In Our Backyard Podcast

This week's episode is a compilation of short interviews from my week at the International Peace Camp in the Netherlands. 45 of us from around Europe and the U.S. gathered together for a week of actions in protest against the U.S. Nuclear bombs stored at the Volkel Air Base. The Netherlands is one of five NATO members to host US nuclear weapons on its territory as part of a nuclear-sharing agreement. The Dutch air force is assigned approximately 15 B61 nuclear bombs, which are deployed at the Air Base. And The F-35 and F-16 fighter-bombers emit over 10 tons of CO2 per flight hour practicing to bomb the world with new, even ‘better’ nuclear bombs in the next war. And during the week, we heard those fighter-bombers practicing numerous times a day.

First is Marion Kuper from Germany who is speaking at our gathering on Hiroshima Day about the nuclear free work in Germany and reads some of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), then we talk with Judith from Germany, Hubert from Germany, Vera from the U.S., Brian from the U.S., Onnau from Germany, Ria from Germany, Theo from the U.S. and then Susan from the U.S. 

These are just a few stories and testimonies from the week there. You can check out the links below to learn about why we were there and nuclear sharing in general. There is also some background noise, since I record this in person with people, so I apologize for that. Since this episode ended up being about an hour long I cut it into two episodes so look out for part 2 in two weeks.

Steve Preston is the Director of Parks with Parks and People. Parks and People have a single goal in mind: to improve the quality of life for residents of Baltimore by ensuring that everyone is connected to nature through vibrant parks and green spaces. 

According to the Parks and People, the act of reclaiming a vacant lot or beautifying a neglected open space, by even a few residents on a single block, can serve as a catalyst for positive change and growth throughout a community. They have seen this transformation take place time and again. In neighborhoods where someone establishes and maintains open public green spaces: people experience a stronger sense of community, develop closer relationships with their neighbors, and  report feeling safer.

With Steve we talk about the importance of parks in a city, how many parks Balitmorians have access to, what makes a well-designed park, park maintenance, and the possibility of getting Biden Administration funding for public spaces in Baltimore. 

We’re back with the second part of Dr. Claudia Miller’s talk on Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT). Go back to part 1 to listen to more of an explanation, but TILT seeks to explain the mystifying range of symptoms suffered by people with chemical intolerances. To listen to the full talk with presentation slides, I have linked the youtube video by Beyond Pesticides below as well as anything that is mentioned in this talk. 

I’m airing Dr. Claudia Miller’s presentation on her theory of TILT. Dr. Miller is a Professor, Allergy/Immunology and Environmental Health at the University of Texas. For decades Dr. Miller has championed a new theory of disease to join the germ theory and the immune theory: Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT). TILT explains the mystifying range of symptoms suffered by people with chemical intolerances. It is a two-step process. First, initiation involves acute or chronic exposure to environmental agents such as pesticides, solvents, or indoor air contaminants, followed by triggering of multi-system symptoms by exposure to small quantities of previously tolerated substances such as traffic exhaust, cleaning products, fragrances, foods, drugs, or food-drug combinations.

Dr. Miller gave me permission to air her presentation where she further explains it along with her research and findings. To listen to the full talk with presentation slides, I have linked the youtube video by Beyond Pesticides below.

Susan Crane is a Peace Activist. 

Susan and I met last year at the 2022 International Peace Delegation in Germany. This year that same peace delegation will be held again in the Netherlands at the Volkel Air Base. The 2023 Volkel Peace Delegation will focus on the climate and a nuclear free world. Activists from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United States and possibly other countries get together for these days of action.

The Netherlands is one of five NATO members to host US nuclear weapons on its territory as part of a nuclear-sharing agreement. The Dutch air force is assigned approximately 15 B61 nuclear bombs, which are deployed at Volkel Air Base. And The F-35 and F-16 fighter-bombers emit over 10 tons of CO2 per flight hour practicing to bomb the world with new, even ‘better’ nuclear bombs in the next war. And when those nuclear bombs are used, it is very harmful to the climate and to all life on earth.

With Susan we talk about the delegation, actions that will take place, the main objectives, why nonviolence, and more. 

