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State Brownfields Practices Challenged in New York – Four environmental groups seeking stronger cleanup standards for brownfield properties are suing the state of New York.

State Brownfields Practices Challenged in New York

Their lawsuit challenges the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program that is intended to encourage the cleanup and redevelopment of the thousands of boarded-up gas stations, decaying factories and other abandoned brownfield sites across the state.

Brownfields sites are those that cannot be developed because of toxic contamination. The contamination is typically not severe enough to warrant a more robust cleanup under the Superfund law, but poses health and environmental risks if development occurs without some remediation.

A state Supreme Court judge heard oral arguments December 21 by the public interest law firm Earthjustice challenging the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program.

Earthjustice is representing Sierra Club, New York Public Interest Research Group, Environmental Advocates of New York and Citizens’ Environmental Coalition in the case.

“Before we give out tax credits and liability exemptions to developers, before we allow homes and daycare centers and nursing homes to be built on these sites, we must make sure they are cleaned up to a level that protects human health,” said Earthjustice attorney Keri Powell. “That’s what we’re asking for in this lawsuit.”

“Under Governor [George] Pataki’s administration, New York established unsafe, second-rate soil cleanup standards that are not protective of children and drinking water,” said Anne Rabe, board member of Citizens’ Environmental Coalition.

After 12 years in office Governor George Pataki was replaced in January by Governor Eliot Spitzer, the former attorney general of New York.

“Surprisingly, Governor [Eliot] Spitzer and the Departments of Environmental Conservation and Health have refused to address this outstanding flaw in the brownfield program. It is time for the state to fix this problem and stop subsidizing dirty cleanups,” said Rabe.

The environmental groups contend the state Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, adopted weaker cleanup standards for properties in polluted neighborhoods, saying that sites only had to meet “background” levels of pollution. Under this regulation, such sites would be left only as clean as the surrounding area instead of being held to stricter standards designed to protect human health.

In response to the lawsuit, the Spitzer administration conceded in November that the program’s use of polluted “background” levels to limit site cleanups is illegal.

But the groups contend that other serious flaws remain in the way legislation is being applied in New York.

In 2003, a new brownfields law was adopted by the State Legislature. The 2003 law requires that sites be cleaned to a level that protects indoor air, surface water, and fish and other aquatic resources. But the groups argue that the DEC has refused to follow this mandate.

“All we are asking is that New York State’s brownfields regulations be protective of public health and the environment, and reflect what the law requires,” said Tim Sweeney, Regulatory Watch Program director with Environmental Advocates of New York. “The Department of Environmental Conservation has forced us to take them to court over concerns that are entirely reasonable and legitimate.”

State lawmakers also asked the DEC to study the results of past cleanups to determine whether tougher cleanup standards could be achieved, especially for contaminants where there is insufficient data on health risk. The DEC has not done this.

Finally, the groups argue that the DEC “arbitrarily” excluded all properties polluted by an off-site source. This exclusion could leave countless sites ineligible, many of them in low-income communities with a legacy of toxic contamination where pollution can be coming from several sources.

“The brownfield cleanup issue is the first real test of the Spitzer administration’s commitment to protecting public health, and so far, we’ve been disappointed in their response,” said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Illinois Gets Rid of 120 Illegal Waste Dumps – Over the course of the past year, 120 illegal dump sites across Illinois have been cleaned up as part of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s I-RID program.

Illinois Gets Rid of 120 Illegal Waste Dumps

I-RID stands for Illinois Removes Illegal Dumps, a program established by law in 2005 to give the Illinois EPA additional authority to combat open dumping and clean up existing dumps.

The state agency says it has removed nearly 22,000 tons of illegally dumped waste, which has been collected and sent to regulated landfills for disposal.

Adding to those numbers, 444 tons of recyclable metal waste has been sent to salvage and recycling facilities and 275 tons of tires have been collected and recycled.

“Since the Illinois EPA’s I-RID Program was launched in late 2006, we have removed thousands of tons of waste that have not only become environmental hazards for the environment, but they have also become unsightly eyesores in Illinois’ communities and in some of the state’s most scenic areas,” said Illinois EPA Director Douglas Scott. “This program has done an excellent job of protecting the environment and preserving it for all to enjoy.”

