Discharge water from Tennessee Gas Co. pipeline testing worries environmentalists
As soon as the new pipeline is entirely in the ground, over 500,000 gallons of water from Lower Spectacle Pond will course through it to make sure the pipes don’t leak. Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. says it will do this hydrostatic pressure testing, required by the federal Department of Transportation, in a way that will minimize the impact to the surrounding environment and wildlife. But environmental groups say the discharge from this testing, likely to begin next month, might result in erosion. They are also worried that chemicals from an anti-corrosive coating inside the 36-inch pipes will leach into the testing water before its release back into the environment. FROM THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE <more>
Navajo healer blesses Lower Spectacle Pond prior to Tenessee Gas Co. pipeline tests
The mood was different in Otis State Forest on Monday. There were no megaphones, no political speeches, no arrests for stopping pipeline work, and no lineup of state police vans ready to haul protesters to jail. A Navajo Sundance Chief and traditional healer made the only sounds. The only songs were Navajo prayers and chants. The only instruments a drum, and a small flute used to signal the four directions before the prayer to each. And the only smell was of fall and smoke from sweetgrass burned to smudge each person who wanted to make an offering and pray over Lower Spectacle Pond. FROM THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE <more>
Protect the Appalachian Trail from
the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is set to carry high-pressure fracked gas across the Appalachian Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests. This pipeline could bring unprecedented changes to our Appalachian wildlands from explosions to landslides, to slashing through our wild forests and ruining backcountry hikes. FROM THE SIERRA CLUB <more>
Dirty laundry: Are your clothes polluting the ocean?
In an indoor “Manchester-drizzle-simulating” rain room at the University of Leeds, and in a laundry lab in Plymouth, research is revealing the unexpected environmental cost of the very clothes on our backs. “Not many people know that lots of our clothes are made of plastic,” says Imogen Napper, a PhD student at Plymouth University, “polyester, acrylic.” Ms Napper and Prof Richard Thompson study marine microplastics – fragments and fibres found in the ocean surface, the deep sea and the marine food chain. FROM THE BBC <more>
Houston’s toxic Superfund sites are
underwater and leaking
At least 20 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated in unprecedented flooding this week in and around Houston, Texas. Federal officials have already said that recovery from Hurricane Harvey will take years. Houston is the heart of the Gulf Coast oil industry. The so-called “chemical coast” is home to numerous petrochemical refineries and processing plants. As such, it is also home to more than a dozen Superfund sites — areas of serious toxic pollution designated by the EPA to need remediation. After Harvey, though, many of those sites have gone underwater. FROM THINKPROGRESS <more>
Jobs (click here for full job listings)
Regional Recycling Coordinator | City of Pittsfield | Pittsfield, MA
Conservation Projects Manager | Housatonic Valley Association | Cornwall Bridge, CT
Director of Ecological Restoration | MA Dept. of Fish & Game | Boston, MA
Community Solar Interns | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
Energy Efficiency Intern | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
Community Solar Program Director | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
Energy Efficiency Program Manager | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
Chief Executive Officer | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
2017-18 Position Openings | TerraCorps – Various locations
Various Positions | The Manice Education Center (MEC) | Florida, MA
Volunteer Opportunities | The Trustees | Stockbridge & Cummington, MA
Discharge water from Tennessee Gas Co. pipeline testing worries environmentalists
SANDISFIELD — As soon as the new pipeline is entirely in the ground, over 500,000 gallons of water from Lower Spectacle Pond will course through it to make sure the pipes don’t leak.
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. says it will do this hydrostatic pressure testing, required by the federal Department of Transportation, in a way that will minimize the impact to the surrounding environment and wildlife.
And the state Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Fisheries & Wildlife have signed off on the Kinder Morgan subsidiary’s plan here, which was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last year.
But environmental groups say the discharge from this testing, likely to begin next month, might result in erosion.
They are also worried that chemicals from an anti-corrosive coating inside the 36-inch pipes will leach into the testing water before its release back into the environment.
And they say they don’t know what the chemicals might be because no one will tell them.
“At the site visit, we requested information on what is used to coat the insides of these pipes,” wrote Jane Winn, executive director of Berkshire Environmental Action Team, in a 2014 letter to the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
“As far as I know, we have not had an answer,” she added. “We would like a full list of the chemicals that water will be exposed to.”
