Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide poisoning is one of the most common causes of deadly poisoning. Carbon monoxide is invisible, odorless, and nonirritating. It can be inhaled directly into the bloodstream where it displaces oxygen from hemoglobin, the protein that transports oxygen through the body. Without oxygen, the brain, heart, and muscles suffocate and cease to function.

Carbon monoxide results from the incomplete burning of carbon-based fuel such as gasoline, wood, or paper. Early symptoms of poisoning include headaches, nausea, and vomiting that get better when you leave the area. Advanced symptoms include loss of concentration, cognition, and memory, soon falling into a coma, and dying. Pets in the house may fall ill and die sooner than adult humans, so if your pet shows any of these symptoms, or you come home to find a pet dead, suspect carbon monoxide.

Any area that contains a car, barbecue, lawn mower, gas stove, hot water heater, furnace, fireplace, or snow blower is capable of containing deadly carbon monoxide fumes not only in the garage, room, or basement where they are located, but in any attached living quarters. You can even inhale too much carbon monoxide outside if you are too near an exhaust.

Never use a gas or charcoal grill in an enclosed space. Regularly service your furnace. Don't idle your car or lawn mower in an attached garage, even with the garage door open.

Have at least one carbon monoxide monitor in your home. If the alarm goes off, throw open all the windows and doors immediately and get everyone out of the house. Then call 911. If you live in an attached apartment or duplex, the fumes may be coming from a common vent. Have the emergency responders check on your neighbors as well.

-- Source material, Consumer Reports,The Best of Health 2011

Prevent Water Scalding

Having a water heater thermostat set too high not only keeps your gas or electric bill high, it can cause injury. The majority of water scalding accidents happen to the elderly and children under 5. Third degree burns can occur if you are exposed for as little as 6 seconds to 140 degree water. Even milder temperatures can do harm. It takes just 30 seconds to be burned by 130 degree water, and 5 minutes to 120 degree water.

You can be scalded if you fall into the bathtub, don’t test the water before you get in or place a child in, or the temperature changes while you are in the shower because someone else in the house turned on water. Children can burn themselves playing with the faucet.

The American Burn Association recommends 100 degrees as the safest temperature for bathing. Never exceed 120 degrees. Have a plumber check your water heater to ensure it is within the required temperature of 120 degrees. And if you live with small children or the elderly, consider having an anti-scald device installed in faucets and showerheads that will limit water flow to a trickle if it exceeds 120 degrees.

Water Heater Safety Tips

▲Hot water heaters should be properly sized for your house.

▲Extra thick insulation helps prevent radiant heat loss and saves energy and money.

▲ Water temperatures above 120 degrees F can cause scalding, especially on young children and the elderly.

▲ Sediment build-up can cause premature tank failure and excess cost on fuel bills. Flush hot water through drain valve at least once a year to remove sediment build-up.

▲ Hot water heaters require yearly maintenance to ensure proper operation. Test safety valve once a year.

▲ Keep at least 18 inches around the hot water heater clean and free of combustible and flammable material.

▲ When leaving for vacation, set hot water heater temperature to its lowest setting to save money and reduce the risk of problems while you’re away.

Fight Mosquitoes, Build a Bat House

Bats are the single most important controller of night-flying insects, including mosquitoes. A single brown bat can catch and eat up to 600 mosquitos an hour! And it's fun to watch bats flying around the yard catching bugs. So help prevent West Nile Virus by inviting some bats to police your yard.

You can attact bats to your yard by building them a house on a pole at least 15 feet high in a spot that receives sun most of the day. Bat houses installed on poles are easier for bats to locate, have greater occupancy rates and are chosen two and a half times more often than bat houses mounted in trees. Mama bats like very warm houses to raise their babies, so that's why a sunny location is important. Bat houses have open bottoms to prevent guano from accumulating. Avoid placing your bat house above windows, doors, decks or walkways because guano may accumulate on the ground underneath. A potted plant or tray under a bat house will collect bat guano for use as fertilizer. Use shallow trays or buckets with mesh over them to prevent baby bats who fall out of the bat house from being trapped inside.

