For my capstone interview I interviewed Karen Mintzer. Her company is Mintzer Mauch. Karen is an environmental attorney, and the former Regional Counsel for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.  I interviewed her because she is an environmental lawyer and worked for the state environmental agency that works to prevent water and ocean pollution.  She knows a lot about ocean pollution and will prevent it in the future. The process for my interview was to make a list of people I could interview and I chose Karen because she has a lot of experience in this topic. I emailed her my questions and we set up our zoom for Friday, May 22. I asked her these ten questions:

1. Can you tell me about the work you do and how it relates to protecting water bodies and marine life?
2. What is the biggest cause of pollution in New York’s water bodies?
3. How does pollution in New York’s rivers and wetlands impact ocean pollution?
4. How does garbage from New York City end up in the ocean?
5. How is pollution mainly affecting marine life?
6. Which types of pollution in the oceans and water bodies are the biggest issues that are being worked on by New York state? 

7.What is New York state doing to protect the oceans and other water bodies that feed into the ocean?

8.What programs does DEC have to protect marine life around New York

9. What has the DEC done to protect marine aniamls?
10. What federal laws are in place to protect our oceans and marine life?

The most interesting thing I learned as a result of the interview was learning about the state environmental agency and the programs they have to protect the ocean. During the Interview process one of the most challenging things was writing my questions.