EPA mismanaging toxic site cleanups
US environmental agency labs face consolidation
WASHINGTON, Sept 20, (Agencies): Cleanups at some US hazardous waste sites have stopped or slowed down because the Environmental Protection Agency does not manage its Superfund staff effectively to match its workload, an internal government watchdog said Tuesday.
Such work is at a standstill or moving slowly on at least four Superfund sites where “human exposure is not under control,” according to a report from the EPA’s inspector general. That means contamination at the sites is unsafe for humans and there is a reasonable expectation that people may be exposed to it, the report said. The report comes as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has said the cleanup up of more than 1,300 listed Superfund sites is a priority.
Though President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget seeks to cut the Superfund program by 30 percent, Pruitt has insisted he can do more with less money through better management. He formed a committee to study the issue, adopting 42 recommendations. Pruitt has said he will give priority to sites that can be redeveloped or have nearby residents under threat from the spread of harmful chemicals.
Federal money for Superfund is already about half what it was in the 1990s. Though the federal government often goes to court to force those responsible for the pollution to pay, that sometimes fails, leaving taxpayers on
oil and 370 tons of marine gas oil. (AP)
Branson setting up green fund:
British billionaire Richard Branson said on Tuesday he is in talks to set up a fund to help Caribbean nations recently ravaged by Hurricane Irma replace wrecked fossil fuel-dependent utilities with low-carbon renewable energy the hook. The majority of cleanup money has been spent in just seven highly industrialized states, topped by New Jersey. The inspector general review was conducted from February 2016 to July 2017, covering the last months of the Obama administration and the early months of Trump’s.
The report said EPA’s Region 10, which includes Idaho, Oregon and Washington, had stopped or slowed work at 49 Superfund sites because of a shortage of staff.
Cleanup
The report pointed to the languishing cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway in Seattle. Eating some fish and shellfish from the river could expose humans to high levels of hazardous chemicals, and even though the state has posted warnings, some people don’t heed them, the report said.
More than half of EPA’s regions reported they could not start work or had to stop work on cleanup projects because of a lack of staff, according to the findings. At least some of those projects are under the Superfund program, which takes on sites that are generally among the most dangerous to humans or the environment. The report did not list the sites affected, but it did cite another example, the Silver Bow-Butte Area Superfund site in Butte, Montana. A staff shortage has kept the EPA from starting some cleanup work there. The EPA said it does
sources.
The British business magnate has approached governments and would rally support among financial institutions and fellow philanthropists on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“As part of that fund we want to make sure that the Caribbean moves from dirty not have enough data yet to determine whether the site qualifies as one where “human exposure is not under control.”
The EPA has made only marginal changes in the way its Superfund workforce is distributed nationally in the past 30 years, the report said. It said EPA managers believe that frequently reshuffling the staff would be disruptive.
EPA did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In a response included with the inspector general’s report, the agency agreed to develop a plan to redistribute its Superfund workforce.
EPA also agreed to review how the Army and Navy assign priority to environmental cleanup projects at military sites and periodically shift employees to match the list. The inspector general suggested EPA could learn from them.
Meanwhile, the US Environmental Protection Agency is consolidating research and testing laboratories to cut costs, sparking criticism the move will undercut its ability to respond to regional disasters such as Hurricane Harvey.
The EPA plans to relocate or merge at least five labs, including one in Houston responsible for overseeing tests at 13 Superfund program toxic waste sites hit by Harvey flooding, lab employees and union officials said. In June, Kenneth Wagner, an adviser to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, suggested to Houston employees at a meeting in June THAT their work could shift to Oklahoma by 2020, they said.
energy to clean energy,” he said. (RTRS)
Antarctic station gets supplies:
Researchers at a remote Australian Antarctic station have received their first-ever food drop from a plane Tuesday after a successful maiden mid-air refuelling over the icy region.
The new delivery mode means cargo can be parachuted year-round to scientists. Previously they had to wait up to two weeks for supplies to be shipped in by sea, and ships only operate between October and April.
A Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster III was topped up Tuesday by a tanker aircraft 22,000 feet above the Southern Ocean, around halfway through its 10,000-km (6,213-mile) round trip from an airbase near Melbourne to the isolated Davis station and back. (AFP)
Tremors trigger volcano fears:
Authorities have raised alert levels for a volcano on the Indonesian resort island of Bali after hundreds of small tremors stoked fears it could erupt for the first time in more than 50 years.
Mount Agung, about 75 kms from the tourist hub of Kuta, has been rumbling since August and officials have banned people from venturing within 7.5 kms (4.7 miles) of its summit.
No volcanic ash has been seen spewing from the crater. But hundreds of small tremors have rattled the mountain in the past two days, causing about 350 people to evacuate their homes Monday, although they returned the next day. (AFP)