Contaminated Nation - Water Contamination, Land Pollution & Hazardous Waste locations

Fracking Hearing in Colorado Challenges Gas Industry and Citizens

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas has been blamed for making western Wyoming's air dirtier during winter than Los Angeles' air, according to this article in the Houston Chronicle. The claim was brought up during a public comment session on new rules for fracking held in Colorado by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Those new rules would reduce the air pollution from fracking by 25 percent and would boost oil and gas industry profits by capturing gas that could be sold instead of being lost to the atmosphere. Industry groups aren't sure about that and want more time to study the new rules. Colorado residents contend the industry has had enough time to clean up its act, and they want action before Colorado's mountains become socked in by haze, hurting tourism and jobs related to the outdoors.

Health issues were also cited at the hearing, with the American Lung Association urging the EPA to go further and limit methane emissions more directly. Others want the wholesale burn off of natural gas, also known as flaring, to be stopped, and still others want existing facilities to fall under the new rules as well.

Supporters of the oil and gas industry said more regulation will limit exploration, thereby reducing jobs and taxes. No new perspectives there.

Environmental Activity Creates Jobs Too

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Who says protecting the environment doesn't create any jobs? It does in West Virginia where Arch Coal Inc. will fork over $2 million that will hire "a lead land-use attorney, two supporting attorneys and an experienced land-use planner … along with a full-time office manager and an additional faculty member" for the West Virginia University College of Law, Land Use and Sustainability Clinic, according to this article in the Houston Chronicle.

Arch will also install equipment to treat and monitor selenium pollution it left behind as it took the tops off mountains to get coal. Involved are Arch's subsidiaries, Coal-Mac Inc. and Mingo Logan Coal Company, and five active and inactive or reclaimed sites. Arch will pay $200,000 to the federal government and $145,000 to cover plaintiffs' legal costs. That's money that has a direct impact on jobs, too.

Installing the treatment and monitoring systems adds even more jobs, and, if the company violates any more Clean Water Act rules it must pay $25,000 per incident. Earlier this year, Arch paid $5.8 million in fines and penalties related to its pollution legacy including iron, aluminum and manganese contamination released between 2003 and 2010. Some or much of that money will no doubt end up paying somebody for doing something.

Hanford Superfund Site Stands as Huge and Complex

2012-01-25T14:30:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Dubbed by the Environmental Protection Agency as "one of the largest and most complex cleanup projects in the U.S.," another part of the Hanford Superfund site in Washington will enter the cleanup process soon. The EPA and the Department of Energy decided on using a combination of techniques for the cleanup because of the variety of ways plutonium has contaminated the soil, according to this news report.

In some soils, the plutonium was mixed with nitric acid, turning it from a relatively soil-stable material into one that migrates through soil more readily. In those places, more soil will be removed. Then, for the remaining areas, the soil will be stored in-situ at a designated, lined landfill at the Hanford site or be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico if it has high levels of plutonium.
This Superfund site sits in southern Washington state, north of Kennewick and east of Yakima. It is right next to the Columbia River, and it is huge. It covers 586 square miles and is divided into four National Priorities List Sites -- 100, 200, 300 and 1100 Areas, according to an EPA fact sheet on the site. This particular cleanup action focuses on four soil waste sites where water and steam contaminated with plutonium 239 were disposed of. Plutonium 239 takes 48,000 years to decay. The area encompasses 10 square miles.

For most of the years between 1943 and 1989, the Hanford site produced plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. At one time, there were six nuclear reactors operating along the river and using its waters to cool their operations. Making plutonium created 43 million cubic yards of radioactive waste, more than 130 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris and allowed 475 billion gallons of contaminated water to be dumped on the ground. There are now 80 square miles of contaminated groundwater that have contamination exceeding groundwater protection standards. It poses a risk to the Columbia River and to the people living in Richland, Pasco and Kennewick. Those communities take their drinking water directly from the river. The population of people within 50 miles of Hanford is about half a million.

According to the second five-year review in 2007, the remediation of strontium-90 contamination in the groundwater was not effective, and the strontium-90 along the shoreline was not being reduced by the pump-and-treat system installed there. At the time, the EPA pointed to new work underway that would bring that remediation up to standard and make it protective of health.

Part of the overall remediation of Hanford meant setting up places to store huge amounts of contamination, forever. But the storage plan had to make sure the contaminants would not migrate through soil or into water or air. One such place is called the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. From 1996 to 2001, the ERDF received two million tons of nuclear debris, and by 2007, the total was more than seven million tons. It still receives about 3,000 tons of waste every day, according to this EPA document. This disposal area lies between the western and eastern portions of the 200 Area. Hanford is a legendary reminder of World War II and the Cold War, and it shows just how easy it is to create messes that may never really be cleaned up.

Hewlett Water Contamination Cleanup Set to Begin

2012-01-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

A mysterious plume of groundwater contamination is getting the cleanup go-ahead, according to this article in The Five Towns Patch. The Peninsula Boulevard Groundwater Plume describes a Superfund site in Hewlett, N.Y. that doesn't have a named source.

Early in the investigation, it was thought the former Grove Cleaners was responsible, but that was ruled out, according to the Environmental Protection Agency report. The contaminant is tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, and the contaminated groundwater flows toward a drinking water source called the Long Island American Water Plant 5 Well Field. Beginning in 1991, that well water has been treated with a packed power aeration system, or air stripper. The site was proposed for and listed with Superfund status in 2004.

Contamination Clean up begins in Hewlett, N.Y.

There is a school nearby but vapor intrusion tests have shown no problems there. The agency also sampled nearby building slabs with the plan to install remediation systems if vapor intrusion was detected.

The cleanup plan is to drill wells allowing the solvent to flow into them. Pumps will extract the water and send it through a treatment process before retiring it to the ground. The cleanup process may take 15 years or more. PCE easily evaporates into air where people can be affected by breathing it. It is considered a carcinogen.

Uranium in Drinking Water? It's Not Our Fault, and Stop Telling Us What to Do

2012-01-23T13:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Cotter Corp. of Colorado, a subsidiary of General Atomics in San Diego, is glowing as the poster child for uranium misbehavior, and state authorities are nearing their limits in putting up with the errant corporate child's tantrums.

Beginning in April 2010, the state started telling Cotter to clean up one of its defunct mining properties, according to this report. Then, about a year ago in September, Cotter said 'no' to those orders and refused to clean up the Schwartzwalder mine. State regulators alleged the mine was leaking uranium-tainted water into Denver's water supply. Mine water contained uranium at 310 parts per billion, 100 times greater than acceptable levels. Then, in a subsequent act of disobedience, Cotter refused to pay the fines -- about $55,000 at the time.

Next, Cotter sued the state, claiming that regulators didn't have enough evidence to tell it to clean up its messes and that the contaminated water in the mine was not getting into the ground water or into nearby creeks that drain into Lake Arvada.

In June 2011, Cotter was still refusing to obey, and by September, uranium had tainted the water supplies of three water suppliers, Denver Water, Arvada and North Table Mountain, according to this report. Those water supplies serve about 1.3 million people in Colorado. Levels of the radioactive material are low, according to environmental officials, and the water is still okay to drink.

Not in My Backyard. But It Already Is.

2012-01-20T13:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

You don't find refineries placed near homes worth millions of dollars, and homes with ocean vistas don't have their views obstructed by polluting industries. It's an economic fact that some properties are worth more than others, and it's also a fact that high-value properties face less environmental contamination issues than low-value properties -- with perhaps the exception of air pollution.
While there is talk of class warfare being waged on the rich these days, class warfare through environmental degradation has always been waged on lower-income people, and that was publicly recognized in the U.S. as far back as the 1960s, according to this archival reference.

As developed nations glanced around at their legacies of contamination, they started to strengthen their environmental rules to tranquilize the madness. But an unintended consequence was that polluters just started shifting their operations to countries where regulations were not as strict. They also started to simply ship the wastes and pollutants to other lands, as written about here and here. The "not in my backyard" syndrome continues playing out globally, just as it does locally, with polluting companies, and countries, discovering new ways to unload their pollution on others.

While it's true that contamination in America disproportionately affects middle- and lower-income people, the powerful, famous and wealthy are not immune. What's more, many of the privileged might be surprised to learn just how close they live and work to contaminated soil, air and water, a quiet trend that promises to evenly spread the effects and threats of pollution across all of America's classes. Here are some specific cases that show just how cozy everyone is becoming with contamination.

Current and past residents of the nation's White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. might be interested in knowing there have been 131 spills, incidents and releases of toxic substances within a half-mile radius of the building since 2001, according to this report.
Environmental Data Resources reports that the residence made famous by the woman who gave birth to eight kids in California has an illegal drug lab minutes from its front door. That residence also has had spills, releases and/or incidents related to hazardous substances within a half-mile radius, and within the same distance, there is a landfill and eight entities permitted to store, transport or generate chemicals that may be hazardous to human health.

