A new report from the EPA looks at how Climate Change is affecting the United States. Since 1990 we live in a country that’s warmer, with more heat waves and hurricanes. Sea levels are rising and glaciers are melting.
A new report from the EPA looks at how Climate Change is affecting the United States. Since 1990 we live in a country that’s warmer, with more heat waves and hurricanes. Sea levels are rising and glaciers are melting.
So far, most of the questions about bisphenol-A have focused on its possible impacts on human heath – particularly unborn and very young children.
But Tuesday’s announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency opens a whole new front. The agency says it will study BPA’s impact on the environment.
After decades of leaching mercury into the streams and rivers of Lane County, the EPA has put the former Black Butte Mine on the Superfund clean up list.
The mine is located about ten miles south of Cottage Grove. EPA has documents thousands of cubic yards of tailings and soil that’s been contaminated by mercury and arsenic. Some of it has been carried by streams and rivers into the Cottage Grove reservoir where things have gotten so bad that health officials say it’s a good idea not to each the fish there.
In a deal negotiated by the EPA, three major companies say they will stop using decaBDE, a flame retardant that is toxic to wildlife.
Albemarle Corporation and Chemtura Corporation are the two largest U.S. manufacturers of decaBDE, ICL Industrial Products is our county’s largest importer. Under the deal, they will phase out most production, importation and sales of decaBDE by the end of 2012. By the end of 2013 they will stop all uses of it. The EPA is asking smaller companies to join them.
The chemical is used in a variety of consumer products, including electronics and textiles. But over the past year or so, we’ve seen more and more evidence that decaBDE poses a serious risk to the environment here in the Pacific Northwest.
When President Obama arrives at the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen later this month, he won’t be coming empty handed.
The EPA wants to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Photo from ODOT.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency declared greenhouse gases a threat to public health, and will start regulating them as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says the agency will move forward on plans to control greenhouse emissions from cars and trucks, and from large stationary sources such as factories.
The decision is receiving, so far, unanimous praise from Northwest environmental groups.
Environment Oregon calls this the, “Most significant step the federal government has taken on global warming.”
The Center For Biological Diversity, a national group with offices in Portland says, “We applaud the EPA for moving forward to implement one of our nation’s most successful environmental laws to avert catastrophic runaway global warming.”
Seattle based Earthjustice adds, “We are heartened to see that our government is recognizing the global warming threat.”
One of the hottest stories on the web today. The Environmental Protection Agency has decided that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health and need to be regulated. This could be a major shift in how the federal government deal with climate change. Rather than waiting for Congress to pass a law, the decision could allow the Obama Administration to take action by itself to control carbon emissions.
See stories from:
Associated Press via Yahoo News
New York Times
Washington Post
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson holds a press conference at 10:15am, Portland time. Check back for live updates and hopefully streaming video.
Crater Lake, one of 500 lakes in the study. Photo by Dennis Newman
Here’s an argument for catch-and-release.
A new report by the Environmental Protection Agency is raising questions about the safety of fish caught in America’s lakes and reservoirs. The study looked at fish in 500 lakes across the country, including nine here in Oregon.
What the agency found is that it’s just about impossible to catch a fish that doesn’t have at least some mercury or PCBs. Dioxins and furans were also found in most fish.
But are they safe to eat?
That of course varies greatly depending on where you’re fishing and often how you eat what you catch.
Some more results from the study:
Mercury: The study found “potentially harmful” levels of mercury in fish at 49% of the lakes in the study. Mercury gets into the food chain from the burning of fossil fuels, usually coal.
PCBs: 17% of the lakes studied had fish with unhealthy levels of PCBs, a class of chemicals that can cause cancer.
Dioxins and furans: While at least 8 out of 10 fish in the study had at least some level of these chemicals, unhealthy amounts were found in fish at 8% of the lakes in the study.
Unfortunately, the EPA says its hard to draw conclusions about the safety of the fish caught here in Oregon. It says the sample sizes are too small to make any conclusions. But I’m trying to get data on what they found here.
Meanwhile, the Oregon Department of Human Services does have a list of lakes and rivers with fish advisories. You can find that list here.
So far, so good.
That’s the message from the Environmental Protection Agency this afternoon, about air quality at two schools in Oregon. Earlier this year the EPA started monitoring air quality at 63 schools around the country, including Harriet Tubman Middle School in Portland and Toledo Elementary in Toledo.
The early results are “good news” according to Suzanne Skadowski of EPA’s Seattle office. The level of pollutants found near the schools are, in her words, “Way below the levels we’ve set for concern in the short-term”.
But the EPA also warns against drawing conclusions so early in the monitoring process. The real concern is the potential health problems for students, teachers and staff from long-term exposure. Skadowski says the agency will continue to sample air quality at both schools for about another month. Updated results, showing long-term effects, are expected to be released by the end of the year.
The Harriet Tubman Middle School was chosen for the study because it represents a school close to heavy industry and a major interstate, I-5 in this case. The major pollutants being studied are acetaldehyde, manganese and nickel. Sources for these pollutants include vehicle exhaust and manufacturing. Another source of acetaldehyde is coffee roasting.
Toledo Elementary was put on the list because it’s near a Georgia-Pacific mill. The major pollutant being studied here is manganese.
For more information see:
EPA: Assessing Outdoor Air Near Schools
Harriet Tubman Middle School Short-Term Test Results
Toledo Elementary Short-Term Test Results
You can also see my earlier story on this topic, EPA To Study Air Quality At Two Oregon Schools.
It’s the first step in what could be a long crackdown on pesticide use in the Pacific Northwest.
The Environmental Protection Agency is placing new limits on the use of three organophosphate pesticides – chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion. The rules apply to Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California.
A Chinook salmon. Courtesy NOAA.
The EPA is trying to keep these chemical out of streams and rivers that are home to salmon and steelhead. Research shows that these pesticides can interfere with a salmon’s ability to smell, making it harder for the fish to hunt prey. The chemicals may also kill prey and reduce the salmon’s food supply. In high enough concentrations, the pesticides can outright kill salmon.
How do the new rules work? First, they require buffer zones around salmon and steelhead habitat. These are areas where the pesticides can’t be used. The size of the buffer zone will depend on weather conditions, and how the pesticides will be applied. The idea is to keep the pesticides from drifting into fish waters.
Other restrictions including no spraying on windy and rainy days, or when rain is in the forecast, to prevent the chemicals from running off fields and into streams.
For the most part, these rules follow recommendations by NOAA Fisheries. The EPA is asking manufacturers to voluntarily adopt these limits, with the threat of taking regulatory action if they don’t.
But what’s especially important about today’s announcement is that it may be the first in a very long series of new rulings on pesticide use. The EPA and NOAA will spend the next couple of years studying three dozen pesticides in the Northwest. So far, six of them have been labeled as threats to salmon and steelhead. That includes the three pesticides mentioned above.
The death of Florence Kolbeck was so strange, that it captured headlines around the state.
In July of 2005, Kolbeck and her husband Fred returned to their house after it had been sprayed for bugs by a pesticide company. Thinking they had waited enough time after the spraying, the Kolbecks were coughing and on the floor within minutes. A few hours later, Florence was dead from a heart attack.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it has settled with the company that applied the pesticides. Swanson’s Pest Management, Inc., of Eugene has agreed to pay a $4550 fine, the maximum possible under the law. The EPA complaint says Swanson’s made three serious mistakes, including not doing a good enough job to ventilate the home after spraying.
Kolbeck’s death is the only known “death by pesticide” case in Oregon history. An autopsy by Lane County concluded she died from a combination of factors, including exposure to the pesticide and poor health that made her vulnerable. The report said the levels of pesticide found in the home were not lethal and that had Kolbeck been in better health she would have survived.
A lawsuit against Swanson’s, filed by her family, was settled out of court about a year ago.
