Pollution and Extinction
Ecology affected (Fish, Frogs, Trees, Deforestation, Rivers, Oceans and Coral reefs),
Industrial waste products released (Mercury, Cyanide, Dioxins, Cadmium, Pesticides, Atrazine (weed killer), antibotics, steroids, hormones, bacteria, sulfur dioxide, arsenic, irradiation [Cobalt 60], DDT, Ammonium perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) or C-8)
The year 2011 through 2022
The year 2011.


• 1/3/2011 1,000 blackbirds die, plummet from the sky by AP.
      Beebe, Ark. - Wildfire officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky.    The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 the previous night.    The birds fell over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of the area.
      Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."    The commission also said that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die of stress.    Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results "usually were inconclusive."
      On the 4th fireworks probably startled about 3,000 red-winged blackbirds that fell dead from the skies.    They were so startled the birds in a frenzy crashed into homes, cars and each other.    "The birds were flying at rooftop level instead of treetop level" to avoid the explosions above, said Karen Rowe.    "Blackbirds have poor eyesight, and they started colliding with things."    Still labs planned to test bird carcasses for toxins or disease.
  
• 1/5/2011 Expert says second mass bird kill likely coincidence by AP.
      New Orleans - Power lines likely killed about 450 birds in Louisiana that left a highway near Baton Rouge littered with carcasses.    It's almost certainly a coincidence that it happened within days of a New year's Eve incident in central Arkansas, Louisiana state wildlife veterinarian Jim LaCour said.    The birds died in the rural Pointe Coupee Parish community of Labarre, northwest of Baton Rouge.    The birds - a mixed flock of red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and starlings - may have hit a power line or vehicles in the dark, LaCour said.
      Mass bird deaths aren't uncommon, as the U.S. Geological Service's website listed about 90 mass deaths of birds and other wildlife from June through Dec. 12.    There were five deaths of at least 1,000 birds, with the largest near Houston, Minn., where parasite infestations killed about 4,000 water birds between Sept. 6 and Nov. 26.
  
• 1/7/2011 'AFLOCKALYPSE' - Ky. bird deaths not of a feather with other states' by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal.
      Authorities are looking into reports of dead birds in Louisville and Western Kentucky but have found nothing to connect them to the "aflockalypse," the well-publicized incidents of mass bird deaths reported in the other states.    Plus throw in the massive fish kills in Arkansas and Maryland - even dead crabs in England - and there's been talk of the end times or conspiracy theories.
      ANNUAL BIRD DEATHS IN THE UNITED STATES
  
  • Flying into windows, 97 million- 976 million.
  • Communication towers, 4 to 5 million.
  • Electricity transmission lines, 174 million.
  • Cars, 60 million.
  • Wind turbines, 33,000.
  • Poisoning, 72 million.
  • Cats, hundred of million.
• 1/9/2011 Dioxin found in chicken after feed contaminated by AP.
      Berlin - Investigators have found excessive levels of cancer-causing dioxin in chicken - the first such confirmation of tainted meat since the discovery that German farm animals had eaten contaminated feed, possibly for months.    Three chickens - out of 15 samples of chicken, turkey and pork sent to the EU Commission - showed a dioxin concentration twice as high as legally allowed, an Agriculture ministry spokesman said.
  
• 1/9/2011 Overfishing nearly ended, top scientists say - Healthier stocks are expected by Jay Lindsay, AP.
      Boston - For the first time in at least a century, U.S. fisherman won't take too much of any species from the sea, one of the nation's top fishery scientists says.    New England fishermen have switched to a radically new management system according to scientists Steve Murawski.    So this signals the coming of increasingly healthy stocks and better days for fishermen who've suffered financially.    In New England, the fleet has deteriorated since the mid-1990s from 1,200 boats to about 580, but Murawski believes fisherman have already endured their worst times.
      Murawski said the U.S. is the only country that has a law that defines overfishing and requires its fishermen not to engage in it.    "When you compare the U.S. with EU, with Asian countries, etc., we are the only industrialized fishing nation who actually has succeeded in ending overfishing," he said.
  
• 1/12/2011 EPA urges check for carcinogen - Chromium-6 has been found in water supplies of 31 cities, including Louisville by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal.
      The U.S. EPA recommended that all public water utilities begin monitoring for hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium-6, the carcinogen made famouse in the movie "Erin Brockovich."    This came three weeks after the EPA said it had detected the substance in the tap water of 31 of 35 American cities, including Louisville.    Recent studies indicate there is a greater risk from chromium-6 that was previously thought.    The level of 0.14 parts per billion found in a single sample in Louisville by the EPA was more than twice as high as a proposed public health goal of 0.06 parts per billion, where in California Brockovich's efforts led to a successful lawsuit in the movie starring Julia Roberts.
  
• 1/15/2011 Toxic Waste chew bars recalled for lead content by AP.
      A Carmel, Ind.-based candy company is recalling its Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge chew bars after California public health authorities said they found the treats contained more than double the allowed level of lead.    Candy Dynamics is recalling the cherry, sour apple and blue raspberry chew bars, the FDA said for a product that first hit the market in 2007.    A batch of the cherry bars in california contained 0.24 parts per million of lead, which the FDA limit is 0.1 parts per million, which can cause health problems in small children, infants and pregnant women.
  
• 1/26/2011 Report: Obesity, smoking hurt life expectancy in the U.S. by AP.
      The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation yet has worse life expectancy than many - an a new report blames smoking and obesity.    That may sound surprising, considering that public smoking is being stamped out here while it's common in parts of Europe.    And obesity is a growing problem around the world.    U.S. began those unhealthy trends a few decades ahead of other high-income countries.    And the long-term consequences are life expectancy a few years shorter than parts of Europe and Japan, the National Research Council reported.    In the U.S., life expectancy at birth was 80.8 years for women and 75.6 years for men in 2007.    In France, life expectancy for women was 84.4 years and 77.4 for men.    And in Japan, it was nearly 86 years for women and 79.2 for men.
  
• 2/3/2011 EPA to limit rocket fuel chemical in tap water by Dina Cappiello, AP.
      Washington - The EPA is setting the first federal drinking-water standard for a toxic rocket fuel ingredient linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women and young children, the Obama administration announced.
      Based on monitoring conducted from 2001 to 2005, 153 drinking-water sources in 26 states contain perchlorate.    The standard could take up to two years to develop, the EPA said.    Perchlorate is also used in fireworks and explosives, but most water contamination has been caused by improper disposal of rocket testing sites, military bases and chemical plants.    We should stand up for rules that protect public health, even if they burden business.
  
• 2/13/2011 Paducah Cleanup Work In Jeopardy - Budget problems could slow progress at nuclear fuel plant by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal.
      Paducah, Ky. - The "moon suits" and radioactivity monitors that workers wear while decontaminating long-idle buildings speak to the dangers that remain at the nuclear fuel factory outside Paducah.    And the worries about radiation, toxic gases in old pipes and asbestos in building materials extend beyond the 5.5-square-mile Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant property.    The cleanup began in 1988 and got a $79 million boost in 2009 economic stimulus funds, but that temporary money is running out, and the U.S. Department of Energy is warning that future budget cuts could slow the project dramatically and delay the 2019 deadline which would be pushed back to at least 2032, and result in 350 layoffs.
• 2/18/2011 Ban sought on caramel coloring used in colas by Laura Ungar, the Courier-Journal.
      A consumer advocacy group is urging the U.S. FDA to ban caramel coloring used in Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other products, saying the coloring is contaminated with two cancer-causing chemicals.    They claim the colorings are produced with ammonia and containing the carcinogens 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, also known as 2-MI and 4-MI.    The company which makes caramel colorings and sells it to the beverage industry and others, said caramel colors aren't harmful, and no evidence that it causes cancer.    The opposing party claims by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites under high pressure and temperatures results in the formation of 2-MI and 4-MI, which they say research has linked to leukemia or lung, liver or thyroid cancer in laboratory rats and mice.    The studies conducted by the National Toxicology Program, a division of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and also the University oif California Davis, who have found significant levels of 4-MI in five cola brands.    The colorings only purpose is a cosmetic one.
      So who do we believe?
  
• 2/20/2011 Scientist finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead by AP.
      Washington - Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a scientist who ways the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor.    The report is at odds with a report by BP spill compensation czar saying all will be well by next year.    What was found is that the oil-munching microbes has a bottleneck and is not degrading the oil like expected.    Only 10 percent was consumed by the microbes.
  
• 3/9/2011 Mass fish death fouls California marina by Robert Jablon, AP.
      Redondo Beach, Calif. - An estimated 1 million fish turned up dead in a Southern California marina, creating a floating feast for pelicans, gulls and other sea life and a stinky mess for harbor authorities.    Boaters awakened to find a carpet of small silvery fish surrounding their vessels, said Staci Gabrielli, marine coordinator for King Harbor Marina on the Los Angeles County coast.    Authorities said there was also a 12- to 18-inch layer of dead fish on the bottom of the marina.
      California Fish and Game officials said the fish were sardines that apparently depleted the water of oxygen and suffocated.    "All indications are it's a naturally occurring event," said Andrew Hughan, a Fish and Game spokesman at the scene.    The die-off was unusual but not unprecedented, he said.    The estimnated cleanup would cost $100,000.
  [Comment: You remember those "Jaws" movies where they did not tell the vacationers about the sharks in order not to create a hysteria.]
  
• 3/12/2011 Early Warning - Pacific Rim spared from heavy damage - Ore., Calif. hit worst by waves by AP.
      Cresent City, Calif. - The warnings traveled quickly across the Pacific in the middle of the night: An 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan spawned a deadly tsunami, and it was racing east as fast as a jetliner (500 mph).
      Sirens blared in Hawaii.    The West Coast pulled back from the shore, fearing the worst.    Fisherman took their boats out to sea and safety.    In the end, the damage was mainly to harbors and marinas in California and Oregon.    [Comment: Maybe the fish in the above article knew what was coming.]    Boats crashed into one another, some vessels were pulled out ot sea, and docks were ripped out.    None of this damage in the U.S., South America or Canada was anything like the devastation in Japan.
      Seven foot waves hit the shores in Hawaii.
  
• 3/12/2011 8.9 Quake, Tsunami Hit Japan; Hundreds Killed by Malcolm Foster, AP.
      Tokyo - For more than two minutes, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan shook apart homes and buildings, cracked open highways and unnerved even those who have learned to live with swaying skyscrapers.    Then came a devastating tsunami that slammed into northeastern Japan and killed hundreds of people.    The violent wall of water swept away houses, cars, ships, while fires burned out of control, a boat was caught in the vortex of a whirlpool at sea.    The death toll rose steadily throughout the day, but the true extent of the disaster was not known because roads to the worst-hit areas were washed away or blocked by debris and airports were closed.    President Barack Obama pledged full assistance for the catastrophic disaster.
      Japan declared its first-ever states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of the earthquake, and workers struggled to prevent meltdowns.    The quake knocked out power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and because a backup generator failed, the cooling system was unable to supply water to cool the 460-megawatt No. 1 reactor.    Although a backup cooling system is being used, Japan's nuclear safety agency said pressure inside the reactor has risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal.
      After dawn the scale of destruction became clearer as the town of Ofunato showed homes and warehouses in ruins.    Sludge and high water spread over acres of land, with people seeking refuge on roofs of submerged buildings.
      The quake shook dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile stretch of coast and tall buildings swayed in Tokyo, hundreds of miles from the epicenter.    The earthquake unleashed a 23-foot tsunami along the northeastern coast.    Large fishing boats and other vessels rode the high waves ashore, slamming against overpasses or scraping under them and snapping power lines along the way.    A fleet of partially submerged cars bobbed in the water.    Ships anchored in ports crashed against each other.
      The tsunami roared over embankments, washing anything in its path inland before reversing direction and carrying the cars, homes and other debris out to sea.    Flames shot from some of the homes, apparently from burst gas pipes.
  
• 3/13/2011 Japan's newest nightmare: possible nuclear meltdown - Malfunctions mount as toll climbs from quake, tsunami by AP.
      Iwaki, Japan - Cooling systems failed at another nuclear reactor on Japan's devastated coast, hours after an explosion at a nearby unit made leaking radiation - or even outright meltdown - the central threat to the country following a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.    The Japanese government said radiation emanating from the plant appeared to have decreased after Saturday's blast, which produced a cloud of white smoke that obscured the complex.    But the danger was grave enough that officials pumped seawater into the reactor to avoid disaster and moved about 200,000 people from the area.
      Japan's nuclear safety agency then reported an emergency at another reactor unit, the third in the complex to have its cooling system malfunction.    To try to release pressure from the overheating reactor, authorities released steam that likely contained small amounts of radiation, the government said.
      Early today, Japan was shaken by a 6.2-magnitude quake off its eastern coast.    The death toll could far exceed 1,000 as teams searched for the missing of a possible 9,500 persons.
  
• 3/14/2011 Japan death toll passes 10,000 - Fears of nuclear meltdowns mount amid the devastation by AP.
      Sendai, Japan - The death toll estimate has climbed past 10,000 as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns and hundreds of thousands of people struggled to find food and water.    The prime minister said it was the nation's worst crisis since World War II.    Nuclear plant operators worked frantically to try to keep temperatures down in several reactors crippled by the earthquake and tsunami, wrecking at least two by dumping sea water into them in last-ditch efforts to avoid meltdowns.    Near-freezing temperatures compounded the misery of survivors along hundreds of miles of the northeastern coast battered by the tsunmai that smashed inland with breathtaking fury.    Rescuers pulled bodies from mud-covered jumbles of wrecked houses, shattered tree trunks, twisted cars and tangled power lines.
• 3/15/2011 Stocks fall on fear about quake's economic toll - Disaster impacts world markets by Bloomberg News.
      Stocks fell Monday, sending the S&P lower for a third time in four days, as investors struggled to assess how much damage Japan's disaster will affect the global economy.    The immediate impact will be felt through lower global aggregate demand, disrupted supply chains and funds flows into Japan.    [Comment: People are suffering and we could have a worldwide disaster from radiation, and the Wall Street greed is concerned of what or how they can profit from others misery.    Now I call that pollution of the mind.]
      Definetly auto plants will be idled in Japan because of supply shortages, damged facilities and rolling power outages, which also affected other companies from consumer electronics to steel makers and retail store operators.
• 3/15/2011 Fear of nuclear power plant meltdown grows by AP.
      Tokyo - As bodies washed ashore by the hundreds and an emergency deepened at a coastal nuclear plant, millions in Japan today faced an unabating sense of apprehension, mourning and astonishment over the scope of the catastrophe.    Another explosion was heard this morning at the Fukushima Dai-Chi power plant, raising new fears of at least a partial meltdown of the nuclear reactor.    Japan's nuclear safety agency said it suspected the explosion may have damged a reactor's container and fears a radiation leak.    Thyroid cancer is the most immediate risk, and Japanese government is handing out pills to help prevent it.    Even a meltdown would not mean medical doom.    It depends on how well the containment vessels hold the melted fuel, and how much and what types of radioactive materials get released, radiation experts say.    So far they say "This is not a Chernobyl."
  
• 3/16/2011 Fires impede struggle to halt radiation spread - Confirmed death toll reaches 3,600 with thousands missing - Containing a nuclear reactor by AP.
      Soma, Japan - A fire broke out at a nuclear reactor again today.    The confirmed death toll passed 3,600.    The outer housing of the containment vessel at the no. 4 unit at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex erupted in flames early today.    The government is considering spraying water and boric acid into its troubled reactors to prevent further radiation leaks.
      Elsewhere the crisis in Japan has put world markets on edge pushing stocks and other investments lower.    The Japanese stock market Nikkei lost 10 percent of its value, the Dow Jones fell almost 300 points, but recovered down 138 points.    Investors are selling first and asking questions later with fears of the crisis slowing global economy.    In addition the Middle East had Saudi Arabian troops moved into Bahrain and Libya's oil exports ground to a halt because of the rebellion agaisnt leader Moammar Gadhafi.
  
• 3/17/2011 EPA aims to slash mercury emissions - Plan curbs coal-plant toxins, but utility bills might rise by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal.
      The U.S. EPA proposed the first national rules for curbing mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired plants, predicting they would save tens of thousands of lives but likely drive up utility rates.    The rules would reduce mercury emissions by as much as 91 percent over the next three or four years, while costing the nation's utilites about $11 billion annually, EPA officials said.    It could increase utility bills about $3 or $4 a month for a typical household.    They seek to curb other toxic emissions such as arsenic, chromium and acid gases.
      In Kentucky and Indiana coal-fired power plants supply more than 90 percent of the state's electricity.
  
• 3/18/2011 Nuclear crisis could take weeks to quell - Evacuations begin for families of U.S. personnel by AP.
      Yamagata, Japan - Emergency workers seemed to try everything to douse the overheated nuclear reactors: helicopters, heavy-duty fire trucks, even water cannon used to quell rioters, but are still unsure if it was easing the peril at the facility.    Three reactors have had at least partial meltdowns, where wisps of white steam rose from the stricken units this morning.    But Japanese and U.S. officials believe a greater danger exists in the pools used to store spent nuclear fuel: Fuel rods in one pool were believed to be at least partially exposed, if not dry, and others were in danger.    Without water, the rods could heat up and spew radiation.    As of now it could take weeks to get the complex under control.
      On the 21st, latest developments: Death toll rises to more than 8,450 people and 12,931 are missing.    The entire Fukushima Dai-Chi complex will be scrapped once the emergency is resolved.    Many complained why it took so long to distribute the potassium iodide pills to those living within 12 miles of the nuclear plant.
  
