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ACC PM 1/15/16
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(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Group Boosts Friendly Lawmakers with $1.5M Ad Buy
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Sam Pearson
A top chemical industry trade group is running advertisements touting the work of three GOP lawmakers who have been key allies over the years and are seeking re-election this fall. -
(ACC Mentioned) Shimkus, McCarter Get Backing of Different Groups
Jan 15, 2016 | Urbana News Gazette
By Tom Kacich
The American Chemistry Council is dedicating $289,000 toward the re-election of U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, in his 15th Congressional District primary election race. -
Utility Understated Levels of Cancer-Causing Chemical
Jan 15, 2016 | The New York Times
By Associated Press
The utility whose leaking natural gas well has driven thousands of Los Angeles residents from their homes acknowledged that it understated the number of times airborne levels of the cancer-causing chemical benzene have spiked during the crisis. -
'Invisible' California Disaster Raises Stakes for Obama's Last Climate Crusade
Jan 15, 2016 | Politico Pro
By Elana Schor and Eric Wolff
The Obama administration’s proposals for cutting the energy industry’s air pollution could hardly have a better sales pitch than the environmental disaster that has been unfolding in a Los Angeles suburb for the past three months: an out-of-control natural gas leak that has sickened hundreds of people, forced more than 10,000 residents from their homes and vented as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere every day as several million cars. -
CDC Report Warns of Petroleum Vapor Hazard
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Soraghan
Worker safety advocates are calling on physicians, coroners and employers to be aware of potentially lethal vapors from crude oil storage tanks. -
This is How Toxic Flint’s Water Really Is
Jan 15, 2016 | The Washington Post
By Christopher Ingraham
The city of Flint, Mich., is in the midst of a water crisis several years in the making. The city opted out of Detroit's water supply and began drawing water from the Flint River in April 2014, part of a cost-saving move. Eighteen months later, in the fall of 2015, researchers discovered that the proportion of children with above-average lead levels in their blood had doubled. -
Mich. Governor Asks Obama for Emergency Help in Water Crisis
Jan 15, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is requesting emergency federal assistance to help deal with the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich. -
ClimateWire's Harball Previews New Review of State Power Plan Discussions
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E TV
Will carbon trading prevail as states work to comply with the Clean Power Plan? On today's The Cutting Edge, ClimateWire reporter Elizabeth Harball discusses the details of a new ClimateWire review of high-level state planning discussions on the power plan. -
States Request Flexibility in New Grant Program
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Amanda Reilly
State environmental regulators asked the federal government this week for the power to choose what to spend money on when it comes to a new grant program created in the omnibus spending bill. -
Ohio Bill Would Step Up Oversight of Drilling Waste
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
A bill in the Ohio Legislature would impose tighter regulations on the injection wells used to dispose of wastewater from the Utica Shale gas field in an effort to curb illegal dumping, truck traffic and other side effects. -
Ohio's Storage Sources Largely Unchecked for Leaks
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Laura Arenschield
California's massive methane gas leak has thousands evacuating the area and is calling into question other states' natural gas storage rules and regulations. -
Glitch at LNG Plant Delays Cheniere’s Natural-Gas Exports
Jan 15, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Chester Dawson and Christian Berthelsen
Cheniere Energy Partners LP said on Thursday that it faced an unexpected delay in its plan to be the first company to export natural gas from the lower 48 states. -
EPA Haze Plan For Texas, Oklahoma Sets Precedent On Inadequate SIPs
Jan 15, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
EPA's decision to reject Texas and Oklahoma's state implementation plans (SIPs) for complying with the agency's regional haze program and instead impose an EPA-crafted plan on the states sets a precedent on how the agency will handle future situations where one state's SIP compromises other states' ability to comply, an environmentalist says. -
Parties Outline Iowa Law Questions In Novel Federal Nutrient Litigation
Jan 15, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Amanda Palleschi
Parties involved in novel federal litigation seeking to impose Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting requirements on agricultural drainage districts in Iowa have agreed to seek state Supreme Court clarification on whether such districts are immune from damage claims and whether a drinking water utility has the authority under state law to file the suit. -
Energy Efficiency Standards Help Businesses Thrive and Consumers Save
Jan 15, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By David Goldstein, Ph.D. and Jason Knopes
Imagine a strategy that helps businesses streamline their operations and create better, more competitive products. Imagine if that same strategy also has allowed consumers and business to save trillions of dollars. Now imagine that this strategy is actually being used successfully across dozens of industries and thousands of companies and has exceeded all expectations.
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(ACC Mentioned) Chemical Group Boosts Friendly Lawmakers with $1.5M Ad Buy
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Sam Pearson
A top chemical industry trade group is running advertisements touting the work of three GOP lawmakers who have been key allies over the years and are seeking re-election this fall.
The American Chemistry Council said yesterday it would start running advertisements in support of Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). It started airing television ads boosting Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) earlier this month. The three campaigns together will cost at least $1.5 million, ACC spokeswoman Anne Kolton said.
The three lawmakers face varying degrees of political danger this year.
As is typical for the trade group, none of the advertisements makes explicit reference to chemical industry policies, but rather they praise the lawmakers for generally working to reduce regulations to boost the economy in their districts. The trade group's advertisement also praised Portman for, among other things, working to make college more affordable in Ohio. The spots urge voters to call the lawmakers and thank them for doing a good job.
Holding Blunt's and Portman's Senate seats will be crucial if Republicans want to maintain control of the chamber next year and continue to advance policies backed by the chemical industry. Shimkus, meanwhile, has been a reliable industry ally and plays a leading role in its top lobbying priority, passing legislative reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.
Shimkus also weighs in on a litany of energy and environmental issues through his role as the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy and is considered a leading contender to take over leadership of the full committee next year (E&E Daily, Jan. 5).
Blunt, the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, faces a challenge from Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D). Analysts expect the rising Democratic star to face an uphill battle against Blunt, but Blunt's allies are not taking the race for granted (E&E Daily, Nov. 9, 2015).
Portman's Ohio seat is a top target for Democrats, with former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld seeking their party's nomination to take on the first-term lawmaker.
Shimkus, who is seeking an 11th term and has not previously faced a serious primary challenger, was targeted by the conservative Club for Growth this month. He is facing a challenge from state Sen. Kyle McCarter for the GOP nomination, who is taking on Shimkus from the right (Greenwire, Jan. 6).
Club for Growth President David McIntosh assailed Shimkus' support for last year's budget agreement and his votes to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank of the United States -- both favored by GOP leadership and the business community -- and said they showed he needed to be replaced by a more reliable conservative.
Shimkus won election to Congress in 1996 by 1,200 votes, but his southern Illinois district has increasingly trended toward the GOP in the years since. His only close election since came in 2002, when he fended off then-Rep. David Phelps (D), whose district was merged with Shimkus'.
Shimkus told Greenwire last week that he was not concerned about McCarter or the Club for Growth.
"Hey, that's the world we live in," Shimkus said.
He added, "I feel very confident. It's just a primary."
Click here for Blunt's ad, here for Portman's ad and here for Shimkus' ad.
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(ACC Mentioned) Shimkus, McCarter Get Backing of Different Groups
Jan 15, 2016 | Urbana News Gazette
By Tom Kacich
The American Chemistry Council is dedicating $289,000 toward the re-election of U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, in his 15th Congressional District primary election race.
Television ads on behalf of the 10-term congressman began running over the air and on cable TV channels Thursday in the Champaign and St. Louis markets. About $135,000 has been dedicated to the central Illinois market with even more being spent at St. Louis stations.
Shimkus is being challenged for the Republican nomination in the 32-county congressional district by state Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon. McCarter was endorsed Thursday by the Illinois chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors and the Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee.
The latter group hit Shimkus for a December vote to "fund Obama's dangerous Muslim and illegal alien resettlement programs, Sanctuary Cities for illegals, (earned income) tax refund credits for illegals and Obama's unconstitutional amnesty orders."
The ABC said that "Illinois's building community and families don't need a career politician representing them in Congress, they need a principled leader and job creator like Kyle McCarter."
ABC Illinois Chapter President Alicia Martin said McCarter's "conservative principles, experience as a small business owner and dedication to community will serve Illinois well in Washington and we are proud to support him."
Meanwhile, the pro-Shimkus spots by the chemistry group credit him with leadership on economic issues, reducing regulations and creating jobs.
"Representative Shimkus works hard for Illinois, and his honest, conservative leadership gets results in Congress," said chemistry council President and CEO Cal Dooley. "Illinois is the fifth largest chemistry-producing state. Because of Illinois' impact on our industry and as representatives of one of the nation's largest manufacturing sectors, we want to acknowledge Representative Shimkus' dedication and leadership on key issues that help our economy."
The ads for Shimkus will run for two weeks through Jan. 27, the group said.
The chemistry council is spending $47,200 for the ads on WCIA-TV, $39,150 at WAND-TV, $13,450 at WCCU and WRSP, and nearly $15,000 on ESPN and Fox News Channel on cable TV systems in Champaign-Urbana, Charleston, Effingham and Westville.
The largely rural 15th District takes in parts of Champaign and Ford counties and all of Vermilion, Douglas, Coles, Edgar, Moultrie and Shelby counties.
The American Chemistry Council has more than 100 industry members and promotes chemical-related businesses and represents the industry in Congress. Among its members with facilities in Shimkus' district are Cabot Corp., LyondellBasell, Marathon Petroleum and Honeywell.
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Utility Understated Levels of Cancer-Causing Chemical
Jan 15, 2016 | The New York Times
By Associated Press
The utility whose leaking natural gas well has driven thousands of Los Angeles residents from their homes acknowledged that it understated the number of times airborne levels of the cancer-causing chemical benzene have spiked during the crisis.
Southern California Gas Co. had been saying on its website and in emails to The Associated Press that just two air samples over the past three months showed elevated concentrations of the compound. But after the AP inquired about discrepancies in the data, SoCalGas admitted higher-than-normal readings had been found at least 14 times.
SoCalGas spokeswoman Kristine Lloyd said Thursday that it was "an oversight" that was being corrected. The utility continued to assert that the leak has posed no long-term risk to the public.
Public health officials have likewise said they do not expect any long-term health problems. But some outside experts insist the data is too thin to say that with any certainty. For one thing, it is unclear whether the benzene fumes persisted long enough to exceed state exposure limits.
"I have not seen anything convincing that it's been proven to be safe," said Seth Shonkoff, the executive director of an independent energy science and policy institute and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. "I'm not going on record as saying this is absolutely an unsafe situation; I'm saying there are a number of red flags."
The leak at the biggest natural gas storage facility west of the Mississippi River was reported Oct. 23. The cause is unknown, but the leak has spewed huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and occasionally blanketed neighborhoods about a mile away with a sickening rotten-egg odor. The leak is in the San Fernando Valley about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
SoCalGas has run up more than $50 million in costs so far in trying to contain the leak and relocate about 4,500 families. Gov. Jerry Brown has declared an emergency, and some environmentalists are calling it the worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Health officials and SoCalGas have said most of the gas has dissipated, though the odor from the chemical additive that makes the methane detectable is blamed for nausea, headaches and nosebleeds.
Natural gas also contains smaller amounts of other compounds, such as benzene, that cause cancer as well as anemia and other blood disorders.
In the Los Angeles area, benzene is normally present at minuscule levels of 0.1 to 0.5 parts per billion, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. But SoCalGas has been saying on its website that the typical background level is 2 parts per billion.
Apparently relying on that standard, SoCalGas originally said that benzene was found in amounts slightly higher than background levels in just two samples, both on Nov. 10. The suspect readings were 5.6 parts per billion in one gated development about a mile from the well and 3.7 parts per billion in the Porter Ranch Estates neighborhood of 1,100 homes.
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However, a more detailed look at the data by the AP and outside experts showed at least 10 other instances over seven days in November when benzene exceeded 1 part per billion.
In its update Thursday, SoCalGas said that nearly 1,200 tests had found 14 instances where benzene exceeded 1 part per billion, including one time in December.
The World Health Organization and U.S. government classify benzene as an undisputed cause of leukemia and other cancers. "No safe level of exposure can be recommended," according to WHO.
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in 2014 set a series of limits for the amount of benzene people could be exposed to without risking anemia and other noncancerous disorders.
Those limits are 8 parts per billion for a one-time exposure, 1 part per billion for repeated exposures for eight hours at a stretch, and 1 part per billion for several years or a lifetime.
Michael Jerrett, chairman of the environmental health department at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that because of the limited testing done by SoCalGas early on, it is impossible to know for sure whether there was repeated exposure in parts of the community. He said he believes there is a "high probability" the eight-hour standard was violated.
One problem with the testing is that it was done over very short periods that can indicate spikes but can't provide meaningful data on long-term exposure.
Dr. Cyrus Rangan, a medical toxicologist from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said it is unlikely state safety levels were exceeded because spot testing didn't turn up a larger, more consistent pattern of high readings.
"You can't take a 10-minute sample that's 5.6 parts per billion and make any long-term risk assessment," Rangan said. "If that was sustained over several months in a row, I'd be concerned about that, but we know that's not happening."
More comprehensive testing is underway, though the amount of gas being released has dropped about 60 percent as pressure in the well drops.
Since Dec. 21, the air district has been taking samples around the clock, and all but one showed benzene at 0.1 parts per billion, said spokesman Sam Atwood. One sample was 0.2 parts per billion.
