So our presentation today is about creating hearing and age friendly communities. As I mentioned earlier, our presenter has laryngitis and she's not able to give this presentation today. But I'm going to give most of the presentation that she was scheduled to give minus her own personal story. So before we get going here, I have a couple of questions that I'd like to ask everybody.  So how many of you have a telecoil in your hearing instrument? How many of you don't have a telecoil? So if you don't have a telecoil raise your hand. Okay. Is there anybody here who doesn't know what a telecoil is? We'd like you to raise your hand to that. Okay. So we have an idea that the most most of the people in this meeting today already have telecoils. If by some chance you don't have one, you don't know what it is. That is the golden gift for you to be able to understand in public venues. If you don't have a telecoil in your hearing device, you're not going to be able to easily wirelessly connect to assistive listening systems that are mandated by civil rights, disability civil rights laws. Something that all of us complain about we don't understand it. It's why don't audiologist hearing healthcare providers tell more people about telecoils. As it turns out for the Diablo Valley chapter. When we were meeting in person. And people were new to our meetings. We never ever had a person come to a meeting who already knew what a telecoil was. So then we would explain what it is, then they would go back to their audiologist and ask them to ask activated if possible. Well I wanted all of you to know that this year. Sherry Parazole, Jennifer Ralph, Sue Prichard and I, all represented HLA a at the American Academy of Audiology conference 2023 in Seattle. We had a huge banner, which you can see that's on the orange part behind where we're standing. The picture on the left, Sue was actually in that picture, but whoever took it cropped off part of her face. And I didn't want to exclude her. So I put her to the right in another image so everybody could see that she was there with us. I'm hoping that by adding, we need Bluetooth and telecoils because obviously hearing health care providers, somehow it's just going right over their head that we need that for most of them. So we really wanted to make the point of this, all of the documentation and literature that you see on the table there was directed specifically to audiologists about assistive listening systems, and also about using telecoils. We made buttons for the event that we handed out, and the button says, far from obsolete we still need telecoils, because we're hearing people are saying they're going they are, oh you don't need a telecoil, we do need a telecoil. So I just wanted to let everybody know that we're doing our part to get the word out and we did it in the biggest way possible we've ever done it before this year. I'd like to introduce you to Dave Myers, and he's considered to be the father of the American hearing loop movement, and he first experienced a hearing loop in I own a chapel in Scotland. And I've heard him tell this story many times, Dave sits on the get in the hearing loop committee with us and his family fund funds most of the program for us for getting the hearing loop. And his wife or in this old stone chapel which is I own a chapel and his wife nudged him right and said hey Dave, look at that sign over there with an ear with a slash through it. I wonder if that could help you. Dave wasn't really familiar with that you know he'd never really seen it. He fiddled around with his hearing aid. And as he says right here. He saw a clear human voice. Instead of a verbal fog. I was on the verge of tears after Dave came home from that particular trip. He started the get in the hearing loop movement in the United States in Michigan where he lives. Where should we have communication access everywhere. What communication access means. It means that everybody gets the message. Now, for most of us who happen to be in this meeting, we can still understand with a hearing loop. Some of us also need captions, but this particular presentation is really only about advocating for hearing loops. So we have an example of a diagram that we have which is on some large posters that we use in our outreach events. And you can probably see that same image on the behind me because I have the poster stuck up on my on my bookshelf. So you need to kind of give people an idea about what it's like to use a hearing loop. So you need an amplifier, a microphone, if you're looking at the image all the way to the left. And a person either needs an instrument, meaning a hearing aid or cochlear implant with a telecoil built built in. And the person you can see that one of the people has a hearing aid, one person has a cochlear implant. One person who has on a headset. So assistive listening systems in public places are required to be accessible for all of us. But as all of you know, headphones don't work very well with hearing aids. So that's why a telecoil is wonderful we just walk in and press a button and you're done. So that you might really want to have assistive listening systems where we currently don't have might be pharmacies, banks, or doctors offices. We use mechanics bank for the Diablo Valley chapter. And we prior to using mechanics bank we use Bank of America. And when we change banks. We use the branch in Danville and also in downtown Walnut Creek. I went to the both branch offices and asked them to install a hearing loop, and they have a hearing loop in both of those locations. Another place it's really important for us is transportation. So we would like to be able to understand the announcements. Now, I want to tell everybody I've traveled recently twice. I want to let you know that TSA on their website has a card that you can print and you can write on the card that you have a hearing loss. So you can flash it give it to the person at TSA. You can also notify TSA that you need help through the airport. And so when you check in and when you get there, theoretically, they're supposed to be somebody to help you. So, I've never even though I've done that, I either am not doing it enough time ahead, or something happens and it's never worked for me, but something wonderful that happened was I use Southwest on my two recent flights. And on there they have, if you need special assistance. And one of the options was deaf and hard of hearing. And I checked that.  So I got to pre-board with anybody who needed assistance, which could have been a family with small kids, somebody who had mobility issues. And that's really important to us because we can't understand the announcements when you're on the airplane. So if you can't understand what they're saying, when there's the full line of people, it makes it really difficult for us. So I'm really encouraging all of you to not feel guilty about doing that. And you can also use hearing loops at home. So there's a portable hearing loop. Oh, gosh, you know, I've been running around like crazy, making this presentation work well today. And I think you can see it in my thumbnail. This is an example of a portable hearing loop. You can see it's maybe, let's see. Okay, it's only six inches wide. And the back of it, you can connect it to your television. You could use one in your dining room. Then you connect the loop wire right here. And if you had family dinners, as long as you passed around a microphone, you could put your hearing aid and telecoil and be able to hear the advantage of connecting your TV versus using some of the accessory items. Is if you have people who come over to your home, who want to watch television with you or you want to watch television together. And they also have hearing loss. Most of the TV accessories with the hearing instruments only allow one person to connect to them. But if you had a hearing loop in your living room, as many people could connect to that as had telecoils or you might even have a receiver and you could give somebody a receiver and a headphone. Mary Parazoli and I have both actively been advocating for hearing loops and assistive technology in both of our communities. We met at an HLAA convention, I think in around 2011-2012. And she began working in her area and I was working in my area. And what both of us found was that there really wasn't a lot of organized materials for us to become educated advocates. So we both were simultaneously connecting, collecting info information so that we could learn what we needed to know to be respected by people when we went out to advocate. In 2018, she became the chair of the get in the hearing loop committee and asked me to join the committee. And at that time I was somewhat resistant because I wasn't just in favor of hearing loops. I'm an advocate for communication access. So communication access could be hearing loops. Could be captions. Could be an ASR speech to text app on an iPad. But she's very convincing and she twisted my arm. And so we set out at that time to create the tools for everybody else to be able to become expert advocates. And this was a complete labor of love on our part. And if either one of us would have had any idea how much trouble it was to do this and how long it would take, we probably would have given up before we started. So it's kind of like a children's it was embarking on a children's something or other that you didn't know what it would take. And what we have created, and the committee as well so all of us is two guides. One is a get in the hearing loop at this advocacy guide. And the other one is a hearing loop toolkit handbook. We've currently had a couple of printings of these a handful of them went to the international organization that's comparable to HLA a but in Europe and wasn't went to Budapest. And a couple of them went someplace else. We're hoping to be able to have them in print for the convention, at least some of them. They are available on the HLA website. You can download them their PDF documents you can scroll through them. If anybody has any problems with them. Please let me know. So if you're thinking about how do you get started advocating for better communication access via hearing loops in your, in your area. And the first thing that you need to do is need become knowledgeable about the issues. knowledgeable about the technology. What's required under the law. Why is it important to install hearing loops that meet the international IEC standard. All of those things. And those things are all contained in both the advocacy guide and the handbook. The advocacy guide, excuse me the handbook was compiled first, and after we compiled the handbook we realized, oh, so these are the tools that one needs to use to have under their belt, when they go out to advocate. And then a dawned on us, oh gosh you know it could probably be really helpful to have a guide about how to advocate. And so then the advocacy guide was created. And that one of the first steps after you gather your group of people together, and hopefully, you can find somebody else that's more than just you. In our chapter pretty much, I've been a stall worth advocate and sometimes couple of other people come in for a little while and work on a little project. It would be much more wonderful for those of us in Contra Costa County. We have five people and we could really create a plan here. So, after you assemble your group of people then what you're looking to do is build the coalitions and partnerships with others. So, you could we could do the Chamber of Commerce. We would go out and approach the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce would then be on board about realizing that the businesses in our community aren't providing communication access for us. We could contact the agency on aging in Contra Costa County. So, you get the idea. Once you do this then you begin advocating for the needed accessibility. After you get a few things done, then you always have to monitor your success. So those of you who are here know that starting in 20, I think it was 2010. I'm an avid reader. And so I advocated for the libraries of Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County to get hearing loops. And over several years, all of them do have hearing loops at least at the information counter and Walnut Creek, the main meeting room also has a hearing loop. But what happens is the microphones either aren't permanently installed a fix to the counter, or they have a change in staff. So we have to be on them to keep monitoring that they're still working. I know in downtown Walnut Creek right now they've installed a whole new system that has microphones in the glass partition, but they didn't connect the hearing loop to the microphone for the glass partition. So there's a whole project here connecting with them to see what we can do about that. So when you go to talk to people, you really need to know that you need to know your audience. Who might you want to approach the first person you talk to, if you called city council or something like that, maybe the city clerk. Well, the city clerk certainly is not a decision maker. So what you're looking for as you're reaching out is you're trying to find the highest level person you possibly can, who can make decisions. Another place you could start us with an ADA coordinator. The Diablo Valley chapter has compiled a list of ADA coordinators in our county was then expanded to all of California was originally funded by a grant from the Lafayette Community Foundation, and it's posted on our website. And the driving force behind this list was that the chapter members from the Diablo Valley chapter kept saying, Oh, well, so great, how do we find the ADA coordinators. So we made it easy for everybody to find them and government agencies. So everyone may be hearing a lot of things about DEI disability. Oh, I can't ever remember the E and inclusion and we are part of that, although many agencies are focusing more on equity disability equity and inclusion. So they're directing more attention on inclusion, but not for people with disabilities. So that's something that we really need to speak up about. You need to know what's the language of the ADA so you use the right language. So I've met a lot of people who thought that the ADA dictated that we have hearing loops and that's not true. So we've on this slide we have some of the common questions that are required that you can start looking at their website for city government, for example, and see if they have an ADA accommodation website and how to contact the ADA coordinator there and some of the things that you would be looking at is.  And that would be for everything city council meetings, your parks and recreation department. They're required to have a notice of grievance procedure. Is there an ADA coordinator is a contacts persons email being provided. I'm always amazed by how many websites I go to how many people I connect with, and there's no way other than the telephone to connect to that person. And all of us really know the telephone generally is not a good thing for most of us anymore. I thought you would then be asking them as part of the educational process when you're building community and collaboration is, oh, can you please add an email address that we can contact you at, because I don't understand very well on the telephone. So the ADA mandates that one of three assistive listening systems is required to be provided anywhere that there's a PA that's used. The systems are a hearing loop and FM system and an infrared and hearing loops are the people's choice. And the reason is because they're so simple and easy to use you just turn on the telequill program and your instrument. You don't have to borrow equipment. You don't have to give anybody your driver's license, you don't have to remember to return the equipment, not only return the equipment, but make sure you get your driver's license back. It also doesn't require us to identify that we have hearing loss. It may or may not be important to you at this point in my life. I just want to be able to hear, but a lot of people don't want to be identified as somebody with hearing loss. We've been fortunate enough to have Juliet Sturkin to give a presentation to our chapter but it's been a long time. She's a fabulous advocate. She's an HLAA hearing loop advocate. She's an audiologist who's retired. She also sits on the HLA get in the hearing loop committee and we meet once a month via zoom. And when Juliet was an audiologist and she actually found out about hearing loops. She became impassioned about ensuring that her patients had telequills in their devices, and then she went out to the community to advocate for hearing loops and she has over. I think it's over 500 hearing loops that are installed in churches in her area. And it says, people who can't hear will stop going to lectures to school and to church. We can't let that happen. This logo, and what you're seeing the logo means the signage that's at the top there which is the ear with a slash in it, and the T indicates a hearing loop. This logo needs to be as pervasive as the universal handicap logo and restroom logos. And the thinking of restroom signs really puts it into perspective right. This is a postcard that we have that was originally handed out at the international meeting in Budapest. We put everything together on a small postcard so everybody would be easy for everybody to find everything, seeing that we only took a limited number of handbooks. I can send this to all of you. We'll be giving them out at the convention. And we're also looking to find more success stories for people so that we can start including more of them. In the advocacy guide, at the last, in the last maybe third of the advocacy guide, we have success stories from all around the country about getting hearing loops installed in places like MoMA in New York, taxicabs in New York, Lincoln Center, things like that, churches. And last year, I'm very proud to say that they get in the hearing loop approach to Google and ask them if they would include hearing loops on Google Maps. And after several months of talking back and forth with them, they agreed. We've been seating them initial hearing loop locations, and we've given them over 5,000.   There's a section that says accessibility. So you can see here the Fox City Performing Arts Center, which happens to be where Juliet lives, has an assistive hearing loop.  So don't get thrown by that. It's the same thing. If you go to someplace, or you know of someplace and you want to see if it's on Google Maps, and you go and look and you don't see that you can let us know you could go advocate to them. You can also contact hearing loop locations to hearing loss or hearing loop locations and a form comes up for you to be able to fill in about that location. I'm proud of this. It was really a big deal to get this done. We can't tell everybody enough how important it is that we become accustomed to seeing the symbol on the left. That symbol on the left without the T is the official mandated international access for hearing loss. This is from the ADA. Now it has been modified with a T when it's a hearing loop, but we should be seeing this just as often as we see the mobility symbol.  Here's an example of how somebody may celebrate success. This is for Seattle rep. And this part of this presentation that I'm giving today was Cherries without her story, but we don't have anything that we could have used as an example of this we in our area never did anything to celebrate success. So Seattle rep had a huge unveiling that they announced to the community that they were invited to the launch that a performance on April 24, 2016, and they distributed this. This is a two sided card throughout the community. As you can see, it's a great way to get publicity in the in out into the public. Now I'm sure you all know that advocating for accessibility for all of us. Isn't an easy thing to do. And I can guarantee that you're going to run into roadblocks. So what might those roadblocks to be. So the first one is that they're not specifically required by law. They could they could install an FM and they could could install an infrared. Now, if you went to a venue and an FM or an infrared worked. That would be providing communication access. And if they worked, it might not be a place where you'd want to direct a lot of attention. Unfortunately, most of the time when you go to venues that have FM or infrareds, they don't work. And then you're in a whole different place. So the venue has already decided that they acknowledge that they need to have a system listening technology. They have some but it doesn't work so you can talk to them and say hey listen, what you have doesn't work. I'd like you to install a hearing loop. You're required to have a system that works. In the large room in the Walnut Creek library they originally had an FM system. And there were really quite a few of us in the hearing loss community who approached them to change the system to hearing loop. So I approached them as HLA a Diablo Valley chapter. There's another group that meets there and Jill McFadden is here and she just left for a minute. I think it's called I always get the name on black Hawk or black something movies, and they show international films in there. And none of the people who were part of our chapter or even some of the people with hearing loss or didn't belong to our chapter could understand through the FM system. So they were hearing it from multiple different angles, and they changed the system. Another roadblock you might have is the venue you're talking about really doesn't care. They don't care if they provide access to people with hearing loss. So, Jill, I asked a question a moment ago and you just gotten up. What's the name of that group of people who meet at the Walnut Creek library that show foreign films and things black something. Can you remember what the name of that is mountain shadow. Oh, there we go. Thank you. Thank you. So the name of the group so people from mountain shadows who belong, and I think you pay a nominal fee to belong to that. They were complaining as well so it was a collaboration from all of us. Thanks so much Jill. Okay, so the venues not interested.  And or they're taking the option that, oh, they're not going to get sued, because most people don't have enough energy to sue somebody. So if they don't get sued they don't have to do anything. Another obstacle that you might run into is many audio visual companies recommend FM system specifically over into red. I'm familiar with that. And it costs less costs less but people don't use it and it doesn't work as well. So there is a situation where somebody may choose to install an infrared system. And that's because the infrared system is line of sight. And if you had a scenario that required. Financiality, somebody may do an infrared system instead. Another option another roadblock you might have is somebody said we don't have any money. But just because people say they don't have any money doesn't mean that they really do. There are grants around there are options about things that they're not really looking at. So they easily tell somebody we don't have any money not thinking of what it would really cost them if they had a lawsuit instead. They can frequently tell somebody, oh, we don't have any money and thinking that you'll go away. So if you ran into any of these options you have to figure out ways to work around these roadblocks so that you can get a seat at the table and that it's your herd. I have to say that I really exercised my speaking up and learning how to advocate muscle because of running into roadblocks. And in general in my life, it's really made me a much, much, much better communicator. And I hope if and when you run into roadblocks that you just don't give up. And if you need somebody to help lift you up for a day, just give me a buzz. You can email me because I now have to cochlear implants. I can actually talk on the telephone if you would choose to do that. Advocacy creates change. So the first thing that we need to do for all of us is we need to get a seat at the table. So, you know, it's very easy to say that, Jay, we have an invisible condition and nobody pays any attention to us. And, you know, we all have our litany of things that we can say about why more attention isn't paid to us. But when you get a seat at the table, they have to pay attention to you. So I just like you to really think about how important that is to get the seat at the table so you can continue to speak about what's important to you, how you can participate in society, and what the options are. Something else that's very, very important is sharing your story. So at the beginning of this presentation, I started sharing my story about how Sherry Parazoli and I met each other. What some of the problems we ran into were what we wanted for everybody else who came behind us. We didn't want anybody else to have to work as hard as we did. We wanted to provide the tools for you to be able to just educate yourself from the tools that are provided rather than having to get them. And we all need to request hearing access everywhere. Now, I know that there are times when, for myself included, that the situation is one that you really don't want to ask for in that situation. And I had one during the pandemic. My husband's younger brother passed away unexpectedly. And we went back east to his memorial service. We were all so upset about the fact that he passed away. Prior to going to the event, I just really did not want to raise any waves. I didn't want anything to be any more difficult for anybody, even if that meant I suffered. So I was being self-sacrificing. And all of us do that sometime. And so I didn't contact the church, didn't do anything and thought, well, whatever this is, you know, I'm going to get through this, life goes on. And boy did I have a wonderful surprise. I walked up to the church, the doors that were open, and there was a hearing loop sign. So I hadn't had an opportunity to use my new cochlear implants with a hearing loop during the pandemic. And generally I'm hearing so well that in one-to-one conversations everywhere, I don't need anything else to help me. So this was my forced foray into a larger expanded world. And I have to tell you, as soon as the minister started talking, the reverberation in the church was horrible.  