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The jaguar or panthera onca has to be one of the most magnificent animals on Earth. Maybe the most magnificent. Only the tiger and lion are larger cats. Our Maya friend Aniceto says we have a jaguar den on our ranch; probably some shallow limestone cave covered by dense growth. Part of our ranch is virgin rainforest.

We’ve never seen our jaguar but he has. One evening coming back from his “milpa” he saw it in the middle of the road. Usually they don’t come out at all when it is light, but this one did. The jaguar or “el tigre” as he is called by the Maya, probably was hungry and looking for a tepe, tejon or javalina. Humans eat the same food, though we barbecue tepe and the jaguar chomps it down raw.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are mixtures of up to 209 individual chlorinated compounds (known as congeners). There are no known natural sources of PCBs since PCBs are no longer produced in the United States, but they are still found in the environment. PCBs are either oily liquids or solids that are colorless to light. Some PCBs can exist as a vapor in air. PCBs have no known smell or taste. Many commercial PCB mixtures are known in the U.S. by the trade name Aroclor. PCBs have been used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment because they don’t burn easily and are good insulators.

If you have gone to your local pet store, you would have discovered that there really are a lot of different decorative bird house designs made up of a similarly dizzyingly variety of materials ranging from metal to colorful plastics to wood. However, if you would like to build your own birdhouse instead of buying a ready-made one, the best material to choose to construct your birdhouse is wood because it is easy to cut, it has naturally attractive designs, it is weather-proof and most importantly it doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb in the middle of your backyard.

Iron is one of the most common elements in the Earth’s crust, so it is no surprise it finds it way into many home well waters. The maximum contaminant level (MCL) for iron set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency is 0.3 ppm. This can also be expressed as 0.3 milligrams per liter of water. In concentrations above 0.3 ppm, iron in water can cause staining of fixtures and porcelain, ruin laundry, and make the water taste terrible.

Groundwater contamination usually arises when individuals have wells. In those circumstances, the ground aquifer is contaminated with the specific chemical or chemicals released by the responsible party. This material then develops into a plume and infiltrates the various well water sources.

Individuals that own the wells are then exposed to the chemicals by ingestion (drinking the water), skin contact (bathing with the water), and inhalation (breathing steam from the water). In addition to being exposed to groundwater contamination through wells, groundwater contamination can also result in areas of low water tables with atmospheric or air contamination in people’s homes. If the chemicals are volatile, such as gasoline or other materials, they may escape into people’s basements and may be trapped, thereby exposing the homeowner who may inhale the fumes.