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'Invisible' California Disaster Raises Stakes for Obama's Last Climate Crusade
Jan 15, 2016 | Politico Pro
By Elana Schor and Eric Wolff
The Obama administration’s proposals for cutting the energy industry’s air pollution could hardly have a better sales pitch than the environmental disaster that has been unfolding in a Los Angeles suburb for the past three months: an out-of-control natural gas leak that has sickened hundreds of people, forced more than 10,000 residents from their homes and vented as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere every day as several million cars.
But this disaster is invisible, even though experts say its ecological havoc is on par with the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill that roiled energy politics in President Barack Obama’s first term. And most Americans have no idea it’s even happening, making it tough to build support for tough new rules on the gas industry that Democrats like California Rep. Brad Sherman say are needed.
"Much to the consternation of old Rahm Emanuel, we have wasted a crisis" if the industry isn't reined in, said Sherman, whose district includes the leaking Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility.
Environmentalists complain the federal government has been too slow to take the Aliso Canyon disaster seriously, and they are using the leak to bolster support for Obama’s final-year regulatory push. Although rules on tap from EPA and the Interior Department would not cover existing operations like the storage facility, greens are encouraged that the president appears to be abandoning his "all of the above" energy plan.
"I think it's no accident the president this week didn't — as he usually has in past State of the Union speeches — boast about all the natural gas that's come on line in America in his term,” said Bill McKibben, co-founder of the grass-roots climate activist group 350.org. "The bloom is definitely off the natural gas rose, and now we're feeling the prick of its thorns."
The plume of natural gas in Porter Ranch, about 25 miles from the famous Hollywood sign, does not offer the visceral images of destruction that greens used to spark outrage over the risks of oil and gas extraction after the BP oil spill. The leak has generated enough methane in three months to undo half of the reductions the administration has promised over a full year for the entire U.S. under EPA's proposed rule targeting the potent greenhouse gas, which is 25 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide.
“Unlike a massive oil spill, like BP, the impact of the damage here is mostly invisible — so it is easier to ignore when there is no sludge pouring out of the broken well," state Sen. Fran Pavley, whose district includes the leak, said in a statement to POLITICO. "But families are still sick, schools and homes are still empty, and the costs of this massive leak remain all too real."
Just like it took five months for BP to drill a relief well that permanently sealed itsunderwater gusher in the Gulf, Southern California Gas said it will be late February at least before it can stop the gas that has been escaping since October. And because the methane is going straight into the atmosphere, greens say its direct contribution to global warming will dwarf that of the Gulf spill.
EPA is facing industry resistance to a proposed methane rule for new facilities it hopes to complete before the end of Obama’s term. Another pillar of Obama’s methane crackdown could come as soon as next week, when the Interior Department is expected to propose rules for venting and flaring of methane from drilling on public lands, according to sources familiar with the administration's plans.
Aliso Canyon has spewed 77,500 metric tons of methane into the air as of Jan. 8, according to the California Air Resources Board. It is now California's biggest single source of greenhouse gas emissions, state officials have said. EPA's methane rule, meanwhile, is projected to reduce methane emissions by 150,000 to 160,000 metric tons in 2020, according to a proposal the agency published in September.
At its peak, the leak's daily climate impact was equivalent to that of six coal-fired power plants, or about 7 million cars. But that pace has slowed as SoCal Gas depletes part of the underground field, and some in the Obama administration are downplaying its climate footprint.
“From a greenhouse gas perspective, that really isn’t the main element of the crisis," Richard Duke, the White House’s deputy director for climate policy, told a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel last week, comparing its current emissions rate to a single coal plant.
So far, the leaked gas is responsible for at least $88 million in environmental damage. That’s more than four times what the gas would be worth if it was sold to local residents, businesses, factories, and power plants, about $21 million, according to a POLITICO analysis based on EPA's social cost of methane metric and Energy Information Administration estimates.
For now, SoCal Gas is also drilling a relief well more than a mile underground to plug the leak — a gambit that also recalls BP’s bid to stanch the oil spewing into the Gulf five years ago. Just as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used its satellites to help track the spread of the BP oil spill, so has a NOAA-managed satellite changed its orbit to keep track of Aliso Canyon. While a live video feed of the BP gusher dominated cable news in the spring of 2010, the Environmental Defense Fund could not similarly captivate the public with infrared footage of the Aliso Canyon leak it released last month.
In a statement, SoCal Gas said it was working with Gov. Jerry Brown and the CARB on assessing the amount of emissions from the leak. "We are also looking forward to developing a framework that will help us achieve the goal of mitigating the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions as a result of this incident," the company said.
Organizing a federal response to the leak is complicated by laws that split primary authority over the gas leak among more than eight state agencies. But it remains unclear what more federal agencies could do without new authority from Congress. California has power over oil and gas transportation infrastructure within its borders, for example, with federal pipeline safety regulators at DOT annually certifying and providing grant money for the state.
Gas storage is "a forgotten stepchild" in terms of safety monitoring, said Mark Brownstein, vice president at EDF. But activists and their allies say more could be done.
California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer told the Department of Justice, EPA and the Department of Transportation on Wednesday that “it is critical that the federal government also play an active role” in fighting the leak. And Alexandra Nagy, California organizer for the green group Food and Water Watch, said EPA should use its Clean Air Act powers to force Southern California Gas Company to drain fuel from Aliso Canyon.
EPA and DOT briefed members of both parties on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday, according to sources on and off the Hill. Federal emergency response officials also have coordinated on the response, EPA participates in daily calls with state and local officials, and DOT's pipeline safety agency has sent technical advisers to the area.
Sherman, the House Democrat who represents the area, lamented that the pipeline believed to be the source of the disaster was not tested using modern methods that can detect anomalies ahead of a rupture.
Sherman also slammed SoCal Gas, the nation’s biggest natural gas distribution utility, for removing a subsurface safety valve from the broken Aliso pipeline more than 35 years ago. A spokesman for the company noted that state regulations did not require the installation of such valves and that the pipeline was in compliance with California's rules at the time of the failure.
“Once a pipeline is older than a bald 61-year-old congressman from California, maybe it’s time to replace it,” he quipped, warning that stronger safety regulations could be more difficult to secure "without a startling picture of a dead seagull."
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CDC Report Warns of Petroleum Vapor Hazard
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Soraghan
Worker safety advocates are calling on physicians, coroners and employers to be aware of potentially lethal vapors from crude oil storage tanks.
In a study published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers highlighted the hazards from the "volatile organic compounds" that whoosh out when workers open top hatches to measure storage tanks.
The report -- authored by Dr. Robert Harrison, an occupational medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center, researchers at CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and others -- documented nine oil worker deaths in which exposure to the vapors was a confirmed or suspected factor.
Five of the men were truck drivers and two were "flow testers." Many of their deaths were incorrectly thought to have been caused by lethal hydrogen sulfide at first (EnergyWire, Oct. 27, 2014).
