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ACC AM Jan 19
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Our Toxic Failure
Jan 18, 2016 | Truth-Out
By Jill Richardson
Now that it's already been phased out, the world can agree that a chemical used in Teflon - the famous coating on nonstick pots and pans - was toxic. A recent New York Times Magazine article told the story of the heroic victims who paid with their health and the lawyer who represented them. -
Collecting Plastic Waste Near Coasts 'Is Most Effective Clean-Up Method'
Jan 19, 2016 | The Guardian
By Rebecca Smithers
Dredging plastic waste from coastal locations rather than deep in the oceans is the the most efficient way to clean it up and avoid damaging global ecosystems, according to new analysis. Floating plastic waste ranging from bags, bottles and caps, fibres and ‘microbeads’ wash out into the oceans from rivers and sewers, while larger plastics... -
Study: Flame Retardant In Nail Polish Found In Women’s Bodies
Jan 18, 2016 | CBS
By Stephanie Stahl
The safety of nail polish is being questioned by some medical researchers. The average woman paints her nails once a week. Nail polish contains several chemicals, and new research discovered one chemical is not only on women’s nails, but also inside their bodies. -
Montana Rail Safety Regulator To Discuss How To Fix Problems
Jan 19, 2016 | AP (in the Missoulian)
The Montana Public Service Commission will hold a public meeting with railway officials and lawmakers on how to address rail safety problems found in a recent audit. The Legislative Audit Division in October faulted the PSC for not having a rail safety plan, not conducting a risk assessment and having no goals other than meeting the minimum... -
Utility Expects To Stop LA-Area Gas Leak By Late February
Jan 18, 2016 | Reuters
By Alex Dobuzinskis
Jan 18 A natural gas leak that has sickened residents of a Los Angeles neighborhood will be stopped by late February or possibly sooner, the utility that operates the site of the leak said on Monday, after previously indicating the job could take until late March. Work on the relief well, which the company started drilling... -
Deadline Nears For Feedback On Federal Plan, Trading Rules
Jan 19, 2016 | E&E Daily News
By Emily Holden and Rod Kuckro
Comments are due Thursday on U.S. EPA's model carbon trading rules and proposed federal version of the Clean Power Plan that will be imposed on states that don't comply. Elizabeth Harball and Emily Holden in today's ClimateWire report that even some of the most vocal states opposed to the climate regulation hope to use carbon... -
EPA Defends Obama’s Handling Of Flint Water Crisis
Jan 18, 2016 | Reuters (in the New York Post)
The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency on Monday defended the Obama administration’s handling of a crisis in Flint, Michigan, with lead-contaminated drinking water. Speaking to reporters after an event at a Washington soup kitchen, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy defended the federal government’s response. -
Contamination Key Issue In Democrats' Bid To Retake Mich.
Jan 19, 2016 | E&E Daily News
By Tiffany Stecker and Sam Pearson
The ongoing water crisis in Flint, Mich., is exposing the deep rifts within the state's political system, which Democrats are eager to highlight as they fight to regain the statehouse this year and the governor's office in 2018. The situation hit a tipping point last week when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) asked President Obama to declare...
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Jan 18, 2016 | Truth-Out
By Jill Richardson
Now that it's already been phased out, the world can agree that a chemical used in Teflon - the famous coating on nonstick pots and pans - was toxic.
A recent New York Times Magazine article told the story of the heroic victims who paid with their health and the lawyer who represented them. Together they ensured that a study was done to link this chemical, called PFOA, to the health problems it caused.
PFOA is thought to be linked to several cancers, as well as thyroid disease, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, and more. It's also probably in your blood.
This chemical is just one in a class of fluorine-based chemicals with slippery, nonstick properties. They're often used in waterproof or stain-resistant items - even in Oral B's Glide dental floss.
Chew on that for a moment. Oral B puts this chemical in a product designed to go straight into your mouth.
The same week this article came out, I got a long-awaited jacket that I'd been researching for months. I go backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the summer, and it can snow up there in July. This jacket is the lightest weight, warmest option available.
I stalked the jacket online, prowling the sales and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I got it in last season's style, using an extra discount coupon over and above the already reduced price. The $350 jacket was now mine, for less than half the price. So what if it was hot pink?
Here's what: My new jacket has a durable water resistant ("DWR") coating. So does my sleeping bag. And, for that matter, so does my old jacket the new one is replacing. They all contain chemicals related to the one in the article.
You can also find these concoctions in shoes (including my Gore-Tex hiking boots), carpet, microwave popcorn bags, fast food wrappers, furniture, and - of course - nonstick cookware.
