Friday, 07 Oct 2005

Rock, Hudson

GE finally agrees to clean up PCBs in Hudson River

Are we ecomagining things? General Electric Co. has finally agreed to dredge the PCBs it long ago dumped in the upper Hudson River of New York state, nearly 30 years after the contamination was discovered. With 43 miles of tainted river bottom to tend and total costs estimated at $700 million, it will be one of the biggest and most expensive industrial cleanups in history -- although it's still unclear how much GE will do. The company has committed to Phase One -- removing the worst-contaminated deposits, about 10 percent of all PCB-laced sediments -- but won't make a decision about Phase Two's dredging of less-contaminated mud until Phase One is complete. Some eco-advocates fear GE may yet weasel out of cleaning up the bulk of its mess. "It looks like there's a loophole big enough to drive dredging barges through," says the Sierra Club's Chris Ballantyne. But federal officials insist they've reserved the right to force GE to do the entire job -- or bill the company millions for cleaning it up themselves.


The Gulf Coast states and the tsunami-ravaged areas of Southeast Asia are at a crossroads on the path toward ecological recovery, says Alfredo Quarto, head of the Mangrove Action Project. As governments set aside monies and make plans to rebuild coastal areas, Quarto's group is knee-deep in a number of small-scale restoration projects. In answering reader questions, Quarto chats about the importance of restoring coastal wetlands, the difficulties of trying to influence foreign governments, and why "all-you-can-eat" seafood buffets are better left alone.

A Refine and Pleasant Misery

House energy legislation would undermine parts of Clean Air Act

You just can't keep a bad bill down. Provisions cut from the energy bill that was passed this summer have lurched back to life; they now stumble forward under the banner of the Gasoline for America's Security (GAS) Act, due for a House vote today. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the legislation's sponsor, says the act will help curb spiking gas prices and ease post-hurricane energy bottlenecks by giving companies incentives to build more refineries -- "without messing with any environmental laws." But not everyone agrees. In a letter to House leaders on Thursday, nine state attorneys general called the bill "a major setback for air quality across the nation" that "permanently eviscerates key protections of the Clean Air Act" in relation to refineries and power plants. The legislation would also allow new refineries to be sited in national forests and wildlife refuges. Although passage is likely in the House, the act's chances in the Senate are currently considered dim.

The Mold Song and Dance

EPA failing to inform or protect folks returning to post-Katrina mess

The U.S. EPA has the authority to assess and manage environmental disasters, but activists and even some EPA staffers allege that so far agency testing of water, air, and soil in the Gulf Coast has been insufficient, and its health warnings too weak, to adequately protect returning residents. EPA should be more actively preventing people from coming home, say critics, but is instead delaying and under-publicizing test results. People are entering the post-Katrina miasma of toxics, mold, and sewage under-informed and ill-equipped -- like folks from Meraux, La., who've been allowed to return to homes that were inundated with petroleum when a nearby storage tank burst, gushing an estimated 800,000 gallons of oil. In responding to Katrina, the EPA has been "understaffed" and "overwhelmed," says Oliver Houck, who runs the environment program at the Tulane University Law School. Some liken the current situation to the agency's performance after the 9/11 attacks, when it assured thousands -- falsely, it turned out -- that it was safe to return to homes and workplaces near Ground Zero.

Watts On, Watts Off

Japanese manufacturing leads the world in energy efficiency

When oil supplies contract, oil-dependent economies suffer -- and Japan prospers. Investors are bullish on Japan's manufacturing sector, which has been investing in energy efficiency since the oil crisis of the early 1970s. Faced then with few domestic energy sources and near total dependence on foreign oil, the nation's industrial base set out to lessen its exposure to future energy shocks by fine-tuning production lines, installing advanced systems for power generation, and more. The effort's paying off: A 2002 study shows that Chinese competitors used 52 percent more energy to produce the same ton of cement as a typical Japanese manufacturer, while European and South Korean firms used 30 percent more, and U.S. companies 77 percent more (oy). And now efficient Japanese companies can cash in on a new business opportunity: consulting on energy recycling and advanced power generation with foreign firms.