Rochester's Environmental Issues   

(Rochester issues, our footprints)

These environmental issues should be on your radar and this site explains why.  Listed below are what I consider the most important long-term environmental concerns for the Rochester, NY area.  Each page lists news links, resources, and information. There are several major environmental issues that pertain to the Rochester, New York area.  Below is the directory to the web pages that provide a complete online resource to specific environmental issues for our area.  Each page provides first all Rochester-area news on the topic and then online resources. 

Rochester from the NYS Canal Trail near the University of Rochester.     (Look for our newly renovated bridge Just left of center.)

* These issues are not necessarily listed in any order of importance. If I thought I knew the order of the most potentially catastrophic to the most benign, I’d be kidding myself.

•  Weather & Climate Change
  • Ultimately, this issue looms the largest of all environmental issues, because our environmental health describes our own health.  Our Rochester, NY area has many universities which specialize in Environmental Health, which makes it a leader in detecting and a leader in solutions for environmental health..  All of the issues on this page add up to our environmental health, though this page specializes in potential environmental diseases and studies performed locally on diseases. One of the most immediate issues that should be on everyone's radar is the potential for Pandemic Flu, of which Monroe County has a detailed and comprehensive plan to deal with.  I agree that there is only a slim change that the pandemic flu would hit the Rochester area, but because it goes on record as the biggest single killer of humans, we should be ready for any transformation of the bird flu virus to one that spreads quickly though the human population.   
• Great Lakes Heath
  • Our community's environmental health is greatly influenced by the Great Lakes--the largest source of fresh water in the world. There are several major issues (including diversion, water levels, fish diseases, invasive species and clean water) that could greatly alter our way of living if they were upset—and there’s evidence that many are.  
• Finger Lakes
  • The Rochester area is near all eleven of the Finger Lakes.  These lakes not only make our area one of the most beautiful, they also frame the environment as one of water and wetlands and thousands of plant and wildlife conducive to this type of ecology.  Each lake in this section has its own page and resources: Honeoye Lake, Hemlock Lake, Canadice Lake, Cayuga Lake, Canandaigua Lake, Seneca Lake, Conesus Lake, Keuka Lake
•  Energy
  • The prospect of Climate Change for our area looms large and the extent of change will most probably be influenced by where we get our energy in the future. Find out about energy and how it relates to Rochester. Also, discover alternative energy sources that are environmentally friendly.  Rochester, because of its many schools of higher education, is becoming an innovative leader in developing many kinds of renewable energy sources.
•  Lead Poisoning
  • Lead Poisoning Issue in Rochester, NY - Lead poisoning is a major problem in our area and affects the health of our children. Learn about the news stories and what you can do. The point to get about our Lead Poisoning problem is not that we have a serious lead poisoning problem--we do. Most cities in the US and perhaps around the world have this problem. The point is that Rochester, NY is taking this problem seriously and putting it up front and center of its concern--not hiding it and not dealing with it, as many communities do.
• Recycling: 
  • Recycling should be on your radar because of toxins in our environment leaching from landfills and because reusing, instead of wasting products, could reduce the reduction of our natural resources. Intelligent recycling could (and is happening in the case of computers) produce new businesses and/or provide raw materials for existing businesses—like reusing paper and glass. During World War II Americans knew how to recycle almost everything for the war effort--now we need to relearn that expertise and reinvigorate ourselves for the war on anthropogenic Global Warming.
•  Wetlands
  • Wetlands are those land areas that catch rain or snow and drain to specific marshes, streams, rivers, lakes, or to ground water.  Because the Rochester area has so many wetlands and watershed, this issue is of special interest to our area. Wetlands are integral to our area's environmental health.  Get the news and resources on this topic for the Rochester, NY area.  Remember, New Orleans might have faired better from the Katrina Hurricane if their wetlands had been intact.
• Brownfields
  • Brownfields are abandoned sites, usually in urban locations, that are tainted by either real or perceived contamination, making them undesirable for private redevelopment efforts. Too often instead of cleaning these sites up and reading them for a new industry, the industry that caused the damage goes bankrupt, cannot clean up the mess and new industries look for undeveloped pristine land to establish themselves. From Brownfields we not only have an abandoned unwanted site that encourages sprawl, but a leaching problem that may be causing health problem.  Rochester and Monroe County has many Brownfields (Check out Environmental Cleanup & Brownfields - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation) and so do probably every city in the United States and elsewhere.  Go to my Brownfields page and get all the news on this issue and even find out where our Brownfields are and what's being done about them.  
