• NASA Approves More Telescopes for Hawaii's Tallest Mountain
  
• New York Judge: EPA Dropped Rat Poison Safety Measure Illegally
  
• Tongass Logging Scheme Cut Down by Appeals Court
  
• EPA Tests Quick Demolition Method Leaving Asbestos in Place
  
• Pennsylvania Facilities Must Monitor Discharges to Chesapeake
  
• Virginia Anti-Trust Case Against Waste Industries Settled
  
• EnergyStorm Launches Energy Abstracts Website
  

NASA Approves More Telescopes for Hawaii's Tallest Mountain

New York Judge: EPA Dropped Rat Poison Safety Measure Illegally

The decision was the result of a November 2004 lawsuit filed in New York City’s federal district court by West Harlem Environmental Action and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The groups challenged the EPA’s regulations under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

The EPA issued safety regulations in 1998 that would have protected children from the poisons, but it revoked them in 2001 after coming to a "mutual agreement" with chemical manufacturers.

Judge Jed Rakoff today rejected the agency’s reversal, finding that its justification for dropping a key safety measure "lacked even the proverbial scintilla of evidence."

"This is a major victory for children’s health - and for common sense," said Aaron Colangelo, an NRDC attorney. "Parents now will be able to protect their kids and deal with rodent problems in their neighborhoods at the same time. There’s no reason why any of our kids should be accidentally poisoned, because it’s relatively easy to protect them."

Tens of thousands of children under age six are poisoned every year, and several hundred require hospitalization. Poisoned children can suffer from internal bleeding, bleeding gums and anemia, and can go into a coma.

In 1998, EPA determined that the thousands of annual rat poison exposures were an unreasonable health risk and violated federal pesticide laws. So the agency required manufacturers to include two safety measures to protect children - an ingredient that makes the poison taste more bitter, and a dye that would make it more obvious when a child ingested the poison.

In 2001, however, EPA revoked the safety regulations, announcing that it "came to a mutual agreement with the rodenticide [manufacturers] to rescind the bittering agent and indicator dye requirements."

Judge Rakoff today called this explanation a "striking statement" and ruled that the reversal of one of those safety measures - the bittering agent - violates the law.

"This court victory marks an important step towards protecting children in communities of color," said Peggy Shepard, executive director of WE ACT. "The basic safety measure required by the court today will protect children from poisoning while still allowing communities to control rats."

Studies have found that the safety measures help prevent child poisonings without undermining the effectiveness of rat poisons. A number of manufacturers already include a bittering agent in rat poisons sold in the United States.

Rat poisons harm children in all communities, but African-American and Latino children and children living below the poverty level suffer a disproportionate risk.

In New York state, 57 percent of children hospitalized for rodenticide poisoning are black, although only 16 percent of New York state’s population is black; and 26 percent of hospitalized children are Latino, although Latinos comprise only 12 percent of the state’s population, the NRDC says.

A total of 17.5 percent of the children hospitalized for rodenticide poisoning are from families who live below the poverty level, although children living below the poverty level comprise only 13 percent of the state’s population.

Millions of pounds of rat poisons are applied nationally every year. In New York City, rat poisons are used heavily in public housing, public schools and city parks.

Tongass Logging Scheme Cut Down by Appeals Court

EPA Tests Quick Demolition Method Leaving Asbestos in Place

The Alternative Asbestos Control Method removes only the most friable, or brittle, materials containing asbestos before demolition, but leaves some asbestos containing materials, such as wall systems, in place.

The most friable asbestos-containing materials are removed under the requirements of the Asbestos National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) and are disposed of as asbestos-containing wastes.

Once the most friable materials are safely removed, the demolition proceeds using amended water suppression before, during, and after demolition, in order "to trap asbestos fibers and minimize their potential release to the air," the EPA said.

Wastewater generated during the demolition is collected, and all contaminated materials are disposed as asbestos-containing waste. A two-inch layer of soil is removed to ensure that no residual soil contamination remains at the site.

The new method "may serve as an alternative to the current NESHAP for demolition of buildings containing asbestos," the EPA said.

The agency says the new method may "accelerate the demolition of many abandoned buildings around the nation that remain standing, currently presenting a variety of serious risks to nearby residents."

"Using the Alternative Asbestos Control Method, these former blighted areas would then be available for redevelopment, creating jobs and tax revenues for communities," said the agency.

The demonstration will include environmental monitoring, and will allow for a representative of the city, Arkansas Health Department, or the EPA to stop work if conditions so merit, the federal agency said.

The site is in a remote, secure location, to assure no public exposure, and has several identical structures with asbestos-containing building materials to facilitate a side-by-side comparison of the Alternative Asbestos Control Demolition method vs. the current NESHAP method.

The buildings have a clearance of approximately 1,000 feet from the nearest occupied site on the eastern side, and more than that in all other directions.

The project will be carried out as a joint effort of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the EPA.

"Public involvement of local residents will be solicited at various stages throughout the project, and will be an integral part of the project plan," the EPA said.

Pennsylvania Facilities Must Monitor Discharges to Chesapeake

The Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy is a wide-ranging water quality initiative designed to clean up the state’s rivers and streams, enhance the health of families and preserve the rural character and farming economy of Pennsylvania.