Over the past year, the Illinois EPA has worked with local and county officials to remove illegally dumped waste throughout the state, in both rural and urban areas. Dump sites range from the tip of southern Illinois near Cave-in-Rock to rural central and eastern Illinois, and urban locations in both the East St. Louis and Chicago metro areas.

The cleanups have removed fiberglass boats, abandoned vehicles, household appliances, mattresses, random furniture and tires.

All illegally dumped waste is of concern to the Illinois EPA, but illegally dumped tires pose an even greater concern. Tires that are inappropriately disposed of serve as habitat for disease-carrying mosquitoes and can lead to tire fires that can contaminate the air, land and water.

Because whole tires have been banned from landfills, they often end up in unmanaged and illegal tire dumps where they accumulate stagnant water that serves as an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes that can potentially carry harmful diseases such as West Nile virus.

The I-RID program uses part of existing landfill fee revenues to cover costs of additional Illinois EPA inspection staff and cleanups. With the funding, the Illinois EPA can hire contractors to clean up open dumps where responsible parties cannot be located or where various specific imminent threats, such as fire, are present.

The law also provides for permitting and regulation of the disposal of clean construction or demolition debris, such as in former quarries, and gives the Illinois EPA Director additional authority to seal sites where there is a potential risk for harm to human health or the environment.

U.S. Forest Service Plans to Lift Roadless Area Protections – The Bush administration intends to remove existing legal protections from over 4.4 million acres of roadless areas in the national forests of Colorado. The U.S. Forest Service formally announced Wednesday that it is beginning a process to establish a new rule for managing Colorado’s roadless areas.

U.S. Forest Service Plans to Lift Roadless Area Protections

This rulemaking is the result of a petition submitted by Governor Bill Ritter on behalf of the State of Colorado requesting specific regulatory protections with certain management flexibility.

The state-by-state roadless rulemaking process is a Bush administration replacement for the Clinton era Roadless Rule, that would have protected 58 million acres of inventoried roadless areas across the United States from development.

The Colorado proposal would remove roadless protections from approximately 300,000 acres of wild forestlands, and weaken them for the remaining 4.1 million acres.

The Colorado announcement follows last week’s similar announcement that the Forest Service will begin consideration of a plan to open millions of roadless acres in Idaho to logging, mining and road building.

“The Bush administration’s actions in Colorado will turn over some of America’s most pristine wildlands to industry exploitation,” said Amy Mall, senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “This is part of the administration’s latest strategy to erode, state by state, the protections that safeguard our public forests.

“First Idaho, now Colorado, and in a few short weeks the Forest Service plans to release a new management plan allowing roadless area logging in Alaska’s Tongass rainforest, our largest national forest. The pattern is clear – the Bush administration is trying to leave our most pristine forestlands open to corporate special interests – and it is doing it through death by a thousand cuts.”

“The purpose of the proposed Idaho Roadless Rule is to respond to the State’s petition to provide State-specific direction for the conservation and management of inventoried roadless areas within the State of Idaho,” said the Forest Service in its Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

The federal agency says it wrote the Idaho Roadless Rule “in response to the Idaho State Petition presented by Governor James Risch on November 29 and 30, 2006, to the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee. While Risch has been replaced by Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter, the petition stands.

“The Bush administration has spent almost seven years trying to undo the Roadless Rule. Now, while most people are home enjoying the holidays, the Forest Service is hard at work in a last effort to try to slice-up America’s wildlands one piece at a time,” said Mall.

“These wild areas represent our last, best places that must be preserved for the unique outdoor opportunities, clean drinking water, bountiful wildlife habitat, and sheer majesty they provide to local residents and visitors alike.

“Coloradans and Americans across the country want to make sure these forests are protected from the Bush administration’s last desperate attempts to help their timber, oil and gas, and mining buddies. If the administration succeeds in any of these states, our country stands to lose some of the most vibrant places within our national forests.”

Public comments concerning the scope of the Colorado analysis must be received by February 25, 2008. Comments may be sent by e-mail to COcomments@fsroadless.org.

The public comment period on Idaho Roadless Rule and Draft Environmental Impact Statement will last for 90 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register. At this time the proposed rule has not been published.