The Trump Plaza Residences in Jersey City, New Jersey, bills its location as offering "a vibrant neighborhood" right at residents' doorsteps. What the sales pitch doesn't tell aspiring tenants is that at their doorsteps they'll also have a vibrant collection of 220 spills, releases and/or incidents related to hazardous substances. Included in that mix is one Superfund site. Then too, there are 63 places within a half mile that are permitted to store, transport or generate chemicals that may be hazardous to human health, according to this report.

It may be that we are beginning to run out of places where we can dispose of contamination to keep it out of our own backyards, regardless of social stature and economic power. Even the idea of "dumping it over there, far away from me" is just a comforting illusion because the earth is everyone's backyard -- and the only one we all have.

Responsible Parties in Omega Superfund Site May Be on the Hook for $70 million

2012-01-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

The Omega Chemical Corporation Superfund site in Whittier, California, needs $70 million to cleanup the volatile organic compounds in the ground water, according to a recent report at 89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio. The plume of contamination extends 4.5 miles in a southwesterly direction, at least to Los Nietos Road.

Cleanup of the soil and above-ground area began in 1995. More than 100 potentially responsible parties banded together to "remove and treat 3,000 drums of hazardous waste, 60 cubic yards of hardened resin material, hundreds of empty contaminated drums, numerous cylinders and various other smaller containers." The group also emptied two rainwater sumps and four evaporators. It cleaned two cooling towers, removed 67 refrigerant gas cylinders and disposed of 40,000 gallons of contaminated liquids, according to the history of the site kept by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Whittier, Ca needs $70 million to cleanup superfund site

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control had been alerted to problems at the business in the 1980s, and during the 1990s, the department had tried unsuccessfully to get the operators of the facility to remove wastes and clean up the site. The business recycled refrigerants and solvents from 1976 to 1991. Spills and leaks led to soil contamination with tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, trichloroethylene, or TCE, Freons 11 and 113 and other contaminants. One of the operable units managed by the EPA is addressing vapor intrusion in several buildings along the perimeter of the Omega property, while the other two operable units focus on the ground water contamination.

Uranium and Radon Contamination Not Always Linked to Mining

2012-01-18T14:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Photo from:
BEAU CABELL/THE TELEGRAPH

There doesn't have to be uranium mining nearby to cause contamination of water supplies because uranium occurs naturally in many parts of the country. Take Georgia for example.
In Macon, some homeowners were recently surprised to find uranium at 21 times the safe limit in their well water and radon in their indoor air. One woman claimed she was drinking nearly a gallon of the water every day, and others who had their hair tested for uranium found it contained high levels of the radioactive material, according to this report in Macon.com.

There is a layer of granite that runs through several southeastern states. Water that lies below that layer can be high in uranium, and radon is more prevalent above ground in those places also. This creates double jeopardy for those living above the granite. Radon inside buildings is thought to contribute to incidents of lung cancer as people bathe and wash clothes in water containing uranium. In other cases, the radon may seep into buildings through the foundations as it naturally rises through the soil. One in 15 radon air tests in Georgia will have unacceptable limits of the gas.

Twenty-two water tests in the Macon area had uranium present in excess of 30 parts per billion, the recognized safe limit, but a few tests had concentrations as high as 300 and 400 parts per billion. Water testing is on the increase in Macon.

Merced Takes on Big Oil Over MTBE Contamination

2012-01-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Merced, California, and its Redevelopment Agency have sued numerous oil companies for their alleged part in contaminating the water supplies there with methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, and tert-butyl alcohol, or TBA, according to this article in the Merced Sun-Star.

Merced, California sues oil companies for MTBE contamination

The city contends that the companies sold gasoline containing the substances to local service stations and those stations improperly handled them, causing them to be released into the environment. The main avenue to the ground water was leaking underground storage tanks. The city also linked the oil companies deeply to the contamination by alleging they promoted the additives as being environmentally beneficial but failed to disclose it would make water undrinkable. The contamination supposedly occurred between 1992 and 2002. The city also alleges the defendants were "negligent, careless, reckless or intentionally failed to prevent leaks of MTBE or TBA through the use of appropriate technology, installation and maintenance of gasoline delivery systems that could prevent leaks or monitor and discover them as soon as possible."

MTBE continues to be a growing contaminant in water supplies across the country, according to the EPA. Even very low amounts of it make water smell like turpentine and taste like chemicals, and in high amounts it is a suspected carcinogen. MTBE is water-soluble and doesn't cling to soil very well, so it migrates quickly to ground water. TBA is used in gasoline to boost the octane rating, but what many people may not be aware of is that it has also been used to coat metal food containers. Studies done with rats, as reported by California, have shown this chemical to be a potential carcinogen.

Old TCE Plume Set to be Cleaned Up

2012-01-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, trichloroethylene, or TCE, is expected to be dangerous to humans in concentrations exceeding 5 parts per billion in drinking water. In Hereford Township, Pennsylvania, however there are places where it reaches 900,000 parts per billion, according to this report at WFMZ-TV News online.

TCE found 5 parts per billlion in Pennsylvania

A liquid source of the TCE is continuously recreated as water flows over bedrock that is saturated with the chemical. That liquid adds to the nearly three mile plume of contaminated groundwater all originating from the former Bally Case and Cooler Company. Barrels of TCE were brought to the location and after being stored for awhile were eventually dumped there in the late 1960s.
Homes that were affected along Dale Road got new wells and filtration systems as an interim solution until the money could be found to do a cleanup or containment. In 2009 $11 million in funds showed up and that money is going to build a water treatment plant that will be fed by extraction wells extending along a 6,000-foot pipeline. Once the water is treated at the plant it will be released into the environment.

Officials Prescribe a Remediation Plan for CVS

2012-01-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

From Lincoln, Nebraska, the JournalStar.com reports a CVS pharmacy that is supposed to be built where 16th Street and South Street intersect, will be delayed due to soil contamination.
The culprit is tetrachlorethene, another name for tetrachloroethylene, and a widely used chemical for dry-cleaning fabrics and for degreasing metal, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The substance makes people dizzy, sleepless and nauseated and causes confusion, difficulty walking, unconsciousness and death in concentrated doses, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. It is found in more than half of the EPA's National Priorities List sites.

Soil contamination halts new CVS pharmacy

In this case there was a dry cleaning establishment located on the proposed CVS site back in the 1980s. The groundwater has a 300-foot plume of the contaminant traveling west and southwest and has higher concentrations of the chemical in the soil that what standards allow. Gas vapors also exceed minimum standards.

A remediation plan will have to be put in place before construction of the CVS can begin. Along with ongoing groundwater monitoring to ensure the contamination doesn't increase, the land there will be restricted to only commercial or industrial use and water wells will not be allowed. As usual, the public can comment on the plan but barring any major objection approval is expected by the end of September.

Rockford Investigates Mysterious Well Contamination

2012-01-05T11:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Private water wells have been mysteriously contaminated with volatile organic chemicals in Rockford, Illinois, according to this report in WIFR.com. The area affected extends from the Cottonwood Airport east to Alliance Avenue, south to Auburn Street and North to the ends of Soper Avenue, North Johnston Avenue, Bond Avenue, North Day Avenue, North Horace Avenue, North Greenview Avenue, North Willard Avenue, North Burbank Avenue and Catbaugh Avenue.

Volatile organic chemicals contamination around Cottonwood Airport

The area also includes Parkside Avenue and Liberty Drive. The announcement came out August 2 and at that time there were two wells contaminated. On August 25, WIFR.com reported that environmental officials had done two additional tests and discovered four more contaminated samples. Two of those samples registered above the maximum allowed level.

In June, one resident complained of odor in the drinking water and that began the investigation. Historical records show that besides the airport there have been several gas stations near the neighborhood over the years, and to its east is a hardware manufacturer and importer/exporter as well as an assembly, packaging and warehousing operation. The Northwest Community Center has been in operation on Alliance Avenue since the late 40s, is housed in a 15,000 square foot building and has property taken in a land swap from a local manufacturing concern.

Tales of Irene and Fuel Contamination

2012-01-04T13:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Flooding in NY Subway

Residents in the lower Hudson River area of New York discovered fuel-laden water in their basements after the heavy rains from tropical storm Irene. The fuel is thought to have originated at a nearby heating, ventilation and air conditioner contractor that also has fuel delivery operations, according to this report in lohud.com.

Environmental Conservationists investigating fuel spill

The smelly water was being pumped out of basements in Sloatsburg, New York by the local fire department while the state Department of Environmental Conservation investigated the cause of the spill. Immediately after the incident it was being assumed that storm water rose above the containment wall around the fuel facility and when combined with high winds jostled some tankers causing them to leak.

But, according to a report in NorthJersey.com the Ramapo River in New Jersey was also affected as an estimated 10,000 gallons of diesel and home heating oil leaked into that waterway from the same fuel storage and delivery facility. The facility stores up to 30,000 gallons of various fuels at any time. Other reports placed a 3,000 gallon tank and another 500 gallon tank in the nearby woods where observers said the smell of gasoline was so strong they couldn't stay in the area more than a few minutes. One of those tanks bore the markings of the same fuel facility.

