Hello all!

So I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve been afraid to start working on this post because I’ve been neglecting this blog for so long. Seriously, Amy and I have been having so many adventures I just haven’t had enough time to write about them, so I put it off, only making this potential post much, much longer. So, since I haven’t posted three week’s worth of adventures, I’ll just give a bunch of mini descriptions.

Also, Amy and I are all about taking pictures now, so please enjoy.

What IS trash, the philosophical debate continues...

One man’s Trash…

Just before da Vinci Days we went on a field trip to the dump just outside of Corvallis. I was interested in the trip to see how leach-ates (the product of landfills when rain water runs through the waste) are collected and treated. This is relevant to my pharmaceutical research because the government asks civilians to put all unused drugs together in a zip lock bag,  add water to dissolve the medicine, than throw it away. I found out that while our landfill collects leach-ate extremely effectively, it is treated at the Corvallis waste water treatment facility, which cannot detect or extract pharmaceuticals (just like most municipal water treatment facilities)

From Left: Amy, Me, Jen, and Sam

Sam, our adviser, with Yellow Flag Iris, an invasive water plant

Yummm...to-be compost...

da Vinci Days

This girl is amazed by Watersheds

Amy and I were put in charge of designing the booth for daVinci Days and finding all of the volunteers to help staff the

booth. It ended up that I worked the entire weekend, along with set up and take down, but that’s how I like to work events such as this. Because that weekend ended up being quite saturated, there seemed to be less attendance than in years past. But working with the kids as well as having great conversations with stakeholders was extremely rewarding for me, because I felt like I was contributing to Sea Grant’s image. I also had some fun meeting the Summer scholars, talking to Joe Cone, getting to know Kathryn Hawes from Hatfield and watching AnnaRose flirt with boys, all in all, I had fun.

Amy in front of "The monster" display

Bubble made an appearance...than tried to eat some rocks

Talking about tunicates: an Aquatic Invasive Species

Beach Trip!

I'm king of the Jetty!

Just this last friday, Jen, Amy and I went to Charleston bay to learn more about some invasive Tunicates that Oregon has. A representative of Alaska was there to get some advice and further her understanding about the species because they have a population in their waters. After trading information, we went to the docks and pulled up some substrates to see what was attached. We saw very little Didemnum vexillum, which is a good thing. Afterwards we took a trip to the “Umpqua triangle” in Winchester Bay, where the tunicate has been spotted. Amy and I climbed on some rocks and got some cool pictures. An extremely informational and adventurous field trip.

Biggest Sea Star ever? We caught him in the middle of lunch

There were many, many smaller stories embedded in each of these larger topics, and I’ll probably talk about some of the more funny  stories on Friday. Until then, have a great week!

-Josh

Hello all,

So, normally I feel like I have to push myself to write these things. However, I just had a coffee so now I’m all jazzed up!!!

This week I’ve been researching all week. Rather I should say “investigating” because the word “research” has such a strong undertone to it. I’ve been investigating the topic of Pharmaceuticals in our waterways for the past week, and I’m starting to feel like this is the subject I would like to focus on for my internship, outside of my normal duties of course.

Here’s the background…

If you were to open up your medicine cabinet back home, there would be a chance that you would find some sort of expired, or perhaps unused, medicine. The next thought, hopefully at least, would be “I should get rid of this stuff”, which then begs the question, “how do I get rid of this stuff”. In the past the government has recommended that you simply flush the medicine down the drain. Well surprise, surprise we are now starting to find that some of our watersheds and, consequently, our drinking water is starting to have some pharmaceuticals present in it. An AP Press study found that 41 million Americans are drinking tap water contaminated with a whole range of drugs in it, drugs found in these water ways treat everything from high blood pressure and cholesterol to some mental health syndromes.

So why should we care…

Well people are drinking compounds that are designed to initiate and change the ways our bodies work. On top of this, it is currently unknown how these drugs behave when combined together. It is currently not known how or if these compounds effect the human body. Recently, however, it is being noticed that some male fish are starting to lay eggs. These intersex fish are commonly thought to be interacting with the huge amounts of estrogen that we are flushing down the drains. These fish are thought of as a warning sign of the possibility of drugs in our water ways, and possible consequences of being exposed to them over large periods of time.

So what am I supposed to do with these damn drugs???

Well that’s the thing…if you just leave them in your medicine cabinet, there’s a chance that a child or pet might get into them and overdose. This happens more often than thought and in fact my cousin poisoned herself on pills when she was younger. Also some teenagers, who do the darnedest things, think it’s really cool to get high off of prescription drugs. Apparently, it’s thought that these medicines can’t hurt you, because they’re medicine right? We’ve already discussed what happens if you put the drugs down the drain: The water treatment plants can’t take the drugs out of the water and so the drugs are put into the rivers with the “treated” water. Eventually, a town downstream might use this water for tap water. If you think about putting the pills in the garbage, you face the same issues with kids, pets and teenagers. Also these pills go to the dump, where they can dissolve into leachate (or dump juice as I like to call it) which either 1) drains into the ground water or 2) gets taken to a water treatment facility…where the inability of scrubbing the pharmaceuticals out still persists.