• 3/24/2011 Report on Gulf spill points to pipe piece by AP.
      New Orleans - The blowout preventer that should have stopped the BP oil spill failed largely because of a faulty design and a trapped piece of pipe, an official investigation found.    The finding appeared to shift some blame from the oil giant toward those who built and maintained the 300-ton safety device.    A piece of drill pipe prevented the blowout preventer's blind shear rams from sealing the well from the pressure
• 3/24/2011 Radiation in tap water worries Tokyo's residents by AP.
      Tokyo - Radiation leaking from Japan's nuclear power plant has caused Tokyo's tap water to exceed safety standards for infants to drink, sending anxiety levels soaring over the nation's food and water supply.    Residents cleared store shelves of bottled water.    The unsettling new development affecting Japan's largest city, home to around 13 million people, added to growing fears over the nation's food supply.    Radiation has seeped into raw milk, seawater and 11 kinds of vegatables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips, in areas around the plant.    Thus forcing other countries to halt specific imports for suspected products.
      Officials are still struggling to stabilize the nuclear plant, which belched black smoke from Unit 3 and forced evacuation of workers of the plant which has been leaking radiation since the quake knocked out its crucial cooling systems.    Government estimates for this disaster is up to $309 billion and some are estimating that 18,000 people were killed.    The tap water showed elevated radiation levels: 210 becquerels of iodine-131 per liter, which is twice the recommended limit of 100 for children and 300 for adults.
• 3/26/2011 Reactor may be breached - Nuclear crisis again escalates in Japan by AP.
      Tokyo - After two weeks the government said there's possibly a breach at a reactor, meaning radioactive contamination at the facility is more serious than once thought.    The death toll passed the 10,000 mark and is expected to reach 18,000, and the battered northeast coast still has hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed ans still have no power, no hot meals and in many cases no showers for 14 days.    Now we know that low levels of radiation have been seeping out since March 11 quake and may contaminate groundwater.
      On the 29th workers have discovered new pools of radioactive water leaking form the crippled nuclear complex believed to be behind soaring levels of radiation spreading to soil and seawater.    Crews also detected plutonium, a key ingredient in nuclear weapons in the soil outside the complex, and is present in the fuel.
  
• 3/31/2011 Japan weighs entombing cripple nuclear plant - Workers struggling to contain radiation by Bloomberg News.
      Tokyo - Japan will consider entombing its crippled nuclear plant in concrete as workers struggle to reduce radiation and contain the disaster.    The government hasn't ruled our pouring concrete over the whole facility as one way of shuting it down, which would serve a second purpose thus trapping contaminated water.
      Record high readings of contaminated water were found near the plant.    Radioactive iodine rose to 3,355 times the regulated safety limit from 2,572 times earlier in the day.
      The number of dead and missing had reached 27,652.
  
• 4/1/2011 France, U.S. lend nuclear help to Japan - Radiation leaks hamper cleanup by AP.
      Tokyo, Japan - Japan tuned to other countries for help as it struggles to stabilize its nuclear plant and stop radiation leaks that are complicating efforts to recover the bodies of some of the thousands killed by the towering wave.
      French, American and international experts and even a robot are on their way to help.    The radiation contamination in groundwater 15 yards under one of the six reactors had been measured at 10,000 times the government standard, and the water supply has not been affected.    Everyone has been evacuated 12 miles from the plant.    Still, elevated levels of iodine-131, a radioactive substance that decays quickly, were another sign of radiation leakage.
      Officials expect to use a remote-controlled robot sent by the U.S. within a few days to evaluate areas with high radiation.    Officials think more than 19,000 people died, but only about 11,000 bodies have been found and recovery is being done in white hazmat suits and radiation monitors.
  
• 4/2/2011 Study: Denture cream can cause zinc overdose by Frank D. Roylance, The Baltimore Sun.
      Baltimore - The simple act of trying to keep dentures in place can trigger serious health problems, including neurological damage, a new study by University of Maryland researchers warns.    Preliminary studies link the zinc in some adhesives to neurological damage and blood abnormalities - at least among patients who squeeze out too much denture cream, too often, trying to keep their teeth anchored.    In those cases the patients have been exposed to as much as 200 times the recommended daily allowance of zinc from the abuse of denture adhesives.    The FDA has urged manufacturers to revise labeling to identify products that contain zinc, or to replace the zinc with an ingredient that presents less health risks in situations of overuse.
• 4/3/2011 Plant leaking radioactive water into sea - Tsunami victims feeling ignored by AP.
      Rikuzenbtakata, Japan - Highly radioactive water was leaking into the sea from a crack at the nuclear power plant destabilized by the earthquake and tsunami.    The contaminated water will quickly dissipate into the sea and isn't expected to cause any health hazard, and frustrated survivors complained that Japan's government was paying too much attention to the nuclear crisis.    Some 11,800 are confirmed dead and more than 165,000 are still living in shelters, and tens of thousands more don't have electricity or running water.
      So now that they have found the 8-inch-long crack in a maintenance pit that was leaking highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, and there could be other similar cracks in the area that must be found.    They started filling the pit with cement to seal the crack.
  
• 4/4/2011 Nuclear engineers hope polymer will stop leak - Japan: Crisis to take months to control by AP.
      Tokyo - Engineers pinned their hopes on chemicals, sawdust and shredded newspaper to stop highly radioactive water pouring into the ocean while claiming it will take several months to bring the crisis under control.
      Concrete already has failed to stop the tainted water spewing from a crack in a maintenance pit.    The new mixture did not appear to be working either, but engineers said they were not abandoning it.    They expected to know by this morning if it would work.    The death toll is as high as 25,000 people.
  
• 4/6/2011 Radioactive water leak is plugged, utility says by AP.
      Tokyo - The utility (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) that owns the crippled Japanese nuclear reactor says highly radioactive water has stopped leaking into the ocean.    An attempt to stem the leak by injecting 400 gallons of "water glass," or sodium silicate, and another agent near a seaside pit where the water was leaking appears to have been successful after the radiation was more than 7.5 million times the legal limit for seawater.
  
• 4/7/2011 Japanese try to prevent blast at plant - Flow of radioactive water into Pacific is stopped by AP.
      Tokyo - After stopping highly radioactive water from flowing into the ocean, workers turned to injecting nitrogen to prevent more hydrogen explosions.    New death tolls are up to 25,000 people.    Unable to restore normal cooling systems, workers have pumped water into the reactors and let it gush wherever it can.    Superheated fuel rods can pull explosive hydrogen from cooling water, so the concern is that hydrogen levels are rising.    Technicians began pumping nitrogen into an area around one reactor to counteract the hydrogen to prevent explosions, but the injection could release radioactive vapor.
  
• 4/14/2011 Bat blight found in Ky. - Fatal white-nose fungus could have dire impact on agriculture by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal.
      Two months after a devastating bat disease was confirmed in Indiana, wildlife officials announced that it has been detected in Kentucky - and will affect operations at the state's most famous bat habitat, Mammoth Cave.    After finding white-nose syndrome in a little brown bat in Trigg County, in Southwest Kentucky and officials said they euthanized it and 60 other little brown bats and tri-colored bats that were in the same cave and were suspected of having the disease.    Biologists checked other caves within a 16-mile area and found no other evidence of the disease.    Since 2006 the bat white-nose syndrome has spread from New York through Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Conneticutt, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
  
• 4/19/2011 Nuclear plant radiation too high for humans by AP.
      Tokyo - A pair of robots sent to explore buildings inside Japan's crippled nuclear reactor came back with disheartening news: Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.    Nethertheless, officials remained hopeful eventually get to clean up the radiation leak and stabilize the plant by year's end so they can return tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes.
  
• 4/21/2011 4 makers of hand sanitizer received FDA warning by AP.
      Washington - Federal health regulators have issued warnings to four makers of hand-sanitizing products for making unsupported claims about the bacteria-fighting benefits of their products.
      The FDA said the companies claim their lotions and gels can prevent a variety of infections, including staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and bird flu.    Companies that claim their products can prevent a disease must submit scientific studies to the FDA.
      The FDA warning letters cite these products:
  
  • Tec Laboratories' Staphaseptic First Aid Gel.
  • JD Nelson and Associates' Safe4Hours Hand Sanitizing Lotion and First Aid Antiseptic Skin Protectant.
  • Dr. G.H. Tichener Antiseptic Co.'s Antiseptic Gel.
  • Oh So Clean Inc.'s CleanWell All-Natural Foaming Hand Sanitizer.
• 4/21/2011 3,200-plus wells are unplugged in Gulf by AP.
      More than 3,200 oil and gas wells classified as active lie abandoned beneath the Gulf of Mexico, with no cement plugging to help prevent leaks that could threaten the waters fouled by last year's BP spill, the AP learned.    The unplugged wells have not been used for at least five years, and there are no plans to restore production on them, and were not required to be plugged because their leases have not expired.    So there is nothing to prevent leaks.
  
• 4/22/2011 CDC: Smoking bans to spread - All states could have laws by 2020 by AP.
      Atlanta - By 2020, every state may have bans on smoking in restaurants, bars and the workplace, federal health officials predicted, based on the pace of states adopting anti-smoking laws.    The number of states with indoor smoking bans went from zero in 2000 to 25 in 2010.
• 4/26/2011 Japan crisis shakes up Paducah plans - Earthquake risk clouds nuclear future by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal.
      Some hoped this would be the year that Kentucky's General Assembly would ease its restrictions on nuclear plant construction, clearing the way for a plant near Paducah.    But the bill to do just that died in committee - and that was in the days before the massive March 11 earthquake in Japan caused a tsunami that washed into a nuclear plant there, setting off serious radiation leaks that sent a trace amount of radiation around the world.    Paducah sits on a high hazard area for the New Madrid faults, which spooked everyone to halt the proposed nuclear plant.
  
• 5/4/2011 North Slope pipeline leak will cost BP $25 million by AP.
      Anchorage, Alaska - BP's subsidiary in Alaska will pay a $25 million civil penalty under a settlement announce that comes five years after more than 200,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from company pipelines on the North Slope.    The penalty is the largest per-barrel civil penalty assessed, exeeding the statutory maximum because the settlement resolves claims other than the spill, according to the EPA.    The settlement also calls for BP Exploration Alaska Inc. to install a systemwide pipeline intergrity management program.
  
  

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      As of May 6, 2011, I have stopped typing from news articles and began using the Electronic Edition of the Courier-Journal newspaper so from this point on the articles are from those pages and may be shortened in some cases for highlights and space considerations.
  

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• 5/28/2011
  
  Sierra Club sues coal firm over Ky. water - Toxic selenium level near mine alleged by Brett Barrouquere , Associated Press
      An environmental group is suing a coal company, accusing it of violating federal water regulations by dumping toxic amounts of the element selenium in waterways near a Leslie County mine.
      The Sierra Club filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in London accusing ICG Hazard of violating the federal Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 at the Thunder Ridge surface mine.    The group seeks an order requiring ICG Hazard to install selenium treatment facilities at the mine and pay $37,500 in fines for each day the law was violated.
      “While mountaintop removal may make a quick buck for ICG, it results in permanent damage to Kentucky’s waterways,” said Lane Boldman, of the Sierra Club’s Cumberland Chapter in Lexington.    “The long-term risk to the environment, to wildlife and to human health is unacceptable and violates the laws intended to protect our communities and our environment.”
      Ross Mazza, a spokesman for ICG Hazard’s parent company, International Coal Group in Scott Depot, W.Va., said the company is reviewing the lawsuit.    “However, we believe we are in compliance with a validly issued Kentucky water discharge permit and we will vigorously defend these allegations,” Mazza said.
      ICG Hazard’s permit for the Thunder Ridge mine allows it to discharge some pollutants to Lower Bad Creek and several tributaries, including Greasy Creek and Roundhole Branch of Greasy Creek.
      The lawsuit claims that ICG Hazard, which said it produced 3.7 million tons of coal in 2009, has discharged selenium into the water at levels that could harm aquatic life and exceeded Kentucky’s standard for what is allowable.
      Coal mining that disturbs the layers of the earth containing high levels of selenium can cause runoff into nearby waterways or leaching into ground water, the Sierra Club said. Selenium also is concentrated in ash when coal is burned.
      Selenium is a naturally occurring element that is harmless in small amounts but can be toxic in high concentrations.    In humans, high levels of selenium may cause hair and fingernail loss, with long-term exposure damaging the kidneys, liver, nervous and circulatory systems.
  
  
• 6/1/2011
  
  Cellphones may pose cancer risk - But experts dial down the alarm by Rob Stein, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — Radiation from cellphones is “possibly carcinogenic” to humans, according to an international expert panel organized by the World Health Organization to evaluate the safety of the devices.
      The International Agency for Research on Cancer panel, which included 31 scientists from 14 countries, reached its conclusion after conducting an exhaustive review of the scientific literature in Lyon, France.    The WHO had previously said there were no risks from cellphone use.
      The experts stressed, however, that the evidence of a link remains far from clear and more research is needed. A rating of “possibly carcinogenic” is the research agency’s third-highest rating, falling below “carcinogenic,” and “probably carcinogenic.”    Other substances that the research agency has categorized as “possibly carcinogenic” include talc body powder, which has been possibly linked with ovarian cancer, coffee, the pesticide DDT and low-frequency magnetic fields, which have been possibly linked to childhood leukemia.
      “The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cellphones and cancer risk,” said Jonathan Samet, who chaired the panel.
      The report’s conclusion remains what it is: a mere possibility, said Dr. Shiao Y. Woo, endowed professor and chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
      “Cancer is seldom a result of one factor; there are multiple causes to cancer,” Woo said.    Woo said cellphones haven’t been around long enough for the report to have conclusive results.
  
  Fear car use more
      The usage that experts deemed risky involved users pressing the cellphone to their ears for long hours, he said.    “There is very little evidence that cellphone usage is harmful,” Woo said.    “There is more evidence, however, that cellphone use leads to injury and death from car accidents.”    Woo said people need not be excessively alarmed but should practice common sense.    He said incessant talking on a cellphone while operating machinery poses a far greater chance of harm than cellphone radiation.    The report’s rating was based primarily on two large epidemiologic studies that found an association in people between cellphone use and a rare, malignant form of brain cancer called glioma.
      Last year, results of a large study found no clear link between cellphones and cancer.    But some advocacy groups contend the study raised serious concerns because it showed a hint of a possible connection between very heavy phone use and glioma.    However, the numbers in that subgroup weren’t sufficient to make the case.
  
  Study had critics
      The study was controversial because it began with people who already had cancer and asked them to recall how often they used their cellphones more than a decade ago.
      In about 30 other studies done in Europe, New Zealand and the U.S., patients with brain tumors have not reported using their cellphones more often than unaffected people.    Although the panel did not quantify the possible risk or make any recommendations for whether cellphones should be regulated more strictly, one panel member said consumers might consider taking such precautionary steps as texting instead of talking and using a headset to keep the phone away from the head.
      Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said it was also reasonable to limit children’s use of cellphones since their brains are still developing.    Panel members stressed more research is urgently needed, especially given that an estimated 5 billion people use cellphones.    The experts added that it remains far from clear how cellphones could cause brain cancer, given that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the devices is far too weak to have a biological effect.    Earlier this year, a U.S. National Institutes of Health study found that cellphone use can speed up brain activity, but it is unknown whether that has any dangerous health effects.    In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission has found no evidence cellphones are linked to cancer.
  
  
• 6/8/2011
  
  Nuclear plant damage worse than first thought
      Tokyo - Japan admitted Tuesday it was unprepared for a severe nuclear accident like the tsunami caused Fukushima disaster and said damage to the reactors and radiation leakage were worse than it previously thought.
      In a report being submitted to the U.N. nuclear agency, the government said the fuel in three reactors likely melted through the inner containment vessels, not just the core, after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s power and cooling systems.    Fuel in the Unit 1 reactor started melting hours earlier than previously estimated.
  
  EPA plans to ban some rodent poisons
      The government is moving to ban the sale of some popular rat and mouse poisons such as D-Con and Hot Shot in an effort to protect children and pets.    The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it is taking the step to reduce the thousands of accidental exposures of children that occur every year from rodent-control products.    “Today’s action will help keep our children and pets safe from these poisons,” Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement.
  
  
• 6/9/2011
  
  Chicken may contain traces of arsenic
      The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that some chicken meat may contain small amounts of arsenic, though the agency is stressing that the amount is too tiny to be dangerous to people who eat it.
      The FDA said a new study developed by the agency shows that an ingredient in chicken feed that contains arsenic, called Roxarsone, may make its way into parts of the bird that are eaten.    Previous studies have indicated that the arsenic was eliminated with chicken waste.
      Pfizer, which makes the feed ingredient, said it will pull it off the market in the United States.    Had the company not stopped sales, the FDA could have eventually banned the product, since it contains a known carcinogen.    Many poultry producers have already stopped feeding their birds the ingredient, which has been used since the 1940s to kill parasites and promote growth.
  