Water Treatment Byproducts Taint Colorado Town's H2O

2011-12-23T13:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

The process of making community water safe to drink sometimes carries its own risks. Residents in iconic Hotchkiss, Colorado, have found that out since being told not to drink their community's water for six months so they can avoid ingesting haloacetic acids, according to this report in the Houston Chronicle.

EPA warns Hotchkiss Residence not to drink the water

The Environmental Protection Agency notes that the regulated haloacetic acids include monochloroacetic acid, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, monobromoacetic acid, and dibromoacetic acid and that water systems have to limit those to 60 parts per billion on an annual average. Hotchkiss' average was 61 ppb. These acids form when disinfecting agents interact with organic substances in the water.

Fortunately, the townsfolk can still keep up their personal hygiene since these types of contaminants don't transfer through the skin readily, so bathing won't pose a risk. Their big brothers, trihalomethanes (THMs), haloketones (HKs) are a different story and transfer through skin more easily, according to this abstract from a research paper on the subject.

Black Creek Harbors Black Sheep of Pee Dee Country

2011-12-22T11:30:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

The Northeastern region of South Carolina is home to the Great Pee Dee River, and a little tributary to it called, Black Creek. Black Creek has a problem with fecal coliform bacteria going back to 2000 and has been on the state's 303(d) list of impaired water bodies, according to this article in SCNow.com.
Now, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control -- it's interesting how some states approach the environment from a "control" perspective while others use words like "conservation," "quality" and "protection" in their environmental agency names -- will be filing a total maximum daily load report, or TMDL, after taking comments for 30 days. The TMDL spells out the remedies needed to fix the problem.

Fecal Coliform contamination in Black Creek

The creek's water level is lower than in previous times because of development, drought and water use. That means there is not as much volume to dilute the pollution that flows into it from onsite septic systems, a wastewater treatment plant and runoff from farms.

Black Creek is an important part of the environment that makes this part of South Carolina unique. Called Pee Dee Country, the seven county region is home to not just the Pee Dee rivers but also the Darlington Raceway and a wealth of outdoor activities and tourist hot spots, according to the Pee Dee Tourism Commission.

Cabot Drills Into Notoriety

2011-12-21T14:30:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Well, pardon the pun, Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. is in the news again as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection investigates the problem of methane showing up in water wells in Susquehanna County. There is also some talk about a "bubbling pond" that contains combustible gas, although that is being disputed by the owner of the land -- a fellow who leased the land to Cabot so it could do some hydraulic fracturing there, or fracking.

Methane shows up in water wells

Cabot is being looked at because it is the company with the closest gas wells to the contaminated drinking water wells. Cabot's name was linked to the Dimock, Pennsylvania incident where a private water well exploded, ultimately making that community the poster child for the anti-fracking movement, according to this article in The Times-Tribune.com. Eventually Cabot was stopped near Dimock after the DEP linked gas in 18 water wells to its operations there. It's unclear how long Cabot will be allowed to continue drilling in Pennsylvania but the company has placed methane alarms in three homes near this incident and has vented its wells there to mitigate risks of contamination.

To see just how top-of-the-mind the environment is to Cabot you can read its 2010 annual report where its CEO writes for six pages about all levels of the company's operations but only gets close to any word remotely related to the environment, just one time. And that was to describe natural gas as an "eco-friendly fuel source."

Cabot made a net income in 2010 of a little more than $100 million.

Dry Cleaning and Coal Gas Still Haunt Florida Community

2011-12-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Sanford, Florida, has the dubious distinction of having not one, but two high level contaminated sites within its boundaries, and one of those is sending its pollution closer to Lake Monroe, according to this story at WFTV.com, Channel 9.

Dry cleaning business contaminating Lake Monroe

The old dry cleaning business on Palmetto Avenue in the heart of historic, downtown Sanford is on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List because there is tetrachloroethene (PCE) and its biodegradation products, such as trichloroethene (TCE), in the soil and ground water at the site. The land housed a series of dry cleaning businesses from the 1940s to 2001. Interestingly the highest levels of the chemicals were found near the back door of the buildings on 121 South Palmetto while 150 feet from the site, well water has been found to have PCE breakdown chemicals. The groundwater is contaminated down to 45 feet and that's a potential concern since the drinking water aquifer is only another 45 feet down. The 15 municipal water wells are all within 4 miles of the site. They serve about 50,000 people. The other property involved in this NPL site is at 113 South Palmetto.

Further testing is aimed at checking the water in the aquifer and investigating a related contaminated site within two blocks. Another major focus is to assess if the toxins are airborne. One of the complications at this site is the extensive ground cover of asphalt and concrete, making it challenging to assess and remediate.

Sanford's other site goes back a long way -- to the days when coal was turned into gas. The Sanford Gasification Plant operated on both sides of West 6th Street between Holly Avenue and Cedar Avenue beginning in the 1880s. It produced water gas and carbureted water gas until 1951 using carbonization and distillation of coal and coke techniques. The main contaminants at this site are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. This site is not on the National Priorities List, but would be if it wasn't being handled under the agency's Superfund Alternative Approach. That approach uses the same investigations and cleanup as those used on the NPL, but the responsible parties carry all costs of remediation, which usually saves resources in the long run. This approach is however, used in a small percentage of all Superfund sites.

During the investigation to determine the proper cleanup procedures, this site turned up contamination that was four times greater than originally thought. That caused the cleanup techniques to be modified so the contaminants would be less likely to migrate. For shallow contamination the soil was removed and disposed of while for deeper pollution the soil was solidified and stabilized in place. Cleanup was completed by early 2011 and monitoring wells were drilled for the long-term process of watching for movement of contaminants.
So far, the dry cleaner site has not been cleaned up.

Leaking Coal Ash Site No Threat Says Ameren

2011-12-19T13:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Ameren's plan to build a new 400-acre coal ash storage landfill near Labadie, Missouri continues to face opposition, and a new revelation that an existing storage site has been leaking since 1992 isn't helping matters.

Two storage sites leaking 350 gallons of coal ash over 19 years

The two leaks spill about 35 gallons a minute into the environment, or an estimated 350 million gallons over 19 years, according to this report in the Houston Chronicle. That amount of leakage is called small potatoes by a company spokesperson since it routinely releases millions of gallons from its containment ponds into Labadie Creek each day.

Perhaps surprisingly to some, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has known about the leaks since Ameren told it about them 19 years ago but has not been monitoring them. A department spokesperson said the monitoring hasn't been done since it isn't required by law to do so.

Meanwhile, Ameren says there is no environmental threat, but residents are not buying that in light of the number of coal ash sites across the country where heavy metals have contaminated ground water. The report pointed out there are 63 such sites across the country that have been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Cleanup Plans Adjusted at Montana Superfund Site

2011-12-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

In September soils testing begins in Black Eagle, Montana, at the new Superfund site called ACM Smelter and Refinery. The site was just added to the Superfund program in March 2011.

Heavy metals found in residential properties

According to a Great Falls Tribune article heavy metals have been found in some residential yards so the testing will begin with 90 properties. The investigation will be looking for lead, arsenic and cadmium, and other heavy metals. Later on, the investigation will focus on the places where refinery operations took place, and places where waste was dumped, including the Missouri River. Great Falls is right across the Missouri River from the site.

Some cleanup related to the site was supposed to happen earlier this year but didn't because it was decided the higher priority would be cleanups where people live. The earlier planned cleanup was supposed to be along an abandoned rail line that was used to run waste down to the river for disposal. That cleanup was delayed so it wouldn't interfere with reconstruction plans for Smelter Avenue.
This site has a long and colorful history including a celebratory story about the smokestack that provided much of the soil contamination in the area. The smelter and refinery operated from 1893 to the early 1970s, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's website.

New Hampshire Town Struggles With Legacy Landfill

2011-12-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

A necessity of a consumer-driven economic system is dumps, or as they are now called, landfills. In more environmentally-unenlightened times stuff was just taken out to a rural area and dropped off. When dumps came into vogue they were situated on land that had natural hollows where the debris could be dumped.

Old landfills growing a problem

Eventually, people started noticing odors and wild animal populations increasing so dumps were turned into landfills with every day's deposits being covered up before nightfall. Municipalities started owning and managing landfills, much to their chagrin later, as in the case of the city of Dover, New Hampshire.

Dover has been grappling with what to do with its old landfill for 30 years and the story is a fascinating study in trying to find the right answer without having to spend too much. The problems began when water flowing below the sleeping landfill started to contaminate wells on its perimeter. Several years later the city figured it would go for Superfund status and have the federal government fund the cleanup. That was a bright spot until everybody found out the city was named one of the potentially responsible parties, or PRPs, and would have to cough up something toward the cleanup effort. There is much more to this story written in an easily understandable account at Foster's.com website.

Ignorance Serves as Path to Unintentional Contamination

2011-12-14T13:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

There are few better examples of how ignorance enables widespread contamination than a tale about Monsanto, National Cash Register Company, the paper industry and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. This story started in 1957 and is still playing out across the country. Recently, new evidence of PCB contamination on the rise comes from Portage Creek in Kalamazoo, Michigan, according to this report in MLive.com.

