a long standing presence of the us military on the island of vieques, puerto rico has left its warm, turquoise waters and sandy, beach getaways tainted by ammunition waste and chemical contamination leaving spirited residents and restoration task forces to pick up the shrapnel.

in 1941, the u.s. navy purchased 27,000 of the 33,000 acres that comprise the island of vieques. for nearly 60 years, the viequenses people “coexisted” in the crossfire between the divided training areas on the 50.8 sq mile island, roughly the same area as the city of las vegas.

following the death of a civilian navy employee, david sanes in 1999, civil unrest ensued, eventually leading to the departure of the us navy presence in 2003. however, the navy left the island peppered with remnants of undetonated bombs, pfas chemicals, uranium, mercury, napalm and more. all of which are toxic materials known to have serious effects on human health along with generational impacts on the health of island youth.

caught in a crossfire: life on the island

the navy’s departure followed years of persistent displays of civil disobedience by viequenses. before that, residents on the island lived an alarmingly close 8.7 miles from the “live impact area” where military jets, traveling between 500 and 1,300 miles per hour, trained for high altitude bombing on the easternmost part of the island. according to author katherine t. mccaffrey, an error in four seconds of fire from a ship could land up to 14 or 20 miles from the target, while a four second error from an aircraft pilot could drop a bomb up to 50 miles from a target. 

local vieques resident, elda guadalupe carrasquillo, grew up during the navy’s occupation and recalls the windows of her grade school classroom shaking during active munitions trainings. carraqquillo was raised on various army bases before settling in vieques with her family around age 10. “when i was in a real military base, even though i saw a lot of military things, there were no actual live practices like here in vieques,” she said.

despite carrasquillo’s familiarity with the events that occur on a military base, she affirms these training sessions were “too close” for the safety and comfort of residents. today, carrasquillo works with an agro-ecological farm on the island, la colmena cimarrona, and is a middle school teacher. in addition to the violent nature of living so close to these “live impact areas”, residents also suffered from legacy pollution due to the chemical and material shrapnel. 

rates of cancer amongst viequenses are 31% above that of the rates of cancer on the main island along with 4 times the rate of hypertension amongst residents. coupled with this, pollutants like agent orange, depleted uranium, and pfas have leached into the island’s soil, groundwater, and air leaving residents vulnerable to exposure through a variety of mediums.

“we don’t know how contaminated our underground water sources are,” carrasquillo said. she also noted that a large majority of students on the island require individualized educational plans due to learning disabilities which recent studies have found links between cognitive development and pfas exposure.

uxos and remediated sites: successful strides in clean-up efforts

in 2005, the island was placed on the national priorities list, as a “superfund” site — one that requires investigation and clean-up by the u.s. government. today, several locations around the island have been successfully remediated to become recreational spaces for islanders and tourists.

a notable site from the eastern sect of the superfund sites, the puerto ferro lighthouse was constructed in 1896 by spanish colonizers. the lighthouse lies within the 535 acres that comprise uxo area 15, an unfortunate title that refers to the presence of unexploded ordnance like bombs and bullets on the land. despite the contamination, the scenic area on the southern coast of vieques overlooks a bright blue coastline and slopes upward as you move inland.

the area around the abandoned structure is home to a thin forest of mangrove trees, lagoons, and salt and sand flats. but in just one year, over 23,000 explosive bombs were dropped on these coastal hills. in 2013, the us navy initiated priority action to facilitate public access and to encourage recreational and commercial activities at puerto ferro and the surrounding beach areas.

the area was investigated for munitions and explosives of concern anywhere from 1 to 4 ft below ground surface level. the area was ultimately remediated seven years ahead of schedule, and upon completion provided public access to formerly restricted areas as well as educational kiosks and monuments for visitors to interact with.