The Green Science Policy Institute includes these "highly fluorinated chemicals" as one of its six classes of "chemicals of concern." Chemicals in these classes are often toxic, so researchers advocate precautions in their use and regulation.
The institute acknowledges that there may be cases when some of these chemicals are needed - or even safe, once they're properly tested. But that means we must test them first, and even then only use them when they're absolutely needed. Do we really need suspect chemicals in dental floss?
Ironically, the newer chemicals that have replaced PFOA - the ones used in my jacket and perhaps yours, too - haven't been tested as much as the older ones we no longer use.
That doesn't mean they aren't toxic. It just means that we don't know if they are.
They're regulated by a law called the Toxic Substances Control Act, which the chemical industry itself helped write. Unlike pharmaceuticals, new manmade chemicals don't need to be tested before they're used or sold, and companies can keep a chemical's identity a trade secret.
It's wonderful that Americans can come together and agree that a chemical we no longer use is toxic - albeit, now that it's already in our environment and in our blood. But why can't we also come together about the other chemicals, the ones that are likely harmful but are still in use?
Is it really so radical to ask that companies test chemicals for safety before using them? Consumers buy them, wear them, live with them, even perhaps ingest them. Yet we're expected to do so blindly, because the chemicals are a trade secret.
Let's require better safety precautions for the classes of chemicals most likely to harm us.
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Collecting Plastic Waste Near Coasts 'Is Most Effective Clean-Up Method'
Jan 19, 2016 | The Guardian
By Rebecca Smithers
Dredging plastic waste from coastal locations rather than deep in the oceans is the the most efficient way to clean it up and avoid damaging global ecosystems, according to new analysis.
Floating plastic waste ranging from bags, bottles and caps, fibres and ‘microbeads’ wash out into the oceans from rivers and sewers, while larger plastics are broken down into smaller fragments that can last for hundreds to thousands of years. Fragments of all sizes are swallowed by marine life and enter the food chain, disrupting fragile ecosystems.
Researchers from Imperial College looked at the so-called Great Pacific garbage patch - an area of open ocean in the North Pacific - which has an unusually large area of microplastics. The patch is enclosed by ocean currents that concentrate the plastics into an area estimated to be larger than twice the size of the United Kingdom.
World’s largest ocean cleanup operation one step closer to launchThe area has gained international attention,with a project called The Ocean Cleanup planning to deploy plastic collectorsin the area to pick up debris and remove it by ship.
But the analysis by oceanographer Dr Erik van Sebille and undergraduate physics student Peter Sherman at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London - published on Tuesday in Environmental Research Letters - suggests that targeting the patch itself is not the most efficient way to clean up the oceans.
“The Great Pacific garbage patch has a huge mass of microplastics, but the largest flow of plastics is actually off the coasts, where it enters the oceans,” said Sherman.
“It makes sense to remove plastics where they first enter the ocean around dense coastal economic and population centres where there is a lot of marine life,” added Dr van Sebille. “It also means you can remove the plastics before they have had a chance to do any harm. Plastics in the patch have travelled a long way and potentially already done a lot of harm.” Advertisement
Van Sebille and Sherman used a model of ocean plastic movements to determine the best places to deploy plastic collectors to remove the largest volume of microplastics, and to prevent the most harm to wildlife and ecosystems.
They found that placing plastic collectors like those proposed by The Ocean Cleanup project around coasts was more beneficial than placing them all inside the patch.
Planning for a ten-year project between 2015 and 2025, the pair calculated that placing collectors near coasts - particularly around China and the Indonesian Islands - would remove 31% of microplastics. With all the collectors in the patch, only 1% would be removed.
The pair’s model also looked at areas where microplastics overlapped with phytoplankton - microscopic floating plants that form the basic food of many ocean ecosystems. Many microplastics enter the food web in these areas as microscopic animals accidentally eat them.
Running the same model for areas rich in phytoplankton came up with a similar result; the overlap was reduced by 46% by placing collectors near certain coasts, whereas the overlap was only reduced by 14% by placing the collectors in the patch.
“There is a lot of plastic in the patch, but it’s a relative dead zone for life compared with the richness around the coasts,” added Sherman. A recent analysis by Dr van Sebille and colleagues in Australia showed that more than 90% of seabirds have swallowed plastics, and these birds are also concentrated around coasts where their food is plentiful.
The pair will refine their analysis, but say the results are clear and hope that plastic collecting projects in the future will focus on the coastlines.