PCB contamination on the rise in Kalamazoo

Four paper mills operated in that area, and today an 80-mile stretch of the river is part of the Superfund cleanup known as the Kalamazoo River Project, according to this background paper from the Environmental Protection Agency.

There are nine places along Portage Creek where PCB levels have increased from their 1993 level of 79 parts per million to 590 parts per million, and those particular places are known as hot spots. It is thought that erosion over the years moved the material and concentrated it in those hot spots. The cleanup will focus on about two miles of the creek and will involve a small portion of Axtell Creek from John Street to Portage Creek as well. The work area begins at Alcott Street and continues to where the creek meets the Kalamazoo River at E. Michigan Avenue.

In 1966, PCBs showed up in Swedish fish and wildlife so in 1967 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration started testing this country's food supply for PCBs and found them in fish, eggs, milk, poultry, grain and cereal. Apparently, a particular type of packaging called greyboard, used to package cereal, had the highest concentrations of 433 parts per million. The greyboard was widely being made from recycled carbonless copy paper and carbonless paper was being made by the National Cash Register Company using a Monsanto product called Arochlor 1242. Archlor 1242 contained a cocktail of PCBs with 42 percent chlorine, according to this study. While NCR was the sole marketer of the carbonless copy paper it also licensed other paper mills in Wisconsin to make the product.

But, there was also another way PCBs were entering the environment from the paper industry. Paper mills in general were found to have PCBs higher than background levels in their wastewater and the culprit, once again, was carbonless paper. In 1977 there were nearly 800 paper mills using recycled wastepaper and those mills were using about 12,000 gallons of water to create each ton of paper. That water was flowing out to the rivers and streams or being disposed of as sludge in landfills. It was finally determined the PCBs were concentrating more in solids than they were in water, so as water carried the PCB-laden solids the solids were often distributed in clumps as sediment. Where that happened the PCB concentrations rose rapidly.

NCR stopped making the carbonless paper in 1971, but forty years later the world is still dealing with the legacy of unintentional contamination born from ignorance.

Passing the Roadway Salt

2011-12-13T10:30:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

What happens to all the salt that's spread on roadways in northern climes to melt ice? Well, one place it appears to be ending up is in drinking water wells. Not only that, but the places where the salt is stored are also on the radar as potential groundwater contaminators, according to a report in the Watertown Daily Times.com.

Road salt contaminating groundwater

In Orleans, New York, residents and property owners are still waiting for the town's department of public works to coordinate water well testing with the state's department of transportation and it looks like the process of identifying the contaminated wells will be delayed another month. But, time probably won't make much difference at this point. According to one observer, contamination from the salt storage barn along I-81 first came to light in 2002 but salt has been used on roads for more than 60 years.

In this case wells within a one mile radius of the salt barn will be tested. From Collins Landing to Seaway Avenue and beyond even perhaps to Grass Point State Park and Fishers Landing, the legacy of road maintenance extends well beyond the roads.

It was New York's neighbor to the east, New Hampshire, that first adopted a "general policy" of using salt on roadways. That year, the winter of 1941-42, about 5,000 tons of salt were used across the United States on wintry roads. However, as the highway system expanded, so did salt use until in 1970, 10 million tons were being used each winter, according to this paper.

Whoops, TCE and PCE on the Move Again at Bennington Superfund Site

2011-12-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

A very deep trench is proposed to subvert the movement of contamination from a former landfill in Bennington, Vermont, according to this article in the VTDigger.org. The landfill is also a formerly active Superfund site with remediation completed in 1999, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Groundwater contamination found in Barney Brook

Trichloroethylene, or TCE, and tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, have escaped from the landfill which was previously capped and adorned with a soil vapor extraction system. Apparently the groundwater flow changed and some contamination has been found in a tributary to Barney Brook. For six years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the landfill was a dumping place for industrial wastes from local companies. Those wastes included polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, organic solvents and lead. These wastes were dumped into a lagoon that was not lined to prevent absorption into the soil.

In 1976, a system was installed to lower the groundwater beneath the landfill by carrying it away to an unlined, pond area. Ten years later PCBs, lead, arsenic, benzene and ethylbenzene were flowing into the pond, according to this EPA report.

The new trench will be 25 feet deep and 200 feet long. Because it goes down to impervious soil it is expected to catch the contaminants. The bottom of the trench will be filled with sand and iron shavings to break down the contaminants and stop their movement.

Lead Contamination Spread Around More Than Thought

2011-12-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska continues to surprise with more lead and antimony showing up in the soil, according to this report at KTVA Channel 11. It's a heavily used park and now the new soccer field is testing positive for lead contamination.

Biathlon left lead contamination in berms.

This is where skiers used to ski and shoot at the same time. Called a biathlon, the practice left thousands of lead bullets in the earthen mound behind targets. Over the years, as changes were made to the park, the lead-filled dirt was spread around to raise low areas. Nobody knows just when the dirt was moved but it is currently estimated the volume of contaminated soil could equal a thousand cubic yards.

Once the cleanup begins the contaminated soil will be removed, coated to encapsulate the lead and then disposed of. Costs are expected to be between $500,000 and $1 million. The city is working to get responsible parties to pay their shares of the total but that is dependent upon the outcome of a lawsuit
that is currently in court.

Locating the contaminated soil is challenging and requires visual examination and using metal detectors. There's more on this story, here.

Montana Basin Eyes Contamination Sources

2011-12-02T10:30:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

The Flathead Basin in Montana is a complex and sensitive watershed that may be seeing threats from septic systems, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds.

Phase 1 assessment shows water contamination

Seventeen wells in the Evergreen area tested positive for VOCs and also had traces of chloroform, arsenic and uranium, according to a report in Hungry Horse News.com. As Phase I of an assessment of threats to the basin from increased human populations, the initial study by the University of Montana's Flathead Biological Station also found acetaminophen, sunscreen, bug spray and caffeine in the tested wells.

The wells the samples came from are relatively shallow and therefore are more prone to contamination from surface sources, noted the Flathead City-County Health Department and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in reinforcing the idea that the county's water is safe for drinking.

There will be a Phase II study done to look at similar pollution characteristics with greater scrutiny. Lower levels of contaminants will be detectable because of the lab used for the specimen analysis. The underground water's connection to the river is particularly mysterious so the studies are expected to help reveal some of those nuances.

Marine Corps Removes Contested Contamination Pamphlet

2011-12-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

By: Duane Craig

USMC pulls controversial water contamination booklet

According to an ENCToday.com story, The United States Marine Corps has taken down a document on its website that was contradictory to the real contamination that affected its water system over many years.
Its action however only comes after calls for its removal by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and three North Carolina legislators, and then only after months of delay. Now, the corps says the document is only down temporarily while it is updated and revised so that it will "provide decision makers and the public with accurate and sufficient information about Camp Lejeune so that decisions that are made are informed by the science."
This story goes back a long ways and you can pick up background on it here, here, here and here. This latest news revolves around a 33-page pamphlet that went to every congress person and was then placed on the Marine's web page dedicated to the Camp Lejeune water system. The pamphlet said their were no conclusive results about the chemicals in the Camp's water and that further study wouldn't do any better. This was stated despite the fact that benzene contamination was discovered.
Some people are disappointed enough to request the corps to send mailings to all the people in the camp's water registry alerting them to the erroneous information since many of them may not be aware they were misinformed.

Former Textile Plant Reveals Deeper Little Secret

2011-11-18T15:42:00.001-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Groundwater contamination at an old Texfi Industries plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is now deeper than anyone thought, according to this report at WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. At 30 feet, it's in line to potentially contaminate city water supplies that come from the nearby Cape Fear River. The contaminants are chlorinated solvents such as tetrachlorothylene.

Groundwater contamination threatens treated city water

Besides the river, another route of contamination could follow a path into a 14-million gallon tank that stores treated water for the city. So the plan is to dig a trench that would corral the toxic chemicals before they reach the tank. The city was briefed on this solution in April, but so far (as of August 6) there hasn't been a decision to begin the work, no doubt because of money. There is little left in a fund designated to deal with the Texfi contamination problem.

Texfi made millions on the polyester craze of the late 60s and early 70s. From leisure suits to mini skirts, polyester was humanity's answer to wrinkles. Problem was it was made from oil and tended to hamper the skin's ability to breathe. By the mid 70s people had moved back to natural fibers, or were beginning to try hybrids that blended polyester or rayon with natural fibers. Texfi didn't get it and continued to churn out polyester, loosing millions from 1974 through 1984, according to this background report in Entrepreneur.

During the heady years of profits there were 200 people working at Texfi's headquarters in Greensboro and the company had a weekend retreat complete with a half million dollar Tudor mansion and golf course where textile-weary executives could unwind. Then too, there was the expansion that allowed Texfi to circumvent suppliers like Celanese. The company built polymer plants in Asheboro and New Bern and then went public. Over the years it had operations at 13 plants, but by 1982 only eight were left and the company was bleeding red ink. A new CEO took over, slashed costs and continued the company's transition to blended fibers. Then it got into underwear, socks and even medical bandages.

