Photo of pigs via Shutterstock

Danielle Forgione and her family love their pig Petey, who is named after her brother who perished in a motorcycle crash last year. But the New York Health Department is citing a health code law prohibiting people from keeping pigs as pets and, according to Forgione, is threatening to take Petey away. While having a farm animal as a four-legged friend is a bit unusual, there are owners out there who argue that pigs are just as loving and safe to keep as dogs or cats, and they’re fighting to get the city to overturn the legislation that could make them part with their beloved pets.

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Post tags: center for disease control, euthanizing animals, humane society, new york city health department, new york post, pet animals, pet pigs, pigs as pets, pigs in NY

The heavily polluted Gowanus Canal was made a Superfund site just two years ago by the Environmental Protection Agency, which will help clean up the body of water once dubbed “the Lavender Lake.” Last week, the EPA announced just how much it will cost to clean up the canal – a whopping $467 to $504 million. The massive undertaking will require a total dredging of the entire canal to remove the contaminants on its floor.

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Post tags: clean up Gowanus Canal, eco design, Environmental Protection Agency, gowanus canal, gowanus pollution, green design, Lavender Lake, Pollution gowanus canal, superfund site, sustainable design

Thanks to public health initiatives and creative urban alternatives, New York City’s life expectancy has increased more than anywhere else in the United States. The death rate is lower than ever before thanks to initiatives to get New Yorkers physically active, limit public smoking, and improve the prevention and treatment of diseases such as HIV, heart disease, cancer and drug addiction.

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Post tags: cancer screenings, death rate, department of transportation, green design, health initiatives, HIV screenings, InhabitatNYC, life expectancy, mayor bloomberg, new york, new york city, public health, public health policy, quality of life

Thanks to a new law, parents of New York City students can be a little less worried about undetected polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) leaking fluorescent light fixtures. The City Council and Mayor Bloomberg passed a law Monday that requires schools to notify parents and amend any potential leaks immediately. Previous to this law, the Bloomberg administration felt it unnecessary to hurry the process of replacing the toxic light bulbs.

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Post tags: department of education, mayor bloomberg, pcb leaks, polychlorinated biphenyls nyc schools, Toxic leaking NYC Schools

Read the rest of Steven Rodrig’s Incredible Recycled Circuit Board Sculptures Include a “Data Throne” Toilet testing

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Post tags: Art, art nyc, circuit board sculptures, computers, electronics art, nyc recycled computers, pbc creations, pcb, printed circuit board sculptures, printed circuit boards, recycled art, recycled circuit boards, recycled computers, recycled electronics, steven rodrig

Read the rest of Sponge Park To Start Soaking Up Pollution From the Gowanus Canal this Spring! testing

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Post tags: brooklyn superfund, dlandstudio, dlandstudio sponge park, Gowanus, gowanus canal, gowanus canal park, gowanus canal sponge park, gowanus canal superfund, green design, green space, landscape design, nyc parks department, sponge park, superfund clean up, superfund site, susannah drake, sustainable design

Read the rest of Understanding Occupy Wall Street as an Ecosystem With SPURSE & the BMW Guggenheim Lab testing

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Post tags: alternative model, bmw guggenheim lab, community, community practices, compost, consumerism, donations, ecosystem, Eight Principles, Eight Principles for Managing a Commons, Elinor Ostrom, greywater, Inhabitat, new york, new york city, occupy wall street, occupy wall street ecosystem, occupy wall street environment, occupy wall street green, occupy wall street nyc, political, politics, public space, recycling, social movement, SPURSE, structure, sustainability, sustainable, sustainable community, Wall Street

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Post tags: bmw guggenheim lab, cleaning nyc waterways, Hugh Corola, Iain Kerr, New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, Olatunbosun Obayomi, Petia Morozov, pollution reduction, SPURSE, the hackensack river, the hackensack Riverkeepers, the meadowlands, the new jersey meadowlands district, waste management, wastewater treatment

You’d think the Department of Education would’ve learned their lesson after the recent PCB debacle went spiraling out of control as more and more of the City’s negligence was starting to come to light. But at a meeting last week with parents, Chancellor Dennis Walcott admitted that the air and soil in P.S 51 are contaminated by a carcinogenic chemical, trichloroethylene (TCE). But worst of all, the Department of Education has known about the contamination since February.

