And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 3, 1999
Power Companies Back Measures to Reduce Toxic Emissions
Santa Monica Chooses Geothermal Power
Fluor Daniel Hanford Fined $330,000
California Governor Will Not Appeal Ward Valley Ruling
Delaware, USDA Team Up to Protect Watersheds
Enviro Groups Want Protection for Rare Plants
Local Governments Ask Coca-Cola, Miller Brewing to go Recycled
Expansion by Florida Tribe May Threaten Everglades Restoration
A New Lake for Arid Tempe, Arizona
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun99/1999L-06-03-09.html
POWER COMPANIES BACK MEASURES TO REDUCE TOXIC
EMISSIONS
Several Northeastern power companies joined EPA
administrator Carol Browner
and the National Resources Defense Council yesterday to
promote measures to
decrease toxic emissions from power plants. For the first
time, the utilities
disclosed detailed emissions data from individual power
plants, including
information on mercury releases. The companies also called
on utilities nationwide
to disclose emissions data, to allow customers to understand
the trade-offs
between lower-cost, dirtier fuel and higher-cost, cleaner
power. The companies
hope that publishing this information will make it easier
for them to compete in a
deregulated electricity market with coal-burning plants in
the South and Midwest.
New emissions credits trading may also make cleaner fuel
more cost-efficient,
according to New York based KeySpan Energy, one of the
companies backing
calls by the EPA and NRDC for tougher emissions controls.
Since the May 1 start
of the first penalty period instituted by the EPA for
nitrogen oxides pollution,
KeySpan has bought less oil and more natural gas to generate
electricity at its dual
fuel power plants on Long Island, New York. The company
calculated that the
combined costs of NOx penalties and sulfur dioxide penalties
would raise the cost
of burning oil higher than that of natural gas. By opting
for cleaner burning natural
gas, the company avoids paying pollution penalties and may
be able to sell
emissions credits to companies with higher emissions.
* * *
SANTA MONICA CHOOSES GEOTHERMAL POWER
Santa Monica, California, has become the first city to be
powered entirely by a
renewable energy source - geothermal energy. City officials
decided to take
advantage of the competitive market created by electricity
deregulation and switch
from burning fossil fuels to a cleaner source with fewer
environmental impacts.
Geothermal steam plants owned by Commonwealth Energy
Corporation, based in
Tustin, California, will now supply all the power needs of
city-owned buildings.
Though the city will pay about two percent more for green
power, officials say
the costs will be offset by changes the city has made to
become more
energy-efficient. Santa Monica mayor Pamela O'Connor says,
"By going green,
Santa Monica is reducing smog-producing air pollution that
degrades public health
and moving forward with our Sustainable City plan." The
city’s decision was
prompted by a Go Green Power campaign waged by a Santa
Monica based
environmental group, Global Green USA. City officials hope
to set an example for
other cities across that country that green power is a
workable alternative to more
traditional power sources, including nuclear energy. "Since
deregulation, every
one of us now has the ability to take responsibility for the
environmental impact
of our energy use," notes Santa Monica City councilman
Michael Feinstein.
"This is our chance to change our global energy policy from
the ground up."
* * *
FLUOR DANIEL HANFORD FINED $330,000
The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued its first-ever
Compliance Order to
Fluor Daniel Hanford Inc., the managing contractor of the
DOE’s Hanford
nuclear site in southeastern Washington state. The agency
plans to fine the
company $330,000 for violations of nuclear safety
requirements, the largest
penalty in the history of the Price-Anderson Enforcement
Program. The order
lays out specific milestones to ensure prompt and effective
corrective actions for
the violations at the Hanford Spent Nuclear Fuel Project.
This project is stabilizing
and moving 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel to new, more
secure storage
facilities. DOE investigators found that contractors at the
new facilities repeatedly
failed to follow their own safety procedures. Energy
Secretary Bill Richardson
says if the company fails to obey the compliance order,
additional civil penalties at
up to $110,000 per day for each violation may be assessed
until the company
meets the goals of the order.
* * *
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR WILL NOT APPEAL WARD VALLEY
RULING
California Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, will not appeal
a U.S. District
Court decision in March that prevented the state from
forcing the transfer of
federal land in Ward Valley for a low-level radioactive
waste dump. California and
US Ecology, the company licensed by the state to develop
Ward Valley, had sued
the Department of Interior after Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt rescinded an
order transferring the site to the state. The controversial
dump site is opposed by
many environmental and native Indian groups due to fears
that radioactive waste
could contaminate the nearby Colorado River, a source of
drinking water for
downstream communities including Los Angeles. The governor
plans to convene
an advisory group of academic, scientific, environmental,
and biotechnology
experts, as well as representatives from the utilities
industry and appropriate state
agencies, to find workable alternatives for California’s
low-level radioactive waste
disposal. Wednesday, Davis asked the president of the
University of California,
Richard Atkinson, to chair the group. Some environmentalists
object to the
appointment because the university produces radioactive
waste and has supported
the proposed Ward Valley site in the past. The waste
disposal site is sought by
university medical facilities and power generators in the
Southwestern Compact
states: Arizona, California, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
* * *
DELAWARE, USDA TEAM UP TO PROTECT WATERSHEDS
Six thousand acres of environmentally sensitive agricultural
lands in the
Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay and Inland Bays watersheds may
be transformed
into wildlife habitat, wetlands or waterway buffer zones, a
newly signed
agreement between the state of Delaware and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
(USDA) provides. The $10 million Delaware Conservation
Reserve Enhancement
Program (CREP) aims to improve water quality by paying state
farmers special
incentives to plant permanent vegetative cover along streams
and rivers, restore
wetlands or create wildlife habitat. The vegetation and
wetlands will help filter
agricultural runoff before it reaches state waterways,
reducing the pesticides,
nutrients and sediments that flow into the bays. Forested
buffers planned for
about 1,000 acres will help lower water temperatures,
increase dissolved oxygen
levels and provide additional wildlife habitat. The Delaware
agreement is the eighth
such agreement signed by the USDA since 1997. Illinois,
Maryland, Minnesota,
New York, Oregon, Washington and North Carolina have similar
programs.
