Buddhist Chaplains Love the Gulf

from The Jizo Chronicles by Maia Duerr

Here’s the latest update from Penny Alsop, who I’ve mentioned and quoted several times before in The Jizo Chronicles.

Penny has initiated the “Chaplains Love the Gulf “ project and is coordinating a trip in August so that “the people and environmental region of the Gulf can receive the benefit of compassionate presence of a contingent of chaplaincy students.”  Penny took a scouting trip to Grand Isle, LA, this month to begin that work. This is her report.

_________________________________________

More Love

by Penny Alsop

This past weekend I set out for Grand Isle, LA to begin our project, to research some details and to see for myself how my beloved Gulf coast and the people of Louisiana are faring since oil has taken over their lives in this most despicable way.  Lives have been turned upside down, every which way and even those who are making good money like the three fellows I met from Texas who work twelve hours per day, in twenty minute intervals, in hazmat suits in the sweltering Louisiana sun to wash the oil off of boom, would much prefer to be at home with their families.

The fellow that I spoke to on Dauphin Island, AL, a supervisor for BP, said seeing the oil in the form of tar balls on that island is breaking his heart. He hoped it would move on somewhere else, pausing as he seemed to realize that if that were the case, someone else’s heart would be breaking, right along with his. Later that evening my waitress said that business was slower than usual and that there were no tourists at all on the island “since the oil”, but because there were so many workers there instead, she was still making fairly good money. When the workers leave, as she’s heard they soon will, it’s going to be different story entirely.

In Grand Isle, there are hundreds of people working to clean up this mess. And the National Guard. And humvees parked at brightly painted beach front houses. And backhoes and front end loaders just feet from the shoreline. Huge pieces of rough plywood, hand painted in tall black letters announce in no uncertain terms that the beach is closed. The local sheriff enforces this by parking himself next to the sign.

To cross the plastic orange construction fencing is a felony. Electric blue kiddie pools filled with chemicals meant to decontaminate boots exposed to oil I’m told, sit unsecured in front of the same fence. Dark clouds of ’something’ float in the salt water and huge swaths of black stuff has seeped into the sand. All visible only from a distance or from the one pier open in the state park. Small bands of workers scoop up three shovel fulls of blackened sand into plastic bags and toss them aside to be picked up and stacked in the plastic bag mountains at the staging area where huge white tents shelter hundreds of folding metal chairs.

My innkeeper tells me that she hasn’t been to the beach “since the oil”. She can’t bear to look. She’s more worried about the dispersant that is being sprayed each night. She wants to live a long life. She has grandbabies. Doreen greeted me with a tired, wary smile in a marina motel laundry room. No, she didn’t have any rooms available at the moment, maybe later in the month. Business is okay since lodging is at a premium but other people are losing their jobs.

The marina is silent. No boats coming in or going out except to handle boom. The port is closed. Tears fill her eyes when she says that she’s afraid of losing her job. “Thank you, baby” she says, as I hug her neck.
They man who is responsible for drilling the relief well, the one that will be used to plug the blown out well permanently, has a perfect record. He’s never missed a target, this mechanical engineer. He’s working with bore-hole uncertainty as he guides the drill. Bore-hole uncertainty means that one really doesn’t know for certain where the drill or the target is at any given time.

Wherever one may think that the drill is, is a momentary knowing. It can be displaced by unmapped and unanticipated obstructions, at any second. Reading the signals right in front of one’s face, in real-time and being able to choose the most appropriate path in response to the conditions at hand, is what’s called for. If one goes into this effort thinking that one knows what all the variables are, sure of one’s self, one is very likely to fail to hit the target.

No one wants this. No one would have chosen to have crude oil wash up on the beaches or engulf sea turtles, pelicans, shrimp and people’s lives. But here we are with no clearly identified enemy or single cause for this catastrophe. Instead there is layer upon layer of complexity; interwoven need and desire. It’s impossible to sort out where one starts and another leaves off. What is blindingly apparent is that this is an opportunity to look deep into each other’s eyes and proclaim as loudly or as quietly as the situation calls for, that I will not give up. I will not leave you to fend for yourself. I will not turn away. I will look to see what is needed and I will give that very thing.

For those of us who love the Gulf, this is our chance to love it and all her near and far inhabitants, all the more.

