The Nature of Things » Greg Clary

Security exercise at Indian Point

Greg Clary — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:39:27 +0000

Emergency responders from multiple state and county agencies will participate in a security exercise Wednesday at the Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan. Westchester County officials are advising residents who live near the plant that emergency vehicles, police cars, fire trucks and ambulances will be used – without lights and sirens – during the exercise. The four counties within the 10-mile evacuation radius of Indian Point – Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange will participate, along with plant personnel and representatives of New York State. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be observing the exercise.

Federal money for sewer and water pipes clears big hurdle

Greg Clary — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:23:57 +0000

New York communities moved a significant step closer to $322 million in federal money to rebuild crumbling water and sewer pipes, with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, announcing that the money was included in combined House and Senate Interior appropriations bill.
“The federal government has stepped up to the plate to help localities break ground on many of these backlogged projects to maintain and upgrade the local water infrastructure and sewer system,”?Schumer said in announcing the $3.5 billion allocation nationwide. “Making these investments now will create jobs, ensure long-term economic competitiveness, and provide clean drinking water to residents in New York State and across the country.”
Schumer said no less than 30 percent of the funds will be made available as grants instead of loans, to lower local tax impact, and the money could be start to be dispersed by the end of the year.
An American Society of Civil Engineers report has detailed $20.42 billion in sewer and water infrastructure needs for New York.
New York communities outside New York City already have identified $3 billion in water infrastructure projects, according to loan applications to the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation. The Hudson Valley leads the list of regions, with $820 million.
The federal allotment roughly doubles the amount of money Washington approved in its current budget for the nation’s water needs.

Hudson River PCB dredging halts for season

Greg Clary — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:40:39 +0000

General Electric’s dredging of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) finished up for the season early Tuesday morning, with the company removing more than 285,000 cubic yards of sediment since last spring. The amount was well above the Environmental Protection Agency’s goal of 265,000 cubic yards for Phase 1. Barges will continue at work on the river for the next couple of weeks, delivering and placing clean backfill in the areas that were dredged. Then the equipment will be demobilized for the winter. Next spring, divers will be back in the Hudson, replanting the underwater vegetation that was removed through dredging.

Nuke plant testing sirens

Greg Clary — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:24:19 +0000

Indian Point will conduct a full-volume test of its emergency alert sirens Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The four-minute test will involve all four counties — Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange — within the 10-mile emergency evacuation zone. There will be an activation of the Emergency Alert System on radio and television stations immediately following the test. No action by the public is required. The siren system may be tested for sound again in the afternoon, at 1:00 p.m., if an additional test is determined to be needed during the morning sounding.

Burn, baby, burn – NOT!