  
• 6/12/2011
  
  Formaldehyde causes cancer, health agency says
      Washington - The strong-smelling chemical formaldehyde causes cancer, while styrene, a second industrial chemical that’s used worldwide in the manufacture of fiberglass and food containers, may cause cancer, the National Institutes of Health says.
      The NIH said Friday that people with higher measures of exposure to formaldehyde are at increased risk for certain types of rare cancers, including those affecting the upper part of the throat behind the nose.
      The chemical is widely used to make resins for household items, including paper product coatings, plastics and textile finishes. It also is commonly used as a preservative in medical laboratories, mortuaries and consumer products including some hair straightening products.
      The government says styrene is a component of tobacco smoke, and NIH says the greatest exposure to the chemical is through cigarette smoking.
      The two chemicals were among eight added to the government’s list submitted to Congress of chemicals and biological agents that may put people at increased risk of cancer.
  
  Nationwide protests oppose nuclear power
      Tokyo - Protesters held mass demonstrations against nuclear power across Japan on Saturday, the three-month anniversary of the powerful earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 23,000 and triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.
      Streets in parts of Tokyo were jammed with thousands of chanting protesters, paralyzing sections of the city.    Some marchers called for the country’s nuclear plants to be shut down immediately and for stricter radiation tests by the government.
  
  
• 6/17/2011
  
  No toxins found in river after possible spill was reported by The Courier-Journal
      Tests performed on tissue samples from fish and water Thursday revealed no toxins in the Ohio River after a report of a possible chemical leak near Rubbertown late Wednesday night.
      The tests also showed it was likely not a chemical leak and just an algae bloom that occurred in the river, said Bud Schardein, executive director of the Metropolitan Sewer District.
      Several dead Asian carp were reported in the water, which Schardein said was from a depletion of oxygen caused by the algae.    He said the fish likely suffocated.
      Employees from Rubbertown companies reported seeing a “sheen” on the river just before 11 p.m., and the Lake Dreamland Fire Department and Coast Guard were dispatched to the 4300 block of Campground Road for a level one hazardous materials situation — the lowest threat level.    There was no danger to the public, said Lake Dreamland Fire Chief John Wilkinson.    MSD investigators gathered a few of the fish for tissue samples to determine what was in the water, Schardein said, as well as water samples upriver and downriver from Rubbertown.
  
  
• 6/19/2011
  
  Effort to clean water at nuclear plant halted
      Tokyo - A system to clean massive amounts of contaminated water at the site of Japan’s nuclear disaster was shut down Saturday, just hours after it began full operation, because a component filled with radioactivity much more quickly than expected.    Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, is investigating the cause and isn’t sure when it will restart the system.
  
  Paducah uranium bill is delayed
      Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District, has put off a vote on his legislation to get the federal government to re-enrich and then sell depleted uranium stored at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.    He is working with Democrats on the bill, spokesman Robert Sumner said.
  
  
• 6/23/2011
  
  Transocean blames BP decisions
      The owner of the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year largely blames oil giant BP for the disaster in a report released Wednesday.    The report from Transocean Ltd. said the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill was sparked by well-design, construction and temporary abandonment decisions that compromised the integrity of the well.
  
  
• 6/29/2011
  
  EPA readies coal plant pollution rules - Critics say cleanup steps will raise rates by Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers
      WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is close to finishing two measures to reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants.
      Health experts say the pollution reductions will save thousands of lives every year by sparing people asthma attacks, heart attacks and other health problems.    Coal-dependent power companies that face big bills for new equipment in response to the EPA rules are calling for more time, arguing that electric rates will rise, harming households and industries.
      One of the rules, expected in final form as early as today, would force states in the eastern half of the country to reduce pollutants that travel hundreds of miles to create dangerously bad air days in other states.    The other rule, due in November and the subject of much wrangling, will be the first national requirement to reduce mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants.
      While other industries have been required to make the same cleanups under federal law over the past 21 years, the power sector has gotten special consideration because of its importance to the economy.    Coal-fired power plants today are the largest source of mercury, arsenic and other hazardous substances in air pollution.    The EPA’s proposed rule aimed at reducing pollution between states is a court-ordered revision of a Bush administration rule from 2005. Companies would be required to comply next year.
      Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., the chairman of the energy and power subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has argued that this rule is “another example of EPA acting aggressively and too quickly,” said his spokesman, Robert Sumner.    “Many of EPA’s proposed rules will have real consequences for jobs and our economy.”
      The EPA’s plan to cut toxic pollution is getting most of the attention.    Not all power companies oppose it.    Some, particularly those that use cleaner fuels such as natural gas, have publicly supported it. In addition, some with coal-burning plants already have invested in the pollution controls, often prompted by state laws.
      The EPA says that about 44 percent of the nation’s more than 440 coal-fired power plants haven’t in-stalled the pollution-control equipment.
      There are 84 hazardous air pollutants from power plants, including acid gases, dioxins, lead and other metals, and mercury.    Many are carcinogens.    Many also are linked to childhood developmental problems.    The best-known is mercury.
      Scott Segal, the director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a group of power companies that opposes the rules, said that the benefits from reducing mercury were “tiny in comparison to costs” and that there’d be few benefits from reducing acid gases, lead, arsenic and other toxics.
  
  
• 7/3/2011
  
  Pipe rupture leaks oil into Yellowstone River
      Laurel, Mont. - An ExxonMobil pipeline that runs under the Yellowstone River ruptured Saturday and leaked hundreds of barrels of oil into the waterway, causing a 25-mile plume that fouled the riverbank and forced municipalities and irrigation districts downstream to close intakes.
      The break near Billings led to temporary evacuations of hundreds of residents along a 20-mile stretch due to concerns about possible explosions and the overpowering fumes.    Cleanup crews deployed booms and absorbent material.    ExxonMobil spokeswoman Pam Malek said the pipe leaked an estimated 750 to 1,000 barrels of oil before it was shut down.
  
  
• 7/6/2011
  
  Surging river hampers cleanup of oil spill
      Laurel, Mont. - Crews cleaning up an oil spill on the Yellowstone River faced difficult conditions Tuesday as the river rose above flood stage and stoked fears that surging currents could push crude into undamaged areas and back channels vital to the river’s prized fishery.    Conditions have hampered efforts to find the cause of Fri-day’s break in the 12-inch pipeline that spilled an estimated 1,000 barrels of crude oil.    The river also has been flowing too swiftly for crews to reach some oil-damaged areas.
  
  
• 7/8/2011
  
  EPA targets interstate air pollution - New rule requires curbs on emissions at power plants in Ky., Ind., other states by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal
      The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday completed a rule that will require power plants in 27 states, including Kentucky and Indiana, to reduce pollution that fouls the air of communities hundreds of miles away.
      Emissions from coal-fired power plants in Kentucky and Indiana contribute to air pollution violations as far away as Texas and Connecticut, EPA records show.    And violations in Kentucky and Indiana can be blamed in part on power plant emissions from such states as Texas, Illinois, Michigan, West Virginia and Maryland.
      “No community should have to bear the burden of another community’s polluters, or be powerless to prevent air pollution that leads to asthma, heart attacks and other harmful illnesses,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a telephone news conference.
      The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule follows up on a proposal made public a year ago and establishes limits on two types of lung irritating pollution — nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. It also gives each state flexibility in deter-mining how to meet those caps, including allowing power plants to trade emissions credits.
      That means some plants may get fewer pollution upgrades if a company helps pay for pollution cuts elsewhere.    Jackson called the trading portion of the rule “limited.”    “You can’t trade so much pollution that at the end of the day, people (in some areas) aren’t protected,” Jackson said.    The EPA predicts the rule will eliminate 13,000 to 34,000 premature deaths annually, as well as up to 15,000 non-fatal heart attacks and 19,000 hospital and emergency room visits, by reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide by 73 percent and nitrogen oxides by 54 percent from 2005 levels.
      Kentucky and Indiana combined could see 800 to 4,000 fewer deaths, the EPA estimated.
      EPA said the rule would yield $120 billion to $280 billion in annual health and welfare benefits by 2014, compared with annual costs of $800 million by that year with the rule.    The rule will also result in an estimated $49 billion in capital investment — much of which has already been spent.
      The new rule was designed to replace a 2005 Bush administration rule that was struck down by a court in 2008 and then partially restored.
      Many of Kentucky’s power plants already have controls that will get them through the first phase of the new rule, with its 2012 deadline, and perhaps the second phase, with its 2014 deadline, said John Lyons, director of the Kentucky Division for Air Quality.
      He said Kentucky will have to develop its own rules and adopt the cross state pollution program.    The Louisville Air Pollution Control District will work with the state and Louisville Gas & Electric Co. to help reach compliance while trying to boost the local economy, said Matt Stull, spokesman for the city agency.    “Anytime that standards are tightened, they are tightened because of scientific review, and with the health of the breathing public in mind,” Stull added.
      Regulators with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management expect the rule will result in measurable reductions in both ozone and fine particle pollution in Southern Indiana counties that are part of the Louisville metro area, said Rob Elstro, department spokesman.    “These controls will help out air quality and help peo-ple breathe easier,” he said.    Regulators and industry alike are awaiting EPA action on several other air quality fronts.
      The EPA has said it will decide whether to tighten the federal standard for ozone pollution by the end of July, while the Louisville area is still struggling to meet the current standard.
      The agency also has said it might propose a tougher standard for fine particles this summer, just as the Louisville region has put together three years of data showing compliance with the current standard.    The state has also recommended to the EPA that Louisville be declared out of compliance with a new, separate sulfur dioxide standard.
      And in November, the EPA expects to roll out tighter controls on mercury and other toxic chemicals from power plants.    Utility officials say it all adds up to higher electricity bills.
      LG&E announced in May that it wants to raise residential electric bills by about 19 percent by 2016 to pay for upgrading its coal fired power plants to meet stricter federal environmental regulations.    It said the monthly bill of a typical residential customer — using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month — would increase $1.96 next year, and more each successive year, reaching $16.33 per month by 2016.
      Customers of Kentucky Utilities, which serves 77 counties in the state, would see increases of roughly 12 percent.    “Today’s (rule) confirms that our plans to meet the combinations of all the regulations are on track,” said Chris Whelan, a spokeswoman for both companies.    The higher rates, which need approval from the state Public Service Commission, would go toward $2.5 billion in improvements to four plants operated by LG&E and Kentucky Utilities, including the 29-year-old Mill Creek Station in southwestern Jefferson County.
      Environmental advocates praised the new rule but said it didn’t go far enough.    “This is a long-overdue and much-needed step toward protecting the health of people in states downwind of big coal burning power plants,” said Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch in Washington, D.C.    “It will prove to be a life saver.    But … EPA needs to do much more not only to clean up these dirty dinosaurs, but to make sure that public health is protected from dangerous smog and soot.”nbsp;   Many state and local regulators also support the new rule, according to Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.    But Becker warned that it will be “wholly inadequate for meeting the final reconsidered and tighter ozone standard expected to be issued later this summer.”
      Gov. Steve Beshear released a statement late Thursday complaining about the rule and other EPA actions.    “We will thoroughly review it to make sure Kentucky is not at an economic disadvantage to other states; that the rule helps the nations achieve CAA requirements in a fair and equitable manner; and that this is not about the EPA choosing energy sector winners and losers.”
  
  
• 7/13/2011
  
  GOP can’t halt light bulb rules - New standards were labeled an intrusion by Jim Abrams, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Tuesday failed to stop the enactment of new energy saving standards for light bulbs that they portrayed as another example of big government interfering in people’s lives.
      The GOP bill to overturn the standards set to go into effect next year fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage. The vote was 233-193.    For many Republicans, those newfangled curly fluorescent light bulbs were the last straw, pushed by an overreaching government that’s forcing people to buy health insurance, prodding them to get more fuel-efficient cars and sticking its nose into too many places.    Their legislation would have kept the marketplace clear for the cheap, energy-inefficient bulbs that have changed little since Thomas Edison invented them in 1879.    The standards in question do not specifically ban the old bulbs but require a higher level of efficiency than the classics can produce, essentially nudging them off store shelves over the next few years.    Four of Edison’s descendants support the shift to new technology.
      The standards had not been particularly contentious before now.    They were crafted in 2007 with Republican participation and signed into law by President George W. Bush.    But now they have become a symbol of a much larger divide in Washington over the size and reach of government itself.    Republicans said people who now buy a bulb for 30 or 40 cents shouldn’t be forced to pay $6 for a fluorescent bulb or more for LED (light-emitting diode) lighting.
      The Obama administration says the lighting standards that are being phased in will save nearly $6 billion in 2015 alone.    The Energy Department says upgrading 15 inefficient incandescent bulbs in a home could save a homeowner $50 a year.    Incandescent bulbs are not disappearing.    Today’s energy-savings choices include incandescent lighting that is more efficient, and more expensive to purchase, than the old standbys.    Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., held up a new Sylvania incandescent that meets the efficiency standards and costs $1.69.    “You don’t have to buy one of those funny-looking new light bulbs,” he said.
      Under existing rules, new bulbs will have to be 25 to 30 percent more efficient than traditional in-candescent models.    As of Jan. 1, 2012, inefficient 100-watt bulbs will no longer be available at most stores.    Also on the way out are traditional 75-watt bulbs in 2013 and 40-watt and 60-watt versions in 2014.
      The National Resources Defense Council said that when the law is fully implemented in 2020, energy costs will be reduced by 7 percent, or about $85 a household every year.    It said the more efficient bulbs will eliminate the need for 33 large power plants.
  
  
• 7/14/2011
  
  Consumer panel approves lower lead content in toys by Jennifer C. Kerr, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The amount of lead allowed in toys and other children’s products sold in the U.S. will soon be reduced to one of the lowest limits in the world.    The move was praised by consumer advocates but denounced by critics worried about job losses and shuttered businesses.
      In a 3-2 vote along party lines, the Consumer Product Safety Commission cleared the way Wednesday for the limit to be lowered next month so that most products intended for children 12 and under will move from being about 99.97 percent lead free to 99.99 percent lead free.
      Proponents say there’s no known safe level of lead, which can cause irreversible brain damage, learning disabilities and such other problems as aggressive behavior.    Congress had asked the commission to decide if there was some technological reason the limit couldn’t be lowered.    Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum, a Democrat, said there was “abundant evidence that it is technologically feasible.”    The other two Democrats voted with her.
      After the vote, Tenenbaum said, “Consumers can rest assured that lead should be virtually nonexistent in toys and other children’s products.”
      The commission’s Republicans, Nancy Nord and Louisville’s Anne Northup, criticized the decision — saying the amount of allowable lead is already very low, essentially trace levels.    They said the commission failed to undertake a solid review of whether all manufacturers, especially smaller domestic businesses, can make their products with the lower- lead level plastics, steel and other materials required as part of the new standard.
      Those materials are often more expensive, and the Republicans argued they may not be commercially available to all manufacturers.
      Once the new standard takes effect Aug. 14, the total lead content allowed by weight in any part of a children’s product will be no more than 100 parts per million, down from 300 parts per million.
      Bigger manufacturers, such as Hasbro, have already been testing to the lower 100 ppm limit.
  
  
• 7/15/2011
  
  China says oil spills not fully controlled by Associated Press
      SHANGHAI — China has ordered ConocoPhillips to immediately halt output at two offshore platforms in the Bohai Bay off its northeast coast, saying recent oil spills were not fully under control.
      The State Oceanic Administration said Wednesday it wanted the company to completely eliminate any risks of leaks after spills were found from platforms B and C of the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, which is operated by Houston-based ConocoPhillips’ China subsidiary.
      It said satellite monitoring and inspections detected oil near the platforms and said there were signs further leaks may occur.    Last week, ConocoPhillips China, which partnered with state-run China National Offshore Oil Corp. in developing the Penglai field, said it had cleaned up oil from two spills there last month which had covered some 324 square miles.    Conoco said Wednesday that amounts of oil, “no more than liters per day,” continue to seep out from a naturally occurring fault near platform B.    The company said that final cleanup operations are ongoing near platform C, where “trace amounts” of oil and gas bubbles continue to be observed from the sea floor.    Conoco, based in Houston, estimated that a combined 1,500 to 2,000 barrels of oil and oil-based drilling fluids were spilled.    No oil has reached the shore, and no one was in-jured in the spills, the company said.
  