Read the rest of NYC DOE Failed to Inform Parents that Bronx School’s Air & Soil Contained Cancer-Causing Toxins testing

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Post tags: dennis walcott, deparment of education contamination, nyc department of education, nyc public schools contamination, nyc public schools health concerns, pcb in nyc schools, PCB in schools, PS 51 bronx, PS 51 toxic, PS 51 toxic contamination, public schools contaminated

An unfortunate consequence of living in an urban environment is that city folk tend to forget about nature. But for a group of field biologists working with the city parks department, New York City offers some of the most interesting and diverse environmental curiosities. As it turns out, our urban setting has a unique impact on the evolution of plants and wildlife within the city limits. Scouring our city parks, the team, led by Dr. Jason Munshi-South, is uncovering details of some of the interesting biological changes the city brings to its wildlife and animal residents.

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Post tags: antibiotic resistant bacteria, bacteria evolution, Dr. Jason Munshi-South, environmental sustainability, evolution in nyc, evolution nyc, extinct flora nyc, extinct plants nyc, extinct species in nyc, field biology nyc, highbridge park, klebsiella penumoniae, species evolution in nyc, urban biology, white footed mice

We haven’t heard much lately about the continuing battle to have PCB-tainted light fixtures removed from city schools, but on Wednesday, NYC parents filed a federal lawsuit in response to the city’s refusal to replace PCB laden light fixtures within a shorter time frame. Despite calls by City Council, the DEP, and the EPA to replace the light fixtures in 5 years, the city has decided to do it over a 10 year period, much to the shock of many parents.

Read the rest of NYC Parents Sue DOE to Speed Up Removal of PCB Tainted Lights From City Schools testing

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Post tags: 10 year PCB removal, 5 year PCB removal, asbestos in nyc schools, asbestos in schools, new york communities for change, new york lawyers for the public interest, nyc pcb, pcb, pcb in nyc schools, pcb lawsuit, schools with pcb

The fact that PCBs have been leaking into New York City’s schools for months is bad enough, but now the situation has been even further complicated with the discovery of asbestos. While inspecting the hundreds of thousands of lighting fixtures for PCB leaks, the Department of Education discovered that the fixtures had been insulated with asbestos, which introduces even more health concerns. The fixtures are being removed as part of a 10 year plan put forth by the city, but the EPA has rejected Bloomberg’s 10 year plan, instead pushing for a 5-year removal timeline. However, the precautions necessary for removing asbestos make it very difficult to work quickly.

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Post tags: Ballast PCB leak, epa, NYC PCB plan, NYC PCBs, PCB banned, pcbs, pcbs in new york city schools, pcbs in new york schools, PCBs in schools, pcbs lighting ballasts, Speaker Christine Quinn, toxic pcbs

The EPA and the speaker of the New York City Council, Christine Quinn, have joined forces in calling for the replacement of public school light fixtures leaking PCBs. Back in March, the EPA rejected the Bloomberg administration’s 10-year removal plan, and now the agency is pushing for a five-year removal deadline. High levels of PCBs have been found leaking into multiple city schools, and parents and officials want the fixtures removed immediately. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were banned by Congress more than 30 years ago due to their high toxicity and adverse health effects, but they are still present in old lighting fixtures hanging in most of New York City’s schools.

Read the rest of EPA Wants 5-Year Removal Plan for PCB Leaking Lights in NYC Schools testing

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Post tags: Ballast PCB leak, epa, EPA ban PCBs, new york city pcbs, NYC chemical in schools, NYC PCB plan, NYC PCBs, nyc schools PCBs, PCB banned, pcbs, pcbs in new york city schools, pcbs in new york schools, PCBs in schools, pcbs lighting ballasts, PCBs lighting fixtures, pcbs nyc, Speaker Christine Quinn, toxic pcbs

With newly released renderings and a new batch of scheduled tours, it seemed as though Freshkills Park was finally going to become a reality this year. But the plan to transform the massive landfill into a gorgeous green space three times the size of central park is facing a major setback: a sinking foundation. The New York Post reported that contractors believe the tons of sand laid out for the foundation have sunk by eight to twelve inches since October 2009.