All crude oil has compounds called volatile hydrocarbons such as benzene, butane and propane. The report refers to them as "hydrocarbon gases and vapors," or HGVs. Shale crude sometimes has more of these compounds than conventional oil. It's related to why shale oil is more prone to explode in rail cars. The chemicals bubble up from the crude oil and collect in storage tanks (EnergyWire, Oct. 27, 2014).
The vapors can disorient people to the point that they're unable to escape the lethal effect of the vapors. And at high concentrations, the hydrocarbons can push oxygen out of the air to the point that they asphyxiate victims, even outdoors.
The CDC report says physicians need to recognize the signs of exposure to the vapors, such as dizziness, confusion, immobility and collapse reported by oil workers. Employers, it said, should not have workers alone at the sites and should provide gas monitors and masks. Even better, though, would be to allow people to measure the tanks without needing to stand over them.
In six of the cases, medical examiners didn't attribute the workers' deaths to petroleum exposure, instead citing heart problems. But the report hints that might be because they were unaware of the hazard.
"Medical examiners and coroners investigating workplace fatalities need to be aware of the possibility that exposure to high concentrations of HGVs and [oxygen]-deficient atmospheres can result in sudden cardiac death in oil and gas extraction workers," the report said.
Public health researchers have indicated that the airborne chemicals that killed the workers also raise questions about whether the vapors pose a threat to people who live nearby. But they say there is little or no published research on the topic, and NIOSH researchers say their findings can be applied only to workplace hazards.
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This is How Toxic Flint’s Water Really Is
Jan 15, 2016 | The Washington Post
By Christopher Ingraham
The city of Flint, Mich., is in the midst of a water crisis several years in the making. The city opted out of Detroit's water supply and began drawing water from the Flint River in April 2014, part of a cost-saving move. Eighteen months later, in the fall of 2015, researchers discovered that the proportion of children with above-average lead levels in their blood had doubled.
The city reconnected to Detroit's water system in October, but the damage was done. Water from the Flint River was found to be highly corrosive to the lead pipes still used in some parts of the city. Even though Flint River water no longer flows through the city's pipes, it's unclear how long those pipes will continue to leach unsafe levels of lead into the tap water supply. Experts currently say the water is safe for bathing, but not drinking.
A group of Virginia Tech researchers who sampled the water in 271 Flint homes last summer found some contained lead levels high enough to meet the EPA's definition of "toxic waste."
The researchers posted their test results online, which I represent graphically below with other visuals to help understand just how high above normal Flint's lead levels really were.
Lead in water is measured in terms of parts per billion (ppb). If a test comes back with lead levels higher than 15 ppb, the EPA recommends thathomeowners and municipalities take steps to reduce that level, like updating pipes and putting anti-corrosive elements in the water when appropriate.
But 15 ppb is a regulatory measure, not a public health one. Researchers stress that there is no 100 percent "safe" level of lead in drinking water, only acceptable levels. Even levels as low as 5 ppb can be a cause for concern, according to the group studying Flint's water.
So let's start with Flint's neighboring cities. At the city level, public health officials are most concerned with the 90th percentile level of lead exposure in homes they test -- that is, 90 percent of homes will have a lead level belowthis threshold, while 10 percent will register above it.
Forty-five minutes away from Flint in Troy, Mich., the 90th percentile level for lead in 2013 was 1.1 parts per billion. Not too shabby at all. In the graphics that follow, each splotch represents 1 part per billion. The splotches aren't proportionally scaled to the cups -- 1 part per billion is way too small to be visualized at this level. But all of the following graphics are scaled proportionally to each other, to give an impression of relative lead levels.
In Detroit, the water supply Flint had previously been connected to, the 90th percentile reading was 2.3 parts per billion -- still highly acceptable.
Here's an illustration of water at the 5 parts per billion level. This is below the borderline for EPA acceptability, but the team of researchers studying Flint's water say that levels this high can be a cause for concern, particularly for young children.
Now things get interesting. Here's a glass illustrating the 90th percentile reading among the 271 Flint homes tested by researchers last summer:
At 27 parts per billion, it's five times as high as the level of concern, and nearly twice as high as the EPA's already-generous guidelines. According to the researchers who ran these tests, the health effects of lead levels this high"can include high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, kidney damage and memory and neurological problems."
Recall, though, that 10 percent of the homes in the sample had lead levels even higher than this. Here's the highest lead reading in that sample, from a home in the city's 8th Ward:
That's more than 10 times the EPA limit. It's 30 times higher than the 5 ppb reading that can indicate unsafe lead amounts.
But that 158 ppb reading is far from the worst one that turned up in Flint, unfortunately. In the spring of 2015, city officials tested water in the home of LeeAnne Walters, a stay-at-home mother of four and a Navy wife. They got a reading of 397 ppb, an alarmingly high number.
But it was even worse than that. Virginia Tech's team went to Walters' houseto verify those numbers later in the year. They were concerned that the city tested water in a way that was almost guaranteed to minimize lead readings: They flushed the water for several minutes before taking a sample, which often washes away a percentage of lead contaminants. They also made residents collect water at a very low flow rate, which they knew also tended to be associated with lower readings.
So the Virginia Tech researchers took 30 different readings at various flow levels. What they found shocked them: The lowest reading they obtained was around 200 ppb, already ridiculously high. But more than half of the readings came in at more than 1,000 ppb. Some came in above 5,000 -- the level at which EPA considers the water to be "toxic waste."
The highest reading registered at 13,000 ppb.
The professor who conducted the sampling, Dr. Marc Edwards, was in "disbelief."
"We had never seen such sustained high levels of lead in 25 years of work," he said.
According to Edwards, the team retested the water with extra quality controls and assurance checks, and obtained the exact same results.
You can check out their description of the testing at the website they set upfor their water study. It includes unsettling photos of LeeAnne Walters' tap water containing rust and metal particles large enough to be seen with the naked eye.
The Walters family had stopped drinking the water a long time ago, according to the Virginia Tech team. But still, the lead levels were too high. One of Walters' 4-year-old sons was diagnosed with lead poisoning.
It appears that the city of Flint and state of Michigan have finally started to take the water problem seriously. Again, they reconnected the city to Detroit's supply back in October, but the water remains unsafe to drink.
In recent days the National Guard was activated to help distribute drinking water to the city's residents. And in yet another unsettling wrinkle in Flint's saga, 87 cases of Legionnaire's Disease, 10 fatal, have been diagnosed in the city since June. It's not yet clear whether that outbreak is linked to the water.
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Mich. Governor Asks Obama for Emergency Help in Water Crisis
Jan 15, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Devin Henry
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is requesting emergency federal assistance to help deal with the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich.
Snyder’s office said late Thursday that he is requesting President Obama declare a federal emergency and an expedited major disaster status for Genesee County. He requested federal aid for both individuals in Flint and public institutions responding to the crisis there, his office said.
