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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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HUFF POST Green
Kate Sheppard
kate.sheppard@huffingtonpost.com
House Republicans Just Quietly Passed A Bill Gutting Hazardous Waste Legislation
Posted: 01/09/2014 7:11 pm EST | Updated: 01/10/2014 3:19 pm EST
WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday overhauling the country's hazardous waste laws.
The bill, called the Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act, amends both the Solid Waste Disposal Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (which is commonly known as Superfund). It would remove requirements that the EPA periodically update and review solid waste disposal regulations, and would make it harder for the government to require companies that deal with hazardous substances to carry enough insurance to cover cleanup. The bill would also require more consultation with states before the government imposes cleanup requirements for Superfund sites -- places where hazardous waste is located and could be affecting local people or ecosystems.
The bill passed by a vote of 225 to 188, largely along party lines. Four Republicans voted against it, and five Democrats voted for it.
Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the bill's sponsor, called the legislation "common-sense revisions of existing rules and regulations." But others were quick to criticize the bill, saying it weakens environmental protections.
The environmental group Earthjustice has said the bill would "gut" the Superfund program, which was created in 1980 to ensure that polluting industries pay to clean up hazardous sites. There are currently more than 1,300 sites around the country listed as priority Superfund cleanup sites. Opponents say the changes in the House bill would delay those efforts and put taxpayers on the hook for future cleanups. A group of 129 environmental and local citizens groups have written to Congress urging the defeat of the bill.
Scott Slesinger, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the bill a "New Year’s gift to corporate interests" in a statement. "This bill could delay cleaning up toxic federal facilities, free companies to pass their hazardous cleanup costs onto taxpayers, and strangle health safeguards intended to limit harmful ash drifting from steam boilers," said Slesinger.
The bill is not expected to pass in the Senate, and the White House has already issued a veto threat. "The bill's requirements could result in significant site cleanup delays, endangering public health and the environment," President Obama's advisers wrote in a statement of administration policy. |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:30 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The Sierra Club · Suggested Post
The EPA is collecting public comments on its new pollution standards, and the Koch brothers are hoping you won't speak up. Prove them wrong -- send a comment here!
Stop the Koch brothers
sierra.stopbigpolluters.org
Stand up to corporate polluters - submit a public comment to the EPA in support of its carbon pollution standards.
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Billionaires like the Koch Brothers are spending big bucks on DC lobbyists to block these new standards. The Koch Brothers were responsible for the huge piles of Coke on the Detroit River that polluted the air. Then Mayor Bing ordered it's removal. |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:38 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Looking For Air Pollutants? Find It Nearby With Local.com!
Koch Industries Pollution - Industry.WebCrawler.Com
industry.webcrawler.com/
Search for Koch Industries Pollution With 100's of Results at WebCrawler
Robert Greenwald: Exposing the Koch brothers' polluted response http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/exposing-the-koch-brother_b_1009898.html - 168k - Cached - Similar pages Oct 13, 2011 ...
The Koch brothers' "fact checkers" say that air pollution control engineering Koch Industries - SourceWatch http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Industries - 144k - Cached - Similar pages Oct 28, 2013 ... 7.6.1 Lobbying; 7.6.2 Pollution - Spills, fines and indictments .... which is aimed at Koch Industries
| PolluterWatch http://www.polluterwatch.com/koch-industries - 38k - Cached - Similar pages According to 2010 Forbes rankings, the Koch brothers are tied for the 24th ... Koch Industries -
First it was Detroit, now 'PetKoch' piling up in Chicago | Midwest ... http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2013/10/14/first-it-was-detroit-now-petkoch-piling-up-in-chicago/ - 34k - Cached - Similar pages Oct 14, 2013 ...
KCBX, an affiliate of Koch Carbon which is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, owns Koch Brothers' Tar Sands Waste Invades Chicago - Ring Of Fire Radio http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2013/10/koch-brothers-tar-sands-waste-invades-chicago/ - 38k - Cached - Similar pages Oct 16, 2013 ...
Rashida Tlaib wrote about her concern that the black dust was adding to already-The Kochs' Stake in Pollution | Dirt Diggers Digest http://dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/3854 - 24k - Cached - Similar pages May 30, 2013 ... Koch Industries and the billionaire brothers who run it are best known ... of its |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:43 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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HUFF POST Politics
Robert Greenwald.
Filmmaker, Brave New Foundation
Exposing the Koch brothers' polluted response
Posted: 10/13/11 07:36 PM ET
Billionaire political donors Charles and David Koch were among the tens of thousands of viewers of our latest investigative film, and they didn't like it.
Our film's protagonists, one of whom is a local minister named David Bouie, made personal appeals for a visit by the Koch brothers. The Kochs do not acknowledge this honest request that David Koch, a cancer survivor himself, spend the night as a guest of Mr. Bouie's in Crossett, Arkansas, a community harassed by a Koch factory's pollution.
What are the Koch brothers hiding if they won't visit one of their own factories and company towns?
The Kochs ignored the invitation, instead resorting to smear tactics and deception, this time attacking David Bouie, a 64-year-old retired factory worker, in an attempt to duck responsibility for their $100 billion multinational corporation.
The Kochs' defensiveness belies the facts. Rather than relocating the residents whose stories we told, the Koch brothers' reaction demonstrates they've bought the system and they prefer to blame the victims for their illnesses.
Blaming the victims for being victims
Mr. Bouie explained his personal history selling his rights years ago to the Koch brothers' subsidiary company, Georgia-Pacific, for a few hundred dollars. In Mr. Bouie's blog, he explained how his neighbors in adjacent communities were compensated by Georgia-Pacific at a higher rate than he and how the polluting factory paid for their relocation.
Mr. Bouie and his neighbors had no such luck reaching the Koch brothers person to person. Instead, the Koch brothers attack his credibility and integrity on a website.
