Name: Samuel Beacher

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Ocean Health

Date of Fieldwork: January 28, 2019

Name of Organization: Environmental Law Division of New York City

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Hillary Meltzer the Chief of the Environmental Law Division of New York City

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We interviewed Hillary to talk about NYC and their waters. This includes drinking water and our bodies of water.

What I learned:

I learned a lot about stormwater runoff and how it affects our city. For one, since rainwater is not absorbed by the soil, it runs to the ocean. If there is any litter it would be taken with it, thus the most important reason not to litter.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that there is a lot of steps being done to help stop pollution. One is a step being taken to ban plastic bags and straws. These would help because they are some of the top pollution sources. I also learned that even though New York City uses a lot of water, that is because it is one of the biggest cities. It actually has one of the lowest water uses for capita, which is more important overall.