Apparently I’m writing a paper now…(strong coffee)

The last option would be to take it to the local law enforcement office. Because everybody loves cops right? Now, intuitively one would think “I’ll just take it back where I got it…the Pharmacy”, but this is barely an option. I found out through my Aunt (who owns an independent pharmacy) that there is a program in which people can take their medications to the pharmacist who dispenses these pills into a large brown box and mail it back to a company (Sharps inc.) that incinerates the drugs in a way that is perfect for the environment AND legal. However, only some small independent pharmacies are getting into this program. Yesterday, I approached the independent here in Corvallis about this program, and was told that the Oregon board of Pharmacy didn’t allow them to take drugs back in any way. When I called the Oregon Board of Pharmacy compliance board, I was forwarded to rule 855-041-0080 part 2c, which allows this environment take-back program to be completely legal in Oregon, and that Pharmacist can take your drugs (non controlled) back if they are intentioned to destroy the drugs.

In short, it seems that this entire project will be simply educating people…even some pharmacists.

I don’t know where to go with this project, it seems extremely wide ranging and there are many problems with the current system (I haven’t even discussed the issues I have with the federal regulations on drug disposal).  My adviser  offered the idea that I start looking for grants to create some community based drug take-back program and, that I consider writing an undergraduate thesis on this subject…  I didn’t even know there were undergraduate thesis’. I’ve been put into contact with Rob Emanuel who seems to have started working of a similar project up in Tillamook and Clatsop county. And at this point I’m looking for anyone to give me some direction with the subject.

Anyways…that’s what I’ve been doing this week…If any ideas come to you please comment and give me some Ideas!

Have a GREAT 4th of July Weekent

Josh Scacco

Hello all!

My name is Josh and I, along with Amy, am a PROMISE Intern working with Oregon Sea Grant Extension here in Corvallis for the summer. A quick wrap up about me: I’m a Senior at OSU in Pre-Prarmacy with a minor in Chemistry, I most recently was the Co-Director of a student group on campus, and I’m going into OSU’s Team Liberation program at the end of the summer! I also love being an educator to all ages, and I’ve participated as a councilor at a local Outdoor school camp for sixth graders for the last five years. Okay! Now that that’s over and done with I guess I can get started on talking about my adventures with Sea Grant so far.

My first day was last Monday, which was entirely focused on PROMISE activities. We started off getting to know each other, this is where I met my fellow Sea Grant Intern Amy. Than we had a delicious lunch with our Advisers. Amy and I have three advisers: Megan Kleibacker, Samuel Chan, and Tania Siemens. During our first week, Megan was the only one in the office so, while I’ve met both Sam and Tania briefly, I’ve yet to have any extended conversation with them. After this was done, we were instructed to go the Challenge Course…I didn’t even know OSU had a challenge course. So imagine my surprise when I see a bunch of poles and guide wires 35 feet up in the air! After spending a good half hour (or at least it felt that long) getting strapped into our harnesses. We spent the next three hours climbing, crossing, and jumping around the course. Overall, it was a fun day and a great way to get introduced to the PROMISE program.

Tuesday was a simple introductory to the office setting, getting the equipment to run, learning to figure out the resources we have at our disposal etc. All this time I was still trying to figure out all that Sea Grant does. It all seemed a little intimidating to be honest. On Wednesday, however, I got to have a great experience that helped put Sea Grant into focus for me. Amy and I joined Jen, a professional Intern in the office, in going to a conference up in Vancouver, Washington. The conference focused on AIS (aquatic invasive species) for the Columbia River Basin. States that had representatives included Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho. Megan and Sam had assured me that it would be okay if I got  overwhelmed, they just wanted me to go to soak up the information, not necessarily understand it. At first, this was the case, but after a representative of Idaho, Amy Ferriter, spoke it all seemed to snap into place and make sense. I walked away from that conference with a much greater understanding of what Sea Grant does, even though Aquatic Invasive Species is only one of the many projects that Sea Grant is involved in.

Our biggest project right now is easily the DaVinci Days booth. DaVinci Days is the local art and science festival in Corvallis, so things tend to get equally colorful and nerdy, so I’m always a fan! Since this year marks the 40th anniversary of Sea Grant, Amy and I have twice as much space to work with than past interns. This has been a great activity to work on so far, because it allows me do a lot more research on the difference aspects of Sea Grant. I’ve been discovering more and more that Sea Grant is involved in a lot more than I previously thought. From educating the public on boater safety to doing research on tsunamis. Lately, instead of asking myself, “What does Sea Grant do” I’m asking myself, “What doesn’t Sea Grant do”.

As I try and find answers to this question, I get more excited to be working with such a great organization for the summer, and I can’t wait for all of the adventures and activities in store for me!!!