And even though I can press a button on my processor, it's a rocker that changes programs and volume. And I don't think it's very easy to use. But at least I knew where it was. And I thought, okay, calm yourself, center yourself. And thought, okay, it's a long press. And lo and behold, I did the long press, and I could hear as clear as a bell. Now I would not have been able to understand anything in that situation without that. Recently, last week, I gave a presentation to the Rossmore fund, and I was contacted by them in January of this year. And the reason I was contacted was because the most number of people who live in Rossmore that contact them for assistance was about hearing loss. And they didn't feel that they had all the funds to help all of the people. And they'd been reading about over the counter hearing aids. So they contacted me and asked if I would give a presentation to Rossmore about over the counter hearing aids. So Rossmore fortunately has over 10 hearing loops. And it turned out this is another area to just make sure that you all follow up beforehand. They'd had a problem with one of the loop drivers, and it had recently been replaced. And then with our storms. They had an electrical surge. And it blew out the new hearing loop driver. And the person who installed the hearing loop hadn't given the directions yet. He was going to send him a video on how to activate the hearing loop. The room that we were in is a very large room. And it turned out the first I was there an hour early and I spent the first beginning of this time, sort of panicking but trying to be calm that we would get this hearing loop to work. Without the time that the presentation was to start being called the hearing loop got turned on. Oh my God, it was just heaven. So I would never have been able to understand any of the questions from the audience without the hearing loop. The person who may have assisted the only way I could have understood if I'd had enough presence of mind. It would be if I had a person who was standing next to me who maybe could hear, and they would have repeated the questions. But it's really awkward to do that. So I'm just telling you situations that you may run into, like I ran into. And just keep going. Just do your best. Keep going. Some days. It's not going to be as good as other days. This presentation today may have been better if Sherry had given it because her story would have been here and she has a very powerful story. But she was unable to do that because she's sick. She was transitioned and pivoted and moved into giving this presentation.  Maybe it benefits us and other parts of our lives too. So my dream is that we have hearing, hearing friendly communities everywhere. This is originally I made this slide to use at the future's meeting, which we hold every year at the HLA convention, and it said San Francisco to New York because that was coast to coast. But I upgraded this for Sherry's presentation to be Seattle to New York. So what do you need to do to do this. You have to have awareness. You have to know and own that you need assistance. And this knowing and owning that you need assistance is when you were just by yourself. So I know that lots of us use our spouses or friends to try and help us out in situations that are difficult for us. But actually, that's not the best thing for us to do. The reason is, if they can't be there, and the accessibility that we need isn't there. We're SOL. If you were out somewhere by yourself, you went shopping, something happened you became ill you were taken by emergency to the hospital, your helper wasn't there. It was really really hard time communicating with hospital staff so you need to be aware of what's required to ask for you have to have courage. And then you have to actually take the action. And when you take the action. That's when change happens. So can you imagine if everywhere we went. There was hearing assistance to help us. And if there was the ear with a slash in it, as often as we see the mobility symbol. If somebody would like to contact Sherry. This is her contact information. And we have a YouTube channel. And so this will be on our YouTube channel it's being recorded today. So you don't really have to write this down you can go back and watch it if you want. And at this time, does anybody have any questions. We're going to open this up for questions. Nobody has any questions about hearing loops or installing them or anything. Yes, I do have that question. You had shown that little box. I'm just wondering I always thought it with a hearing loop you had to have a wire around the room but it sounds like you can just plug that into a TV and everyone in the room. So with the little box, which is the small room loop box. See this black and red back here. The hearing loop wire would go in there and you just click it. So this is not a portable hearing loop. There is a portable hearing loop though. Which is this. And with this, it doesn't really work very well in a room like a TV room. And the reason is because the loop is built into it. But if you were at a counter, you could use this. If you were at a small meeting and maybe there were only two people who had hearing loss in that meeting, you could sit across from this portable hearing loop and run microphones down the table. But if you loop your TV room, you need to do put a wire and you need to do a loop wire around the room. Does that answer your question. The loop wire, what does that look like? I don't know. It looks kind of like an electrical wire. To code an electrical wire. And could it go just from the box to behind? Does it have to go all the way around or just to maybe the sofa where you're sitting? I don't know. That's a whole other thing. So if you wanted to only loop the situation where you normally sit, there's something called a loop pad. And it's a pad about this size. And it has a cable connected to it that fits into the backside of this box. That has the loop in it.  But other people who are in that room wouldn't have the loop. The chair loop works really good. But the loop has to be a complete loop. If you're running it from the TV, if your box is by the TV and you run it along the side of the room to the opposite side, will everybody along that wall then have access or does it actually have to go around the room? So a loop is a loop. Okay, so anything inside of the loop, anybody inside of the loop with a telecoil, or if you had a receiver should be able to hear what is being transmitted through that loop. I see. Okay. Thank you. So, Lou Touche in Washington State created a small little PowerPoint about how to do this, and I would be happy to send it to you. Just email me after the presentation, and I'll be happy to send that to you. I actually don't think it's on the HLA website, but I'll be happy to send it to you. Any other questions? Kathy, can you see how to raise your hand? I see you raise your hand visibly, but raise your hand in the reactions. So go ahead and ask your question if you can't figure that out. Oh, there you go. Kathy. Okay, I'm here. I had my hand up. I think someone brought my hand down. My question is I have a cochlear implant made by an American. And they told me to use a loop system. I need to use my streamer, my resound streamer, which has programs on it and one of them is a program. I have my own loop system for like my dining room. When I use the streamer to get into the T loop, I guess, into the loop system. Yeah, so Kathy. When did you get your CI? November 22. Okay. So do you have the behind the ear CI, or do you have the Rondo? I have resound hearing aid in one ear. And CI and the other, and I have a resound, no, a mini mic is called. Yeah, okay, so hang on a minute. I just want to be clear here because there's a difference as to which cochlear America's process or you have as to how you connect to a hearing loop. So, do you have the Rondo? Never heard of that word before. Okay. The Rondo is a round disk, like a hockey puck. And it just fits on the processor. It doesn't hang on your ear. Oh, if I'm using the Kanto, which is the kind that just sticks on the head. So the Rondo is a Medell, I think. Oh, Kanto. Thank you, Sarah. Okay. Do you have the Kanto? Yes, I'm Kanto. Okay, so if you'd gotten the cochlear implant by Cochlear Americas that sits on your ear, it has a built-in telecoil. Oh, I'm very sad that nobody told you about the difference between the built-in T-coil on the on the ear model and the Kanto. And if I were in your shoes, I would definitely with irritation tell the person who was your CI audiologist how disappointed you are that they didn't tell you about that because it makes your life more difficult. And there must be a way to access that T-coil on my hands. And so you could, so they didn't put a telecoil in the Kanto. And the, so what they did then was you have the accessory, which Sarah, oh, sir, I know that you have cochlear tumors. It isn't the accessory, the mini mic that has the T-coil in it. Okay. So that means that you always have to have your mini mic with you. So if you went to an event and, you know, when we think of all of the stuff that we have before we go someplace, when I went to Seattle to do that event, I mean, I felt like I had a half a suitcase filled with stuff in case I ever needed it, right? So if you'd gotten the on the ear. CI, you could have just walked into any venue, you could have changed it to that program, you would have been good to go. You could have used your remote to change to that program, you would have been good to go. But since they didn't tell you that to make a choice, you now have the console. And that means that you really, if you're going anywhere, have to keep the mini mic with you, because the mini mic is what connects to the hearing loop. The mini mic has a telecoil on it. Does that make sense? Yes, I, I never go anywhere without the mini loop. But are you saying I could have ordered a canso with a key coil knob on it or something? No, no, so Cochlear Americas makes two different models of cochlear implant processors. One is a little round disk kind of looks like a hockey puck.  And that model is called the console. Then they make what's considered the most common kind of CI, which is an on the ear model. I'm going to take mine off so you can see it. So AB, I happen to have advanced bionics has a feature nobody else has this little microphone here. So if it were cochlear Americas, you wouldn't have that it would be the ear hook and the back.  Yeah, so Mark was holding up the console. So if you had gotten the on the ear model, a telecoil is built into it. Right. DNA, it's called DNA versus I think it's called Kanto Kanto. Thank you. I understand models. One of the board of Kanto with the tree coil model, you're saying I could have ordered the or the over the year. No, the Kanto doesn't have a built in telecoil. Right. Okay. Thank you so much. Yes. Another question anybody. I want to mention something to people here since this came up about the mini mic. So if you happen to go someplace, I believe the mini mic has an audio port on it.  