“We are utilizing all state resources to ensure Flint residents have access to clean and safe drinking water and today I am asking President Obama to provide additional resources as our recovery efforts continue,” Snyder said in a statement.
Drinking water in the region has seen elevated lead levels since officials switched the source from Detroit’s municipal supply to the Flint River. The problems have become a full-blown crisis, with the corrosiveness of the water making it harmful to drink.
Federal officials are now investigating whether an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease there has been caused by the drinking water, and the state has been forced to haul in bottled water for citizens to drink.
Snyder declared a state emergency in the area on Jan. 5, but he has been broadly criticized for both allowing Flint to switch the water supply and not acting quickly enough to confront the problems caused by the drinking water.
Snyder acknowledged Thursday that his administration “didn’t recognize it as quickly as we should have,” the Detroit Free Press reports. Asked about the criticism, Snyder told the paper, “I appreciate that people are upset about the situation.”
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ClimateWire's Harball Previews New Review of State Power Plan Discussions
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E TV
Will carbon trading prevail as states work to comply with the Clean Power Plan? On today's The Cutting Edge, ClimateWire reporter Elizabeth Harball discusses the details of a new ClimateWire review of high-level state planning discussions on the power plan.
Transcript
Monica Trauzzi: Welcome to The Cutting Edge. Will carbon trading prevail as states work to comply with EPA's Clean Power Plan? Elizabeth Harball joins me today with details on a newClimateWire review of state discussions on power plan compliance.
Elizabeth, you have a fantastic piece running in Tuesday's ClimateWire --
Elizabeth Harball: Thank you --
Monica Trauzzi: -- that digs into the future of carbon trading as part of compliance with the Clean Power Plan. You and our colleague, Emily Holden, have taken a close look at high-level planning discussions that are happening on the state level. What did you find?
Elizabeth Harball: Well, we've been following discussions about carbon trading for many months now, but we took a step back lately and looked at discussions. We looked at our interviews. We looked at some public record requests we've made, and we found that in at least 20 states there's a strong push by either officials or power companies in favor of carbon trading.
For example, in North Carolina you have politicians who are definitely against the Clean Power Plan. They're fighting it in every way they can, but also in North Carolina you have Duke Energy who has come out and said, "If we are going to have to comply with EPA's emission reduction requirements, carbon trading is how we want to do it."
Monica Trauzzi: So what is it about markets that make this such a compelling option to states?
Elizabeth Harball: Well, economic analysis generally finds that carbon markets would be the cheapest way for many states to meet their emissions reductions targets. Also, frankly, it's the way that a lot of coal plants are going to be able to stay open.
Utilities are also used to trading. They've been doing it for a while. An example is the acid rain program.
Then finally, it's important to note that we're not talking about an embrace of carbon trading from a lot of people. North Dakota's a great example. Their governor and a lot of their power companies are saying, "Look, we hate this rule. We think it's illegal, but if it survives, carbon trading is the only way we're going to get there."
Monica Trauzzi: Any surprises among states who you found are having discussions about trading?
Elizabeth Harball: Arizona has been really interesting. They're fighting the rule in court, but Emily Holden watched a discussion they had recently where the DEQ came out and said to all the stakeholders in the room, "We want to get going on our compliance plan, and we are leaning heavily on a trading-ready plan to submit to EPA."
Another caveat. EPA has laid out a menu of options for states. Carbon trading systems are among those menu items, if you will. The carbon trading systems don't necessarily mean that one state can trade with another state. There's different systems.
So what experts are telling us that might happen at the outset of the compliance period is you might have a patchwork of carbon trading systems across the United States. Maybe down the line that patchwork might coalesce, but probably not initially.
Monica Trauzzi: This could also potentially make the rule a bit more politically palatable if markets are involved.
Elizabeth Harball: That's a really interesting question. I guess carbon trading could make the rule cheaper. One of the big criticisms is that the Clean Power Plan might be expensive. However, as I've said before, cap and trade, carbon trading, those are politically charged terms. We have Republicans in Congress calling the Clean Power Plan a backdoor cap-and-trade system already.
So interestingly enough, we've heard some experts tell us that if the Clean Power Plan means that you end up with these carbon trading systems, many years down the line, if something like cap and trade or even an economywide national carbon trading system ends up before Congress, the Clean Power Plan might make it have the ability to gain traction. That's many years down the line, but it's an interesting possibility that's come out.
Monica Trauzzi: Thanks for coming on the show, Elizabeth. Great reporting by you and Emily, and the story is running in Tuesday's ClimateWire. We'll be looking for it.
Elizabeth Harball: Thanks so much.
Monica Trauzzi: Thanks for coming on the show. More Cutting Edge coming next Friday. We'll see you then.
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States Request Flexibility in New Grant Program
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Greenwire
By Amanda Reilly
State environmental regulators asked the federal government this week for the power to choose what to spend money on when it comes to a new grant program created in the omnibus spending bill.
While keeping U.S. EPA's overall budget level, the fiscal 2016 spending bill that President Obama signed into law last month created a new $21 million grant program for states and tribes. The money is meant to help states put in place environmental regulations.
In two letters this week to Congress and EPA, the Environmental Council of the States thanked Congress for the new program but called for freedom to choose where to direct that funding.
"We have asked for the ability to be more flexible with funding," Alexandra Dunn, executive general and general counsel at ECOS, said in an interview with Greenwire.
EPA operates other categorical grant programs that are directed to specific environmental regulations. The new grants could be used for myriad state regulatory activities. Dunn said that states have expressed interest in using the money toward compiling an inventory of oil and gas operations, addressing nutrient impairment, and reducing regulatory backlogs.
States could also likely use the funding for developing their submissions under the Clean Power Plan, EPA's program for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
"The problems states are facing are becoming more and more diverse," Dunn said. "This approach seems to be a modern approach to funding environmental problems."
ECOS urged EPA to swiftly craft a formula to divide up the money.
"The more quickly we show progress and positive results, the better chance the funds will be renewed," the group wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and acting Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg.
ECOS also asked Congress to retain the new grant program in future budget years. Dunn said that some states are wary about using the money because they're not sure whether Congress will continue the program.
"We believe flexible funds provide states the best opportunity to make progress in advancing environmental goals and protecting human health," the regulators group wrote to top House and Senate appropriators.
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Ohio Bill Would Step Up Oversight of Drilling Waste
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Mike Lee
A bill in the Ohio Legislature would impose tighter regulations on the injection wells used to dispose of wastewater from the Utica Shale gas field in an effort to curb illegal dumping, truck traffic and other side effects.
H.B. 422 would require companies to track shipments of wastewater with telemetric sensors, impose a 2,000-foot setback between disposal wells and occupied buildings, and tack on a 5-cent fee to every barrel of waste. Money from the fee would go toward improving groundwater monitoring near injection sites.