“We need to clean up ocean plastics, and ultimately this should be achieved by stopping the source of pollution,” Sherman went on. “However, this will not happen overnight, so a temporary solution is needed, and clean-up projects could be it, if they are done well.”
According to a recent report from the Environmental Investigation Agency, global plastics production has soared from 5m tonnes a year in the 1960s to a staggering 299m tonnes in 2013, with uses ranging from packaging and toys to clothes, computers and beauty products.
It said an estimated 4.8-12.7m tonnes of plastics enter the world’s oceans every year due to littering and inadequate waste management. Without action to address the problem, this figure is expected to increase to as much as 28 million tonnes a year by 2025.
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Study: Flame Retardant In Nail Polish Found In Women’s Bodies
Jan 18, 2016 | CBS
By Stephanie Stahl
The safety of nail polish is being questioned by some medical researchers.
The average woman paints her nails once a week.
Nail polish contains several chemicals, and new research discovered one chemical is not only on women’s nails, but also inside their bodies.
From the nursery to the nail salon, nail polish is popular with girls of all ages.
But a joint study by Duke University and the Environmental Working Group finds chemicals in some polishes can get inside your body.
Researchers tested women for signs of the common chemical flame retardant triphenyl phosphate, or TPHP.
Every woman had elevated levels after they painted their nails.
“Nail polish is the only personal care product that has this chemical listed as an ingredient,” explains Tasha Stoiber with The Environmental Working Group.
It’s estimated about half of all nail polishes have TPHP, which is also used as a flame retardant in some foam furniture like couches.
Experts say more research is needed on the effects of this chemical in humans.
Animal studies indicate TPHP is linked to reproductive and developmental issues.
Mom Jenna High whose daughters play with nail polish says, “I was shocked. I would say that I’m pretty cautious about what I expose my kids to, and nail polish is not one of the things I ever worry about.”
In a statement, the group that represents nail polish manufacturers calls the research speculative and misleading, and points out TPHP has been widely and safely used across many industries, including to prevent electrical, automobile, and furniture fires.
“I think I will continue to let my kids use nail polish every once in a while because obviously they love it, but I will be more cautious about doing so.” Jenna says.
TPHP is put in nail polish to make it more flexible and durable.
The Environment Working Group says a number of popular nail polishes contain the chemical, including Sally Hansen, Revlon , and Essie.
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Montana Rail Safety Regulator To Discuss How To Fix Problems
Jan 19, 2016 | AP (in the Missoulian)
The Montana Public Service Commission will hold a public meeting with railway officials and lawmakers on how to address rail safety problems found in a recent audit.
The Legislative Audit Division in October faulted the PSC for not having a rail safety plan, not conducting a risk assessment and having no goals other than meeting the minimum number of track inspections each year.
The audit recommended adding inspectors and possibly moving rail safety oversight to another state agency.
PSC spokesman Eric Sell says Wednesday's round-table discussion will include officials from BNSF Railway, Montana Rail Link and Union Pacific Railroad.
Sell says the commission wants to understand to what extent the railroads conduct their own safety inspections and how state and federal inspections fit with their work.
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Utility Expects To Stop LA-Area Gas Leak By Late February
Jan 18, 2016 | Reuters
By Alex Dobuzinskis
Jan 18 A natural gas leak that has sickened residents of a Los Angeles neighborhood will be stopped by late February or possibly sooner, the utility that operates the site of the leak said on Monday, after previously indicating the job could take until late March.
Work on the relief well, which the company started drilling on Dec. 4 to stop the leak in Aliso Canyon, is proceeding ahead of schedule, Southern California Gas Co said in a statement.
"Our team of experts has been working around the clock since we started relief well operations in early December and we're pleased with the progress we've made thus far," said Jimmie Cho, senior vice president of gas operations and system integrity for SoCalGas, a division of Sempra Energy.
Company officials had previously said they expected to stop the leak sometime between late February and late March.
The gas leak has forced thousands of residents to relocate, with the company paying their expenses.
Residents in Porter Ranch, a community of more than 30,000 people, have complained of ailments such as headache, nausea and respiratory irritation from mercaptans, the odorants added to natural gas, according to Los Angeles County health officials.
The officials have said past studies found no long-term health effects from mercaptans.
State officials have said the leak, which was first detected on Oct. 23 at the site near the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles, accounted at its peak for a fourth of California's 20 million metric tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions from methane.
The California Air Resources Board last week estimated emissions at the leaking well have fallen more than 60 percent since reaching their peak in November.
