be managed responsibly both for the benefit of humans and for the benefit of the ecosystems themselves.

Sources: Narayan, Siddarth et al. “The Value of Coastal Wetland for Flood Reduction in the Northeastern USA.” Scientific Reports. 31 August 2017. Web. 26 September 2017.

Stephens, Tim. “Coastal wetlands dramatically reduce property losses during hurricanes.” University of California Santa Cruz Newscenter. 31 August 2017. Web. 25 September 2017.

A Green and Leafy Economy: UNC Students Propose Seaweed Aquaculture for Sustainable Coastal Development

The Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 39

A team of undergraduates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are working on a proposal to build a more resilient economy and ecology on the coast of North Carolina using a versatile yet humble marine organism; macro-algae, also known as seaweed. Their plan involves starting a seaweed aquaculture farm near the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, that would grow seaweed in the shallow waters off the coast using a low cost system of ropes, scaffolding and buoys that can be hoisted from the ocean to harvest the crop when it is mature.

 

Eliza Harrison, one of the four members of the team, said that the project aims to address multiple problems simultaneously. Chief among these is how to feed a growing planet with fewer resources; experts say that by midcentury, the planet’s human population could reach nine to ten billion people who will have to be fed using less agricultural land, water, fertilizers and pesticides than in the past if we are to avoid a dramatic increase in the degradation of earth’s already besieged natural areas.

 

Seaweed poses a unique solution to this problem in that it requires virtually no inputs to grow, does not take up space on land that could be used for other purposes, and is nutritionally rich in protein, vitamins A and B-12, calcium and iodine, among others. “So much of the ocean is underutilized” said Harrison in an interview, “seems like a no-brainer to waste all that space, it has such potential.” While it may seem odd to many Westerners unaccustomed to the marine vegetable to propose seaweed as a solution to global hunger, the reality is that it is already used in a variety of products that we use daily, from toothpaste to cosmetic products to pharmaceuticals to, of course, sushi.

 

Which points to the second issue the project aims to address, that of bringing jobs and a vibrant economy via seaweed aquaculture to the towns and cities of North Carolina that have historically relied upon fishing as a primary economic activity. As fishing stocks the world over have been overharvested and in some cases collapsed, fishing communities have felt the pinch as formerly stable jobs in the industry have shriveled up.

 

The seaweed market, however, is vast and in demand as an important ingredient in beauty products, in medicine as a potential anti-inflammatory agent, in grocery stores and restaurants as food items, in the renewable energy sector as a biofuel, and as a methane reducing feed for livestock. Given Harrison’s estimate that one aquaculture farm could provide four permanent and five to eight seasonal jobs, if scaled up, seaweed production could represent a sustainable boom for North Carolina’s economy.

 

Finally, seaweed serves multiple ecological functions including providing habitat for small fish and crustaceans, reducing the severity of wave action and storm surge during hurricanes, and sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via photosynthesis. Indeed, a study found that if scaled up, seaweed aquaculture could have the capacity to absorb 1,500 tons of CO2 km2 year, enough to absorb the annual carbon emissions of 300 Chinese citizens.

 

Harrison and her team’s project, which was a finalist in this year’s National Geographic Chasing Genius contest for innovative ideas to address global problems, is currently pursuing funding for the project from the UNC School of Public Health, among other sources.

 

Source: Duarte, Carlos M. et al. “Can Seaweed Farming Play a Role in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation?” Frontiers in Marine Science. 12 April 2017. Web. 18 September 2017.