If you take an audio cable, and you plug one part into your mini mic, and the other part into any audio place, it should stream directly to your devices. Okay, so and an audio port looks like. Like this. Okay, so one part would go into, in this case, the mini mic. The other part would plug right into your seat on the airplane to plug into your seat could plug into any audio device that you wanted to hear from that had an audio port. If you went someplace that had an FM system. You would be able to take your mini mic plug one side into your mini mic and plug the other side into the receiver. So this happens to be a hearing loop receiver. So, and if you had a telecoil in your device you wouldn't need this, but imagine if this wasn't a hearing loop receiver but it was an FM receiver. One side in here, one side in your mini mic, and it would stream directly to your device. Any more questions. Well, if you think of something just raise your hand, because I have some more things to share with you. We have some announcements. So the most important thing we have coming up is June 3 as the walk for hearing. And the rest of the presentation I'm going to do a very short about the walk for hearing on June 29 through July 1st. HLA has their convention and their convention is going to be in New Orleans this year. And if you've never attended one of our conventions, please come and join us. We'll be giving two presentations there this year. One is going to be about a leadership development and another one as a get in the hearing loop presentation. We've decided to have a brown bag picnic this year. It's going to be on July 15 at Rossmore. And on August 5 we're having a presentation a technology presentation about hearing restoration. So this is what we've used before for walk for hearing and I have a little video that I created. I hope it runs well and you can hear you can see it all. Oh, let me make this screen a little bigger. And let's see what happens. It worked. Yay. I'm never really sure when I when I do these new things like that.  We know that all of you can afford $15 which is the smallest donation that you can make online. You know, you can't go to a movie for 15 bucks if it's during prime time right. We don't have the money HLA doesn't have the money in our chapters doesn't have the money to do advocacy efforts like all of us being in Seattle for the American Academy of audiology convention. Those things cost money. And if we want to continue to have things like that. We want to continue to have a great public policy person Lisa Hamlin for HLA a we all need to step up and contribute. So where will it be. It's going to be the same place it was last year. It's at the Robert W Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda. And while we were waiting for everybody to show up. Zo hair was reminiscing about how nice it was last year there. So here would you like to say make a little plug about how much you liked it and why you thought it was a great location. And you have to unmute yourself. So, I went to that walk of walk for hearing for the first time. Last year, it was at Alameda and the weather was just gorgeous. And the location right by the by the bay is just is absolutely fantastic. And there was a very large group of people and, you know, because of COVID we hadn't seen each other for a very long time. So it was really nice to reconnect with all friends and just had a very pleasant walk and and also just the energy of the crowd and the people was infectious. Anyway, I'm certainly going again and I encourage everyone to attend. Thanks. Oh, here. And Sarah also had the best idea, even continuing the walk. So the walk ends around 1130 1145 noon time ish. And Sarah, you want to talk about your picnic. You have to unmute yourself. Thank you. So, hi everybody. I'm Sarah Ozer from the North Bay chapter for Marin and Sonoma counties. So we went last year to the walk for hearing. And like Zoher was saying, it was a beautiful day. And we saw lots of people and looked at the tables. There's different exhibitors. And we did the walk and then afterwards we had a picnic and we brought had brought our own food brought our own cooler and it's just so great. So we'll be picnicking again. You can join us for picnic or join, you know, sure. So, yeah, just make a day of it and get to know people. I think that's one of the great things about HLAA is that we get to make friends with people from different places. See you then. Thanks, Sarah. You can click on this QR code. Or I think if we don't have it on there yet, we'll put it on our website so you can do that from there. What happens is another page opens up and this is the page. The walk for hearing website can be kind of confusing. So if you have problems with it, please reach out to me or to Alan could Sarah, we're trying to make it so it's the easiest as possible for you to just make a donation. And so this is what the page looks like it already tells you it's 2013. And you need to make sure that you specify which chapter you want your donation to go to because the funds that are raised are split. So HLAA gets, I think it's 50%, 10% goes to the walk, the actual running the walk, and then the other 40% goes to whichever chapter you designate. We have our convention coming up. We've mentioned that. And not very many people from our chapter usually go to the convention. I don't think Bob's Astro is missed one though in that was in person, ever. But for the rest of you, I really highly recommend it and you can still go this year. It's just truly awe inspiring to see how many of us that there are to be with other people that you never have to say, or feel bad because you're asking somebody to repeat themselves. Because everybody is asking people to repeat themselves. It's, it's, it's wonderful. I hope you have an opportunity to go. We're also having our brown bag picnic. And we decided to do in the past we provided everything for everybody. I'm older now that we're at three years into the pandemic and it's really getting hard for me to lug all that stuff around anymore. We also felt that it was more of a safety feature if everybody brought their own food and things, and then it was easy for everybody to come. We're calling it a brown bag picnic and it's going to be in Shady Glen and Rossmore from 11 to three. And that's going to be on July 15 and we'll send out another invitation for everybody so that we have a night with directions so that we have an idea of who's going to come just so that we have no. We have a YouTube channel. And most of our monthly meetings have been on our YouTube channel there are a few that may not be there because we had some kind of a technical glitch. Maybe we forgot to turn on the recording, something like that. We're also looking for committee members. So ahead of our programs committee, we meet once a month and schedule the meetings out through the whole year. And at this time I think that we have all of our meetings set up for 2023. So now we're looking at what we're going to do in 2024. We've had some discussion with other chapters and Northern California, and one of the things we're discussing is it turns out right now. We're giving a presentation, Sarah in the North Bay is giving a presentation, the East Bay is giving a presentation and the peninsula is giving a presentation. We're kind of talking about, could we give instead of four presentations a month and we're all volunteers, could we give one presentation, a month that was all of the Northern California chapters, and then we would alternate as to who would give the presentation. And that's what you know about some of the things that we're exploring, because you know, volunteering is exhausting. Can be fun, but also can be exhausting. Okay, so on our website we'd like to remind everybody that we are a membership organization, everybody's free to attend all of our meetings. We're open to the public.  So, if you click on the membership menu bar item the tab up there, what opens up is the page that you see, you can go ahead and renew your membership online, and it's through PayPal, but you don't have to have a PayPal account, or you could send it to us via us mail and we've included the post office box. Here's the information for our chapter. This isn't this is the general information box. If there's something that you would like to know more about if you'd like more personal hold handing, hand holding, we're here to help you. So, please feel free to contact us. So, does anybody have any news. Did anybody do something that they want to make sure that we all know about or is anybody having problems with an area that they think that there might be somebody here could help them a little bit. I see that Alan put the donation link into the chat. So, if somebody just wanted to go ahead and copy that it would make it might make it easier for them to find where the donate pages. I heard that the American Red Cross has a program going to be able to get a smoke and carbon monoxide detector in your home. So I went to their website and I signed up and I received a message from them but I have not connected to them fully yet. So I'm letting all of you know that you may want to go to their website as well to see if you can get a smoke and carbon monoxide detector from them. So I've kind of learned if I just wait a little while sometimes somebody has a question that they thought of and I'm going to give you that time to think about that. If nobody has anything else to say, nobody has anything else they'd like to talk about. Oh, Sarah. Can you give a plug for your hope meetings. So each one of us is doing different things in the Bay Area and Sarah is doing has continued to do this fabulous program and it's been open to all of us. And I haven't been as diligent as maybe I could have been to make sure everybody knows every month, but it's on the HLA website it's on their calendar, and it's called hope hearing other people's stories and Sarah why it's all yours now. Sure. Thanks, Anne. And yeah, hope is our support group and everybody's welcome. And it's on the fourth Thursday of the month, which is Thursday, May 25. It's at four o'clock Pacific time. You can find information, a link on our website hearing loss North Bay. org. I'll put it in the chat, or maybe someone can put it in the chat hearing loss North Bay. org. In addition to that on May 11. Next week, this coming week, which is our regular chapter meeting on the second Thursday, we're going to be trying out the zoom breakout rooms. We now have captioning in zoom breakout rooms we requested them and got them. So, please join us for a clock we're going to everybody will go to three different rooms to talk to different people. We're going to go back to the big room and share our experience. So we're looking to see how we can further use these breakout rooms and meetings. So again, everybody is welcome. And it's hearing loss North Bay. org. If you'd like to contact us and thanks and for giving me this opportunity. I can put the link in the chat for people to easily be able to connect on that. So I think we need to thank our captioner today. Rhonda. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad that we were finally able to connect even though we had a difficult start here. You really know how much easier you make all of our lives. And so I really want to thank you for the wonderful captions that you've provided us. And for just another reminder for all of you here too, if you have any meeting that's three or more people. We have California RCC remote captions that are available to you to sign up on sign up for which is what these are and they're excellent excellent captions. Thank you everybody. So I guess I'm not going to see you next month because we don't have a meeting because we have the walk for hearing on. Oh, excuse me, I'll see everybody at the walk right. We won't have a meeting because it's on the same day that the walk is in July we'll have our picnic. So I'll see hopefully all of you at the picnic. And then in August we're going to resume our zoom meetings. It's been really nice seeing all of you today. I hope that you like the spur of the moment presentation and that it fulfilled your needs and you learn something. Bye. Yeah, thank you. And your, your share was fabulous. Oh, excellent. Thank you so much. Thanks that makes me feel good. Thank you for going to email or text me the list of Ross more places that I can hear. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for all your service. Thank you for your service everybody. You can join us.


