, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

WVSORO concerned about floodplains and gas drilling

The West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization is focusing its attention on how floodplains are used in natural gas drilling activity.WVSORO…

The West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization is focusing its attention on how floodplains are used in natural gas drilling activity.

WVSORO co-founder Dave McMahon says because of the regulations on the books, surface owners aren’t notified when gas drillers want to put equipment on floodplains. This is usually the case if the surface owner doesn’t own the mineral rights.

McMahon says floodplain ordinances, implemented by counties, need to change accordingly to fix the gaps.

“What should be scary for counties is, the driller has threatened to sue the county for tens of thousands of dollars, saying that because the county had a bad floodplain ordinance, that resulted in their permit getting denied by the judge, they want to sue the county for all the expenses they had in putting the permit together,” McMahon said.

Download the Mp3 to learn more.

Rooftop garden to play a role in Marshall’s storm water management

Marshall University’s college of science is conducting an experiment that they hope will help them in the future.

The Marshall University College of Science installed a green roof in a small space just off the second floor of the science building. It’s the beginning of an experiment that will illustrate what it will take to maintain larger green roofs on the biotech building on campus. That building is being constructed. It’ll also play a role in Marshall’s continued effort to better handle storm water.

Chuck Somerville is the Dean of the College of Science.

“This is a demonstration, it’s a small area and it’s not going to have a big impact on storm water on campus, but it’s in a visible place and people can come by and see it and we can put up signage about what a green roof does and how it works,” Somerville said. “So we can get a lot of educational bang for their buck, rather than storm water treatment or storm water retention.”

It’s a process that has been several years in the making. Somerville said after seeing facilities out of the state that were using the idea, they thought they should try it on the science building.

“We’ve had to go to a company that produces the plants and does the design and go through the design process and just growing the plants is about a 6 to 8 month project there,” Somerville said.

Eventually Somerville said the roof was ready for planting. They recently put in plants that include geraniums and irises. He said after going through the process of making sure the roof could handle the weight, water and soil, they now know what to expect at the new biotech facility.

“We have a green roof planned for the new building actually it’s going to be engineered into the structure so this was an add-on after this building was long since built,” Somerville said.

Biotech building in the process of being constructed.

Travis Bailey is an Environmental Specialist with the Health and Safety Department on campus. He’s tasked with helping the campus become more responsible for storm water. He said this is just one of the newer ways to deal with the water.

“A green roof is basically to capture the water and the let plants absorb it and if it doesn’t let it slow down and filter the water out, filter out the pollutants that are in the air, rather than that water going straight down the drain and potentially out to the river,” Bailey said. “It’s not being absorbed by the soils and filtered out, but for the most part we’re hoping that the plants will uptake and use most of that water,” Bailey said.

Huntington has a combined sewer system, meaning sanitary sewage and storm water runoff collect in the same pipes. Because of this the Environmental Protection Agency charges organizations like Marshall to collect the first inch of water for each building. So Bailey and others have started projects like the green roof, a rain garden and other means to collect this water all around campus.

Bailey said he hopes these projects show it’s possible to do these projects.

"And to show people a green roof is doable, it is not a mythical thing you hear about other cities doing," Bailey said.

“And to show people a green roof is doable, it’s not a mythical thing you hear about other cities doing, we’re showing that you can do it here, it can be done here and same thing with the rain gardens,” Bailey said. “People read about them or have heard about them and it’s like you can’t do it here, but we’re trying to show that it can be done here and we’re gearing up to do some more hopefully.”

Bailey said green roofs also can have a positive effect on stopping ultraviolet rays from harming the roof.

Last Tango in Halifax featuring Derek Jacobi

The critically acclaimed British drama LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX premieres Sunday, September 8, 2013 at 8 p.m. on West Virginia PBS.The six-part series leads…

The critically acclaimed British drama LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX premieres Sunday, September 8, 2013 at 8 p.m. on West Virginia PBS.

The six-part series leads into the finale of the MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! courtroom drama “Silk” as part of the continuing Sunday night destination for drama on PBS. LAST TANGO is an uplifting comedy/drama about romance and second chances. Full of zesty humor, authentic characters and glorious dialogue, it’s about timeless love in a very modern setting.

http://video.wvpubcast.org/video/2365074513/

Written by Sally Wainwright (“Scott and Bailey,” “Unforgiven,” “At Home with the Braithwaites”) and directed by Euros Lynn (“Black Mirror,” “Sherlock”) and Sam Donovan (“Skins,” “Secret Diary of a Call Girl”), LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX completed its first season in the UK in 2012. The premiere ranked within BBC One’s top ten highest-rated drama series in 2012, attracting 7.3 million viewers. A second series has been commissioned in the UK. A Red Production for the BBC, LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX is produced by Karen Lewis and Nicola Shindler, with Sally Wainwright and Matthew Read as the executive producers.

“LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX comes to life through its heartfelt storytelling,” said Beth Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming, PBS. “We hope viewers connect with the characters’ ups and downs and experience the timeless nature of love with them. We are so pleased to add this series to the great collection of drama on Sunday nights.”

Childhood sweethearts Alan and Celia, both widowed and in their 70s, fall for each other a second time when they are reunited on the internet after nearly 60 years. As their lives collide, the couple laments what might have been as they begin a life-affirming journey together. While their relationship is a celebratory tale of the power of love at any age, it is also a story about family and the complications the relationship causes, especially for their grown daughters.

Executive producer Nicole Shindler said, “‘What if’ is a question that haunts all of us, but in the hands of Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid, and the larger cast of LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX, it becomes a hugely thoughtful and funny look at love and loss and hope. Making the series was a complete joy for all of us involved, and Sally Wainwright and I are of course thrilled that we can share the series with viewers in the U.S. The themes and stories are completely universal, so we’re hopeful that PBS viewers will enjoy the series as much as those in the UK.”

LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX stars Derek Jacobi (The King’s Speech, “The Borgias,” My Week With Marilyn) as Alan, Anne Reid (“Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Marchlands”) as Celia, Sarah Lancashire (“Five Daughters,” “Wuthering Heights,” “Inspector George Gently”) as Caroline, Nicola Walker (“Inside Men,” “Spooks,” “Being Human”) as Gillian, Tony Gardner (“Fresh Meat,” “My Parents Are Aliens”) as John, Dean Andrews (“Life On Mars,” “Ashes To Ashes,” “Marchlands”) as Robbie, Nina Sosanya (“Silk,” “Five Days,” “Hustle”) as Kate, Ronni Ancona (“Skins,” “Big Impression”) as Judith and Josh Bolt (“Shameless,” Nowhere Boy) as Raff.

Full episodes of LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX will be available for viewing on the PBS Video Portal for a limited time after each national broadcast.

Biology professor at Marshall receives grant to examine rattlesnakes

One Marshall University professor’s research is pretty unique. She’s examining the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, which isn’t in West Virginia. The…

One Marshall University professor’s research is pretty unique. She’s examining the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, which isn’t in West Virginia. The research will take her to the Marine Corps training base in South Carolina.

Jayme Waldron is an assistant professor of biology and conservation biologist. As a Marshall University undergrad she took part in studies looking at salamanders. That research took her to South Carolina where she gradually looked at reptiles and then rattle snakes.

“Did research for my dissertation at Clemson University and I never stopped, kind of got obsessed with it, but they’re fascinating creatures that are horribly misunderstood,” Waldron said.

“They’re really not that scary, don’t get me wrong you should respect them, but they’re not out to get you, they try to avoid people,” Waldron said.

Waldron’s newest research project will allow her and a team of researchers to continue looking at eastern diamondback rattlesnakes at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina. There she’ll look at effects of military land use on the rattle snakes. The Marine Corps often changes the base’s landscaping for various training exercises. The Corps wants the research done to try to prevent any encounters with the rattlesnakes while also making sure they’re not threatening the eastern diamondback population.

She said what they’ve found is unique.

“So they wanted to monitor them to make sure there wouldn’t be conflicts. So it started out with mark-recapture surveys and we were like wow they have a good population of diamondbacks. Why aren’t there conflicts?” Waldron said. “There’s never been a bite on the island and there really aren’t any conflicts and as it turns out the rattlesnakes are really good at avoiding people even though there a lot of people. We’re not exactly sure about the details of the mechanism and how they’re so good at avoiding people, we’re trying to figure that out now”

Due to declining numbers and widespread loss of habitat, the species of eastern diamondbacks are under review for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act. So the question is — how does she and her team catch one? The answer is — very carefully.

“The way we catch them is we encourage them to go into this long clear plastic tube and they think it’s a hole and they’re escaping,” Waldron said. “You put them on the ground and you touch them on their tail and sometimes that doesn’t work, it’s an art to get them in the tube sometimes.”