That list was never furnished. This is one complaint of many by environmental groups and residents over this stretch of the pipeline company’s 13-mile Connecticut Expansion Project, now nearing completion.
Nearly four miles of the Massachusetts spur of the natural gas loop will run through Sandisfield in an existing pipeline corridor with two other pipelines — one built in 1951, the other in 1981. Two of those miles are in Otis State Forest, on land protected by Article 97 of the state Constitution.
That the company won an easement of what became protected land about 10 years ago has drawn ire from activists, residents and state and U.S. lawmakers. Nearly 60 pipeline opponents have been arrested in protests since the work began in May.
Testing pipes
Hydrostatic pressure testing is a standard requirement for new pipelines to prevent what could be a dangerous failure. In this case, 2014 company documents says it will take about 1 million gallons — or three acre-feet — from the pond, which has a surface area of 70 acres.
A recent application to the EPA for a discharge permit, however, says the company will discharge 547,797 gallons.
Over a period of 8 hours the, company will push 2,000 gallons per minute through the pipes, reducing the depth of the pond by 0.04 feet, according to company environmental documents.
“[It is] not anticipated to have an impact on wildlife or human users,” the company says, adding that if additional rare species are found, Tennessee Gas will adjust its plans.
The company says it will use a screen to keep fish or other wildlife out of the hose and pump, and will take care to avoid sucking out insect larvae.
Because federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations don’t allow pipeline discharge into a water body, the water will be discharged at an “upland area” with a lot of vegetation, and regulate the speed.
No chemical additives will be used, the company says.
But Winn is worried about the epoxy or other materials typically used to protect pipe interiors from corrosion from high pressure gas or oil.
Epoxy typically contains Bisphenol A, which the EPA says is a “reproductive, developmental, and systemic toxicant in animal studies” and can harm aquatic organisms.
Kinder Morgan spokesman Richard Wheatley said the discharge water isn’t a concern.
“Because the testing involves fresh water, it does not harm the environment when discharged,” he said.
In that 2014 letter, Winn had also asked if the water would be tested for chemicals as it came out of the pipes. She said she never got an answer, and she now says MassDEP isn’t requiring testing.
“Why won’t they test it?” she asked in a telephone interview Thursday.
The company’s state-issued water quality permit doesn’t say anything about testing discharge water. But it does say the test water can’t be released back into a pond or brook.
The company, then, has to abide by approved strategies for managing discharge water, “to ensure that those activities do not result in a discharge to Waters of the United States within the Commonwealth.”
Cathy Kristofferson, of Massachusetts PipeLine Awareness Network, said this restriction is the reason why the company is going to let the water out in the “vegetated” upland area from which the water will eventually flow down into Spectacle Pond Brook. She said she’s worried about water warmed from sitting in the pipes for eight hours flushed into the cold water fisheries, and erosion in that area.
“I’m concerned — there’s not a lot of vegetation and it’s a steep slope,” she added.
And Kristofferson says she is concerned about chemicals that might also be discharged.
Peter Czapienski, of MassDEP’s Western Regional Office, referred The Eagle to the EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System under which Tennessee Gas is bound.
Czapienski declined to answer questions about whether the agency would require testing of discharge water, and whether it knows anything about the pipe coating.
Valspar epoxy
Wheatley confirmed that the pipes are made by Russian steelmaker EVRAZ and lined with anti-corrosive paint made by Valspar.
An EVRAZ spokesman based in Chicago said the pipe used in Sandisfield comes from one of the company’s plants in Western Canada. He said while EVRAZ sometimes coats pipes, Kinder Morgan had the Sandisfield pipes coated by a different company.
He also said coatings were probably regulated.
“Any coater in the U.S. would likely be subject to stringent [environmental] rules, just as we are in Canada,” the spokesman said.
“Valspar 2000,” which is stamped on the Sandisfield pipes, is an exterior anti-corrosive epoxy material, according to the company website. Valspar also makes a line of “CorroPipe” products for interior lining that uses a “100 percent solids polyurethane.”
Calls to Valspar were not returned. But a research technician at a paint and coating analysis firm said while it is “possible” such a coating product could leach into water, the only way to know is to test a sample of the product.
“You’d have to do an extraction study,” said Derek Beauchamp, senior technical director at Avomeen Analytical Services in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Several scientists contacted by The Eagle said they couldn’t speak to specifics about the degree to which chemicals would leach into the pipes in this case.