The bill also would give local governments a chance to comment on injection well applications before the state issues a permit, and set in law the existing state regulations that require operators to monitor for earthquakes in the vicinity of a well and keep track of their wells' pressure.
"Really, the bill is trying to balance economic development with safety and health -- it's kind of a tricky balancing act," said state Rep. Michael O'Brien (D).
Injection has grown along with the boom in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Ohio and neighboring states. Fracking, which uses a combination of water and chemicals to break up rock formations, has opened up new sources of gas, but it also creates large amounts of wastewater.
Ohio has 213 injections wells and 33 more that are permitted or being built. They're clustered in the eastern half of the state, particularly along the borders with Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
They handle wastewater not only from the Utica Shale, the state's primary formation, but also from shale drilling in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Environmentalists have complained that the state makes it too easy to get a permit for a disposal well and that oil companies were using Ohio as a dumping ground for out-of-state waste.
The state has taken action in some cases. The Department of Natural Resources shut down an injection well in 2011 after a magnitude-3.9 earthquake struck near Youngstown. Seven months later, Gov. John Kasich (R) signed an executive order giving the DNR authority to order seismic tests before a well is drilled and place limits on the volume and pressure of fluids that are injected (EnergyWire, May 21, 2014).
In 2014, the Justice Department obtained a two-year prison sentence for a disposal company operator who ordered his employees to illegally dump fracking waste into a storm drain on more than 30 occasions (Greenwire, Aug. 6, 2014).
In September, U.S. EPA issued an audit that generally supported Ohio's permitting and oversight of injection wells.
The EPA audit shows the bill is "a classic example of a solution looking for a problem," Shawn Bennett, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said in a statement. The 2,000-foot setback "shows the true goal of the legislation is to impose a de facto ban on injection wells in the state," he said.
O'Brien said the setback won't block new injection wells, particularly in rural areas. He said he hears concerns from his constituents and wants to make sure local counties and townships have a chance to weigh in on a disposal permit before it's approved.
"Those are the people who receive the complaints," he said.
The bill is "a step in the right direction," but it may run into resistance in the Republican-controlled Statehouse, said Melanie Houston, director of water policy for the Ohio Environmental Council.
"Rep. O'Brien has his work cut out for him -- it's going to be a heavy lift," she said.
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Ohio's Storage Sources Largely Unchecked for Leaks
Jan 15, 2016 | E&E Energywire
By Laura Arenschield
California's massive methane gas leak has thousands evacuating the area and is calling into question other states' natural gas storage rules and regulations.
The Columbus Dispatch reported that Ohio ranks eighth nationwide in total natural gas stored underground, with about 3,000 natural gas wells, two dozen storage fields and enough capacity to fill Ohio's Hoover Reservoir 210 times.
California officials imposed emergency measures last week requiring storage fields to be inspected daily with infrared technology to scan for leaks, notably one of the only ways to seek them out.
Ohio, though, relies on 50 state Department of Natural Resources inspectors who visually inspect wells once a year.
Ohio DNR spokesman Eric Heis said the department has no record of any leaks, but methane can be difficult to detect because it's colorless and odorless. The leak in California could be smelled because it contained the additive mercaptan, but not all wells are given the additive for storage.
Heis said companies monitor their own natural gas storage fields for pressure changes denoting a leak and have a vested interest in preventing leaks.
"It's a very valuable resource," he said of natural gas.
While they try to prevent leaks, those companies are not required by law to report leaks. Heis said DNR is working on rules to ensure leak reporting.
"We believe we're ahead of the curve on a lot of safety issues and safety concerns," he said.
Amy Townsend-Small, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati who researches methane emissions, said California's leak is unusual, but it highlights natural gas leaks' biggest threat: greenhouse gas emissions.
Townsend-Small said the actual amount of risk, though, is a mystery.
"We don't necessarily know how often this could be happening in a place where the gas isn't odorized," she said. "It's so easy for them to go undetected".
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Glitch at LNG Plant Delays Cheniere’s Natural-Gas Exports
Jan 15, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Chester Dawson and Christian Berthelsen
Cheniere Energy Partners LP said on Thursday that it faced an unexpected delay in its plan to be the first company to export natural gas from the lower 48 states.
The natural gas shipment had been expected to depart from the Houston-based company’s Sabine Pass plant in southwest Louisiana later this month.
Cheniere said the shipment had been postponed until late February or March, citing “instrumentation issues“ uncovered during the final phases of the commissioning of the first of its five so-called trains, or refrigeration units.
The instrumentation issues involved problems with wiring that prevented Cheniere from obtaining accurate readings on the internal temperature of refrigeration equipment, said one person familiar with the matter.
Sabine Pass is one of two liquefied-natural-gas facilities Cheniere is building to export super-chilled natural gas by ship. It is the first of dozens of planned projects in the U.S. and Canada designed to tap into cheap supplies of North American shale gas.Advertisement
The delay comes as global prices for LNG have plummeted because of weaker demand from Asia, which makes up 70% of the market.
The setback for Cheniere raises questions about whether Sabine Pass will be dogged by construction delays and cost overruns that have affected other LNG facilities in Australia, another emerging natural gas export hub.
Cheniere had been negotiating to sell its first cargo to Petróleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-run oil company, according to people familiar with the talks. But those discussions were scuttled because of the instrumentation issues, and the company will have to strike a new deal when it is ready to start shipments, one of the people said.
Cheniere has long-term supply contracts that are scheduled to kick-in later this year, and the company said it still expected to meet those obligations for delivery. Cheniere’s board replaced the company’s chief executive and founder of its operating unit last month over strategic differences.
Bechtel Corp. has finished construction of the first of five refrigeration units at Sabine Pass and Cheniere said the others are being built on an accelerated schedule. Bechtel is also building two additional trains at Cheniere’s Corpus Christi, Texas, plant.
Cheniere has contracted nearly all the processing capacity of its first train at Sabine Pass to U.K.-based oil and gas firm BG Group PLC, which is in the process of being taken over by Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
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EPA Haze Plan For Texas, Oklahoma Sets Precedent On Inadequate SIPs
Jan 15, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Stuart Parker
EPA's decision to reject Texas and Oklahoma's state implementation plans (SIPs) for complying with the agency's regional haze program and instead impose an EPA-crafted plan on the states sets a precedent on how the agency will handle future situations where one state's SIP compromises other states' ability to comply, an environmentalist says.
Texas as an upwind state failed to craft an emissions control plan that would adequately cut interstate transport of regional haze-forming pollution, in turn hindering downwind Oklahoma from complying with the haze program's emissions reduction requirements, EPA said. As a result the agency disapproved parts of both states' SIPs for the haze program, which aims to cut pollution and restore visibility in national parks and wilderness areas.