In their smears, the Koch brothers' message consultants turn their fire toward Cheryl Slavant, another protagonist in our film and the President of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. She's rightfully aghast by the terrible conditions surrounding the interstate Ouachita River, which is what's fouling Mr. Bouie's neighborhood on Penn Road.
The Koch brothers spin cannot acknowledge what our investigation and countless other credible reports have proven to be true: that the Koch brothers persuade a system to permit and tolerate their practices. The Koch brothers' nameless spokespeople claim the EPA has debunked all Slavant's claims so, ergo, the pollution emitted by Koch Industries and Georgia Pacific is safe, harmless and legal.
An EPA influenced by Charles and David Koch
Armed with more than $40 billion each and a private company unaccountable to anyone that generates $100 billion revenue annually, the Koch brothers are able to donate to politicians, foundations, non-profits and think tanks. These Koch supported groups lay the groundwork for incremental policy changes that support the Koch brothers' increasing corporate profits.
That the EPA is giving the green light to toxic pollution by the Koch brothers, or anyone else, is less a gold star for the Koch brothers than it is an indictment of our political system, which affords the wealthiest 1 percent a blank check at the expense of the bottom 99 percent.
The Koch brothers' "fact checkers" say that air pollution control engineering expert William M. Auberle's comments in our film describing GP's pollution as "a ticking time bomb" is unrealistic. The government permits Koch Industries emissions.
That's why we're pleased to see some environmental groups confronting the EPA on these grounds. While the Kochs continue to donate heavily to Congress, there are groups appealing to the notion that we're a nation of laws not men.
"The Clean Water Act does not allow our streams to be turned into industrial sewers," says Barry Sulkin, the former Chief of Enforcement and Compliance for the Tennessee Division of Water Pollution Control and a director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Or perhaps you could post a comment that David Bouie and Cheryl Slavant can hand-deliver to the Koch brothers and that echoes Mr. Bouie's direct appeal to David Koch.
As Mr. Bouie wrote:
David, if you're reading this, I want to be your host at 401 South Penn Road. Come stay with me for one day, seven days, I don't care. We can camp out, and you can smell what I smell. My wife and I will cook for you. I make great pork chops... It'd be my hope we can have some time to go for a walk. You can see for yourself- the fog- and smell for yourself- the rotten air- that I live with every day. And I pray that I might be able to convince you to clean up this mess and relocate us like Georgia-Pacific did for other communities like ours. Indeed, just as Georgia Pacific compensated Thurman Road residents for their relocation years ago, please be a good neighbor to us. We cannot relocate on our own. We are ground zero.
Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robertgreenwald |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:52 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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In the early 1990's the local NAACP fought an ENVIRONENTAL RACISM claim that led to a1998 lawsuit against the state and the Genesee Power Plant. The Guild Law Firm donated their services to fight the case. The case revolved around cumulative effects of sources of pollution in this area over time. The United for Action group conducted a "Toxic Tour" of various sites that were in predominantly black neighborhoods.
The huge piles of sawdust around the Power Plant triggered a tremendous sinus attack for me shortly after visiting it and it lasted for days. The wind blew the sawdust everywhere.
A short distance away was the huge piles of coal near the railroad tracks. I remember then councilman Johnnie Tucker telling citizens at a council meeting that he did not know how that license was permitted. When we toured the area around the west side of Dort Highway, it was obvious that this black coal dust permeated everything. People we spoke to talked about being unable to open their windows even in the hottest weather. Their cars, homes and windows were black with the coal dust.
When Peggy Cook and her husband, Bob Cook were both diagnosed with lung cancer. they were treated at Karmanos. The physician there spoke of an increasing number of patients in Genesee County coming to Karmonos for lung cancer and indicated this area was a cancer cluster.
This area is in the Genesee valley and heavy cloud cover can keep the pollution in .
The Flint River was once so polluted that Michigan State once recommended encasing it in concrete and calling it a sewer. Local environmental groups have lobbied for the improvements obvious in the river today.
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:00 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:13 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Follow Midwest Energy News
First it was Detroit, now ‘PetKoch’ piling up in Chicago
Posted on 10/14/2013 by Kari Lydersen
Tom Shepard, a neighborhood activist, worries about piles of petcoke building up along the Calumet River in Chicago. (Photo by Kari Lydersen / Midwest Energy News)
Community activists on Chicago’s Southeast Side are always on the lookout for signs of new pollution, dumping or other threats to the environment and quality of life in this heavily industrialized swath of the city.
In recent years community opposition helped torpedo proposals for a coal gasification plant, a police shooting range and new landfills.
So members of the Southeast Environmental Task Force were highly disturbed earlier this year when, on a boat trip to check out other potential pollution sources, they saw towering mounds of fine, jet-black material lining the banks of the Calumet River.
Coal, crushed limestone, slag from steel mills and other bulk materials have long been stored along the river, shipped in and out on barges. But these piles, they suspected, were petroleum coke, or “petcoke,” the byproduct of refining heavy tar sands oil.
In July piles of petcoke made bi-national headlines as dark clouds swirled over the Detroit River by the Ambassador Bridge leading to Canada. That petcoke was from the Marathon Detroit Oil refinery, which has expanded to process tar sands oil.
In August, Southeast Chicago residents saw similar clouds themselves. One local resident posted a photo on Facebook after an August 30 wind storm, showing a billowing thick black haze.
As in Detroit, the Chicago piles are part of the business empire of the Koch brothers, earning the nickname “PetKoch.” KCBX, an affiliate of Koch Carbon which is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, owns large parcels of land along the Calumet River.
An industry website says the commodities handled at KCBX are typically 80 percent coal and 20 percent petcoke.
Rising piles
In response to questions about the amount and origin of petcoke on their site, Koch Companies Public Sector LLC spokesman Paul Baltzer said, “KCBX Terminals Co. has been handling various bulk products, including pet coke, in Chicago for more than 20 years.”
