Of Land & Local: Watershed

Water, as both ecological fact and metaphor, will be the subject of this year’s ongoing partnership between Shelburne Farms and Burlington City Arts. Of Land & Local: Watershed supports artist led conversations about issues impacting the Vermont landscape, culminating in exhibitions at both locations. This blog aims to supplement and support the exhibition, to act as an interactive platform and connector between the people and organizations that are thinking about water in Vermont. Image above: Jen Morris, Northern Shore of White River Near Bethel 2013

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Come to the Of Land & Local: Watershed opening! Exhibiting artists include Casey Blanchard, Galen Cheney, Sean Clute, Cameron Davis, John Douglas, Al Larsen, Rachel Moore, Mark Reamy, Gail Salzman, Michael Zebrowski.

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The above image is a photograph by John Douglas of Ojihozo, a feature in Lake Champlain that is central to Abenaki creation stories. Douglas’s photographs of Ojihozo will be on display at Shelburne Farms during Of Land & Local: Watershed.  This blog investigates water issues in Vermont in conjunction with Of Land & Local: Watershed, with the hope of enriching the exhibition as a supportive text. To learn more about the show, visit the BCA website.

Historical relevance: How does examining the history of the waterfront help us understand changes today?

Middlebury College student Alexander Abarbanel-Grossman wrote a senior thesis in the Department of History at Middlebury College examining the history of the Burlington waterfront, and its past as a site of industry and manufacturing. How did the Burlington waterfront change from an industrial, hazardous space to the space of leisure it is today? Abarbanel-Grossman investigates the “complex and often unpredictable history of economic, cultural, and political shifts” at work in the evolution of the Burlington waterfront.

Abarbanel-Grossman’s study comes at a time of change on the Burlington waterfront. An abandoned coal plant and relic of the industrial waterfront, the Moran Plant is being remodeled as a community event space, including restaurants, a skate park and bike path, and public green space.

Though post-industrial change has been a facet of urban studies since the 1980s, Abarbanel-Grossman points out that even texts which focus on Burlington history lack depth and detail regarding the transformations of the waterfront. Abarbanel-Grossman’s thesis provides important historical context for understanding Burlington today, and provides a critical counter-narrative to simplified, linear accounts of progress.

Abarbanel-Grossman’s thesis is available here.

Links for further reading:

Read the Waterfront Revitalization Plan (1998)

Explore the Moran Plant, one exciting new initiative on the Burlington Waterfront.

Visit the Burlington Waterfront! Check out the calendar of upcoming events.

Learn about the history of the Waterfront and its role in Burlington’s industrial development.

Read about settler-colonial history, native and indigenous histories in the Champlain basin.

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The above image is a detail of a piece by Karen Henderson, Storm Lifting, which will be shown in Of Land & Local: Watershed at Shelburne Farms. Karen uses color and texture to examine space, time and landscape. This blog investigates water issues in Vermont in conjunction with Of Land & Local: Watershed, with the hope of enriching the exhibition as a supportive text. To learn more about the show, visit the BCA website.

To change the lake, we might need to change ourselves

Government officials, community members, and scientists have long discussed the issue of phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain. Now, graduate students at the University of Vermont Gund Institute for Ecological Economics are examining how notions of freedom and property contribute to lack of progress on the issue. Courtney Hammond Wagner says that addressing phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain will require “each of us to think critically beyond the boundaries of our personal property” and “designing our practices, businesses and regulations around the true goals of our community.”

Wagner is a member of “Economics for the Anthropocene,” or “E-4-A,” which is a partnership between U.S. and Canadian government agencies, non-profits, and universities. E-4-A aims to strengthen the connections between social science and humanities research and the changing economic and environmental realities of the Anthropocene, our current geologic period characterized by increased human impact on the environment. In Vermont, this means reevaluating how deeply held social values impact our environment, and what new values we may need to adopt in order to care for the natural resources communities depend on.