  
• 7/20/2011
  
  Mercury fallout mapped in study - Soil checked near Indy power plant by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal
      An Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis study has found mercury contamination in soil downwind from a coal-fired power plant in Indianapolis, supporting the notion of localized mercury hot spots.
      The research examined soil near several plants across Central Indiana but zeroed in on an Indianapolis Power & Light plant on the city’s southwest side.    That’s where scientists mapped a plume of soil contamination likely from the plant, which is the city’s largest source of mercury emissions.
      “Mercury from coal-fired power plants has been found in the ice at the north and the south poles, so the fact that these noxious emissions are swept far away to other areas or even continents, with global environmental impact, is well known,” said lead author Gabriel M. Filippelli, an IUPUI professor of earth sciences.
      He said the new research is among the first to document mercury’s impact on soils and the environment near specific coal-burning power plants.    He also said the study, published this month in the journal Water, Air & Soil Pollution, has important implications for other cities with coal-fired power plants, including the Louisville metro area, which has three.     “I would suspect you might have the same situation that we have here in Indianapolis,” he said of Louisville and Southern Indiana.    Louisville Gas & Electric operates the Mill Creek and Cane Run coal-fired plants in southwestern and western Louisville.    Duke Energy operates the Gallagher plant in New Albany, immediately west of Louisville.
      The three together emit more than twice as much mercury annually as the IPL plant, according to the most recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.    All three are also generally upwind from Louisville population centers.    An LG&E spokesman, Chip Keeling, said company officials have not reviewed the study, but still questioned its findings.    “Mercury is a naturally occurring element and a global pollutant that originates from sources as far away as power plants in China,” he said in a statement, adding that “little mercury is deposited in areas immediately adjacent to a power plant.”
      Filippelli said mercury in soil is not a direct health concern.    But he said it gets washed into waterways, where it contaminates fish.    Because cities have many hard surfaces like roads and parking lots, mercury falling out on a city can enter waterways rapidly during storms, he said.    All Kentucky streams carry fish consumption warnings for mercury, as do many in Indiana.    Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that has been shown to cause neurological damage, including lower IQ in children exposed in the womb and during early development.
      Filippelli said his study is among the first to document mercury fallout on the ground.    It found concentrations of mercury in soil ranging from 23 to 711 parts per billion, with the highest levels downwind from the power plant.    Typical background levels in a more pristine setting would range from 20 to 50 parts per billion, the professor said.
      Crystal Livers-Powers, spokeswoman for Indianapolis Power & Light, said officials at her utility had not seen the study and could not comment on it.    The study comes as the EPA moves to crack down on mercury from power plants, and as utilities including LG&E have objected to the EPA’s compliance deadlines and have pressed for large rate increases to cover anticipated environmental upgrades.    The new EPA controls for mercury and other so-called “hazardous air pollutants” are to be made public in November.    In March, the EPA said the rules would reduce mercury emissions from power plants by as much as 91 percent over the next three or four years, while costing the nation’s utilities about $11 billion annually.
      In 2005, the EPA unveiled a rule it said would cut mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants 70 percent over 13 years — a rule that was vacated by a federal court three years later.    It would have set up a “cap-and-trade” approach, allowing utilities that made cuts to sell credits to those that didn’t.
      Environmentalists complained at the time that it would have allowed some plants to avoid controls, putting some communities at risk of having mercury hot spots.
      The new approach proposed by the Obama administration requires all plants to meet the control standards.    Lew Middleton, a spokesman for Duke Energy, declined to comment on the Indiana study.    But he said the company’s Gallagher plant will emit less mercury by Jan. 1. Duke has filed a request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, seeking permission to purchase a portion of the Vermillion Generating Station and then retire two of four coal-burning units at Gallagher. Alternatively, the company has sought to convert two Gallagher units to cleaner burning natural gas.
      In May, LG&E announced it was seeking Kentucky Public Service Commission approval to raise residential electric bills by about 19 percent by 2016 to pay for upgrading its coal-fired power plants to meet a variety of stricter federal environmental regulations, including mercury controls.    LG&E also has announced that it may close its aging Cane Run station within five years, in part because of the pending mercury rules.    “We have, and will continue to, comply with applicable environmental regulations,” Keeling said.    “However, these increasingly stringent environmental regulations place a financial burden on our customers, without resulting in corresponding environmental benefits.”
      Matt Stull, spokesman for the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, said district officials were not aware of a Louisville study similar to the one done in Indianapolis.
      But Stull said mercury is present wherever coal is burned, and he said the anticipated new controls by the EPA are “good news for health of local residents.”
  
  
• 7/23/2011
  
  EPA: More needed to clean up Yellowstone by Associated Press
      BILLINGS, Mont. — Exxon Mobil Corp. will have to bring in more people to mop up oil from a broken pipeline beneath the Yellowstone River as receding floodwaters reveal new contamination, federal officials said Friday.
      Also Friday, Montana environmental regulators said the pipeline may have leaked up to 1,200 barrels of oil.    That equals 50,400 gallons and is 20 percent higher than prior estimates from Exxon Mobil.
      River levels have dropped 6 feet since the July 1 accident, whose cause is yet to be determined. Hun-dreds of logjams and debris piles, many coated in a layer of drying crude, now litter banks and islands.    After burning the piles was rejected by state officials, representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that oiled debris will have to be pulled apart, run through wood-chippers and hauled away.
      EPA on-scene coordinator Craig Myers said that will take more people than the 750 Exxon Mobil now has in Montana for the spill.    Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Claire Hassett would not say how many more people might be brought in.
  
  
• 7/25/2011
  
  Study links mountaintop mines, poverty - Report also ties in early deaths by Associated Press
      CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Poverty in Appalachia is concentrated in the communities around mountaintop removal mines, and people living in those areas suffer greater risk of early deaths, according to West Virginia University study.
      The study by Michael Hendryx, an associate professor in the WVU Department of Community Medicine, found that mountaintop mining areas in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia had higher annual death rates, total poverty rates and child poverty rates than other counties in 2000-07.
      The study appears in the current Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, The Charleston Gazette reported.    Hendryx also noted that residents near mountaintop removal mines face the combined risks of exposure to potential environmental hazards from coal and mining- related chemicals, along with economic vulnerability that comes with low education, depressed property values and employment instability.
      Hendryx’s study doesn’t attempt to determine whether mountaintop removal causes poverty, though he says other researchers already have identified the effects of mining “on such factors as depressed property values, employment declines and volatility, and foregone alternative economic opportunities.”
      Different communities might be exposed to different toxins or contamination from coal processing or mine drainage, so Hendryx said researchers must take the next step and identify personal levels of exposure and what effects they have on people’s health.    The poverty and mortality study follows another paper Hendryx co-author-ed with Melissa Ahern of Washington State University, revealing that residents near mountaintop removal mines suffer greater birth defect rates than those living near other mining or no mining at all.    Opponents of mountaintop removal point to the research to show that the issue affects humans, not just animals or streams.    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials have also cited the birth-defect research, mentioning it last week in issuing new water-quality guidance aimed at reducing pollution downstream from large scale mining operations.
      “Possible human health impacts from coal mining activities have also been documented, including peer-reviewed public health literature that has preliminarily identified associations between increases in surface coal mining activities and increasing rates of cancer, birth defects, and other health problems in Appalachian communities,” EPA said in its new guidance document.
      Coal industry officials and coal-state political leaders have criticized the EPA guidance, and are working to block the federal agency’s actions.
  
  
• 7/28/2011
  
  Massey Energy settles W.Va. coal slurry case - Residents said water poisoned by Vicki Smith, Associated Press
      MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After a marathon mediation session that ended just before dawn Wednesday, mining company Massey Energy settled a 7-year-old lawsuit with hundreds of southern West Virginia residents who claim the company poisoned their drinking water supplies with coal slurry.
      Circuit Judge Alan Moats, who serves on the state’s Mass Litigation Panel, told The Associated Press that he and Judge Derek Swope worked with the lawyers until nearly 4 a.m. to forge an agreement in Charleston.    The financial terms will not be disclosed, but Moats said that as is typical in a settlement, Massey admits no wrongdoing.
      “We’re pleased we were able to find an agreeable resolution for all parties,” said Rick Nida, spokesman for Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources.
      Alpha became involved in the case when it bought Massey for $7.1 billion in June and has been considering a deal that would satisfy both sides, he said.    The parties have been subject to a gag order imposed last week, but an attorney for the plaintiffs issued a brief statement by email.    “After a seven-year-long fight and looking after one another, the good people of Rawl, Lick Creek, Merrimac and Sprigg have achieved a settlement,” lawyer Bruce Stanley said.    “Hopefully, no other West Virginia community will ever again be subjected to such a blatant abuse of basic human needs.”
      As Swope and Moats handled mediation of the case, a separate panel of judges was preparing for an Aug. 1 trial.    The settlement will avert that trial.    Rawl resident Donetta Blankenship, 44, whose case would have been among the first tried, said she suffered life-threatening liver problems in 2005 and 2006 that she believes were caused by the tainted water.    She’s since had medical treatment and now gets her water from a public system. Today, Blankenship says, she’s healthy.    “I’m thankful it’s over,” she said, adding that she hopes the residents’ victory sends a message to other communities facing battles with corporations like Massey.    “People can see that they don’t have to put up with it anymore,” Blankenship said.    “I want everybody all over the country to find out they don’t have to do that.    They can fight and stick together. … They can fight and win.”
      This was the third attempt to settle the case.    “It was a huge team effort,” Moats said, praising both sides for working hard to find common ground after such a long fight.    The resolution “shows justice can be done and cases can be officially moved even if they are cases like this.”    About 700 people had sued Massey and its Rawl Sales & Processing subsidiary, claiming the companies contaminated their aquifer and wells by pumping 1.4 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry into worked-out underground mines between 1978 and 1987.
      Slurry is created when coal is washed to help it burn more cleanly.
      The residents say it seeped out of the old mine workings and into their aquifer, turning their well water varying shades of red, brown and black, and causing ailments ranging from learning disabilities to cancer.
  
  
• 7/31/2011
  
  Value of cap-and-trade under fire - N.J. plans pullout from emissions pact by Josh Lederman, Associated Press
      TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey’s expected pullout from a 10-state pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is among the latest developments in a dispute over whether cap-and-trade programs work and what limitations states should place on energy producers to curb the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.
      The outcome of the dispute could affect everyone — from the quality of air in their communities to the price they pay to heat and light their homes and businesses.
      Cap-and-trade programs set limits on the amount of pollution a company can release, require com-panies to get permits for each ton they emit and allow them to trade emission allowances using the market to set the price.    The programs came into practice after the 1990 Clean Air Act established a market-based approach to reducing acid rain.
      But opponents say the programs hurt the economy when power plants pass the cost of buying emissions on to customers.    They say emissions are dropping not because of cap-and-trade programs but because of the economic downturn and the reduced cost of natural gas, a cleaner source of energy than fossil fuels such as coal.
      Gov. Chris Christie announced in May that by the end of 2012, New Jersey would withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which also includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
      He called the program a failure.    Emissions in the region are down about 30 percent below the cap, and the three-year-old program has generated almost $900 million in proceeds, including $105 million for New Jersey, according to RGGI Inc., the group that administers the initiative.    Christie used more than $60 million to ease the state’s budget crisis, as officials have in other states.
      There also is an excess of available permits, which are selling at just under $2 per ton — the absolute lowest allowed at the quarterly auctions where permits are sol.    The number of bidders is steadily decreasing, from 82 at the first auction to just 47 at the most recent one in June.    That eliminates any in-centive for power companies to lower their own emissions so they can sell unused permits to other companies at a higher price.    “This leads people to think, ‘Well, what’s the deal with this program? This is a tax,’” said Paul Tesoriero of Evolution Markets, an emissions brokerage firm.    “It causes people to question the validity of cap-and-trade.”
      Almost everyone agrees the initial cap set in 2005 was way too high. Most expect it will be lowered at the next opportunity, in 2012. But program supporters say that is not proof the program has failed and add that diverting the funds for other uses amounts to impairing the program’s success and then blaming it for failure.
      “Christie got it right in one respect, which is that emissions are way down, and it’s not primarily due to RGGI,” said Peter Shattuck, carbon markets policy analyst for the nonprofit Environment Northeast.    “Where he makes a jump is saying RGGI is a failure.”
      The initiative established a long-term framework and sends a signal that unlimited emissions are a thing of the past, he said. Focusing exclusively on emission rates ignores the revenues the pact has generated for clean-energy proj-ects, Shattuck and others said.
      Xavier Walter of Home Energy Team, a Southampton, N.J.-based energy efficiency firm, said he’s hired 12 full-time staff and a halfdozen part-time staff in the past two years as a direct result of funds generated from the permit sales.    Walter’s group was one of about 225 businesses that signed a July letter to governors in the 10 states urging them not to abandon the pact.
      Elsewhere in the United States, cap-and-trade is in a period of uncertainty. California pushed back its planned 2012 implementation of a statewide trading system by one year. A Midwest initiative slated to start in 2012 has been delayed.    In February, Arizona pulled out of the Western Climate Initiative, which is to be phased in starting next year. Federal cap-and-trade legislation failed in Congress last year.    And New Hampshire lawmakers voted in March to pull out of the pact that New Jersey is in, but Gov. John Lynch vetoed it, arguing that state funds generated from permits were helping New Hampshire businesses and families cut back on energy use.
  
  
• 8/12/2011
  
  Factory looks to replace chemical - Rubbertown plant targets toluene by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal
      American Synthetic Rubber in western Louisville is making plans to phase out the use of the moderately toxic chemical toluene, replacing it with a mixture of two chemicals that are considered less risky to people.
      The plant has long used toluene to make rubber, and it used to emit great quantities of it — as much as 4.7 million pounds in 1991, for example.
      That compares with 408,000 pounds of toluene emissions in 2009, the most recent year for which U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data are available.
      But in 2003, a Louisville study identified toluene as one of 18 chemicals in Louisville’s air that were driving up health risks for residents.    And it was subsequently regulated under the city’s Strategic Toxic Air Reduction program, adopted in 2005.    It’s also regulated as a “hazardous air pollutant” under the federal Clean Air Act.
      The company, which makes rubber for tires, is exploring the change because two replacement chemicals are considered safer and more useful, said Lynn Mann, a spokeswoman for Michelin North America, which owns the plant.
      It’s seeking a permit from the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, which is accepting public comment through Aug. 30.
      The changes, Mann said, are “driven by our desire to minimize our environmental footprint while maxi-mizing the flexibility.”    She said the two replacement chemicals would allow the company to make a larger variety of rubber products for tires.    If the company proceeds with the plan, the switch would be phased in over several years, she said.    The company and the air district are describing the replacement chemicals — cyclohexane and methylcyclohexane — as “nonhazardous” because they are not on local or federal toxic or hazardous air pollutant lists.    But that doesn’t mean they are benign.
      Cyclohexane can cause headaches, tremors, convulsions and eye damage if breathed in large quanti-ties, according to an EPA fact sheet.    And methylcyclohexane can irritate the eyes, skin, nose and throat, cause dizziness or drowsiness, and affect the central nervous system, according to a guidebook from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Russ Barnett, a University of Louisville official who oversees a western Louisville air monitoring effort, said the chemicals can be considered nonhazardous only from a legal perspective.    But he noted the workplace exposure limits for the two chemicals are about twice as lenient as those for toluene.
      That means the two chemicals are about half as toxic as toluene, and “from my perspective, it’s a step in the right direction,” Barnett said of the company’s plans.    Exposure to high levels can damage the kidneys, nervous system, liver, brain and heart, and even low to moderate levels of toluene can cause confusion, head-ache, weakness and memory loss, according to the National Library of Medicine.    Some western Louis-ville residents say the change won’t go far enough.
      “While we are glad toluene will no longer be used, there must be a much safer replacement,” said Eboni Cochran, a board member of Rubbertown Emergency Action, a group that pressed for the city’s toxic air reduction program.    “We are concerned that their switch to these chemicals might be an attempt to avoid regulations under the STAR program.”
      Cochran acknowledged that the steep decline in toluene emissions over the last 20 years is “significant” but said current levels are still a “concern, especially when they are mixed with numerous other chemicals in the air.”
      Her group will hold workshops on safer alternatives for Rubbertown companies at an environmental justice fair Saturday afternoon at Chickasaw Park.
      Lauren Anderson, executive director of the Louisville air district, said her staff is still reviewing the company’s proposals.    But she said it appears they will result in less toxic emissions from the plant and that should benefit the community.    She said the plant complies with the STAR program.    On Aug. 5, a toluene tank became over pressurized, venting vapors into the air. And on July 21, about 300 gallons of toluene spilled and was contained on a concrete pad inside.
  
  
• 8/23/2011
  River cleanup estimate put at $42.6 million
      Billings, Mont. - Cleaning up tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil that spilled from a pipeline and fouled a scenic stretch of Montana’s Yellowstone River will cost Exxon Mobil an estimated $42.6 million, according to documents obtained by the AP.
      About 42,000 gallons, or 1,000 barrels, of crude leaked into the waterway upstream of Billings when the pipeline buried under the river broke on July 1.
  
  
• 8/24/2011
  
  EPA hiring jobless for Mich. Cleanup
      The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it will spend $6 million to hire unemployed people who can work on Great Lakes cleanup projects.    Congress has appropriated $775 million over the past two years for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a wide-ranging plan to improve the region’s environmental health.    Among the priorities are cleaning up toxic pollution, fighting invasive species, improving wildlife habitat and protecting watersheds from contaminated runoff.
  
  
• 8/27/2011
  
  o oil leaks found near damaged BP well
      New Orleans - Federal officials investigating reports of small amounts of oil popping up on the Gulf of Mexico surface near where a BP well blew out last year said Friday they found no oil leaking from seafloor wells.    This week the Coast Guard and BP sent deep-sea robots down to the disaster site; they found no leaks at the well or at two other wells drilled during the months-long work to cap the well. Nor did they find any sheens on the surface.    “With no known origin, this sheen ranks up there among the thousands of other quote -unquote mystery sheens that happen every day in the Gulf,” said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer John Edwards.    The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and sparking the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.    The well spewed about 200 million gallons of oil last year.
  
