Water - Please Conserve

WATER - THE PRECIOUS LIQUID. Please Conserve.

March 22, 2017 - Today is World Water Day

Water, as we know, is an important chemical compound.

I am fascinated towards water as an Environmental Scientist.

If water resources are depleted or water management is not properly done, it will affect individuals, countries and even the whole Globe.

Amazing hydrological cycle keeps recycling water and give us this wonderful required compound (Water) to survive.

Higher percentage of the human body is water. We all know we need water to survive.

But how have we treated this water - we took it for granted. Now, literally we are paying for it.

We are conducting wars for water.

We are interrupting hydrological cycle by

- affecting rain patterns

- deforestation

- depleting aquifers

- pollution

 Cutting trees, over usage of ground water with replenishing, industrial effluents, sewage waste, medicinal waste, agricultural run off, golf course run off, leaking under ground storage tanks, leaching from industrial run off, landfill leaching and runoff (to name some) are affecting water bodies and quality of the water. Even though new type of contaminants enter the water, water treatment has not changed accordingly in  most places.  

Water treatment must be tailored according to the situation rather than following the same methods everywhere.Simple substances such as banana peel, burned coconut shells and neem leaves can be used in treating water especially in poor areas where they could not afford high quality treatments.

Water Treatment

 Precious liquid water must be conserved and protected or else future generations will be affected.
Was very happy to see a scientist who is conserving water.

I am fascinated towards Lakes, Rivers, Waterfalls, Ponds, Streams and Oceans.

These are some of  the reasons that took me to enter the world of Water Research.

                                           

I taught Water related courses in India and in United States.

I was lucky to conduct water research on Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Chesapeake Bay always amazed me.

 Beautiful Chesapeake Area

I have been part in deflecting a serious threat to our oceans by sending letters to Administration officials

 to protect our oceans all over the World.

I have been involved in collaborating scientists to do water research and promote the value of water and water bodies.

We have taken steps to conserve water at EA FARMS.

Water Recharging Pit @ EA FARMS

I request you to please Conserve water.

Save Fisherman

Heartfelt condolences to the Tamil Nadu fisherman killed.

This is now regular occurrence and after a while we forget and then it repeats again.

Underprivileged poor fisherman is killed and his family has to undergo severe burden. Thinking of it gives a very bad heart ache.

What needs to be done.

As we know we have the money (second GDP in India all that) - so why not implement a project that will help fisherman not to enter other country's territorial waters. There are technologies. There are different types of Buoys already used in Oceans. There are even open source technologies. Some buoy are manufactured to even generate electricity. Why not build a buoy chain with alerts (In India mobile technology has improved, everyone now has mobile and mobile alerts have become common). The government can  build stationary chained link of floating buoy with alerting sensors on them at least in the sensitive border areas (total coastal line is little more than 1000 Km  only.). Fisherman should be educated on the territorial border, taught about the mobile alerts and respect these alerts and not drift to the hostile territories. This project will not be very expensive. Governments, Marine institutions should investigate and work on these techniques to thwart another poor fisherman's death as soon as possible.

About Buoy Installation

Higher level leaders should talk to their counterpart of the other country and tell them what has been done to prevent our fisherman to accidentally drift into their territory, Also should ask them not to kill poor fisherman. They should warn the fishermen without killing them. Killing will not solve the problem. Nothing is more important than the life.

Stricter Laws along with databases can be created. Already they are arresting these fisherman, so it won't be that difficult to warn them, note their details and maintain them in their databases. Repeated offenders can be noted, given to India and India should take action against them rather than other country's Navy killing the poor fishermen,  Nothing is more important than the life of poor fisherman who is working so hard to support his already underprivileged family, This whole thing should be dealt in a humane way. No one can feel proud and think they have solved a problem by killing an unarmed poor fisherman. People who shot this poor fisherman may think they had done a wonderful job now, but think about his poor family, kith and kin - What have you done to them.

God is watching all the deeds.

Also in environmental aspect of the issue, coastal management has failed. There are several proof that coastal areas have been polluted and water is more of a chemical soup, cesspool and less and less marine flora and fauna are able to survive. This needs to be taken into consideration soon. Marine and Coastal bodies need to work diligently to make the oceans fertile again, so lots of sea animals will start to revive and fisherman need not travel as much into other territories for finding fish and be killed for such reasons.

