On 1/20/17 my group and I talked with a man named Mike McGarry. He is an Environmental Consultant and does environmental work for a living. He studied environmental sciences in Cornel University in NY state. He has worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers, authored NEPA documents (Environmental Impact Statements/Environmental Assessments), for federal actions on ecosystem restoration, endangered species habitat management, flood control, recreation, hurricane protection, navigation, and water supply.
He talked about mercury and how it is bad for the earth when it is released into the atmosphere and falls down into lakes and bodies of water.
Mercury is an element that is stable in a pure form and has trace quantities in coal. When you burn millions and tons of coal in many parts in this nation, there is a lot of mercury that gets dispersed into the atmosphere. It redeposits into lakes and reservoirs, settles in the lake bottoms and in the anaerobic conditions of the lake bottoms is converted to methyl-mercury by microbes there. Methyl-mercury is easily absorbed and bio accumulates. When a fish eats a certain amount of it and is then eaten by a bigger fish, the bigger fish will have anything that the fish they just ate in their tissues. When a human eats a fish that has eaten enough methyl-mercury they can have health issues. There are warnings saying not to eat specific seafoods in certain areas of America where there is a large consumption of methyl-mercury from fish and other species in the water that humans eat.
He said that plastic doesn’t actually harm sea creatures that much but it can still choke/kill animals because they can be suffocated or trapped in a plastic contraption. Although plastic isn’t a huge factor in harming humans, mercury is.
This interview was very helpful to my group’s project because we were given very important information that helped us better understand plastic and water pollution. He said to contact him whenever we need and I will be sure to ask him any questions if any come up.