3 Smart Girlz is coordinating the deployment of a group of students from Upaya’s chaplaincy program to Louisiana the week of August 19 – 26th. They will be with some of the people hardest hit by the Deepwater Horizon disaster, bearing witness, serving in compassionate ways and with their presence. If you would like to participate, please contact penny (at) 3smartgirlz.com. If you would like to make a contribution to help offset the expenses of this trip, we gratefully welcome your partnership! You may send a check to 3 Smart Girlz, LLC, 400 Capital Circle SE, Suite 18154, Tallahassee, Fl 32301 or use the Paypal button here. Partner contributions are used 100% directly on expenses incurred by the chaplains.

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Sarah Palin Blames Environmentalists For Gulf Oil Disaster

Sarah Palin Blames Environmentalists For Gulf Oil Disaster

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President Carter’s Energy Speech (April 18,1977)

Image via Wikipedia

President Carter’s Energy Speech (April 18,1977)

How Cold Is It?

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It is very cold in most of the US this winter. It brings to mind is it so cold that you can freeze to death as well as what happened to global warming? Cooling as well as warming trends have happened before and will happen again. Back in the 1970's for example winters turned significantly colder for awhile.

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Meteorologists are quick to point out that reliable U.S. weather data goes back only to the late 1800s, so it's normal for records of various types to be broken every year, somewhere, when dealing with such a relatively brief data set. Any given day or year may set set a record. For global warming it is the long term trend that is important.

When cold air hits your body, blood will move away from your skin, fingers and toes and towards the inner core. This process is called vasoconstriction, and it helps limit the amount of heat you lose to the environment. The opposite effect is called vascodilation where blood goes to the skin and heat is lost to the cold air (though you feel warm). This is what happens when one drinks too much alcohol.

Shivering also occurs when you get cold. Major shivering also occurs when your body core temperature drops very low. This is called hypothermia. This normally will not happen excedt under severe and prolonged exposure.

If you're wet and cold, your body loses heat up to 25 times faster. So being in wet clothing may cause more damage than just being in cold weather. Even sweat may do this.

The wind will also cool a person. In summer it a a cool refreshing breeze. In winter it is called wind chill.

Normal core body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (F). Mild hypothermia sets in at about 95 degrees F. Below 70 degrees F, you are said to have profound hypothermia and death can occur. A person in hypothermia may be unconscious and may appear dopey or intoxicated.

The record for the lowest body temperature at which an adult has been known to survive is 56.7 degrees F, which occurred after the person was submersed in cold, icy water, according to Castellani of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine.

Frostbite, an injury caused by freezing, is more common in everyday scenarios. This is because fingers and toes are more easily isolated from the body higher temperatures.Since frostbite is brought on by freezing, you can't get frostbite if the air temperature is above 32 degrees F. "It takes a wind chill temperature of around minus 15 degrees [F] where you start to see an increase in the incident of frostbite," Castellani said.

For further information go to: http://www.livescience.com/health/100107-freeze-to-death.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+livescience%2Fhealthscitech+%28LiveScience.com+Health+SciTech%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Protect America's Wild Horses

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Protect America's Wild Horses
Target: U.S. Senate
Sponsored by: Care2.com

Federal land throughout the American West is home to thousands of healthy wild horses. Yet as herds continue to grow, Bureau of Land Management officials continue to trap hundreds of wild horses – condemning many of them to live the rest of their lives in holding pens.

Recently, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed the Restoring Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act -- a bill working to protect wild horses. The ROAM Act would step up fertility control measures, encourage more adoptions and provide as much as 19 million additional acres for the wild animals to roam.

81-Year-Old Fasts at the W.Va. Capitol to Abolish Mountaintop Removal

photograph (c) antrim caskey 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: 304 854 7372
Email: news@climategroundzero.org

CHARLESTON, W.Va.–Roland Micklem, 81, will begin a fast at the West Virginia State Capitol on Monday, Nov. 30. It will continue for an indeterminate period of time, and Micklem has neither set demands nor preconditions for its termination.

Micklem spent half a century as a naturalist, teacher and environmental writer. The loss of biodiversity caused by mountaintop removal is a focus of his activism.

“The loss of so many once common and beloved species has been traumatic and depressing, depressing to an extent that has resulted in a loss of enthusiasm for a field of study that had stoked my fires in bygone years,” Micklem writes in an open letter, explaining his motives for the fast, published on Climate Ground Zero’s web site.