Greg Clary — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:43:18 +0000

If you’ve been burning your trash and raked leaves in a charred, 55-gallon drum in the backyard, it’s time to find another way.
On Wednesday, New York environmental regulators banned such burning statewide, closing the gap in a patchwork of local restrictions and out-of-date state statutes.
Not so long ago, burning trash was the norm, whether in building incinerators in more populated areas or in tended fires in more open spaces.
You can still have your backyard campfire, whether ceremonial or for food and warmth, but the rest of that pyromania is taboo.
God knows there’s a bit of the fire-tender in all of us. It goes back to when fire was tamed and can be as relaxing as it is warming.
The problem is, when people get to put whatever they want into fire, it ends up creating health problems that don’t show up as quickly as smoke in your nostrils when the wind changes.
Primarily, this statewide ban is focusing on dioxins and other chemicals that float up with the smoke and end up messing up lungs and a host of other organs.
What happens typically is backyard fires aren’t that hot. Sure, they’ll burn you and all, but compared to the 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit that burn plants reach, they’re mild.
Put plastic water bottles into those little fires and they’ll melt in a real cool way, but what’s melting is actually being carried into the atmosphere and ultimately into our bodies.
“These regulations are long overdue,” said Laura Haight of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “Since 1972, the state has prohibited open burning in communities with populations over 20,000, but burning trash has continued to be a common practice in many less-densely populated, rural, parts of the state.”
Haight said our waste stream has gotten more toxic and consequently so have the fumes that come when some of it is burned.
She calls it a “witches brew” of polyvinylchloride, or PVC, and other types of plastic, treated wood, batteries and even bleached and colored paper.
David Carpenter, a professor at the SUNY Albany Institute for Health and the Environment, says the major source of the cancer-causing dioxins in New York is backyard burning.
“Twenty years ago it was incinerators,” Carpenter said. “That changed with that ban.”
Carpenter said dioxins aren’t something that humans would make intentionally. It’s produced anytime anything with chlorine is burned below 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit .
“It deposits on vegetables, on the grass that cows eat,” he said. “It’s a very nasty substance. It increases the risk of cancer at any concentration. We must get dioxin out of the food supply.”
Since open burning is the largest cause of wildfires, the new restrictions should help on that front as well.
As someone who watched the side of a hill next to his house catch on fire one afternoon many years ago, I can still recall the terror when that little barrel fire almost raged out of control.
I thought I was on top of the situation until a moment of inattention showed me I wasn’t.
Who doesn’t love the smell of burning leaves or a backyard burn?
With the leaves changing color, this time of year has always had its own smell because we thought there was no problem doing what we’ve always done.
Now it’s clear that we can’t keep doing that.

Feds to review Indian Point fuel storage plan

Greg Clary — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:38:20 +0000

BUCHANAN – Federal regulators are set to review Indian Point’s plans for moving and storing spent nuclear fuel on site, but say they won’t be pushed by the company’s desire for a fast-track approval.
“The company wants it by August of 2010 … so they’ll be ready for Indian Point’s refueling in the spring of 2011,” said Neil Sheehan, spokes-man for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “We’re somewhat skeptical that it can be done by then.”
Normally, such a review takes 12 to 24 months, Sheehan said, and the NRC just notified Indian Point Wednesday by mail that the application was complete.
Entergy Nuclear, which owns Indian Point, announced its intention to apply in mid-June.
At issue is shrinking storage space for the used uranium rods that have fulfilled their purpose but still hold enough radioactivity to need special handling and long-term storage solutions.
Every spring, one of the two working reactors at the Buchanan site gets a refill of one-third of its fuel, and the rods that no longer can be used have to be stored in deep water or specially built casks.
With a national repository for nuclear waste effectively bound up in Washington politics, the nation’s 104 reactors are storing their used fuel on location, often with limited flexibility because of lack of space.
Indian Point wants to be able to move fuel between storage pools and store some of it in casks that regulators have yet to approve.
“We want to look at their entire plan, including equipment and transfer path,” Sheehan said. “We’re not going to let (their need for more refueling space by 2011) drive the that schedule.”
Sheehan said there will be an opportunity for members of the public to request a hearing on the proposed change.

SUNY Purchase gets $2.1 million in stimulus money for green roof project

Greg Clary — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:34:31 +0000

SUNY Purchase will be helped in building a 24,000 square foot green roof with more than $2 million in federal stimulus money.

The green roof will decrease stormwater runoff by about a third.

“This is huge for us. It helps change the central infrastructure of our plaza,” said Geri Sanderson, the college’s spokeswoman wrote to the Journal News. “Our water drainage systems will be vastly improved.”

The money is part of $7.89 million for innovative water quality projects in the Hudson Valley announced by Gov. David Paterson. The money comes through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and was awarded to 15 different projects through a new State initiative known as the Green Innovation Grant Program, which promotes sustainable, environmentally sensitive water infrastructure and technologies.

The grants will support cost-cutting solutions for progressive water conservation, energy efficiency technologies for drinking water systems and clean water infrastructure. The projects include green roofs, permeable pavement, rain harvesting and progressive wastewater treatment processes. In addition, the program expands green job opportunities across the State and builds upon a legacy of green municipal works and entrepreneurship.

