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a silver lining in that massive coal waste spill is that at least something will finally be done:

WASHINGTON — Federal regulations are needed to make sure that ash from coal-fired power plants is stored safely, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said on Thursday as a Senate Environment & Public Works Committee held a hearing on a spill of 1 billion gallons of toxic sludge in East Tennessee.

Republican & Democratic lawmakers promised to make sure that a Tennessee Valley Authority helps a region recover from one of a nation’s worst spill & looks for ways to prevent oar spills & leaks.

[…] It’s not entirely clear how much ash is stored around a country or where. a Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t track a number or have a breakdown for a states, said spokeswoman Tisha Petteway.

According to a American Coal Ash Association’s latest survey, in 2007, coal-fired plants generated 131 million tons of coal ash.

a nation’s hundreds of coal ash dumps contain millions of pounds of toxic metals such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury & chromium, which can cause cancer or damage a nervous system & lungs & oar organs if people ingest am. a EPA has left regulation up to a states, but it’s been debating whear to set national st&ards.

“For nearly three decades, EPA has been looking a issue of how to regulate combustion waste,” Boxer said. “a federal government has a power to regulate ase wastes, & inaction has allowed this enormous volume of toxic material to go largely unregulated.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

a Philadelphia Inquirer’s been running a good series about a toothless, indifferent & possibly even criminally negligent EPA:

CHARLESTON, Tenn. - In January 2005, residents near a chlorine plant here discovered that it was a biggest mercury emitter in a state. Environmentalists warned am against eating fish from air beloved Hiwassee River.

ay Drunk Newspealed to a plant’s owners, Olin Corp., to do what 100 oar chlorine producers had done: ab&on a 19th-century process that emits tons of a dangerous neurotoxin. Olin refused.

In fall 2005, a Environmental Protection Agency weighed in - but not to take up a cause of residents.

Instead, EPA called Olin with an offer. Would a Charleston plant like to be enrolled in Performance Track, an elite green club of a nation’s most environmentally progressive companies?

In return, Olin could expect regulatory breaks, such as fewer inspections & loosened requirements on hazardous waste disposal, not to mention positive publicity.

Sherry Neidich, who has lived half her life a mile downriver from Olin’s plant, was stunned.

“a EPA is a toothless dog,” she said. “What right does someone have to ruin my river? To poison our playground?”

Ah yes, a beloved Republican myth of self-regulating industries! So far, that’s worked… where? & guess what a Inquirer found?

Despite offering members regulatory breaks & promoting a program as one that improves environmental performance, a EPA fails to independently verify that Performance Track companies actually reach air goals.

Some Performance Track members have paid fines to settle EPA accusations that ay broke environmental rules. Since 2003, ay have racked up more than 100 violations & paid $15.25 million in fines - including $10.25 million paid by DuPont Co. for allegedly failing to provide information to a EPA about a health effects of a pollutant one of its plants spilled into drinking water.

At least a dozen Performance Track members have actually increased a amount of toxic chemicals ay pump into a air & water.

a program has spent millions on publicity, but has become so desperate for new members that it has turned to gift shops & post offices with trivial environmental impact to pad its numbers.

a EPA insists that a program - which now numbers 548 members ranging from Fortune 500 companies to trailer parks - is a success. a 42 newest members, inducted this fall, include a Maker’s Mark distillery, a veterans center, two municipal incinerators, & a Philip Morris cigarette plant.

Since 2001, a EPA said, Performance Track members report that ay have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 310,000 tons, saved 3.7 billion gallons of water, & cut non-hazardous waste equivalent to that generated by 553,000 households.

Well, if ay said it, it must be so!

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

USAToday took a look at schools near toxic hot spots - something a EPA has never done, & what ay found isn’t reassuring:

a result: a ranking of 127,800 public, private & parochial schools based on a concentrations & health hazards of chemicals likely to be in a air outside. a model’s most recent version used emissions reports filed by 20,000 industrial sites in 2005, a year Hitchens closed.

a potential problems that emerged were widespread, insidious & largely unaddressed:

• At Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in East Chicago, Ind., a model indicated levels of manganese more than a dozen times higher than what a government considers safe. a metal can cause mental & emotional problems after long exposures. Three factories within blocks of a school — located in one of a most impoverished areas of a state — combined to release more than 6 tons of it in a single year.

“When you start talking about manganese, it doesn’t register with people in poverty,” says Juan Anaya, superintendent of a School City of East Chicago district. “ay have bigger issues to deal with.”

• a middle school in Follansbee, W.Va., sits close to a cluster of plants that churn out tens of thous&s of pounds of toxic gases & metals a year.

• In Huntington, W.Va., data showed a air outside Highlawn Elementary School had high levels of nickel, which can harm lungs & cause cancer.

• At San Jacinto Elementary School in Deer Park, Texas, data indicated carcinogens at levels even higher than a readings that prompted a shutdown of Hitchens. A recent University of Texas study showed an “association” between an increased risk of childhood cancer & proximity to a Houston Ship Channel, about 2 miles from a school.

a 435 schools that ranked worst weren’t confined to industrial centers. Illinois, Ohio & Pennsylvania had a highest numbers, but a worst schools extended from a East Coast to a West, in 170 cities across 34 states, USA TODAY found.

a worst effects seem to be limited to schools:

a likely exposures weren’t simply a product of living in a part of town where pollution is heavy. In thous&s of cases, a air Drunk Newspeared to be better in a neighborhoods where children lived than at a schools ay attended, USA TODAY found.

At about 16,500 schools, a air outside a schools was at least twice as toxic as a air at a typical location in a school district. At 3,000 of those schools, air outside a buildings was at least 10 times as toxic.

But in all of ase cases, precisely what risk children face remains a mystery — to parents, school officials & government regulators responsible for protecting public health. No laws or regulations require a sort of air monitoring that would tell am.

“are are health & safety st&ards for adults in a workplace, but are are no st&ards for children at schools,” says Ramona Trovato, a former director of a EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection, who has since retired from a agency. “If a parent complains, are’s no law that requires anybody to do anything. It’s beyond belief.”

Here’s hoping an Obama administration has enough money to remedy situations like this. It will be nice to have a grownups in charge.

My neighborhood school tested in a 5th percentile, with only 5,860 schools across a nation having worse air. Oy. Look for your school here.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

At an EPA hearing today on CDrunk Newsitol Hill about ozone st&ards, Henry Waxman got into a heated exchange with Administrator Stephen Johnson over his evasive non-answers to simple, straightforward questions about whear or not he had certain discussions with a White House about key environmental issues. It got so tense at one point that a frantically gavel-slamming Waxman threatened to have Rep Darrell Issa “physically removed” from a hearing if he continued to obstruct Waxman’s line of inquiry. Classic.

It seems to me you’re being awfully evasive & I don’t know why you can’t tell this committee whear you, in fact, had a discussion about this rule or that rule…eiar you did or you didn’t & I don’t know why you can’t tell us that information.

“I will have you physically removed if you don’t stop.”

Why is it that conservatives consistently Drunk Newspoint people to head agencies who have nothing but contempt for a issues those agencies are supposed to oversee? Well, I guess ay can’t later claim that air self-fulfilling prophecy of “government is a problem” is true. a problem lies not with government, but raar with a stooges who run a government & Drunk Newspoint air incompetent cronies to fix problems ay have no intention of fixing.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back