Chicago-petcoke-pile
—One of the piles along the river is nearly five stories high. (Photo by Kari Lydersen / Midwest Energy News)
In December 2012, KCBX expanded its presence along the river with the purchase of the Chicago Fuels Terminal formerly owned by DTE Energy. Between KCBX’s parcels is a terminal owned by the long-time family company Beemsterboer Slag Corp., whose officials did not return calls to Midwest Energy News.
Altogether, about a mile and a half of the Calumet River shoreline holds big black piles. On Beemsterboer’s land, next to an old General Mills grain elevator, the pile rises about five stories high, while more black grit fills barges moored in the river.
Locals say the amount of petcoke has skyrocketed as BP Whiting’s refinery just across the border in Indiana nears completion of a $3.8 billion upgrade to process more tar sands oil. Still in the works is the refinery’s new coker, which will be the second largest in the world and process 102,000 barrels of oil per day, creating petcoke as the tar sands are heated to 900 degrees F.
“It’s growing by leaps and bounds,” said Southeast Environmental Task Force member Tom Shepherd, gazing at the piles from the 106th Street bridge on a recent afternoon. “It’s coming at a breathtaking rate.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council is investigating permits for the KCBX and Beemsterboer facilities and the origin of the material on the sites, said Meleah Geertsma, an attorney in the NRDC’s climate and clean air program. She said the facilities would be subject to permitting requirements related to fugitive dust and to any run-off into the river, but stricter state and federal requirements specifically for such piles are needed.
“In the past state permits have been written very vaguely to leave a whole lot of discretion up to the company, to essentially make them unenforceable,” she said. “They’re saying things like ‘apply water as needed’ – instead of apply water four times a day.”
(See an NRDC/ Southeast Environmental Task Force video of the piles here.)
Baltzer said that “KCBX employees are committed to regulatory compliance and managing operations in a manner that protects the health and safety of employees, the community, and the environment.” He added that at the former DTE Energy site, KCBX “is in the final stages of constructing more than $10 million in upgrades, including state-of-the-art dust suppression capabilities.”
‘Coal hiding in tar sands’
Petcoke looks similar to coal but is considered more environmentally noxious, since it has significantly higher carbon content and blows off piles more easily.
Locals think barges are bringing piles of petcoke from nearby refineries. (Photo by Kari Lydersen / Midwest Energy News)
—Locals think barges are bringing piles of petcoke from nearby refineries. (Photo by Kari Lydersen / Midwest Energy News)
“Petcoke tends to have higher metal content than coal – like nickel, vanadium and selenium,” added Geertsma. “Coal can have higher mercury content, so they’re both bad in terms of toxic heavy metals content.”
A 2013 study by the group Price of Oil calls petcoke “coal hiding in the tar sands,” and said that the increasing availability of petcoke — which can be burned like coal but is cheaper — helps dirty coal-fired plants stay open.
The report says that in 2011, U.S. refineries produced 61.5 million tons of petcoke, enough to fire 50 coal plants for a year.
The report says that Canadian exports of petcoke to the U.S. more than doubled between 2010 and 2012, and BP Whiting’s expansion will triple its petcoke production to 6,000 tons per day.
Detroit’s Marathon refinery wasn’t producing petcoke before its expansion, according to the report, but now produces 1,720 tons per day while the Phillips 66 refinery in Wood River, Illinois, is increasing its petcoke output from 1,300 to 5,700 tons per day.
Petcoke on the move
After Mayor Dave Bing ordered the Detroit petcoke piles gone and Michigan legislators introduced bills, the Detroit piles were reportedly moved to Ohio.
The New York Times revealed that some petcoke from Detroit is being shipped to power plants in Nova Scotia in what it called “something resembling a bottle return program” — since the tar sands came from Canada. According to the Times, one of the world’s largest dealers of petcoke is the Oxbow Corporation, owned by William Koch.
Ultimately much petcoke is exported to Latin America and Asia for power plants or highly-polluting cement kilns. Petcoke can also power gasification plants – the coal gasification plant proposed in Chicago would have been powered partially by petcoke and located on the same Beemsterboer land where piles are now rising.
Environmental Law and Policy Center executive director Howard Learner said that while he could not comment on the specific piles on the Southeast Side, he sees itinerant petcoke as a major problem. The ELPC is mulling legal options regarding the Southeast Side piles.
“You have companies buying petcoke to burn in facilities that are highly polluting, desperately searching for places to pile up their petcoke toxic material, hoping communities either don’t notice or are willing to put up with the mess,” Learner said. “No one would want this in their community.”
Demanding transparency
Southeast Environmental Task Force members have been in touch with the Illinois Attorney General’s office and have taken elected officials on tours of the site.
Shepherd said that after the August 30 wind storm, the task force got calls from both Beemsterboer and KCBX asking to meet with the group. He said several group members did meet with KCBX officials, but they were frustrated that the company officials did not allow them to bring an attorney and the group members felt they didn’t get much detailed or meaningful information.
At the task force office recently, Shepherd leafed through a blue binder full of color photos of dust clouds, black piles and black grit accumulated in streets and parking lots – the result, he thinks, of rain washing petcoke off the piles. On an aerial map of the area, another group member pointed out unused parcels along the river – including a former limestone crushing operation – and worried they could be taken over for petcoke storage.
Environmental advocates say the Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators need to develop specific policies for petcoke, as more and more refineries process tar sands. If the Keystone XL pipeline is built, Gulf Coast refineries will also increasingly process tar sands and hence produce millions of tons of petcoke that must be stored.
Citizens and advocates are also calling on companies to be more transparent about the amount and origin of petcoke. Since the Koch companies are privately held, Geertsma noted, it is extremely difficult to get information about their operations.