So to save the life of poor fisherman:

Build floating Alert Sensor Buoy Borders
Provide GPS alert systems when boat drifts towards other territory
Leaders should communicate, Create International Fishing Laws between these sensitive areas and adhere to them.
Warning Fisherman instead of Killing them
Revive Marine Environment instead of polluting them.

Environmental Research work @ Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean area

Governments need to spend money on these projects to make fishing more safe and
Save underprivileged poor Fisherman's life (Which is very very precious especially to his poor family that depends on him).

Politicians, Soldiers please think in humane way and do your part to save these poor fishermen. Solve this problem by communicating with all parties and device a solution rather than KILL a poor FISHERMAN (which will not solve this problem),

Until then We (normal people) all can only support and Pray to God for these poor Fishermen to be safe.

Yes on 1 Florida - The Water and Land Conservation Amendment

Every time you visit a national park or even a national preserve, you have think of the greats such as John Muir, President Roosevelt and many other visionaries who had saved these lands for us.
Every inch of these lands is beauty to watch. When you enter them, it is pristine, you breath the fresh air and have fun in the nature.
I can't even think of disturbing these saved land.
Now in Florida to save these Lands and Water - we have to vote Yes on 1 - The Water and Land Conservation Amendment.



 Voting Yes on this Amendment 1 will give us opportunity to enjoy these preserved lands and water bodies. We should preserve these lands for the future generations to benefit, as we did.
If we don't the future generations would have to see these lands only in pictures.

I have traveled to different countries and as the years go by, there are only concrete jungles. Green forests, lands and water bodies are degraded everywhere. When you step out, you breathe dust and soot from the vehicle exhausts and have to drink contaminated water. So it is important to save these remaining lands and water bodies.

Think of these environments -

A beautiful serene view of Lake Russell, FL 

    Pristine lands with trees, plants, serene rivers, lakes, stream, birds, butterflies, animals and fresh air to breath and

    Sterile lands with concrete buildings, polluted water bodies, depleting aquifers and particulates to breath

Which one you would choose from the above to live in. I would go with the first one.

I will also work on the second one as an Environmental Scientist to slowly make it as the first one. However, just to restore the native plants, it would take 40 years or more.

It is very difficult to restore the environment after damage, since the natural process takes so long. I researched on Chesapeake Bay environmental issues and after more than 18 years felt happy knowing that it is getting better. All those efforts of restoration have been fruitful.

Vote Yes on 1 - The Water and Land Conservation Amendment - more info

So apart from party boundaries, let us all vote Yes on 1 - The Water and Land Conservation Amendment ( Note - without any additional tax burden ) in the coming Florida November 4th election to save these these precious Waters and Land, which will save all its inhabitants and more.

The Good Result and the best news for future generations:

Makesh Karuppiah, Ph.D
Environmental Scientist

Aim High and Achieve

After an enjoyable and wonderful vacation with family and friends, regular life has started in year 2014.

Chesapeake Bay Area -

This was my research area and it is good to know that it is getting better day by day. Some times life throws several negatives at you, even though they are small negatives, they start to pile up. But always focus on positives. It is going to change. Aim high and Achieve. Once again give what you can. If you are educated, and have excellent knowledge on subjects, teach that to youngsters and others. I do it by teaching Information Technology, Programming, Databases (Oracle and others)  and Environmental sciences. It is a great feeling when a person, whom you taught and trained does well in real world. Those people, when they give their knowledge back to others, it is going to be excellent World. Today I read Mr. Gates envisioned poverty will be eradicated by 2035 from the face of the Earth. I hope it happens before that and spreading the knowledge will aide that. I think anyone can learn Computer Programming easily with so many available technology. With as much as $35, one can assemble a Raspberry Pi and learn computing.

Raspberry Pi

With internet access, one can get hands on programming experience at www.codecademy.com in php, javascript, jscript, ruby, python, API's and more. I strongly recommend this site for learning coding. It will be helpful for anyone even though they don't intend to become a computer programmer. When you start learning, create a profile in linked in and update every step that you are mastering and join different related groups, which will also improve your chances of getting job.

 If you are naturalist and have access to places with soil try to grow plants and trees like we did at eafarms,
which will help the environment.