CREP program information is online at:
http://www.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/cepd/crpinfo.htm
* * *
ENVIRO GROUPS WANT PROTECTION FOR RARE PLANTS
The Tucson, Arizona based Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity and the
Southern Utah Wilderness Association have filed a formal
petition with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service to list two rare plants as
endangered species under the
federal Endangered Species Act. About 5,000 individual
plants of Holmgren’s
milkvetch (Astragulus holmgreniorum Barneby) occur in only
three areas near St.
George, Utah, crossing the Utah Arizona border. Shivwit's
milkvetch (Astragulus
ampullarioides Welsh) occurs in five sites in the same area,
on and near the
Shivwit’s Indian Reservation. About 2,000 Shivwit’s
milkvetch plants remain.
Both plants are threatened by rapid development in the area,
cattle grazing and
off-road vehicles, according to the conservation groups.
They are related to but
not the same as the astragalus used as a medicinal herb,
Astragalus
membranaceus, which primarily promotes and stimulates immune
function, is a
mild antibiotic and enhances endurance.
* * *
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ASK COCA-COLA, MILLER BREWING TO GO
RECYCLED
A growing number of local governments across the country are
calling on
beverage industry giants Coca-Cola Company and Miller
Brewing Co. to begin
using recycled plastic in their beverage containers, the
GrassRoots Recycling
Network (GRRN) reports. Despite available technology to
incorporate recycled
plastic, neither company uses recycled plastics in its
bottles. In California, the
Alameda County Waste Management Authority, the West
Hollywood City Council
and San Luis Obispo County have sent letters to Coke. So has
Boulder,
Colorado's Recycling and Composting Authority, Winona County
in Minnesota
and the city of Gainesville, Florida. The the GrassRoots
Recycling Network
launched a direct action campaign last year asking consumers
to mail empty
plastic Coke bottles to Coca-Cola, says GRRN network
coordinator Bill
Sheehan. "It reflected our concern about the lack of
manufacturer responsibility
in the United States for packaging, at a time when plastic
recycling rates are
dropping," Sheehan says. GRRN supports legislation before
the California Senate
today requiring food and cosmetic containers to comply with
the state's plastic
recycling law. "Plastics are a growing problem for community
recycling
programs in California and across the nation, due to the
high cost of collection,
low scrap value for recycled material and relatively few
manufacturers using the
material in their packaging," says Sheehan.
* * *
EXPANSION BY FLORIDA TRIBE MAY THREATEN EVERGLADES
RESTORATION
The Miccosukee tribe, a group of about 400 people that holds
perpetual title to
680 acres within Everglades National Park, has big plans for
its lands. The size of
the Miccosukee reserve was doubled by federal decree last
year. The tribe is
building a three-story high school, a courthouse and dozens
of new homes. Plans
are underway for a new visitor center, and parking lots are
replacing wetlands.
Despite a long history of responsible environmental
stewardship, the tribe is
arousing criticism from some quarters against the village’s
rapid expansion. The
village lies next to an important fresh water supply.
Critics fear potential
contamination by septic tanks and blocked waterways may
threaten the $7.8
billion federal Everglades Restoration Project. Outside the
park, the tribe has built
a thriving casino, and will hold a grand opening on June 14
for a $50-million,
300-room resort and conference center, marked by free
concerts by rock stars
Hootie and the Blowfish, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. The
tribe hopes to
draw tens of thousands of tourists each year, and is seeking
licenses to expand
the casino business. Some tribal officials have even
expressed hopes that the tribe
will someday take over and run Everglades National Park.
* * *
A NEW LAKE FOR ARID TEMPE, ARIZONA
After a 30 years of dreaming, a decade of political deal
making and tens of
millions of dollars, the city of Tempe (tem-pee) in the arid
Southwest near
Phoenix has begun to fill a new lake. The first water from
the Colorado River hit
Town Lake Wednesday when Tempe mayor Neil Giuliano turned a
valve in an
early morning ceremony. For the next three to six weeks, 98
million gallons of
water a day will lift the level of Town Lake invigorating
the old dry Salt River
bed. Tempe hopes the two mile lake will invigorate the
downtown. It is expected
to attract restaurants, the state's largest hotel, golf
courses, boutiques and tour
boats. It will serve as a flood control project with
inflatable dams to contain the
lake that can be deflated within half an hour to prevent
upstream flooding. Until
1900 water constantly flowed through the Salt River
sustaining agricultural lands.
Tempe purchased the water to fill Town Lake the first time
form the Central
Arizona Project. Additional water rights will be used to
refill as water is lost to
evaporation. In case of severe, prolonged drought, the city
has plans to convert
the lake into an emergency reservoir by treating the water
for human
consumption.
AmeriScan Index: April 1999
© Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights Reserved
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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