Worcester officials cite city parks to defend continued pollution of Blackstone River

I was trying to find a short, pithy way of describing the gist of an article that appeared in today’s Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette.

Here’s the story.

The Blackstone River has its source in Worcester and flows through Rhode Island into Narragansett Bay. Since colonial times, residents and businesses have regarded it as their personal sewage system. The passage of the Clean Water act made that illegal, but it didn’t put a stop to it.

Environmental agencies and organizations have worked hard to clean up the river, and a lot of progress has been made. One of the major problems that still exists is Worcester’s wastewater treatment system. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has found that the plant is still discharging nacceptable amounts of sewage of chemicals – especially nutrients – into the river, hampering cleanup efforts downstream.

In 2008, the EPA issued strict new guidelines and odered the city to make improvements t meet those guidelines. It’s an expensive venture – about $200 million – and an increase in sewage fees amounting to $225 per year per household. Worcester officials have been fighting it every step of the way.

The city is asking for a modification to the guidelines. Environmental groups oppose modifying them, saying the city has been dragging its feet for long enough. The state Department of Environmental Protection recently came down on the side of the city, asking the federal EPA to ease upand compromise. It’s no accident the Lt. Gov. is from Worcester.

So why should Worcester get a pass on adding pollutants to the river? According to the city manager, it’s because the city has a lot of parks and open space, representing a commitment to conservation and the environment.  The connection is a fuzzy one.

And to be sure, the city has a lot fewer trees than it used to, ever since it was discovered that it was playing host to an infestation of the Asian Long-Horned beetle. Thousands of trees were cut down, denuding most of the city.

Slick media campaign hides the dark side of Northern Pass

The campaign to approve the billion-dollar plan to bring hydroelectric power from Canada to New England is in full swing. The home page for the project features pictures of all the things we like about New Hampshire, things like pristine lakes and woods. What it doesn’t show are the 140 miles of transmission lines criss-crossing the White Mountains, with 135-foot high steel towers poking up through the trees every few hundred feet.

The information, so-called, talks about how the line will bring “much-needed” energy to the region. The fact is, there is no serious need for additional energy in that area. Much of what will be imported will be sold elsewhere. But just to make sure they have a ready market, the developers of the project, Public Service of New Hampshire and their affiliates also want a 40-year no-bid contract with the state.

They’re also looking for waivers from several other regulations that they would normally have to comply with.

Despite its name, PSNH is a private company, not a public utility, yet it wants to use eminent domain as a way to force reluctant property owners to give up their land to make way for the transmission lines. They’re also looking for changes in state law to make power drawn from the large-scale hydroelectric plant in Quebec as a “renewable resource” – disregarding the environmental damage that project has caused, and, not coincidentally, making them eligible for millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies.

The plan is opposed by other energy suppliers as being patently unfair, the tourism industry which fears the effect of a blighted landscape on its industry, and environmental organizations. Their voices are being drowned out by the all-out media blitz by PSNH.

Approval for the project is still some months away, but so confident is PSNH of government approval that they have begun buying up property along the way. And there’s a shroud of secrecy around these purchases – with property owners who have sold land not being allowed to discuss the deals publicly.

Does it feel as though the fix is in?                

US media AWOL as Perry censors inconvenient truth

I’m not sure which is more disturbing – the fact that Texas officials in Gov. Rick Perry’s administration purged all mention of climate change on a 200-page environmental report commissioned by the state, or the fact that it has gone nearly unreported by the U.S. media.

In a nearly unprecedented move, the scientists who prepared the report have disowned it, demanding that their names be taken off the document. Once Perry’s political hacks got done with it, they wanted nothing to do with it.

“To me it is simply a question of maintaining scientific credibility,” said Jim Lester, a co-author of the report and vice president of the Houston Advanced Research Centre, in an article in The Guardian.

The report details the risks from rising sea levels, increased droughts, and more severe weather, much of which can be attributed to global climate change.

In the kind of ignorance reminiscent of the George W. Bush administration, Perry refuses to accept evolution, climate change, and apparently anything else science-related. And so it shouldn’t be too surprising that when this report was submitted to the Texas Commissionion on Environmental Quality, they didn’t like what they read.

The chairman of the commission, Bryan Shaw, a Perry appointee, is fond of calling climate change a hoax. They are not the least embarrassed by the episode, and justify it on political grounds.

Andrea Morrow, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the report was “inconsistent with current agency policy.”

And it wasn’t just a matter of expunging a few words, they did away with any data that didn’t support their policy – for instance the fact that sea levels at Galveston Bay are rising five times faster than the previous average as taken out completely.

But here’s another puzzle. The story has been reported in detail both by the French news service AFP and by the UK paper The Guardian, but not the major U.S. media.

Rick Perry is also running for president. Every statement, every nuance of body language is dissected by the U.S. political media. Why would they ignore something like this? Even he governor’s wife receives more coverage than this.

Shouldn’t people know what kind of governance we can expect if someone like this elected? Didn’t we learn anything from the dark ages of GW Bush?

PSNH and its dirty coal-burning plant

For years, a coal-burning power plant in Bow, NH, has been destroying the aquatic life of the Merrimack River, and the plant’s owners want to continue to do so unhindered. They take exception to a proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that they upgrade their cooling system.

According to a report by the EPA, the current system  - which dates back to the days of unfettered pollution - heats up the habitat around the plant and traps fish in its system.

“We know that the fish populations have changed dramatically,” said EPA spokesman David Deegan in an article in Friday’s Concord Monitor. “A lot of the changes we see are fish that want warmer water.”

