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Pam Lazos

Pam Lazos is an environmental lawyer and the author of the enviro thriller, "Oil and Water," about oil spills and green Technology; of a collection of novellas, "Six Sisters," about Family, dysfunction, and the ties that bind us; creator of the literary and eco blog www.greenlifebluewater.earth; a blogger for the Global Water Alliance (GWA) in Philadelphia; on the Editorial Board for the wH2O Journal, recently rebranded as the International Journal of Water Equity and Justice (University of Pennsylvania); an editor and ghostwriter for the newly published book, "Finally Home" by Deacon Mike Oles; author of a children's book, "Into the Land of the Loud"; and former Senior Assistant Regional Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she protected water and wetlands for over 33 years. Pam continues this work through her writing. She practices laughter daily.

Recent Content

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Sky View Of The Susquehanna River &Raquo; 548726860 1353182802807121 8586570870741324311 N
Sky View of the Susquehanna River

Since I retired two years ago, my attention has been divided among many things that have tugged at my heartstrings for years (which is why my blog posts are few and far between these days), like clean…

Since I retired two …

Since I retired two years ago, my attention has been divided among many things that have tugged at my heartstrings for years (which is why my blog posts are few and far between these days), like clean water, reducing plastic, knowledge-transfer sessions on various environmental topics, and writing. One of my favs is the work I’ve been doing at the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, and our mission-driven, never-ending quest for swimmable, fishable, drinkable water. Over Christmas, my brother-in-law, LJ DuToit, who owns Apex Views drone services in Chattanooga, took drone …

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River Rocks Are the Building Blocks

Over the last year and a half, I’ve had the pleasure of being on the board of the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (LSRA) with a group of like-minded, water-loving volunteers. The experienc…

Over the last year a…

Over the last year and a half, I’ve had the pleasure of being on the board of the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (LSRA) with a group of like-minded, water-loving volunteers. The experience is everything I want in a volunteer organization: mission and project-driven, hands-on, and hyper-focused on preserving and protecting the Susquehanna River. Both the board and staff give freely of their time and talent, advocating for a river that has no voice of its own, monitoring for pollutants and existential threats, teaching the next generation of environmental stewards, hosting events th…

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Rippling Out: The Impact Of Of Lsra’s Environmental Education Program &Raquo; 5514657E884Bb.image
Rippling Out: The Impact of of LSRA’s Environmental Education Program

It’s 9:00 a.m. on a sunny spring day in May. Devin Winand, Deputy Director of the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (LSRA), Megan McCarthy, LSRA’s Community Engagement Coordinator, and Aar…

It’s 9:00 a.m. on …

It’s 9:00 a.m. on a sunny spring day in May. Devin Winand, Deputy Director of the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (LSRA), Megan McCarthy, LSRA’s Community Engagement Coordinator, and Aaron Dixon, Program Coordinator for LSRA, gather at Long Level to greet a group of middle-schoolers. The kids scramble off the bus, excited to head down to the bank of Lake Clarke, so named because of its slow-moving water, where a fleet of tandem kayaks awaits them. Many of the students have never been on the river or seen it in person. Some are nervous, while others, who have fished or swum in th…

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Yes, We Can! &Raquo; Img 1510
Yes, We CAN!

Red Rose Reuses, participating in a tabling event at Open Streets in Lancaster I always Love the way the universe sends you the right people at the right time once you make up your mind about what …

Red Rose Reuses, par…

Red Rose Reuses, participating in a tabling event at Open Streets in Lancaster I always love the way the universe sends you the right people at the right time once you make up your mind about what it is you want to do. I met Melissa Snavely and her husband Doug when they presented a six-session class on plastics at F&M College in the spring of 2024. Having just retired, I was looking for volunteer opportunities in my community, and I soon joined their nascent College Park Climate Action Neighborhood — CPCAN, or CAN for short — dedicated to tackling climate change and the many-faceted pr…

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Say My Name!

Almost ten years ago to the day, I published Oil and Water under the moniker P.J. Lazos. At the time, I thought I was being clever, using my initials like J.K. Rowling did, and also, hoping to attract…

Almost ten years ago…

Almost ten years ago to the day, I published Oil and Water under the moniker P.J. Lazos. At the time, I thought I was being clever, using my initials like J.K. Rowling did, and also, hoping to attract male readers by using a distinctly not-female name. I had spoken to a marketing executive before the book came out, and she saw my using my initials instead of my name as a distinction without a difference, telling me only to “keep your name consistent” across all my work. I heard her, I did, but at the time, I felt as though I should keep my lawyering and writing lives separate. So I went…

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Oh, Behave! Managing Our Love Affair With Plastics &Raquo; Lcafapril2025
Oh, Behave! Managing Our Love Affair with Plastics

Photo credit, Karl Gibbons, Third-Eye Management In April, Melissa Snavely and I, co-directors of Red Rose Reuses, had the pleasure of presenting a talk on reducing single-use plastics. Red Rose R…

Photo credit, Karl G…

Photo credit, Karl Gibbons, Third-Eye Management In April, Melissa Snavely and I, co-directors of Red Rose Reuses, had the pleasure of presenting a talk on reducing single-use plastics. Red Rose Reuses originated under the umbrella of  College Park Climate Action Neighborhood (CAN), an affiliate of RegenAll. RegenAll is a local non-profit working towards carbon neutrality across business, agricultural, and neighborhood networks. CAN borders F&M and Buchanan Park in Lancaster, PA, and just completed its first year of community climate action. One of our first initiatives was the Plastic…

