Greening the Environment

EPA Won’t Send Potentially Contaminated Artifacts to Landfill for Now

August 23rd, 2009 Posted in Environment | No Comments »

Saturday, August 22, 2009
By Adam Brickley

Map of historic Fort Edward. (Courtesy of New York State Military Museum)(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now tells CNSNews.com it will not destroy archaeological artifacts from the site of the largest British fort in the American colonies – at least not yet.

As CNSNews.com reported last week, an EPA-mandated project to remove pollutants from the Hudson River recently dislodged the potentially toxic artifacts — two large timbers from the site of Fort Edward in upstate New York – and destroyed most of the historic site.

EPA spokeswoman Kristen Skopeck originally told CNSNews.com that the historic timbers were contaminated and would have to be buried in a landfill. On Friday, however, John Vetter, a national EPA expert on cultural and archaeological resources, said that the agency will now attempt to save the timbers.

“Obviously, there’s a real interest and a real appropriateness to do what can be done to see if they could be saved,” Vetter said in an interview with CNSNews.com Friday.

“The initial characterization,” he said, “was obviously what, in general, one does with wood, but this is, you know, an appropriately significant artifact, and artifacts like this we do look at a lot more carefully.”

Vetter also described the process by which the EPA will decide whether the timbers are too contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to be saved.

“It’s a very awkward situation with anything that is found in a PCB-laden environment,” he said. “If it’s wood, there’s an unfortunate affinity between the PCB contaminants and wood structure. All that aside, we don’t make the ultimate determinations about the ability to save or retain materials without doing testing, and that’s the first action that we’re now going towards.”

“We’ll be doing appropriate tests to determine the PCB content, if any, within these timbers,” said Vetter, “and that will then be the next phase in terms of what are our real options.”

In a positive vein, Vetter noted that the EPA will be undertaking new archaeological digs at Fort Edward, and that the “unfortunate” removal of the timbers actually “triggered and provided a genuine opportunity for some fairly careful research.”

“What we’re going to do is take this opportunity, right at the place where the timber was located, to carry out two sorts of archaeological efforts,” he said, “one a land based excavation of the area immediately around the where that timber was lodged, and B, in the river itself. We’ll have underwater archaeologists looking there at what now might be exposed as a result of removing the contaminated sediments. And these two efforts will hopefully give us a context, a setting, but also give us some more data about what is a very, kind of, significant place.”

Vetter added that, “we certainly are going to make a different kind of effort to get it open so that the public can view what’s happening and obviously provide, if there’s interest, press opportunity as well to the excavation work.”

The $750 million dredging project is being conducted by General Electric

How a ‘perfect storm’ caught us by surprise

August 23rd, 2009 Posted in Environment | No Comments »

From thestar.com

Sticky air mass, heat, and winds created Thursday’s tempest. Here’s what happened

Aug 22, 2009 04:30 AM
Cathal Kelly
Iain Marlow
Staff Reporters
Fifteen hours before it arrived in Ontario, a violent storm was tossing pedestrians in the air in Minneapolis and collapsing buildings in northern Indiana. Then it began tearing through a huge swath of Ontario.

Why didn’t we see the biggest storm in recent memory coming?

The answer, according to Environment Canada, is that we did. Most of us simply didn’t pay attention until it hit.

Canadian forecasters were watching as the brute chewed its way through the U.S. Midwest. But a day is a long time in the weather business.

“(The storm) could have stalled, it could have moved south,” said Environment Canada climatologist Dave Phillips. “You can see it coming, but you should be afraid to issue a warning a day in advance.”

The first official hint that we were in for a huge blast came at 3:30 a.m. Thursday. In a general weather statement, Environment Canada noted “thunderstorm potential” across Ontario.

Inside the Ontario Storm Prediction Centre, a war room at Dufferin St. and Steeles Ave., a handful of forecasters scrutinized their radar screens. One sat by the phone, awaiting news from amateur weather spotters in affected areas. By 6 a.m., an email circulated to senior staff noting that “a tornado was not impossible.” But the meteorologists still had no idea where it might develop.