“We’re really concerned about what’s going on in our backyard on the Southeast Side, but this is also an issue throughout the Great Lakes and across the nation,” said NRDC spokesman Josh Mogerman. “It’s going to become a bigger and bigger problem, and it’s not going away.”
The NRDC and ELPC are a members of RE-AMP, which also publishes Midwest Energy News.
This entry was posted in News and tagged Chicago, oil sands, pollution by Kari Lydersen. Bookmark the permalink.
The developing increase in pollution due to tar sands and petcoke needs to be publicized and stopped. The supply of petcoke that is even more dangerous to burn than coal is increasing in the U S and the resulting pollution from burning the even dirtier fuel than coal is under the radar of the public. Was the toxicity of petcoke discussed when the Keystone Pipeline was proposed? Communities do not need another stream of pollution to contend with.
By Mary Ellen DeClue on Oct 14, 2013
excellent comment to an excellent article. Isn’t it also time we expand our efforts beyond regulations which these arrogant corporations and plutocrats simply have their legions of lawyers find ways to disregard? How about mounting boycotts of eg BP gasoline products (re the IL source), and Koch’s Georgia Pacific products (Angel Soft, Brawny towels, Dixie cups, and Quilted Northern tissue)
By Bill D on Oct 18, 2013 |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:16 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Like the activists in Detroit, Chicago and elsewhere, citizens of Flint must be vigilant of new sources of pollution and hold the state , the DEQ and the EPA responsible for their actions that will harm local residents. |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:18 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:23 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Liam Kelly
12/8/00
Environmental Justice Case Study:� An Incinerator in Flint, Michigan
Problem
Currently, a large wood fired power plant is operating in an economically depressed community outside Flint, Michigan.� This facility incinerates wood waste to generate electricity for sale to the Consumer Power Company.� However, this facility, the Genesee Power Station Limited Partnership, also generates pollution.� This pollution is released through the incinerator�s smokestack into a community that was already polluted before the facility was constructed, indeed before the plan for the facility was contemplated.� The incinerator is located in Dort/Carpenter Industrial Park, which is home to three hazardous waste facilities regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), two facilities that emit toxic air pollution, and three facilities that deal with multiple forms of toxic waste, one of which is a petroleum tank farm (http://www.epa.gov).� In addition, the community is predominantly comprised of people of color, and of people with low incomes.�
Any situation where a group of people must endure more than their share of negative environmental consequences constitutes an environmental injustice.� Regarding environmental justice, the EPA holds that, �no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies� (Lowe 2).��� The people that live around the Genesee Power Station incinerator are subject to a disproportionate amount of pollution, making this situation a clear example of an environmental injustice.� Further, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality did not address several key issues regarding the community when it approved the incinerator�s air pollution permit in 1992.
Background
The Genesee Power Station Limited Partnership incinerator has been a problem for the surrounding community since 1992.� On December 2, 1992, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) approved the permit for the facility.� The permit approved the construction of the $80 million incinerator, which was the first in the state to use demolition wood for fuel.� The plant produces 35 megawatts of electricity for sale to Consumer Power Company, which then sells the energy to residents. The plant produces enough electricity for 35,000 homes in Flint and the surrounding Genesee Township.� Flint is the largest city in Genesee Township and is comprised of 51.1% people of color (United for Action 1994).�
The industrial park that the incinerator occupies is in an economically depressed minority and low-income community.� The park is located on the north side of Carpenter Road in a primarily residential area.� An elementary school is located directly to the West of the industrial park, and there are 14 more schools within a three-mile radius from the incinerator (United for Action 1994).� This means that children on recess outside their school are subject to harmful air emissions.
The incinerator generates electricity by burning wood waste, which then heats a boiler that generates the energy.� Some of the wood waste fuel comes from the demolition of buildings and other structures, and is called demolition wood waste.� This demolition wood is sometimes coated with lead-based paint, and other lead-based substances that were used in the construction of the demolished buildings.� When this demolition wood coated in lead is burned, lead is released into the air and the surrounding community through the incinerator�s single smokestack (United for Action 1994).�
Lead is not the only substance the incinerator releases.� It is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency to release carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, inorganic compounds, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter (http://oaspub.epa.gov).� Of all the emissions, lead is the most harmful to the surrounding community.� The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says that lead is most harmful to young children, and unborn children.� If a pregnant woman is exposed to lead it can be carried to the unborn child and cause premature birth, low birth weight, or even abortion.� Young children are at risk because they swallow lead when they put toys or other objects soiled with lead containing dirt in their mouths. For infants and young children, lead has been proved to cause decreased intelligence test scores, slowed growth, and hearing problems. Exposure to high levels of lead can cause kidney and brain damage in adults, increased blood pressure, and can damage the male reproductive system (www.astr.cdc.gov).
The incinerator uses several measures to try to prevent the emission of lead into the atmosphere.� Some wood waste is cleaned before being burned to remove the toxic lead substances.� Also, the facility uses a multiclone and electrostatic precipitator to trap lead emissions before they are released through the smokestack (United for Action 4).� In fact, a 1998 press release from the MDEQ states that, �The permit authorized by DEQ is very protective of the local population.�� And that, �lead emissions from the facility impacting the surrounding neighborhood will be 100 times less than the national standards for lead emissions� (MDEQ 1).
However, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality did not address some key issues regarding lead emissions before issuing the permit for the incinerator in 1992.� The MDEQ never prepared an environmental impact statement before issuing the permit, nor did they attempt to ascertain the amount of lead already present in the community.� Also, MDEQ did not determine if people in the community were already suffering from exposure to lead, and did not study the potential changes in the amounts of lead exposure that the incinerator could cause in the community (United for Action 6).� The potential impact on the community was never determined, nor was it even studied.