Plant Disease Outbreaks Caused Crop Losses in 2007 – A year-end report from the International Society for Infectious Diseases shows the pattern of plant diseases around the world. While many diseases are spreading, there is some good news – grapevine leaf rust, caused by a wind borne fungus, has been successfully eradicated in Australia.

Plant Disease Outbreaks Caused Crop Losses in 2007

Also in Australia, a citrus canker eradication program is almost complete, although citrus canker and greening diseases continue to spread in the United States. Citrus greening was reported for the first time from Pakistan.

Australian sugar growers are struggling with sugarcane smut, which has spread to all the major cane growing areas within 18 months of introduction of the pathogen into the country. Caused by the fungus Ustilago scitaminea, sugarcane smut was discovered in 1877 in South Africa. The use of resistant varieties is an approach to smut control that has succeded in Florida.

A controversy regarding the exclusion of New Zealand pome fruit by Australia to prevent the introduction of fireblight has been taken to the World Trade Organization.

Rice viruses and their insect vectors were rampant in parts of Asia.

Asian soybean rust was first reported in Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Canada in 2007, and was found in four more states in the United States than in 2006.

Asian soybean rust, caused by the fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi, is one of the most destructive diseases of soybean.

Banana bacterial Xanthomonas wilt appears out of control in Africa with a disease focus in Uganda.

Outbreaks of coffee wilt, leaf rust, and berry disease have affected crops in Africa.

Cocoa black pod and swollen shoot diseases are causing serious crop losses in West Africa.

Cassava mosaic disease remains a serious threat to food security in Africa. Resistant germplasm is being distributed to farmers in affected countries.

Sugarcane orange rust was reported for the first time in the Western hemisphere in the United States.

Banana bunchy top virus is re-emerging in Hawaii.

Potato late blight is causing concern in many countries due to emerging new strains with increased virulence and multiple fungicide resistances. A major outbreak has affected crops in India.

A breakdown of resistance to lethal yellowing disease was observed in Malayan dwarf coconut hybrids. This jeopardizes replanting programs in areas affected by the disease. The mechanism of the resistance breakdown is unknown.

Fungal diseases of vegetable, cereal and root crops, and grapevines were of concern in Europe due to warm and humid weather patterns in 2007.

Wheat stem rust strain Ug99 jumped the Red Sea and spread to Yemen. An even more virulent variant emerged in Kenya, and now an international research alliance was formed to screen for resistant germplasm.

These diseases are tracked by the International Society for Infectious Diseases’ Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases, an electronic outbreak reporting system that monitors infectious diseases globally.

Rehab Prospects Good After Korea’s Worst Oil Spill – The prospects for environmental rehabilitation after the worst oil spill in South Korean history are good due to “quick and effective action” by the Korean authorities, a joint United Nations-European Commission Assessment Team has found.

Rehab Prospects Good After Korea’s Worst Oil Spill

The team said in its initial report that emergency assistance was not required for cleanup operations after the oil tanker Hebei Spirit, riding at anchor 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Seoul, was pierced by a crane-carrying barge on December 7, releasing 10,500 metric tons of crude oil into the sea.

The oil came ashore along 300 kilometer stretch of shoreline on the country’s west coast that hosts a number of fish farms and an active wild fishery. It has blackened beaches, coated birds in oily tar and cast a foul smell over a nature reserve.

China and Japan sent 100 tons of dispersant and experts under a UN emergency response plan to help South Korea mitigate the spill, which hit key fishing grounds and could damage the livelihoods of up to 27,000 aquaculture workers.

The spill is threatening to enter Cheonsu Bay, used by about 400,000 migratory birds. The bay is vital for wintering birds and large numbers of birds also use it as a stopover site during migration. If it were to become contaminated it could lead to a wildlife catastrophe, says BirdLife International.

The clean-up operation has involved some 200,000 people, mostly troops and volunteers, as well as 327 vessels, 17 airplanes and 13 helicopters.

The assessment team recommended continued monitoring and analysis to determine the impact on the environment, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA.

The team included experts from OCHA, the UN Environment Programme, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, the European Commission’s Environmental Directorate-General and the European Maritime Safety Agency.

The team concluded that shoreline assessment training should be carried out to assist with longer-term cleanup options and to build national response capacity to deal with oil spills.