Micklem organized and led over 30 people on the 25-mile Senior Citizen’s March to End Mountaintop Removal, which began at the state capitol on Oct. 8 and ended at the gates of Mammoth Coal in eastern Kanawha County on Oct. 12. This march followed Micklem’s participation in two acts of nonviolent civil resistance–the June 23 rally at Marsh Fork Elementary School and a blockade of the entrance to Massey Energy’s regional headquarters in Boone County on Sept. 9. At the Marsh Fork Rally, he was arrested alongside distinguished NASA climate scientist James Hansen, actress Darryl Hannah, Goldman Prize Winner Judy Bonds and dozens of concerned citizens.

His fast begins one week before a coalition of West Virginians and allies converge at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to demand enforcement of the Clean Water Act and an end to blasting on Coal River Mountain.

“This is a prolonged act of mourning, not only for the mountains, but for all of God’s Creation–plants, animals, nature–that has been callously exploited and abused to satisfy the selfish wants of a single species,” stated Micklem, a devout Christian.

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AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION (AWEA) NOTES WIND INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS OF 2009

AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION (AWEA)
NOTES WIND INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS OF 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reflecting on a year that opened with high expectations for renewable energy policies from the new Obama Administration and was buffeted by financial and economic storms, AWEA today identified the wind industry’s top accomplishments and developments in 2009.

"Wind power is a symbol of hope in our economy and supports thousands of jobs, but U.S. wind turbine manufacturing is lagging at the very time that the global clean energy race is heating up," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. "One of the most urgent measures that our government can enact is a national Renewable Electricity Standard, which will unleash in the U.S. a wave of manufacturing investment that will otherwise go overseas. Many companies are eager to enter or ramp up their activities in this sector, as this year’s highlights show, but all need to see a long-term commitment with hard targets to renewable energy in order to be able to invest."

The top accomplishments and developments include:

* American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 Funds a Lifeline: The ARRA included several provisions to spur development of wind and other renewable energy industries along with the Treasury Grant Program, which by year end had supplied over $1.5 billion in crucial capital. Since the early July announcement to implement the stimulus bill, at least 37 different wind projects, using large and small turbines, have been recipients of the grant program, powering the equivalent of 800,000 homes and providing a lifeline for the industry and sustaining wind power as a bright spot in the economy.

* … But Manufacturing Still Lags: Wind turbine manufacturing, however, has fallen behind 2008 levels in both announcements and in production activity. While this is bad news, the good news is that a solution is readily available: A strong national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) will create the market certainty that manufacturers need in order to invest, enabling the U.S. to become a wind turbine manufacturing powerhouse creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

* Strong Support for a National Renewable Electricity Standard (RES): An RES is included in the House version of climate legislation passed this spring and in pending Senate energy legislation. The wind industry, backed by popular support, continues to advocate for swift passage of a strong RES. A poll released by AWEA in May showed that over 75% of Americans, including 71% of independents and 62% of Republicans, support an RES requiring that 25% of the nation’s electricity be generated from renewable energy by 2025.

* COP15: AWEA sent a delegation to the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen this month. AWEA’s participation at the conference is another indication of America’s reengagement in the international climate change process and of the key role that wind power plays today in the transition to a clean energy economy.

* National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Study Shows Conventional Power Costs Plenty: The NAS calculated that fossil fuels cost the U.S. $120 billion a year, including $62 billion from coal plants, in damages to human health. The figures do not include damages from climate change, harm to ecosystems, or effects of some air pollutants such as mercury. The NAS study is a reminder of the high hidden cost that energy-related pollution inflicts on our society and of the environmental and economic imperative of using renewable energy.

* Avoiding Carbon: The electricity produced by the entire fleet of wind turbines installed in the U.S. through 2009 will avoid emitting over 57 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, based on the conventional mix of fuels used for electricity generation. That is equivalent to taking over 9.5 million cars off the road.

* Improving Environmental Health: The electricity produced by the entire fleet of wind turbines installed in the U.S. through 2009 will, based on the conventional mix of fuels used for electricity generation, avoid annually:

o 200,000 additional metric tons of acid-rain causing sulfur dioxide which would otherwise have to be abated to achieve the national Acid Rain Program goals;
o 80,000 additional metric tons of smog-causing nitrous oxide which would otherwise have been emitted.

* Saving Water: The electricity from the entire fleet of turbines installed through 2009 will conserve over 20 billion gallons of water annually, which would otherwise be withdrawn for steam or cooling in conventional power plants. Wind power makes it possible to meet our energy needs without further polluting or diminishing valuable water resources.

