$100 Million Santa Clarita Valley Settlement Reached

from AP/SFGate

"A $100 million groundwater cleanup deal was struck after a nearly seven-year legal battle with former and current owners of a defunct munitions plant.

Four Santa Clarita Valley water agencies agreed to the settlement calling for the Whittaker-Bermite facility's current and former owners to clean up the perchlorate contamination. The chemical is used in the manufacture of explosives, munitions and rocket fuel.

The Castaic Lake Water Agency, Newhall County Water District, Santa Clarita Water Co. and Valencia Water Co. sued current and former operators of the munitions site after perchlorate was found in five Santa Clarita Valley wells.

"This ensures funding for a very important cleanup project in the Santa Clarita Valley. It's very nice that we have a cooperative approach," attorney Frederic A. Fudacz said.

The settlement, reported Thursday by the Daily Journal, must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge in Arizona because the site's current owners, Remediation Financial Inc. and Arizona-based Santa Clarita LLC, filed for bankruptcy in 2002.

The 1,000-acre Bermite site manufactured ammunition, explosives, flares and detonators since the 1940s. Whittaker Corp. operated the site until 1999, when it was purchased by Remediation Financial and Santa Clarita LLC.

The settlement agreement reached by Whittaker, Remediation Financial and Santa Clarita provides $100 million for the construction of replacement wells, pipelines and a treatment facility to remove perchlorate. . ."

lolwalmart

Wal-Mart has recalled baby bibs that they've been selling since 2004. Although the bibs feature kids' favorite Sesame Street characters, they also contain lead. The lead helps make the PVC softer, but there are other ways of doing that.

Incidentally, the recall followed a lawsuit filed by Oakland's very own Center for Environmental Health, who became aware of the high lead levels in September.

But hey, at least it's cheap, right?

AP/Dallas News story here

lolbison

this is more what i was going for in that last post

"Reign of Terror" Comes to End...Good Riddance

from the AP Wire, via truthout

I especially like the CBE quote:

An Interior Department official accused of pressuring government scientists to make their research fit her policy goals has resigned.

Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday.

MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

MacDonald was recently rebuked by the department's inspector general, who told Congress in a report last month that she broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups.

. . .

Environmentalists cheered the departure of MacDonald, who they say tried to bully government scientists into altering their findings, often without scientific basis.

"Julie MacDonald's reign of terror over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finally over," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Endangered species and scientists everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief."

MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, had served in her post since 2004. She was a senior adviser in the department for two years before that.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said MacDonald had "betrayed the mission she swore to uphold," adding that her actions "undermined both the work and the integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and its many dedicated employees."

. . .

The inspector general's report said MacDonald tried to remove protections for a rare jumping mouse in the Rocky Mountains based on a questionable study, and reduced by 80 percent the amount of streams to be protected to help bull trout recover in the Pacific Northwest.

MacDonald also pressured the Fish and Wildlife Service to alter findings on the Kootenai River sturgeon in Idaho and Montana so dam operations would not be harmed, the report said.



i wanted to write on this picture: "i's in yr depratmnt, mezzin wiht yr sienze" a la LOLcats, but i couldn't figure out how

Mom's Bad News

this reuters article is currently yahoo news' most viewed story:

Arctic ice cap melting 30 years ahead of forecast

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.S. ice expert said on Tuesday.
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This means the ocean at the top of the world could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020, three decades sooner than the global panel's gloomiest forecast of 2050.

No ice on the Arctic Ocean during summer would be a major spur to global warming, said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Center in Colorado.

"Right now ... the Arctic helps keep the Earth cool," Scambos said in a telephone interview. "Without that Arctic ice, or with much less of it, the Earth will warm much faster."

That is because the ice reflects light and heat; when it is gone, the much darker land or sea will absorb more light and heat, making it more difficult for the planet to cool down, even in winter, he said.

Scambos and co-authors of the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, used satellite data and visual confirmation of Arctic ice to reach their conclusions, a far different picture than that obtained from computer models used by the scientists of the intergovernmental panel.

"The IPCC report was very careful, very thorough and cautious, so they erred on the side of what would certainly occur as opposed to what might occur," Scambos said in a telephone interview.

ICE-FREE SUMMER

The wide possibility of what might occur included a much later melt up north, or a much earlier one, Scambos said.

"It appears we're on pace about 30 years earlier than expected to reach a state where we don't have sea ice or at least not very much in late summer in the Arctic Ocean," he said.

He discounted the notion that the sharp warming trend in the Arctic might be due to natural climate cycles. "There aren't many periods in history that are this dramatic in terms of natural variability," Scambos said.

He said he had no doubt that this was caused in large part by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which he said was the only thing capable of changing Earth on such a large scale over so many latitudes.

Asked what could fix the problem -- the topic of a new report by the intergovernmental panel to be released on Friday in Bangkok -- Scambos said a large volcanic eruption might hold Arctic ice melting at bay for a few years.

But he saw a continued warm-up as inevitable in the coming decades.

"Long-term and for the next 50 years, I think even the new report will agree that we're in for quite a bit of warming," Scambos said.

"We just barely now, I think, have enough time and enough collective will to be able to get through this century in good shape, but it means we have to start acting now and in a big way."

By Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters Environment Correspondent

Dept. of Interior Unveils 5-Year Offshore Drilling Program

DOI Press Release



Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today announced a major federal initiative to boost oil and natural gas production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska. The program could produce 10 billion barrels of oil and 45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over 40 years, generating almost $170 billion, in today’s dollars, in net benefits for the Nation.