But John Tobiason, a University of Massachusetts Amherst professor of civil and environmental engineering and a drinking water specialist, said he was fairly sure about one thing.
“It’s never zero,” he said.
SANDISFIELD — The mood was different in Otis State Forest on Monday.
There were no megaphones, no political speeches, no arrests for stopping pipeline work, and no lineup of state police vans ready to haul protesters to jail.
A Navajo Sundance Chief and traditional healer made the only sounds. The only songs were Navajo prayers and chants. The only instruments a drum, and a small flute used to signal the four directions before the prayer to each.
And the only smell was of fall and smoke from sweetgrass burned to smudge each person who wanted to make an offering and pray over Lower Spectacle Pond.
This was a Navajo water ceremony, performed ahead of hydrostatic pressure testing of a natural gas spur built by Kinder Morgan subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., and because of its proximity to what will soon be three live natural gas transmission lines.
“We’re making an offering to the water,” said Jake Singer, a Navajo healer who performed the ceremony and instructed those who wished to make an offering how to add bits of corn powder, crushed seashells and dried flowers to the water with a prayer.
“We give something for a blessing in return,” he said.
In this case what is asked for is that the water remain safe from potential contamination from this nearly completed stretch of Tennessee Gas’ 13-mile Connecticut Expansion Project, a natural gas storage loop that will also run through parts of New York and Connecticut.
Any day now, the company will test the pipes for leaks by drawing over 500,000 gallons from the pond, holding it for eight hours, then releasing it in an upland area. The company received its discharge permit last week.
And fears over contaminants from pipe coatings is only the latest concern — and controversy — since the work began in May in what is roughly two miles of state-owned forest protected by Article 97 of the state Constitution.
But Monday it was all about the water.
“Water has its own spiritual power,” Singer said before the ceremony.
He pointed to what he calls his “instruments” — the offerings, American Eagle feathers to “cleanse the energy,” sacred stones and the wheatgrass. He said these all “act like an extension cord” to the “spiritual guardians.”
“We’re calling the spirits and saying `Hey, look down this way – help us out,'” he said.
Singer drummed and chanted, the trees shimmied, and the water rippled towards the bank where nearly 70 people had assembled.
A group of children made offerings, then the adults.
Rhonda Anderson, who said she is a member of the Inupiaq tribe and is from Alaska, came here from her home in Colrain because of the water, and because “being Native American always makes you an activist.”
Jerica Meditz of Framingham said she, too, had come to pray for the water. Meditz said she spent six months at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota last winter also to support the “water protectors” who had entrenched in protest of the Dakota Access pipeline construction there.
And Micah Lott, a Northern Arapaho man from Wyoming, had also spent the winter at Standing Rock. Lott, who organized the ceremony, now lives at a Central Massachusetts camp dedicated to organizing Native American and other activists to work towards protecting water from fossil fuel infrastructure. Lott said he hoped more Native Americans would get involved here at Otis State Forest.
And Singer, who received a purple heart for being twice-wounded during the Vietnam war — to which he went as a volunteer — also spent time at Standing Rock last winter. He said he supported that movement to protect the tribal water source, at risk from potential leaks in the crude oil transmission line.
“Right now people are just looking at money,” he told The Eagle later, speaking about the pipeline company’s incursion into “sacred lands” there in North Dakota. “They can put millions of dollars in the bank but they can’t take it with them when they die.”
Singer grew up on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, where his father was a medicine man. He said he learned his craft as a little boy tagging along with his father as he worked.
And so he said he understands that there is power not just in people, but in all of nature. And he said humans charged with taking care of the creator’s work have not been doing the best job.
“Water is one of the four elements — if one is missing, then we die,” he said.
Protect the Appalachian Trail from
the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is set to carry high-pressure fracked gas across the Appalachian Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests. This pipeline could bring unprecedented changes to our Appalachian wildlands from explosions to landslides, to slashing through our wild forests and ruining backcountry hikes.
Protect and preserve the Appalachian Trail and the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests — ensuring that their beauty and priceless cultural heritage can be shared and enjoyed today, tomorrow and for centuries to come.
Take action to protect the Appalachian Trail, our public lands, and priceless cultural heritage from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Write to the U.S. Forest Service here about this important issue.
“Not many people know that lots of our clothes are made of plastic,” says Imogen Napper, a PhD student at Plymouth University, “polyester, acrylic.”