Okay, I want you to listen to me, you guys to stop trading your authenticity or attachment or inclusion or validation or acceptance by someone, somewhere, something, I think we are trained from birth by nurture that we have to abandon ourselves, betray ourselves, to fit in, to belong, to be included, to be loved. We learn it. On there, it's lived that way and they passed it on to us. We grow up knowing no different than somehow we have to feel that we need to let go of a piece of us accepted by them, whoever them is. I've done that so many times in my life and I want you to not do it. Because here's the thing, there are people out there who will love you as you are. They are waiting for you, they are looking for you, but they can't find you while you stay attached and tethered to people who you seek love and validation from who make you feel hard to love. So when they love you, you feel grateful because you've bought into the narrative that you are hard to love, you are not hard to love. You're just trying to be loved by the wrong people. There are people who are going to love you to bits just as you are and they're closer to your life than you think they are.   I feel happier and healthier and better for any soul of you. No judgement here, guys. I love you. Pass this thought on to you. It's beautiful beating farther than. Stay strong. There are people looking for you. Love you guys.


When I was younger, I dealt with stuff like this. A f***ing face. Happy birthday, try not to f***, okay? And it was honestly one of the nicer things people would say to me back then. I'm not saying I was a perfect damsel in distress, but yeah, I got kinda bullied. Now for the Zoomers, you probably won't understand what I'm about to say, but for the Millennials, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you liked anime and video games 10 years ago, you got bullied. But there was one person who I watched who liked anime and video games and got praised for it. A double rainbow is a phenomenon. A bardic six-place spectrum of life. Dude doesn't send shame or drunkenness to the atmosphere. Does that explain it? A double rainbow is a phenomenon. What the f***? To me, Lily is a huge role model, and part of the reason is actually something that a lot of people don't know. Around 10 years ago, I was having a particularly bad week. I wasn't numb to bullying, but I wasn't as bothered by it as I used to be, but there's one week in particular, I was coming home crying like almost every day. I didn't really wanna tell my parents or have any friends to talk to about it, so I decided I was gonna go on Facebook and comment on one of Lily's posts on her profile page. I'm pretty sure I guilt tripped her into asking for one game of League of Legends for her to play with me on my birthday. Now, even though this was a long time ago, Lily was already really popular on the internet, especially in the League of Legends scene. But to my surprise, she actually responded and said yes. I remember for like the next month, I kept bragging to anyone that I knew that played League, that I played a game with Lily Pichu, and it was probably really cringe, but to me, it's still one of the highlights of my life from back then. So anyways, for the last few years, I've been on my own creative grind. I've put all of my skill points in the computer building skill tree, and I've made some pretty cool stuff. My goal has been to make computers as pretty as possible. I've been making PCs for people to try and show the world what I can do, and then one day, you're gonna simp, aren't you?  I just... By the way, this video is sponsored by Micro Center, and at this point, if you haven't heard of Micro Center, you are just throwing away money. Micro Center is a store that sells computer parts and more that can save you a ton of money. This is the example I use every time, and I'm gonna keep using it because I cannot stress enough how much better it is to buy from them than any other online retailer or other stores. The closest Micro Center to me is in California four hours away.  Please check the link in the description to find the nearest Micro Center to you and also to get more information on their store. They are amazing. I love working with them. I know this is an ad, but seriously, they are by far my favorite company. Anyways, thank you, Micro Center, for sponsoring the video. Now, let's get back to it. So anyways, last time I did a build like this, I explained the process, but I didn't get to show it to you as much as I would have wanted. And the thing is builds like this take a lot. I have to learn the history of the content creator, design art that doesn't offend them, have an artist bring the art come to life and then get it printed onto acrylic embedded with RG. Look, fortunately in this case, I know a decent amount about Lily's history as a content creator, but there's still a lot of work to do and leaving the house that often isn't really an option for me. Oh. Fortunately, Sasha was willing to have a calm chat about the art. So you're not nervous at all. You're good, right? I mean, maybe. I mean, just relax. It's only Lily Pichu, you know? Only two plus million subscribers on YouTube. Only tens of thousands of viewers on Twitch. Only, you know, one of my childhood heroes from like 10 years ago. It's not that big a deal. So, since you were the artist, there is something that I had in mind. I wanted to share this idea really quickly and really simply. This is the general idea. Did that make sense? Yes. V1 Tech was honestly kind of rude because they accepted the art the same day that I sent it to them and then got it printed and shipped to me overnight all on the same day. If you're wondering why I thought they were so rude, it's because normally they send their packages out with little sour patch kids, but this time they sent me Swedish fish. And finally, Micro Center was an absolute homie and mailed the parts directly to my house. Thank you, Micro Center.  Despite COVID slowing things down tremendously, Lily was super understanding. Where's my PC, Chris? I'm joking, take your time. And finally, after being able to put it together all on stream, which by the way, if you don't follow me, you should be, link is in the description. We were able to go and surprise her in person. Good morning. How are you? Hi, Temmie. Where do you want to open this thing? Okay. So, three, three and a half months later, here it is. Only thing I didn't bring is a knife, Joe and I. I have many knives. Okay, wait, many? Perfect, that one's... And that's the last thing I saw before I died. So how much, how much of it did you already see? The honest answer. It's okay, you can be honest. Okay. So you saw none of it. I'm watching your stream, actually.  No, it's all fine, it's fine, it's fine. Oh, well, there's parts you haven't seen. So that's perfect. Just help make sure it doesn't fall. I hope you know. Well, you don't have to know, but part of the reason we took so long on this is because Sasha and I have about 20 drafts that never make the cut. Wow, Lily, what do you think? I don't know about friends since here. So... I understand why. As you can see here, there are a lot of things going into this and I will try to explain all of them. If you pay attention down here, we have Lily herself with the crossed pink bangs with a star guardian Luxe staff. I'm assuming, and I would hope, that Luxe is Lily's favorite champion in League of Legends. And I feel like a large part of Lily's history comes from League of Legends. It's Orianna, dope.  Okay, well anyways. So here's parts that you haven't seen. And there's something that you will never see unless we turn it on. So I guess maybe we sit on the kitchen for a second. All right? After you. Powerbun right there. So there's one part that I spent all of yesterday trying to edit and get it done. And I think in about 20 seconds it'll... Yeah, there it is. It's called the Kraken. And what it does is it's got an LED screen. So pretty much any GIF I want to put on there, it can be put on there. There we go. So we can make it pink. Hmm? Hi, Timmy. It'll be fine, no problem. This is the hardest one. I'll never show you the rough drafts, but... Why? I mean, part of the reason it took three months to get this done is because obviously art means a lot to you. And not that the art did bad for anyone else who'd done this for it, but we wanted to take our time because we didn't want to send you something that we like. I loved it. I liked everything you showed me. But I want to see the drafts now. You're making me happy. Oh, God. As far as everything else goes, I mean, obviously I was really excited to do this. I don't think... This is going to be the last time I tell a story ever, but like... Sell a story? No, tell this story. Sell the... History. As far as the history, I mean, the two streamers that... Not even streamers. The two content careers that mean the most to me in my life would be you and then Ryan. Because I know it was probably just a passing thing, but like that like one week where I reached out and was just like... He reached out and we played League together when we were 17. I was like almost 10 years ago. But that's crazy you remember that. I remember because I was like... It was on Facebook too. I was just like... Yeah, it was still accepted messages. That's how I know that's like super, super old. Wow. I mean, to me it just... It meant a lot because it was like, you know how... With how... The more I get into content creation, right? Probably not even the video, but like the more I've gotten into the construction, I see like... It's a dream job and I wouldn't trade for anything, but I see how like messed up things can be at times. So moments like that mean a lot to me. And I kind of want to take that, what I learned from you, and then try to embody in things going forward. So for this project is, you know... I'm happy that I got to do it. And thank you for letting me do it. I mean... You gave me stuff in return, so... It has just now occurred to me that I forgot to shoot natural. So I'm gonna say this really quickly. Lily, thank you again for letting me do this project. Your kindness and who you are as a person means a lot to me. And I know you didn't have to let me do this. And I'm very, very, very appreciative that you let this happen. Thank you to Sasha for doing the art. Thank you to V1Tech for printing it all out so we could get it done. And thank you Micro Center. You are making so many content creators and consumers really happy with the way you do things. I hope you found the video... The video... Oh, God. I'll do better next year. I hope you found the video creative, entertaining, or informative in any way, shape, or form. I hope you have a happy new year. Because 2020 was really great. Anyways, have a good night. Goodbye!