The owners, Public Service of New Hampshire, are the same group that wants to cut a gash through the White Mountains to bring electricity south from Canada – not for New Hampshire consumers, but to sell elsewhere. The name is nothing short of misleading -  they are not a public entity, but a private corporation, and the only service they’re interested in, is to their shareholders.

Which brings us back to the coal plant – the upgrade is going to cost a lot of money. Thus far, the company has been lucky to keep operating the way it has. They should have been ordered to do this years ago – but during the Bush administration the EPA was ordered not enforce regulations, and so they were able to operate without any interference.

Now that the EPA seems to have woken up from its Rip Van Winkle siesta, PSNH is crying foul.

“I’m not exaggerating when I’m saying we received very little in reaction and communication to the material we were very frequently providing to the EPA,” said PSNH spokesman Martin Murray.

He makes it sound as if they were just waiting for the go-ahead on this. Nothing was stopping them from upgrading their system. What’s the problem now?

This doesn’t even address the need to put an end to coal-burning plants. None other than multi-millionaire and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg – not exactly a ranting, raving radical – has seen the light, and is willing to put his money where his mouth is with a sizeable grant to the Sierra Club to help in its effort to put an end to coal-burning plants.

Your Government At Work

For some reason I found myself thinking about different news items I’ve come across recently.

Tim DeChristopher is a Utah environmentalist and former wilderness guide. In 2008, the government was auctioning off some oil and gas leases near two national parks. DeChristopher signed up and drove up the bids, winning several of the leases. The problem was he didn’t have any money.

That really upset the applecart. His prank earned him two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Compare this with the BP oil spill last year that killed 11 workers, destroyed the gulf coast economy, and ravaged the environment. BP’s chairman of the board was invited to lunch at the White House, and Republicans apologized to CEO Tony Hayworth for inconveniencing him when he was asked to testify before a Senate committee. The Justice Department is still considering criminal charges. BP is back to drilling in the Gulf.

The Vermont Yankee power plant has been leaking tritium for over a year now, and some of it has just been found in the Connecticut River. Strontium, much more dangerous than tritium, has also been found in the soil at the plant, and in fish in the river. A few years ago, one wall of a cooling tower collapsed – not because of an earthquake, tornado, or hurricane, but because it was badly built. That was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s conclusion.

Given all the problems it has had, Vermont wants the plant shut down when its license expires in March. The owners are suing the state government, saying it has no right to shut them down, and the NRC is helping them prepare their case.

A year or so ago, fully armed federal agents working for the Dept. of Agriculture raided a gourmet cheese shop and yanked cheeses off the shelf. Why? Because some of the specialty cheeses were allegedly made with raw milk. Agents also raided a family farm and confiscated a young girl’s computer because the farm reportedly allowed people to buy raw milk.

Remember last year’s salmonella outbreak caused by eggs from huge factory farms where millions of chickens are kept in unsanitary conditions? Several hundred people got sick, and possibly some died. The outbreak was first detected in May, but the Center for Disease Control didn’t issue a recall until August. And even though the offending farms were known and identified, no action was taken against the company that owns them. They’re still cranking out eggs the same way they always have.

Shell Reports Another Oil Spill in the North Sea

Shell Oil Co. is reporting an oil leak at one of its drilling rigs in the North Sea. The company will not disclose the amount of the spill, but says it is now under control. This is not the first time.

Documents that were made public recently showed the company experienced nearly one oil spill a week during  a two-year period in 2009-2010.

This most recent spill couldn’t come a worse time.

The company has been touting improved safety measures and awaiting EPA approval of those measures so that it can go ahead with its plan for drilling in the Arctic. Oil interests have been pressuring the Obama administration to speed things along, on their assurances that nothing can go wrong.

It is puzzling why the administration has made an about-face on its offshore oil-drilling policy. After promising that no new drilling would take place until it could be done safely, the president has taken a full speed ahead approach just a year after the BP Gulf oil spill.

It should be noted that all these rigs were built with the same sort of assurances of safety that they’re giving now. Why should anyone believe them?

Entergy tries to pull another fast one in Vt. Yankee flap

The owners of the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear plant are trying to pull another fast one – this time to avoid paying the cost of closing down the plant – much to the embarrassment of their good friends at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Brattleboro Reformer today reported that Entergy Corp., owners of the 40-year-old plant in Vernon, Vt., have sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission saying that now that the commission has extended the plant’s license for another 20 years, there’s no need to keep the millions of dollars in a decommissioning account as required by the NRC.

The company has notified that it’ll take the money out, and begin re-building the fund over the next 20 years.

The company is acting as though it’s a done deal.

But wait. The state of Vermont has not approved the license, and it is increasingly unlikely that it will. The whole matter comes before a federal judge beginning next month.

The NRC’s response is that it is by no means certain that the plant will be able to operate after it’s current expiration date of March 2012. In addition to the lawsuit, the NRC cites several other reviews that are being conducted, any of which could have an impact on the plant’s future.

Whether or not the company has the funds to cover the cost of closing the plant has been the source of some controversy. Over the past year, the plant has been put up for sale, attempted to enter into a merger, and tried to form  new company bringing together three nucear plants that it operates in the northeast,

None of these succeeded, and in particular the plan to form a new subsidiary to operate the northeast nuclear plants was shot down by a New York regulatory agency because they were not convinced the new subsidiary would be able to cover the cost of decommissioning the plants. They saw it as a ploy for Entergy to get out from under the obligation.