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A recent lawsuit brought about against the EPA has once again pushed large-scale livestock farms into the environmental spotlight. Long counted as a source of waste and fertilizer runoffs, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are regulated under the Clean Water Act and must discharge waste under federal pollution permits. It’s the exceptions to the current regulations that have spurred the most recent lawsuit by Food & Water Watch, an environmental group.
CAFOs typically hold thousands of hogs, chickens, or cattle, and the potential contaminants in their manure include nitrogen, phosphorous, pathogens, growth hormones, antibiotics, and insecticides. These constituents can be released to waterways from feedlot runoff, leakage/overflow of manure lagoons, and manure applied to cropland. The Gulf of Mexico and Lake Erie’s algae blooms and subsequent waterway hazards and dead zones have been traced to nutrient releases from livestock operations as well as cropland.
The EPA has not revised CAFO regulations since 2008 and in 2021 announced that it would not make changes. Based on the most recent lawsuit, however, “EPA has decided to gather additional information and conduct a detailed study on these issues in order to be able to make an informed decision as to whether to undertake rulemaking,” the agency said.
CAFOs known to discharge waste are required to file federal pollution permits; only 6,266 CAFOs in the US’s 21,237 CAFOs currently have permits. While the EPA and states work with farm operators to develop practices to... Read the Full Article >>
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Why do butterflies eat dung?
Does speaking of manure or dung, make you think of butterflies? It should. Butterflies are beautiful but their eating habits can be disgusting. Butterflies can suck up fluids from manure/dung to gain extra nutrients that aren’t found in flower nectar. Now that it’s February, monarch butterflies are starting their cycle to make the 2,500 mile trek from the south back up north. Learn more >>
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You've heard of The Bird Friendly® coffee, now try Bird Friendly chocolate!
Finding better, safer ways for humans and nature to co-exist is top of mind for us at Waterborne, which is why the Smithsonian's The Bird Friendly® programs have caught our attention. The program certifies farms that grow their crops under and alongside native trees that provide food and shelter for birds and other wildlife. Its strict certification takes into account qualities like canopy cover, tree height, and organic certification with a mission to, "preserve critical habitat for birds and wildlife, fight climate change, protect biodiversity, and support farmers committed to conserving bird and wildlife habitat by farming sustainably."
The Bird Friendly® program first began with coffee and, based on that success, has added a cocoa certification. We can now drink our daily coffee and nibble on decadent chocolate with the peace of mind that our indulgences are in harmony with the environment. Learn more here >>
Additional links about birds and cocoa farms
Benefits for birds and bats
Do birds like African farms
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Staying up-to-date on ECOTOX
On February 7, 2023, the EPA held a live, two-part webinar series as a forum for training on the ECOTOX knowledgebase. Waterborne’s Lead Ecotoxicologist, Jenn Collins, attended the virtual training to stay appraised on recent regulatory developments with this tool. The ECOTOX knowledgebase is an expansive, comprehensive database of environmental toxicity data for both aquatic and terrestrial species.
This year’s training was a great way to brush up on the Agency tool, which we frequently use to inform or expand upon chemical hazard characterization. The webinar included a detailed review of the database and the methods by which endpoints are sourced. Exclusion and quality criteria were also covered, as well as details on available fields, and best-practice search recommendations... Read the full article>>
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A tale of two Waterborne fans
Superbowl LVII may now be over, but the sting of defeat will live on with at least one Waterborne fan. Co-workers (and friends), Dean Desmarteau (Waterborne's Kansas office) and Nathan Snyder (Waterborne's Pennsylvania office) maintained a friendly rivalry and wager while their two teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles faced off in the Superbowl two weeks ago. Dean's team won and he was able to break away from the office long enough to enjoy its victory parade. Nathan also took a break - to purchase Dean his winning Philly Cheesesteak!
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My experience at PREDITOX School
by Chiara Accolla, Senior Ecological Modeler
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The PREDITOX school was created to improve ecologists' modeling and statistical inference skills to better analyze their experimental bioassay data. The resulting curricula impart a solid theoretical background and present programming tools to deal with fundamental eco-toxicological data analyses.
PREDITOX's lectures covered topics such as toxicity tests, dose-response modeling, Bayesian inference, toxicokinetic-toxicodynamic (TKTD) modeling, species sensitivity distributions (SSD), and how these tools are practically used in the context of ecological risk assessment (tiered approach). In addition, we had programming sessions for each of these topics showing how to use R packages (e.g., tidyverse, ggplot, morse) to perform the analyses.
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I found the lectures on Bayesian networks extremely interesting, and, subsequently, my understanding of the different statistical approaches is greatly improved. Furthermore, I could grasp some nuances and details on the TKTD modeling and the methods to build SSD curves that I previously ignored.
Moreover, the school was a fantastic occasion for networking. I met some of the top researchers in the context of European ecological risk assessment modeling as well as young researchers working on important and trending subjects in ERA. Spending the whole week with them allowed for quick and profound bonding. Eventually, I came back with a collection of slides and R codes of great value to perform the data analyses on my own and a list of precious contacts for possible future collaborations.
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Waterborne at NAICC, a recap | |
During the week of January 23rd, Waterborne traveled to Nashville, TN to partake in the 45th NAICC Annual Meeting & AG Pro Expo. Our Own Jennifer Trask, Travis Thompson, and Jennifer Jackson were in attendance for Waterborne this year. It was an overall great turnout with many clients, colleagues, other consultants, and research farms in attendance. It was wonderful to meet with several of our clients and colleagues in-person after three years of virtual interactions! We had both a technical and exhibitor presence at the conference featuring our new booth. We attended some of the sessions that were provided by different consultants as well as clients. Sessions attended included “Things You Want Your QA to Know”, “Don’t Ask SIRI”, and GLP Roundtable Discussions. And we couldn’t miss out on the annual charity poker tournament!
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New publication with Amy and Dean as co-authors with Chris Holmes and Paul Hendley | “A national probabilistic characterization of local crop proximity and density for refining US screening level exposure estimates of pesticides in surface water arising from agricultural use” has now been fully published online in the Journal of Regulatory Science journal. Learn more here >> | |
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Waterborne Environmental is a renowned consulting firm that has provided innovative solutions to the world’s most complex environmental problems since 1993. Our experienced, unbiased scientists and engineers work across industries to evaluate environmental, ecological, and human risks. Our work spans across industry and regulatory agencies to support the balance in the needs of a growing population with the environmental impact on our valuable natural resources.
Our The Current Newsletter is published monthly. Visit us online to find more articles, videos, and information about our work. Click here to contact us.
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Waterborne Environmental Inc.
CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
897B Harrison Street SE
Leesburg, VA 20175
Phone: +1 (703) 777-0005
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