April 25th, 2008 by Amy Standen
Last week on QUEST, we took a look at the history of the San Francisco Bay’s most dangerous toxin: mercury. This week, now that the mercury is here in the bay, how is it affecting us? The obvious place to go was the Berkeley Marina, one of the bay’s most popular fishing spots. On the day I visited, halibut season had just begun and, even on a Monday morning, the pier was lined with anglers. Halibut contains high levels of mercury, just like other big SF Bay fish but – as you hear in the piece – you wouldn’t know it from talking to the fishermen out that day.
Of course mercury is a problem in many big fish we eat, not just the ones in the San Francisco Bay. Dr. Jane Hightower is one of the leading local doctors diagnosing various levels of mercury poisoning in her patients – many of whom, as she says, do their fishing at places like Whole Foods. We only had time to use a short piece of that interview in the actual story, but anyone who eats fish will want to hear more from Dr. Hightower. A longer version of that interview – including Dr. Hightower’s surprising views on kid staples like canned tuna fish – is right here.
You may listen to the “Mercury in the Bay - Part 2″ Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
Tags: Environment,
fish,
Health,
KQED,
kqedquest,
mercury,
pollution,
Radio
37.8614, -122.322
Posted in Environment, Health, KQED, Radio | 
2 Comments
April 18th, 2008 by Amy Standen
View Larger Map
In honor of Earth Day, we wanted to take a big look at a chronic environmental issue in the Bay Area, tracing it from its origins to the contemporary strategies to solve it. Mercury was the obvious choice: It’s been flowing into the Bay since before California joined the union, and it continues to trickle in from not just the old culprits, like gold and mercury mines, but a modern crop of industries, like refineries and cement kilns. Even little things – like a broken mercury thermometer dumped into the sink – are part of the problem.
The key fact here is how incredibly potent mercury can be: Just one little globule from an old thermometer can poison all the fish in a 45-acre lake, making them unsafe for humans to eat. Mercury pollution is hardly unique to the Bay Area; what makes us interesting is that local officials are making real strides in trying to clean it up. Over the next 17 years or so, we’ll spend $2.6 billion dollars on the project. Even then, we won’t have a clean bay for 120 years.
For a lot of people, mercury pollution in the Bay is largely theoretical, since few stores sell fish caught in the Bay, and relatively few residents fish for their food. But some still do – including many recent immigrants from fishing-intensive cultures like Laos. We’ll look at how mercury affects the health of local fishermen next week.
This piece marks our first-ever audio slide show, and what a difference it makes! We also hope you’ll check out the mercury map above, where you can see how many pounds of mercury come from each of the Bay Area’s five refineries, plus other mercury sources and the bay’s popular fishing spots.
Watch the audio slide show of “Mercury in the Bay” online, as well as find additional links and resources.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
Tags: almaden,
cinnibar,
gold,
gold rush,
KQED,
kqedquest,
mercury,
mine,
mining,
pollution,
quicksilver,
Radio,
water,
watershed
37.179, -121.819
Posted in Environment, Health, KQED, Radio | 1 Comment
April 8th, 2008 by Amy Standen
First things first: If you swim in the bay, no need to worry about sharks. None of the experts we spoke to could remember a single instance of someone getting bitten. And you can rest easy about Great Whites too; they don’t seem to have a taste for Bay waters. For more on this, see the Aquarium’s Chris Spaulding’s blog post.
The San Francisco Bay is much more of a mystery to scientists than I, at least, had realized. Why? It’s simply too hard to peer into. There’s no point in scuba diving. The bay is thick with sediment, much of it a legacy of gold mining explosions in the Delta. So if you want to know what’s swimming around in those murky waters, you have to go fishing.
At first glance, this struck me as both laborious and tough on the animals – catch and release may spare lives, but not without putting a lot of stress on whatever’s on the other end of the line. But when you think about how heavily we humans use the bay – sewage leaks, oil spills, urban runoff, coastal development — it becomes clear we have to take a closer look at how its inhabitants are faring. Sharks are at the top of the food chain, which means they’re a great indicator of how everything underneath them is doing.