I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face-covering should be born, when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus. The next sign for business is a statement by Mary McCallan on protecting and improving the water environment. The minister will take questions at the end of her statement, and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Minister Mary McCallan up to 10 minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Presiding Officer, a plentiful supply of good fresh water is essential for life. It provides safe drinking water, sterile health facilities and food that is safe to eat. It's key to our environment supporting a rich diversity of wildlife and plants and it supports the sustainable growth of our economy. Indeed, our biggest food and drink export whisky literally takes water and turns it into the water of life. Scotland is renowned worldwide for the quality of our rivers, locks and seas and our natural environment attracts millions of visitors every year. But it would be too easy to take this invaluable national asset for granted. We must manage our water environment effectively to meet our social, economic and environmental needs. River Basin Management Planning allows us to do just that. I can announce today that we are publishing the third River Basin Management Plan that sets out objectives and actions up to 2027. Those plans are underpinned by scientific evidence with action targeted where it can have the greatest environmental benefit. I thank SEPA for its expertise in producing what is an ambitious yet achievable programme of work. Before setting out what the plans will deliver, I would like to take a moment to take note of Scotland's position today in terms of our water quality. SEPA's most recent classification indicates that 66 per cent of Scotland's overall water environment is already in good condition. In comparison, the average across Europe is around 45 per cent, with many areas significantly lower, including our nearest neighbours in England, who are at just 16 per cent. This overall classification is built on four separate themes, water quality, water quantity, fish migration and physical condition, and I will take each in turn today. On water quality, this is already at its highest ever level, with 87 per cent of our water environment meeting good standards. Now, our aim is to reach 92 per cent by 2027. Success in this regard reflects improvements such as better rural land management, reducing diffuse pollution from activities such as spreading slurry and pesticides. It has also been gained by improvements made through the Scottish Waters investment programme. Our public water supply and wastewater treatment system is one of the largest industrial processes in Scotland, and the industry has dramatically reduced its environmental footprint in the last few decades. Since 2010, Scottish Water has worked with SEPA to upgrade 104 wastewater treatment works and 279 storm overflows with investment of £686 million. However, there is more to do, and that is why today I can announce that Scottish Water is publishing its improving urban waters route map, which, backed by £0.5 billion of investment, sets out actions to continue improving Scotland's wastewater network. Over the next six years, Scottish Water will invest approximately £150 million to improve the remaining 40 wastewater treatment works and 24 priority storm overflows, which will benefit around 400 kilometres of Scotland's rivers and lochs. The route map also sets out how it will develop solutions for a further 235 storm overflows by 2031, also backed by £158 million. It will also improve monitoring and public communication on over 1,000 of the highest priority overflows by 2024, and that will have a further £50 million of funding. Those are ambitious plans backed by substantial sums. Of course, one reason we are able to protect and improve our water environment effectively is because the key public bodies involved in this work are national and public entities. Scottish Water is still in Scotland's hands, which allows broad investment and democratic leadership. We also have a public independent regulatory body in SEPA. That synergy allows for challenge and coherence, and in recent months Scottish Water and SEPA have undertaken a rigorous balanced assessment of environmental evidence, and that is against a backdrop of understandable public concern about spills and debris, which has grown in recent years as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of storms. Of course, we also need to reduce rainwater entering our sewer systems in the first place, and the next 10 years we will see a shift towards more blue-green infrastructure and a way from impermeable concrete. While urban areas, rainfall and rural areas can also cause pollution, SEPA has built a strong working relationship with the agricultural industry, visiting I believe around 6,000 farms since 2010. That work will continue alongside new government rules on slurry to help farmers contribute to air, water and bathing water quality. Speaking of bathing water quality, Scotland's 85 bathing waters are now in the best condition since 2015 when tighter standards were introduced. 99 per cent of our bathing waters are now passing environmental standards with more than ever reaching excellent status. Just two weeks ago, I was absolutely delighted to visit AirBeach as its very hard-earned step change into good classification was confirmed, what a lot of work was involved in that. Alongside water quality sits water quantity. SEPA monitors that to identify the use and availability of water for all its vital functions. The flows and levels in Scotland's lochs and rivers are generally at 90 per cent of good condition. However, climate change is affecting this. This summer we saw the fourth driest spell since 1884, which is causing scarcity in parts of Scotland. Over the next six years, SEPA will work with businesses who abstract water to help them to switch to more water-resilient systems. Fish migration is the third pillar of Scotland's overall water quality picture. Migratory species, in particular Atlantic salmon and sea trout, are iconic for Scotland but are facing significant challenges from a number of pressures, including climate change, with droughts and higher temperatures threatening their very survival. Of course, in years gone by, economic development meant dams and weirs were being constructed, but that has restricted the passage of migratory fish and prevented them accessing good quality habitat. Today's river basin management plans commit to removing or easing 244 otherwise impassable man-made barriers to fish migration. Those actions will help to ensure that 99 per cent of our water environment will reach migration by 2027. We look again to our urban waterways. The river basin management plans published today set out how we will work collaboratively to restore urban rivers and improve the management of surface water during storms. Through the Water Environment Fund, we have already helped to restore a number of urban river areas, creating blue-green corridors and spaces for active travel. The plans provide for SEPA, working with local authorities on a number of new restoration projects to improve the ecological condition of rivers in Scotland's towns and cities. That includes 17, which is already in development. In conclusion, when it comes to Scotland's water, we have so much to be proud of. Around two thirds of our water environment is in good condition, higher than the European average and significantly higher than UK neighbours. Scotland's bathing waters are at their best ever with 99 per cent passing standards and more than ever at excellent level. Since 2010, our public water company has invested nearly £700 million upgrading wastewater treatment works and storm overflows while keeping customers' bills the lowest in the UK. However, we are determined and we are poised to do more. We will now invest more than half a billion in Scotland's wastewater network. We will continue to promote best farming practice in 57 priority catchments and we are introducing new slurry regulations. 244 impassable man-made barriers to fish migration will be eased in the next five years and around £5 million per year will be spent through the Water Environment Fund to remove redundant structures on rivers and create urban green space. Presiding Officer, the plans published today will together seek to address all remaining major sources of pollution over the next six years. All of that is in addition to our multi-annual quarter of a billion pound investment in peatland restoration £42 million a year and an additional £150 million over the next five years for flood risk management and a new budget of £11.7 million for coastal change adaptation. All of that while we continue to tackle plastic pollution through DRS by banning harmful single-use plastics and by developing a marine litter strategy with a focus on microplastics with a decade and more co-ordinated and concerted action backed by hundreds of millions of pounds of investment Scotland has a water quality a water environment the quality of which outperforms our neighbours but we are not complacent our plans identify and will solve persistent historic issues while rising to new challenges like climate change Presiding Officer, I hope that these are ambitions which we can all get behind and I very much look forward to working with Parliament to achieve them. Thank you. The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next item of business. It would be helpful if those members who wish to ask a question were to press the request to speak button now and I call on Brian Whittle. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer and I thank the minister for the advanced sight of her statement. Scotland's waterways, be it our seas or canals or our lost rivers are important to our wellbeing are important to our environment as well as having a significant impact on our economy. Tourism, fishing and agriculture are all major contributors to the Scottish economy and as such support many livelihoods and communities especially in our rural areas. It is a little wonder therefore that Scottish salmon farmers were warning recently that the Greens in coalition with the SNP were to stop their industry especially after the Greens pledged to shut down open pen salmon farming and stop further growth in that sector. Further concerns have been raised at the development plans around the national park of Loch Lomond some of which we understand have been given the green light without an environment impact assessment which seems at odds with protecting such an important ecosystem. Local residents are saying that their voices are not being heard. I will push back from this year I have again to raise the issue of Tobol landfill and the continuing saga of significant quantities of leachate seeping out and into the surrounding waterways and this has been happening for several years now without a resolution. For my questions to the minister how is the Scottish Government constructively working with our aquaculture sector to ensure continued and sustainable growth of our salmon farming in Scotland? Secondly, what safeguards to the Scottish Government have in place to ensure that any development at Loch Lomond and similar sites are rigorously scrutinised to protect such important natural beauty spots? Finally, what is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that waterway pollution such as is happening at Tobol landfill will not happen at any other sites as those are shut down? Minister. I thank the member for the questions. First, on aquaculture. Aquaculture is a vitally important part to our economy and the Scottish Government is absolutely agreed in supporting it. We would all agree, the industry would agree, that it must be done, it must be pursued in a way that is as environmentally friendly as possible. The member will know that SEPA is responsible for regulating organic waste and chemical discharges from fish farms under the Water Environment Controlled Activities Regulations 2011 and in June 2019 SEPA introduced its new framework for aquaculture. The new framework tightens the seabed protection of fish farms, uses more accurate computer modelling to assess development proposals and requires increased monitoring by operators of their effects on the environment. In 2020 we transferred responsibility for the authorisation of discharges of medicine from wellboats from Marine Scotland to SEPA and that means that SEPA can now regulate such medicine discharges holistically. I have responsibility in government for overseeing these matters and I work closely with my colleague Mary Gougeon on the other aspects of aquaculture that are important to our rural economy. Just on the question of Turbolton, I absolutely agree that there are concerns with regard to Durbolton and risks to surface water quality. That is why I am pleased to say that with funding from the Scottish Government SEPA has procured work to reduce the impact of Turbolton landfill site near by water courses. Environmental specialists are undertaking detailed design work and are expected to begin construction of measures to prevent wastewater from leaving the site in spring 2022. As I have done before, I would like to commit again today to continuing working with the member who I know has a very close interest in these matters as I do and I will be sure to keep him updated on that. As regards Loch Lomond I will allow my colleagues in planning ministerial portfolio to address that matter with the member but I can assure him that the environmental impact of all applications in Scotland are of concern to me and I keep them closely in my sites. Colin Smyth. Thank you to the minister for advance sight of her statement. Despite the positive picture painted by the minister, we know that sewage spills into Scotland's rivers have increased by 40 per cent in the past five years, albeit that Scottish water is only required to monitor less than 3 per cent of overflow. Sewage overflow has become the norm rather than an emergency release valve during a storm. Any investment and improving overflows is welcome, but improving 6 per cent of the nearly 4,000 in the next decade just a third of those classes unsatisfactory by Scottish water does not go far enough and as well as inadequate funding of infrastructure we also are seeing the defunding of the regulator that the recent green SNP budget cuts its own budget again this time by £2.1 million. If the Government claim to be taking that the nature emergency seriously can the minister tell us how you can justify cutting the budget for the very agency responsible for enforcement? Isn't it time for tough legally binding targets to end sewage pollution backed by properly funded enforcement and infrastructure? Minister. Thanks, Presiding Officer, and again I thank the member for what is a really important question. I would just start off by pointing out that combined sewage overflow is a fundamentally important part of a water system. The purpose of it is to prevent backup into homes and businesses during periods of heavy rainfall. Heavy rainfall, which we know is increasingly occurring as the effects of climate change continue to bite. I would also point out that they are heavily licensed and when that is the case an overflow in and of itself it does not necessarily cause environmental damage. Can I just be clear about what we are announcing today? We are dealing with a situation where over the last decade nearly £600 million of investment by Scotland's public water company an independent regulation of SIPA in 104 wastewater treatment works improved and 279 storm overflows improved. That has taken us to a situation where we have 66 per cent of good water quality in Scotland compared to 16 per cent with our nearest neighbours and 45 per cent as the European average. Now, not complacent, keen to rise to the challenges that climate change poses we are investing a further half a billion pounds over the next five, six years to continue and to improve all those remaining wastewater treatment works and, crucially, to tackle in stages the highest priority storm overflows. I understand the public's concern about what enters their water environment. I take it very seriously. I think that we have a lot to be proud of and what we have achieved thus far. What we are setting out today is about identifying and tackling all remaining sources of pollution already very ecologically sound situation in Scotland. Before I call the next MSP posing a question, I would point out that, although I have given a bit of latitude to the front benchers and the minister in terms of questions and answers, if we could have more succinct questions and answers we could get every MSP who is seeking to ask a question in. I call Siwon Brown who is joining us remotely to be followed by Liam Kerr. I would like to refer to my register of interest as I am still a sitting councillor at South East Council. I would like to thank the minister for the very positive update and also the welcome news about works from CEPA for improvement for the Tobolton landsite which is neighbouring to my constituency. It has been extremely concerning for Air South Beach to be classified poor for four consecutive years and I would like to put my thanks on the record for all the collaborative hard work which has gone in since 2018 to improve the water quality and which has been classified this year good, which is very, very welcome. I would also like to pay thanks to the local groups, Air Rotary, Allaway Rotary and Don't Trash Air. Minister, what steps the Scottish Government can take in order to assist in continuing to build on this work and to ensure that protections are strengthened for our beaches, our beach users and our marine life? Minister. Thank you Presiding Officer. Like the member, I was absolutely delighted and it now joins the 99 per cent of Scotland's bathing waters which are passing our rigorous environmental standards. I visited there, I spoke to Scottish Government officials, Scottish Water, CEPA, the NFUS, South Ayrshire Council and I'd just like to thank them all again for their really hard efforts and indeed I'd like to thank the member for her efforts in her elected roles. In addition to the intensive work already carried out, CEPA and Scottish Water will continue in partnership with the council to improve the systems serving homes in the area or indeed connect them to the public sewer system where that's possible and that's backed by £3 million of funding. More widely we need to encourage the public to properly dispose of litter and not to flush inappropriate items including wet wipes cotton buds, these can all block the sewers and cods spills. We are working with to support and promote the development of the fine to flush standard which will very much help in that regard. The first administration in the UK to ban beads and buds we're moving on to more problematic single use plastics now including cutlery and straws. We're developing DRS which will combat beach litter and we're shackling microplastic pollution so in all of these ways the huge achievement at Ayr should be sustained by the actions that us and partner agencies are taking. I call Liam Kerr as we follow by Neil Gray. With the minister outline on landowners, land managers and groups to tackle invasive nomnative species on our riverbanks and how will our plans ensure that in the drive to plant trees we won't see the inappropriate and damaging plantations close to rivers that we saw in the 50s and 60s? The beauty of a statement on water quality is the breadth of questions that it can attract. I would like to come back to the member if he doesn't mind on what specific funding is available because I don't have that information but I can tell him that the Scottish Government's forestry grants scheme has a section which is dedicated to the appropriate riparian planting along riverbanks which is essential for keeping water clean and cool, important for species and very much aligned with the biodiversity and climate targets that we are trying to pursue so our forestry grants scheme is already working hard on that and I will come back to the member with some information on specific funding streams available to landowners. Neil Gray, who is joining us remotely to be followed by Monica Lennon. I congratulate the minister on her first statement and the ambition being shown by the Scottish Government. Figures from the riveramond action groups suggest that the heart hill waste water treatment works in my constituency is failing to meet water framework directive requirements and that there were 256 sewage spells into the riveramond via the how-burn in 2019. I will advise whether the welcome investments that she has announced today can help to bring the heart hill works up to licence standards and help to achieve the good status for the amond by 2027. Minister. I thank the member for the question. I am acutely aware of the concerns of residents and indeed the member of the position with regard to the riveramond. The river basin management plans announced today include work to upgrade water treatment works on the riveramond with the aim of improving water quality to good status by 2027. I am pleased to confirm to the member that the heart hill treatment works is one of those seven. More generally on the riveramond our Scottish water route map will address any high priority sewer overflows in the area by 2027. I know that that will be of interest to the member and to all those in the areas of water. I just want them to know that the Scottish Government has listened and we are seeking to act. Bathing water is an issue that is raised with me as regards the river amond occasionally and I would just put on the record that any application for bathing water status will be assessed by the bathing water review panel and advice normally comes to ministers for consideration in January and February of each year. Monica Lennon, who is joining us in what is followed by Mary McNair. I have written the statement because constituents in my region are very concerned about the environmental and health impacts being discussed. Almost 17 million cubic metres of sewage was pumped into Hamilton wastewater treatment works alone between 2026 and 2020 so it is a big concern locally. I have asked the minister this before and she was asked by a colleague today will she agree to bring in binding targets and in terms of plastic pollution that were mentioned