Discussion Forum Unit 1: ENVS 1301
Questions to Answer:
1. What environmental concerns in your local area did you learn about?
I live in Tampa, FL and from the research I’ve done on the EPA website I see that an environmental concern in my area is possibly the water quality at my local beaches. Although I’m not sure how up to date the EPA’s website is because everything I click on appears to be last updated years ago. It shows the beach that I frequent has a SHELLFISH PROPAGATION alert and the cause of impairment is fecal coliform, however the map is dated 2010. When I view the floridahealth.gov site and look up my beach, there is no impairment listed and the water is tested on a weekly basis.
The air quality presented is from 2013-2014 and is listed as good. It appears that it has improved greatly since 2009-2012 which is great.
2. Did they surprise you? Why or why not?
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I work at a Pulmonologist office and have not received a great deal of calls from my patients complaining of increased shortness of breath or exacerbations of pulmonary symptoms so I am aware that due to the health of my patients the air quality is better at this point in time.
3. What do you think can be done to improve this (these) situation(s), hazard(s), problem(s), or concern(s)?
I believe the water quality is affected by our daily activities as well as weather conditions. Recently, we had tropical storm Colin hit and due to the increase in heavy rain causing flooding and overwhelming the sewage system the city of Saint Petersburg decided to dump sewage by pipe about a quarter of a mile into Tampa Bay. (Carr, 2016) Currently we are dealing with tropical storm Hermine and I am hoping the same situation doesn’t