Ms Napper and Prof Richard Thompson study marine microplastics – fragments and fibres found in the ocean surface, the deep sea and the marine food chain.
And in a recent lab study, they found that polyester and acrylic clothing shed thousands of plastic fibres each time it was washed- sending another source of plastic pollution down the drain and, eventually, into the ocean.
“My friends always make fun of me because they think of marine biology as such a sexy science – it’s all turtles, hot countries and bikinis,” says Ms Napper.
“But I’ve been spending hours washing clothes and counting the fibres.”
It might not be exotic, but this painstaking “laundry-science” has revealed that an average UK washing load – 6kg (13lb) of fabric – can release:
- 140,000 fibres from polyester-cotton blend
- nearly half a million fibres from polyester
- more than 700,000 fibres from acrylic
Fishing for plastic
That is from every load of synthetic laundry from every UK washing machine. “A lot more fibres were released in the wash than we expected,” Ms Napper says.
“They’re going down the drain, so they are making their way into the sewage treatment works and maybe, from there, into the marine environment.”
Prof Thompson says washing clothes could be a “significant source” of plastic microfibres in the ocean.
“When we sample, we find plastic fibres less than the width of a human hair – in fish, in deep sea sediments, as well as [floating] at the surface.”
Changes need to happen “at the design stage”, he says; better, harder-wearing and less “disposable” clothing would last longer and be good for the environment.
“The garments [we washed] were similar fleecy garments, and some were shedding fibres much faster than others,” Prof Thompson says.
“We need to understand why some garments wear out much more quickly than others, so we can try to minimise unnecessary emissions of plastic.”
And scientists now have the backing of possibly the most wholesome of British organisations; the Women’s Institute, decided just last month to campaign for what they called “innovative solutions” to the problem of microplastic fibres in the ocean.
Toxic raincoats
Prof Richard Blackburn, head of the sustainable materials research group at the University of Leeds, agrees that textile-makers need to think about what happens “in use”, when we wear and wash our clothes.
“People don’t consider it,” he says. “So, potentially, the pollution could be caused by us – the consumers – rather than the manufacturers.”
Prof Blackburn’s colleague in Leeds, Philippa Hill, was also drawn to the subject of laundry – by chemical coatings being washed off outdoor clothing.
The waterproofing most high-end, rain-proof jackets are treated with consists of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), which are persistent and potentially toxic pollutants.
Coating textiles and other materials with PFCs makes them resistant to stains, grease, and water. They are also used in some non-stick pans and food packaging.
These molecules sit on top of the (usually nylon) outer fabric like a protective layer of chemical barbed wire – the tip of every barb pushes away water molecules, which are too large to pass through the spaces in between. Air molecules can pass through freely, resulting in a non-sweaty, breathable, waterproof jacket.
And while textiles manufacturers have to abide by regulations to limit the pollution they release into waterways, Prof Blackburn says, “there are no limits on what we can release from our own homes”.
Prof Blackburn and Ms Hill compared PFC-coated fabric with that treated with more benign oil-based coatings that also repel water.
“We took samples of fabrics that had been coated with the different treatments,” says Prof Blackburn.
“And we’d carry out industry-standard tests – showering them with water and measuring their performance.
“We demonstrated that new coatings – that are not based on [fluorochemicals, or PFCs,] give just as good water-repellency as the fluorochemical coatings that have been around for decades.”
A campaign last year by Greenpeace spurred several outdoor brands to promise to end their use of PFCs in their clothing
And a representative of the European Outdoor Group (EOG) – the body that represents the outdoor industry – said of Prof Blackburn and Ms Hill’s research: “This is the kind of data we need to make decisions on.
“It’s a real challenge, but brands are very keen to have this information and to move away from PFCs.”
However, Prof Blackburn also makes the point that in comparison with the environmental footprint of the natural fibre cotton, many synthetics are actually “pretty clean”.
“I always tell my new students that to grow 1kg of cotton consumes the amount of water you’ve drunk in your lifetime,” he says.
And bringing into the mainstream what are currently relatively niche “bio-plastic” fabrics could help clean up the industry further.
Clothes from rubbish
These bio-synthetics are available and gradually becoming more popular:
- lyocell– a fibre made from trees
- PLA fabric made from fermented food waste
- artificial vegan leather made from pineapple
Henry Ford developed soybean-based plastic fibres. Casein fibres – made from milk – have also been developed.