Several factors contributed to the storm’s explosive growth. First, there was a wet, sticky air mass in Ontario waiting to receive it. Clear skies allowed the sun to bake that air further.

“If the skies had remained cloudy, we probably would have had showers, but we never would have had intense storms,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimbell.

Then there were strong, erratic winds at different altitudes that further stirred the mix.

By the time the storms had crossed from the U.S. into Sarnia around 1 p.m., there were several distinct thunderstorms within a wider batch. And as the afternoon dragged on, the activity increased in breadth, and the radars were “detecting rotation all over the place,” any one of which could have turned into a tornado, touched down, and started sucking things up.

“In the afternoon they morphed into a squall line of thunderstorms, which made it extremely difficult to predict,” Kimbell said. “When you have a whole line of them, you throw your hands up and say, ‘I don’t know where they all are.’ “

By the time the system settled over Ontario, “it was a bit of perfect storm,” said Queen’s University climatologist Harry McCaughey.

At 10:51 a.m., a severe thunderstorm watch was issued for an area stretching from Windsor to Kitchener-Waterloo. Two hours later, the watch was extended for areas north of the GTA, stretching up to Peterborough.

Storm watches are rarely issued outside a six-hour window. Storm warnings can come as little as 15 minutes before arrival.

“A watch is a heads-up. A warning is `look up and look out,’” Phillips said. He noted that summer storms are especially difficult to predict because of changing temperatures. In winter, when the temperature is steadier from day to night, storms can be reasonably forecast days in advance.

He also pointed out that meteorologists are leery of hyping a large storm’s arrival, since false alarms tend to promote apathy just before a really big system hits.

At 2:18, the first thunderstorm warning was issued for Goderich – meaning that residents should expect at least one of high winds, heavy rain, hail or tornadoes. Some areas would see all four.

“It was very tense (at the OSPC),” said Kimbell. “At times like that, it resembles the mood inside an air traffic control tower.”

Shortly before 3 p.m., a tornado warning – the most severe warning issued by Environment Canada – was issued for areas near Milverton and Perth County. At 3:25, the warning was extended to encompass Durham.

According to Kimbell, a tornado first touched down in Durham at 4:15 p.m. Kimbell called that 50 minutes lead time “world class.” Meteorologists in Indiana said they were able to provide warnings 15-20 minutes ahead of tornadoes Wednesday night.

By 5:30 p.m., the storm had arrived in the GTA and begun lashing residents as they headed out for the evening commute. Many were surprised by the severity of the storm.

However, Environment Canada said that though mistakes are made in the forecasting business, Thursday was a success.

“(The severity) was probably a bit surprising, even to the forecasters,” said Kimbell. “But it was anticipated and I think it was fairly well forecast.”

“My God, we would be heroes if we could say to people as they drove to work, `Batten down the hatches, you’ve never seen a day like this before,’” said Phillips. “But it’s scientifically impossible. And it will never be the case.”

While storms of such severity are rare, one expert predicted that we should expect more extreme storms in the future.

“If you keep pushing the climate the way we’re pushing it, don’t think about getting `average’ weather any more,” said Queen’s climatologist McCaughey.

“What’s normal for weather in Ontario is changing. We’re going to see a whole series of new normals … it’s not going to be that bad in 10 or 20 years, but 50 years out, our kids are going to be living in a very different world in terms of climate.”

Early yesterday, Environment Canada again noted “thunderstorm potential” in southern Ontario. By the beginning of the workday, the forecasters who had worked inside the OSPC on Thursday were on the ground in storm-damaged areas.

“We’re trying to a do a verification of our own forecasting,” said Kimbell.

“Plus, it’s important that we see the real world effects of the weather we’ve predicted.”

As workers emerged from office buildings in downtown Toronto yesterday afternoon, the skies were sunny throughout Toronto.

Toxic waste returns from Brazil

August 22nd, 2009 Posted in Environment | No Comments »

Reported on BBC News…..

Containers of hazardous waste alleged to have been illegally exported from the UK to Brazil have arrived back at docks in Suffolk.

More than 70 of the 89 containers arrived at the port in Felixstowe on board the cargo ship MSC Serena, with more of the waste due at a later date.

The containers, said to include syringes and condoms, have to be fumigated before they can be examined.

Three men were arrested in Swindon in July in connection with the shipment.

The Environment Agency began an investigation after the waste was found by Brazilian officials in three of the country’s ports over the past few months.

Andrew Higham, head of the Environment Agency’s National Environment Crime Unit, was at the dockside to meet the ship.

He said the Brazilian authorities had told him the waste had been exported under the guise of recyclable plastic but actually contained hazardous and toxic waste.

We are not going to allow our waste to be dumped on developing countries

Andrew Higham
Environment Agency
Earlier this month, officers from the agency’s National Environmental Crime Team, along with Wiltshire Police, raided premises in Swindon.

The three arrested men, aged 24, 28 and 49, were bailed until the end of October.

Mr Higham said the illegal export of waste was treated extremely seriously.

“The United Kingdom has taken a strong global lead to stamp out the illegal waste trade, in order to protect people and the environment,” he said.

“We are not going to allow our waste to be dumped on developing countries.”

Waste can be sent abroad for recycling, but not for disposal.

The maximum penalty for exporting waste illegally is an unlimited fine or up to two years in prison.

3 Tips For Organic Gardening Soil

August 22nd, 2009 Posted in Organic Living | No Comments »

Do you really think organic gardening soil is the same as regular garden soil? If so, boy are you sadly mistaken and you have a rude awakening coming your way. That’s kind of blunt isn’t it? Did I get your attention, I really hope so. The information in this article will help you get a better understanding of the facts about organic gardening soil.

The first misconception most new organic gardeners have about their soil is that any thing can grow in any type of soil. All you have to do is throw a few seeds in the ground and boom you have a natural garden. You need to lose that preconceived notion if it applies to you.

You must take into consideration the overall climate conditions which will impact the soil. An example of these things would be rain, wind, temperatures and exposure to the sun light. Then the next thing to consider is the amount of rocks and density of the soil.

An example of bad density soil would be where the dirt is tightly compacted and allows for no circulation of air or moisture. To have good organic gardening soil it must be loose, with excellent air and moisture circulation. Not to worry though because one of the things you can do if your dirt is tightly compacted is introduce earthworms to the ground and allow them to do their thing.

Frankly though the earthworms take time to create their magic and they have a tendency to get out of the designated planting area quickly. However, there is a simple solution to that problem and you will help improve your soil quickly.

You can go to your local nursery or hardware store and purchase organic soil by the bag full or even by the truck load. Many organic gardeners will put this soil on top of their compacted soil and then plow it into the regular soil. However, for this method to be effective you must have enough organic soil to be from a minimum depth of three inches up to six inches or more. The great thing about it is as you repeat this procedure through several growing seasons you will soon have brought the life back to your original soil.

Another tip about your soil is the proper levels of phosphates, hydrogen and acidity in the soil. This is often times referred to as the ph factor in the soil. It’s quiet easy today to go on the World
Wide Web and order a testing kit for your soil. However, one of the best ways to determine if you have right kind of soil for organic gardening is to take a sample of your soil to your county agriculture agent or to your local nursery. For a small fee or no fee at all they will tell you everything you need to know about your soil.

In addition to providing you the information about your dirt they can also advise you as to the best type of plants that will grow in your soil. Furthermore, they are a great source for additional tips on growing an organic garden successfully.

These tips are just a few of the things about your organic gardening soil which are important. To really get ahead of the game on your soil you should continue to further your education.