The cause of the leak is believed to be a broken injection-well pipe several hundred feet beneath the surface of the 3,600-acre (1,457-hectare) field.
Officials with the South Coast Air Quality Management District on Saturday delayed plans to capture and burn off natural gas leaking from the underground well, citing the possible risk of a fire.
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Deadline Nears For Feedback On Federal Plan, Trading Rules
Jan 19, 2016 | E&E Daily News
By Emily Holden and Rod Kuckro
Comments are due Thursday on U.S. EPA's model carbon trading rules and proposed federal version of the Clean Power Plan that will be imposed on states that don't comply.
Elizabeth Harball and Emily Holden in today's ClimateWire report that even some of the most vocal states opposed to the climate regulation hope to use carbon markets to meet EPA's standards (The Cutting Edge, Jan. 15).
The firm Energy Strategies today will demonstrate an evaluation and compliance model for five Western states: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. The Center for the New Energy Economy is contracting a tool for use by all the Western states, and this is the first version.
Tomorrow, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator will release its latest Clean Power Plan modeling results. EnergyWire's Jeffrey Tomich has been tracking MISO's analysis (EnergyWire, Dec. 17, 2015).
Also tomorrow, Nevada will hold a community information session in Las Vegas. This meeting and another on Jan. 25 in Reno will focus on urban concerns.
On Friday, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will host its third meeting of a stakeholder group.
In case you missed it: U.S. EPA is offering another bite at the apple for those wanting to weigh in on a program to reward states for developing wind and solar and installing energy efficiency in low-income communities in the two years before the Clean Power Plan compliance period begins (EnergyWire, Jan. 14). Some California energy companies are pushing back against the state's plan to use its cap-and-trade program as the main tool for compliance with the Clean Power Plan (ClimateWire, Jan. 13). California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said her state is in "very preliminary" talks with New York to explore the possibility of linking carbon markets (ClimateWire, Jan. 12). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will soon begin an informal effort to engage stakeholders nationwide about a range of concerns with EPA's Clean Power Plan, FERC Commissioner Colette Honorable said in an interview (EnergyWire, Jan. 12). Texas isn't taking options off the table as it challenges the Clean Power Plan, but a key environmental regulator said the Lone Star State also isn't actively developing a state plan (EnergyWire, Jan. 11).
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EPA Defends Obama’s Handling Of Flint Water Crisis
Jan 18, 2016 | Reuters (in the New York Post)
The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency on Monday defended the Obama administration’s handling of a crisis in Flint, Michigan, with lead-contaminated drinking water.
Speaking to reporters after an event at a Washington soup kitchen, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy defended the federal government’s response.
“EPA did its job but clearly the outcome was not what anyone would have wanted. So we’re going to work with the state, we’re going to work with Flint. We’re going to take care of the problem,” McCarthy told reporters. “We know Flint is a situation that never should have happened.”
She said EPA has established a task force of experts and is conducting an audit of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s water program “to make sure whatever improvements need to be made get made and get done quickly.”
Flint, about 60 miles northwest of Detroit, returned to using Detroit’s water in October after tests found elevated levels of lead in the water and in the blood of some children. Lead contamination can cause brain damage and other health problems.
On Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s handling of the crisis. She suggested that if the problem had occurred in a wealthy, predominantly white suburb of Detroit, “there would have been action.”
“We’ve had a city in the United States of America where the population, which is poor in many ways and majority African-American, has been drinking and bathing in lead-contaminated water. And the governor of that state acted as though he didn’t really care,” she said at a televised debate.
Snyder has apologized for the state’s handling of the crisis as calls for him to resign have grown over the last week, including from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
On Saturday, President Obama declared a federal emergency over the Flint water crisis. But he denied an additional request for a major disaster declaration sought by Snyder.
Obama ordered federal aid for state and local efforts in Genesee County, where Flint, a city of just under 100,000 residents, is located.
The financially strapped city was under control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its source of tap water from Detroit’s system to the nearby Flint River in April 2014 in a cost-cutting move.
The more corrosive water from the Flint River leached lead from city pipes more than Detroit water did, leading to the current problems.
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Contamination Key Issue In Democrats' Bid To Retake Mich.
Jan 19, 2016 | E&E Daily News
By Tiffany Stecker and Sam Pearson
The ongoing water crisis in Flint, Mich., is exposing the deep rifts within the state's political system, which Democrats are eager to highlight as they fight to regain the statehouse this year and the governor's office in 2018.
The situation hit a tipping point last week when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) asked President Obama to declare a state of emergency in the Rust Belt city.