moving to the western sect of the superfund sites, former open burn/open detonation sites (swmu 4 and uxo 16) were also successfully remediated ahead of schedule to provide further public access to recreational spaces like the beaches around the island. several pieces of munitions were removed from the site, however, not all were recollected. despite this, a 2018 remedial investigation report found the likelihood that these munitions were still physically present in the area was improbable.

balancing the health of the land and the people

a large part of the uxo sites on the island have been remediated, and are in the concluding or monitoring stages of the clean-up process. while numerous sites still remain around the island, within the next decade, most of the entire island is expected to be remediated.

nonetheless, carrasquillo expects challenges and uncertainty ahead. “we know it’s never going to be completely clean and maybe it’s not going to be usable for what the viequenses need,” she said.

still, carrasquillo characterizes viequenses as “resistant,” embodied in the peoples’ continued advocacy for their own health and the island’s environment. following the clean up of munitions around the island, she hopes to see the island begin to restore its emotional and mental wellness through strengthening their relationship with the land stating, “if we can heal our land little piece by little piece so we can also be healthy, maybe we can help vieques recover.”

north america has the highest diversity of freshwater mussels in the world, with almost 300 different species. also known as the “liver of the river,” freshwater mussels filter and protect aquatic ecosystems. despite being able to filter between eight and 15 gallons of water per day, mussels face a myriad of threats including industrial development which affected these populations as factories popped up along the schuylkill river during the industrial revolution. 

at its worst, philadelphians said the river did not even resemble water. now, scientists at the fairmount water works (fww) freshwater mussel hatchery are working tirelessly to create a space where visitors can learn firsthand about the life of a freshwater mussel and how cleaner river water depends on one of the most imperiled aquatic animals in north america.

in 2017, the philadelphia water department teamed up with the partnership for the delaware estuary to open the hatchery, which is free to the public, and located within the fww interpretive center. the hatchery was designed and imagined by the academy of natural sciences at drexel university, victoria prizzia of habithéque, inc., and artist stacy levy.

introducing philadelphians to the power of the mussel

the hatchery sits along the schuylkill river, which provides 40% of philadelphians with drinking water, with the other 60% being provided by the delaware river. the location of the hatchery, along with preserving pieces of architecture from the original waterworks building are all intentional. according to stacey heffernan, the environmental education planner, “mussels are the gateway animal to get people to care for the waterways.” the hatchery’s proximity to the schuylkill, one of philadelphia’s most iconic green spaces, places it in a culturally significant and emotionally resonant site for many locals.  

in addition to this, the hatchery also runs educational programs for philadelphia youth. four schools from the surrounding area participate in the “mussels in the classroom” program. this provides teachers with their classroom’s own recirculating aquaculture system and some juvenile mussels. with this, students are able to engage first-hand with measuring mussels and monitoring water quality. 

the hatchery also runs a “mussels in the field” program located at the audubon discovery center, which provides youth from six nearby school districts with similar hands-on interactions, as well as introduces students to blue-green infrastructure. once a month, the discovery center also hosts “mussel maniacs” where adults can participate in similar field work and connect with other conservation enthusiasts. 

rebuilding a population of workhorse filterers

since the hatchery opened in 2017, they have consistently propagated around 10,000 mussels each year. the fww mussel hatchery strays away from what these types of aquatic field stations often aim to do, which is to focus on restoring endangered native populations. instead, the hatchery is working to build up common species that once thrived in the schuylkill prior to industrial development, which could lead in local efforts to purify water sources for philadelphians. 

in the wild, mussels have a few main ways of propagating, but scientists in the hatchery lab do these manually. this past year, the hatchery achieved a new personal record of the highest number of successful propagations with 20,000 mussels. so far this year, the hatchery more than doubled their yearly propagation numbers with just two inoculation trials. they also performed their first study to determine the rate at which two species of freshwater mussels could remove pollutants. 

looking ahead, the results will be used to determine how mussels can work as a complement to traditional pollution control technologies. with all these new milestones, heffernan says, “we have made a lot of strides in a short period of time.