In addition, the requirements set by MDEQ for preventing lead-coated wood waste from burning in the incinerator are lacking.� Genesee Power Station was required to submit a wood waste procurement and monitoring plan to the MDEQ, which would be used to prevent burning of unacceptable materials.� However, the only element of the plan specified by the MDEQ was the requirement that all wood waste be visually inspected before being burned.� This visual inspection requirement is not enough to eliminate lead coated wood from the incinerator�s fuel supply.� In addition, the permit states that Genesee Power station should use �extensive processing procedures� (United for Action 1994) on the wood waste to help decrease the amount of lead burned in the incinerator.�
These procedures were not defined by the MDEQ or by Genesee Power Station prior to the facility�s construction.� The permit issued in 1992 stated that the procedures were to be outlined in the wood waste procurement and monitoring plan, which would be submitted sometime before the facility began operation (United for Action  .� This made the possibility of implementing more stringent regulations on the facility very unlikely due to the difficulty of changing technology that would have already been in place.� This placed the community surrounding the facility in a very limited position.� The community�s needs were not recognized by the MDEQ when they approved the construction of the incinerator, forcing the community to take action.
Actors
St. Francis Prayer Center and United for Action:� These are two community groups that mobilized to combat the problems presented by the Genesee Power Station incinerator.� These groups are concerned with the well being of their community, and the quality of their lives.� They see the Genesee Power Station incinerator as a threat to their community�s health, and wish to end its operation.� They also believe that the permitting process that the MDEQ used for Genesee Power Station did not allow for enough community involvement.�
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality:� It is the MDEQ�s job to issue permits for the construction of facilities that emit pollution.� The MDEQ�s mission is to �drive improvements in environmental quality for the protection of public health and natural resources to benefit current and future generations� (http://www.deq.state.mi.us).� However, the MDEQ must do this �while helping to foster a strong and sustainable economy� (http://www.deq.state.mi.us). Therefore, the MDEQ is interested in both economic development, and the quality of the environment.� These two interests frequently come in conflict with one another.
The Guild Law Center:� The Guild Law Center (GLC) is a national, non-profit public interest law center.� Their work is focused around pursuing economic justice and protecting the rights of the economically disenfranchised.� The GLC supplied legal assistance to the community surrounding the Genesee Power Station incinerator.�� Attorneys from the GLC handled litigation concerning the incinerator, and were a valuable resource for the community (http://www.glc.org).�
Demographics
A demographic analysis of two US Census tracts (data from the 1990 census) that make up the community around the incinerator yields some interesting results.� The data from the census tracts show that the community is composed of 75.3% minorities and people of color.� A breakdown of all the residents of the community is shown in the table below.
Race
Percent of Total Population
White
24.7
Black
72.9
American Indian, Eskimo or Aleut
0.29
Asian or Pacific Islander
0.58
Other Race
0.15
(US Government Census, tracts 0017 and 0018)
Also, the 1990 census data show that 47.2% of the total population of the community is below the poverty line (http://tier2.census.gov).� These data show that the community is clearly economically disenfranchised, and predominantly composed of minorities and people of color.
Comparing these data with demographics from Genesee County as a whole also yields interesting results.� 77.3% of the people living in Genesee County are white, and only 21.1% are black.� Other minorities make up less than 2% of the population (http://www.tier2.census.gov).� This comparison shows that the demographics of the community surrounding the incinerator are not representative of Genesee County.� Therefore, the people living in this community constitute a distinct racial group and bear a disproportionate amount of the negative impacts associated with the incinerator when compared to the benefits (electricity) Genesee County receives as a whole.� This fits within the definition of an environmental injustice.�
Strategies
After the permit for the Genesee Power Station incinerator was issued in 1992, nine petitions were filed to the EPA Appeals Board in opposition to the incinerator.� These appeals were submitted by community residents, United for Action, the American Lung Association of Michigan, and the Genesee County Medical Office (United for Action 5).� These petitions were intended to draw attention to the plan for building the incinerator, and bring about changes in the permit supplied by the MDEQ.� The EPA Appeals board decided to change the language of the permit, but made no real improvements.� The permit did not hold Genesee Power Station responsible for any negative impacts the incinerator might have on the community, nor did it �contain any clear, enforceable limitations on the burning of low quality construction and demolition wood waste at the facility (United for Action .�� Clearly, the Appeals Board failed to solve the problem for the community around the incinerator.
No other legal action was taken against the incinerator until 1995.� In the mean time, the St. Francis Prayer Center and United for Action attempted to gain legal council, and use the media to draw attention to their problems.� The community made numerous attempts to gain council to open a lawsuit against the MDEQ for approving the permit that resulted in polluting their homes.� Construction began on the facility, and was near completion in July 1995 when the NAACP and the Guild Law Center filed a lawsuit in an attempt to shut down the facility and relieve the community (Peters 1999).