The watersheds of the Susquehanna and Potomac rivers in Pennsylvania suffer from nutrient and sediment pollution. The tributary strategy is expected to improve water quality in the 13 sub-basins that make up these two watersheds.

“This is an important step toward restoring impaired waters in Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake Bay - requiring 190 significant sewage and industrial dischargers to reduce their nutrient loads,” McGinty said. “Monitoring nutrient loads is critical to documenting our progress in the Bay restoration effort and helps to identify steps each discharger may need to undertake to achieve any future nutrient load reductions.

As part of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement among Bay states and partners in the restoration effort, Pennsylvania agreed to develop a tributary strategy to reduce total nitrogen and phosphorus to the Bay by about 40 percent from both point and nonpoint sources by 2010.

This reduction is projected to prevent localized impairment and improve water quality in the Bay, allowing it to be removed from the impaired waters list.

As part of the point source part of Pennsylvania’s strategy, DEP is amending National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for 190 facilities identified to be significant contributors of nutrients. Permits will be amended to require the monitoring and reporting of total nitrogen and phosphorus. This is the first component of the point source implementation strategy.

Point source discharges contribute about 11 percent of the total nitrogen and about 18 percent of the total phosphorus to the Chesapeake Bay from Pennsylvania waters based on 2002 estimates.

Full implementation of the point source control program will achieve an estimated reduction of 3.1 million pounds of nitrogen and 745,000 pounds of phosphorus per year.

The state’s tributary strategy is Pennsylvania’s official plan to meet the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement goals for nutrient and sediment reduction in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

The strategy embraces a suite of best management practices for nonpoint and point sources - agriculture, wastewater treatment plants, urban stormwater and septic systems - to meet Pennsylvania’s nutrient and sediment reduction goals.

More than half of Pennsylvania is within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Virginia Anti-Trust Case Against Waste Industries Settled

WASHINGTON, DC, August 8, 2005 (ENS) - The Justice Department of Justice said today it has reached an anti-trust settlement with Waste Industries USA Inc. The Department's Antitrust Division filed the documents today in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia.

The company has agreed to sell certain small container commercial waste hauling assets, to modify certain customer contracts, and to refrain from certain contracting practices in the Norfolk, Virginia area, to resolve the Department's antitrust concerns.

The Department said that the acquisition by Waste Industries of waste-hauling assets from Allied Waste Industries Inc. lessened competition for small container commercial hauling services in the region.

As it often does, the Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit and at the same time filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the lawsuit and the Department's concerns.

"This settlement ensures that the full benefits of competition - lower prices and better service - will be restored to commercial waste hauling customers in the Norfolk, Virginia area," said Thomas Barnett, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division.

According to the complaint, in August 2003, Waste Industries and Allied were two of only a few providers of waste collection services in the cities of Norfolk; Chesapeake; Virginia Beach; Portsmouth; Suffolk; and Franklin, Virginia and in the county of Southampton, Virginia.

The complaint alleges that the August 1, 2003 transaction reduced from four to three the number of significant firms competing in the collection of small container commercial waste, giving Waste Industries control of about 43 percent of that market.

Small container commercial hauling involves the collection of waste from commercial establishments such as retail stores, offices, and restaurants, and the shipment of the collected waste to disposal sites.

Under the proposed settlement, Waste Industries must divest small container commercial hauling assets on certain routes in the Norfolk, Virginia area.

Waste Industries has agreed to alter its existing and future contracts for small container commercial waste-hauling services. The contract modifications will promote competition by making it easier for customers in this area to switch to other small container commercial waste haulers.

Waste Industries, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, provides waste collection and disposal services throughout the Southeastern United States. Waste Industries reported revenues of approximately $291 million in 2004.

Allied Waste Industries, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, is the second-largest waste hauling and disposal company in the United States. Allied reported sales of approximately $5.4 billion in 2004.

The proposed settlement will be published in The Federal Register, along with the Department's competitive impact statement. Anyone may submit written comments concerning the settlement during a 60-day comment period to Maribeth Petrizzi, Chief, Litigation II Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1401 H Street, NW, Suite 3000, Washington, D.C. 20530 (202-307-0924).

At the end of the 60 day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia may enter the final judgment upon finding that it serves the public interest.

EnergyStorm Launches Energy Abstracts Website

WASHINGTON, DC, August 8, 2005 (ENS) - Researchers have a new website to log onto for information about energy research published in the United States and around the world. The site, EnergyStorm.us, contains hundreds of thousands of free energy research abstracts, from decades ago to the present time.

The abstracts describe research papers on subjects as diverse as geothermal energy and oil shales and energy conservation.

EnergyStorm’s abstracts are fully searchable. Eventually, EnergyStorm plans to make available online full-text energy research papers.

The website is a production of EnergyStorm LLC, a sister company to Storming Media LLC. Storming Media provides more than 100,000 research papers and more than 250,000 additional abstracts from the Pentagon. Both companies are located in Washington, DC.

"EnergyStorm is a great way for scientists, librarians and industry experts to perform a comprehensive review of energy research literature," said Jock Friedly, president of EnergyStorm and Storming Media. "We are committed to expanding our offerings and making the site even more useful for researchers."