Tag Archives: arsenic

EPA, GA EPD, and Southeast Health in Waycross about Seven Out Superfund @ EPA 2013-11-14

Now EPA is convinced that the public wants answers, after dozens of citizens turned out to ask questions at Waycross City Hall 14 November 2013. A study of contamination sampling is in peer review, and GA EPD and GA Health Dept. are also involved. Citizens and silentdisaster.org and Satilla Riverkeeper and WWALS Watershed Coalition are watching.

Matthew J. Huyser, EPA (l. standing blue shirt), Jim Brown, GA EPD (c. standing white shirt), Ashby Nix, Satilla Riverkeeper (facing Brown, paper in hand), Joan Martin McNeal, silentdisaster.org (r. in group)

Roger Naylor, Public Relations Director for Southeast Health District, is quite familiar with Janet McMahan’s discovery of arsenic in groundwater and says Continue reading →

Arsenic, Outings, and Flooding: WWALS Watershed Coalition @ VLCIA 2013-04-16

Water issues strongly affect economic development, so I talked about the new WWALS Watershed Coalition at the 16 April 2013 Board Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.

The VDT declined to speak, so I did. After apologizing for no okra today, I commended the Authority for talking about the missing agenda items and for mentioning due diligence and flood control.

Mostly I talked about the new WWALS Watershed Coalition, www.wwals.net, incorporated in June 2012, which is about watershed issues such as flooding, water quality, and invasive species related to the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, and Little River System. I mentioned arsenic in some local well water, which the Department of Health has finally said should be tested, three years after Janet McMahan discovered it was a problem. I invited VLCIA board and staff to two upcoming WWALS events: Continue reading →

When contamination gets into the watershed

Underground may be out of sight, but it just keeps seeping farther, getting into more wells, poisoning more wetlands, and getting into the air, causing cancer and other diseases.

Katie Leslie and Shannon McCaffrey wrote for the AJC 13 April 2013, 20 years later, Fort Gillem contamination still spreading,

In the early 1990s the U.S. Army discovered hazardous chemicals dumped at Fort Gillem seeping into residential wells in neighboring Forest Park. The finding prompted the military to pass out bottled water and convert many residents to a county water system from their private wells.

But two decades and a base closure later, state officials say the Army still hasn’t done enough to clean up known and suspected carcinogens that are migrating from groundwater into surface water and, potentially, into the air residents breathe.

We might want to think about that before importing coal ash; oh, wait, we already did! Maybe at least we should not import any more of it. We already have cancer-causing arsenic in some of our wells; we don’t need more. And what about that Continue reading →

Southern Company claims to be incompetent regarding new EPA rules

Why can’t Southern Company do what other power companies can do in implementing the new coal plant pollution control rules EPA is about to promulgate?

Elizabeth Shogren wrote for NPR today, EPA To Unveil Stricter Rules For Power Plants. She described new rules for coal plants EPA is going to release in the next few weeks, including controls on mercury, “arsenic, acid gases and other pollutants.” Southern Company doesn’t like that.

“It’s physically impossible to build the controls, the generation, the transmission and the pipelines needed in three years,” says Anthony Topazi, chief operating officer for Southern Company, which provides electricity to nearly 4 million homes and hundreds of thousands of businesses in the Southeast.
Topazi says electricity rates will go up, putting marginal companies out of business. He says unless his company gets six years, it will not be able to keep the lights on.
“We will experience rolling blackouts or rationing power if we don’t have simply the time to comply,” Topazi says.

Other power companies see no problem: Continue reading →

“we are satisfied with the safety of this plant” –Brad Lofton

Giving up on answering Dr. Sammons latest, Brad Lofton resorts to the xenophobia card. -jsq

From: Brad Lofton
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:07:16 -0500
Cc: [Dr. Noll, Kay Harris, jsq, lhenderson, hopeforcleanwater]
To: “Bill” [Sammons, Leigh Touchton], aricketts@industrialauthority.com
Subject: Re: Background information on Dr. Christopher Teaf
Thanks again for your e-mail Dr. Sammons. As we have said multiple times now, we are satisfied with the safety of this plant, the numerous experts that have approved it, and the due diligence we have done. You can continue to send ten e-mails a day, yet our position remains the same. I hope the weather is nice today in Massachusetts.
BL
Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

See also Col. Ricketts on “folks come into the community”. -jsq

Granting a permit is not evaluating safety –Dr. Sammons

Dr. Sammons responds to Brad Lofton’s email. -jsq

From: Bill [Sammons]
Cc: [Dr. Noll, Kay Harris, jsq, lhenderson, hopeforcleanwater]
To: blofton@industrialauthority.com, leigh.touchton@gmail.com, aricketts@industrialauthority.com, [Roy Copeland, Mary Gooding]
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:44:54 -0500
Subject: Re: Background information on Dr. Christopher Teaf
Dear Mr. Lofton:
Having talked with many different people in different departments in multiple state governments I do not think that any of them would suggest that granting a permit is the same as “do nothing but evaluate the safety of these projects”. When asked they all say the are following the guidelines set out by EPA/state regulations– they are not evaluating the safety of each project. Many will admit in private that the regulations/guidelines are not up to date with science, but the people in the permitting agencies do not have the authority to grant the permit based on the best available science/data. It’s not dissimilar to discussions of BACT– depending on the size of the stationary source not all BACT is the same.
As an example if you look at the EPA regulations on PM 2.5

Continue reading →

“literally countless … no doubt … the issue has long been resolved” –Brad Lofton

Sidestepping Leigh Touchton’s email, Brad Lofton backs off on Dr. Teaf and forgets how to count. -jsq

From: blofton@industrialauthority.com
To: Leigh Touchton, aricketts@industrialauthority.com, Copeland, Roy, [Mary Gooding] Cc: Bill [Sammmons, Dr. Noll, Kay Harris, jsq, lhenderson, hopeforcleanwater]
Date: Sun, Jan 23, 2011 9:03 am
Subject: Re: Background information on Dr. Christopher Teaf
Thank you for your e-mail Ms. Touchton. Dr. Teaf’s credentials clearly speak for themselves, but as you know, he is only one expert that has provided guidance. His expert opinion is in the overwhelming majority. The state EPD also employs toxicologists and experts that do nothing but evaluate the safety of these projects. The federal EPA does the same. Both groups support biomass and have provided their blessing. This project was also reviewed by experts from VSU, GA Tech, and UGA. It also has been reviewed and blessed by the Obama administration, federal agencies that employ hundreds of experts, the state of GA, Lowndes County, and literally countless environmental groups and experts. There is no doubt about the safety of the three existing biomass plants in Lowndes nor another one. This issue has long since been resolved and the permits have all been approved and are in place at this time.
Have a nice day,
BL
Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

“Dr. Christopher Teaf’s numerous paid endorsements” –Leigh Touchton

Responding to Brad Lofton’s email.

Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 11:20:06 -0500
Subject: Background information on Dr. Christopher Teaf
From: Leigh Touchton
To: Brad Lofton <blofton@industrialauthority.com>, aricketts@industrialauthority.com, [Roy Copeland, Mary Gooding] Cc: [Sammons, Noll, Kay Harris, jsq, lhenderson, hopeforcleanwater]
To Industrial Authority Board:
In regards to the email correspondence from VLCIA Executive Director Brad Lofton concerning Dr. Christopher Teaf, I spent about ten minutes on the internet researching Dr. Christopher Teaf’s numerous paid endorsements around the country for various chemicals. This article
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0VCW/is_8_27/ai_73959431/
was compelling. Dr. Teaf is on public record endorsing the safety of arsenic in wood as posing no health threats to children (or adults). Numerous lawsuits around the country were adjudicated against his “expert findings” and subsequently the EPA banned CCA (arsenic) treated wood in playground equipment because of the health hazards to children.
I only spent about ten minutes, but I uncovered much information re: