Emily Jeffers: Plastics and Acidity Rise in Our Oceans

Emily Jeffers is a staff attorney with the Center of Biological Diversity’s oceans program. Going into university, Jeffers decided to study biology in order to become a scientist. After working with fisheries, she decided that the sea needed advocates and there was  only so much scientists could do. So, she went to Berkeley Law to become an environmental lawyer. She interned at the Center of Biological Diversity and then interviewed for the position of an ocean attorney after graduating one and a half years ago, and has been working there
ever since.

Jeffers says the goal in the oceans department at the Center of Biological Diversity is to “protect endangered species and the ecosystems they rely on.” The four main focus areas of the department are the climate which deals with issues such as ocean acidification, oil and gas development, overfishing and bycatch due to poor fishing habits, and pollution, both noise and plastic. In order to address these issues, the program submits petitions to the EPA to place species under the Endangered Species Act and submits petitions for critical habitats, to give those species under the Endangered Species Act extra protection to recover. Jeffers admits that sometimes The Center of Biological Diversity will sue the government if they feel that it has failed to follow through on environmental laws, but she prefers to build a working relationship with government saying that it is “sometimes more effective than litigation.”

Ocean acidification is a major issue. since the industrial revolution the amount of carbon in Earth’s oceans has risen about 30 percent. The increase in acidification affects coral reefs and creatures with hard shells which will soften. The Center of Biological Diversity and Jeffers are trying to get state agencies and the federal government to use the Clean Water Act to address the issue of ocean acidification. They are also petitioning the federal EPA using administrative and scientific petitions and litigation to make the water quality criteria standards to make them more relevant toward ocean acidification.

   

Another major problem in our oceans is plastic pollution. Animals in the ocean often mistake plastic for food or will become entangled in it and die due to drowning or choking. Jeffers says some studies concerning plastic show the toxic consistency increases over time as it attracts toxic chemicals from the surrounding seawater so as the plastic is brought up the food web, it becomes more and more toxic. Jeffers is currently focusing on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands because “a current goes through and catches plastic pollution on the shores.” According to Jeffers, about 50 million tons of plastic are removed from the shores of the Islands each season. Last fall, Jeffers submitted a petition to the EPA to designate the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a superfund site which would clean up the toxic area and protect it from further pollution. The Superfund fund was made by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). She told us “we petitioned the EPA to conduct a preliminary analysis of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to see if they qualify for a cleanup under CERCLA.” Another part of the petition was to analyze the toxicity  of the plastic in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and how the toxicity threatens the surrounding species.

Sophi Leporte, Earthscope Student Reporter.