Of course, tagging is only worth the effort if you catch enough animals to have meaningful data – which means this project requires tenacity on the part of Aquarium researchers. For updates (as well as info on what to do if you catch a tagged shark) check out the Aquarium’s website. Also, here’s the radio piece we did on the same project.
Watch the “Cool Critters: Sharks of the Bay” TV Story online, as well as find additional links and resources. Also don’t miss our behind-the-scenes photos for this story.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
Tags: aquarium of the bay,
KQED,
kqedquest,
ocean,
pbs,
QUEST,
san francisco bay,
sharks,
tagging
37.83305, -122.44222
Posted in Biology, Environment, KQED, Radio, TV | Please Comment
April 4th, 2008 by Amy Standen
Thought California has consigned coal-burning to the scrap bin? Think again! California has 11 coal-fired power plants, all used to heat limestone into cement — making us one of the biggest cement-producing states in the country. In addition to cement, these kilns produce 95% of the state’s airborne mercury pollution and 2% of its greenhouse gas emissions. Mostly, they’ve slipped under the radar of regulators, but that is changing fast.
You may listen to the “Cement - A Dirty Business” Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources. Also don’t miss our behind-the-scenes photos for this story.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
Tags: Ab32,
cement,
cement kilns,
Earthjustice,
Gina Solomon,
hanson permanente,
Jim Pew,
KQED,
kqedquest,
mercury,
NRDC,
pbs,
pollution,
QUEST,
Radio
,
Posted in Environment, Health, Radio | 4 Comments
March 21st, 2008 by Amy Standen
Richmond city officials are expected to approve a controversial upgrade to the Chevron refinery plant. Quest reports on the decision and explores the debate around Chevron’s billion dollar proposal.
You may listen to the “Chevron’s Plans” Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
Tags: chevron,
energy,
KQED,
kqedquest,
oil,
pbs,
petroleum,
QUEST,
Radio,
refinery
,
Posted in Environment, Health, Radio | 1 Comment
February 28th, 2008 by Amy Standen
View Larger Map
California recently became the first state in the country to phase out a toxic chemical used in dry cleaning called perchloroethylene, or perc. The timing is such that cleaners will be able to wait until their current machines need to replaced (the normal lifespan of a perc machine is about 15 years) but it still leaves a lot of questions about what technology comes next – and how environmentally friendly it is.
Working on this story, one thing that became clear to me is how critical this decision is to dry cleaners. It’s not like trying to green-ify Walmart: The vast majority of California’s dry cleaners are family-owned businesses. Working in a dry cleaning shop requires a limited range of conversation, which has made dry cleaning an attractive option for recent immigrants. These are not big businesses with matching profit margins, they’re mom and pop shops whose survival depends on reputation. A ruined wedding dress could practically knock a small dry cleaning shop out of business.
This Google map features dedicated wet cleaners in the Bay Area (meaning that’s the only technology they use). So far about 100 cleaners have switched to what seems to be the most affordable, environmentally-friendly technology, wet cleaning. That number is growing all the time, partly as a result of workshops being held around the state by a scientist from Occidental College named Peter Sinsheimer who’s on a mission to steer cleaners toward wet cleaning. This story begins at one of those workshops, held at Nature’s Best (formerly “Delight”) Cleaners in Sunnyvale. You can see photos from that event – and learn more perc and wet cleaning machines.
Oh and about this map: If it’s been a while since this story aired on 2/29/08, you should check out Occidental’s regularly-updated list of wet cleaners, searchable by zip code.
You may listen to “The Toxic Business of Dry Cleaning” Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
Tags: dry cleaning,
Health,
KQED,
kqedquest,
perc,
perchloroethylene,
wet cleaning
,
Posted in Health, Radio | 11 Comments
February 21st, 2008 by Amy Standen
photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Utilities CommissionWe’d had “aging infrastructure” on our story lists for some time when we first heard about the sewage spills in Mill Valley. When news came in that not just one, but two sewage spills had poured five million gallons of partially treated wastewater into Richardson Bay, we decided to move that story to the top of the list.