The original lawsuit was titled NAACP vs. Engler.� The suit claimed that the state of Michigan�s approval of the permit for Genesee Power Station violated Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act, the Michigan Elliott-Larson Act (the state equivalent of Title VI), the Michigan Environmental Protection Act, and the equal protection clause of the Michigan constitution (Peters 1999).� The original defendants were Genesee Township, the State of Michigan and its governor, John Engler.� Genesee Power Station was not sued.�
Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act gives the federal government leverage over state governments that receive federal funding.� If a state�s actions are found to be discriminatory, the federal government must withdraw its financing (Lowe 1998).� In this case, the community hoped to prove that the State of Michigan�s approval of the incinerator�s permit was an act of discrimination because it intentionally placed the incinerator in a poor, minority community.� If the community�s lawyers proved a discriminatory act occurred, then the State of Michigan would have to shut down the incinerator because of the threat of the federal government withdrawing funds.� It was also necessary for the plaintiffs to prove an act of discrimination occurred to prove their claims on the state acts.�
In August 1995, the case went to trial at Federal court.� The court remanded all the state law claims to the Genesee Circuit Court, and retained the federal Title VI claim (Peters1999).� In September 1995, the court dismissed the Title VI claim with prejudice.� The plaintiffs were not able to prove that the State of Michigan committed an act of discrimination, and because the claim was dismissed with prejudice, are unable to bring that claim to court again.� However, the state claims still remained and soon went to trial (Peters 1999).�
In March 1996, Genesee Power Station (GPS) was added to the list of defendants, and the case was sent to Genesee Circuit Court.� The court came to a settlement on the Equal Protection claim, and both parties agreed to a dismissal of the claim under the Michigan Environmental Protection Act.� The settlement stipulated that the incinerator would only burn 20% construction and demolition wood as fuel.� The settlement also allowed GPS to request an increase in this percentage if it could show that its lead emissions would not exceed 20% of the permitted level (Peters 2).� This settlement did not satisfy the plaintiffs.� The discriminatory site of the incinerator was not addressed.� Also, the court did not increase the firmness of the regulations on the procedures used to prevent the burning of lead-coated demolition wood in the incinerator.� A second state trial followed (Lowe 1998).�
The only remaining strategy was the plaintiff�s claim that the MDEQ�s policy for determining sites for incinerators had a disparate impact on minority communities in violation of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.� Sadly, the court found that the plaintiffs failed to prove their claim, and the claim was denied.� However, some good did come from this trial.� The court held that the policies and regulations enforced by the State of Michigan did not go far enough to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens.� On May 29, 1997, the court enjoined the MDEQ from granting permits to major air polluters until the MDEQ performed a risk assessment, notified the interested parties and governmental units that would be affected, and gave them an opportunity to be heard before the Department.� These changes in the MDEQ�s policies would be evaluated at another trial that was to be held one year later.� Until this trial, the MDEQ was barred from giving permits to air polluters in Genesee County (Lowe 1998).� This was in direct response to the MDEQ�s actions regarding Genesee Power Station�s permit.�
However, this victory was quite short-lived.� In 1998 the State of Michigan appealed the decision of the trial court to the Michigan Court of Appeals.� The Court of Appeals vacated the injunction, thus successfully overturning the ruling of the trial court.� In regard to the claim under the Elliott-Larson Civil Rights Act, the Court of Appeals said that, �allegation that the MDEQ failed to consider race in issuing the permit is simply not a denial of the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of a place of public accommodation of public service (Lowe 6).�� In other words, the court decided that the MDEQ did not commit an act of discrimination when issuing the permit to GPS.��
Solutions
The community has attempted to solve their problem through almost every legal avenue possible.� The claim under Title VI can never be made in court again, and the community�s legal council has made all the possible discrimination claims under state law already.� The community has also explored all its options with the EPA and the MDEQ.� The incinerator continues to operate, although it was shut down for a year due to permit violations (Lowry 2000).� This problem is far from being solved.
Recommendations
According to Alma Lowry (11/30/2000), the environmental justice representative at the Guild Law Center, the community needs to continue to use the media to gain publicity for their cause (Lowry).� The worst thing that community groups can do is give up.� Groups like the St. Francis Prayer Center and United for Action need to keep putting pressure on the EPA and other governmental organization even though their efforts have failed thus far.� Some possible activities could be a letter writing campaign, or staging non-violent public protests.
There is one more legal option that the community may be able to explore in the future, which is a private citizen suit claiming a violation of Title VI.� This approach has never been attempted before, and the EPA is still deciding if it is acceptable (Lowry 2000).� Should the EPA decide that it is, the community should defiantly use this legal avenue to continue their fight against the incinerator.�
Works Cited
Peters, Marilyn A.� �Appeals Court Rejects �Environmental Justice� Claims.� Washington Legal Foundation Legal Opinion Letter.� 16 April 1999.� http://lexis-nexis.com/universe
The State of Michigan.� Department of Environmental Quality.� Press Release.� 30 November 1998.� http://www.deq.state.mi.us/pr/981130.html
United for Action.� Letter to Valdas Adamkus, Regional Administrator, EPA Region 5.� 6 July 1994.� Guild Law Center.
Lowe, Suzanne.� �Environmental Justice:� An Overview.�� October 1998.� Http://www.senate.state.mi.us
Lowry, Alma.� Personal Interview.� 30 November 2000.
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:33 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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RT
A state poison center has handled 787 calls from people reporting nausea, diarrhea, headaches, skin irritation and rashes, as well as 54 calls from worried pet owners. The center brought staff back from holiday early and is operating 16-hour shifts to help cope with the surge in demand.
Nearly 800 calls to W. Virginia poison center after chemical spill
rt.com
Tap water in nine counties in West Virginia is still off limits, the governor said, as almost 800 people called a local poison center reporting illnesses, while residents spent a third day unable to drink from the faucet, or have a bath or shower. |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 11:20 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Home /
USA /
Nearly 800 calls to W. Virginia poison center after chemical spill
Published time: January 12, 2014 14:59
Tap water in nine counties in West Virginia is still off limits, the governor said, as almost 800 people called a local poison center reporting illnesses, while residents spent a third day unable to drink from the faucet, or have a bath or shower.
A state poison center has handled 787 calls from people reporting nausea, diarrhea, headaches, skin irritation and rashes, as well as 54 calls from worried pet owners.
The center brought staff back from holiday early and is operating 16-hour shifts to help cope with the surge in demand.
A further 90 people have showed up at hospitals, with five actually being admitted, although the center stresses that in the vast majority of cases people can be treated at home.
State Governor Earl Ray Tomblin said that officials were continuing to test the water regularly and purge the water system to flush out the harmful chemicals.
“We will let you know as soon as the water company lifts the ban. Please remain patient and keep checking on your neighbors,” Tomblin said at a news conference on Saturday night.
The governor has requested more bottled water from the Federal Management Agency, and although many shops have sold out, distribution centers remain open.
On Friday, President Barak Obama declared a state of emergency in the nine counties affected by the spill and sent the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help provide disaster relief.
The National Guard announced on Saturday that tests showed the level of contamination was falling, but that the water was not yet safe to drink.
Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia Water, said he expected the water to be safe in a few days, but was unable to be more specific.
The spill occurred on Thursday at a facility in Charleston run by Freedom Industries and involved methylcyclohexane methanol, which is used to clean coal.
Methylcyclohexane is dangerous in high concentrations and if breathed deep into the lungs it can cause pneumonia. The effects of prolonged exposure are not clear, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The leak has affected 300,000 people but businesses have also been knocked out of action, with restaurants being told they cannot open unless they have access to an outside water source.
“We’re moving into a phase of emergency, not only the contamination of the water, but also the health and nutrition and safety of individuals. As well as the economic loss and the employment of several thousand individuals,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Kanawha County Health Department (one of the counties affected by the spill), told the Charleston Gazette.
Meanwhile, the Feds have opened an investigation into what caused the spill. Officials do not yet have any answers regarding what might have caused the leak, or even for how long it lasted, or how much leaked. A team dispatched by the US Chemical Safety Board will arrive in West Virginia on Monday to investigate what led to a leak of such proportions.
Comment:
Anthony Corvelli 12.01.2014 15:23
"... The effects of prolonged exposure are not clear, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.....& quot; So this company has been using this chemical compound for years, and OSHA has NO IDEA of long term effects?? |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 11:24 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Think Progress-Climate Progress
By Joanna M. Foster on January 12, 2014 at 1:28 pm
"Chemical Leak Into West Virginia River Far Larger Than Previously Estimated"
As over 300,000 people in West Virginia face a fourth day without water, state environmental officials are now estimating that as much as 7,500 gallons of a chemical used to process coal — Crude MGHM — may have spilled into the Elk River. That number is a substantial increase from early estimates of 2,000 to 5,000 gallons.
The chemical leak, first reported Thursday, was at a facility owned by Freedom Industries along the Elk River, just 1.5 miles upstream from a major intake used by the largest water utility in the state, West Virginia American Water.
At a press conference Saturday afternoon, Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water Company, said that it would likely still be “several days” before tap water in the nine counties affected would be safe for anything besides flushing toilets.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention has set the standard of 1 part per million as a safe concentration of Crude MGHM in drinking water. Levels of the chemical must remain below this threshold for over 24 hours of testing before the water company can begin flushing the system.
At a press briefing Saturday evening, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s (D) office released the first results of the now round-the-clock water sampling efforts. While some tests are coming in below the safe threshold, the system is still far from clean. Eight out of 18 recent test results tested above 1 part per million. Some of the earliest tests showed concentrations as high as 3 parts per million.
“The reason the numbers are going down is we believe less of the material is getting into the water,” said Mike Dorsey, the chief of homeland security and emergency response at the State Department of Environmental Protection. “We have cut of the source of the leak, the tank. There is still material under the concrete and the soil. We’ve taken aggressive measures on the shore line below the site.”
A team from the Chemical Safety Board will arrive in West Virginia on Monday to begin the long process of assessing the cause of the spill. The CSB is an independent federal agency with the authority to investigate industrial chemical accidents. The agency issues recommendations for prevention of future accidents.
To date, FEMA has brought in 1.4 million liters of water for residents. An additional 1.6 million liters are expected to come in over the course of the weekend.
The New York Times reported Saturday that at least 122 people have gone to local hospitals complaining of nausea, vomiting, and skin and eye irritation. |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 4:00 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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MSNBC
What did West Virginia officials know?
01/12/14 12:00 PM—Updated 01/12/14 02:43 PM
By Traci G. Lee
West Virginia authorities were aware of the hazardous chemicals stored at Freedom Industries’ facilities long before Thursday’s chemical spill, a newly released document reveals.
According to the Charleston Gazette, Freedom Industries, the company at the center of the massive spill, filed the required “Tier 2” form with the state back in February informing officials that one million pounds of the coal-cleaning chemical 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM) were being stored in tanks at the Etowah River Terminal along the now-polluted Elk River.
Under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, Freedom Industries was required to alert the state of the presence of hazardous chemicals at its facilities so authorities and emergency responders were aware of the potential risks.
“Obviously, the whole idea of the chemical inventory reports is to properly inform local emergency officials about the sorts of materials they might have to deal with,” chemical safety expert Fred Millar said, according to the Gazette. ”It’s just head-in-the-sand to be ignoring this type of threat.”
Officials seemed surprised to learn that MCHM was being stored in Freedom Industries’ facilities, and they did not appear to have an emergency plan in place to respond to the spill. “This was not a chemical we were familiar with,” West Virginia American Water Company spokesperson Laura Jordan told the Wall Street Journal Saturday.
At Friday’s press conference, West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin called the spill “unacceptable,” and is continuing to advise residents not to use tap water. As many as 300,000 residents remain without potable water as officials continue to investigate how the leak occurred. The West Virginia Poison Center by Saturday morning logged nearly 800 calls from residents reporting symptoms of nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches, and skin irritation.
“As Monday comes and the work week starts, we can see busnesses will remain closed, schools will definitely be closed,” NBC News’ Luke Russert reported Sunday on msnbc. “Life is far from normal here in Charleston.”
Russert added that, while West Virginians were resilient, patience was beginning to wear thin fast as questions continue to arise. “Right now, no one has an answer as to when the water’s going to come back on, no one has an answer on whether or not the water is safe or not, and no one has an answer as to why 7,500 gallons leaked out and why were they next to a river in a containment facility that was not adequate.” |
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Sun Jan 12, 2014 4:24 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Freedom Industries’ Other Chemical Storage Site Is Unsafe Too
By Emily Atkin on January 15, 2014 at 3:13 pm
After 7,500 gallons of a chemical called crude MCHM spilled into West Virginia waters on Thursday, contaminating potable water for 16 percent of the state, the company responsible was ordered to move the rest of those chemicals to a new site.