Todd Thiele is the president of the Norris Lake Protection Alliance (NLPA).  Norris Lake, also known as Norris Reservoir, is a reservoir that is located in East Tennessee. The lake was created by the Norris Dam on the Clinch River in 1936 by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for flood control, water storage, and hydroelectric power. And today, Norris Lake is a recreation hub with 809 miles of shoreline and 33,840 acres of water surface and is the largest reservoir on a tributary of the Tennessee River.

NLPA has a mission to provide a unifying voice to people who regard environmental preservation of Norris Lake as a top priority, enabling current and future generations to enjoy its responsible use. NLPA is currently working to monitor and prevent water contamination from a chicken farm under construction in Sharps Chapel TN. 

With Todd we talked about the history of Norris Lake, why he does this work, the projects they are currently involved in, water monitoring and more.

Trey Sherard is a Riverkeeper with Anacostia Riverkeeper. As an organization they aim to create meaningful encounters with the river for all people in order to open opportunities for enjoyment of the Anacostia River. Their primary programmatic goals are centered on trash mitigation, advocacy, water quality, stormwater reduction, and river access. 

The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel and ultimately empties into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. And the river itself is about 8.7 miles long. 

Within the episode we talk about what makes the river unique, the different jurisdictions it's under, what makes a healthy river, trash mitigation, and green infrastructure. 

Mike Ross is an assistant professor in the University of Tennessee Department of Plant Sciences’ Sustainable Landscape Design concentration and in the School of Landscape Architecture. Originally he was trained as an organismal biologist and evolutionary ecologist. And now, he translates ecological systems and relationships into design and management strategies.

In the episode we talk about city design in an environmental context. According to the United Nations, more than half the world’s population live in cities. By 2050, an estimated 7 out of 10 people will likely live in urban areas. Cities are drivers of economic growth and contribute more than 80 per cent of global GDP.

In our conversation we talked about a lot of different aspects of city planning and design from elements that make a city well designed, public transportation, and green infrastructure but ultimately we couldn’t talk about city planning without mentioning equity, poverty, homelessness, redlining, privilege, and more. It is all interconnected and complex so we mention some of those aspects as well.

We also discuss suburbs vs cities in an environmental context, and know both have their pros and cons. There is no right answer because again, it’s a complex system, we were just having a conversation about them. And we end it by discussing how we should change some of our languaging from sustainable cities to regenerative cities.

Julie Griffin and Julie Owen, are residents in Ringgold, VA where they have an industrial, open air landfill in their backyards. The landfill is owned by First Piedmont where they created the landfill after the community had already existed there for 50+ years. The residents have to look at that mess every time they come out of their houses’ and deal with the odor from it 24 hours a day. There is no fence around it so there is high risk with children and pets in this residential area, not to mention what is in the air and water from it. 

They are a chapter of BREDL called, Coalition for a Clean Dan River Region, where they are taking a stand to protect their family, homes and the air and water that we all depend on!

Industrial landfills have industrial waste in them which can contain metals, glass, asphalt, and more. Landfills produced gasses such as methane, carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and non methane organic compounds. Not to mention, they produce leachate which is a liquid produced by landfill sites, contaminating nearby water sources, which further damages the ecosystems.

I would highly suggest going to their facebook page “Save our rural community” to see pictures of the  landfill and what they have to deal with daily. 

We’re back with Jason Burns who is Executive Director at Last Call Foundation and he's been a Firefighter since 2006. He has spent much of his career advocating for better and safer working conditions for his firefighters. I talked with Jason at the end of last year in episode 24, about how there is PFAS in firefighters PPE. We ended the conversation on how when they wash their PPE, the PFAS ends up in their waterways. Now we’re picking the conversation back there.

In 2022, there was a test of 114 waterways from across the country, in which 83% were found to contain at least one type of PFAS—dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that are widely linked to serious public health and environmental impacts. 

These findings are an important step toward filling in a major data gap and validate the call to EPA for increased and widespread monitoring to gain a complete picture of PFAS contamination in all watersheds across the country.

In spite of the serious health risks, there are currently no universal, science-based limits on the various PFAS chemicals in the United States. For many PFAS chemicals, the EPA has not even set a health advisory limit that would give the public a baseline to determine what amount of PFAS is unhealthy in drinking water. In most cases, the EPA is not doing adequate monitoring for these chemicals, which is why these findings are so unique and important.