“These investments boost local economies and create new jobs, while also promoting our environmental sustainability. The Hudson Valley will soon see innovative solutions to threats to our rivers, lakes and streams that make for healthier water systems,” Paterson said.

Last March, the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) solicited projects to identify green infrastructure opportunities in need of funds.

Officials from EFC, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and State Department of Health reviewed nearly 300 applications seeking nearly $468 million. The selected projects were then submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for final approval. Each grant recipient must comply with the ARRA, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act and the New York State Revolving Fund requirements.

New York received $432 million through the ARRA for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and $86 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. The ARRA requires states to direct 20 percent of their stimulus funding to water quality projects that use innovative approaches to energy and water efficiency, incorporate stormwater infrastructure and use innovative treatment technologies.

A full list of the grant recipients announced today is available at www.nysefc.org/greengrants

EPA tightens air pollution requirements for large power plants and other industrial sources

Greg Clary — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:42:03 +0000

Lisa Jackson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is announcing tighter limits on what big emitters can release through their smokestacks by next year and environmentalists say the changes will help clean the air and lessen the pace of global warming.
EPA officials say the just announced limits parallel standards already in place for cars and other smaller sources of pollution.
Under the tighter restrictions, new power plants and industrial sources nationwide to address heat-trapping pollution as part of construction and operating permits.
The new standards would take effect when the EPA finalizes its proposed greenhouse gas standards from motor vehicles next March.
“Today’s action focuses federal climate policy on the largest sources of heat-trapping pollution,” Mark MacLeod, director of special projects at Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement. “EPA’s leadership to limit emissions from the biggest sources is smart policy that can achieve big results for the country.”
The non-profit says EPA’s “tailoring” proposal would establish a regulatory threshold of 25,000 tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions. The threshold would focus EPA policies at large sources that collectively comprise over 80 percent of the nation’s heat-trapping emissions.
Major federal climate legislative proposals also use this threshold.
Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry today also introduced legislation to address global warming pollution and advance clean energy solutions.
The EDF says that a 25,000 ton annual carbon dioxide threshold is comparable to the emissions from:
(1) 131 rail cars of coal consumed
(2) 58,000 barrels of oil consumed, or
(3) The emissions from the annual energy use of about 2,200 homes.

Car-free lifestyle isn’t for everyone

Greg Clary — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:05:21 +0000

With organizers pitching the car-free alternative and its annual day of recognition, there are those who don’t see it that way.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, “a non-profit, non-partisan public interest group that studies the intersection of regulation, risk, and markets,” wants to remind everyone “of the value of personal mobility and the advantages of car ownership.”
“While many people love the idea of a car-free lifestyle, for most people it would be difficult, inconvenient and isolating,” said Sam Kazman, CEI General Counsel. “The handicapped, the elderly, parents with kids and groceries, suburban residents getting to work, rural residents running their lives – all depend on cars. The car-free lifestyle itself requires other motorized vehicles, which deliver everything from organic flour to fair trade coffee.”
CEI calls the annual observance “harmless,” it wants to ensure that consumer choice is not restricted.
“There are a host of activists and policymakers who would like to use taxes, fees, zoning restrictions and other regulations to make owning one’s own car more difficult and expensive,” CEI officials said. As a press release about the opposition points out, a “realistic day of car-free living,” should include: rain, grocery bags, babies and toddlers, crutches, late at night.

Driving your car Sept. 22?

Greg Clary — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:55:03 +0000

Organizers of “World Car-Free Day” have chosen September 22, as the annual opportunity for people from around the world to get together in the streets, intersections, and neighborhoods to remind the world that it doesn’t have to be a “car-dominated” society.
The group wants every day to be as car-free as possible, but taps this day annually for what organizers hope is an international day of reminders. For more on the day and the effort, log onto the group’s Web site.