Poisonous Waters

The changing of the weather

While I will reserve most of my opinions of the topic such as climate change to myself, I will address some of the more real, tangible difficulties that the weather, land and pollution puts on our communities.  To my community, a particular rural community, it is ever so important that we need to make sure that hazards such as pollution do not seep into the soil in which we grow our plants and feed our livestock. The impact of these environmental challenges does come with health inequities due to directly harming our farmer's, and the local communities that live off their hard work. It affects those who work, our children's health, and the sensitive environments and wildlife that is here on the eastern shore.

For the purposes of this entry, I will be taking up the food and agriculture side of the topic, since it directly relates to my community. To me, climate vulnerability is a list of possible dangers a given community has when faced in a weather or pollution-styled crisis, and how damaging it'll be in the short and long term. Although I touched on some of the issues that can affect my community, there are much more to be stated. For example, there is a high risk of flooding in the Snow Hill area, due to it being right next to the Pocomoke river, which easily floods during heavy rain. These rains have destroyed bridges that have stranded sections of the communities off from emergency services and roads to groceries and other stores that carry essential survival supplies. There's also the risk of extreme hots and colds during the seasons of summer and winter that can prove a challenge for our farmers. As pointed out before in the blog, housing and transportation is the largest vulnerability in my community, and all of these adverse weather-induced issues can only embolden these problems by reducing what little options some people may have in means of traveling, or that their current housing is not adequate enough to protect and shelter them from the adversity.

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 (The picture above represents one flooding that's happened in the Snow Hill area of Worcester County. Parts of the town are several inches or feet in water).

The impacts

To combat this, we put forward a plan or goal to achieve climate resilience; a way for us to minimize and recover the damage done by environmental causes.  In this case, Snow Hill, along with the other surrounding communities, have made the natural wetlands and forestry forbidden to be destroyed, so that most of the water can be absorbed there. Although Snow Hill doesn't have the funds, there are flood barrier (collapsible walls) that people can set up around the banks of the river to prevent some of the water from entering more vulnerable areas susceptible to damage.  Some of the things that Snow Hill could improve on are more local shelters that people can evacuate to in case of extreme threats, and work towards equity in the housing/transportation index to help alleviate both environmental and social justice issues.

According to the following document: ( Link ), there are nearly hundreds of health impacts that environmental hazards and difficulties can inflict on any given community. One needs not anymore evidence of the sudden damage of a sudden change of the environment than the cold snap/winter storm that happened to Texas during February of 2020. So when a community such as Wicomico County is threatened by some constant disasters, it quickly becomes an uphill battle to keep everyone safe.  As I highlighted before, floods and rain storms are a frequent enough event that Snow Hill must be on alert at all times.  One after effect however is the water that gets trapped within the forestry, and isn't absorbed fast enough.  This still water becomes, as the document vividly describes: "proliferation of mosquitos, increasing the risk of vector-borne illnesses" (Health Impacts of Climate Change, pg 62).

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But it's not just us humans that inclement environmental issues can cause harm to. As touched earlier, droughts, extreme heat waves, floods, windstorms, toxins and air pollution, and much more can contribute to the decline of the livestock and animals we depend on.  As mentioned in the document: "Higher temperatures and drought associated with climate change can cause heat stress and illness in livestock, reducing milk and egg production" (Health Impacts of Climate Change, pg. 72).

Due to the relative low income of Snow Hill, climate complications and environmental hazards such as these and more all add onto the weight of struggle for the already fairly disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. When it comes to intersectional problems, one may not immediately think that the environmental issues have anything to do with drug addictions, such as opioids.  When inclement weather, COVID, and transportation all come together to add incredible amounts of stress to getting clean, there be little reason to doubt if the cases of overdosing or relapsing spikes.

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The concerns of environmental issues and the impact it will have on our community's health can be drawn from this recent article found on the Salisbury Daily Times.  It has been reported by the news site that on February 18th, 2021, Snow Hill, there has been a massive waste dump that had been accidentally leaked into the Pocomoke River.  Half a million gallons of the pollution now runs it course, and officials have declared now that it is unsafe for bodily or fishing use. While the article draws the concerns to use, it ill informs of all the damage it'll cause to the river, the soil that will absorb the toxins, and the animals effected. Spillages such as this will directly cause more inequity in the food and agriculture side of our rural community, and, should there be another flood soon, Snow Hill could face a truly devastating catastrophe.
( Link to Snow Hill waste leak: Here )

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What can we do?

In no particular order, here are some steps that we as a community can take to address some of the pressing concerns related to the environment:

• • Put forward a long term plan to establish the necessary funds to purchase efficient and effective flood barriers to prevent flooding and destruction to vulnerable areas.
    
  • Implement a catch or barrier to place in a choke hold of the Pocomoke River to filter and stop some of the pollution should another waste leak happen.  You can also establish several key checkpoints so that the manpower that's needed to operate nets and other preventative measures know where and what to concentrate on.
  • Inform local water districts with an earlier form of contamination by issuing sirens and using local TV stations and radios to prioritize spreading the message.
  • Make sure that the toxins from manure gets disposed or reused properly.
  • Continuing safe and environmentally sound farming techniques.
  • Promote the use of solar energy by offering extensive tax breaks, while also highlighting that it's usage of self sufficiency should the electrical lines die, or other means of power outage happens that no one is stranded suddenly without power.
  • Reinforce and check regularly the foundations and status of our infrastructure, such as our bridges and roads, so that they can withstand certain environmental disasters.
  • Address these concerns to the Worcester County council through means of thoughtful, efficient, and long-term commitment plan that seeks to point out the issues of the community and how those can be intersectional with environmental issues.
    
  • Look into ways that certain established state-owned buildings can help reduce on pollution and contribution to air quality, such as but not limited to: Shutting down power usage entirely when no one is present, using air conditioning effectively but not wastefully, retrofit the roofs and other places of advantage with solar cells, promote the usage of state owned, non-emergency vehicles with cleaner footprints, organize and build communal trust with grassroots movements to help clean up our towns, and more.
    

Bringing it together