Vermont is under pressure from the EPA to reduce phosphorus levels in Lake Champlain. In 2014 the EPA announced that Vermont needed to cut pollution by 36 percent to comply with federal limits, but that the plans drafted by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VDEC) did not go far enough to achieve that goal. The VDEC names phosphorus runoff as one of the greatest challenges facing the lake. Phosphorus is naturally occurring in soils and drains into the watershed with rainwater and melting snow, though pet waste and fertilizers contribute to increased levels of phosphorus in sediments. Restoring Lake Champlain, in comparison to other lake restoration projects, is particularly challenging due to Vermont’s geography. UVM professor Breck Bowden says part of the issue is the size of the watershed in comparison to the lake; the basin area is 19 times the size of the lake itself.

By extending the discussion of restoring Lake Champlain to include economic and social values, Wagner and E-4-A are providing one more tool to help reduce phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain and ensure Vermont’s compliance with federal water regulations.

Courtney Hammond Wagner is a graduate student in UVM RSENR and the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics.

Links for further reading:

Involved! Information about phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain from the Lake Champlain Committee.

Read about some of the many sources of phosphorus pollution and other pollutants in Lake Champlain in this resource from Lake Champlain International.

Learn about the history of phosphorus reduction strategies, from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, Phosphorus Reduction Strategies.

Regulation and Policy: Read about the history of policy and regulatory interventions to reduce phosphorus pollution in the lake, from the perspective of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Go Deeper: Check out this in-depth study from Kathryn Morse and Diana Munroe of Middlebury College about Lake Champlain pollution and greater Vermont watersheds, Phosphorus Loading in Lake Champlain: A geographic, environmental, civic, and economic investigation into its causes, effects and prospects for the future.

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The above image is a detail of a work in progress by Cameron Davis Airs, Waters, Soils which will be a multi-site installation in Of Land & Local: Watershed at Shelburne Farms and Burlington City Arts. Davis is engaged with water and climate change as both artist and activist.  This blog investigates water issues in Vermont in conjunction with Of Land & Local: Watershed, with the hope of enriching the exhibition as a supportive text. To learn more about the show, visit the BCA website.

Water River Life-Giver: Water Contamination in Bennington, VT and the U.S. Southwest

Farina King is a PhD Candidate in Indigenous Studies from the University of Arizona currently serving as the 2015-2016 Eastman Fellow In Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. King is Navajo and Euro-American and through her scholarship and research, she is connecting issues of water contamination across the United States. Following the Gold King Mine Waste Water Spill in Arizona, which had drastic impacts on Navajo people, she organized a conference at Dartmouth to advocate for them, and to connect issues of water quality and access for indigenous people with other water crises, like the lead contamination in Flint, Michigan. Shortly after, she learned of water contamination issues in her new backyard, North Bennington, VT.

In 2015, shortly after Farina King moved from Arizona to Vermont, disaster struck the Navajo Nation. A maintenance mistake by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the inactive Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado led to the release of three million gallons of toxic chemicals into a tributary of the Animas River, which spans 126 miles and flows through Navajo and Ute lands. King wrote that she felt sadness, frustration and anger as people from her home dealt with the tragedy and with decreased water security, an issue many indigenous nations are plagued by. Though she was far from her home, King started a blog called Water River Life-Giver, and organized a conference of the same name at Dartmouth college to advocate for the Navajo people impacted by the disaster. Through this work, she began drawing connections between water contamination in her home, to problems in North Bennington.

For years, North Bennington residents had been complaining about emissions from Chemfab, a manufacturing plant that shut down in 2002. Officials finally took notice earlier this year when North Bennington resident Carol Moore sent a series of emails to town officials asking questions about a similar water contamination case in Hoosick Falls, NY. Moore was inspired by Hoosick Falls residents who pressured lawmakers to test the water for chemical contamination due to pollution from a factory owned by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, the same company that owned Chemfab. In Hoosick Falls and in North Bennington, test results revealed frightening levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in the water, and in February 2016, the State of Vermont announced that residents of North Bennington should not drink water from private wells until they had been tested by the EPA. In March the case made the New York Times in an article that featured interviews and accounts from North Bennington residents whose well water is no longer potable.

By connecting issues of water quality in Vermont with challenges faced by other communities, Farina King’s work strengthens the cases of impacted community members in receiving compensation for adverse health impacts or forced resettlement. Her work also does the important task of connecting the struggles of indigenous people, Black Americans (she draws on the lead contamination of the Flint River in Flint, Michigan) and working class Vermonters.