Contact and connect with Jason: jasonjburns@comcast.net

Dr. Michael McKinney is the Director of Environmental Studies at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I personally did microplastic research with him on invertebrates in local creeks and the Tennessee River. And now, he is teaching a course on microplastics at UTK along with his research. 

Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that result from both commercial product development and the breakdown of larger plastics.  They are classified as less than 5 millimeters in diameter. The problem with microplastics is that—like plastic items of any size—they do not readily break down into harmless molecules. Plastics can take hundreds or thousands of years to decompose—and in the meantime, wreak havoc on the environment. They can be from sources such as synthetic clothing, fishing nets, food packaging, cosmetics, PPE, and so much more. There is still so much research being done about them and what dangers they impose.

With Dr. McKinney, we talk about his research on them, how washing clothes put microplastics into our waterways, how they affect wildlife and humans alike, bioaccumulation, and policy solutions.

Contact and connect with Dr. McKinney: mmckinne@utk.edu

Steven Lester is a Toxicologist and the Science Director at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, CHEJ.

We speak about the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment where 38 of its 150 cars derailed while carrying a variety of hazardous chemicals on February 3rd. A few days after the train cars derailed the company, Norfolk Southern, was afraid of a bigger explosion and decided to dump and burn the 5 cars carrying vinyl chloride. 

The burning of this leads to dioxins in the air, soil, water, and farm animals there. “Dioxin” is the name given to a group of persistent, very toxic chemicals that share similar chemical structures. Dioxin is not deliberately manufactured. It is the unintended byproduct of industrial processes that use or burn chlorine. Dioxin exposure can have serious environmental and human health effects such as cancer, reproductive damage, developmental problems, type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, infertility in adults, impairment of the immune system and skin lesions.

The high exposure to this particular chemical puts the community at high risk, but also has the potential to travel through the air and water and have an effect on the produce and animals we consume as it's in the soils. Norfolk Southern and the EPA have been denying and delaying testing for this. Steven along with the community has been putting pressure on them to do accurate and timely testing. Steven also got invited by the community to attend public meetings and is in contact with residents on the ground there. We speak about their concerns and if the area will ever be safe again. 

Sabrina Webster is a resident of Piney Grove, NC - which is in the 1 mile radius of where the Winston-Salem Weaver Fertilizer Plant Fire that happened in January of last year.

I did four other episodes about the fire itself and stricter regulations that need to be in place, especially for Ammonium Nitrate that the community was exposed to, so listen to episodes 5,6,7, and 8 for that.

There is now a report out about the fire from the Analysis of Publicly Disseminated Air Quality Information During Facility Fire Incident highlights instances when local officials told the public that the air quality was okay and pollutants were just “irritants” when, in fact, levels of Particulate Matter 2.5 were in the EPA’s hazardous and very unhealthy categories. Yet, they told residents it was safe to go back to their homes four days after the fire.

With Sabrina, we talk about the day the fire happened, the process coming back, the rich history of the Piney Grove community, how the media portrays the community, the lack of compensation they got, and now the current situation.

Emily Franc is the Vice President of Development & Philanthropy at Potomac Riverkeeper Network.

Freshwater mussels like Eastern Lampmussel, and Alewife floaters are among 16 species native to the Potomac River and its Maryland tributaries, and they once existed in the millions, similar to the oyster populations in the Chesapeake Bay. Like oysters, mussels are effective at removing nutrients and toxins, filtering out sediments and improving water quality. The mussels population in the Potomac has suffered due to climate change, increased urbanization, and stormwater erosion. Scientific opinion is unanimous that mussel recovery is an important part of improving the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay; both Maryland and Virginia’s departments of environment have expanded their commitment to the recovery of mussel populations.

With Emily we talk about the history and significance of the Potomac River, why mussels are a vital part of our ecosystem, why we’ve seen a decrease in them, their mussel restoration work, and how we can support this work.

Contact and connect with Emily: emily@prknetwork.org 

This is New Mexico, a sacrifice zone for the nuclear industry. From the first testing of a nuclear weapon, the relentless mining of uranium, radioactive areas, and now transportation and storage of nuclear waste. New Mexico and the Indigenous Peoples have experienced far too much neglect and harm - all caused by the nuclear industry.

In September 2022 Jesse Deer In Water, based in Michigan, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and a leader in CRAFT (Citizen Resistance At Fermi Two) and I went to visit Leona Morgan in New Mexico, who is a Dine/Navajo woman who has spent a good portion of her life in New Mexico and is fighting against nuclear coming into her communities. (both of whom are co-hosting this 3 part series) Within the episodes and conversations we  learned about their history from the local people and those who are fighting against it.

I saw the injustice and hurt that has gone on here, but also immense strength that has gotten the People where they are today. This is a story of the People in New Mexico, who are fighting for justice and guiding a new generation of activists to write their own narrative. Los Alamos National Lab came into New Mexico in 1943 and were the ones who designed and tested that first nuclear weapon. Beata, who we hear from first, speaks about how Los Alamos National Lab was actually supposed to be a temporary site and they stole the land through eminent domain from the Pueblo Peoples. There is now a narrative from the Lab that the people in the area should strive to work for them, coming into schools and speaking of the good they’re doing. While leaving out the stolen land as well as the vast amounts of radiation they’re consciously exposing them to. Another aspect to this is that they don’t encourage the Native People to work in management roles, rather the clean up and remediation of it.

We’re back with the New Mexico series where Jesse Deer in Water, Leona Morgan and I talk to and learn from the local peoples who are fighting against the nuclear fuel chain in New Mexico. As mentioned, New Mexico has been a sacrifice zone for the nuclear industry. From the first testing of a nuclear weapon, the relentless mining of uranium, radioactive areas, and now transportation and storage of nuclear waste. New Mexico and the Indigenous Peoples have experienced far too much neglect and harm.

Jesse: Now we’re in Churchrock, just east of Gallup, New Mexico. Where the world’s largest uranium spill happened. On July 16th 1979, the United Nuclear Corporation's mill tailings dam collapsed which released the largest amount of radioactive materials in the world. More than 11,000 tons of solid radioactive waste and 94 million gallons of acidic, liquid radioactive tailings made their way into the Puerco River and contaminated more than 80 miles downstream. Residents along the Puerco report smelling chemicals  during heavy rains, even more than 40 years after the spill. In 2015, twice the legal limit of allowable uranium was found in the tap water in Sanders, Arizona just downstream from Churchrock. The community was told not to drink the water and the schools were given bottled water.

Petuuche Gilbert is an elder from the Pueblo of Acoma. He talks about his life in the “Grants Mining District,” and takes us on a tour of cultural sites and abandoned uranium mine lands in the region, where he worked and still lives today.

Uranium extraction in New Mexico was primarily done in the “Grants Mineral Belt,” or “Grants Mining District” –depending who you ask, which is in the northwest part of the state. Residents in this area have had abnormally high rates of lung cancer, from radon gas in poorly ventilated in underground mines. The effect was particularly pronounced among miners, because the incidence of lung cancer is normally low among Indigenous populations. Further south in central New Mexico, on July 16th, 1945, a plume of plutonium mushroomed over New Mexico. Less than 20 miles away from people and communities. This was the United States government's first detonation of a nuclear weapon, a part of the Manhattan Project, one of the first ways New Mexico became a national sacrifice zone for the nuclear industry.

Mark Vick is the Chief Volunteer Firefighter for the Rich Square Volunteer Fire Department and President of the Northampton County Firefighters Association.

As a volunteer firefighter, they’re not only in service of the community, but also a more visible member of the community. According to the National Fire Protection Association, 70 percent of firefighters in the United States are volunteers. As mentioned in the previous two episodes, firefighters are at particular risk of exposure to PFAS from it being in their Personal Protective Gear as well as the foam to put out fires. The research shows that PFAS can leach out of turnout gear onto firefighters' skin and potentially enter their bloodstream.

With Mark, we talk about his experience as a firefighter, when he began to learn about PFAS, where volunteer departments get their funding and what volunteer departments can do to reduce their exposure.

Thanks for a great year everyone and I’ll be back with more episodes in January!

Jason Burns who is Executive Director at Last Call Foundation and he's been a Firefighter since 2006. He has spent much of his career advocating for better and safer working conditions for his firefighters. He currently serves as a District Vice President for the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts. Jason has also been a part of the team of people who have collaborated on a nation wide effort to rid firefighters’ personal protective equipment of toxic PFAS chemicals.

PFAS is used in fire fighter turnout gear and poses an unnecessary occupational threat. Recent studies have shown that all three layers of firefighter turnout gear contain Per and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), a class of fluorinated chemicals known as “forever chemicals” which have been linked to cancer and other serious health effects. These studies highlight the risks associated with the materials and finishes used in turnout gear even before it is exposed to its first fire.

With Jason, we talk about his experience as a firefighter, what he’s seen in the field, the nation wide effort he’s apart of, what risk this puts firefighters at, and alternatives fire departments can use instead.

Kevin Ferrara is considered a PFAS subject matter expert who has 34-years of fire service experience, and agile Fire Protection and Emergency Service (FPES) consulting expertise, to emergency service affiliated organizations around the world.

Dean Rivkin is an attorney as well as a professor at University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Law. His work includes civil rights, air pollution, public interest, protecting the environment, and more.

He has been counsel in public interest litigation concerning issues such as air pollution, TVA, and a challenge to the Tennessee Barratry Statute.  As well as he was a member of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative, a comprehensive effort to combat the adverse effects of air pollution on the national parks and wilderness areas in the Southeast.

With Dean we speak about how he got into law, people’s expectation of lawyers in Appalachia, the term “petty disturbances”, what he’s currently working on, and how he thinks citizen groups can make the most effective change.

Grace Tuttle Development & Programs Coordinator at Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR).

POWHR is an interstate coalition representing individuals and groups from Virginia and West Virginia dedicated to protecting water, land, and communities from harms caused by the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline system that spans approximately 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.

Current happenings of the MVP are that, they have asked FERC to amend its ‘certificate’ to allow it to bore under water bodies to install pipes and they applied to the US Army Corps of Engineers for a Clean Water permit to cross waters.

With Grace we talk about the people power and frontline communities that are fighting against the MVP and what litigation comes their way. As well as ways to combat environmental injustice and meaningfully address the climate crisis.

Freeda Cathcart who is the Mothers Out Front Team Coordinator.

We talk all about the Manchin Bill which is proposed by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin. It's a bill with an outline of tax, climate, energy, and healthcare measures that speeds up fossil fuel and clean energy projects. In the episode we will focus on its effects on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, MVP.

Manchin’s bill includes a mandate for agencies to approve the contentious Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline project. Many Virginia communities have revolted against the venture. The pipeline, proposed will run through West Virginia, Virginia and a sliver of North Carolina, has had multiple permits repeatedly struck down since it was initially approved in 2017. It is now expected to cost more than $6 billion to complete, more than double the original cost estimate.

The Manchin bill would move the legal venue for challenges to Mountain Valley from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond to the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The bill text also includes a provision imposing a two-year deadline on permitting reviews for major projects under NEPA, and one year for projects with less impact.

With Freeda we talk about the work she does, the bill, the effects it has on the MVP, how the MVP effects communities and energy permitting provisions.

Beth Markesino is the founder of the non-profit North Carolina Stop GenX.

North Carolina Stop GenX in Our Waters is a group wanting to stop the contamination of GenX and other harmful chemicals in North Carolina waters. GenX is a Chemours trademark name for a synthetic, short-chain chemical compound. The chemicals are used in products such as food packaging, paints, cleaning products, non-stick coatings, outdoor fabrics, and firefighting foam. In North Carolina, the Chemours Fayetteville plant released GenX compounds into the Cape Fear River, which is a drinking water source for the Wilmington area.

With Beth we speak about what got her into this work, what GenX is and where it comes from, environmental racism from corporations, her personal experience with these chemicals, the report she helped with, and how people can protect themselves.

Leona Morgan (Diné/Navajo, she/her) is an indigenous community organizer and activist who has been fighting nuclear colonialism since 2007. Her work includes stopping: new uranium mining, transport of radioactive materials, and nuclear waste dumping in the Southwestern United States.

Theaux Le Gardeur who is executive director of Gunpowder RIVERKEEPER®, they are a grassroots, advocacy-based membership organization charged with protecting, conserving and restoring the Gunpowder, Bird and Bush Rivers and their Watersheds located in Monkton, MD.