The plant at Fayetteville was on Hoffer Drive and the operations there included dyeing textiles and finishing them. The chemicals were released from the plant operations, from tanks and from drains taking them into soil and groundwater. In a Texfi fact sheet from the North Carolina Division of Waste Management, the facility is listed as closed in 1999. Nearby are residential properties and the Fayetteville Public Works Commission’s P.O. Hoffer Water Treatment plant, sometimes called clear well. That facility is the one with the water tank awaiting a trench. In a recent news story officials have said there is no danger to the public water supply and that the possibility the chemicals might reach the river is "remote."

Texfi finally did go bankrupt in 1999 and the bankruptcy court set aside $942,000 for cleaning up this Texfi site. Today there is $173,000 of that money left.

Fish Bones Solve Lead Contamination

2011-11-18T15:41:00.001-05:00

Pyromorphite used to mitigate lead contamination.

By: Duane Craig
What do you get when you combine a paste made from fish bones with lead? Pyromorphite. What's significant about that is it could be a much less costly way to mitigate lead contamination in soils.
A 2001 Environmental Protection Agency report noted how phosphate would bind with lead and cause it to become a crystalline substance known as pyromorphite. Calcium phosphate is a chief component of bone and once it reacts with lead the resulting material so far appears to decrease in solubility and bioavailability, meaning it remains stable while binding up the lead. Since pollock bones retain little meat residue after processing, they are especially well suited for this process.
Now, according to this report in Business & Health, the technique is set to be used on residential lots that are contaminated by lead. The area is in Oakland, California in the South Prescott neighborhood. So far it has been used on lead contamination at military bases, mines, universities and commercial labs.
It is widely reported that America has such a serious lead contamination problem that it will never be cleaned up. For many decades motor vehicles spewed out lead because the gasoline was leaded to prevent the valves from fouling. Another prime source of lead in soils is lead-based paint that was used on buildings.

High School Deals with PCB Contamination

2011-11-18T15:38:00.001-05:00

By: Duane Craig

8 Westport High school classrooms contaminated

Eight of 13 classrooms at the Westport, Massachusetts high school were found to have unacceptably high levels of airborne polychlorinated biphenyls. PCBs were discovered in window caulking at first when the building was getting ready for "green" upgrade, according to the story in SouthCoastToday.com.
PCBs were born in 1929 and they are characterized as having two benzene rings where the hydrogen atoms have been replaced with chlorine atoms. According to the Environmental Protection Agency they were banned in 1979 after having been used in electrical products, heat transfer and hydraulics, paints, plastics, rubber, pigments, dyes, carbonless copy paper and much more. They may still exist in products made before 1979.
These contaminants are persistent and they cycle through air, water and soil offering multiple contamination routes that remain in flux. They have been found in snow and seawater long distances from where they were released. Perhaps of grave concern is the ability for these substances to be taken up by plants where they accumulate in foliage and stems, and also their ready accumulation in fish.
The school in Westport is going to do a thorough cleanup and increase the school's ventilation to try to get the PCB concentrations below the acceptable threshold. If that doesn't work then students will be placed into alternative sites, or the school system will consider high school and middle school sharing the same facility. Costs are preliminarily pegged between $600,000 and $1 million for the cleanup and remediation work.

TVA Fossil Plants Report Groundwater Contamination

2011-11-18T15:33:00.001-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Tennessee Valley fossil-fuel plants contaminating groundwater

The Tennessee Valley Authority, operator of 21 fossil fueled power plants, three nuclear power plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, 14 solar power generation sites, 18 wind turbines and one methane-assisted fossil fuel power plant, has been told by its own inspector general that eight of nine fossil-fueled plants with groundwater monitoring had contaminants in the groundwater that exceeded federal limits.
The OIG also said the TVA, a wholly-owned but self-funded agency of the U.S. government, was in some cases not performing the monitoring required by its permits.
Two plants named in the OIG's report were placed on the highest severity assessment for exceeding a health based groundwater protection standard. The Cumberland plant, northwest of Nashville, was one of those, and Gallatin was the other. Both plants are on the Cumberland River.
Two other plants, Bull Run and John Sevier were placed on Phase II assessment for a significant increase in contaminants above the background levels. Bull Run is near Oak Ridge, Tennessee and the John Sevier plant is near Rogersville, Tennessee. According to its own account, the John Seveir plant released more than 5,000 pounds of toxins into water there in 2009, including nickel compounds, lead compounds, copper compounds, chromium compounds, barium compounds, arsenic compounds and ammonia. The plant also released 31 million tons of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide into the air in 2010.
You can review all the reports of the TVA's OIG here.

Hexavalent Chromium Contamination Digs Into City Coffers

2011-11-18T15:32:00.001-05:00

By: Duane Craig

2,200 residents exposed to hexavalent contamination

Corporations sometimes acquire strange bedfellows and for Merck & Co., a pharmaceutical maker, its ownership of a company that pressure treated lumber for building the frames of cooling towers couldn't be stranger. Now, as the company leads the remediation efforts to clean up hexavalent contamination in the Beachwood Subdivision of Merced, California, the City of Merced itself will be paying out $1.5 million to more than 2,200 residents who were exposed to the chemical for more than 25 years, according to this report in the Merced Sun-Star online.

Why is the city paying?

It seems its insurance carriers decided to back out of covering them in the earlier stage of this case back in April. So, since the city was also named in the suit it decided to settle out of court and forego attorney and expert costs of $1 million a year. The city is using sewer funds and reimbursements from insurance carriers to cover the bill.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek the first of three trial phases focused on whether contamination leaked from the plant and the second phase was set to determine if the residents were harmed by the contamination. The plaintiffs argued the companies involved did not try to notify residents even when they knew there was contamination released. Merck admitted knowing, but countered the contamination could not have affected the residents. Hmmmm, maybe land and water contamination is acceptable as long as it doesn't affect people?
I won't bore you with the multiple, identical reports on this one. Here is one and another that report something different from the stampede of identical reports. Here's one about the earlier trial.

Problems Arise With Southern Cap On Burlington's Pine Street Canal

2011-11-18T15:30:00.001-05:00

By: Duane Craig

Barges in the Pine Street Superfund Site.

Pine Street Canal Superfund site still active.

Old, cleaned up or contained contamination sometimes resurfaces to create new problems. The Pine Street Canal in Burlington, Vermont, was once home to a coal gassification plant. For almost 60 years "plant wastewaters and residual oil and wood chips saturated with organic compounds were directly discharged or disposed of in the Pine Street Canal wetland.
During the 1960s and 1970s oily material seeping to the surface alerted authorities and tests showed high levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, tuolene, xylenes and other volatile organic compounds related to coal tar. At that time the concern was these contaminants would make their way into Lake Champlain, the community's source of drinking water, according o the EPA's background on the site.
Site wide cleanup activities followed emergency cleanup efforts and the record of decision listed capping and sealing contaminated sediment in the canal, the turning basin and adjacent wetlands. Administrative controls rounded out the plan. By 2009 though, the original cap was not holding back seepage of the contaminants at the canal's south end so a second cap was proposed. That cap will also fill up, so at the same time passive recovery wells need to be drilled to catch contaminates that can be pumped and treated.
According to a report in Bloomberg Bussinessweek, the EPA is amending its plan to cap the southern end of the canal by also adding an underground vertical barrier and it is looking for public comments on that new plan. This cleanup started in 1985, nearly 20 years after the contamination was discovered.

UC Davis Addresses Leftover Contamination Below Animal Research Facility

2011-11-18T09:21:00.001-05:00

by: Duane Craig

University of California, Davis Campus

Superfund Cleanup at UC Davis

A Superfund site with shared responsibility between the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California Davis campus enters a new phase of the cleanup--the portion the university is responsible for--and it may be getting quite costly.
The university tested the effects of radiation on beagles, the animal research industry’s canine workhorse. According to this article in The Sacramento Bee, about 800 beagles endured various assaults by radioactive contamination before being dispatched. Twenty years ago their remains were hauled away along with toxic dog waste and contaminated gravel as the first part of the site cleanup. Now, the university must clean up waste pits where it disposed of a wide range of unwanted items, including perhaps an anesthetic.
The anesthesia of choice for the beagle experiments was chloroform, and a plume of that has migrated offsite and is contaminating soil and groundwater below nearby agricultural land. Always the intrepid experimenters, university researchers are using a pilot project to get rid of the chloroform. Air is being pumped into the ground to force the chloroform out of the soil and into a pipe that carries it into the air.
The Energy Department spent decades and millions of dollars on the first phase of this cleanup. But this next part has an amazingly wide potential cost, anywhere from $6 million to $100 million.

Environmental Ironies Pop Up In Framingham MA

2011-10-31T14:44:00.001-04:00

By Duane Craig

Environmental contamination in Framingham MA

In perhaps what only can be called insaneirony, a chemical processing company in Framingham, Massachusetts, that is partof a family of companies billed as a "fully permitted, state-of-the-arthazardous waste management" group, has allegedly been involved with aplume of contamination in the Leland Street area of that city.