But, Prof Blackburn says, “these never received the research focus or attention, with the advent of the petrochemical synthetic fibre industry”.
He cites further examples, of fibres made from fermented food waste and fruit skins.
“Poly[lactic acid] fibre or PLA is made by fermenting waste corn to make lactic acid, which is then polymerised to make this bio-polyester,” he says.
“That’s a great fibre, but has largely been used for packaging – the [fabric research] has fallen by the wayside.”
But while the new research puts pressure on the textile and clothing manufacturers to clean up their act, there is something we can all very easily do to reduce the impact of what we wear on the environment.
“We are unsustainably addicted to consumption,” says Prof Blackburn.
“I cannot emphasise enough how much of a step-change it would be for sustainability if we bought fewer items of clothing per year, wore them for longer and threw them away less often.”
At least 20 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated in unprecedented flooding this week in and around Houston, Texas. Federal officials have already said that recovery from Hurricane Harvey will take years.
Houston is the heart of the Gulf Coast oil industry. The so-called “chemical coast” is home to numerous petrochemical refineries and processing plants. As such, it is also home to more than a dozen Superfund sites — areas of serious toxic pollution designated by the EPA to need remediation.
After Harvey, though, many of those sites have gone underwater.
The risk to people and the environment is both immediate and long-term. Kids are reportedly swimming in waters that might be passing through Superfund sites or state-designated toxic sites. But even after the flood waters subside, it’s impossible to know how far the toxins may have spread.
“If the water picks up contaminated sediment from sites, that may get deposited in areas where people frequent — residential properties, parks, ballfields — that were never contaminated before. We can’t say for sure it will happen, but it’s certainly a possibility,” Nancy Loeb, director of the Environmental Advocacy Center at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, told the Washington Post.
The water could also leach into groundwater sources from nearby wells.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is planning to overhaul the Superfund program. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt — who has decided to personally lead the program — says his approach will reduce costs and speed clean-up, but a task force report from July offered such vague recommendations as “Establishing an ‘Administrator’s Top Ten’ list which will get his weekly attention” and “Finishing sites where construction is completed or nearly completed in order to transition the site from ‘Remedial Action’ to ‘Ready for Reuse’ to Deletion, as appropriate.”
And — along with many other EPA programs — the Superfund program is facing significant budgetary cuts if the Trump administration has its way. The EPA’s proposed budget cut total Superfund cleanup funding by $330 million dollars, a more than 30 percent reduction. The program had already been cut from FY16 to FY17, so the proposed new budget is less than two-thirds what it was two years ago.
The program’s emergency response funding, critical before and after events such as Houston’s flooding, has also been cut by 30 percent over the past two years.
New toxins transmitted via water and air also present serious public health risks to Houston residents. At least one of ExxonMobil’s local oil refineries was damaged and leaked chemicals. Another damaged plant released large volumes of sulphuric acid into the air.
Jobs
Regional Recycling Coordinator
City of Pittsfield | Pittsfield, MA
The Municipal Assistance Coordinator for the Western District (WE) provides technical assistance to municipalities to increase recycling, composting, waste reduction, household hazardous waste diversion and regional cooperation. The City of Pittsfield has been awarded a Host Community grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to fund this position.
The Coordinator will act under the supervision of the MassDEP and will serve 100 municipalities in a district known as “Western”. The district extends from Ware to Richmond. For a map and list of communities in the district, please visit: http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/macmap.htm
This is an independent contractor position. The position is funded at 36 hours per week, with an annual ceiling of 1,800 hours. Annual compensation is commensurate with experience, starting at not less than $55,000. An additional $5,000 annual reimbursement is provided for self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare). Use of personal vehicle is required. Vehicle mileage, tolls and parking =will be reimbursed. Limited funding for in-state professional conferences is also provided.
DEADLINE TO APPLY: Friday, September 8, 2017 @ 4:00PM
Full listing and application details here.
Conservation Projects Manager
Housatonic Valley Association | Cornwall Bridge, CT
The Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) is seeking a highly motivated, detail-oriented environmental professional to join our Watershed Conservation Team. The successful candidate will support all aspects of HVA’s conservation projects, which include (but aren’t limited to) environmental monitoring, regional road-stream crossing assessment and replacement planning, watershed management planning, stream corridor restoration, stormwater management through Green Infrastructure development, and environmental education. This position is based out of HVA’s Connecticut office.
