Senate rejects GOP bid to lift EPA coal plant regulations

6/20/12

Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-backed move Wednesday to scrap EPA regulations on mercury and toxic chemical emissions from coal power plants, not swayed by the contention that the rules are killing jobs, not saving lives.

The measure, sponsored by Sen.James M. Inhofe(R-Okla.), failed, 53 to 46.

Picking an election-year fight over the wisdom of instituting new environmental regulations in a weak economy, Republicans argued that the rules would force older power plants to close, putting people out of work, and would drive up the cost of electricity.

Inhofe warned senators that by voting against his measure "you are effectively killing coal in America."

Opponents of the measure said the regulations were needed because of the hundreds of thousands of Americans made ill by toxic chemicals spewed by coal-fired plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the rules will prevent 11,000 premature deaths a year.

Environmental groups praised the regulations when they were announced in December as a historic step that was more than two decades in the making.

Congress ordered the EPA to regulate the chemicals as part of the 1990 Clean Air Act, but delays and aGeorge W. Bushadministration U-turn meant mercury and other toxic chemicals from coal plants were not controlled until the rules were announced last year.

There was little chance that the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards would be repealed. Even if Congress had passed Inhofe's measure, the White House had threatened to veto it. But the vote allowed senators to attempt to capitalize on the issue ahead of this fall's election.

Some Democrats from energy-producing states voted for the measure. But New England Republicans, whose states do not use much coal and are in the path of airborne chemicals from Midwestern plants, voted against it.

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said the regulations would harm miners in his state, which is a major coal producer. "These people are scared to death because all they hear every day is they're going to lose their jobs," he said.

But West Virginia's other Democratic senator,John D. Rockefeller IV, argued that the rules would help clean up the coal industry, giving it a viable future.

Manchin is up for reelection in November; Rockefeller is not.

Power companies have four years to meet the rules, which the EPA estimates will cost the industry almost $10 billion a year. But the agency also estimates that the regulations will save between three and nine times that amount as a result of better health. The EPA also estimates that although some jobs could be lost as plants closed, others will be created to install the required equipment.

The rules require all coal plants to meet the same standards as the cleanest coal plants now operating. The EPA estimates the regulations will cut mercury emissions by 90% and acid gases by 88%.

Power plants are responsible for 50% of mercury emissions in the United States. Mercury gets into water, where it is turned into a highly toxic chemical by microorganisms and accumulates in fish.

Mercury can cause developmental problems in children who eat contaminated fish. Other chemicals emitted by coal plants are linked to cancer and respiratory illnesses.

Is There a Catch?

6/19/12

A healthy fishery is more than a pastime, childhood memory, or the makings of a meal, it is a major indicator of the health of our waterways, watersheds and the economy. Recreational angling is one of the most popular outdoor activities and one of the most solid industries in the U.S. Each year, “nearly 40 million anglers generate more than $45 billion in retail sales, with a $125 billion impact on the nation’s economy, creating employment for over one million people.”

Unfortunately, our state and federal governments have given industrial polluters a free bar tab for polluting; only, the public suffers the hangover. Coal-fired power plants across the U.S. have poisoned our fish with mercury, industries have willfully dumped PCBs and chromium in our waters, and industrial aquaculture and other kinds of unsustainable fishing have depleted already stressed fish stocks.

For example, in August 2011, based on a citizen complaint, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper discovered that a paper mill on the Pearl River in Louisiana had discharged untreated and partially treated black liquor into the river, causing a massive kill of fish and other aquatic life. Water and mussel samples collected after the discharge revealed the presence of toxic chemicals in the mussels and water. These toxic substances are associated with the pulping process and flow freely in the wastewater from the offending paper mill. The concerned citizen’s life revolves around the swamp. He makes his living there. In fact, he catfishes to raise extra money to help offset expenses incurred mentoring troubled youth in his community. The outlook for catfish in the Pearl River over the next couple of years is bleak. In response to this destruction, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network have filed a notice of intent to sue against the mill for failing to comply with the Clean Water Act, Louisiana state law and the Endangered Species Act.

Wiyot Tribe searching for additional project funding

6/13/12

The Wiyot Tribe has almost finished restoring Indian Island to a place where its members can continue their traditions.  
But after a dozen years of removing lead batteries, contaminated soil and other debris, tribal representatives are searching for additional funding to complete the environmental cleanup.  

Environmental Director Stephen Kullmann said he had hoped the island restoration, part of the Tuluwat Restoration Project, would be finished this summer, but an estimated $350,000 is needed to cover the contaminants that couldn’t be removed. The tribe has spent roughly $2 million in grant funding and volunteer work on the environmental cleanup and restoration work, Kullmann estimated.  

Much of the contaminated soil has been removed, but there are still various metals and other low-level contaminants, Kullmann said. The permeable cap will protect the public from anything that might still be in the soil, he said. It will also be used to differentiate from historical material and material that’s been brought to the island from the outside, Kullmann said.  

“Every shovelful needed to be sifted and gone through by hazardous waste-trained archeologists,” he said. “That’s someone that doesn’t come cheap. The tribe wanted to disturb as little as possible.” Indian Island’s entire 275 acres is sacred to the Wiyot people, who consider it the center of their universe, said Cheryl Seidner, the tribe’s cultural liaison. It is the site of the tribe’s World Renewal Ceremony, an annual dance ceremony that lasts seven to 10 days. All people are welcome to attend the ceremony, which is the Wiyot people’s way of putting the world right, Seidner said. Since 1860, the dance has not been completed, she said. There has not been a World Renewal Ceremony since then.  

Under cover of darkness following a ceremony in February 1860, a group of Eureka men, armed with hatchets and knives, went to the island and killed the sleeping men, women and children, according to the tribe’s website. Seidner said the massacre interrupted the World Renewal Ceremony.  

“Why does anyone harm anyone,” Seidner said. “It’s over greed. Over money. And things of that nature — property. In the end it’s all greed.” Robert Gunther, who purchased the land in 1860, took possession of the island following the massacre and the Tuluwat Village site was leased to Duff Shipyard Drydock, which ran a ship repair facility well into the 1970s and 1980s, Kullmann said. In the process of repairing those ships, the wood would be treated with preservatives and chemical paint, which seeped into the soil, he said.

The tribe purchased 1.5 acres of the original village site in 2000, Kullmann said. They thought they’d just be able to clean it, but what they found was highly contaminated debris including a paint shed with chemical barrels and a retaining wall made out of old marine batteries, he said. “There wasn’t much concern for the health of the area,” Kullmann said, referring to the people who had leased the land prior to the tribe purchasing it.

“Someone else let amateur archeologists dig up bones and artifacts. It takes a lot of work to try and repatriate remains and artifacts. It’s a hugely complicated process.” In 2004, the city of Eureka returned more than 60 acres of island north of the Samoa Bridge back to the Wiyot Tribe, Seidner said. “That was a fabulous day,” she said.

Since 2000, the tribe has removed some of the old buildings and rebuilt a bulkhead to allow barges to land, Kullmann said.

Remnants of the rails the ship repair facility used to bring boats on shore are still visible at low tide.

The tribe has also had to deal with trespassers and homeless encampments, Kullmann said.

The tribe has also worked to convert much of the land Eureka gave to them to saltwater marsh, Kullmann said.

Japanese Dock Reaches Oregon; Tsunami Debris Arriving Sooner Than Expected

6/7/12

"A massive dock" that was washed away from a city on Japan's northeast coast by the devastating March 2011 tsunami landed this week on an Oregon beach. It's a warning sign that dangerous chunks of debris from that disaster are reaching the Pacific coast of the mainland U.S. much sooner than predicted, The Oregonian reports.

"This stuff is coming a lot faster than we thought it was," Tom Towslee, a spokesman for Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden told the newspaper. "It's starting and at least nine months ahead of schedule as far as I can tell."

As we've previously reported, experts had thought it might be March 2013 before major pieces of debris hit the coasts of North America.

According to the Oregonian, the dock that washed up on Agate Beach this week is "66 feet long by 19 feet wide by 7 feet tall." It came from the northern Japanese city of Misawa, according to Hirofumi Murabayahsi, deputy consul general at the Japanese Consulate in Portland. He tells the newspaper that there are three more like that dock possibly floating toward the U.S.

Agate Beach is about 55 miles west of Corvallis, Ore. It's about a 90-mile drive from both Salem and Eugene.

Commercial fishermen, as Oregon Public Broadcasting has reported, are very worried about the danger that such debris presents to their ships.
In April, the U.S. Coast Guard fired on and sank a Japanese "Ghost Ship" that hd been set adrift by the tsunami and was floating in shipping lanes off Alaska's southeast coast.

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Eureka approves Waterfront Drive funds for trail

Project will need state approval

6/7/12

The Eureka City Council approved the redirection of $1.2 million in funding from the defunct Waterfront Drive Extension project to a waterfront trail from Del Norte to Truesdale streets at its Tuesday meeting.  

The city had secured more than $4.6 million for a project to extend Waterfront Drive but abandoned the project in April in the face of strong and ongoing opposition by the California Coastal Commission.  

In a 4-1 vote Tuesday, Councilman Lance Madsen dissenting, the council directed staff to work with Caltrans and the Humboldt County Association of Governments to use funds from the project for construction of the trail and the remaining balance for other roadway improvements.

  The funds were originally allocated to the city in conjunction with the waterfront drive extension, and the standalone trail will have to go before the California Transportation Commission for approval. The funds carry stipulations to improve the safety of the U.S. Highway 101 corridor.  

Madsen praised the idea of the trail but said he didn’t think the project fit the conditions for which the funds were designated.  

“There seems to be some confusion about what these non-freeway funds were designated for,” Madsen said.

  He said he had not seen any findings that the trail would improve safety on Broadway, and expressed concern that the trail will increase traffic crossings on Broadway.

  “There’s also a reasonable expectation that an increase in traffic will increase accidents,” Madsen said. “Public safety is the express priority of this council.” Councilwoman Linda Atkins predicted the project would have a positive effect.  

“Taking bicycles and pedestrians off Broadway I think is a really good way to increase the safety there,” Atkins said.  

Representatives from the Audobon Society, Redwood Community Action Agency, Humboldt Baykeeper and other organizations spoke during public comment, saying the trail would benefit local businesses, tourism and access to the waterfront.

Westside Improvement Association member Richard Evans said waterfront access would transform the Westside.

“The most successful coastal towns have embraced their waterfronts,” Evans said.

Councilwoman Marian Brady praised the project, adding that it was important to have law enforcement and public safety access to the area which she described as currently less than family-friendly.

“There are weird, strange people out there that jump out at you,” Brady said. Assistant City Manager Mike Knight said staff was aware of the need for public safety access, and was confident that $1.2 million would be enough to complete the project as the city envisions it. Knight said the project has Humboldt County Association of Governments support and believed that the project would be acceptable under the funds’ stipulations.

“I was hoping that if all of us in this area are in agreement about how this money should be spent, that should go a long ways in front of the California Transportation Commission,” Knight said.

In other business, the council voted unanimously to direct staff to implement a mandatory commercial recycling program which will affect 1,100 businesses and could start as soon as the end of the year.

The program will mean a increase in both commercial and residential rates, and will help Eureka move toward waste reduction, according to Deputy Public Works Director Miles Slattery.

Slattery said average residential customers will see a $1.30 per month increase. Commercial customers will see an increase of $8.50 per month, but Slattery said that many businesses will see reduced recycling costs as they move away from voluntary recycling programs that can be more costly.

Slattery said the program will double the amount of recycling done by the city and generate $30,000 per year.

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