“The Outer Continental Shelf is a vital source of domestic oil and natural gas for America, especially in light of sharply rising energy prices and increasing demand for these resources,” Kempthorne said. “This energy production will create jobs, provide greater economic and energy security for America and can be accomplished in a safe and environmentally sound manner.”

Interior’s Minerals Management Service developed the initiative, known as the Five Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, to guide domestic energy leasing on the OCS from 2007 to 2012. The program proposes 21 lease sales in 8 planning areas. Twelve sales are slated for the Gulf of Mexico, 8 off of Alaska and, at the request of the Commonwealth of Virginia, one in the Mid-Atlantic Planning Area, about 50 miles off the coast of southern Virginia.



. . .

Kempthorne emphasized that the proposal balances the critical need for domestic energy resources with the equally critical need to protect human, marine and coastal environments. He noted the program was developed through extensive consultation, public comment and the rigorous analysis required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

“We consulted extensively with Members of Congress, state, local and tribal officials, industry, environmental organizations and received comment from more than a hundred thousand interested citizens,” Kempthorne said. “This program gives great weight to the desires of coastal states regarding oil and gas development near their shores and environmentally sensitive areas were removed from proposed lease sales.”

He also noted that 75 percent of the comments received from the public supported some level of increased access to the domestic energy resources of the Outer Continental Shelf. (yes...the "public"...not energy companies)

There is no leasing proposed within 125 miles of the Florida coast or east of the military mission line in the Eastern Gulf. The program includes a Central Gulf sale in 2007 that involves a portion of the Sale 181 area and, as mandated by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, one lease sale in the Eastern Gulf in 2008.

The Act, signed by President George W. Bush on December 20, 2006, requires oil and gas leasing in a portion of the area known as the “Sale 181 Area,” consisting of 2,574,823 million acres, of which 2,028,730 is in the Central Gulf and about 546,093 acres is in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico Planning Area. The proposed sale area “181 South” consists of 5,762,620 acres. The total of new areas in the Gulf offered under the proposed program is 8,337,443 acres.

The leasing program schedules eight sales in Alaska: two in the Beaufort Sea; three in the Chukchi Sea; up to two in Cook Inlet; and one in the North Aleutian Basin – in an area of about 5.6 million acres that was previously offered during Lease Sale 92 in 1985. There are currently no existing leases in the North Aleutian Basin. These areas would be subject to environmental reviews, including public comment, and extensive consultation with state and local governments and tribal organizations before any lease sale proceeds.

The program also includes a proposed sale in the Mid-Atlantic Planning Area off the coastline of Virginia in late 2011. Between the current presidential withdrawal and the annual congressional moratoria, the majority of the OCS around the lower 48 states is off limits to energy development, including all areas off Virginia. This sale would, therefore, only take place if the presidential withdrawal is modified and the congressional moratorium discontinued in the Mid-Atlantic Planning Area.

This planning area excludes a 50-mile coastal buffer from leasing consideration as requested by the Commonwealth of Virginia, as well as a wedge-shaped No-Obstruction Zone to avoid conflicts with navigation activities in and out of the Chesapeake Bay.
No lease sale would proceed without additional and more site-specific analysis of its environmental effects under the National Environmental Policy Act.

A Notice of Availability for the 5-Year program and its Final Environmental Impact Statement will appear in the Federal Register on May 2, 2007. As required by the OCS Lands Act, the program was submitted to the President and Congress today and, after 60 days, the Secretary may approve it to take effect on July 1, 2007. The complete proposed program is online at http://www.mms.gov/5-year/.

there it is

also, if you have kids you should definitely check out MMS's Kid's Corner. the little ones will be fascinated by their description of offshore oil and gas platforms! or not.

A Classic...and a Soon to Be Classic

A Classic


Soon to Be

Changes to Spotted Owl Plan May Be Guano-rific

A draft recovery plan for the Spotted Owl was released Thursday by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Although one of the plan's options would extend Clinton-era Northwest Forest Plan protections by designating new protected areas, the other would leave those decisions to Forest Service and BLM land managers.



This latter option has been decried by environmentalists as a way to weaken the Forest Plan and as a concession to timber industry. Depending on who you ask, I was either meddlesome political interference by the Bush administration with what was otherwise a harmonious and integrated process, or a way to allow for dynamic land management in the face of changing conditions.

On a side note, another provision of the plan calls for killing dozens of non-native barred owls to prevent competition with the spotted owls. The Humane Society's not too happy.

The plan is available for review from USFWS.

Comments will be accepted until June 25th. More info here.

There will also be a public meeting in Redding, California on May 23rd. More info at above links.

The City Left Berkeley Holding the Bag, but We're Not Far Behind

from the San Francisco Chronicle

"Berkeley is considering becoming the second U.S. city after San Francisco to outlaw plastic grocery bags.

'It's important that San Francisco not be alone on this,' said Mayor Tom Bates, who referred San Francisco's ordinance to Berkeley's Zero Waste Commission for review. 'The whole region should be behind this, so San Francisco isn't hurt by shoppers going elsewhere.'

The City Council could vote on the ordinance in about a month.

'I'd love to be able to do it," said Steen Jensen, chair of the Zero Waste Commission. "For reaching zero waste, plastic bags are one of the big issues.'

As in San Francisco, grocers in Berkeley would have the option of offering compostable bags made of plant starch or paper should the ordinance pass. The California Grocers Association has said such bans will lead to higher prices."

Biodiversity Law

For anyone who was considering taking Biodiversity Law, here's an added incentive. If you haven't done your writing requirement, Prof. Biber announced that he's happy to have students fulfill the class and their writing requirement with a paper on a biodiversity-related topic. You can contact him with any questions.
The class is offered on Thursday and Friday from 11:15-12:30.