Developing Numeric Nutrient Criteria for Streams on the Delmarva Peninsula

To better address stream impairments due to excess nitrogen and phosphorus and to accomplish the goals of the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requiring states to develop numeric nutrient criteria. An assessment of nutrient concentrations in streams on the Delmarva Peninsula showed that nutrient levels are mostly higher than numeric criteria derived by EPA for the Eastern Coastal Plain, indicating widespread water quality degradation. Here, various approaches were used to derive numeric nutrient criteria from a set of 52 streams sampled across Delmarva. Results of the percentile and y-intercept methods were similar to those obtained elsewhere. Downstream protection values show that if numeric nutrient criteria were implemented for Delmarva streams they would be protective of the Choptank River Estuary, meeting the goals of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL).

Too Much to Belong: Latina/o Racialization, Obesity Epidemic Discourse, and Unassimilable Corporeal Excess

This project examines the discursive constructions of Latina/o bodies as excessive in order to examine how Latinas/os are excluded from belonging to the U.S. nation-state. By approaching Latina/o Studies from a Fat Studies perspective, it works to more adequately address the role of embodiment in determining processes of racialization that directly impact Latinas/os in the United States, especially in light of the role of race and racism in “obesity epidemic” discourse. This dissertation argues that cultural and even physiological explanations about the Latina/o propensity for “overweight” and “obesity” create a discourse that marks the Latina/o body as demonstrating an unassimilable corporeal excess. In turn, the rhetoric of “diversity” and “multiculturalism” are rendered inapplicable to Latinas/os, as demonstrated by both nativist and seemingly pro-immigrant discourses that posit Latina/o physical excess in the form of fatness as detrimental and even dangerous to the U.S. nation-state.