Commending the speedy and effective reaction of the authorities, who used methods consistent with international oil pollution response practices, the team noted that follow-up activities began almost immediately after its mission was completed.

As a result of the team’s findings, Canada is deploying a team of oil spill specialists to provide shoreline clean-up assessment training to Korean personnel.

In addition, the UN Environment Programme and the European Commission will collaborate on a post-disaster needs assessment to help national authorities establish an environmental monitoring methodology.

The seven day UN-EC mission, which ended on December 22, visited the affected area by land, sea and air and established a partnership with national, provincial and local authorities involved in the cleanup.

The majority of beaches visited were cleaned, “a result of strong coordination and the efforts of dedicated personnel and volunteers from the general public,” OCHA said.

A mission report is being finalized and will contain a number of practical recommendations to be shared with the South Korean government.

Environmentalists say it could take years for the scenic coastal region to recover from the disaster.

The crash took place after a towline connecting the barge and one of the two tugboats pulling it broke in high waves and strong winds. Some local fishermen claim the tanker was some 4.8 kilometers away from where it was supposed to be and ignored their complaints, according to Yonhap News Agency.

The spill was found to be caused by human error, including negligence on the part of all the captains involved, an interim report by the South Korean Coast Guard has found.

The Coast Guard on Thursday sought arrest warrants for four people – the captains of the two tugboats, the barge and the tanker Hebei Spirit. They were charged with negligence and violating anti-marine pollution laws.

The Coast Guard said the captains of the tugs and the barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries are responsible for the spill after forcing the sailing in rough seas.

They knew that a warning for strong tides was issued five hours before the crash, but set sail without taking counter-measures to avoid the dangers, Coast Guard officials said.

The captains also failed to respond to two emergency radio calls from the Daesan Port authorities hours before the crash, the Coast Guard said. Police say all parties involved deny responsibility.

New Energy Efficient Ball Sparkles at Times Square Celebration – NEW YORK, New York – The New Year’s countdown celebration in New York’s Times Square, begins at 6 o’clock with the lighting and raising of the New Year’s Eve Ball atop One Times Square. A new, energy-efficient ball has been created to mark the 100th anniversary of the ball lowering celebration. The ball will descend at the stroke of midnight and ring in the New Year.

New Energy Efficient Ball Sparkles at Times Square Celebration

The new ball is lighted with 9,576 energy-efficient bulbs that use about the same amount of electricity as it takes to power a single kitchen oven.

Philips Lighting, which created the light-emitting diodes, or LED bulbs, for the event, says they are more than twice as bright as the lights on last year’s ball, which were a mix of more than 600 incandescent and halogen bulbs.

The new lights can create more than 16 million colors against 672 Waterford crystal triangles arrayed in stylized, radiating sunbursts that cover the ball’s surface.

“We should all look this spectacular at our 100th birthday party,” said Jeff Straus, president of Countdown Entertainment, co-producer of New Year’s Eve in Times Square. “The combination of Waterford Crystal and Philips LED technology have created a dazzling new look for this worldwide tradition of celebrating the New Year.”

“The New Year’s Eve Ball, like Times Square, is an exciting blend of technology and tradition,” said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, the other event co-producer.

“The ball this year has been reinvented, just as Times Square is constantly reinventing itself,” he said. “In its own way it reflects the spirit of change and renewal that is at the heart of the New Year’s Eve celebration for billions of people around the globe.”

New Year’s Eve 2007 in Times Square, New York City

Times Square New Year’s Eve 2008 features a star-studded lineup of live entertainment with the Pontiac Garage, Kid Rock, the Bravery and Velvet Revolver playing to a million revelers in Times Square and a billion TV viewers around the world.

Revelers began celebrating New Year’s Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, but it was in 1907 that the New Year’s Eve Ball made its maiden descent from the flagpole atop One Times Square.

This original ball, constructed of iron and wood and adorned with 100 25-watt light bulbs, was five feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds. In 1920, a 400 pound ball made entirely of iron replaced the original.

The ball has been lowered every year since 1907, with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when its use was suspended due to the wartime “dimout” of lights in New York City. The crowds who still gathered in Times Square in those years greeted the New Year with a moment of silence followed by chimes ringing out from One Times Square.