General Chemical Corp. is one of fivecompanies in the Clean Venture/Cycle Chem group busily providing environmentalcleanup services. General Chemical Corp. (by the way, there are severalcompanies using this name), is a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, orRCRA, Part "B" treatment, storage and disposal company, so it canhandle some pretty toxic items including solvents, polychlorinated biphenyls,acids, wastewater sludge, pesticides and even metal-bearing waste, according tothis reportin The MetroWest Daily News.

Because this issue has been longstanding, the state's Department of Environmental Protection ordered GeneralChemical to set aside $1.27 million toward the cleanup or it will have to stopimporting waste and get rid of whatever waste it is processing, within a month.Previously, the company was fined twice for violations of hazardous wastemanagement regulations and the Framingham Board of Health had inspected theplant to find barrels of chemicals not properly stored, evidence the companyhad pumped contaminated water to the outdoors and discovered a defectivelaboratory floor, according to this reportat Boston.com's Framingham section. In the wake of these findings the DEP finedthe company $30,000.

Local residents have not been tooenamored with General Chemical either. As the contamination spread, the companypurchased homes in its wake, but the biggest rub continues to be the potentialeffects on a school next door. While Framingham health officials don't thinkthe contamination threatens students and staff, some have been concerned aboutthe company's operations for about three years.

Clean Venture/Cycle Chem, the group thatGeneral Chemical is affiliated with, has been involved with the EnvironmentalProtection Agency in assessing responses from companies that have environmentalincidents. For example, it was named in a letter toChesapeake Energy Corporation as being a potential reviewer of Chesapeake'sresponse to a "release, or threat of release, of hazardous substances,pollutants or contaminants into the environment from (its) facility located inCanton, Leroy Township, Bradford County, PA." This particular incident wasrelated to Chesapeake's hydraulic fracturing operations at a gas well there.Clean Venture/Cycle Chem is also listed as a reviewer on a standardinstruction published by the EPA that references hydraulic fracturing.

The company has also been on the otherside of EPA's interests as it settled with it to the tune of about $141,000 forits contribution to a mercury refining Superfund Site. That site was in Guilderlandand Colonie, New York, and its share was in the top ten of more than 400settled amounts related to that site, according to the EPA's records.The cleanup effort that contribution helped to fund was to address soil,sediment and groundwater contaminated by mercury from the 1950s to 1998 by theMercury Refining Company. It recovered, refined and marketed mercury frombatteries, thermometers, pressure regulators and dental amalgam. Before 1980,the waste from its operations was simply dumped over an embankment and as stormwater drained from the site it carried mercury into Patroon Creek.

It's Not Rocket Science.

2011-10-24T09:31:00.001-04:00

By Duane Craig

Did you know the Kennedy Space Center is contaminated?

Even rocket scientists haven't been veryastute about the handling of toxic substances, according to this reportin USA Today. At the Kennedy Space Center it was routine to pourtrichloroethylene onto the sandy soil under the delusion that it would simplyevaporate. That was even the disposal guidelines printed on the Material DataSafety Sheets published by manufacturers in 1947.

But, as time went on it became clearsomething was going wrong and today at the space center there is about twosquare miles of chemically contaminated soil that extends up to 90 feet deepwhere the early space program launched rockets. There are also 126 othercontaminated sites under investigation, under cleanup or being left to cleanthemselves.

NASA has been spending millions each yearto deal with the contamination at the space center after the 1980 federal lawthat forced it to start looking at the hazards it was creating right here onearth. Reported as the largest is a 352-acre plume at the site where the 1967Apollo I fire occured. These contaminated spots can take a century or more toclean using active processes and more than 300 years to break down naturally.But there is an alternative being employed to cleanup trichloroethylene at thespace center that doesn't require pumping water from wells and treating it. TheUSA Article reportson corn oil and nano particles as alternatives being used.

Criminal Charges Being Sought in 31-Year-Old Contamination Case

2011-10-17T13:49:00.001-04:00

By Duane Craig

A former Hoechst Celanese plant nearCannon's Campground, South Carolinas, is being blamed for improperly disposingof contaminating chemicals and causing dozens of cancer cases since the 1960s,according to this reportin GoUpstate.com.

Lawyers are representing 70 families in aclass action suit and the state's attorney general has been asked to filecriminal charges against the company, now known just as Celanese. While SouthCarolina's environmental department claims the contamination of the groundwater remains beneath the site and has not migrated to local water wells,residents are skeptical.

The site is at Hoechst Drive and I-85 andwas the location where chemicals were routinely dumped before environmentalregulations were in place. The groundwater cleanup has been going on since 1980and will continue for 20, 30, 40 years or more. Lawyers say they have accountsfrom former employees that point to the dumping as being illegal.

The Hoechst name has been associated witha number of companies through mergers and acquisitions over its 131 yearhistory. It was founded in Germany and boughtCelanese in 1987 only to spin it off in 1998 while the company was trying to transitionfrom the chemical business to the pharmaceuticals business.

Rhode Island Superfund Site in Crosshairs of Final Remediation

2011-10-07T09:49:00.000-04:00

Woonasquatucket River

Residents in Providence, Rhode Islandrecently were informed of the latest contamination issues and potential cleanupcosts along the WoonasquatucketRiver watershed, according to this articlein the Providence Journal's online edition. The area is a Superfund sitelargely because a chemical company and drum recycler that operated there fromthe 1940s through the 1970s.

The contaminants include dioxins,polyaromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, heavy metals and others. The siteincludes a little bit more than nine acres and it is currently the home to twohousing facilities, both of which are subsidized to rent under the U.S. Housingand Urban Developments' low income housing program. Today, both housingfacilities cater to senior citizens and their addresses, 2072 and 2074 SmithStreet, are collectively known as the Centredale Manor Restoration ProjectSuperfund site.

It wasn't until 1996 that fish taken fromthe river showed dioxin contamination. An investigation followed thatidentified the contaminants in soil, sediment, groundwater of the wetlands andsurface water. This watershed has supported human and animal life for centuriesand although the river itself is barely 19 miles long the watershed covers 50square miles, according to the WoonasquatucketRiver Watershed Council. Where the river drains into Narragansett Bay it meetsthe ocean salt water. Woonasquatucket means "the place where the saltwater ends." In the late 1700s it was the Woonasquatucket's narrowness andfast flowing water that determined its industrial legacy. Beginning with atextile mill in 1809 the river's banks supported five more cotton mills by1813. Mills kept piling on until "nearly every foot of the river's dropwas being used to turn a factory water wheel." But it was steam power thatushered in the watershed's most active period of industrialization. Machinetool makers, hand tool makers, textile millers, machinery makers, rubberproducts manufacturers, jewelry makers and manufacturers of steam engines andlocomotives filled the area. Then the chemical industry moved in.

In 1982, 400 drums with contaminants wereremoved from the property under the direction of the Rhode Island Department ofEnvironmental Management. That same year 6,000 cubic yards of contaminated soilwas removed and disposed of as non-hazardous waste. At one time, groundwatercontamination was found at more than two-thirds of the 37 monitoring wells. Atnearby Allendale Pond the fish and wildlife were contending with pollution1,000 times the acceptable level. Over the years, some areas have been cappedand upgrades to those caps are now being considered. Since 1999, the EPA hasrounded up 18 potentially responsible parties who have participated in variousportions of the ongoing cleanup. The owners of the housing developments havealso paid settlements to date of almost $4 million.

Now, with public comment, the EPA and theRIDEM must decide what finalremediation actions, (42MB PDF), will be taken. The options range fromnatural recovery to containment to full and partial removal to treatment inplace to disposal or a combination of actions depending upon the specific areabeing remediated. A decision is expected in autumn of 2011.

H.R. 2584: The End of the World As We Know It

2011-10-04T13:18:00.001-04:00

By Duane Craig

Although it was left asunfinished business in the House of Representatives on July 28, H.R. 2584is no doubt far from dead, and its implications are that people across thecountry will begin to feel the sting of industrial contamination and pollutionwith renewed vigor. They will also potentially be loosing national treasuresbecause of funding reductions, prohibitions on actions or reassignment ofdecision-making authority to states.

For example, one amendment seeks toreduce the money available to the Bureau of Land Management for processingdrilling permits. Language in the bill under Section 431, effectivelyeliminates EPA oversight of green house gas emissions by stationary sourcessuch as coal-fired power plants. Wording under Section 432 prevents the Officeof Surface Mining from updating the stream buffer rule for mining operationsthat remove mountain tops. The rule required a 100 foot buffer between miningoperations and streams, but the Bush administration granted exemptions to therule for waste dumps, according to this New York Times article.The new language would eliminate any new rule making regarding streams andmining. It also removes implementation and enforcement of two other issuesrelated to mountain top removal mining. According to the 2010 Austin Environmental Directorythere are more than 500 mountain peaks that have already been leveled, or arebeing leveled by as much as 500 to 1,000 feet, and by the end of 2010 mountaintop removal mines were anticipated to cover 800 square miles.

