Coal-Tar-Based Parking Lot Sealcoat: An Unrecognized Source of PAH to Settled House Dust

USGS Report published in Environment Science and Technology, January 2010, 7 pp.

This latest research looks at the contamination of households with sealed parking lots/driveways from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Still Out of Balance: A follow-up study of the health of the
water and land of the Octoraro watershed

PennFuture, 2009, 20 pp

A follow-up to PennFuture's 2004 report: A Barrel Full of Holes: A Case Study of Pennsylvania Regulations on High Density Livestock Farm Pollution.

Shaping Proposed Changes to PA's Total Dissolved Solids Standard: A Guide to the Proposal and the Commenting Process.

(Penn State, College of Agricultural Sciences,
Agricultural Research and Cooperative Extension, November 2009 8 pp)

Introduces the concept of TDS, reviews events that prompted the proposed changes in regulation, explains the proposed changes, and how, where, and why the public can submit comments on the proposed regulations.  The deadline for public comments on the proposed changes is February 5, 2010.

Emerging Contaminants

Powerpoint Presentation at DEP 2009 Watershed Specialists' Meeting

A report on recent studies of Selected Pharmaceuticals, Antibiotics,
Hormones, and Wastewater Compounds In Pennsylvania’s Source Water

Mercury in Fish, Bed Sediments, and Water from Streams Across the United States, 1998-2005, Scientific Investigations Report 2009–5109

USGS, 2009, 85 pp)

Scientists detected mercury contamination in every fish sampled in 291 streams across the country.

Visit the USGS, National Water Quality Assessment website for info on the report.

Troubled Waters - An Analysis of 2005 Clean Water Act Compliance

(US PIRG Education Fund, 2007, 40 pp.)

Using data provided by U.S. EPA, reports that 51% of major PA facilities exceeded their Clean Water Act permits at least once in 2005.

Mercury Matters - Linking Mercury Science with Public Policy in the Northeastern United States
(Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, 2007, 28 pp.)

Factory Farm Pollution in Pennsylvania: Watersheds and Communities at Risk
(Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, 2003, 34 pp)

Nitrogen Pollution: From the Sources to the Sea (Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, 2003, 29 pp.)

Sewage Treatment Plants:The Chesapeake Bay's Second Largest Source of Nitrogen Pollution,
(Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 2003)