The environmentalist says EPA's decision to disapprove portions of both states' plans is important precedent for how the agency handles similar situations in the future. “I don't think that the fact pattern here is unique to Texas. The heart of the problem with the Texas plan is that Texas didn't properly analyze reasonable progress controls, and therefore, during the consultation process with other states, didn't provide accurate information to other states on controls for Texas sources. Other states have committed the same error, such as Nebraska,” the source says.
EPA is looking at issues related to “reasonable further progress” (RFP) in Nebraska's haze plan under a voluntary remand, after initially rejecting the state's plan because of various shortcomings, including inadequate controls to cut pollution in certain areas. These issues have been severed from other legal questions over haze planning in Nebraska, which are currently under litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in State of Nebraska v. EPA, et al., and National Parks Conservation Association, et al. v. EPA, et al. The court heard argument in the cases Sept. 23.
While the source says that Nebraska is an example of the problems in some states' regional haze plans, “the errors Texas made have particular significance, though, because Texas has such a large impact on other states” as a result of its emissions. Indeed, “Texas sources contribute more to poor air quality in Oklahoma than Oklahoma sources do.”
The source adds, “So this was a case where both Texas and other states suffer poor air quality because Texas did not properly analyze the controls available for cleaning up Texas facilities.”
“I do think that the Texas rule sets an important precedent for how EPA should deal with this situation moving forward,” says the environmentalist. “EPA makes clear in the Texas rule that when faced with this situation, EPA should disapprove both the upwind state's long-term strategy (which in this example was Texas) as well as the downwind state's reasonable progress goals (which in this example was Oklahoma),” the source adds.
Federal Plan
EPA on Jan. 5 issued its federal implementation plan (FIP) through which it directly writes haze reduction plans for those parts of the Texas and Oklahoma SIPs that it rejected. In the rulemaking, the agency disapproved Texas' SIP, because it says the state did not propose emissions controls sufficient to ensure “reasonable further progress” not only in Texas, but also in neighboring Oklahoma. The agency further disapproves Oklahoma's plan, imposing a FIP for the state with respect to the Wichita Mountains area that receives cross-border pollution from Texas.
EPA's 1999 regional haze rule requires that states submit SIPs to demonstrate how they will reduce haze to natural conditions in national parks and wilderness areas, known as Class I areas, by 2064. The program set a schedule of SIP submissions, with the first round due by 2008, although some plans were delayed. The first wave of such SIPs focused on imposition of best available retrofit technology (BART) on eligible air pollution sources, such as power plants.
Imposition of BART, while controversial, is however a one-time requirement, while the need to show how states will make RFP is an ongoing requirement under the program that will feature in many new state haze plans now in development for the second phase of the program.
States must also craft a “long-term strategy” showing how they will meet the 2064 goal, and where their haze-forming emissions impact other states' attainment, they must consult with those other states.
“During the interstate consultation required by the Regional Haze Rule, Oklahoma and Texas discussed the significant contribution of sources in Texas to visibility impairment at the Wichita Mountains, but Texas concluded that no additional controls were warranted for its sources during the first planning period to ensure reasonable progress at the Wichita Mountains, or at its own Class I areas, the Big Bend and the Guadalupe Mountains National Parks,” EPA says in the final rule, faulting Texas' conclusions on the necessary controls in the SIP.
“In reaching this conclusion, Texas relied on an analysis that obscured the benefits of potentially cost-effective controls on those sources or groups of sources with the largest visibility impacts in these Class I areas by inclusion of those controls with little visibility benefit, but which served to increase the total cost figures,” EPA finds.
“This flawed analysis deprived Oklahoma of the information it needed to properly assess the reasonableness of controls on Texas sources during the consultation process and prevented Texas from properly assessing the reasonableness of controls to remedy visibility at Big Bend and the Guadalupe Mountains,” EPA says.
Texas in its proposed SIP did not require controls on its power plants beyond existing regulatory mandates, but EPA in the FIP imposes additional controls or control upgrades for sulfur dioxide (SO2), which contributes to particulate matter formation, from 15 electrical generating units at several power plants.
EPA's plan disapproves aspects of haze planning related to the state's reliance on interstate emissions trading, but does not impose federal measures in their place. EPA does, however, state that its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule emissions trading program should suffice as equivalent to BART for Texas power plants.
RFP Assessment
Meanwhile, EPA's FIP for Texas has previously attracted criticism for what opponents say is a new departure in assessing RFP on a unit-specific level, rather than for a state as a whole.
For example, a broad coalition of 21 industry associations, including major groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in April 20 comments on EPA's then-proposed FIP said, “After conducting an individual source and individual emission control analysis of a small subset of sources within Texas, EPA concluded that several sources should be required to install additional control technologies.”
The comments added, “Not only does this approach ignore State primacy in establishing reasonable progress goals, it unlawfully shifts the focus of the reasonable progress goals from source categories to individual sources.”
The coalition said EPA's proposed FIP usurped state authority, second-guessed states' judgment, and was contrary to the Clean Air Act's principle of co-operative federalism. The comments also criticized EPA's characterization of the consultation between Texas and Oklahoma as somehow inadequate.
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), representing shareholder-owned electric companies, in its April 20 comments echoed the industry coalition's concerns about the interstate consultation. “In support of its proposed FIP, EPA's main rationale is that Texas and Oklahoma did not properly confer regarding [reasonable progress goals, or RPGs]. This forms the basis for the Agency's disapproval of Texas' and Oklahoma's SIPs and the imposition of its own FIP.”
EEI added, “However, Texas and Oklahoma's conferral regarding the RPGs was fully consistent with the [Clean Air Act] and the regional haze regulations, and, during that process, the states agreed on which regulatory programs were needed for reasonable progress. EPA must respect this decision and recognize that the Agency's imposition of a FIP is unreasonable and unauthorized under the [air law] given these state actions.”
Critics claim that EPA departed from the established “four-factor” analysis for determining RFP by adding another consideration, the potential visibility improvement. The four factors are: time necessary for compliance, energy and non-air quality environmental impacts of compliance, remaining useful life of the source, and the costs of compliance.
Industry groups further decried EPA's selection of a smaller universe of sources than all possible sources in the state that could impact visibility. The agency in the final FIP for Texas said this would have been impractical, and distorts the analysis to exclude possible cost-effective emissions reductions. Further, the air law does not define which sources to analyze when considering RFP, EPA says.
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Parties Outline Iowa Law Questions In Novel Federal Nutrient Litigation
Jan 15, 2016 | Inside EPA
By Amanda Palleschi
Parties involved in novel federal litigation seeking to impose Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting requirements on agricultural drainage districts in Iowa have agreed to seek state Supreme Court clarification on whether such districts are immune from damage claims and whether a drinking water utility has the authority under state law to file the suit.