Section 434 blocks regulation of coalash, while Section 435 stops any changes to the Clean Water Act. Under Section441, Texas, and any other state, can operate a flexible air permitting programwithout EPA approval, according to this ecial_Interest_List_Interior_Appropriations.pdf">listof legislative riders attached to the bill. Section 443 would allow oilcompanies to simply comply with the Clean Air Act anywhere except a singleonshore area; reduces the time exploration platforms and drill ships areconsidered to be sources of emissions; eliminates the possibility of using apermitting program to control emissions of surface vessels related to oil andgas activities; and makes it more expensive and time consuming for citizens tochallenge government actions.

Among other efforts to cloak the dangersof industrial substances, Section 444 prohibits the EPA from releasing itsfindings on the cancer-causing characteristics of inorganic arsenic until theNational Academy of Sciences completes its study. Section 447 prevents the EPAfrom releasing opinions on pesticides and the Endangered Species Act, andSection 448 eliminates funding needed to implement Clean Air Act regulations onthe manufacture of Portland cement.

When it comes to uranium mining near theGrand Canyon, previously written about here,Section 445 prevents the Interior Department from withdrawing any lands fromnew uranium mining permits.

Other sections block enforcement of waterquality standards in Florida, block 2016 green house gas standards for autos,block regulations on particulate matter, block hard rock mining regulations,block guidelines from being issued on misleading information on pesticidelabels, block clean air rules for power plants and allow companies engaged inthe manufacture of insecticides, fungicides and rodenticides to release thosesubstances into waterways without permits.

To get a first hand look at the attempteddismantling of protections from toxic substances, the allowances of air, landand water contamination to continue at increased levels and the dwindlingprotection of public lands, read all about it here,and in one of many recent articles here.

Suit To Challenge Wisconsin View of What Constitutes Injury

2011-09-29T15:10:00.003-04:00

By Duane Craig

Crestline Windows responsible for Wisconsin Contamination.

A product called Penta that was used at aformer windows factory in Wausau, Wisconsin is being blamed for deaths andillnesses by people who lived near the factory, according to this reportin WSAW.com.

From 1946 to 1986, the Crestline Windowsfactory made windows near the 3M plant at Thomas Street, and it used Penta inits operations at 910 Cleveland Ave. to treat wood products, according to this abstractin The Judicial Review. Penta has a number of chemicals in it "includingdioxins, pentachlorophenol, and benzene." A lawsuit against the currentowners of the Crestline property claims Penta was routinely spilled and dumpedat the factory and contaminated the soil, water and air. In fact, removal wellshave pulled more than 150,000 gallons of the chemical from groundwater since1990. Those operations have been completed since no appreciable levels of Pentaare being found anymore.

Over the years, six people have died andabout 70 others claim to be suffering from a range of illnesses. The peopleworked at the factory or lived in the River Street neighborhood. Seventy-threeof the 144 plaintiffs don't currently have any illnesses but they are askingfor the costs of monitoring their health to be covered by the current owners ofthe site. The case is bound for the state's supreme court and could be alandmark case in Wisconsin by setting the precedent that people can get relieffor the costs of monitoring their health after they have been exposed todangerous chemicals. Other states already have taken up cases about medicalmonitoring claims with awards sometimes being made.

Glow at Navajo Homeland Set for Contaminated Soil Investigation

2011-09-28T10:18:00.000-04:00

By Duane Craig

Mariano LakeMine

Chevron USA Inc. has agreed toinvestigate radium-laced soil at its former uranium mine in New Mexico. Themine was on the Navajo Nation land near Gallup and the agreement betweenChevron and the Environmental Protection Agency was welcomed by the NavajoNation as a sign there would be movement toward cleaning up the legacy ofuranium mining.

Accordingto the EPA, Chevron is going to do a radiological survey and also take soilsamples across the 31-acre site. Chevron will also do sampling at 10 residencesand two water wells. The company also will pay the costs for the EPA to overseethe work. One of the first steps will entail building a fence where peoplelive,work and play. The contaminated soil inside the fence will be sealed andsigns and locked gates will prevent entry.

The mining site, called the Mariano LakeMine, produced uranium ore from 1977 to 1982. There is a 500-foot shaft, wastepiles and surface ponds on the site. Chevron is not the only responsible partythat will work on the mess. Four million tons of uranium ore weremined on the Navajo Nation from 1944 to 1986 generating gross sales for themining companies of well over $200 billion (using an average historical priceof $27 per pound). Investments in mining uranium in New Mexico from 1966 goingforward were pegged at $6 billion by this source.

Oregon's Coal Plant Agrees to Clean Up the Columbia

2011-09-26T13:56:00.000-04:00

By Duane Craig

The only coal-fired power plant in Oregonwill pay out $2.5 million to restore land along the Columbia River, accordingto this articlein The Columbian. The plant will also have to reduce its sulphur dioxideemissions by thousands of tons and allow environmental groups to do the studiesthat will finally decide the plant's allowable emissions after 2013.

Portland General Electric, owners of theplant, entered into the consent decree with five environmental groups. Thepower plant is cited as one of the sources of pollution affecting visibility in11 national parks and wilderness areas. It is also responsible for up to 50percent of the pollution in the Columbia River Gorge at certain times of the year,according to a study done by the Yakama Nation.

The 2008, draft "GorgeAir Study and Strategy" outlined five major contributors to thevisibility problems in the gorge: power plant emissions; wood stoves; motorvehicles; ships, trains, trucks; agricultural ammonia sources. The report alsocited pollution sources in Canada and other countries as contributing to thecontaminant load in the gorge. At the time of the report the use of BestAvailable Retrofit Technology (BART) on the power plant was anticipated tosignificantly reduce its pollution with "significant improvement in Gorgevisibility as well as reducing emissions contributing to acidicdeposition."

PGE disputes that it has violated federalClean Air Act rules -- a contention in the lawsuit by the environmental groupsthat led to the consent decree -- even though the EPA had notified PGE that theplant was in violation of clean air rules shortly after the suit was filed.

Jersey's Cyanamid Superfund Site Searches for a Fix

2011-09-23T09:01:00.001-04:00

By Duane Craig

Raritan River to receive a pollution trench.

Wyeth Holdings Corporation will dig atrench parallel to a section of the Raritan River so contaminated ground waterwill stop seeping into the river, according to this releasefrom the Environmental Protection Agency.

This will be a second attempt to preventhighly contaminated metals and volatile organic compounds, such as benzene,chlorobenzene, ethylbenzene and xylene from migrating to the river. Previously,Wyeth installed an activated carbon system at the site as a temporary fix whilea long term solution is assessed.

The contamination is from the AmericanCyanamid Superfund site in New Jersey's Somerset County. The contaminationcontinued for about 100 years while various chemical manufacturing activitieswere carried out.

The Raritan River provides drinking waterto millions of people in Central New Jersey, according to this reportin MyCentralJersey.com. The Raritan River basin covers 1,100 square miles, has100 municipalities, agricultural land, forested land and wetlands, and waslargely rural until the 1980s, according to "Portraitof a Watershed," a technical reference on the basin. As of 2002 theNew Jersey Department of Environmental Protection had identified 980contaminated sites in the watershed and 18 of those sites are close enough tocommunity water wells to potentially contaminate their water.

Some in Texas At Odds With Cross State Pollution Rule

2011-09-21T15:51:00.003-04:00

Many people in Texas are upset about thenew Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that is scheduled to take effect in 2012.According to the EPA's FAQs on the rule it is gradually replacing the Clean AirInterstate Rule with one that considers the lower nitrogen oxides, also calledNOX, emission levels that came about from modeling updates that included -"lower natural gas prices, reduced demand, newly-modeled consent decreesand state rules, and updated NOX rates to reflect 2009 emissions data."

For Texas, little changes, other than it willneed to watch its ozone season NOX emissions more closely and some of its 19coal-fired power plants will have to update equipment to lower the amount ofpollution they send over neighboring states.

According to an EPA document,the state will be allowed to put a little more than 63,000 tons of Ozone-SeasonNOX into the air with a 13,000 ton variability limit, meaning it can releaseabout 76,000 tons of NOX into air that often travels over other states. That'smore than any other state currently falling under CSAPR and is seven times morethan another large state in the group -- New York.

Some in Texas claim the pollution so faris not significant, but with Texas on a rapid population growth curve its agingpower plants will need to be augmented by new ones and the owners of someexisting ones have not bothered to take advantage of readily availabletechnologies that will cut their emissions. Some Texans are whining about theshort timeframe allowed for upgrading equipment at power plants but the statecan replace the federal implementation plan with a state implementation plan atany time, allowing it to select the sources of NOX to control and to allocateallowances across all programs.

It seems opponents to the CSAPR in Texasare using the issue to engage in more state's rights rhetoric instead ofconsidering itself a part of the whole, and moving forward instead of alwayslooking behind.

Here'swhere you can read industry rhetoric. Here issome balanced reporting. Hereis Texas' own environmental quality commission's opinions. Here is the EPA's CSAPRinformation.