  
• 9/2/2011
  
  Earth orbit needs a broom by Seth Borenstein, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Space junk has made such a mess of Earth’s orbit that experts say we may need to finally think about cleaning it up.    That may mean vacuuming up debris with weird space technology — cosmic versions of nets, magnets and giant umbrellas, according to the chairman of an expert panel that issued a new report on the problem Thursday.    There are 22,000 objects in orbit that are big enough for officials on the ground to track and countless more smaller ones that could do damage to human-carrying spaceships and valuable satel-lites.
      The International Space Station has to move out of the way of debris from time to time.    “We’ve lost control of the environment,” said retired NASA senior scientist Donald Kessler, who headed the National Academy of Sciences report.
      Since the space age began 54 years ago, civilization has littered the area just above Earth’s atmosphere with leftover boosters and other parts that come off during launches, as well as old satellites. When scientists noticed that this could be a problem, they came up with agreements to limit new space junk and those plans had been working.
      Those agreements are intended to make sure what is sent into orbit eventually falls back to Earth and burns up.
      But two events in the past four years — a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite weapon test and a 2009 crash-in-orbit of two satellites — put so much new junk in space that everything changed, the report said.    The widely criticized Chinese test used a missile to smash an aging weather satellite into 150,000 pieces of debris larger than four-tenths of an inch, and 3,118 pieces can be tracked by radar on the ground, the report said.    “Those two single events doubled the amount of fragments in Earth orbit and completely wiped out what we had done in the last 25 years,” Kessler said.
  
  Obama halts controversial clean-air rule - Reversal fuels outcries from liberals by Julie Pace , Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — In a dramatic reversal, President Barack Obama on Friday scrubbed a clean-air regulation that aimed to reduce health-threatening smog, yielding to businesses and congressional Republicans who complained the rule would kill jobs in America’s ailing economy.    Withdrawal of the proposed regulation marked the latest in a string of retreats by the president in the face of GOP opposition, and it drew quick criticism from liberals, including U.S. Rep John Yarmuth of Louisville.
      Environmentalists, a key Obama constituency, accused him of caving to corporate polluters, and the American Lung Association threatened to restart the legal action it had begun against rules proposed by President George W. Bush.    The White House has been under heavy pressure from GOP lawmakers and major industries, which have slammed the stricter standard as an unnecessary jobs killer.    The Environmental Protection Agency, whose scientific advisers favored the tighter limits, had predicted the proposed change would cost up to $90 billion a year, making it one of the most expensive U.S. environmental regulations ever imposed.    However, the Clean Air Act bars the EPA from considering the costs of complying when setting public health standards.    Obama said his decision was made in part to reduce regulatory burdens and uncertainty at a time of rampant questions about the strength of the economy.
      The regulation would have reduced concentrations of ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog, a powerful lung irritant that can cause asthma and other lung ailments.    Smog is created when emissions from cars, power and chemical plants, refineries and other factories mix in sun and heat.
      Republican lawmakers, already emboldened by Obama’s concessions on extending Bush-era tax cuts and his agreement to more than $1 trillion in spending reductions as the price for raising the debt ceiling, had pledged to try to block the stricter smog standards as well as other EPA regulations when they returned to Washington after Labor Day.
      A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had muted praise for the White House, saying that withdrawal of the smog regulation was a good first step toward removing obstacles that are blocking business growth.    “But it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stopping Washington Democrats’ agenda of tax hikes, more government ‘stimulus’ spending and increased regulations, which are all making it harder to create more American jobs,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.    Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the move was “an enormous victory for America’s job creators, the right decision by the president and one that will help reduce the uncertainty facing businesses.”    Yarmuth was not pleased with the administration’s action, said spokesman Trey Pollard.
      “This year, a record number of air quality warnings have been issued in Louisville, meaning that air pollution poses a greater health risk to Louisvillians than ever before,” Pollard said.    “This is a serious situation for thousands of local families, and Congressman Yarmuth is deeply concerned about this decision delaying efforts to reduce pollutants in the air we breathe every day.”
      Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Obama’s decision “highlights the devastating impact on jobs that has been created by this administration’s regulatory overreach.”
      “There are hundreds of regulations that even the administration acknowledges will cost America’s job creators billions of dollars,” the senator said in a statement.    “This action alone will prevent more job losses than any speech the president has given, and I hope he will listen to the bipartisan calls from across the country to address his administration’s negative impact on job creation.”
      LG&E said the withdrawal of the draft ozone rule would have no impact on the utility’s request for a rate increase, now before the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
      “The improvements we have requested are to meet only final or proposed environmental rules,” spokesman Chris Whelan said in a statement.    White House officials said the president’s decision was not the product of industry pressure, and they said the administration would continue to fight other efforts by Republicans to dismantle the EPA’s authority.    But that was little consolation for many of the president’s supporters.    The group MoveOn.org issued a scathing statement, saying Obama’s decision was one it would have expected from his Republican predecessor.    “Many MoveOn members are wondering today how they can ever work for President Obama’s re-election, or make the case for him to their neighbors, when he does something like this, after extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich and giving in to tea party demands on the debt deal,” said Justin Ruben, the executive director.
      The American Lung Association, which had sued the EPA over Bush’s smog standards, said it would re-sume its legal fight now that Obama was essentially endorsing the weaker limit.    The group had suspend-ed its lawsuit after the Obama administration pledged to change it    Obama’s decision, in fact, mirrors one made by Bush in 2008. In March, the EPA’s independent panel of scientific advisers sent a letter to the agency’s director, Lisa Jackson, saying it was its unanimous recommendation to make the smog standards stronger and that the evidence was “sufficiently certain” that the range proposed in January 2010 under Obama would benefit public health.    But the White House, which has pledged to base decisions on science, said Friday the science behind its initial decision needed to be updated, a process already under way at EPA.    The smog standard now is to be revised until 2013.
      Even before Friday’s decision — announced as many Americans were paying more attention to their Labor Day weekend plans than the news — the White House has faced some criticism for its record on the environment.    Obama abandoned a campaign pledge to set the first-ever limits on the pollution some blame for global warming, and he announced an expansion of offshore drilling before the Gulf oil spill sidelined those plans.    However, he has successfully taken other steps designed to reduce air pollution, such as doubling fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, clamping down on pollution from power plants that blow downwind and setting the first national standard for mercury.
  
  
• 9/10/2011
  
  Judge backs deal on imperiled species - U.S. must decide on adding to list by Matthew Daly, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — A federal judge has approved a pair of sweeping settlements that require the gov-ernment to consider endangered species protections for more than 700 animal and plant species.    The order by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Friday means the government must act on imperiled species ranging from the northern wolverine and Pacific walrus to dozens of snails, mollusks, butterflies and plants.    Some decisions could come by the end of the year and others by 2018.    It comes after the Obama administration reached deals with environmental groups that filed lawsuits challenging the government’s handling of more than 250 so-called “candidate species.”    Those are animals and plants that scientists say are in dire need of protection but that the government has lacked resources to address.
      The agreements also cover hundreds of other species for which groups had filed legal petitions seeking protections.    The government agreed to address those petitions, although there is no guarantee of new protections.
      Some of the species have languished in bureaucratic limbo for decades.
      Gary Frazer, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the affected species face possible extinction without government intervention.    “Once a species has been listed, with a few exceptions, we have kept them from becoming extinct,” he said. “This is an important step toward conservation of all these critters.”
      The settlement comes as the government’s endangered species program has been under assault on Capitol Hill, where House Republicans submitted a proposed Interior Department budget that have would barred any new listings under the Endangered Species Act.    That proposal was defeated in a rare bipartisan vote this summer.
      Frazer said current spending levels for the program were sufficient to fulfill Friday’s settlement, adding that he’s hopeful the agency would have enough money in the future to honor commitments made under the deals with two environmental groups: Arizona- based Center for Biological Diversity and New Mexico-based WildEarth Guardians.    Some plants and animals covered under the administration’s agreements were first proposed for protection soon after the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973.    U.S. officials said the backlog was made worse by lawsuits and legal petitions that distracted wildlife agencies from necessary scientific reviews and restorations.    The legal actions used up funds and staff time that could be spent on programs such as developing restoration plans for struggling species, they said.
  
  
• 9/13/2011
  
  NRC: Plants should assess earthquake risk
      Washington - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should immediately require U.S. nuclear plant operators to reevaluate whether their facilities can withstand earthquakes and floods, the agency’s staff said.    A staff report made public Monday identified seven steps the NRC should take “without delay” as it responds to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear plant in Japan.
      Most prominently, the report recommended immediate reviews of seismic and flooding risks at the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors.    Those risks have come under greater scrutiny in the wake of the Japan crisis and last month’s East Coast earthquake, which caused the ground to shake much more than a Virginia nuclear plant was designed to withstand.
  
  Nuclear-waste facility explosion kills one
      Paris - An explosion at a nuclear waste facility in southern France killed one person and injured four on Monday.    Authorities said there was no radioactive leak, but critics urged France to rethink its nuclear power in the wake of the catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima plant.
  
  
• 9/15/2011
  
  Gulf spill laid at BP’s door - New report cites federal violations by Harry R. Weber, Associated Press
      BP bears ultimate responsibility for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, a government panel said Wednesday in a report that assigns more blame to the company than other investigations.    The report could hurt BP’s effort to fend off criminal charges and billions of dollars in penalties.
      It concluded that BP violated federal regulations, ignored crucial warnings, was inattentive to safety and made bad decisions during the cementing of the well beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
      Eleven rig workers died in the April 2010 explosion, and an estimated 200 million gallons of crude spewed from the bottom of the sea.
      The investigation was conducted by a team from the two main agencies responsible for drilling and safety in federal waters: the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
      In the report, other companies shared some of the blame.    Rig owner Transocean was accused of being deficient in preventing or limiting the disaster, in part by bypassing alarms and automatic shutdown systems.    Halliburton, the contractor responsible for mixing and testing the cement, was faulted as well.
      But BP,as the designated operator of the Macondo well, “was ultimately responsible” for ensur-ing the safety and protection of personnel, equipment, natural resources and the environment, the panel concluded.
      BP responded that it’s time for “other parties to acknowledge their roles in the accident and make changes to help prevent similar accidents.”    Transocean said it takes exception to any criticism of its drill crew.    Halliburton had no comment.
      In the report, the primary cause of the disaster was identified — again — as the failure of the cement seal in the well.    While it was Halliburton’s job to mix and test the cement, BP had the final word and made decisions that saved money but increased risk and may have contributed to the cement’s failure, the panel said.    Earlier investigations spread the blame more evenly.
      The new report is the first time an investigation has identified specific violations of federal regulations by BP and its contractors.    The findings will help shape changes in offshore drilling safety and regulation.    They will also be used by lawyers for victims suing over the oil spill.
      Republicans in Congress said they didn’t want to adopt changes until the federal report was done.    Congress has yet to pass any measures to address safety gaps highlighted by the disaster.
  
  
• 9/17/2011
  
  Mont. asbestos victims win $43M settlement by Matthew Brown , Associated Press
      BILLINGS, Mont. — A Montana judge has approved a $43 million settlement for more than a thousand asbestos victims who said state officials knew dust from a mine was killing people but failed to in-tervene.    An estimated 400 people have been killed and 1,750 others were sickened by asbestos released from a W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite mine outside the mountain town of Libby.
      Lethal dust from the mine once blanketed the small community about 40 miles south of the Canadian border, and asbestos illnesses were still being diagnosed more than two decades after the mine was closed.    District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in Helena approved the settlement award, which stemmed from lawsuits filed against the state10 years ago.    Sherlock had dismissed the victims’ claims in 2002, a deci-sion the state Supreme Court overturned.
      Former Libby resident Mike Nelson, who has been diagnosed with asbestosis, said he signed up for the settlement two years ago looking for closure.    After learning Friday that it had been approved, Nelson said, it meant little to him at this point, as his relatives continue to die and his lung problems get worse.
      “I’ve lost my father, my mother, my stepmother and my father-in-law,” said Nelson, who now lives in Washington state.    “They’re all dead.    All from asbestos … W.R. Grace was the one responsible, but right now, I hate my government.    The state knew.    (The money) isn’t going to do anything for me.”
      Nelson recalled that as a child, he played in the silos of a W.R. Grace plant near his house.    Gold-tinted dust from processed vermiculite “piled up like snow.”
      A federally sponsored cleanup of Libby and the nearby town of Troy continues at a cost to date top-ping $370 million.    Environmental Protection Agency officials have said it may be years before the job is finished.
      The settlement stems from more than 200 lawsuits brought against Montana agencies for allegedly failing to protect victims in Libby.
      The state claimed in its defense that it had no legal obligation to provide warning of the mine’s dangers.
  
  
• 9/22/2011
  
  Air board fines DuPont plant $51,000 - Rubbertown site’s lapses date to 2006 by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal
      The DuPont chemical plant in Rubbertown has been fined $51,000 for violations of its air quality permit, dating to 2006.
      Members of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control Board approved the terms unanimously Wednesday after air pollution district staff explained the alleged violations and said DuPont had agreed to pay the fine and make changes in their inspection practices.
      Company officials did not speak at a public hearing Wednesday, but later issued a statement: “This order covers several lapses ... that we, ourselves, reported to the Air Pollution Control Board,” DuPont issues management spokesman Rick Straitman said in the statement.    “We have conducted a thorough review of our procedures and have revised them so that these types of incidents do not occur in the future.”
      Terri Phelps, the district’s enforcement manager, said the company failed to conduct numerous inspections of some of its equipment and didn’t keep records of other inspections.
      The plant’s personnel missed inspections of its leak detection equipment, pollution control equipment and pumps, Phelps said.
      Phelps said DuPont agreed to improve and has installed a new environmental compliance team at the plant at 4200 Camp Ground Road.
      Dr. Nadir Al-Shami, air board vice chairman, asked staff members why the enforcement action was taken several years after the first alleged violations.
      Phelps said the staff had initially thought the lapses were isolated incidents until a more recent comprehensive review of DuPont’s compliance with its permit requirements revealed a pattern of problems.
      “It seems like a flagrant disregard for the terms of their permit,” said board member Bonnie Biemer before voting to approve the order.
  
  
• 9/26/2011
  
  Idaho team tracing cadmium’s trail - Researchers study link between cellphone metal, osteoporosis by Kristin Rodine, McClatchy Newspapers
      If you use an electronic device — and who doesn’t — you carry around a significant amount of cadmium, a heavy metal that is toxic if ingested.
      It won’t hurt you while you’re using your cellphone, iPod or computer monitor, but once you’re done with it, that’s a different matter.    When cadmium lands in a landfill, it can end up in drinking water.    College of Idaho professor Sara Heggland wants to help prevent that by scientifically establishing the link between cadmium and osteoporosis and other bone maladies.    She hopes that data will help raise the awareness of consumers and agencies and help shape the policy and practice of disposing of electronics.    “I love my iPhone.    I love my iPad,” Heggland said.    “But we need to come up with responsible ways to prevent e-waste from getting into landfills and our environment and ultimately into you and me.”
  
  One point proven
      One recent breakthrough for Heggland and her students was proving cadmium causes osteoblasts, the cells that form bones, to destroy themselves.    Now they’re studying how that process, dubbed “programmed cell death,” happens.    “In promoting the death of bone-forming cells, it therefore promotes the development of osteoporosis,” a disease that mostly affects post-menopausal women, Heggland said.
      And cadmium packs a double whammy for women, since “women accumulate cadmium more during their reproductive lifetime than men,” she said.    “Why ... is still under debate.”
      Now the research team is trying to determine the role of estrogen in that process.    The team also has determined that cadmium gets deposited in the extra-cellular matrix of bone instead of calcium, and wants to learn what replacing calcium does to bone cells’ strength.    Heggland has been studying the connection between cadmium and bone health since she came to the College of Idaho a decade ago.    She gets about $100,000 per year in research grants from the National Institutes of Health, particularly from NIH’s Idaho IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence    This summer, students Shea Wright and Thao Ha won paid fellowships to work on the bone health research.
      They and eight to 10 other students worked on the research as part of their classes during the school term.    “It’s exciting to be learning something you wouldn’t be able to learn in a regular classroom,” said Wright, a senior chemistry major considering a career in medicine or research. Ha said the project will give her a boost toward her planned medical career.
      “Medical students need to be able to work independently, and they need to learn how to think critically,” she said.    “Those are skills I’ve enhanced working on this project.”    The opportunity for students is one of the best things about the research, Heggland said.
  
  New focus on impact
      Most research into cadmium’s negative health effects focuses on toxicity for liver, kidney and nerves.    Heggland’s research team is one of a handful in the U.S. that focuses on the metal’s impact on bone health.    And it’s not just carelessly discarded electronics that put cadmium into our systems.    It’s in tobacco, so it is absorbed by smokers, too.
      “And it’s a hard, cheap metal. A lot of children’s jewelry, the little trinkets, are being made with cadmium in China and India, then shipped over here,” she said.    And if children suck avidly on those trinkets, they could ingest cadmium.
      But electronic devices are a big part of the problem, Heggland said, and one byproduct of the research is that “it’s certainly made me and people who work in the lab more aware of what they do with their electronic products.”    People should look for ways to recycle their electronics and bring them to businesses or agencies that will handle them responsibly, she said.
  