Because of the economic, biological and recreational importance of the Gunpowder River, there exists a pressing need for independent, comprehensive baseline environmental monitoring and mapping of the river and its watershed. They participate in monitoring projects such as temperature, pH, dissolved solids, Chlorophyll A, Nitrogen, Phosphorous and bacteria are collected throughout the watershed. This data will be visualized with GIS mapping and shared with regulatory agencies.

With Theaux we talk about the river itself, what problems the river is facing, projects and sampling they’re working on, and NASA satellite training that they’re a part of.

And to give more information on the NASA satellite training we attended, every day, several NASA satellites circle the globe from the North to the South Pole. As the earth turns, these satellite routes will cross over the entire planet, one swath at a time. Some of these satellites take pictures of the ever-changing waters of the earth.

This program is designed to ground truth the satellite data by comparing information from samples obtained in the field to the satellite data to determine how precisely the space images capture water quality data.

Charles Utley is Associate Director of BREDL. He was last on the podcast 2 years ago in Episode 45 called “What’s Happening at Plant Vogtle?” so go back and listen to that one. Now, I check back in with Charles to get updates on what’s been happening with his projects and BREDL for the past two years.

We speak about the Shell Bluff for Concerned Citizens chapter, the zero waste plan for Augusta, GA, industries coming into the area, Plant Vogtle, and what he’s looking forward to in the future.

Charles mentioned a chemical company that is coming to Augusta and they called Aurubis and they are a world leader in recycling copper, precious metals and other non-ferrous metals, which sounds good, but they are known for contaminating waterways during this process and that is the last thing the city of Augusta needs in their community.

Contact and connect with Charles: bredlutley@gmail.com

Jesse Deer In Water, based in Michigan,  is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and a leader in CRAFT (Citizen Resistance At Fermi Two). This grassroots, Indigenous-led environmental activism group is focused on protecting the Great Lakes. The Fermi 2 Power Plant, on the shore of Lake Erie in Newport, Michigan, supplies 20 percent of the power generated by DTE Energy.

Fermi 2 power plant and a neighboring coal plant are polluting the water, air, and land of this area. CRAFT originally formed after the Christmas Day 1993 incident at Fermi2 that resulted in radioactive release due to damage to one of the main turbines, subsequently dumping 1.5 million gallons of untreated toxic, radioactive water into Lake Erie.

With Jesse we talk about what got him into this work, the dangers of the Fermi 2 plant, actions his organization has done, the tie between the Fermi plant and nearby coal plant, and what is stopping the government from making changes.

Steph Compton is a Baltimore Organizer for Energy Justice Network, she has been working on Environmental justice issues since 2012 and she is currently working on all things pertaining to zero waste.

In this re-release episode I talk with John LaForge who is the co-director of NukeWatch. We highlight his work advocating the issue of the U.S. nuclear bombs in Germany. To give some historical background, Despite the end of the Cold War, about 20 US nuclear bombs are still deployed in Germany. German pilots are both trained and obligated to take off with these bombs in their Tornado jet fighter-bombers and, if the orders come from a US president through NATO, to use them on their targets. This terrifying NATO war plan is part of the “nuclear sharing agreement” between the US and Germany, and includes a first-strike option. NATO calls this nuclear proliferation “Power and Burden Sharing.”

Because of this every year a Peace Delegation is held in Germany to bring together people and organziations to send the existing U.S. nuclear weapons back home, and to halt production of the new B61-12 nuclear bomb to be deployed in five European countries as well as to pressure the government and remind lawmakers to permanently remove the US weapons.I will be attending the Germany Peace Delegation at the Büchel Air Base from July 11-17th to participate in direct actions towards this goal.

With John we talk about Germany and the US relationship with nuclear weapons, differences in direct actions between the two countries, the goals of the Peace delegation they hold every year, if Germany is making itself a target by having these nuclear weapons, and the relationship Germany has with other NATO countries.

Contact and connect with John: nukewatch1@lakeland.ws

In this episode I check back in with Ruth Ann Tesanovich of the Madison County Clean Power Coalition Chapter (MCCPC) and retired Medical Laboratory Scientist from UGA.

When I last talked to Ruth Ann 2 years ago, they were in the middle of their fight to ban the burning of creosote railroad ties at the biomass plant in their small agricultural community. Now we talk about their massive success in getting the State of Georgia to unanimously pass the bill to ban the burning of them across the entire state. And how they are now working on the noise pollution and water quality concerning the plant.