Trees at EA Farms

Each and everyday you hear about pollutants that are affecting the environment. Recently air pollution was at its worst in China. People were told to be in indoors. When you cannot step out freely, then what kind of life is this?. If we don't contain or reduce the pollutants, future generations will have to wear gas masks or even astronaut suits to just go out. Let us start to follow the reduce, reuse and recycle rules to at least postpone the situation. Never give up. Even though we face lots of destruction, we have to be positive and be constructive. Aim High and Achieve.

One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower)

Happy 2014.

Environmental Research - A Look Back - On Positive Note

A look back at my Environmental Research:

From my childhood, I was interested in Nature and Environment. We have planted numerous trees in schools. 
What we planted as small saplings have grown into beautiful trees: 

Bharathiar University - Environmental Sciences 

Science was my subject.

When I learned about Limnology and used Secchi disc during my undergraduate degree, I decided to become an Environmental Scientist. 

Beautiful Water Body from where I studied Limnology

I joined Master’s degree (PSGCAS) and focused towards Environmental Chemistry. My research was - Color removal from pulp and paper mill effluent.

Then got admitted to another Masters (M.Phil - Bharathiar University) and focused towards Environmental Physiology. I got chance to work with plants, bioindicators, bioremediators, fishes and scary scorpions. 

Portulaca oleracea (Linn) AS BIOINDICATOR AND PHYTO (BIO) REMEDIATION TOOL OF HEAVY METAL POLLUTION IN AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT 

Stem affected by Copper

During these periods, got very good friends, enjoyed my studies and had a good passion for Environment. My research was using a plant as bio-indicator and that inclined towards metal remediation using plants. 

Finally got into PhD program - MarineEstuarine Environmental Sciences. Environmental Sciences, Toxicology, Statistics, Microbiology and Biochemistry were my five majors. Passed my tough written, oral exams and I concentrated on my research - Toxicity of two Chesapeake Bay Tributaries. I loved the research. I liked to go into the field for collecting sediments in a small boat that was easily transported in a car. 

The tributaries were scenic beauties and after tough work, samples were collected and transported to lab. By that time, I had become an expert in sample analyses, toxicity identification evaluation, environmental instrumentation and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. 

After the samples were analyzed for the data, I predicted one of the tributary ( Pocomoke River ) which had flow of nutrients and influent from Sewage water treatment is more toxic. This was before the massive fish kills that occurred in Pocomoke River, MD.  Several people participated in my dissertation defense and I was proud of it. Results were published in refereed  environmental scientific research journals. One of the best paper was :

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 1996 Oct;35(1):81-5.

Impact of point and nonpoint source pollution on pore waters of two Chesapeake Bay tributaries.

Karuppiah M, Gupta G.

 I graduated as an Environmental Scientist with very keen interest in doing something for Environment.

I also ended up in Computer Sciences Master’s program, graduated from it and found a well-paid career in the new field. My passion was in Environmental Science. Even in MS computer science my thesis was related to Environmental Science and it was on Fuzzy Logic in an Universally Acceptable Pollution model. With help of my degrees in Environmental Sciences and Computer Sciences, we created a company called EnviroApps - Enviro - for Environment and Apps - for Information Technology Applications. My quest for Environmental Research and love for nature never stopped. I still grab every small opportunity to involve in Environmental activities, teaching and creating awareness (Quora, Twitter).  With my interest in Environmental Sciences, we created our own environmental projects  at - EA FARMS. 

Cattle from EA FARMS - We produce organic feed to feed our cattle for good milk.

One of my passion is to teach Environmental Sciences - from kids to Graduate students. 

Recently with my great friend Dr. Hatha, I am  involved in some important Environmental Research such as:

Halophilic heavy metal tolerant bacteria from Vembanad Lake as possible means of bioremediation of lead and cadmium.

Antibiotic resistance of heterotrophic bacteria from natural and culture environments of freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de man, 1887).

So many ways are available for mankind to work and move positively. Let us move forward positively in year 2013. From my side, environmental projects will move ahead and move forward positively. Happy New Year to All.