•  Air Quality Rochester
  • The air quality in Rochester is affected by many factors, including energy (we still burn coal at the Russell Station, though we are promised that is being taken off the table for the coming redevelopment of that site), fossil fueled transportation, mobile toxins from vehicles, particulates in the air from wood stoves, etc. According to the American Lung Association, our air quality in Rochester fails.  This matters because ground level ozone is a problem in the summer months, making air quality a health issue.  When Rochester, and other cities, needs to post ozone alerts it means we have to clean up our air. 
• Urban Sprawl
  • Every community has to deal with urban sprawl ("also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading out of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area" --from Urban sprawl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) --how to attract, plan, and manage growth.  With Monroe County and Rochester the population is going down and the urban sprawl is going up--not good for the environment. This page presents the latest news links on Rochester's growth and resources for this topic for responsible development..  This site also includes an extra page on updates for Renaissance Square Project, the largest development project in Rochester that we hope portends a better and more used transportation system.
• Wind Power
  • This is one of the hottest topics in our area because of the important of renewable energy and the reluctance of many to embrace it when wind farms threaten their region.  Not all communities are against one of the most important energy sources for dealing with Global Warming, but enough to keep this issue in the news.  Find out all information, news, and resources pertaining to wind generators in and around Rochester, New York.  Hopefully, my wind power page will help present all sides of the issue and elevate the debate to discussions about Global Warming and not NYMBY (not in my back yard).
•  Animals and our Environment
  • The animals in our environment, because they are so intimate with it, are often indicators of our environmental health.  Animals were part and parcel of how our particular environment in this area developed by what plants they fed on and what other animals they preyed upon.  Our way of life has change a lot of the dynamic between animals and plants.  How this interdependency has changed should be on our radar as an indication of present and future environmental health. How we treat our pets too is an indication of our sensitivity towards our environment. Added to this page is a sub-page with a directory for all humane societies within the Rochester area.
•  Plants and our Environment
  • An integral part of our city's environment are our plants and trees. Invasive species are a growing problem in our area. Our urban forest, the trees that line our communities, are important for cooling in the summer, absorbing carbon dioxide, water and soil retention.  Get all information, news, links, and resources for plants, urban trees, and gardening for Rochester, NY.
•  Water Quality
  • Rochester's drinking water is very important, as it is in any community.  Any change in the high quality of our water is critical to our health. Also, the quality of the water in many of our bodies of water (including streams, rivers, the Finger Lakes, and Great Lakes) is changing because of the increase in human traffic, the introduction of new invasive species, and the presents of many man-made toxins and even pharmaceuticals .  Find out all there is about our area's water quality so that we can note important trends that are difficult to measure over time with constant vigilance.  
• Environmental Health
  • Ultimately, this issue looms the largest of all environmental issues, because our environmental health describes our own health.  Our Rochester, NY area has many universities which specialize in Environmental Health, which makes it a leader in detecting and a leader in solutions for environmental health..  All of the issues on this page add up to our environmental health, though this page specializes in potential environmental diseases and studies performed locally on diseases.
•  Food and the Environment 
  • There are a number of environmental issues containing concerns we should have about the food we eat. From genetically altered foods, toxins, mercury, how far we travel to get our food and how far our food travels to get to us,  to irradiation issues, we should learn about how our food is affected by changes in our environment. There a many groups and coops trying to change the way we think about what we eat and our environment in the Rochester area.
•  Pesticides