This episode I bring back Lisa Sorg after 2 years on the podcast, she is an Environmental Reporter for N.C. Policy Watch. She has been a journalist for 22 years covering environmental issues, including social justice, pollution, climate change and energy policy. To listen to your previous episode is episode 8, called Inside the Mind of An Environmental Reporter.

With Lisa we talk about what’s been going in terms of her environmental reporting in the last 2 years, her recent articles about Hurricane Matthew victims, microplastics, her motivation to write these articles, and what she’s looking forward to in the future.

Jennifer Wilson is a member of CHASE which is a chapter of BREDL. CHASE stands for Citizens for a Healthy and Safe Environment based in Georgia.

Metro Green is a recycling plant that is placed in a residential area of StoneCrest, GA. The community there has been fighting this facility for the past 2 years over their health and the pollutants it gives off and the environment.

Jennifer lives directly across from this plant and with her we discuss the health effects, Metro Green’s motive, their current litigation case against them, and getting involved in your own community.

Jennifer cannot answer questions at the moment due to the litigation case, but if you could like to contatc and connect with Renne Cail who is the organizer of CHASE, her contact information will be in the show notes below.

Elise Traywick is a Masters student of Public Administration at UNC Chapel Hill. She’s been doing research with BREDL on all about 1,4 Dioxane in North Carolina landfills.

1,4-Dioxane is used as a stabilizer for chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethane and trichloroethylene. 1 It can also be an unintended contaminant of chemical ingredients used in consumer products including bubble bath, shampoo, laundry detergent, soap, skin cleanser, adhesives, and antifreeze. Causing this chemical is in NC landfills and has been getting into their groundwater. In water, it dissolves completely, even at high concentrations and does not evaporate readily. These properties make 1,4-dioxane difficult to remove from water.

With Elise we talk about how 1,4 dioxane is ending up in landfills, where it's going, what products it's in, testing methods and research, and how we can prevent this from occurring.

Darya Minovi, MPH, is a CPR Policy Analyst. She is a public health advocate passionate about environmental justice and the use of research to inform policies that protect human health and safeguard the environment.

This is our last episode on the topic of the Winston-Salem Fertilizer plant fire. This one is centered around the public and environmental health surrounding it.

With Darya we talk about the air quality, what chemicals were released and how long they stay in the air, what can be done now, and overall public health concerns today.

Contact and connect with Darya: DMinovi@progressivereform.org  

Sidney A. Shapiro is the Frank U. Fletcher Chair in Law at  Wake Forest University and Vice-President at the Center for Progressive Reform. We talk further about the Winston-Salem fertilizer plant disaster that happened earlier this year. You can listen to the past two episodes to get further details on the disaster.

With Sidney we talk about his personal experience with the evacuation, the demographic that lived directly by it, EPA’s role in this, reform that should be put into place, and how lucky they were that this plant didn’t explode.

David Flores, J.D., is a CPR Senior Policy Analyst. He joined CPR in 2016 to work on climate adaptation policy and advocacy.

Therese Vick is the NC Sustainable Economic Development Coordinator/ Community Organizer for us here at BREDL. Community groups, especially our BREDL chapters, often use air monitoring as a tool for organizing. They are often concerned about the quality of the air they breathe and how it may affect their health or the health of family and friends. With smaller, low-cost sensors available, groups have become increasingly engaged in monitoring the air quality in their neighborhoods to understand and reduce potential health risks.

To define it, air monitoring is the systematic, long-term assessment of pollutant levels by measuring the quantity and types of certain pollutants in the surrounding, outdoor air. There are many reasons to do air monitoring such as:

• assess the extent of pollution;
• provide air pollution data to the general public in a timely manner;
• support implementation of air quality goals or standards;
• evaluate the effectiveness of emissions control strategies;
• provide information on air quality trends;
• provide data for the evaluation of air quality models; and
• support research (e.g., long-term studies of the health effects of air pollution).

With Therese we discuss the validity of community air monitoring, the process for a good air monitoring set up, what people can do with this information after, and how to keep these industries accountable for polluting our air.