This is only a part of the job description. To view the full descriptions and to apply, click here.
Director of Ecological Restoration
MA Department of Fish & Game | Boston, MA
The Division of Ecological Restoration is charged with restoring and protecting the health and integrity of the Commonwealth’s rivers, wetlands, and watersheds for the benefit of people and the environment. This mission is critical to the success of the Department of Fish and Game that manages, protects, and restores the natural resources of the Commonwealth.
The Division of Ecological Restoration works with community-based partners to restore aquatic ecosystems. The Division’s ecological restoration work brings clean water, recreation opportunities, and other ecosystem services to the citizens of Massachusetts.
The Director leads the Division of Ecological Restoration, one of three Divisions (and one Office) of the Department of Fish and Game. The Director is responsible for all functions and program performance ensuring that the Deputy Director is properly managing the day-today operations of the Division and the assistant director is administering annual budgets properly. The Director develops and makes sure the annual and five-year strategic plan goals are implemented and sets procedures and program priorities for the Deputy Director and Assistant Director to faithfully administer. The Director oversees development of the operational and capital budgets and manages a diverse staff.
This is only a small part of the job description. Click here to read the full description and to apply.
Various Positions at Co-op Power
Co-op Power in Florence, MA, is hiring for:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Energy Efficiency Program Manager
- Community Solar Program Director
- Energy Efficiency Intern
- Community Solar Interns
Full details and how to apply here.
2017-18 Position Openings with TerraCorps – Various locations
TerraCorps, formerly MassLIFT-AmeriCorps, is an innovative national service program helping communities conserve and secure land for the health and well-being of people and nature. This year we are looking for 36 members to serve in full-time, 11 month positions. Members will carry out capacity building projects; educate or train individuals; recruit, train, manage, and support community volunteers engaged in land-based activities; and identify new individuals and groups to participate in education, recreation, or service opportunities centered around land access and conservation.
Members serve as: Land Stewardship Coordinators, Regional Conservation Coordinators, Youth Education Coordinators, or Community Engagement Coordinators.
These 1,700 hour AmeriCorps positions receive a living allowance, education award, and additional AmeriCorps benefits. The 2017-2018 program will run from 8/28/17 – 7/27/18.
Application specifics, position descriptions, and information about organizations hosting TerraCorps members can be found at here.
Applications will be accepted until all positions are filled.
AmeriCorps programs provide equal service opportunities. TerraCorps will recruit and select persons in all positions to ensure a diverse and inclusive climate without regard to any particular status. We encourage applications from individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations for interviews and service upon request. TerraCorps is a grant program of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Various Positions
The Manice Education Center (MEC) | Florida, MA
The Manice Education Center (MEC) is intentionally located in a unique outdoor setting within the heart of the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. MEC operates several distinctly different seasonal programs that are experientially focused in high-quality environmental education, wilderness camping, and leadership training.
Summer Outdoor educators will lead wilderness expeditions for campers & can expect to guide an average of 6 backpacking and/or canoeing trips, ranging from 2 to 5 days in length. Expedition locations inlude the Appalachian Trail, Long Trail, Savoy Mountain State Forest, Taconic Trail, Battenkill River, Deerfield River, & Connecticut River. Educators receive training in backpacking and wilderness navigation, participate in a 2 day professional canoe clinic, & can earn free certifications in Wildernes First Aid and/or Waterfront Lifeguarding.
APPLY TODAY – SEND US A COVER LETTER AND RESUME TO EMPLOYMENT@CHRISTODORA.ORG
For more details please visit our Jobs page (click here).
Please share this opportunity with your friends and colleagues! If you have any questions about employment in Christodora programs, please contact Matthew Scholl, Programs Director at 413.663.8463 or email us at employment@christodora.org
“Time travel” with The Trustees, and take our visitors on the voyage with you! Become a National Historic Landmark Greeter at Mission House (Stockbridge) or Tour Guide at the William Cullen Bryant Homestead (Cummington) and share the stories and magic of these special places. No experience necessary. Training provided. Fridays through Sundays. Flexible. Fun. Social. Rewarding.
Visit www.thetrustees.org/volunteer or contact tbeasley@thetrustees.org or413.532.1631 ext. 3119 for more information.