  
• 10/2/2011
  
  Los Alamos under watch again - Wildfire sparked nuclear waste fears by Jeri Clausing, Associated Press
      LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Pickups believed present at the world’s first nuclear bomb test, drink bottles, a calendar and a toothbrush are just a few of the items unearthed by a cleanup of one of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s original toxic dump sites, where the detritus of the 1940s Manhattan Project was strewn through some of northern New Mexico’s most scenic mesas and canyons.
      More important, workers also extracted 43,000 cubic yards of radioactive debris and toxic soil — all beneath highly specialized containment domes — from what is known as Area B, just across the street from a strip of local businesses, and just more than a mile from downtown Los Alamos.
      The three-year, $212 million excavation project on the 6-acre site was completed last month, and lab officials boast that environmental conditions there will soon be suitable for residential development.
      But cleaning up the 40-squaremile lab complex, 25 miles northwest of Santa Fe at the top of a series of canyons whose storm waters run into the Rio Grande, is far from done.    And the massive Las Conchas fire that singed lab property spurred environmental and safety fears associated with more than 70 years of nuclear production and experiments.
      “I think every time that there is some natural event that has … the potential for disturbing radioactive sources, everybody becomes very interested in what is going on,” said Ralph Phelps, chairman of the Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board.    Though lab officials downplayed the fire danger at the time, he said the waste and contaminated buildings at the 63-acre site called Area G definitely pose a safety threat to northern New Mexico.
      As a result, Gov. Susana Martinez and the Citizens Advisory Board have increased pressure on the National Nuclear Safety Administration, which runs the lab for the Department of Energy, to accelerate removal of thousands of barrels of plutonium-tainted waste stored in Area G, the lab’s last active dump site.    The barrels drew national focus when Las Conchas, the state’s largest wildfire forced a weeklong evacuation of the lab and the entire town.
      “Fire up here is something that the folks have been through,” Phelps said. “… If a fire were to reach that area and heat that stuff up and rupture the drums, there is the potential that some of that could go airborne.”
      Martinez sent lab chiefs a letter asking that they reprioritize cleanup plans, which are laid out in a consent order with the state requiring remediation of 90 percent of toxic waste on lab property by 2015 at a cost of some $2 billion.    That consent order covers 33 underground canals of radioactive waste below the barrels, but not the barrels, which await transfer to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in southern New Mexico.    A record 170 shipments of the waste from the premier U.S. nuclear weapons facility were taken to WIPP in the fiscal year that just ended, but the equivalent of some 40,000 barrels remain.
      “The governor wants to get the (barrels) off the hill and protect the groundwater and wastewater,” said Ed Worth, who oversees waste cleanup at the lab.    The same top priority was approved last week by the Citizens Board, volunteers who include former lab workers, retirees, public employees and others, chartered by DOE to make recommendations on establishing the order of cleanup initiatives.    “All we do is tell them they should,” said Lawrence Longacre, a board member expressing frustration that the priority recommendations had no teeth.    “Is there any way we can hold their feet to the fire and say do A, B and C?”
      Congress, however, has cut the Los Alamos cleanup request for $358 million to $185 million, raising the question of the lab’s ability to meet the consent decree.
  
  
• 10/8/2011
  
  BPA makers: Chemical not in bottles by Matthew Perrone, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Makers of the controversial chemical bisphenol- A have asked federal regulators to phase out rules that allow its use in baby bottles and sippy cups, saying those products haven’t contained the plastic-hardening ingredient for two years.
      The unusual request from the American Chemistry Council might help quash years of negative publicity from consumer groups and head off tougher laws that would ban the chemical from other types of packaging because of health worries.
      For now, the industry says concerns over bottles and spill proof cups are unnecessary.
      “All the evidence we have is that those products have been off the market for several years,” said Steven Hentges, the American Chemistry Council’s director for BPA issues.    “We’re trying to bring clarity and certainty that BPA isn’t used in baby bottles and sippy cups today, and it won’t be in the future.”
      BPA is found in hundreds of plastic items from water bottles to CDs to dental sealants.    Some researchers are convinced that ingesting the chemical can interfere with development of the reproductive and nervous systems and possibly promote cancer.
      Consumer health groups hailed the move as a “win for moms and dads,” but pressed for removing BPA from more products.
      “The writing is on the wall for BPA,” said Mike Schade of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.    “We hope to see a major transition away from BPA in canned food in years to come.”
      The chemical industry’s petition points out that the six leading makers of baby bottles stopped using BPA in 2009.    And none of the 13 major BPA producers, which make 97 percent of the global supply, sells the chemical to bottle makers.
      The group represents BPA producers including Dow Chemical Co., Bayer and Momentive.    The companies maintain that BPA is safe and that the decision to petition the FDA was not influenced by science.
  
  
• 10/13/2011
  
  BP, two others cited in oil rig explosion
      New Orleans - Federal regulators on Wednesday cited oil company BP PLC and two other companies — Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton — for alleged safety and environmental violations stemming from last year’s rig explosion and massive Gulf oil spill.
      The companies have 60 days to appeal the citations issued by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
      The citations are the product of a federal probe of the Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and hastened the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.
      “The joint investigation clearly revealed the violation of numerous federal regulations designed to protect the integrity of offshore operations,” said bureau director Michael R. Bromwich.
  
  
• 10/15/2011
  
  House OKs giving states control over coal ash by Jim Abrams, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — House Republicans pushed through legislation Friday that would give states the power to regulate coal ash from power plants as if it were municipal garbage, preempting pending federal regulations that could be much tougher.
      The vote on coal ash disposal was the latest of several passed by the GOP-controlled House that would shift authority away from the Environmental Protection Agency and reduce federal regulations that Republicans say are burdensome, hamper economic growth and cost jobs.
      Other bills have dealt with toxic emissions from power plants, cement plants and incinerators.    Like those bills, the coal ash bill is unlikely to be considered in the Democratic-controlled Senate.    Under the measure, sponsored by West Virginia Rep. David McKinley, states would have to apply the same regulations to coal ash that they use for municipal garbage.
      Generally, that means it would have to be put in landfills that have liners to protect groundwater, monitors to test water for contamination and equipment to control dust.    The bill wouldn’t cover coal ash sitting in surface ponds or impoundments now.    The vote was 267-144, with 37 Democrats voting “yes.”
      McKinley said his legislation was “a jobs bill and a public health bill; protecting the livelihoods and the health of our working men and women are not mutually exclusive ideas.”
      His office pointed out that, unlike the other GOP-sponsored EPA bills, the White House hadn’t issued a veto threat and that 14 Senate Democrats had expressed support for the bill’s approach.
      The EPA is considering several options on how to regulate coal ash, from giving it a special status as a hazardous waste so it could still be recycled to classifying it as a solid waste, which comes with fewer requirements.    The industry has said that even a solid waste classification would prompt the closure of some existing coal ash ponds and landfills, costing jobs and raising energy bills.
      “The results of EPA’s regulations would have been devastating on the effects of jobs, higher utility rates at home, and cripple a very successful emerging biproducts industry,” said Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s environment and economy panel.
      The bill would allow the EPA to get involved if a state chooses not to act or the agency finds the state program deficient.
      But the White House said it strongly opposed the bill, saying it was insufficient to address the risks of coal ash disposal and undermined the federal government’s ability to ensure requirements that adequately protect human health and the environment.
      Without a minimum federal health standard, “the result will inevitably be uneven and inconsistent rules by the states; some states will do a good job, others will do a poor jobs,” said Rep. Henry Waxman of California, top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.    “And when they do a poor job, the public will pay the price.”
  
  
• 10/21/2011
  
  EPA plans rules on ‘fracking’ - Regulations to focus on waste disposal by Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press
      ALLENTOWN,Pa.— Federal environmental regulators signaled Thursday that they want to increase oversight of the natural gas extraction industry, announcing they will develop standards for disposing of polluted wastewater generated by a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking.
      Energy companies have dramatically expanded the use of fracking in recent years, injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemical additives to unlock gas in deep shale formations in Pennsylvania, Texas and other states.    Its prevalence has raised concerns about the potential impact on water quality and quantity.
      The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will draft standards for fracking wastewater — the briny, chemical- laced water that comes back out of the well — that drillers would have to meet before sending it to treatment plants.    The industry in recent months has been recycling much of the wastewater or injecting it deep underground, but some of it is sent to plants that are ill-equipped to remove the contaminants.
      The new standards would also apply to wastewater produced by coalbed methane drilling, the agency said.    “We can protect the health of American families and communities at the same time we ensure access to all of the important resources that make up our energy economy.    The American people expect and deserve nothing less,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.
      EPA has largely left it to the states to regulate fracking operations, and environmental groups cheered Thursday’s announcement as a long-overdue first step.    The agency is also in the midst of a national study of whether fracking has polluted groundwater and drinking water and its potential future impacts.
      “The nation is in the midst of a fracking-fueled gas rush which is generating toxic wastewater faster than treatment plants can handle it,” Earthjustice attorney Deborah Goldberg said.    “The EPA’s proposal is a common sense solution … and will help keep poisons out of our rivers, streams and drinking water.”
      Industry groups said wastewater disposal is already regulated by the states, with one criticizing the EPA for overreach.
      “Pennsylvania’s natural gas developers, as well as its regulators and service companies, are far ahead of EPA’s review of wastewater treatment standards for shale gas,” said Lou D’Amico of Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association.
      Drilling companies have flocked to Pennsylvania to exploit the Marcellus Shale formation, the nation’s largest-known reservoir of natural gas.
  
  
• 10/24/2011
  
  Exposure to BPA might affect girls’ behavior by Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press
      CHICAGO — Exposure to BPA before birth could affect girls’ behavior at age 3, according to the latest study on potential health effects of the widespread chemical.    At preschool age, girls whose mothers had relatively high urine levels of bisphenol-A during pregnancy scored worse but still within a normal range on behavior measures, including anxiety and hyperactivity, than other young girls.    The results are not con-clusive and experts not involved in the study said factors other than BPA might explain the results.    The researchers acknowledge that “considerable debate” remains about whether BPA is harmful, but say their findings should prompt additional research.    The researchers measured BPA in 244 Cincinnati- area mothers’ urine twice during pregnancy and at childbirth.    The women evaluated their children at age 3 using standard behavior questionnaires.
      Nearly all women had measurable BPA levels, like most Americans.    But increasingly high urine levels during pregnancy were linked with increasingly worse behavior in their daughters.    Boys’ behavior did not seem to be affected.    The researchers said if BPA can cause behavior changes that could pose academic and social problems for girls already at risk for those difficulties.
      “These subtle shifts can actually have very dramatic implications at the population level,” said Joe Braun, the lead author and a research fellow at Harvard’s School of Public Health.
      For every 10-fold increase in mothers’ BPA levels, girls scored at least six points worse on the questionnaires.    The study was released online today in Pediatrics.
      Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, said the study contributes important new evidence to “a growing database which suggests that BPA exposure can be associated with effects on human health.”    Grants from that federal agency helped pay for the study.
      The Food and Drug Administration has said that low-level BPA exposure appears to be safe.    But the agency also says that because of recent scientific evidence, it has some concern about potential effects of BPA on the brain and behavior in fetuses, infants and small children.    The FDA is continuing to study BPA exposure and supports efforts to minimize use in food containers.
      BPA has many uses, and is found in some plastic bottles and coatings in metal food cans.    It was widely used in plastic baby bottles and sippy cups but industry phased out that use.    Braun said it’s possible that exposure to BPA during pregnancy interferes with fetal brain develop-ment.
  
  
• 10/28/2011
  
  Fungus is cause of bat disease by Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
      LOS ANGELES — Researchers say they now have proof that a fungus discovered in 2007 is re-sponsible for white-nose syndrome, the devastating infectious disease that has killed more than 1 million bats in North America, including Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee.    The confirmation is a significant step toward de-veloping strategies to moderate effects of the disease as it continues to move westward along migratory flyways, the researchers reported Wednesday in the online journal Nature.    “We can now focus our research on managing one pathogen as the cause of this disease and the environment that brings animals and this pathogen together — caves,” said David Blehert, a microbiologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis.    The role of Geomyces destructans in white-nose syndrome — which gets its name from the powdery, white substance that appears around muzzles, ears and wings of affected bats — was uncertain because of the assumption that fungal infections are usually associated with immune system dysfunction, according to the report.
      The new findings were based on studies of little brown bats with no underlying health conditions that were intentionally infected with the fungus.    Those experiments confirmed that the fungus causes white-nose syndrome and that the disease can be transmitted between animals through direct contact.
  
  
• 11/2/2011
  
  Mercury variance sought - Plant discharges into Ohio River by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal
      A West Virginia chlorine manufacturing plant is seeking to avoid a 90 percent cut in the amount of mercury that it’s allowed to dump into the Ohio River.    PPG Industries, which operates the plant in New Martinsville, says in documents filed with the eightstate commission that sets water quality standards for the Ohio River that its mercury discharges are not affecting water quality or the environment.    It asks the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission for a variance of a rule that takes effect on Oct. 16, 2013.
      On Tuesday the commission opened a 45-day public comment period on the variance, and its deputy director, Peter Tennant, said “we know that a lot of people are concerned about it.”    Mercury is a neurotoxin that accumulates in the environment.    Several states, including Kentucky, warn people to lim-it or avoid eating fish from the Ohio River because of mercury in them.    Because mercury-contaminated fish move up and down the river, the Kentucky Waterways Alliance environmental group has said there are implications for the river as it flows through Kentucky and Indiana.    “Once you get into variances, it sort of opens the doors,” said Gordon Garner, a Louisville engineering consultant and president of the alliance.    “The situation with mercury in the Ohio River is not good.    Variances for mercury would be a big backwards step.”
      PPG officials did not return calls to their media office Tuesday.
      At issue is a 2009 decision by the commission to phase out what it calls “mixing zones” downriver from industrial plants that discharge chemicals that build up in the environment, such as mercu-ry.    Such zones allow pollution limits to be met some distance from factory outfalls, after effluent has been diluted with river water.
      Tennant said commission staff has been anticipating that other requests for variances, especially from coal-fired power plants, but the PPG plant is the first.    Some power plants have seen their mercury discharges into the river increase as they have scrubbed the heavy metal from smokestacks, he said.    He said the commission has the authority to issue the variance through the life of the PPG plant’s next water discharge permit from West Virginia, likely through 2019.    In correspondence with the commission posted on the commission’s website, PPG officials said they have been reducing their mercury discharges but cannot meet their limits without allowing for a mixing zone.    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency records show that the plant cut its mercury discharges from 32 pounds per year in 2004 to 17 pounds in 2010.
      It was the 12th-largest industrial source of mercury to the nation’s waterways last year, EPA records show.
      In their filing, PPG officials wrote that their plant was built in 1943 by the federal government to make chlorine and caustic soda for World War II.    It has the capacity now to make as much as 995 tons per day, and it employs about 500 people, the company wrote.
  
  
• 11/4/2011
  
  EPA outlines probe for gas drilling technique
      ALLENTOWN, PA. - The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released the outlines of its longawaited probe into whether hydraulic fracturing — the unconventional drilling technique that’s led to a boom in domestic natural gas production — is contaminating drinkingwater supplies.
      Investigators will try to determine the impact of largescale water withdrawals, aboveground spills of drilling fluids, and the fracturing process itself on water quality and quantity in states where tens of thousands of wells have been drilled in recent years.
      Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves the highpressure injection of millions of gallons of water, along with sand and chemical additives, deep underground to extract natural gas trapped in shale rock.    Energy companies have greatly expanded their use of fracking as they tap previously unreachable shale deposits.
  
  Cylinders show high radiation at Paducah plant by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal
      WASHINGTON — Two empty cylinders that formerly contained uranium hexafluoride showed high radiation readings when they were delivered Wednesday to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, officials said Thursday.
      “There is no hazard,” said Joey Ledford, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in its Atlanta regional office, which is investigating the incident.    “This is not nearly as mysterious and sinister as it sounds.”
      But Gary Vander Boegh, a well-known whistleblower and former plant employee who now advocates for workers who have filed compensation claims over contamination-related illnesses at the complex, disputed the assertion that there was no danger.
      Ledford said one cylinder was involved, but Vander Boegh and others said two showed high radiation levels.    “Sure it’s more serious,” Vander Boegh said    “The workers are all concerned.”
      He said the two contaminated cylinders were shipped back to Illinois Wednesday night “under cover of dark ness.”    The company that shipped the cylinders to Paducah, the ConverDyne/ Honeywell Metropolis Works Plant in Metropolis, lll., also said two cylinders were involved.    The cylinders were in a shipment Wednesday afternoon to the Paducah plant complex’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facility.
      Ledford said the cylinders “did exceed the (radiation) levels that (Paducah) is supposed to accept, and so they correctly shipped it back.” Jim Key, vice president of United Steelworkers Local 8-550 and vice president of the National Atomic Energy Workers Council, said he was told by some of his union members that one cylinder produced higher radiation readings than the conversion facility was allowed to accept.    Neither he nor Ledford could provide the reading, discovered during a routine swipe of the cylinder by a radiation contamination technician.
      The Honeywell facility, which is across the Ohio River from Paducah, makes uranium hexafluoride for nuclear fuel and is regulated by the NRC.    Key said he did not know of a previous incident in which radiation levels were unacceptably high on cylinders shipped to Paducah. Honeywell spokesman Peter Dalpe said in a state-ment that the company shipped 18 cylinders.    “Before shipment, samples were taken from each of these cylinders to ensure that radiation levels from each cylinder were below both federal limits and the destination company’s even lower acceptance levels,” Dalpe said.    “Our tests showed that radiation levels were below both these levels and our Metropolis facility’s even lower limits.”    “We were notified Wednesday ... that ... two of these cylinders showed levels above their limits, but still well below the federal limits,” he said.    “The two cylinders were returned to our facility, where they will be further cleaned before shipment back. ... “At no time was there are any danger posed by the cylinder to employees or the public,” Dalpe said.
      One of the workers who handled a cylinder volunteered to provide urine samples over 24 hours to test for possible internal exposure, Key said.    Ledford said shipment back to Honeywell posed no danger to the public.
      Babcock & Wilcox Conversion Services is managing the conversion of 740,000 metric tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride stored in 63,000 steel cylinders at Paducah and the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio.    Under a Department of Energy contract, the company is converting the depleted material into a more stable form, uranium oxide.
      The Energy Department issued a statement saying it was aware of the incident and, while it was still looking into the details, was confident the situation was handled safely.    So far, 42 cylinders have been shipped from Honeywell to Paducah, according to the agency.
      The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant was opened in 1952 to make highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and military reactors.    The facility shifted in the 1960s to making fuel for civilian nuclear reactors.    The operations produced decades of chemical and radiological contamination around the site.    It is costing the federal government billions of dollars to clean it up.    “There is no hazard. This is not nearly as mysterious and sinister as it sounds.”    JOEY LEDFORD, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is investigating the incident at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
  
  
• 11/5/2011
  
  Exxon Mobil will pay $135 million for spill in Yellowstone River
      Exxon Mobil said Friday it expects to incur costs of about $135 million from an oil pipeline break beneath Montana’s Yellowstone River that triggered a massive effort to limit damage to the scenic waterway.
      That figure is more than triple an earlier estimate.    It includes, for the first time, the expense of replacing the section of broken pipeline with a new one buried more deeply beneath the river.    The company’s 12-inch Silvertip crude oil pipeline broke July 1 during severe flooding.
  