Links for further reading:

From the Associated Press: a news article about the Gold King Mine Waste Water Spill

A New York Times article about water contamination in Bennington, Tainted Water Worries Spread to Vermont Village

Farina King’s blog, Water River Life-Giver

Learn more about Farina King her her work on her website.

Vermont Digger has covered the PFOA contamination in North Bennington extensively; here is one article about the on-going contamination issue, In North Bennington, PFOA Found in 29 More Wells.

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The above image is a photograph titled Wetland on Sacketts Brook, Near Sand Hill Road, 2013 by Jen Morris. An exhibiting artist in Of Land & Local: Watershed at Shelburne Farms, Morris’s work explores the impacts of Hurricane Irene on the Vermont landscape.  This blog investigates water issues in Vermont in conjunction with Of Land & Local: Watershed, with the hope of enriching the exhibition as a supportive text. To learn more about the show, visit the BCA website.

The “Fracked” Gas Pipeline: Loss of Wetlands and Threats to Human Health

Since 2012 Vermont Gas Systems has been working to build a controversial pipeline through Addison County, Vermont. Activists call the project the ‘fracked gas pipeline,’ in reference to the method of gas extraction, hydraulic fracturing. Opponents to the pipe have raised concerns over increased cost of service due to the project’s costs (which have skyrocketed since the initial proposal was approved), and the landowners who have lost their land and homes in the eminent domain process (some proceedings are on-going). Others, mostly college students and young people, have expressed concern over whether or not building a pipeline is an appropriate infrastructural investment in an era of climate change. Vermont Natural Resource Council (VNRC) Water Program Director Kim Greenwood, and residents and organizers with the organizing collective Rising Tide Vermont, are concerned about how the proposed pipeline will impact water quality in the Champlain Valley.

In an article from the VNRC, Greenwood points out that the proposed pipeline project could have a detrimental impact on Vermont’s wetlands. She writes that “the Vermont Gas project will impact as much wetland acreage as all other wetland impacts across the state in an average year in Vermont,” a minimum of 28 acres, which is double the impact in terms of acreage of any project approved in Vermont in the past decade. Wetlands are vital for a number of reasons. During Tropical Storm Irene, Greenwood says, wetlands around Otter Creek were key in protecting areas of downtown Middlebury from destruction. Wetlands soak up excess water, act as a natural filtration system, manage pollutants, especially in Lake Champlain, and provide habitat for wildlife like insects, fish, amphibians, mammals, and birds.

Aside from the potential impacts of the pipeline if it is completed, landowners along the route have already complained about water contamination from the construction process. Twenty miles of proposed route fall along a corridor of utility poles in Addison county, managed by the Vermont Electric Power Co. In 2014, Monkton residents called for the halting of pipe construction along the corridor after pentachlorophenol (PCP) was found in a resident’s well. PCP is frequently used to treat utility poles, but it’s really dangerous; according to the U.S. department of health it can cause fevers, liver and organ damage as well as difficulty breathing, and the EPA lists it as a “probable cancer causing agent.”

Despite these concerns regarding water quality and human health, pipeline construction continues. This summer Rising Tide activists and residents along the route in Monkton continue to fight the project.

Links for further reading:

Vermont Gas Pipeline—Is it worth the wetlands? By Kim Greenwood

Pipeline Opponents Warn of Water Contamination by John Herrick

Vermont Gas Says Pipeline Cost Increases Again by Dan D’Ambrosio

Learn more about Rising Tide Vermont

Vermont Gas Pipeline is a Worsening Investment by Ross Saxton

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The above image is Michigan, 2015  by Mark Reamy. Like the other works included in Of  Land & Local: Watershed, the piece pushes us to examine our relationship to water.  This blog investigates water issues in Vermont in conjunction with Of Land and Local: Watershed, with the hope of enriching the exhibition as a supportive text. To learn more about the show, visit the BCA website.

Should VT Yankee have stored radioactive water in kiddie pools?