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Step Inside This House — The Stevens And Smith Center For History And Democracy &Raquo; Img 8385 1
Step Inside This House — The Stevens and Smith Center for History and Democracy

A few months ago, I enjoyed a sneak peek tour of the new Stevens & Smith Center for History and Democracy, located on the southwest corner of the Marriott hotel at the corner of Prince and Vine Street…

A few months ago, I …

A few months ago, I enjoyed a sneak peek tour of the new Stevens & Smith Center for History and Democracy, located on the southwest corner of the Marriott hotel at the corner of Prince and Vine Streets. The museum is comprised of what used to be two houses belonging to Congressman Thaddeus Stevens — his home and law office, and the adjacent Kleiss Brewery. The bones of the museum are now finished, thanks to the fantastic efforts of Lancaster History, and the museum is currently being populated with all the artifacts that will bring Stevens’ and Smith’s lives, along with this period of hi…

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World Water Day 2025 &Raquo; Img 5090 1
World Water Day 2025

Sunset Beach, Cape May, NJ © pam lazos Pristine. The word means unspoiled, untouched, or as new, a quaint concept when describing the environment because there is almost no place left on earth tha…

Sunset Beach, Cape M…

Sunset Beach, Cape May, NJ © pam lazos Pristine. The word means unspoiled, untouched, or as new, a quaint concept when describing the environment because there is almost no place left on earth that hasn’t been touched by man’s meddling. Today, freshwater supplies are more endangered than ever in human history. When only 0.5% of our freshwater is accessible and useable, and as of today, there are 8.2 billion thirsty people on the planet, I’d say that we will need to rethink some of our choices sooner rather than later. Add this to the fact that companies are selling us our groundwa…

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Man Made By Fred Burton &Raquo; 71Kw1A02Gbl. Sl1360
Man Made by Fred Burton

Version 1.0.0 According to the world’s leading astrologers, in 2025, mankind will make a paradigm shift that took 12,000 years to arrive, a “literal metamorphosis for us as humanity.” From th…

Version 1.0.0 Acc…

Version 1.0.0 According to the world’s leading astrologers, in 2025, mankind will make a paradigm shift that took 12,000 years to arrive, a “literal metamorphosis for us as humanity.” From the vantage point of utter chaos where we find ourselves sitting these days, it’s inconceivable that such a shift could even be possible. Yet, planetary activity suggests otherwise, with some predicting that “our 24th chromosome is coming back online,” which “will open up our multidimensionality in a way we’ve never known it before.” I’m sure we can all agree that we in the U.…

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March Madness With Susquehanna Plastic Pick’n 1000! &Raquo; Screen Shot 2025 03 08 At 1.56.46 Pm 450X301 1
March Madness with Susquehanna Plastic Pick’n 1000!

John Naylor, a former Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (LSRA) Board member and founder of Susquehanna Plastic Pick’n 1000 (SPP1K), has another idea for getting plastic out of the Susquehann…

John Naylor, a forme…

John Naylor, a former Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association (LSRA) Board member and founder of Susquehanna Plastic Pick’n 1000 (SPP1K), has another idea for getting plastic out of the Susquehanna River. This one started with a conversation John had with Daryl Lehman at Double Blaze Painting after Daryl did some painting for John, which resulted in a $250 rebate. Rather than pocket the cash, John created a funraiser around it.  And so March Madness with SPP1K a/k/a Pick-a-Pound Funraiser was born. From March 1st through April 7th, 2025, John, with some help from the Dirty Dozen, will …

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The Dirty Dozen! &Raquo; Img 6086
The Dirty Dozen!

The iconic film The Dirty Dozen debuted in 1967. The movie depicts a group of WWII soldiers –“twelve general prisoners, convicted by courts-martial and sentenced to serve lengthy prison terms,” …

The iconic film The …

The iconic film The Dirty Dozen debuted in 1967. The movie depicts a group of WWII soldiers –“twelve general prisoners, convicted by courts-martial and sentenced to serve lengthy prison terms,” i.e., Army criminals — chosen to parachute across enemy lines and assassinate high-ranking personnel under Hitler’s command. The group of us from the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association that attended the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources DCNR’s cleanup of the floodplains along the Susquehanna Riverlands State Park yesterday were not so storied but simply hoping…

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Zoom In On The Conejohela Flats, Part 3 &Raquo; Screen Shot 2025 02 02 At 8.11.56 Pm 450X299 1
Zoom In On the Conejohela Flats, Part 3

Among the leaf litter, we discover plastic as numerous as it appeared on the banks from a distance. We find bottle caps, spent lighters, shreds of plastic bags, and Styrofoam bits everywhere. We see b…

Among the leaf litte…

Among the leaf litter, we discover plastic as numerous as it appeared on the banks from a distance. We find bottle caps, spent lighters, shreds of plastic bags, and Styrofoam bits everywhere. We see broken bits of plastic, no longer reminiscent of the items of their origin. They are just bits of colorful plastic among the leaves, roots, and soil. A bird can’t fit a discarded Gatorade bottle in its beak, but the tiny colored bits of plastic that permeate this island may well be enticing to many creatures. Think back to the shorebirds pecking into the mudflats or the osprey diving for fish. Th…

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