Charlie-- Hi there, Charlie here. Communications Manager for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County. This is my little podcast called Good Work New York. Where we're focusing on all the Good Work that we do here in Rockland and the Hudson Valley and all of New York really. Today I have with me Mister Ryan and Miss Maya. Say Hello!

Maya & Ryan-- Hello!

C-- Miss Maya, who are you?

M-- My name is Maya Aglialoro and I'm a Junior at Boston College studying environmental geoscience and I interned at Cornell this summer.

C-- And Mister Ryan, who are you?

R-- Hi, I'm Ryan Sedwick. I just graduated from Hampton College and I majored in geoscience, and I also interned at Cornell this summer.

C-- So you were both Cornell interns over the summer. What did you learn? What did you work on?

R-- We learned a lot about Environmental issues that are facing the county and yeah. Mainly, it was theHudson River Fish Advisory we worked to educate other people about these issues and what they can do to help.

M-- Yeah, so we went to Farmer's Markets, collaboratives, other fairs, and also put pier signs to help spread the word and educate others about what we learned this summer.

C-- That's great. And we're here at the fireman's training center, for the Rockland Conservation & Service Corps' Presentation Day. And I think I have a big presentation board behind me. Is that right?

R-- It is.

C-- So why don't you tell me about your presentation?

R-- Sure well as you can see, there's three different sections to our presentation. One about the Hudson River Fish Advisory, one about harmful algae blooms and fertilizer use, and one about composting.

C-- So this Hudson River Fish Advisory, what am I advised about?

R-- Well the fish Advisory is basically to educate people about PCBs in the Hudson River. They are a harmful chemical that was dumped years and years ago and now its making into the fish in the Hudson. So women on the age of 50 and men under the age of 15 should not eat any fish that come out of the Hudson River. And certain fish such as channel catfish and walleye, nobody should eat out of the Hudson River.

C-- Great! And these harmful algae blooms, they sound familiar. Why do they sound familiar, Maya?

M-- So, Jen actually did a podcast last week talking about these algae blooms and we’re here to also teach everyone else because you can't tell the difference just by looking at them if it's harmful or not. And Harmful Algae Blooms actually have cyanobacteria in them. So it's really dangerous if your dog or pet jumps into the water and then licks itself, then it's ingesting that water and can get really sick. The algae blooms are caused by nutrient pollution, which is caused by fertilizers running off. There's actually a law in NYS and Rockland County that fertilizers shouldn't be applied that have phosphorus in them because the soils already have adequate amounts of phosphorous. All the extra phosphorus nutrients will go straight to the waterways and cause these harmful algae blooms.

C-- That's very good to know and a great refresher. So, Composting! Tell me all about composting, I'm dying to know.

M-- Composting is really important because food waste in landfills is one of the top contributors to greenhouse gas. So if everyone composted, they'd do their little part in lowering emissions. Composting is recycling kitchen waste to make this end product which is an organic matter that you can put on your lawn, garden, or other plantings. And to do this, you would take your fruit, vegetables, you can put leaves, newspapers, egg shells, things like that. You just want to make sure you avoid meat, fish, dairy, and oil because that'll smell and also attract animals that will get into your compost

C-- I definitely don't attract animals. So now that the summer's over you're continuing on with your lives. Are you going to continue educating people about environmental issues?

M-- So I'm still gonna learn a lot about more different environmental issues and also keep educating people these that we learned this summer.

R-- I've already been telling my family and friends about what I learned this summer. Hopefully they'll continue and educate and so on.

C-- That's great! I want to thank Mr. Ryan and miss Maya for coming on Good Work New York this week next week we'll be back with another episode of Good Work New York, and 'that's some good work, New York! Say bye everybody!

M & R-- Bye!