The president did declare an emergency but stopped short of deeming the situation a disaster, which would have freed up more federal money than the $5 million in emergency funds.
Since last fall, Democrats have pelted Snyder with a barrage of criticism. Strong comments have come from a range of Democrats, from Flint's own Rep. Dan Kildee to presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
At home, the governor is surrounded by his own. The GOP has controlled both chambers of the Legislature since Snyder took office in 2011. Five of the seven state Supreme Court justices are Republican, as are nine of the state's 14 members of Congress -- a product, in part, of a congressional map drawn by Republicans following the 2010 census.
The Wolverine State has long had a solid blue streak. Michiganders have voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1992 and haven't put a Republican in the Senate in two decades. A 20th-century economy based in heavy industry built a strong labor influence that remains to this day.
No longer in power, Democrats and other critics of how Republicans have run Michigan are pointing to the Flint debacle as an example of their grievances.
The political landscape allowed many of the glaring problems that led to the water crisis, said Nick Schroeck, director of the Transnational Environmental Law Clinic at Wayne State University in Detroit.
"That normal system of political checks and balances is not happening in Michigan," he said.
At the heart of the water crisis lies the actions of an ever-changing roster of state-appointed emergency managers, who oversaw a controversial switch in Flint's drinking water source. The move corroded lead-containing water pipes and slowly poisoned residents in the city of 100,000 (Greenwire, Jan. 18).
A 2012 law Snyder championed created a process for the state to appoint an emergency manager to assume some local government functions if a financial review determined a city was in a "financial emergency."
The law put Republican-appointed officials in control of Democratic city halls, observers say, creating tension between cities and the Capitol in Lansing.
"Flint like Detroit, like Pontiac, like many other cities has gone through horrendous economic transitions with a lot of tension over state control or takeover through declaration of emergency management situations," said Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan.
Flint has had four emergency managers since state lawmakers decided to allow the practice. One of them only stayed in his post for a couple of months.
The emergency manager law was a significant achievement for Snyder early in his first term, said Susan Demas, editor and publisher of the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics.
Even with the complications, it won't be easy for Democrats to take over the Legislature next year. There are currently 63 Republicans and 47 Democrats in the House, with all 110 seats up for grabs this year.
"It's a real uphill battle," Demas said.
It's also an open secret that Flint's congressman, Kildee, is gunning to run for governor in 2018, said Demas. Kildee, who ran briefly in 2010, has strong allies within the labor movement, a must for Michigan Democrats seeking high office.
The Flint water crisis "could be an important message in 2018, depending on how the situation unfolds," said Demas.
Kildee has emerged as one of the most vociferous opponents of the Snyder administration over the water crisis.
"This is not a case of not enough resources; it's not a case of even something as sad but explainable as incompetence. This is willfully ignoring warning signs because they didn't want to have a public relations problem," he told E&E Daily last week (E&ENews PM, Jan. 12).
On the other side of the House aisle, Michigan's GOP delegation has remained silent on Flint and restrained about offering Snyder support. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) joined Democrats in calling for an emergency hearing on the crisis.
Upton also voted in favor -- along with Michigan Republican Reps. Candice Miller, Tim Walberg, Dave Trott and Bill Huizenga -- of an amendment backed by Kildee and other Democrats meant to promote clean drinking water and weaken GOP legislation targeting an Obama administration proposal (E&E Daily, Jan. 13).
The amendment was, at least in part, an effort by Democrats to get members on the other side of the aisle on the record on drinking water issues amid the problems in Flint.
Snyder won in 2010 with 58 percent of the vote and was re-elected four years later. The founder and CEO of a venture capital company who had never held political office before running for governor, he was portrayed as an expert manager and believer of data-driven decisionmaking.
Snyder "really talked about bringing a kind of competence and innovation and transparency to state government," said Rabe of the University of Michigan. "He put a big, big emphasis on performance measures and performance management, managing by empirical metrics."
At first, the emergency manager system seemed to yield positive results, said Rabe. Detroit's transition through its bankruptcy proceedings was "remarkable," he said.
Results made Snyder a Republican Party star who could hold strong support in big labor states like Michigan. That makes his fall from grace over the Flint crisis more dramatic.
Sanders' call for the Michigan governor to resign in the face of the scandal is a strong sign of Snyder's downturn.
"I mean, you don't usually see presidential candidates even if they're from another party slamming another governor from another party who's not running for office," Rabe said. "It's a stunning shift for any political figure who is riding pretty high."
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