* R&D Funding Up: President Obama signed an $80 million appropriation for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Program. The funding, which was part of the energy and water appropriations bill, is a $25 million increase from last year and $5 million above the President’s budget request. It also includes an additional $22.8 million in funding for wind-specific projects across the country. According to International Energy Agency numbers, the $80 million allocation is the highest funding level, adjusted for inflation, since 1981.

* 20% by 2030 Report Card: "B" AWEA issued its first annual progress report card on the roadmap as outlined in the DOE 2008 “20% Wind by 2030” Report. The U.S. received a solid “B” for its 2008 progress toward reaching 20% of electricity supply from wind energy by 2030, but could be “at the high-water mark” for wind without a strong and immediate national policy commitment to renewable energy. Prepared by an in-house team of experts, some of whom worked on the DOE report, the report card examines progress in four key areas--Technology Development, Manufacturing, Siting, and Transmission & Integration.

* States Continue to Pass Laws to Support Renewable Energy: Kansas became the 29th state to adopt a renewable electricity standard (while simultaneously announcing a major new Siemens turbine production facility), Rhode Island and Delaware moved forward with provisions to facilitate offshore wind projects, Wisconsin adopted statewide siting reform to facilitate approvals for wind projects--and, despite a very tough fiscal climate for state governments, states from Illinois to Texas to Washington moved forward with significant tax changes critical to the economics of wind projects in their states

* Green Power Superhighway White Paper and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Filings Move Transmission Agenda:Inadequate transmission capacity remains a significant barrier to renewable energy development in the U.S. Nearly 300,000 MW of wind capacity is held up in the pipeline due to transmission limitations. Underscoring that fact,AWEA and the Solar Energy Industries Association issued a white paper titled “Green Power Superhighways: Building a Path to America’s Clean Energy Future,” detailing current inadequacies of the U.S. electric transmission infrastructure and offering policy solutions to address them. AWEA has also filed with the FERC on the key issue of transmission cost allocation, calling on FERC to broadly spread costs of transmission to all beneficiaries.

* Progress on Siting: AWEA welcomed a U.S. government Memorandum of Understanding to improve coordination among nine federal agencies and minimize delays in the permit approval process on federal lands. Additionally, the wind industry continued cooperative research studies on bats and other species to ensure the best science is available for decision-making.

* Property Values Study:A study released in December by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concluded that proximity to wind energy facilities does not have a pervasive or widespread adverse effect on the property values of nearby homes.

* Sound Panel Report: A multidisciplinary panel concluded that the sounds generated by wind turbines are not harmful to human health. Comprised of medical doctors, audiologists, and acoustical professionals from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, and convened by AWEA and the Canadian Wind Energy Association, the panel undertook extensive review and analysis of the body of peer-reviewed literature on the topic.

* A Thousand Businesses Join AWEA: In another sign of the continued development and expansion of the wind industry, AWEA experienced significant growth in 2009. The association gained over 1,000 new business members—the largest increase ever for the association in a single year. Many of these new members are companies entering or seeking to enter the wind turbine supply chain.

* WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition is Nation’s Fastest Growing Show. Tradeshow Week this year named AWEA’s WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition the fastest-growing trade show in the country. WINDPOWER 2009, in Chicago, hosted over 1,200 exhibiting companies and 23,000 attendees, up from 770 exhibitors and 13,000 attendees in 2008.

* Momentum Towards First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm Accelerates: The announcement of the Minerals Management Service guidelines for the siting of offshore renewable energy projects, the issuance of requests for proposals in Lakes Erie and Ontario and of power purchase agreements in the mid-Atlantic, the establishment by the U.S. Interior Department of a mid-Atlantic renewable energy office, and the participation of two Governors and record attendance at AWEA’s offshore workshop this fall are clear signs that offshore wind power is on its way to become a reality in the U.S. AWEA’s annual workshop will grow into a North American Offshore Wind Power Conference & Exposition as it moves next year to Atlantic City (http://www.offshorewindexpo.org/).

* Small Wind Systems for Homes and Businesses: The U.S. government expanded the critical federal Investment Tax Credit for small wind systems to provide an 8-year, uncapped 30% tax credit for small wind systems. AWEA expects to finalize a small turbine safety and performance standard by year’s end, and held its first Small & Community Wind Conference and Exposition to showcase these burgeoning sectors of the industry. The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency incorporated small wind systems into their popular Energy Star consumer certification program. This is the first time Energy Star has addressed electricity-generating technology.

Four Years Later, New Orleans' Green Makeover

From Time

By Bryan Walsh

After Hurricane Katrina flattened New Orleans exactly four years ago, on Aug. 29, 2005, the city emerged as an inadvertent symbol of global warming, the first American victim of climate change. More than 200,000 homes were destroyed during the Category 5 hurricane. But in the years since, the Crescent City has quietly embraced a new and unexpected role as a laboratory for green building. Sustainable-development groups like the international nonprofit Global Green as well as earth-friendly celebrities like Brad Pitt descended on New Orleans, determined not just to build the city back but to build it back green. "It's going to come back," says Matt Petersen, the president of Global Green USA. "But we want to build it better than it was before." (See a TIME special report on the environment.)

No organization is doing more to green New Orleans than Global Green USA, the American arm of the international environmental organization that was founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. That begins with the Holy Cross project, an entire sustainable village being built in the city's flood-damaged Lower Ninth Ward with the help of Home Depot's corporate foundation. Eventually the village will include five sustainable homes along with an 18-unit green apartment building and a community center. Three homes have been completed so far, including one that is serving as a de facto visitors center. The point of the project is not just to create greener homes for New Orleans' returning residents but also to provide training for the local building community in green standards. "That's one of the ways to make this kind of building more common and more affordable," says Petersen.

That's the motivation behind Global Green's sustainable-schools program, which will both retrofit existing schools to make them more energy-efficient and build entirely new classrooms from the ground up. The new schools will have solar panels, wetland habitats (which can act as a buffer for future storms) and rainwater cisterns. At Gentilly Terrace Elementary School, which is getting an energy overhaul, power bills should fall some $22,000 a year. In a city that is struggling to get back on its feet, those energy savings make a difference — as does the fact that some research has shown that students actually learn better in greener schools. (It's not exactly clear why that's the case — one possibility is that absenteeism and sick days both decrease when the indoor environment is healthier.) (See pictures of the effects of global warming.)

Beyond model projects like the ones Global Green is implementing, there are broader policy-based actions that seek to green New Orleans from the top down. The city is receiving millions in federal stimulus funds, some of which will be going toward initiatives that will re-establish a citywide recycling program and improve mass transit. About $1.1 million is being slated to help green five of the city's libraries, and more will pay for the installation of solar-powered, ultra-efficient LED streetlights. The Department of Energy — with funds matched by Global Green — is underwriting new solar-power projects in New Orleans as well, hoping to expand the tiny slice of the city's electricity that comes from renewable sources. "The hope is that you can help create green jobs for the city in this way as well," says Petersen. "There can be a silver lining to all of this — the creation of a more robust and vibrant community and economy."

Of course, the work of greening New Orleans has been as complex and intermittent as other parts of the reconstruction process, with delays and bureaucratic obstacles. And there's a legitimate question here: Given the increased risk of hurricanes and rising oceans in a warmer future, should a city that exists under sea level be built back at all? Green or not, will New Orleans ever be safe from global warming?

The truth is, none of us will be safe from global warming unless we can change the way we build and the way we use energy — and New Orleans just happens to provide an excellent opportunity to try that in an urban environment that needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Nor will it be the last major city to be menaced by rising seas — from New York to London to Shanghai, most of our major metropolises are built next to an ocean, and it's only a matter of time before the next superstorm hits. If we can build back New Orleans in a way that is both sustainable and resilient, capable of surviving another Katrina, we all might be better prepared for the hot and unstable days to come.

See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2008.

See the top 10 green ideas of 2008.

Use of Lead Based Consumer Paints Remains A Global Concern

In a new study conducted by the University of Cincinnati (UC), environmental health researchers found that major countries in three continents fail to acknowledge the hazards of lead based paint, allowing manufacturers to continue selling consumer paints containing dangerously high levels of lead. According to study, 73 percent of consumer paint
brands tested from 12 countries representing 46 percent of the world’s population exceeded current U.S. standard of 600 parts per million (ppm). Additionally, 69 percent of the brands had at least one sample exceeding 10,000 ppm. Scott Clark, a professor of environmental health at UC, stated that "lead paint exposure remains a serious global health threat" considering the majority of American consumer goods are being produced overseas.

