Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Monday marks Earth Day in Western New York, the annual day of awareness and advocacy for environmental protection and wellness across the globe.
The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, which Paul Maurer from Re-Tree WNY remembers to this day.
"I was at the first one, which was back in 1970, and I remember the person that was pulling out of the lake a bottle of water and saying how poorly Lake Erie was doing with the pollution. That was the first one, so that was over 50 years ago, and I hope we've made some progress. I think we have," said Maurer in an interview with WBEN.
Maurer feels that even 50 years later, one can't focus enough about our planet. It's part of the reason why Earth Day still has such significance to this day.
For Jen Lee and the folks at Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, they're gearing up for the water season locally, and they want to make sure they have Western New York's waterways cleared out as much as possible.
"We love our summers in Western New York, we love our springs too, and it's getting to that time that people want to get out on the water. Before that happens, we usually have a lot of trash to clean up at this time of year," said Lee in an interview with WBEN.
"We know it's important to pick up the trash that is imminently about to go in the water, but it's also important to pick up the trash in the interior of the cities and different municipalities, because that can get in the storm drains and can also get back to our waterways."
In addition, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper is collecting data on the trash that's picked up in order to aggregate that and help in the advocacy for stronger water policies on a local, state and national level across the Great Lakes.
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Over the years, there have been a number of prominent wins for environmental activists in Western New York.
For Maurer and his group at Re-Tree WNY, they have worked to plant thousands of new trees across the region since 2006.
"Back in '06, Oct. 12, the day started out fine. By the end of the day, we had lost 57,000 trees just in the public area of Western New York, and that just happened overnight. It was a big calamity, and we had to do something about it," Maurer said. "So me and a bunch of others got together, and we decided we'd do a volunteer tree planting. As of now, we've planted 30,694 trees with just our volunteers, and that equates to a lot of great things for the environment that a lot of people don't even realize."
At Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, they have been working for years to not only clean up the waterways, shorelines and other areas of Western New York, but have worked to further educate the community on the importance of cleaning up the environment.
Perhaps the shining example of the Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper's work over the years has been on the Buffalo River.
"When Friends of the Buffalo River first formed 35 years ago, and that was the seed organization that Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper has become, the Buffalo River was basically declared biologically dead. It was an EPA-declared area of concern in the Great Lakes, and soon after, we were put in charge of the remedial action plan for cleaning up the Buffalo River," Lee noted.
"Looking at the Buffalo River today, it's a completely different world. There are people out there in the summer months kayaking and enjoying the river. There are businesses that have sprung up and are so popular when the weather gets warmer, and even even in the winter as well. That river has really come back to life. That has been a tremendous change over the 35 years that we have been operating."
One of the other environmental developments for the region through the work of Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper is changes in the works to build more resiliency along Buffalo's waterways.
"We've got a major coastal and climate resiliency study underway right now with the City of Buffalo, we've got a contractor - Ramboll engineering - that is doing that study with us, and we are studying the impacts on our coastlines and shorelines in the City of Buffalo that are really climate impacts. They're extreme weather impacts, and with flooding and seiche effects that happen, what is happening to those shorelines, the properties along those shorelines, and then what will happen in the future? The study is yielding some modeling results, and we're going to be able to identify problem areas that might not be problem areas now, but could be problem areas in five years and in 10 years. And we'll identify places that we want to build resiliency now to prevent that from happening," Lee explained.
So what are some prominent eco-challenges that still remain for advocates and activists on this Earth Day?
Maurer points to the cleanup of areas that have nuclear waste problems and other similar issues.
"What do you do with an element called uranium, and it has a half-life of hundreds of years? What do you do with it, and keep it from contaminating areas of our Earth? So I think when you look at environmental problems, there's a hot one right there," he said.
Lee also knows that while a good majority of the legacy contamination has been cleaned up, especially locally, there are now some emerging contaminants that's affecting Buffalo and the rest of the country.
One of those contaminants is Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), which is a whole class of some nasty toxins prevalent in waterways across the country.
"They're the kinds of things that came off of Teflon pans and fire-retardant materials, and they're, unfortunately, bio cumulative. They build up over time, and we believe them to be bio persistent, can't really break them down," Lee explained. "So now the challenge is identifying PFOS when it's at a level that's too high to be safe in a waterway. If that waterway is for drinking or just recreation or fishing, and then making sure we have the technology and the availability to try to get rid of the PFOS when possible."
Another issue Maurer still believes is a challenge ahead with the environment includes the continued fight against air pollution.
"I know there's a move now towards electric cars, and I hope that's a partial answer to it. Perhaps it's ahead of its time a little bit, but a lot of people are buying them, and hopefully the air will become more clean because of that," Maurer noted. "Some cities are really choking to death, literally, because of pollution, especially over in China and some of the other areas. That can't help us either just the fact that it's all one earth and it's all one volume of air that's going through our countries. It's not going to differentiate and it's not going to stop at a border, it's just going to keep going."
And, of course, another eco-challenge is just being more aware of the impacts of climate change.
"It can't be just a coincidence that we have as many storms as we have that are cataclysmic, really," Maurer said. "There's storms that are happening throughout the Northeast that have never happened before. I think we saw it first with the October 2006 storm that was supposedly only once in 100 years, and yet, a lot of other cities have gotten early snow storms and late snow storms, spring snow storms, hurricanes, of course tornadoes and things that haven't happened that frequently in the past."
So what can people do to make their own impact on better improving the environment on this Earth Day and beyond?
Lee says it's just continuing to be thoughtful about the environment around you, especially along the waterways locally and nationally.
"Water isn't always just what you see. There's groundwater too, and things that are in your yard can seep into the groundwater and contaminate the rest of our waterways," she said. Things that are on a city street can make their way down a storm drain, and through our combined sewer overflows make their way to our waterways.
"Being conscious about what waste you put into the world, what chemicals might be out there, and just trying to be a conscious consumer of those things. And any way that we can keep our waterways cleaner and more protected for our kids and our grandkids, that's a win for all of us."
Lee encourages anyone who'd like to join the Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper as a volunteer to them out at BNWaterkeeper.org/volunteer.
Meanwhile, Maurer hopes to continue to see more-and-more people planting trees as a way to better the environment.
"It's proven that trees take in carbon dioxide and clean the air, and give out oxygen. I think that's a simple thing to be able to do, and it's really not a very difficult process," he said. "It's really easy to plant a tree. We do training for that, we just did training this past weekend on the 20th, and we train every fall and spring for people to learn about planting trees, not only for us, but also for their own backyards, and it's always free."
Anyone looking for more information on tree planting and how you can volunteer with Re-Tree WNY, Maurer encourages anyone to head to Re-TreeWNY.org.