Those spills got a lot of coverage, including by KQED, so our question was a little broader. Were those spills an anomaly? (Answer: No, they were big, but not unusual.) And how does this happen in as eco-conscious a place as the Bay Area? What would it take to stop it?
The two Mill Valley spills seem to have resulted from a few different problems: overwhelmed capacity, failed alarms, operator error, and probably other factors, too. But the underlying cause is the same, and it’s true of many sewage systems in the Bay Area: These systems — the pipes, the digesters, the pumps – are reaching the end of their useful lives. (Some of the older clay pipes were built in the 1850s!) Few cities are jumping to do the necessary upgrades, and who can blame them? What’s less sexy than an expensive, disruptive construction project that takes place mostly underground, out of sight?
Still, as we say in the piece, we’ve done it before. Those who lived in the Bay Area before the 1970s may remember the stench of raw sewage drifting up through the car window as they crossed the Bay. Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Bay is vastly cleaner than it used to be and there are far less spills.
So what will it take to get cities to pony up the cash this time around? Baykeeper is taking the issue to the courts – you can read more about their Sick of Sewage campaign here: http://www.baykeeper.org/
You may listen to the “Sewage Happens” Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
Tags: california,
KQED,
kqedquest,
mill valley,
pipes,
pollution,
QUEST,
san francisco bay,
Science,
sewer,
waste
,
Posted in Engineering, Environment, Radio | 1 Comment
January 31st, 2008 by Amy Standen
Human beings have used maps to describe the world for thousands of years. Blind people have used Braille for about 150. But there’s never been a way for blind people to have easy access to maps of everyday places. Until now. Amy Standen reports.
You may listen to the “Tactile Maps” radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
latitude: 37.7909, longitude: -122.434
Tags: Alex Wade,
blindness,
braille,
disability,
disabled,
Engineering,
Health,
Jessie Lorenz,
Josh Miele,
KQED,
kqed-fm,
kqedquest,
Lighthouse for the Blind,
parietal cortex,
pbs,
Science,
Smith-Kettlewell,
spatial cognition,
tactile maps
,
Posted in Engineering, Health, KQED, Radio | 5 Comments
January 17th, 2008 by Amy Standen
This has been a month of dashed hopes for astronomers around the world. Last month it seemed possible that an asteroid the size of a Boeing 737 jet was due to collide with Mars on January 30. Today that seems far less likely, but, as Amy Standen reports, astronomers consider it a wake up call.
You may listen to the “An Asteroid’s Close Call” radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
latitude: 37.8768, longitude: -122.251
Tags: asteroid,
Ben Burress,
chabot,
David Morrison,
Deep Impact,
KQED,
kqed-fm,
kqedquest,
mars,
NEAR,
Near earth objects,
pbs,
QUEST,
Radio,
Science,
WD5
37.8014, -122.448
Posted in Astronomy, Radio | Please Comment
January 10th, 2008 by Amy Standen
It’s one of the most expensive high-tech projects the United States has ever attempted, and some say it will never work. QUEST visits the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, where scientists will soon aim the world’s largest laser at a target the size of a pencil eraser. The goal? Nuclear fusion — and, they say, the answer to the world’s clean energy needs.
You may listen to the “Super Laser” radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources. Also don’t miss our behind-the-scenes photos for this report.
Amy Standen is a Reporter for QUEST and Radio News at KQED-FM.
latitude: 37.6871, longitude: -121.697
Tags: "ed moses",
"lawrence livermore laboratory",
"Photon Science Directorate",
burn,
california,
energy,
epa,
fusion,
KQED,
kqed-fm,
kqedquest,
laser,
national ignition facility,
NIF,
QUEST,
Science,
thermonuclear
,
Posted in Physics, Radio | Please Comment
Posts