Waldron has been studying the area since 2008, but the most recent $87,800 grant from the U.S. Department of the Army allows her and a team of researchers to continue to track the snakes. For the study Waldron said they’ll conduct mark-recapture surveys and use radio telemetry to monitor free-ranging diamondbacks over a period of two years. They will also monitor the vegetation associated with how the marine uses the land.

Waldron said the eastern diamondback can’t be found in West Virginia, but timber rattlesnakes can be found here.

The eastern diamondback’s habitat is in the southeastern part of the U.S. along the coasts of North Carolina down through Florida and along the Gulf Coast, including on several U.S. Department of Defense Installations.

Waldron said there research will be used in different ways.

“So far we haven’t detected any negative effect to training operations on eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, good right? Check. Now with any changes that might occur to training operations or habitat use, is that going to effect the rattlesnakes? Which they’re a candidate species,” Waldron said. “So the application is all management driven, management of training and management of natural resources.”

Waldron says the results will be used by other military bases on the east coast and along the gulf in how they deal with the snakes and their training practices.

Are smoking bans working at Marshall and WVU?

With smoking bans at both of the state’s largest higher education institutions in full effect since July 1^st, it’s now that students are back on both campuses that the real test begins.

Since July 1^stMarshall’s campuses have observed a tobacco ban, banning students, professors and staff from smoking anywhere on campus. But only since the beginning of last week have students inundated the main campus in Huntington after the start of the fall semester. Marshall University student Will Vance said he’s just had to change his routine.

“During the day I guess out of courtesy I walk out to the perimeter of the school, you know there going from having three people outside a building to having a perimeter of people around the school smoking, I don’t really think that helps the schools image,” Vance said.

Amy Saunders is director of student health on campus. She said people smoking on the public sidewalks around campus isn’t new, but it’s not nearly the problem some might think.

“I don’t really even think it’s been that hard for us, it seems like it’s been a really good thing, but what you have happen is when you change the environment, you have the culture and the norm start to change and the culture isn’t really supportive of that behavior and so hopefully what we’ll see down the road is more people will adapt to the healthy behavior.,” Saunders said.

Saunders said they don’t want to have to start citing students or add the rule to the student code of conduct. Instead, she says university officials feel like if it’s given time things will gradually change on campus, as they already are.

Vance said he’s not sure how things will work on campus in the coming months. He says students might become more tempted to smoke near the buildings instead of outside of campus as fall changes to winter.

“Especially when it starts getting cold, people aren’t going to want to walk all the way out there, people are just going to smoke out front, there’s not much the school can do about it right now and I hope that they don’t,” Vance said.

Saunders said she hopes the colder months have the opposite effect.

“We don’t want to go that route to have to do citations or anything, that will be difficult to do, our hope is that we’ll see a lot of people that will want to quit when that times comes, is that addiction going to be so strong that it will compel you to go out there on the sidewalk? And for some people, yes unfortunately it will, but for some people that might be a game changer for them, where they say I want to change this behavior,” Saunders said.

Marshall’s student health department is offering smoking cessation classes throughout the year to help those that decide the new ban is the time to change things.

DEP seeks comment on a watershed management plan

The state Department of Environmental Protection is putting together a plan to manage pollutants in a northern West Virginia watershed. This plan will have a key role in the health of the waterways.

The plan is called a Total Maximum Daily Load plan; it establishes limits for how much pollutants can be in streams listed as impaired. These pollutants include: total iron, chlorides, and dissolved aluminum. DEP’s TMDL’s program manager Dave Montali says it takes time to develop plans like this one.

“Universally across our state, we have bacteria; water quality impairment is fairly common. We also have sediment related problems from iron, basically everywhere we monitor. In the Mon watershed, we have some legacy mine drainage issues,” he said.

This particular watershed stretches from the Fairmont area up to the Pennsylvania state line. There are several hundred streams in the watershed. Montali says this particular TMDL plan addresses tributaries of the Monongahela River, but not the mainstem itself.

“Water quality in a watershed, in a community, affects everybody. It affects their health, it affects their economic growth, it affects population,” said Timothy Denicola.

Timothy Denicola works with the Friends of Decker’s Creek. Decker’s Creek is one of the water bodies in the Mon River Watershed. He says TMDL plans play vital roles in the long-term life of an aquatic community.

“The TMDL is the tool or the template by how we maintain healthy aquatic communities. It is the means by which a healthy ecosystem is maintained in a watershed and subwatersheds,” said Denicola.

The agency is now taking public comments on the plan. Public comments are accepted until the 16^th. The DEP will submit its final draft proposal on TMDLs to the Environmental Protection Agency, following the end of the public comment period.