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Post tags: fresh kills landfill, fresh kills park, fresh kills staten island, freshkills park, freshkills park development, freshkills park staten island, fresk kills park delays, green space new york, green space nyc, Staten Island, staten island green space

On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected New York City’s plan to remove all PCB-tainted light fixtures over the next ten years. The agency originally praised the city for creating a full scale removal plan, but now the EPA is pushing for a speedier and more comprehensive approach to removing the toxic lights. In an interview with the New York Times, Judith Enck, the regional EPA administrator in New York, said that ten years is too long.

Read the rest of EPA to NYC: 10-Year Removal Timeline for PCB Leaking Light Fixtures is Too Long testing

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Post tags: department of education, Environmental Protection Agency, epa pcb testing, judith enck, new york city schools, nyc pcb removal plan, pcb leaking lights, pcb leaks, pcb new york city schools, pcb removal plan, pcb tainted light fixtures, pcb tainted lighting ballasts, pcbs, pcbs in new york schools, pcbs in nyc schools, pcbs nyc schools, toxic pcbs

Mankind’s actions constantly affect the ecosystems around us and just like in The Simpsons where the nuclear power plant produced three-eyed fish, so the Hudson River has spawned a species of bottom-feeding fish that has genetically developed an immunity to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The discovery was made by a team of New York University scientists who have been conducting a decade-long study at the Institute of Environmental Medicine in Tuxedo. Their studies found that Atlantic tomcod have evolved (much more quickly than expected) to withstand the effects of pollutants in the river.

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Post tags: atlantic tomcod evolution, atlantic tomcod pcbs, hudson river fish, hudson river pollution, immunity pcbs, new york university, pcbs

After reporting on Monday that they found the highest levels yet of PCBs in a New York City school, the EPA announced Tuesday morning that they will be suspending inspections since the city unveiled a plan last week to replace all leaking light fixtures. The tests at P.S. 306 in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn revealed levels of PCBs higher than the legal 50 parts per million — much higher. In one classroom, the ballasts were leaking pure product: oil with one million parts per million.

Read the rest of Highest Possible Levels of PCBs Found at Brooklyn School, EPA Suspends Inspections testing

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Post tags: epa new york, epa pcb testing, lighting ballasts with PCBs, new york city pcbs, new york city schools, new york city schools PCBs, nyc schools, nyc schools PCBs, pcb leaking lights, pcb leaking lights nyc schools, pcbs lighting ballasts, PCBs lighting fixtures, pcbs nyc, toxic pcb exposure, toxic pcbs nyc school

Photo credit: James Barnsley

Since the beginning of the year, the EPA has tested the lighting fixtures in nine New York City schools for PCBs — and all nine tests showed elevated levels of the toxic chemical. After months of dragging their feet, city officials announced yesterday that they will replace all of the outdated fixtures containing PCBs in 772 schools over the next ten years. The city has allocated $708 million of the capital budget to make the switch possible, which is also being billed as an effort to make schools more energy-efficient. The removal is a step in the right direction, but many believe that the plan does not solve the problem fast enough.

Read the rest of NYC Will Replace All School Lighting Fixtures Tainted by PCBs Over the Next Ten Years testing

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Post tags: epa new york, epa pcb testing, lighting ballasts with PCBs, new york city pcbs, new york city schools, new york city schools PCBs, nyc schools, nyc schools PCBs, PCBs lighting fixtures, toxic pcb exposure, toxic pcbs nyc school

Image © Jim Henderson via Wikimedia Commons

Not long after the holiday break, a Staten Island mother received a shocking letter from her children’s school: PCBs had been found on the floor tiles. The culprit was a leaking light fixture. Tests at PS 36 confirmed that the air was safe, but that was after the fixtures in the two affected classrooms had already been removed. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are man-made chemicals that were used in a wide variety of industrial applications until 1979 when they were banned because of their high toxicity. The discovery at PS 36 adds to the mounting concern about PCBs in New York City schools; last year, the city found the toxic chemicals leaking from lights in three other elementary schools.

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Post tags: epa regulations, health concerns new york city, health concerns nyc schools, mayor bloomberg, new york city public schools, new york city schools, nyc environmental concerns, nyc public school health concerns, nyc schools pcb levels, pcb concerns new york schools, pcb in nyc schools, pcb leaking from light fixtures, pcbs in new york city schools, pcbs nyc schools, polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated biphenyls nyc schools, ps 36 pcb levels, toxic pcbs