  
• 11/12/2011
  
  Rhino species loses battle - Poachers kill off all living in wild by Frank Jordans, Associated Press
      GENEVA — Lax antipoaching efforts are to blame for the loss of the last wild specimens of Western Black Rhino, leading the rhinoceros subspecies to be declared officially extinct this week, conservationists said Friday.    Researchers estimate about 10 of the long-legged West African variety of Black Rhino survived in Cameroon until 2000.
      Prized by poachers for their horns, which are used as trophies and in traditional medicine, the Western Black Rhino now exists only in zoos.    “There were very limited anti-poaching efforts in place to save the animals, and anyone caught poaching was not sentenced, hence no deterrents were in place,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
      Its loss is significant because the Western Black Rhino is genetically distinct from other rhino sub-species.    Reintroducing animals born into captivity is costly and may be impossible, experts say.
      Efforts to preserve other subspecies of Black Rhinos in Eastern and Southern Africa have been more successful, but there, too, poachers are taking their toll.
  
  
• 11/13/2011
  
  Fishing putting pressure on seas - Report urges conservation by Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers
      WASHINGTON — Far out on the Pacific Ocean, the world’s industrial fishing fleets pursue one of the last huge wild hunts — for the tuna eaten by millions of people around the world.    Yet tuna still aren’t fished sustainably, something that conservationists and big U.S. tuna companies are trying to fix.    This illustrates one part of the pressure on the world’s oceans to feed a growing global population, now 7 billion.    It also underscores the difficulties people have in balancing what they take against what must be left in order to have enough supplies of healthy wild fish.    “It’s serious. On a global basis, we’ve pretty much found all the fish we’re going to find,” said Mike Hirshfield, chief scientist at the advocacy group Oce-ana.    “There’s not a lot of hidden fish out there.    And we’re still heading in the wrong direction, taken as a whole.”    About 32 percent of the world’s fish are overfished, up from 10 percent in the 1970s and 25 percent in the early 1990s, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Or-ganization.
          In the U.S., restrictions on fishing have allowed some fish populations to rebound.    But in international waters, covering more than half of the oceans, no single country oversees ocean conservation.
      Instead, regional multinational organizations make the decisions.    The first began after World War II, when their job was seen as dividing up what was then thought to be the unlimited wealth of the seas, said Amanda Nickson, who oversees Pacific tuna conservation efforts at the Pew Environment Group.    Today, Nickson said, these management groups aren’t doing a very good job of restoring tuna populations and making sure they can be fished sustainability.
      One of them is the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which oversees more than 60 percent of the world’s tuna catch.    Its members include Pacific island nations and the homes of the world’s large industrial fishing fleets — the U.S., Europe, Japan, China and Taiwan.    Nickson said it’s a David versus Goliath matchup of island nations pushing for sustainable management vs. the large fishing nations, which block the restrictions needed to achieve it.    The group’s next meeting is in December in the island nation of Palau.    The Pew Environment Group is pressing it to set limits on the amount of fish caught for each species; to take action to protect sharks, which are unintentionally caught along with tuna; and to reduce the catch of juvenile bigeye tuna, an overfished species, by ships fishing for skipjack tuna.
      Skipjack, the most common tropical tuna, is very heavily fished in some places, but isn’t yet over-fished, said William Fox, a biologist and the World Wildlife Fund’s U.S. vice president for fisheries.    Skipjack is the only tuna species that hasn’t been fished to its maximum limit or overfished, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
      “We’re in a race with time, because we’re trying to get the regional fisheries management organiza-tions to improve performance so that doesn’t happen,” Fox said.    He’s also vice chairman of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, a group started by the WWF with major U.S. tuna companies to try to make tuna fishing sustainable.
      For U.S. fishing fleets, President George W. Bush signed a law in 2007 that required annual catch limits based on science to end overfishing by 2011.    The limits were in place by the end of last year.    “We presume those catch limits — they’re scientifically set — have ended overfishing, but we have to verify it, and we won’t declare an end of overfishing until the scientific assessment is complete,” said Eric Schwaab, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
      Meanwhile, Oceana said in a report this month that better conservation is needed for the small fish at the bottom of the food chain on the West Coast, such as Pacific sardines.    With world demand for wild-caught fish growing to feed the aquaculture industry, “it is imperative to take action today to avert a crisis tomorrow,” the report said.
  
  
• 11/21/2011
  
  Control plan could cull 360 wild bison by Matthew Brown, Associated Press
      BILLINGS, Montana — As many as 360 migrating wild bison would be shot by hunters in Montana, captured for slaughter or shipped elsewhere this winter under a proposal from Yellowstone National Park officials seeking an alternative to the indiscriminate slaughters of years past.    Documents obtained by The Associated Press show officials are considering “selective culls” to help reduce the park’s bison population from 3,700 animals to about 3,000.    Some of this winter’s anticipated decrease would come from natural deaths.    The proposal comes amid rising pressure from Montana officials including Gov. Brian Schweitzer to rein in the size of Yellowstone’s iconic bison herds.
      Others say that the animals should roam freely — even though cattle ranchers worry that could bring unwanted competition for grazing space and spread the animal disease brucellosis.
      Park biologists wrote in the proposal that reducing the population could avoid the need for the large-scale slaughters — more than 1,700 were killed or removed in 2008 — seen during past migrations. In harsh winters, bison leave the park in large numbers seeking food at lower elevations in Montana.
      State officials said hunting was their top choice for population control.    Howev-er, Schweitzer said that for the strategy to work, the park must open its borders to hunting inside portions of Yellowstone where bison often congregate in winter.    Past hunts yielded few bison during mild winters when the animals did not cross out of the park.    “These things have to have some give and take.    The buffalo doesn’t know where the line is when it leaves the park,” said the Democratic governor.    “We end up taking care of the oversupply of bison because they aren’t managing their population within the park.”    Yellowstone administrators declined an AP request to interview the biol-ogists who wrote the proposal.    Park spokesman Al Nash said it was a draft document subject to change, but hunting inside the park would not be considered.
      Still, after years of public acrimony over the slaughters, Nash said the park is looking for a new and lasting approach to bison management.
      “Everybody would agree that we would rather not see large culls of animals,” he said.    “We’re certainly looking at something that would have to be a longer-term plan.”    More than 3,600 Yellowstone bison were removed over the last decade to prevent the spread of brucellosis.    That included the 2008 number, when Yellowstone’s temporary bison capture pens were overwhelmed and many animals went to slaughter without being tested for brucellosis.    The disease can cause pregnant animals to miscarry and has been eradicated nationwide except in the Yellowstone region.
      Tens of millions of bison once roamed North America. Only about 20,000 wild bison remain and Yellowstone’s are considered among the most genetically pure.
      A representative of northeast Montana’s Fort Peck Indian Reservation said slaughtering those prized bison does not make sense when tribes have been trying for several years to get Yellowstone bison to start new herds out-side the park.
      “If they want to give them to the tribes they wouldn’t have this problem,” said Fort Peck Fish and Game Warden Robert Magnum. Park officials predict that this winter’s migration will top 1,000 bison from the park’s two herds — potentially offering an early test of the culling proposal if it garners approval from other state and federal agencies.
  
  
• 12/9/2011
  
  Fracking, pollution linked - EPA cites problem in Wyoming community by Mead Gruver, Associated Press
      CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.
      The draft finding could have significant implications while states try to determine how to regulate the process.    Environmentalists characterized the report as a significant development though it met immediate criticism from the oil and gas industry.    The practice is called hydraulic fracturing and involves pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals underground to open fissures and improve the flow of oil or gas to the surface.
      The EPA found that compounds likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming where residents say their well water reeks of chemicals.    Health officials last year advised them not to drink their water after the EPA found low levels of hydrocarbons in their wells.
      The EPA announcement could add to the controversy over fracking, which has played a large role in opening many gas reserves, including the Marcellus Shale in the eastern U.S.    The industry has long contended that fracking is safe, but environmentalists and some residents who live near drilling sites say it has poisoned groundwater.    The EPA said its announcement is the first step in a process of opening its findings for review by the public and other scientists.
      “EPA’s highest priority remains ensuring that Pavillion residents have access to safe drinking water,” said Jim Martin, EPA regional administrator in Denver.    “We look forward to having these findings in the draft report informed by a transparent and public review process.”
      The EPA also emphasized that the findings are specific to the Pavillion area.    The agency said the fracking that occurred in Pavillion differed from fracking methods used elsewhere in regions with different geological characteristics.
      The fracking occurred below the level of the drinking water aquifer and close to water wells, the EPA said.    Elsewhere, drilling is more remote and fracking occurs much deeper than the level of groundwater that would normally be used.    Environmentalists welcomed the news of the EPA report, calling it an important turning point in the fracking debate.
      “This is an important first indication there are potential problems with fracking that can impact domestic water wells.    It’s I think a clarion call to industry to make sure they take a great deal of care in their drilling practices,” said Steve Jones with the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
  
  
• 12/10/2011
  
  Rule change to help endangered species
      WASHINGTON - The Obama administration proposed a rule Friday that would end a practice in which some endangered species were classified differently in neighboring states.
      The new policy would clarify that a plant or animal could be listed as threatened or endangered if threats occur in a “significant portion of its range,” even if the threat crosses state lines and doesn’t apply in the species’ entire range.
      The draft rule would replace a Bush-era policy that allowed animals such as the gray wolf and Preble’s meadow jumping mouse to be classified differently in neighboring states.    The 2007 policy was withdrawn last spring after two federal courts rejected it.    In 2009, the government sought to lift protections for gray wolves in Idaho and Montana but leave them in place in Wyoming.
  
  Nev. roundup mistreated mustangs - Bureau: Incidents not quite ‘inhumane’ by Scott Sonner, Associated Press
      RENO, Nev. — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s internal review of a wild horse roundup in Nevada found some mustangs were whipped in the face, kicked in the head, dragged by a rope around the neck and repeatedly shocked with electrical prods, but the agency concluded none of the mistreatment rose to the level of being inhumane.
      BLM Director Bob Abbey did, however, determine additional training is needed for the workers and contractors involved.
      Abbey, the former BLM state director for Nevada, said the roundup this summer near the Utah line was done correctly for the most part.    But he said the review cited some incidents of inappropriate practices, including helicopters jeopardizing the health and safety of horses by following too closely or chasing animals for too long.
      “Aggressive and rough handling of wild horses is not acceptable, and we are actively taking steps to ensure that such behavior is not repeated,” Abbey said in a statement announcing procedures to improve and review BLM’s standard operating procedures for roundups.    In addition to prohibiting helicopters from making contact with horses, Abbey said he would order more training for both agency workers and contractors involved.
      Horse protection advocates said they were encouraged by a series of steps Abbey outlined this week to rein in the airborne cowboys and wranglers on the ground who they say don’t always act in the horses’ best interests.
      But they also expressed concern that BLM didn’t find some of the more egregious incidents to be “inhumane” treatment.    The review was prompted by videotapes that animal protection activists shot of alleged inhumane treatment at the Triple B roundup in July and August.
      The review team that analyzed the footage said it found a “small number of videos indicated incidents that did not rise to the level of inhumane treatment but which the team did determine amounted to poor practices that should be improved.”    Those included excessive use of electrical prods, plus wranglers kicking horses, slamming gates against them and twisting their tails to persuade them onto trailers.
      The government’s wild horse program, created by Congress in 1971, is intended to protect wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them.    Under the program, thousands of horses are forced into holding pens, where many are vaccinated or neutered before being placed for adoption or sent to long-term corrals.
  
  
• 12/14/2011
  
  New coal ash sites listed - W. Kentucky plant identified by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal
      WASHINGTON — New toxic coal ash sites have been found in Kentucky, Indiana and eight other states, an environmental group said Tuesday.    Among the sites were the Paradise Fossil Plant in Western Kentucky and an urban rail trail in Bloomington, Ind.
      In all, 20 new sites were announced by the Coal Combustion Waste Initiative of the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonpartisan organization set up nine years ago by former attorneys with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
      “We have here a clear and present danger to America’s public health,” said Jeff Stant, director of the Coal Combustion Waste Initiative.    Since last year the environmental group has listed 90 coal ash ponds and landfills not identified by the EPA, he said.
      Besides the Kentucky and Indiana sites, Stant’s organization on Tuesday identified 18 others — seven in Illinois, three in South Carolina, two each in Iowa and Texas, and one each in Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Tennessee.    At all of the sites except the Indiana rail trail, contamination from coal waste appears to be far above maximum limits for at least one chemical under the Safe Water Drinking Act, Stant said.
      At the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Paradise Fossil Plant, near Paradise in Muhlenberg County, one monitoring well near the facility’s ash ponds detected arsenic at nearly twice the maximum limits, the group said.
      Boron, manganese, nickel, and sulfate at Paradise all exceeded EPA health advisory limits, with the concentration of manganese 200 times the EPA guidelines for exposure over a lifetime.
      The TVA did not respond to a request for comment.
      The trail in Bloomington is on a former railroad bed that used coal ash and cinders for ballast.    Investigators found extensive lead contamination and arsenic levels 900 times the EPA’s stan-dard for site cleanups.
      J. Russell Boulding, who evaluated the soil and water samples for the Environmental Integrity Project, said there were two lessons from what has been found so far: “First, when you look, you find contamination. Second, when you look further, contamination is often worse.”
      An EPA statement said it would review the Environmental Integrity Project’s report.    The EPA is proposing stricter regulation of coal ash sites, a step it took after a 2008 spill in Tennessee that the agency called “one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind.”
      Utilities and their congressional allies support legislation to give the states power to regulate coal ash disposal and recovery.
      The House bill’s co-sponsors include Kentucky Republicans Reps. Hal Rogers of the 5th District and Ed Whitfield of the 1st District.    The measure passed the House 267-144 in October.
  
  
• 12/16/2011
  
  Debris from tsunami reaches West Coast
      PORT ANGELES, WASH. - Some debris from the March tsunami in Japan has reached the West Coast.
      A black float about the size of a 55-gallon drum was found two weeks ago by a crew cleaning a beach a few miles east of Neah Bay at the northwest tip of Washington, the Peninsula Daily News reported Wednesday.
      Tons of debris from Japan will likely begin washing ashore, in an area from California to southern Alaska, in about a year, oceanographers said.
  
  Chinese drywall maker agrees to settlement
      NEW ORLEANS - A Chinese drywall manufacturer has agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve court claims by thousands of Gulf Coast property owners who say the product corroded pipes and wires and otherwise wrecked their homes. It is the largest settlement of its kind.
      The deal announced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon calls for Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. to create an uncapped fund to pay for repairing roughly 4,500 properties, mostly in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.    A separate $30 million fund will pay for other losses, including those by people who blame drywall for health problems.
  
  Toxic bootleg liquor kills 143 people in India by Bikas Das, Associated Press
      SANGRAMPUR, India — Bootleg liquor containing toxic methanol killed 143 people and sickened doz-ens more who drank the cheap, illicit brew bought at small shops in eastern India, officials said Thurs-day.    Police arrested 10 suspected bootleggers.
      Emergency medical teams rushed to the village outside Kolkata, and thousands of relatives, many of them wailing in grief, gathered outside the packed hospital.    Inside, dead bodies lay on the floor covered in quilts, while the ill waited on staircases to be treated.    Groups of men sat in the halls with saline drips running into their arms.
      Abdul Gayen cried inconsolably for his son, Safiulla, a laborer who drank some of the liquor Monday night and then complained of lightheadedness.    When Safiulla woke up the next morning, he fell and began frothing at the mouth, Gayen said.    He died before his family could get him to the hospital.
      “Safiulla was the lone bread earner in our family.    I don’t know what will hap-pen to us now,” he said.
      Illegal liquor operations flourish in the slums of urban India and among the rural poor who can’t afford the alcohol at state-sanctioned shops.    The hooch, often mixed with cheap chemicals to increase potency and profit, causes illness and death sometimes — and occasionally mass carnage.
      Many of the victims — day laborers, street hawkers, rickshaw drivers — had gathered along a road near a railway station after work to drink the illicit booze they bought for 20 cents a half-liter, less than a third the price of legal alcohol, district magistrate Naraya Swarup Nigam said.
      They later began vomiting, suffering piercing headaches and frothing at the mouth, he said.    Angry villagers later ransacked booze shops around the village of Sangrampur, about 20 miles south of Kolkata, the city formerly known as Calcutta.
  
  
• 12/17/2011
  
  New rules finished for coal-fired utilities by Steven Mufson, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration finished crafting tough new rules Friday curbing mercury and other poisons emitted by coal-fired utilities, according to several people briefed on the decision.    The rules are the product of more than two decades of work to clean up the nation’s dirtiest power plants.
      As part of last-minute negotiations between the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency, the regulations give some flexibility to power plant operators who argued they could not meet the three-year deadline for compliance outlined by the EPA.    Several individuals familiar with the details declined to be identified because the agency is to announce the rules next week.
      The new rules will cost utilities $10.6 billion by 2016 for the installation of control equipment known as scrubbers, according to EPA estimates.    But the EPA said those costs would be far offset by health benefits.    The agency estimates that as of 2016, lowering emissions would save $59 billion to $140 billion in annual health costs, preventing 17,000 premature deaths a year along with illnesses and lost workdays.
      Several experts said the new controls on mercury, acid gas and other pollutants represent one of most significant public health and environmental measures in years.    The rules will prevent 91 percent of the mercury in coal from entering the air and much of the soot as well: According to EPA estimates, they will prevent 11,000 heart attacks and 120,000 asthma attacks annually by 2016.
      The Obama administration is attempting to deliver on some key priorities for environmentalists without alienating the business community.    President Barack Obama angered environmentalists in September by pulling back stricter smog standards the EPA had proposed, and he had to make several environmental concessions to congressional Republicans late Friday as part of a deal to extend the payroll tax cut.    Senate leaders agreed Friday night on a provision that would accelerate the Keystone XL pipeline permitting decision as part of a deal to extend cuts in the Social Security tax.
      The administration was also making deals Friday on another environmental front: Alaska.    As part of the spending bill negotiations, the administration agreed to transfer the authority to issue air permits for offshore Arctic drilling rigs from the EPA to the Interior Department, which many industry executives think would have more lax standards.
      Separately, the Interior Department gave conditional approval Friday to Shell Oil’s exploration plan for Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, where the oil giant hopes to drill several wells.
  
  
• 12/19/2011
  
  Nuclear waste site sought by Associated Press
      MONTPELIER, Vt. — The likely death of a planned nuclear waste site at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain has left federal agencies looking for a possible replacement.    The Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, working for the U.S. Department of Energy, is now eyeing granite deposits stretching from Georgia to Maine as potential sites, along with big sections of Minnesota and Wisconsin where that rock is prevalent.
      The United States still has no agreed-upon solution for where and how to dispose of about 70,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste.    In addition to the Appalachian mountain range, the Adirondacks in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, the study identifies several areas of the West as rich in granite de-posits.    But the western regions are described as having moderate to high seismic activity.
  
  
• 12/22/2011
  
  EPA: Cut mercury at power plants - It expects health gains but higher energy bills by James Bruggers, The Courier-Journal
      The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday took its biggest step ever to curb emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants.    In its announcement, the agency asserted that the changes will save lives and reduce health care bills — but also raise electric rates.    EPA Administrator Lisa M. Jackson said the benefits will greatly exceed the costs, rejecting some industry claims that the rule could threaten as many as 1.4 million jobs.
      “This is a great victory for public health, especially for the health of our children,” Jackson said at an announcement at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
      The rule will especially affect Kentucky and Indiana, where the dirtiest power plants — those that burn coal — supply more than 90 percent of the two states’ electricity.    Some older plants will likely be shut down and replaced with cleaner-burning fuels or technology, and others will be modernized to meet standards that Jackson said were 20 years in the making.    Utilities will have up to four years to comply, the EPA said.
      The rule would reduce mercury emissions from power plants by 90 percent, while costing the nation’s utilities about $9.6 billion annually, the EPA said. It also targets such hazardous air pollutants as arsenic, lead, chromium and acid gases.
      It replaces Bush-era regulations, thrown out by the federal courts, that had relied on a cap-and-trade strategy, in which utilities that made cuts could sell credits to those that didn't.    At the time, the Bush administration predicted that its rule would reduce mercury pollution from coalfired power plants by 70 percent over 13 years.
      The result under the new rule will be up to 11,000 fewer premature deaths and 4,700 fewer heart attacks a year, among other health benefits, the EPA said.
      Mercury has been shown to cause neurological damage, including lower IQ in children exposed in the womb and during early development.    All Kentucky streams carry fishconsumption warnings for mercury, as do many in Indiana.
      Lexington physician Vicki Holmberg, a consultant for the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, called the final rule “a step in the right direction for protection of our families by limiting the amount of mercury that will enter our environment, contaminate our water supplies and wind up in our food chain.”    She said the amount of mercury now released into the air from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources “can overwhelm the capacity of our bodies to metabolize and eliminate toxic metal pollutants and have been shown to contribute to neurological damage and cardiovascular disorders.”
      While both Indiana and Kentucky have many coalfired power plants, some environmentalists and medical doctors have called the Louisville area a mercury “hot spot” because of its concentration of coal-fired plants amid a large population.    Two are within the city limits, and another is across the Ohio River in New Albany, Ind.
      People who live nearest to older, more polluting plants like those in the Louisville area will benefit the most from the new standards, with fewer illnesses and fewer asthma attacks, said James Pew, an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law group based in San Francisco. Pew, who helped bring the legal challenge against the Bush-era rule, said, “This is really good news.”    U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, embraced the EPA action.    “This will be very good news to the thousands of Louisvillians who suffer from asthma and other health problems related to toxins in our air,” Yarmuth said. But the rule, since it was first proposed earlier this year, has been sharply criticized by Republicans in Congress, who have tried unsuccessfully to block it with legislation.    They have argued that it is too costly.    “These rules hurt con-sumers, they hurt businesses, and they hurt jobs,” said U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said the EPA was overstating the problem of mercury from domestic sources.
      “Mercury emissions should be controlled, but in a way that balances thoughtful science with economic realities and our energy needs,” he said.    “This rule does not reflect this balance and should be repealed.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., agreed.    “Kentucky’s approximately 18,000 coal miners are already facing an uncertain future, and these constant attacks by the administration must stop.”
      While some business groups focused on clean energy and sustainable business practices praised the EPA, others in industry predicted dire economic circumstances.
      “It will increase the cost of power, undermining the international competitiveness of almost two dozen manufacturing industries, and it will reduce employment ... in the mining sectors,” Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a coalition of utilities that works on air issues, said in a statement. Citing an industry- funded study, he said that “all told, it is anticipated that the rule will result in the loss of some 1.4 million jobs by 2020.”
      Jackson disagreed, saying the EPA standards would result in a net increase in jobs, including 46,000 short-term construction jobs and 8,000 longer-term utility sector jobs.
      “It’s good to have the final standards so that we have a clearer picture of the requirements and can solidify our compliance plans,” said Chris Whelan, spokeswoman for Louisville Gas and Electric Co. and Kentucky Utilities.    She said that company officials need to study the final rule’s details but that they are already making plans to comply by 2016.
      In September, LG&E and KU officials said stricter mercury limits were prompting them to replace their 57-year-old, coalfired Cane Run Station in Louisville with a new plant next door powered with cleaner-burning natural gas by 2016.
      The company is also closing two other coalfired plants operated by KU: Green River in Central City and Tyrone in Versailles.    The Tyrone plant has already been mothballed.
      But the environmental upgrades come at a cost to customers. LG&E and KU have negotiated a rate increase with environmental and consumer groups that was approved earlier this month by the Kentucky Public Service Commission to cover mercury and other emission rules.
      Whelan said that addressing the mercury and toxic air limits was the largest part of the planned rate increase.
      LG&E will be allowed to raise electric rates by about 18 percent by 2016 to pay for the environmental upgrades.    Customers of Kentucky Utilities, which serves 77 Kentucky counties, will see a smaller rate increase of about 9.7 percent by 2016.
      LG&E plans to spend $1.4 billion to modernize the sulfur-dioxide scrubbers at Mill Creek Station in southwestern Jefferson County and install new filters to better control mercury and particulates at a unit of the Trimble County generating plant.    Mill Creek will also get the new filters, called bag houses, which function much like vacuum cleaners and are as large as a football field and 10 stories tall.
      Duke Energy has promised fewer mercury emissions from its Gallagher plant in New Albany, as part of an earlier court settlement with the EPA.
      Lew Middleton, a Duke spokesman, said the company awaits a decision on its request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to purchase a portion of the Vermillion Generating Station and then retire two of four coal-burn-ing units at Gallagher.    Alternatively, the company has sought to convert two Gallagher units to cleaner-burning natural gas.
      Middleton declined to comment on the EPA’s action.    “We will need some time to review EPA’s final rule to truly understand what it means to our plants,” he said.    City officials have predicted cleaner air locally, as the rule will also result in fewer emissions that cause smog and high levels of lung-damaging particulates — both long-time challenges for the Louisville area.
      For example, LG&E has said that a natural gas plant at Cane Run would clean up more than just mercury, metals and acid gases.    It would have 98 percent fewer emissions of sulfur dioxide than the current plant, 70 percent fewer emissions of nitrogen oxides and 60 percent less particulate emissions, they have said.
      Thomas Nord, spokesman for the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, commended LG&E for being “proactive” and said the rule would make breathing easier and reduce pollution downwind.    Less coal being burned will mean cleaner skies, he added.    “This is something that was a long time coming,” Nord said.
  
  EU court upholds carbon charge - U.S. airlines call it an ‘exorbitant tax’ by Arthur Max, Associated Press
      AMSTERDAM — U.S. airlines failed Wednesday to block a European Union law that charges airlines flying to Europe for their carbon pollution.
      The decision by an EU court was widely hailed by environmentalists, but the Fitch ratings agency said it raised the specter of a global trade dispute.
      Although only 3 percent of total human-caused carbon emissions come from aircraft, aviation is the fastest-growing source of carbon pollution.
      Environmentalists called the law a first step in controlling carbon emissions in a key economic sector, and EU officials said they expected airlines to comply.
      The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg dismissed arguments that imposing the EU’s capand- trade carbon credits program on flights to and from European airports infringes on national sovereignty or violates interna-tional aviation treaties.
      U.S. and other non-European airlines had sued the EU, arguing that they were exempt from the law.
      Each airline will be allocated pollution permits slightly less than its average historical emissions record.    If it exceeds its limit, it can buy permits from other airlines that have emitted less than allowed and have leftover permits to sell.
      Emissions are counted for the entire route of an aircraft that touches down in Europe.
      The intention is to induce airlines to emit less carbon by upgrading their fleets or becoming more efficient.
      But Fitch Ratings said the decision could deepen rather than quell the dispute, raised in a lawsuit brought by the trade organization Airlines for America and several U.S. airlines.    The lawsuit is supported by China, India and other countries with international carriers.
      “We believe threats of trade retaliation over the EU’s cap-andtrade system will pose growing threats to aviation market access in both developed and emerging markets next year,” Fitch said.
      Retaliation could come in the form of slot allocations at airports and authorizing routes, especially in developing countries, Fitch said.
      The U.S. airlines said the regulation was tantamount to “an exorbitant tax,” but the EU said the added costs would amount to a few dollars per ticket and would open the way for efficient airlines to make money rather than lose it.    The program, due to go into effect Jan. 1, is one of the widestreaching measures adopted by any country or regional bloc to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. U.S. airlines most affected are United Continental, Delta and American Airlines, all of which derive more than 20 percent of global revenues from trans-Atlantic traffic, Fitch said.
      The U.S. trade group said its members would comply with the EU directive “under protest” while reviewing legal options.
      Airlines for America estimates its members will spend an additional $3.1 billion over the next nine years to comply with the regulation — a cost presumably to be passed on to passengers.
  
  
• 12/23/2011
  
  Major Shell oil spill close to reaching Nigerian shore by Jon Gambrell, Associated Press
      LAGOS, Nigeria — An oil spill near the coast of Nigeria is likely the worst to hit those waters in a decade, a government official said Thursday, as slicks from the Royal Dutch Shell PLC spill approached the country’s southern shoreline.
      The slick from Shell’s Bonga field has affected 115 miles of ocean near Nigeria’s coast, said Peter Idabor, who leads the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency.
      He said that the slick continued to move toward the shore Thursday night, putting birds, fish and other wildlife in the area at risk.
      Shell, the major oil producer in Nigeria, said late Thursday the spill came from a “flexible export line” connecting the offshore field to a waiting tanker.
      The company published photographs of the spill, showing a telltale rainbow sheen in the ocean, but said it believes that about 50 percent of the leaked oil has already evaporated.
      The source of the leak has been plugged and experts from Britain were coming to help with the cleanup, Idabor said.    Nigerian Navy ships also had been sent into the area to help control the spill, he said.
  
  
• 12/28/2011
  
  ’07 Calif. oil spill devastated herring by Kenneth R. Weiss, Los Angeles Times
      LOS ANGELES — Thick, tarry fuel oil disgorged into San Francisco Bay from a damaged cargo ship in 2007 was surprisingly toxic to fish embryos, devastating the herring population that feeds seabirds, whales and the bay’s last commercial fishery, scientists reported Monday.    Although the bay’s herring spawning grounds are now free of toxic oil, studies have found the moderate- size spill of 54,000 gallons had an unexpectedly large and lethal effect.    The culprit, a common type of ship fuel called “bunker fuel,” appears to be especially toxic to fish embryos, particularly when exposed to sunlight, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
      “That’s the big lesson,” said John Incardona, a toxicologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.    “This bunker oil is literally the dregs of the barrel, and it’s much more toxic than crude oil.”
      The container ship Cosco Busan spilled low-grade bunker fuel after it sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on a foggy November morning four years ago.    This type of sludge-like fuel is cheap and thus popular among operators of commercial shipping fleets that transport raw materials and goods around the globe.
      Scientists have traditionally focused on larger crude oil spills, such as last year’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico or 1989’s Exxon Valdez tanker disaster, in which 11 million gallons of oil were discharged into Alaska’s Prince William Sound.    The Exxon spill is suspected of wiping out the sound’s herring fishery, which has never bounced back.    From studies in Alaska, scientists knew oil could cause heart deformities to developing herring.    But after examining herring embryos placed in cages in shallow waters near the Cosco Busan spill site, researchers were surprised to find that nearly all had died, and their tissues were deteriorating faster than expected in the bay’s chilly water.    “We didn’t think there was enough oil spilled to cause this much damage,” said Gary Cherr, director of the University of California, Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory.
  
  
• 12/31/2011
  
  Court delays pollution rule - Would reduce power plant emissions by Dina Cappiello, Associated Press
  WASHINGTON — A federal court Friday put on hold a controversial Obama administration regulation aimed at reducing power plant pollution in 27 states that contributes to unhealthy air downwind.
      More than a dozen electric power companies, municipal power plant operators and states had sought to delay the rules until the litigation plays out.    A federal appeals court in Washington approved their request Friday.
      Republicans in Congress have attempted to block the rule using legislation, saying it would shutter some older, coal-fired power plants and kill jobs.    While those efforts succeeded in the Republican- controlled House, the Senate — with the help of six Republicans — in November rejected an attempt to stay the regulation. And the White House had threatened to veto it.
      The rule, finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in July, replaces a 2005 Bush administration proposal that was rejected by a federal court.
      The Bush-era rule, which is expected to cost the $1.6 billion annually to comply, will remain in effect.    The new rule would have added $800 million a year to that price tag.    But those investments would be far outweighed by the hundreds of billions of dollars in health care savings from cleaner air, according to the EPA.
      In the first two years, the EPA estimates that the regulation and some other steps would have slashed sulfur dioxide emissions by 73 percent from 2005 levels, and nitrogen oxides will be cut by more than half.
      Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution from power plant smokestacks can be carried long distances by the wind and weather.    As they drift, the pollutants react with other substances in the atmosphere to form smog and soot, which have been linked to various illnesses, including asthma, and have prevented many states and cities from complying with health-based standards set by law.
      Environmentalists on Friday said they would continue to defend the regulations, which are essential for some states to be able to meet air quality standards for soot and smog and are far more protective than the ones proposed under the Bush administration.
      “The pollution reductions at stake are some of the single most important clean air protections for children, families and communities, across the eastern half of the United States,” said Vickie Patton, the general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund.
      But Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a coalition of power companies, said in a statement Friday that the ruling was the “first step to setting it right.”
      “The underlying rule was the subject of hasty process, poor technical support, unequal application and substantial threat to jobs, power bills and reliability,” he said.
      Six states — Texas, Nebraska, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana and Ohio — had asked the court for the delay.    All would have had to reduce pollution from their power plants under the regulation.
  
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This file created on October 12, 2011, updated on October 18, 2011, and December 31, 2011.