The California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) is spearheading a statewide initiative to better educate the public, regulators, and local, state and federal leaders on the role they need to play in achieving new state and national clean energy goals.

In Governor Jerry Brown’s 2012 State of the State address, he called for “…a goal of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020.” In President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address, he set a goal of having 80 percent of all Americans’ electricity provided through clean energy by 2035. California’s clean water agencies are listening and responding to the demand for clean energy.

Many of California’s publicly owned clean water agencies and wastewater treatment plants are successfully generating clean energy to offset their individual agency needs. Wastewater plants are identified as resource recovery agencies producing energy in the form of biogas, biosolids, and methane.  They are also able to produce energy when processing foods, fats, oil and grease provided by restaurants and residents.

“California’s clean water agencies are ready to be active partners at the state and national level to achieve these clean energy goals,” CASA President Gary Darling said. He added, “Local wastewater treatment and recycled water facilities are the ideal places to look at when investing resources into clean energy generation.  Increased clean energy production at local wastewater facilities is just one of the ways we are protecting the environmental and local waterways.”

CASA’s initiative is not only aimed at educating about the value of clean energy, but it will identify opportunities in public forums to advocate for investing in its members’ clean energy production, as well as removing any obstacles for funding and production.

“Clean energy production is a relatively new industry, both the public and the decision-makers need to understand dollars invested today will reap benefits in the future by helping to significantly reduce our reliance on traditional, and rapidly dwindling, energy supplies such as oil,” Darling said.

In April 2009, a Water Environment Research Foundation report stated, “The energy potential contained in wastewater and biosolids exceeds by at least five times the energy used to treat it.”  Currently, someCalifornia wastewater facilities are striving for a net zero energy consumption, literally becoming energy neutral by generating their own heat and power and even having excess energy available for outside use.

“This is an exciting time for California’s clean water agencies,” said Darling. “We have the opportunity to be part of our nation’s transformation from energy users to energy producers by expanding our everyday resource recovery work practices. Waste to watts, that’s our vision.”

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The typical teenager sits back watching a new episode of 90210 or Skins while observing and riveting all of the drama, scandals, sex and drugs. They observe everything that is happening like a sponge, then go out late on a school night. They watch TV, surf the web, talk to their peers, then the experimenting begins.

It seems clear that obesity is no longer  the No.1  public health problem .

A new study reveals that 90 percent of Americans who are addicted to tobacco, marijuana, alcohol or prescription drugs started using before they were 18 years of age. According to the researchers at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, their study found that one-quarter of Americans using any addictive substance before age 18 are addicted, compared with one in 25 Americans who started using an addictive substance when they were 21 or older.

Nearly half of all U.S. high school students now smoke, drink or use other drugs.

CASA reported that 75 percent (10 million) of all U.S. high school students have used addictive substances such as tobacco, alcohol, marijuana or cocaine, and that 20 percent of these students meet the medical criteria for addiction. Currently, 46 percent (6.1 million) of all U.S. high school students use addictive substances and one-third of them meet the medical criteria for addiction.

Nearly three-quarters (72.5 percent) of U.S. high school students have consumed alcohol, 46.3 percent have smoked cigarettes, almost 37 percent have used marijuana, about 15 percent have misused prescription drugs, and over 65 percent have used more than one addictive substance.

With access to television, the internet, and commercialism, U.S. teenagers are exposed to a lot of media and social pressures.  It opens their eyes more to what is out there on the streets at a young age. This causes teens to want to experiment and see what is “out there.”

The fact that an adolescent’s brain is underdeveloped increases the chances that they will take risks, including using addictive substances that obstruct brain development, impair judgment and increase the risk of addiction. In teenagers, there is an unexpectedly high level of activity in the part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex.

The prefrontal cortex is a region known to be involved in multi-tasking and decision making. This suggests that their brains have to work harder to process any type of information. This also indicates that the brains of teenagers are working less efficiently than adults’ brains. When you mix that with drugs and alcohol, your teen will not function properly.

So who is to blame?

Could it be acceptance of substance use by parents, schools and communities? The widespread advertising of products such as alcohol and cigarettes? Or media depictions of substance use as harmless, glamorous, fun and relaxing?

It seems the answer is all of the above.

The most important thing is not who to point the finger at, but  how to prevent and decrease this issue, which includes educating the public that teen substance use is a public health problem and that addiction is a medical problem. Also,  effective public health strategies should be used to prevent or delay the start of substance use. The mass media should be encouraged to back off making tobacco and alcohol such an enticing product. Teens with substance use disorders should be given appropriate medical treatment; and,  most importantly,  teens’ parents  should discuss drugs and alcohol with them and be a positive role model because their future is our future too.

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