Every spring, clean out your bat house and get it ready for summer

Afraid of bats? You shouldn't be. The story that they get stuck in your hair is not true. Bats can catch a mosquito flying in an erratic pattern through the air, so they're unlikely to accidentally collide with a human head.

Crooked Branch Contamination Investigation

From the Reedy Creek Coalition blog

During March and April of 2012, water quality monitors with the Reedy Creek Coalition (RCC) identified foul odors and elevated E. coli counts at a monitoring site on Crooked Branch, a tributary of Reedy Creek. The RCC notified the City of Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) regarding their observations and the DPU Pretreatment Program began an investigation on April 25, 2012.

Environmental technicians with DPU’s Pretreatment Program took water samples from the outfall where Crooked Branch daylights at Crutchfield Street and submitted them to the Richmond Wastewater Treatment Plant laboratory for analysis. The technicians also noted a foul, sewage-like odor, and turbid water at the outfall.

The results of the samples were reported by the lab on April 30 and confirmed the findings of the RCC volunteers, indicating E. coli levels of 435 MPN (most probable number ) /100 mL (milliliters) and ammonia of 0.8 mg/L (milligrams per Litre). The investigating technicians returned to the site and began to trace the contamination upstream using a system map and a handheld YSI Professional Series meter with conductivity, pH (a measurement of acidity), ammonium, and DO (dissolved oxygen) probes.

Concentrations of ammonium were observed to be as high as 2.2 mg/L at a manhole near Midlothian Turnpike and a strong sewage odor was detected. The next accessible manhole was on Brandon Street, west of Belt Boulevard, where a strong sewage odor was noted but ammonium concentrations were found to be less than 1.0 mg/L.

The investigators then proceeded to open manholes on the sanitary sewer line adjacent to the storm sewer and discovered that the sanitary line appeared to be significantly blocked and sewage was backed up in the line. The investigators notified DPU Sewer Maintenance personnel regarding the backup and a crew was dispatched on May 1 to address the problem.

On May 3, the investigating technicians returned to the Crooked Branch outfall and noted that there were no foul odors detectable and that the water appeared to be much less turbid. Follow up sampling showed E. coli levels of 56 MPN/100 mL and ammonia concentrations of less than 0.1 mg/L at the outfall.

The correction of this issue means that significantly less bacteria and nutrients are now entering Reedy Creek through Crooked Branch. The success of this investigation also serves to highlight the benefits for water quality that can be achieved when the city and citizen groups work together to identify and address the problems facing our local waterways.

Written by:

John A. Allen,

Environmental Technician II

Richmond DPU

City Receives Grant for Bellemeade Creek Watershed

The city of Richmond and the Green Infrastructure Center (GIC) have been awarded $59,671 in grant funding in 2012 for the Bellemeade Creek Watershed Coalition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The coalition supports environmental restoration of Bellemeade Creek in South Richmond.

The project will establish a new community-based coalition that will be trained in watershed stewardship and healthy communities. Bellemeade Creek is part of an urban watershed that includes the Bellemeade neighborhood and Hillside Court public housing development. It feeds into Goodes Creek, a tributary of the James River. Land use is primarily residential within the neighborhood, but the watershed project area is bound by commercial/industrial corridors along Route 1 and Commerce Avenue. It also includes the new Oak Grove Elementary School, currently under construction.

Over the past year, the city, GIC and its environmental organization partners have worked with community members, non-profit groups and business leaders to identify strategies to improve the health of both the creek and the community. Components include green streets that provide safe routes to school and improve water quality; creek crossings that provide watershed education and stream bank restoration; and community rain gardens that improve water quality and provide outdoor education.

The City has launched a number of new initiatives to promote walkability, greenways and healthy lifestyles in the city over the past several years, including crosswalk improvements, sidewalk repairs, stormwater runoff mitigation and a plan for better access to the James River.

Church Hill Gets a New Water Tank

The five million gallon ground storage tank in Church Hill at 714 N. 30th Street between 29th, 30th, M and N streets,was replaced in 2012-13. The tank provides processed drinking water to customers in the east part of town.

The former tank was built in 1954 and reached the end of its useful life. The new tank was built south of the existing tank behind the Church Hill Pump Station building.