3 Big Names Involved With Newtown Creek Cleanup- Who Are They?

2011-09-19T13:06:00.003-04:00

By Duane Craig

Phelps Dodge, BP, Texaco, NationalGrid and ExxonMobil
(united under the moniker Newtown Creek Group) - to
clean up the red area above.

Perhaps rivaling the Gowanus Canal inpollution, Newtown Creek is set to get cleaned up, according to this reportin the Greenpoint Gazette online edition. The EPA will oversee a contaminationinvestigation done by responsible parties Phelps Dodge, BP, Texaco, NationalGrid and ExxonMobil (united under the moniker Newtown Creek Group) and the Cityof New York. The process is expected to take eight years.

Newtown Creek Contamination History

Newtown Creek forms the northern borderbetween Brooklyn and Queens, New York, and its industrial past is legendary. Atone time there were 50 refineries along its banks churning out refined oilproducts, petrochemicals, fertilizers and glue. There were also sawmills andlumber and coal yards and vessels of all kinds moving materials into and out ofwhat was termed in the EPA's Superfund background report as"one of the busiest hubs of industrial activity in New York City."

Unfortunately for Newtown Creek it wasalso chosen by the city as a great place to dump raw sewage beginning in 1858.The creek also served as a very busy port during World War II and there arestill factories and other facilities operating there.

The creek waters and sediments harborpesticides, PCBs, and volatile organic compounds. VOCs evaporate easily intothe air and can be particularly troubling from a health perspective. NewtownCreek was only recently added to the Superfund list in 2010.

Halliburton Returns to Duncan to Clean Up

2011-09-15T10:16:00.003-04:00

By Duane Craig

Duncan, Oklahoma boasts city lakes, historicallocations and the flowers of Crape- myrtle. It sits just a smidgin southeast ofLawton with a wide open area to its east. From 1919 to 1961 Duncan was the hometo Halliburton, and recently the company discovered it may have left somethings behind when it moved corporate offices to Houston and Dubai.

Perchlorate has found its way into 18water wells there on the city's north side. It is thought the perchlorate camefrom Halliburton's previous work there of removing and burning spent missilefuel from missile casings. The company so far is supplying bottled water toresidents and a temporary water supply system where needed. It is alsoreimbursing residents for health screening costs and is continuing toinvestigate the problem.

Read the story here.Find out more about Duncan, here.

Holland Lagoons Superfund Site Set To Get Clean Bill of Health, With Reservations

2011-09-12T10:26:00.000-04:00

By Duane Craig

Visual of Superfund sites in the US

Sometimes part of the final decisionsrelated to contaminated sites is to simply declare the land, or the waterbeneath the land as unusable. That saves spending even more money on thecleanup especially when the land is unlikely to be acceptable for any otheruse.

Superfund Site Case Study in Michigan.

That is what is being proposed for theHolland Lagoons Superfund site at Holland, Michigan. According to a reportin the HollandSentinel online, the Environmental Protection Agency is seekingpublic comments on the proposal to no longer monitor the site. One reason thatwill be possible is because the county, with the approval of the state'senvironmental agency, passed an area wide groundwater use restriction in 2009.EPA's recommended alternative for the site is to take no further action otherthan ongoing monitoring by Ottawa County of the plume of contamination beneaththe site.

The site had its own contaminationproblems for years but in the end, contamination from a neighboring landfill,the Southwest Ontario County Landfill, or SWOCLF, continuously seeps below itand taints the ground water. Since the Holland Lagoons site was also a landfilland dumping ground, part of the long term plan is to simply restrictgroundwater use. The contaminants in the water include "benzene, ethylbenzene, xylene, chlorobenzene, 1,1-dichloroethane, 1,2-dichloroethane,methylene chloride, diisopropyl ether, tetrahydrafuran and total iron."Residents in the area have been connected to a municipal water supply and haveabandoned their water wells.

The Holland Lagoons site was home to abusiness involved in collecting and disposing of waste. From the 1940s to 1977the Jacobusse Refuse Service Company dewatered liquid waste on the land andused it as a garbage dump. In 1972, Refuse Services bought Jacobusse andrenamed the site Holland Lagoons. Then, just the next year, Refuse Servicesmerged with Michigan Waste Systems and became WMI. Initially, food waste wasprocessed at the site but then a portion of it was also used to dewaterindustrial wastes such as aluminum and metal hydroxide and sludge fromwastewater treatment plants. These metal and wastewater wastes were placed intonine lagoons for the dewatering process but by 1977 they were no longer beingused. Then, the sludge from the lagoons was removed, mixed with lime and dumpedat the SWOCLF.

There were also 43 drums, 55 gallonseach, filled with chloral hydrate, a once-widely-used sedative that also founda place in laboratory work and as a cleaner of fibrous waste, buried on theHolland Lagoons site.

In its recommendation to stop remediationand leave the monitoring to the county, the EPA cited the supervision of thesite by the county and state over the previous 10 years as evidence the cleanupcould be safely stopped and monitored by them. It also concluded that theprevious remediation efforts at the site had removed or eliminated the threatfrom the contaminants that originated there.

Here'swhere you can read the last five-year review. Here'sthe EPA's recommendation to stop remediation and its request for comments.

Vinyl Chloride Troubles Louisiana Aquifer

2011-09-06T09:24:00.001-04:00

Vinyl Chloride

Plaquemine, Louisiana has a vinyl chlorideproblem and recently a judge ordered Dow Chemical Company to clean it up. Dowclaims it isn't responsible and has been working with the state and federalgovernment to remediate the substance that is in the groundwater and the UpperPlaquemine Aquifer.

The judge's ruling comes in the wake of aclass action lawsuit against Dow by several thousand landowners.

According to Plaquemine's website itsname comes from an Indian word meaning persimmon, because of all the persimmontrees that grow along the bayou there. Plaquemine is also older than thecountry, and sits next to the Mississippi. New Orleans is just 80 miles east.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs says hewill argue for a more aggressive stance from regulators when overseeing whatDow does to cleanup the problem. Here'sone story and here's Plaqueville'swebsite.

Dry Cleaning Solvents Surface in Unlikely Situation

2011-09-02T13:58:00.000-04:00

Jeffersonville, Indiana had a drycleaning shop at one time and it has apparently left the gift that keeps ongiving…tetrachloroethylene. This time a neighboring bank discovered thecontamination as it was checking underground while preparing a propertytransaction.

This however, is not a case of absenteeowners who are eluding their responsibility in the matter. According to the sonof the octogenarian who used to own the dry cleaners from 1963 to 1986, hisfather was extremely conscientious about how he handled the chemical solventsused in the dry cleaning process. There were few laws related to the chemicalsin those days and his father even bought a system that recirculated thesolvents instead of consuming them.

From 1987 until 2009 the owners rentedthe property as a dry cleaning business and it was only used as a drop offlocation since 1997. The owners of the property and their insurance companiesare handling the remediation plan and the ongoing test drilling.

Get the full story here.

Yellowstone River Oil Spill Reveals Mixed Reactions to Contamination

2011-09-01T11:10:00.002-04:00

By Duane Craig

Yellowstone River Oil Spill

It is telling to see the reactions to theoil spill in the Yellowstone River. There are always the reactions of disbeliefas people try to come to grips with the fact that it happened in theirbackyards.

Other people react with indignationcalling for exquisite investigations and an all-out effort on cleanup andpunishing the culprits. Still others say they expected it and were onlysurprised because it finally happened.

Of course there are those who are justtotally surprised and are dealing with the consequences without having the timeor energy to process just what the event means in the long term.

Then, there are the totally disconnectedreactions of the oil traders. Instead of shifting focus to other investmentswhere there is less chance of environmental catastrophe, they are insteadworried about "thebad publicity from the oil spill," and the longer term negativeeffects it might have on Exxon's stock price.

Perhaps there are some people beingaffected by the spill in Montana who have investments in Exxon and just acceptthe consequences remembering all the great gains and dividends they'vecollected over the years. Environmental degradation is just necessary collateraldamage in the war of making profits. But, many other people there, and thewildlife and plant life, will pay a disproportionate share of the costs for theoil-based economy.

Buried Contamination on Personal Properties Provides Surprises to New Owners

2011-08-29T15:22:00.000-04:00

By Duane Craig

I only thought this kind of problem happened in rural areas where people have more land than they know what to do with. But apparently no matter where you are buying property, you have to beware of what someone buried there before you make the buy

According to an AOL Real Estate article, new homeowners in Lakeland, Florida went to put in an in-ground swimming pool but kept coming up with buckets of trash. Not so much household garbage but rather tires, metal parts, an old lawnmower and other relics that forced them to abandon an in-ground pool and opt for one above ground.Legal FAQs.

The problem with personal landfills can go back a long time because it was once very common for people to use their own properties as personal dumps. An added concern arises for those people buying properties from banks because while in some states banks are required to disclose defects it's likely they might not be aware of them since they don't occupy the property as a homeowner does.

Sellers are supposed to disclose potential negative aspects of a property but that would depend upon them knowing about it. According to the