on her weekends off, lehigh university’s library communication specialist kathleen frederick patrols allentown, pa city grounds with a 13-gallon trash bag; picking up the litter strewn along the roadways. typically, she’ll fill the bag with cigarette butts, plastic bottles, and discarded newspapers. but sometimes she finds something stranger – a disfigured baby doll and a range of cassette tapes with the beverly hills cop soundtrack on them. she notices the litter that lines the streets and falls into sewer grates, and takes note of new neighborhoods she can add to her patrol.

but it hasn’t always been like that, she said she used to be “trash blind,” like many allentown residents, ignoring the trash that peppers our streets. in a 2021 study published by keep america beautiful, they found that nearly 50 billion pieces of litter plagued roadways and waterways across the united states. in pennsylvania, efforts have been made in recent years to combat this problem, through programs like allentown’s sweep and pennsylvania’s first litter action plan, published in 2021. both of which focus on reshaping residents’ attitudes and behaviors around responsible waste disposal.

“i wanted to show people what an area could look like when it’s clean,” frederick says.

during the covid lockdown, frederick began to take walks during her lunch breaks. when she realized the volume of trash in her area, she began to bring a plastic bag with her to collect litter. this small habit during her lunch breaks soon evolved into her local initiative, lehigh valley cleanup. frederick started lehigh valley cleanup in the beginning of 2021, while she started her social media accounts, where she documents before and after photos of her cleanups, in october of 2021. to clean with frederick, volunteers need a yellow safety vest, a pair of gloves, and a trash grabber. frederick spends most of her cleanups in allentown, where she reports the greatest volume of litter, but also picks up in bethlehem and easton.

although a blind eye can be turned to the landscape, the same cannot be done for the volume of the issue. according to the pennsylvania litter action plan, pennsylvania roadways have 502.5 million pieces of litter in total.

“[litter] has become part of the landscape,” frederick says. “the volume of trash is outrageous, and i don’t understand why.”

ann saurman, the manager of the allentown city bureau of solid waste and recycling, oversees the city’s contract with waste management which collects trash and recycling, hands out recycling bins to residents, and educates residents on city ordinances for things such as trash limits. additionally, saurman’s department manages allentown’s sweep program. the sweep program started in 2005 and aims to enforce and educate allentown’s solid waste and recycling ordinances. residents in violation of these ordinances are given a sweep violation ticket, for which must be paid, and the violation must be cleaned up. saurman believes litter stems from not knowing or understanding city ordinances, while many would simply blame it on carelessness.

“although our sweep program writes tickets for infractions, the main purpose of it is to educate,” saurman says.  “if we’re at a property and we see that something’s wrong, first and foremost, they would try to get in contact with that resident to let them know that there’s a problem. because a lot of times residents don’t know that, that they’re even breaking rules or breaking ordinances, so it’s always most important to teach them.”

in a 2011 study published in the journal of environment and behavior, personal, and environmental determinants of littering behavior were analyzed. the study concluded that the presence of existing litter significantly impacted the likelihood of littering in the observed experimental sites. coupled with this conclusion is the importance of convenient and strategic placement of trash receptacles. prior studies have found that while the addition of more trash receptacles does not reduce litter, one conveniently, well-placed receptacle can greatly reduce littering in a given area.

the pennsylvania litter action plan projects that with the behavioral changes advised by the plan, pennsylvania can expect a 30% reduction of litter within the next five years. to keep track of the commonwealth’s progress, the plan reports that they will conduct visible litter surveys each year starting in 2022, and then reconvene in 2027 to do a cumulative, follow-up study to see if the plan’s recommendations were successful. with that, it is difficult to report on the efficacy of pennsylvania’s first litter action plan but litter in pennsylvania is a pressing issue that the state faces.

“litter is one of the very few, non-political, non-divisive issues in anybody’s community,” frederick says. “litter begets litter, and if you pick it up, it’s gone!”