Leanna Powell is the Director of Development and Communications at Blue Water Baltimore whose mission is to restore the quality of Baltimore’s rivers, streams and Harbor to foster a healthy environment, a strong economy and thriving communities.

This is another re-release episode where I talk with Ralph Hutchinson who is the coordinator of The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. OREPA is committed to nonviolence and believes in using every tool in the toolbox. Their main focus is stopping nuclear weapons production at the Y12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and protecting the environment threatened by legacy and ongoing activities at the Oak Ridge Nuclear Reservation. We discuss background on Y12 and Oak Ridge, the dangers of nuclear weapons productions, the environmental impacts of the nuclear weapon chain, how we are in a new nuclear arms race, getting to the base of why these nuclear weapons are being invested in and made, and then what you can do to get involved.

Ian Zabarte is the Principle Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians and works with the Native Community Action Council. He lives in Las Vegas, NV and has worked on nuclear issues for 30+ years.

Dave Kraft is the Executive Director and co-founder of Nuclear Energy Information Service or NEIS for short. Dave was responsible for creating the “Know Nukes!” series of videos on nuclear topics in cooperation with CAN-TV Chicago; and is a co-founder of the Radiation Monitoring Project, designed to provide training and field monitors to communities contaminated by radioactive substances.

With Dave we talk about the impacts nuclear has from resources, economics, land use, the climate, and the short and long term effects.

Petuuche GIlbert tells his personal experience of living in the Grants Mining District in New Mexico and has been working on nuclear and mining issues for 30+ years. Petuuche is also an environmental and human rights activist as well as a member of the Multicultural Alliance for Safe Environment and President of the Indigenous World Association, a United Nations NGO.

New Mexico has no nuclear power plants, but it does have the nation's second-largest uranium resource equal to nearly one-third of U.S. known uranium reserves. We talk about uranium mining which is the first part of the nuclear fuel chain and is the  process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Uranium from this type of mining is used almost entirely as fuel for nuclear power plants.

The Grants Mining District, where Petuuche lives, was the primary focus of uranium extraction and production activities in New Mexico from the 1950s until the late 1990s. Nuclear is responsible for infusing about $3 billion a year into New Mexico’s economy, Los Alamos National Laboratory is being held up by lab officials, politicians and others as an example of the kind of high-tech economic drivers.

With Petuuche we talk about the Grants Mining District, nuclear activity and funding in New Mexico, Consolidated Interim Storage (CIS), his work in the area, and what his hope for the future is. 

This week I spoke with Maggie and Arnie Gundersen. Maggie is the president of Fairewinds Energy Education and Arnie is a nuclear engineer and expert witness he is also the chief engineer for Fairewinds Associates, Inc, paralegal services and expert testimony firm. They both previously worked in the nuclear industry when they both came to the conclusion that this is not the future they want to support or work in and began their research and formation of Fairewinds to inform and educate people around the world, legislative officials, and members of the press concerning the scientific and economic issues relating to the production of electricity and the sources of energy used to create power.

With both Maggie and Arnie we talk about the history of nuclear, what resources we need for it, fission vs. fusion, their peer-reviewed publications, and what they're currently working on. To contact and connect with them and Fairewinds Energy Education will be in the show notes below.

Thank you so much to both Maggie and Arnie for speaking with me. To read their peer-reviewed publications and learn more about their organizations Fairewinds will be in the show notes below. And tune in next week where we will talk about how the uranium is mined to get the end product of nuclear. Thanks everyone and have a good week!

Hi everyone and welcome back to the In Our Backyard Podcast and if you’re new, welcome. In the Real Cost of Nuclear season, I thought I would start things out with a re-release episode with Kevin Kamps who is with Beyond Nuclear. He specializes in high-level waste management and transportation; new and existing reactors; decommissioning; Congress watch; climate change; and federal subsidies.

We talk about all things nuclear: breaking down nuclear jargon and terms, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), how likely it is that another accident will happen, and how Kevin got into anti-nuclear himself.

To contact and connect with Kevin will be in the show notes below and I hope you enjoy the episode.

Thanks Kevin for speaking with me, if you have any suggestions for future episodes contact BREDL through their website bredl.org or on one of our social media platforms in the show notes. Thanks for tuning in and come back next week for another episode of the Real Cost of Nuclear season.

Contact and connect with Kevin: kevin@beyondnuclear.org