  • Pesticide and herbicide use is coming under closer scrutiny because we are finding that even when properly used toxins from these products end up in our bodies, our children's bodies, our pets, plants and animals around us and in our waterways.  These toxins could be responsible for various cancers and health problems for many unintended victims. There are alternatives to the aesthetic application of herbicides and this page provides some of those alternatives.  Also, this page provides numerous resources and local news links on the use and misuse of pesticides, including a sub-page on the recent adoption of the 48 Hour Neighborhood Notification Law. for Monroe County. 
•  Invasive Species
  • We should be aware of the various invasive species in our area because they can wreak havoc.  When an invasive species arrives, they usually do not have any natural enemies and they can, over time, change our area's ecology.  The Purple Loosestrife, for example was brought to North America from Europe as a decorative plant spices, which it is, but it now covers our fields, pushing out endemic plant species, which in turn changes our pollinating insects many of which do not have any use for this new plant. Our Rochester area is not immune from the environmental problem of invasive species. This page points out some the invasive species in our area, including plants and animals, resources to find out more about this issue, and recent news stories about them in our local media.
•  Genesee River
  • This major river which runs through the city of Rochester and dissects there with the Erie Canal also has its unique ecology and a history of contamination from industry and agricultural run-off.  There are many environmental issues relating to this river that people still use to canoe, boat, swim on. It even harbors large vessels as the Genesee River meets Lake Ontario.  Cleaning up the Genesee from centuries of use as a transportation route and drainage for industry should be instrumental before developers begin yet another millennia of use, this time for tourism. Get the news links and all the resources for this topic. 
• Zebra Mussels
  • Zebra mussels, Dreissena polymorpha, are small, fingernail-sized, freshwater mollusks accidentally introduced to North America via ballast water from a transoceanic vessel. Since their introduction in the mid 1980s, they have spread rapidly to all of the Great Lakes and an increasing number of inland waterways in the United States and Canada. This invasive species represents what happens when an invasive species takes hold in a area, as I have watched the progress of this species since the mid 1980's.  Now many of our lakes have been redefined by the Zebra Mussel, their ecology forever changed.
• Commuting
  • Transportation issues, or Commuting, is important because of the fuel involved and its relation to Global Warming and our area's Air Quality.  Public transportation exists in Rochester, but proportionally not many use it though this way of commuting offers the best hope of reducing Global Warming gases, improving air quality, and reducing taxes because less maintenance will be required if we use few vehicles.  Also, we should look seriously at the possibility of bikes being an integral part of our community's commute to work. Rochester has too few city streets with no shoulders and many trails that could be connected for biking commuting.
• Parks
  • The Rochester/Monroe County area has a lot of parks (three are Olmstead Parks) and these are environmentally benign and public areas, in the midst of an area continually in growth.  It is up to the public to insure that various groups do not try and privatize what has been set aside for the public to educate themselves about our environment and to provide a respite from continually development.  My goal is give an overall impression on how important these last remaining areas of undeveloped land in our county contributes to our environmental health. 
• West Nile Virus
  • Since 1999, West Nile Virus, an invasive disease from North Africa, has become a yearly concern for us in Western New York, as in other US states.  This potentially dangerous disease for people with fragile or compromised immune systems can be fatal.  However, monitoring this disease during middle and late summer and taking a few precautionary measures, we can keep this new disease, which will probably be with us for a long time and have periods of high and low concern, in check.  This page has most of the resources you'll need to stay abreast of this disease with list of resources we can use to prevent this disease without using pesticides--which has the potential to make a bad problem much worse by further polluting our environment with toxins.
• Deer Problem
  • Get the latest news and Internet links to our area's attempt to solve the problem of deer overpopulation.
•  Lyme Disease
  • Lyme Disease, a disease in our area, is the second fastest growing infectious disease in the United States. Get the latest news and resources on this disease here.
• Rabies Alert
  • Bats and other animals play a role in nature, but may also carry rabies. Rabies is a deadly virus that attacks the nervous system.
•  Geese Problem
  • A growing controversy over the proliferation of geese in our area demands that we learn the environmental implications of the increasing population of geese in our area.  Get the news, and online resources on this topic.