On December 29, 2014, Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station closed its doors and ceased production in Vernon, Vermont. Nuclear fuel was removed, and as of January 12, 2015, Vermont Yankee reported that the station had formally ceased operations and was “permanently defueled.” Yet, conversation between Vermont Yankee, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Vermont state agencies continue over water contamination following the shut-down.

In February 2016 VT Digger reported that due to “groundwater intrusion,” or seepage into VT Yankee storage facilities, 90,000 gallons of groundwater were contaminated with the radioactive element tritium. Vermont Yankee and state officials anticipated some level of contamination from the station, but did not expect the magnitude of contamination. A whistleblower broke news that the water was being stored temporarily in open, blow-up swimming pools, photos of which sparked outrage among Vermont legislators. Shap Smith was quick to speak out against what he perceived as negligent and irresponsible behavior, using consumer-grade swimming pools to contain radioactive materials. Smith’s main concern was his fear that Entergy, the parent company of Vermont Yankee, cared more about their stakeholders than they did about Vermont residents.

The tricky question of how to dispose of radioactive materials is one reason residents advocated for the decommissioning of the power plant in 2014. Yet some residents and activists are still advocating for nuclear power generation as a green and sustainable alternative to traditional fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Meredith Angwin runs a blog, Yes Vermont Yankee, and is a member of the Save Vermont Yankee facebook group. Post-decommission, the group has taken up raising awareness about other nuclear facilities facing decommissioning, and has also opposed the Vermont Gas Pipeline. Other supporters of Vermont Yankee include Howard Shaffer, who wrote an op-ed in the Rutland Herald commending Vermont Yankee for staying under budget in the decommissioning process despite the challenges posed by the water encroachment. Shaffer was a nuclear engineer at Vermont Yankee and is a member of the American Nuclear Society.

As of February of this year, Entergy was arranging to ship the water to a water treatment plant in Tennessee.

Links for further reading:

Opinion: Yankee temporary groundwater storage fiscally, environmentally prudent by Howard Shaffer

From WAMC: Use Of Decommissioning Funds Questioned As Pictures Surface Of Radioactive Water In Pools by Pat Bradley

Vermont Digger: Groundwater problem emerges at Vermont Yankee by Mike Faher

Yes Vermont Yankee: A blog about northeast energy issues, and in support of nuclear power by Meredith Angwin

Vermont Department of Health: Investigation into Tritium contamination at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station

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Around Town:

The "6X HOWL" will accompany Elizabeth Kolbert's talk on "The Sixth Extinction" (Sept. 14 at 5 p.m., Ira Allen Chapel, University of Vermont). It will be an interactive multi-media reception and "decompression space" incorporating live art and poetry, extinct and endangered species exhibits, food and refreshments, an extinction compost, grief counseling, and other ways of socializing, making community, and envisioning generative examples of how we could learn to live with and respond appropriately to mass extinction. Bring an open mind, a compassionate heart, and any messages you may have for future dwellers of this changing planet. The event is open to the public. Exhibitions will be open through the afternoon; scheduled events will begin immediately following the talk, from approx. 6:30 p.m. on. Participating artists include Brian Collier, Stella Marrs, Cami Davis, Al Larsen, and faculty and students of UVM, Champlain College, and St. Michael's College. The 6X Howl is a project of BASTA! (Bridging the Arts, Sciences, and Theory for the Anthropocene), with support from the UVM Humanities Center, the UVM Environmental Program, and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

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UVM Bottled Water Ban Continues

In 2012, the University of Vermont became the first institution of higher education in the United States to ban the sale of bottled water on campus. The ban was the result of years of organizing by members of Vermont Students Towards Environmental Protection (VSTEP), a UVM club. The ban was implemented under a new contract between the university and Coca-Cola, and included changes which require campus food service providers  to procure healthy beverage options. Students and university policy makers hoped the ban would lead to decreased plastic bottle use on campus and increase student health and wellbeing, but research conducted at the university point to more adverse impacts.