Makesh Karuppiah, Ph.D
Environmental Scientist

20 Years in US, EA Project,Thanks to Teachers, Friends & Family

Today had opportunity to sit in Washington DC Dulles airport and write this blog. Twenty years back I came to this same airport for the first time to enter into US for pursuing PhD in Environmental Sciences. Successfully completed that. Went forward and completed additional Masters in Computer Sciences. How have I used my education towards real time projects:

We started a project called EnviroApps Sustainable Land Development Project on Feb, 2007. Slowly, A land used for agriculture using chemical methods were changed to Natural methods. Last year we produced Organic Produce. Hopefully within few more years we will have beautiful environmental project in real world. Flowering plants, bees, trees, ecosystems, natural agriculture and so many other activities associated with environment - all in our EA FARM.

All these ideas came to me because of my great teachers (Drs - Gupta, Sankaran, Vasanth Kumar (Sad that they all passed away), Dr.SS, Dr. RavinderRaju, Dr. Rajkumar, Dr. Pattabhi, Dr. Palanivel, Dr. Rajaguru, Dr.Shanthi, Dr. Kalaiselvi, Dr. Subburam, Dr. LakshmanaPerumalsamy and long list of other teachers and school teachers...) friends (so many - the list will never end) and family (without them I could not have implemented what I had envisioned). Even though I had all the fun in the world during my undergrad degree years, my biology teachers have shaped me towards the environmental field. I had wonderful years during my Master's (MSc - PSG and MPhil - MPhil) - Environmental Sciences. During my PhD in US, I had great opportunity to work on Chesapeake Bay Environment. I thank God for giving all these opportunities and the great project we are currently implementing.

Collecting Sediment Samples

 Analyzing Sample

 Presenting Scientific Papers

Happy to Save the Bay

 Teaching Environmental Science to Grads

Also excited, that I will be writing my EnviroApps 100th blog soon.

Most Polluted in United States Air, Water and Land

Air: Los Angeles
particle pollution and ozone pollution

Air: Bakersfield, California
particle pollution and for ozone

Air: Pittsburgh
particle pollution

Water: Streams and Headwaters in Appalachia
mountaintop removal mining
Head Water Destruction

Water: Gulf of Mexico
excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates
HYPOXIA

Water: Chesapeake Bay
urban and agricultural resources," she says. "There's runoff from large factory farms, including large poultry farms, and raw sewage from Washington D.C.

My Ph.D Research: Toxicity Studies on Chespeake Bay Tributaries.
My research was one of the pioneer research on sediments of Chesapeake Bay Tributaries and it indicated that one of the river - Pocomoke River (Later to my study Massive fish kills occured in this river) was highly contaminated with runoff including large poultry farms.


Land: The Nelson Tunnel, Creede, Colorado
Superfund Site Heavy metals
arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc

Land: Iron King Mine Humboldt Smelter, Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona
arsenic and lead poisoning
Land: Escambia Wood, Pensacola, Florida

Wood Treatment:
The soil and ground water around the site is polluted with creosote, naphthalene, pentachlorophenol, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and dioxin.

Makesh Karuppiah, Ph.D

River Ganga: Holy for most, septic almost

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/30ganga.htm:
Despite hundreds of crores of rupees being spent to clean the Ganga, the lifeline of north India, pollution levels in the river have reached septic levels at certain points with dissolved oxygen dropping to alarmingly low levels.
Ninety Five per cent of the pollution in the river is caused at point sources at which sewers and open drains bringing pollutants in domestic and municipal limits fall, while only five per cent is by the direct users.

As an Environmental Scientist who was involved in Pocomoke River(Chesapeake Bay tributary) Sediment toxicity research,

I am not at all surprised at this level of pollution in Ganges River. Non-point Agricultural runoff, very few sewage treatment plants outlet and polutry litter runoff has caused Pocomoke River disaster(massive fish kills). I would also say that Pocomoke River Pollution may be very very less compared to that of Ganges River Pollution. More studies on Ganges sediments must be done. Ganges sediments must also be analyzed for levels of various pollutants and steps needs to be taken along those lines in the cleanup process.

Makesh Karuppiah, Ph.D

Sethu Project - Environmental Impacts

As a Marine Estuarine Environmental Scientist who did Ph.D thesis research on Chesapeake Bay sediments, I would like to add my comments on the Sethu Project.

Humans will never learn the effects of the projects that they do against nature, before they actually do it. (Best example - Humans thought CFC was a safe chemical and used it wherever they can and later Scientists found it was affecting the helpful ozone layer). Sethu project is another prime example of the previous statement.