Judge Mark Bennett of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa asked the parties in Des Moines Board of Water Works (DMWW) v. Sac County Board of Supervisors, et al. to develop questions for Iowa Supreme Court review, indicating in a Dec. 7 order that there may be a genuine question of the drainage districts' authority under state law that would affect the outcome of a federal court ruling, and that clarification from the state supreme court is needed.
In a recent filing, the parties say they have agreed on the following questions: "does the doctrine of implied immunity of drainage districts [as applied in other state court cases] grant drainage districts unqualified immunity from all of the damage claims set forth in the complaint; does the doctrine of implied immunity grant drainage districts unqualified immunity from equitable remedies and claims, other than mandamus; can DMWW assert protections afforded by the Iowa Constitution's Inalienable Rights, Due Process, Equal Protection, and Takings Clauses against drainage districts as alleged in the Complaint, and does DMWW have a property interest that may be the subject of a claim under the Iowa Constitution's takings Clause as alleged in the Complaint?"
Attorneys for the drainage districts note in the filing that although the parties agreed on the questions to raise to the state high court, the issues are still "not likely to reoccur," and therefore the districts disagree the case should be placed on the Iowa Supreme Court's docket.
DMWW charges that drainage districts in Sac, Buena Vista and Calhoun counties should be considered point sources under the CWA and charges that the districts' discharge of nitrate pollution into the Raccoon River constitutes "nuisance, trespass" and "an unconstitutional taking of rights secured to DMWW by the constitution and the laws of the United States and State of Iowa."
Case-By-Case Determinations
While the CWA exempts from National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting requirements "agricultural discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture," DMWW has argued that agricultural stormwater discharge is not well-defined in the CWA or in EPA regulations, and its scope is left to case-by-case determinations that take into account the specific character of the discharge and the facility that conveys it.
DMWW is seeking civil penalties and damages as a result, and the case has been closely watched by legal observers, both for its potential to expand the universe of entities required to obtain NPDES permits, and as a test of the efficacy of voluntary nutrient reduction strategies.
The utility had suggested in discussions with the drainage districts that the court could bifurcate the case, with the CWA count and one involving state law proceeding to trial as originally scheduled, followed by a second, later trial on the remaining claims. The defendants "strongly resisted this proposal," according to the filing's footnotes, arguing that bifurcation "would essentially require the parties, their counsel, witnesses, and the Court to incur the time, cost, and inconvenience of trying a complex case twice."
In earlier arguments, the drainage districts have pushed back on DMWW's claims, noting that under state law they cannot be sued for damages: "Drainage districts are not proper parties to adversary litigation, are not subject to suit on tort claims, and only may be sued in mandamus to perform their statutorily delegated duties" and also say that "political subdivisions" -- drainage districts included -- "cannot allege constitutional violations by other political subdivisions."
The drinking water utility, however, countered in an Oct. 19 response brief that "the immunity rule advanced by Drainage Districts was born of different era, and although it has continued to be routinely applied in modern times, it has never been critically reexamined. No Iowa appellate court has, to DMWW's knowledge, yet heard a water pollution claim against an Iowa drainage district, nor have Iowa courts ever considered the county home rule or public health issues DMWW raises in this case."
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Energy Efficiency Standards Help Businesses Thrive and Consumers Save
Jan 15, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By David Goldstein, Ph.D. and Jason Knopes
Imagine a strategy that helps businesses streamline their operations and create better, more competitive products. Imagine if that same strategy also has allowed consumers and business to save trillions of dollars. Now imagine that this strategy is actually being used successfully across dozens of industries and thousands of companies and has exceeded all expectations.
The good news is, it’s not our imagination — it’s strategic standardization, and it’s an effective tool for fueling innovation and business growth in the United States.
Standards and conformity assessment help to ensure safety and performance of products, processes, and systems; foster acceptance across state and national borders; and increase efficiency. They help businesses reduce R&D costs, streamline processes, and advance technology to create new and better products — from the JPEG files we use to send photos over the internet, to the life-saving technology of linking medical records. In fact, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) ranked the promulgation of standards among the top-10 engineering accomplishments of the last century — right up there with the automobile and airplane.
Business leaders get on board with standards because they know that clear, effective standards provide a solid foundation for market growth. Since standards are performance based, and don’t prescribe one particular design or technology over another, they help drive innovation. When everyone plays by the same rules, manufacturers can be assured they will be competing on a level playing field —and up their game to create new and better products.
Standards aren’t created in a vacuum. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), a private non-profit organization, administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standards and conformity assessment system, working in close collaboration with stakeholders from industry, government, consumer groups, academia, and other interests to identify and develop standards and conformance–based solutions to national and global priorities.
There are many types of standards, including the consensus standards that ANSI oversees and the mandatory ones set by government agencies, which also work with various stakeholder groups to develop them in a transparent public process.
For example, federal energy efficiency standards — often started as voluntary standards by private-sector organizations via the ANSI process and then used as an important input into federal guidelines — have saved billions of dollars for U.S. consumers and business over the past 30 years, while boosting innovation and competitiveness for U.S. industry. By 2030, efficiency standards will have saved a cumulative $1.8 trillion on the energy bills for America’s households, businesses, and industries.
It seems indisputable that energy efficiency standards are a tremendous success; lawmakers would be hard-pressed to find a more innovative, cost-effective, bipartisan example of good governance. Yet some detractors have recently come out against our use of standards, whether for ensuring the safety of the air we breathe, the water we drink, or determining how much energy a ceiling fan can use. They claim standards are bad for business — when, in fact, standards have a history not only of protecting consumers, but benefitting businesses as well.
Before the first energy efficiency standards for refrigerators were put in place in California in 1976, the fridge was the biggest energy hog in the home. But as standards began guiding manufacturers to develop more efficient models, consumers became educated about energy use, and the market for innovative technologies grew.
The most recent set of energy standards for refrigerators were jointly proposed by the industry and efficiency experts working together. The same goes for dishwashers, air conditioners, electric motors, and more—refrigerator standards are just one example of dozens of money-saving energy efficiency standards for appliances and equipment that have been put into place over the past three decades. In total, these energy efficiency standards are projected to increase annual energy savings by more than 75 percent over the next decade. That’s a triple win — for businesses, consumers, and the environment.
Energy efficiency standards are highly successful, strategic measures that have delivered on their promise of spurring cost savings and product innovation across multiple industries, from appliances to automation to automobiles. Like thousands of other standards developed by collaborations of experts and stakeholders in response to government, societal, and industry needs, efficiency standards create better markets for business, stronger products for consumers, and a safer environment for all.
For dozens more real-world examples of the power of standards to streamline processes, fuel innovation, and boost the bottom line, visit www.standardsboostbusiness.org.
Goldstein is energy program co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Knopes is a senior manager at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). He is a member of ANSI’s team that is focused on U.S. engagement in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), where ANSI serves as the U.S. member body.
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