But that site is not safe either, according to a report released Wednesday by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Freedom Industries has now been slapped with five violations from the DEP for using a storage facility without secondary containment — meaning there was no adequate barrier to prevent a chemical from leaving a site if it spilled from the original container. Federal law requires tanks and piping within 1,000 feet of community water systems to have secondary containment and be monitored for leaks.
“The plan indicates that the building itself acts as secondary containment, but holes exist at floor level in the building’s walls,” DEP inspector Kevin Saunders wrote in the report. “A variety of chemicals (emulsifiers, oxidizers, acids, corrosives, mineral oil, etc) were stored in the facility without secondary containment and could reach the trench in the event of a spill.”
What’s more, the new site Freedom Industries chose to store the crude MCHM was — like the first site — within 1,000 feet of a river that supplies potable water, the DEP report said.
According to the report, the new location to store the remaining crude MCHM is a building, which is surrounded by a trench. The trench is supposed to catch any runoff from the building, which Freedom Industries reportedly indicated may act as secondary containment. If anything spills from the building, it would just go into the trench, which cannot discharge into the water unless someone opens a gate.
However, Saunders wrote that there is no way to keep leaked chemicals from mixing with stormwater, so the trench does not act as secondary containment.
“Given what we’ve been through, it would be very hard for me to convince anybody that there’s not something to be nervous about,” DEP Secretary Randy Huffman told the Charleston Daily Mail.
Freedom Industries has faced harsh criticism over its apparent lack of updates since the Thursday spill, which some residents believe was occurring for as long as a month earlier than reported. The original tank that stored and eventually leaked the chemical was old, and hadn’t been inspected since 1991, when it was owned by a different company.
“I always thought it wasn’t even open,” Phil Mullins, a lifelong Charleston resident who has driven by the tanks on many occasions, said. “It looked like it was abandoned.”
James Vermillion, who works with Mullins at Trojan Landing Marine and lives across from the Freedom Industries storage tanks, said the tanks used to look “painted and nice.” But no more.
“From what I’ve seen, they’re not professional. The place looks run down,” he said. “That right there shows they’re not paying attention. |
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Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:44 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Chemical-Related Hospital Admissions In West Virginia Have Doubled Since Water Deemed Safe
By Emily Atkin on January 19, 2014 at 4:43 pm
It took nearly five days after a major chemical spill in West Virginia for residents to receive the go-ahead to start using their water again.
Nearly 7,500 gallons of crude MCHM — a little-known chemical used to wash coal — had leaked into the Elk River on Jan. 9, perplexing state officials on how exactly to get the chemical out of the water and what exactly it would do to people if they used it. It was Jan. 13, a Monday, when the first bans were lifted. As of Saturday, everyone affected by the spill was given the all-clear — water everywhere, state officials said, was now fine to drink.
In a perfect world, that would be the end of the story. But according to statistics released by the state health department on Saturday, it turns out that since the bans on water began being lifted, hospital admissions and calls to the poison control center have doubled. Emergency room visits have nearly tripled.
On Jan. 12, the day before do-not-use orders began being lifted, health department officials cited 10 hospital admissions, 169 people treated and released from the emergency room, and a little more than 1,000 calls to the poison control center.
By Saturday — the same day the final 2 percent of people affected by the spill got their water back — those numbers had increased significantly. According to a report in the Charleston Gazette, health officials said 20 people had been admitted to the hospitals, 411 had been treated and released from the emergency room, and 2,302 had called the poison control center. Of those, 1,862 were human-related, 98 were animal-related and the rest were requests for information only.
Saturday’s numbers were also much greater than Thursday’s numbers, when health officials said only 317 had been treated and 14 had been hospitalized.
Part of the increased hospitalizations and calls may be due to confusion on the part of West Virginia residents, who in the last week have been repeatedly given conflicting information about the spill and whether they should use the water. The “do-not-drink” order finally lifted on Saturday, for example, was in a town that had actually had their ban lifted on Tuesday. On Thursday, however, West Virginia American Water rescinded their statements that the water was safe to drink, after water from a fire hydrant registered chemical levels above the 1-part-per-million (ppm) limit.
It’s not the only instance of conflicting information. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said pregnant women should not drink water with any amount of the chemical in it, despite West Virginia American Water saying two days earlier that water in some areas was safe to drink.
Chemical levels in the water must be below 1 ppm for human ingestion. But health experts have questioned that logic. Specifically, some are saying that the study being widely used to determine whether the water is safe does not include several chemical components that leached into the water.
“A key corporate study used by federal health officials to set a screening level for ‘crude MCHM’ in the West Virginia American Water system actually tested a pure form of the material’s main ingredient and might not account for potential toxicity of other components,” the Charleston Gazette reported on Friday.
The chemical that is thought to have spilled, crude MCHM, is actually a mixture of chemicals that is used to wash coal of its impurities, explained Evan Hansen, president of Morgantown-based Downstream Strategies, in an interview with Climate Progress’ Kiley Kroh on Saturday. Of those multiple ingredients, only one of them has any information about exposure limits, he said.
“If crude MCHM is truly what leaked, it’s possible that we don’t even know which of this ‘cocktail’ is most harmful,” said Hansen. “We could have set a threshold based on the wrong one. We may be testing the wrong one.”
So far, however, no official diagnoses have been reported linking patients’ symptoms to water exposure.
“As far as the data and recommendations we have from West Virginia American Water, the water is safe to use,” Rahul Gupta, health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, said. “We’re not saying it’s safe. West Virginia American Water is saying it’s safe. We are taking their word for it.” |
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Sun Jan 19, 2014 8:09 pm |
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