A 2015 study conducted by UVM Nutrition and Food Science professors Rachel Johnson and student Elizabeth Berman found that the ban did not decrease student consumption of plastic bottles, but that students actually increased their consumption of sugary bottled beverages in the years following the ban. According to Berman and Johnson, the data suggests that students who previously purchased bottled water on campus substituted water for sugar-free or sugar-sweetened beverages, despite UVM’s effort to reduce consumption of these beverages. Undeterred by harsh criticism from opponents of the ban, the university has rolled out an $11,000 marketing campaign in an attempt to influence students’ drinking choices.

In the 2015-2016 school year, signs went up across the UVM campus that read “UVM Hearts Water.” They extolled the benefits of choosing water over other drinks, and highlighted that water is clean, free and healthy, and that drinking from a reusable water bottle was easier than ever now that the university had invested in constructing water fountains with reusable bottle refill stations. The effort was coordinated by the Office of Sustainability and the UVM Eco-Reps program, but drew criticism from students, especially in the wake of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Students expressed frustration regarding the lack of awareness space plays in assumptions about water quality, access, affordability, and healthiness, and defaced some refill stations to draw attention to the initiative’s contradictions.

Yet behavioral studies at UVM suggest that it is not student political unrest leading to the ban’s relative failure, but the placement of water bottle refill stations. One study showed that students were more likely to refill their water bottles at a station directly inside, as opposed to outside,  a dining facility. In response, UVM introduced new ‘Coca-Cola Freestyle Machines’ in campus dining halls, basically fountain drink stations you might see in a pizza shop with reusable cups. The university also changed requirements for beverage procurement again: now, at least 50% of beverages sold on campus must have 40 or fewer calories per 8-ounce serving. Elizabeth Berman, the student researcher on the study about the ban, said that until UVM can demonstrate that the number of bottles being shipped to campus for sale has decreased, sale of bottled water should resume. UVM renewed their contract with Sodexo in 2015, and it remains to be seen how UVM will move forward with the ban.

Links for further reading:

Learn about the ‘The UVMHeartsWater Campaign’ from the Office of Sustainability

Information about the bottled water ban from the UVM Office of Sustainability

Read the study, The Unintended Consequences of Changes in Beverage Options and the Removal of Bottled Water on a University Campus.

The Huffington Post, When The University Of Vermont Banned Bottled Water, Students Drank More Unhealthy Beverages by Tyler Kingkade

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Of Land and Local 2016

Welcome to the Of Land & Local blog!

Of Land & Local is an annual multidisciplinary, statewide exhibition designed to initiate a dialog about issues surrounding art and the environment that relate to the Vermont landscape. In past years Burlington City Arts has partnered with the Vermont State Parks, Shelburne Farms, and the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park to hold exhibitions across the state. By connecting both Vermonters and tourists with artists working with the Vermont landscape, we aim to engage in and foster important conversations about art, the environment, and place. 

In 2016 BCA is continuing our commitment to supporting new work and is partnering with Shelburne farms and artists working with water, both conceptually and as a physical subject, object, and actor. Through exhibitions at the Shelburne Farms Coach Barn and the BCA Center, we facilitating a dialogue regarding water quality, the Lake Champlain basin, pollution, industry, and waterfront history. Through this blog, we will bring varied and critical perspectives to this dialogue by highlighting activism, research, and art that engages these topics. 

Our theme, Watershed, comes at the five-year anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene. How has water come to define the Vermont landscape? This blog moves through contemporary waterworks and deeper histories alike, and will draw in broader questions of gender, race, place, and power. An overarching aim of this blog is to think through how water, as a political actor and physical substance, works. More simply, what does water, in its multifarious forms, do? What are the prevailing narratives and stories about water in Vermont, and why are they significant? Who is studying and working with water, and what conclusions do different bodies of work suggest or point to?

Ultimately, this blog is concerned with what people are saying and what they are doing, what water is saying and what it is doing. I take seriously the task of contextualizing current and unfolding conversations in both broader political schema and the micropolitics of everyday life. I hope this serves as a useful resource and companion to the already rich and engaging works being created and shown in Of Land and Local: Watershed. More concretely, you can check this blog to hear about what’s happening with the exhibition; find out about related events, learn about the artists, see pictures and read interviews, and share your own experiences with the exhibit through social media.

See you in the galleries,

Caroline DeCunzo Gallery Intern