but will she commit to bringing in a ban on plastic-based wipes in the near future? Minister. I would address the initial part of Monica Lennon's question by pointing out two things. Three things actually and I will repeat them because they were said in response to Colin Smyth as well. The spilling of CSOs is not an environmental hazard where those are heavily licensed and it is very dilute and SEPA regulates it so it is only where there is a problem with the system that a problem arises. We accept that problems arise and I have pointed to the 10 years of investment that we have already made and the improvements made and I am now pointing to the next five years of improvements and specifically those which have been identified by SEPA as having a problematic impact in the water environment and that work is on-going. Ministers will get an annual report on progress towards the targets that I have set out today. On plastic pollution and wet wipes, as I say, we are working on a UK-wide basis on the fine to flush standards. I understand that there are reserved powers. This is now in the ministerial responsibility of my colleague, Lorna Slater but I obviously take a very close interest in it. One thing that I would highlight to the chamber is the insidious impact of the UK's internal market act which can prevent Scotland from moving faster on some of these environmental issues. If we wanted to, we could be held behind by the rest of the UK. Should they not choose to take the same direction? We are working on a four-nations basis on the wet wipes just now and we will be glad to keep the member updated on that. Before I ask the next MSP to pose the question, can I just please ask her more succinct answers because otherwise we will not be able to have all MSPs who wish to ask a question being in the position of being able to ask a question. Can I come, Mary McNair, to be followed by Leigh MacArthur? Thank you, Presiding Officer. As minister will know, my constituency of Clydebank and Magai has a very well-known water border with significant links to Scotland's shipbuilding past and present, that being the river Clyde. However, with the industrial past of the Clyde in surrounding areas the river has been deeply affected. Can the minister outline plans on future contamination in order to improve the water quality of the Clyde, particularly for habitats and biodiversity? Minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer. This is an excellent question and one that I have an interest in is constituency MSP for Clydesdale, which the Clyde runs through, although people often can forget that. Much has been done to clean up the Clyde in recent decades, but of course some pockets of industrial contamination remain. There is a work of Clyde Gateway in tackling problems such as the residues of chromium in the palmydi burn. Between 2010 and 2021, £610 million will have been invested in wastewater assets to ensure that sewage is treated properly before it comes anywhere near the Clyde just for context until recently the river was in the worst category for water quality, the bad category. I am delighted that in recent years it has moved up the scale and is in good care of aspects. Just one symbol of that, I had the pleasure of attending Salmon School on the banks of the Clyde and Crossford in Clydesdale, where the children learn about the return of salmon to the Clyde and they were very keen to tell me that with the salmon being included on Glasgow's coat of arms, they saw the return of the species as the manifestation of let Glasgow fly. Liam McArthur to be followed by John Mason. Thank you. The one figure missing from the minister's statement was the one that prompted us to ask for this statement last month as the ferret revealed sewage spilled into Scotland's waterways more than 12,000 times last year alone. While Liam Blackford tore into UK ministers about the situation in England, officials here were admitting privately that Scotland is way behind. It's clear the environment watched dogs' first concern wasn't the health of our streams, rivers and communities but for their own reputation. Will the minister commit to annual reporting of sewage spillages? Can she tell us whether the plan is to eliminate these or if a specific target will be set? Minister. I know that you are asking for brevity but please allow me a chance to debunk some of what the member has just said. I just want to address the issue of the freedom of information request. I am not criticising the process, it's exceptionally important but when taking out of context meaning can be lost so just allow me to address that. Reference to unacceptably high in the freedom of information request was of just six out of 350 storm overflows, not their overall system. Reference to being way behind, which the member quoted was not about the frequency of spills or the effect of the environment but about monitoring alone. Just on that, Scottish Water took a strategic decision in years gone by to focus investment on improving overflows not monitoring them, improving the problem, not monitoring the problem. I think that has borne fruit when we now have a 66 per cent water quality position in Scotland and I have set out how we are not resting on our laurels but now working to improve some of those most problematic storm overflows. Just on the question of elimination I apologise to the minister. I really need to allow other members to have a chance to speak. We won't eliminate because it's a vital part of the system. John Mason to be followed by Dean Lockhart. Thank you. As an MSP covering part of the Clyde I confirm it's improved tremendously through my lifetime. Can the minister confirm that she actually said that the water environment in Scotland is good 66 per cent and the comparable figure in England is 16 per cent and does this not show we're definitely getting something right? Minister. Thanks, Presiding Officer. In many ways I think the fact that 66 per cent is our figure for water environment as compared with England's 16 per cent it really speaks for ourselves. There are a lot of challenges with our neighbours in England ageing infrastructure, heavy rainfall increased rainfall with climate change but I do believe that we made the right decisions to prioritise improvement of overflows rather than monitoring and I believe that we are aided by the fact that Scotland's water Scottish water is in public hands which allow us to make strategic nationwide and democratic decisions and investments over a long period and that with the cheapest bills across the whole of the UK. Dean Lockhart, who is joining us remotely to be followed by Mark Ruskell. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. The budget has been cut across a number of environment portfolios including environmental quality, SEPA and Scottish water itself. Can the minister clarify precisely how these budget cuts will help to improve the future water environment in Scotland? Minister. I will keep this one brief. The budget settlement was reached in exceptionally difficult for fiscal circumstances and I think I've laid out today in the next five years which shows that Scottish water and SEPA are working very well indeed under the circumstances. I call Mark Ruskell to be followed by Stuart McMillan, both of whom are joining us remotely. Thank you. I very much welcome this statement but also make the point that protected species such as the Atlantic salmon are being threatened by critically low water levels in our rivers during the summer. Scottish water are making this problem worse by deciding to restrict outflows from water bodies such as Lachfanica. How can the minister encourage SEPA to review Scottish water to ensure that it carries the appropriate assessments of potential damage to the environment when it makes such decisions? I'm sorry, Presiding Officer. I didn't catch that. Okay. I'm sorry. Mr Ruskell, there was a slight glitch on the line. Could you possibly repeat perhaps just the question rather than the preamble? Thank you. Maen nhw'r little-fath i'r iawn i ddechrau'r ingenys yn ddweudio'r ddweudio ar gyfer cyntafion ymrhum datblygu i ddechrau. Felly, mae gennych nhw'r ddweudio ar gyfer eich tynnu'r ddweudio allun o wedi gwelsu cyffredinol yn cyffredinol i ddulladegau ddweudio sydd angen fydd yn gallan gyfbeth aelodol ar gyfer i sefydlu Ad Blues�au i ddisaddus i ddweudio i ddechrau'r ddweudio i ddweudio i ddweudio yn cyd-dweudio. I'm not particularly in the business of encouraging SEPA. It's very much my prerogative to let them get on with their rigorous independent work that they do. However, I think that what I've set out today, these plans coming together, really makes clear that SEPA challenges Scottish water and Scottish water is ready to respond. The member knows that SEPA regulates extraction of water, and they review the processes that they undertake in order to do that. I would expect that to go on, but I don't want to stand here and encourage SEPA to do that, to do anything. Stuart McMillan, who is joining us remotely. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the minister detail what action the Scottish Government is taking to reduce the impact of climate change on Scotland's water environment? I have a really important question that we are already seeing many aspects of climate change affecting us in Scotland. In summer we saw the driest conditions in the west for 100 years, and, for example, the Scottish Government responded with emergency bottled water scheme. Another impact of climate change is that it causes our rivers to warm. I mentioned to another member about riparian tree planting that we are promoting to try to keep waters cool and help to foster the life of species. Of course, one of the main impacts of climate change that we are already seeing is flooding. That is why the Scottish Government is providing £42 million a year, together with an additional £150 million over the next five years for flood mitigation in Scotland. Those are real challenges, and we have to be prepared to respond. That concludes the statement, and there will be a very short pause before we move on to the next item of business. The next item of business is consideration of business motion 2654, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out a business motion. I call on George Adam to move the motion. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and moved. Thank you. No member has asked to speak on the motion, and the question is that motion 2654 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is consideration of seven parliamentary bureau motions. I asked George Adam on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau to move motions 2655 to 2659 on approval of SSIs, 2660 on designation of a lead committee and 2666 on parliamentary recess dates. All of which is my pleasure to move, Presiding Officer. Thank you. Minister, the question on these motions will be put at decision time. I propose to ask a single question on seven parliamentary bureau motions. Does any member object? The question therefore is that motions 2655 to 2660 and 2666, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. That concludes decision time. We will move on to members' business and members' exiting. The chamber, please do so quietly. Thank you.