The study was published today in the journal Environmental Research online. According to a press release issued by UC, "the report comes on the tail of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s enforcement of heightened restrictions on lead in American consumer paints, which will take effect Aug. 9, 2009, and will lower the allowable lead limit from 600 ppm to 90 ppm."



Professor Clark’s research team has been studying the global use of lead-based consumer paints for several years, publishing one of the first scientific reports in September 2006 showing that unregulated Asian countries produced and sold new consumer paints that greatly exceeded U.S. lead safety levels. According to the earlier study, "75 percent of the consumer paint samples tested from countries without controls— including India, Malaysia and China—had levels exceeding U.S. regulations."

Lead poisoning in children is a widely recognized health concern, yet lead based paints remain widely used. Why? Is the cost of lead based paint cheaper and therefore more essential in these developing nations? Apparently no. According to the UC press release, Clark states "our studies have shown that when comparing the prices of the same size can of paint produced by several companies within India with a wide range of lead concentrations, there is no significant consumer price difference between leaded and unleaded consumer paint."

Maybe the technology needed to create high-quality unleaded consumer paint is not available? Not according to the study. During the course of the UC study, one large multi-national company produced low lead paint in each country studied and another manufacturer
was found to cease the use of lead in paints in at least one of the countries studied. Clark further states that the "technology is available to manufacturers, which do not need to use lead to produce high-quality paint...there is no legitimate reason paint manufacturers should knowingly distribute a product that has long been known to be dangerous to people."

For more information visit http://www.healthnews.uc.edu/ and
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622821/description#description

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USDA Proposes Label for Bio-based Products

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed a labeling system to identify products made with renewable plant, animal and other bio-based materials.

The BioPreferred labeling proposal is an outgrowth of the federal government's BioPreferred purchasing program, which was created in the 2002 Farm Bill. The 2008 Farm Bill expanded the program to also promote the sale of bio-based products outside of the government.



The proposal would set up a system in which companies could voluntarily apply the BioPreferred label to their products. The USDA has already identified more than 15,000 bio-based products in about 200 categories.

Stimulus cash targets leaking tanks

$3.3 million from feds to boost cleanup effort
By SAMMY FRETWELL

sfretwell@thestate.com

South Carolina’s much-criticized effort to clean up pollution from leaking underground storage tanks is getting a $3.3 million stimulus boost from the federal government.

The nation’s Environmental Protection Agency announced the award Friday to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. The money will be used to assess and clean up underground storage tank petroleum leaks.

It’s a significant chunk of money that will help DHEC with a backlog of sites that have not been cleaned up, agency officials say.

“The 3.3 million is going to be quite a shot in the arm for us,” DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick said. “It is going to help us clear out the backlog a little bit.”
As of last year, South Carolina had about 3,000 sites in need of cleanup — one of the nation’s highest backlogs of sites polluted by underground storage tanks. The EPA previously has threatened federal action if the state did not make more progress to clear the backlog, The State newspaper reported last year.

Leaking underground storage tanks are the largest contributor to underground pollution in South Carolina, a state in which 25 percent to 30 percent of people depend on wells.

DHEC will use the money to concentrate on 66 sites that are high priority for cleanup, Myrick said.The money for South Carolina is part of $197 million appropriated under the federal Recovery Act to address shovel-ready sites nationwide contaminated by petroleum from leaking underground storage tanks.

The funds will be used for overseeing assessment and cleanup of leaks from underground storage tanks or directly paying for assessment and cleanup of leaks from federally regulated tanks where the responsible party is
unknown, unwilling or unable to finance, or the cleanup is an emergency response.
The greatest potential hazard from a leaking underground storage tank is that the petroleum or other hazardous substances seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly one-third of all Americans.

“We’re providing immediate growth opportunities for communities across the nation, as well as long-term protection from dangerous pollution in the land and water,” said EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “EPA is putting people to work by serving our core mission of protecting human health and the environment.”

“The Recovery Act funds will help South Carolina in its effort to provide long-term protection from pollution caused by leaking underground storage tanks,” said Stan Meiburg, EPA acting regional administrator in Atlanta. “The state will use the funds to assess and clean up abandoned tank sites while providing a boost to its economy through the creation of green jobs.”

EPA Region 4’s underground storage tank program will enter into a cooperative agreement with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control in July. This cooperative agreement will include more detailed descriptions of the state’s spending plan.

President Obama signed the ARRA on Feb. 17, and has directed that the Recovery Act be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability. To that end, the American people can visit Recovery.gov to see how every dollar is being invested.
Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537.