The following are few studies done on Dredging in which people are worried about small organisms such as vegetation, seagrasses and eelgrass:

Dredging Effects on Vegetation Adjacent to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
Hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria in Cumberland Sound
Dredging effects on seagrasses: case studies from New England and Florida
Dredging effects on eelgrass (Zostera marina) in a New England small boat harbor.

Sethu Project requires more dredging which will affect a whole lot of marine environment.

Mechanical, Noise, Plume Water Quality, Plume Suspended Sediments Contaminant Pathways for Open-Water Disposal and Plume impacts will be some of the effects.

Indian coasts have a large variety of sensitive eco-systems. Sand dunes, coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds 7 wet lands are some that deserve special mention. Some of these are the spawning grounds and nurseries of a number of commercially important fishes, gastropods and crustaceans. A critical feature of these ecosystems are the variety of bioactive molecules that they host.
Recent mining of organisms from the tidal and inter-tidal zone have revealed large numbers of molecules with obvious application for human health and industrial applications. This could be the most commercially important aspect of the Coastal Zone. Molecules that show bioactivity from one ecosystem may not show the same activity, or level of activity, when mined from a different locale or different season. This feature alone should be reason enough for the protection of all such ecosystems, and not only representative isolated units in protected areas / parks.
Considering that Indian waters are of a good quality and that pollutant sources remain relatively confined, the protection of sensitive environments, with adjacent buffer zones should be promptly notified and enforced. Losses of such areas are losses to the common good and future generations.
Sand dunes seem to be ecosystems that are most often destroyed, probably because their place in the scheme of dynamic coastal morphology, is not obvious. Suffice to say that dunes are the reserves that nature stores, dissipates energy on, and moves when needed.

( http://www.teriin.org/teri-wr/coastin/papers/paper2.htm).

Petroleum Exploitation, Fuel Storage, Energy Generation, Industrial and Commercial Development, Ship Breaking operations, waste dumps,. These activities have caused marine pollution - Hugli Estuary is most polluted estuary in the world. Factories from Nabadwip discharge more than half billion liters of untreated wastes a day. However fate and effects of pollutants have not been studied due to poor administrative system. Hoogly river carry effluents that have contaminated fish and shell fish with heavy metals such as Ni, Cu, Cd and Zn. The sediments near Haldia have upto 10 ug/g of pesticides. These river waters are contaminated by e-coli, shigella, salmonella and other human pathogens - indication of severe sewage contamination. The Bay of Bengal has virtually turned into a waste dump. (Protecting the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources of Pollution ).

All the wastes are transported by water and settles in sediments. Once the sediments are dredged the contaminants will affect the fauna and flora of the Great heritaged Marine Environment of the World.

Dr. Charles Hocutt's (One of My Ph.D thesis supervisor) Scientific Research Paper- Evolution of the Indian Ocean and the drift of India - A vicariant event - clearly indicates that Indian Ocean is poorly known, particularly from a biogeographic perspective.

A first compilation of the type and quantum of pollutants into the coastal ecosystem of India are given below:
Input / pollutant
Quantum - Annual
1.
Sediments
1600 million tonnes
2.
Industrial effluents
50 x 106 m3
3.
Sewage - largely untreated
0.41 x 109 m3
4.
Garbage and other solids
34 x 106 tonnes
5.
Fertilizer - residue
5 x 106
6.
Synthetic detergents - residue
1,30,000 tonnes
7.
Pesticides - residue
65, 000 tonnes
8.
Petroleum hydrocarbons (Tar balls residue)
3,500 tonnes
9.
Mining rejects, dredged spoils & sand extractions
0.2 x 106 tonnes

We have to be very careful in not disturbing the Natural Marine Ecosystem.
As human induced climate change in recent future will increase intensity of hurricanes in areas such as Bay of Bengal which will add to the environmental deterioration.

Also Read about Dr. Badrinarayanan's interview in the following link:
http://kalyan97.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/492/

My vote on this: No to the Sethu Project. Instead of spending on destructive Sethu Project, spend on improving the Bay of Bengal and protect India's coastal and marine environments. With our friends at Cochin University we will be working towards that.

Makesh Karuppiah, Ph.D
Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences.