Secret meetings, May 18, 2012

May 18, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

We missed last week, so today, we’ll make note of any meeting notices in the May 11 and May 18 issues of the State Register that violated the public notice requirement of West Virginia’s open meetings law.

Each week, there was one agency that couldn’t get its notice in on time. Last week, it was the state Rail Authority. This week, it’s the Health Sciences and Technology Academy.

As we’ve reminded folks before, the West Virginia Open Governmental Proceedings Act requires agencies to send meeting notices to the Secretary of State in time for notices to appear in the State Register five days prior to a scheduled meeting. Every week, we list the agencies that didn’t comply, thanks to the Secretary of State’s office, which kindly marks those agencies with an asterisk in the list of meetings published each Friday in the Register.

Potomac River makes national ‘most endangered’ list

May 15, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

Over on our Coal Tattoo blog, we have a piece this morning about West Virginia’s Coal River again landing on the list of Most Endangered Rivers published every year by the group American Rivers. Well, the Coal isn’t the only West Virginia waterway on the list.  Here’s the announcement:

American Rivers named the Potomac River, known as ‘the nation’s river’ as it flows through the capital, the most endangered in the country. While the Potomac is cleaner than it used to be, the river is still threatened by urban and agricultural pollution– and it could get much worse if Congress rolls back critical clean water safeguards.

It’s been almost 15 years since the Gazette did its “Poultry on the Potomac” series, prompted in part by an American Rivers “most endangered” listing for the river. A recent Gazette op-eds — by an assistant director of environmental programs at the West Virginia Department of Agriculture — made vague attacks on the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency and its efforts to protect the Potomac and clean up the Chesapeake Bay.  But American Rivers notes:

Before the Clean Water Act was enacted in 1972, the Potomac was a cesspool of sewage and industrial pollution. Thanks to the Clean Water Act, the Potomac and rivers across the country are cleaner and safer for drinking, boating, and fishing. But the Potomac is still suffering – a University of Maryland report card has given the river a “D” grade for water quality for the past two years.

Among the group’s recommendations:

In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency must implement the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), a “pollution diet” for the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Congress must continue to fund this critical work so that EPA can ensure its pollution reduction plan contains the highest protections for water quality and has adequate federal backstops to safeguard implementation for our nation’s river and its tributaries.

Breaking: National Academy study says chemical plants could do more to reduce risks of toxic disasters

May 11, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

Photo by Tom Hindman, Charleston Daily Mail, via Associated Press

Some readers may have forgotten by now about the congressional mandate that the National Academy of Sciences study the potential for Bayer CropScience to rid its Institute chemical plant of its huge stockpile of methyl isocyanate, or MIC, the deadly pesticide ingredient that caused the deaths of thousands of people in Bhopal, India, back in December 1984. In some ways, the need for the study ended a year ago, when Bayer announced that it was not going to restart the MIC unit out in Institute.

But by then, a national panel of experts appointed by the academy’s National Research Council had already begun its work. The focus of the study shifted slightly. It still included a look at the Institute plant and MIC, but used that framework for a broader examination of how chemical companies make decisions about what products they make and use, and to try to figure out better ways to have those decisions lead to less risk for workers and for people who live near manufacturing facilities.

Well, this morning the National Research Council report is out, and the broad conclusion is, basically, that chemical companies and the agencies that regulate them need to do more to ensure inherently safer processes are fully considered and more frequently used.  As the report issued this morning explains, tools that would help companies properly consider risks and make such decisions “have yet to take hold in the chemical process industry.” The report goes on:

Key obstacles to their use include lack of familiarity with the tools among chemical process industry decision makers and the fear that the methods are either too simplistic or too costly to use … The use of these techniques could benefit not only the communities at risk from safety breaches, but also the industries themselves, as decision making techniques can help with the identification of profitable safety solutions that otherwise could be overlooked.

Regarding Bayer and the Institute plant specifically, a news release summarizing the new report had this to say:

The committee found that Bayer did incorporate some aspects of risk reduction that are associated with inherently safer process principles. However, the inherent safety considerations were not explicitly stated in Bayer’s process safety management guidelines and were dependent on the knowledge base of the individual facilitating the particular activity, such as a process hazard analysis. Moreover, Bayer and the previous owners of the plant performed hazard and safety assessments and made business decisions that resulted in MIC inventory reduction, elimination of above ground MIC storage, and adoption of various measures, but these assessments did not incorporate some of the key principles of the inherently safer process.

Read the rest of this entry »

Secret meetings, May 4, 2012

May 4, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

Today’s edition of The State Register contains one meeting that violates the public notice requirements of West Virginia’s open meetings law.

The agency? The Lincoln County Economic Development Authority.

As we’ve reminded folks before, the West Virginia Open Governmental Proceedings Act requires agencies to send meeting notices to the Secretary of State in time for notices to appear in the State Register five days prior to a scheduled meeting. Every week, we list the agencies that didn’t comply, thanks to the Secretary of State’s office, which kindly marks those agencies with an asterisk in the list of meetings published each Friday in the Register.

New C8 review outlines effects at very low levels

May 4, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

Just a few weeks after the latest probable link finding from the C8 Science Panel in the Mid-Ohio Valley, we’ve got a very interesting new paper out that focuses attention on how some health effects related to C8 exposure appear to be happening at very low levels — levels to which the general public is exposed.

The new paper was written by Gloria Post of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Perry Cohn of the New Jersey Department of Health, and Keith Cooper of Rutgers University. It’s called “Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), an emerging drinking water contaminant: A critical review of recent literature” and was published online by the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research (subscription required).

Among other things, the study reports:

– Continued exposure to even relatively low concentrations in drinking water can substantially increase total human exposure, with a serum drinking water ratio of about 100:1.

– Infants are potentially a sensitive sub-population for PFOA’s developmental effects, and their exposure through breast milk from mothers who use contaminated drinking water and/or from formula prepared with contaminated drinking water is higher than in adults exposed to the same drinking water concentration.

– Numerous health endpoints are associated with human PFOA exposure in the general population, communities with contaminated drinking water, and workers.

While the study notes that, “as is the case for most such epidemiology studies, causality for these effects is not proven,” it also reports:

Unlike most other well-studied drinking water contaminants,the human dose-response curve for several effects appears to be steepest at the lower exposure levels,including the general population range,with no apparent threshold for some end points.

And, the study says:

This information suggests that continued human exposure to even relatively low concentrations of PFOA in drinking water results in elevated body burdens that may increase the risk of health effects.

W.Va. records nation’s worst workplace death rate

May 3, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

Here’s the latest, just in from the AFL-CIO:

Ninety-five workers were killed in West Virginia in 2010, according to a new AFL-CIO report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.” In 2010, West Virginia had a worker fatality rate of 14.1 per 100,000 workers, one of the highest in the country. This compares with a national fatality rate of 3.6 per 100,000 workers. The 2010 Upper Big Branch mining disaster where 29 miners died contributed to West Virginia having the highest rate. North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska were among states with the highest workplace fatality rates while New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island were states with the lowest rates.

The report notes that in 2010, there were 4,690 workplace deaths due to traumatic injuries and more than 3.8 million workers across all industries, including state and local government, who experienced work-related injuries and illnesses. As a comparison point, in 2009, 4,551 people died on the job.

 AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said:

While we have made great strides in making our workplaces safer, too many women and men in this country and around the world continue to be hurt or killed on the job. Workers continue to be exposed to well-known hazards that are poorly regulated and inadequately controlled. The Obama administration has moved forward to strengthen protections with tougher enforcement, but business groups and Republican legislators have launched a major assault on regulations to protect people on the job. As we move forward to build an economy for our future, it’s important that we commit together to developing and issuing the kinds of rules critical to ensuring the safety of all working people.

That part about the Obama administration moving forward to strengthen protections for workers is especially interesting, given the recent congressional hearing that revealed the current administration’s real record on such matters, as Mike Elk reported for In These Times:

The April 19 Senate hearing, titled “Time Takes Its Toll: Delays in OSHA’s Standard-Setting Process and the Impact on Worker Safety,” focused on why it takes so long for workplace safety rules issued by OSHA to be implemented. It coincided with the release of a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

 The GAO report found that between 1981 to 2010, the time it took OSHA to develop and issue safety and health standards ranged from 15 months to 19 years, averaging more than seven years. The report found it took OSHA 50 percent longer than it takes the EPA to issue new rules, nearly twice as long as it takes the Department of Transportation and nearly five times as long as it takes the SEC. Twenty-five percent of all OSHA rules took more than 10 years to be issued, the GAO said. The increasingly slow process has limited the number of OSHA rules implemented (PDF) in recent years.

The Reagan Administration issued new rules at a rate four-times faster than the current administration,” said Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), whose father, a coal miner, died of black lung. “I suspect that the lack of new rules is at least partly the result of relentless external pressure from business lobbyists and anti-labor groups. These groups pressure both OSHA and the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] to create delays that costs lives.”

Of course, we’ve reported on this before (see here and here), and the latest move by Obama that has at least some worker safety advocates outraged was detailed by Rena Steinzor on the Center for Progressive Reform’s blog last week:

Yesterday evening, when press coverage had ebbed for the day, the Department of Labor issued a short, four-paragraph press release announcing it was withdrawing a rule on child labor on farms. The withdrawal came after energetic attacks by the American Farm Bureau, Republicans in Congress, Sarah Palin, and—shockingly—Al Franken (D-MN).

Last year, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said: “Children employed in agriculture are some of the most vulnerable workers in America.” “Ensuring their welfare is a priority of the department, and this proposal is another element of our comprehensive approach.”

The Administration pledged to protect young workers in dangerous jobs, and now they’ve thrown that pledge out the window.

I admit that I find the political calculus underlying these Pander Games confusing.  Granted, the Farm Bureau is capable of getting a lot of people in the Corn Belt riled up about this latest government “intrusion” on the “freedom” to have their kids help them around the homestead that has been in the family for generations.  But the rule did nothing of the sort. The argument was entirely disingenuous.  At some point, the President has to stand and deliver, explaining that regulations that protect children from gruesome injuries and death are not evidence of government run amok, but instead just plain common sense.  Killing the rule will never win him Farm Bureau financial support, it’s the wrong thing to do, and it offends all the voters who know kids who have died or suffered grievous injuries in agricultural work.

Studies detail potential for drilling to pollute water

May 2, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

There are two interesting new reports out the focus more attention on the potential for the natural gas drilling boom to contaminate drinking water supplies.

The first got more attention, including this post on the Climate Progress blog, in part because it was being promoted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the environmental groups that commissioned the report and explained it this way:

An independent scientist has confirmed that fracking has clearly contaminated a drinking water source east of the town of Pavillion, Wyoming, supporting the findings in a draft EPA report published in December.

This is not only important news for residents of the small town with contaminated water-– but it has national significance as well. While oil and gas corporations enjoy exemptions from critical protective environmental provisions in the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act, they have continued to publicly claim there has never been any proof that fracking has contaminated drinking water–despite reports of suspected cases from around the country.

Here’s the basic conclusion from that report, written for NRDC and other groups by hydro-geologist Tom Myers:

After consideration of the evidence presented in the EPA report and in URS (2009 and 2010), it is clear that hydraulic fracturing (fracking (Kramer 2011)) has caused pollution of the Wind River formation and aquifer. The EPA documents that pollution with up to four sample events in the domestic water wells and two sample events in two monitoring well constructed by the EPA between the level of the domestic water wells and the gas production zone. The EPA’s conclusion is sound.

Importantly, though, the report adds:

The situation at Pavillion is not an analogue for other gas plays because the geology and regulatory framework may be different.

That’s why, for folks concerned about the Marcellus Shale boom here in West Virginia, this other study — also by Myers, but published in a peer-reviewed journal — might turn out to be much more important.  Abrahm Lustgarten, the great reporter at ProPublica, broke the story:

A new study has raised fresh concerns about the safety of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, concluding that fracking chemicals injected into the ground could migrate toward drinking water supplies far more quickly than experts have previously predicted.

 More than 5,000 wells were drilled in the Marcellus between mid-2009 and mid-2010, according to the study, which was published in the journal Ground Water two weeks ago. Operators inject up to 4 million gallons of fluid, under more than 10,000 pounds of pressure, to drill and frack each well.

Scientists have theorized that impermeable layers of rock would keep the fluid, which contains benzene and other dangerous chemicals, safely locked nearly a mile below water supplies. This view of the earth’s underground geology is a cornerstone of the industry’s argument that fracking poses minimal threats to the environment.

But the study, using computer modeling, concluded that natural faults and fractures in the Marcellus, exacerbated by the effects of fracking itself, could allow chemicals to reach the surface in as little as “just a few years.”

“Simply put, [the rock layers] are not impermeable,” said the study’s author, Tom Myers, an independent hydrogeologist whose clients include the federal government and environmental groups.

“The Marcellus shale is being fracked into a very high permeability,” he said. “Fluids could move from most any injection process.”

The research for the study was paid for by Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Park Foundation, two upstate New York organizations that have opposed gas drilling and fracking in the Marcellus.

Much of the debate about the environmental risks of gas drilling has centered on the risk that spills could pollute surface water or that structural failures would cause wells to leak.

Though some scientists believed it was possible for fracking to contaminate underground water supplies, those risks have been considered secondary. The study in Ground Water is the first peer-reviewed research evaluating this possibility.

Here’s a summary of the study, which is available online here:

Hydraulic fracturing of deep shale beds to develop natural gas has caused concern regarding the potential for various forms of water pollution. Two potential pathways—advective transport through bulk media and preferential flow through fractures—could allow the transport of contaminants from the fractured shale to aquifers. There is substantial geologic evidence that natural vertical flow drives contaminants, mostly brine, to near the surface from deep evaporite sources. Interpretative modeling shows that advective transport could require up to tens of thousands of years to move contaminants to the surface, but also that fracking the shale could reduce that transport time to tens or hundreds of years. Conductive faults or fracture zones, as found throughout the Marcellus shale region, could reduce the travel time further. Injection of up to 15,000,000 L of fluid into the shale generates high pressure at the well, which decreases with distance from the well and with time after injection as the fluid advects through the shale. The advection displaces native fluids, mostly brine, and fractures the bulk media widening existing fractures. Simulated pressure returns to pre-injection levels in about 300 d. The overall system requires from 3 to 6 years to reach a new equilibrium reflecting the significant changes caused by fracking the shale, which could allow advective transport to aquifers in less than 10 years. The rapid expansion of hydraulic fracturing requires that monitoring systems be employed to track the movement of contaminants and that gas wells have a reasonable offset from faults.

McClendon gives up Chesapeake board chair

May 1, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

Here’s the announcement today from Chesapeake Energy:

Chesapeake Energy Corporation today announced that its Board of Directors has renegotiated the terms of the company’s Founder Well Participation Program (FWPP) with Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Aubrey K. McClendon to provide for the early termination of the FWPP on June 30, 2014, 18 months before the end of its current term on December 31, 2015. Mr. McClendon will receive no compensation of any kind in connection with the early termination of the FWPP.

The FWPP, which was approved by shareholders for a 10-year term in 2005, in conjunction with Mr. McClendon’s employment agreement with the company, provides Mr. McClendon a contractual right to participate and invest as a working interest owner (with up to a 2.5% working interest) in new wells drilled on the company’s leasehold. Mr. McClendon has agreed to forego such contractual right 18 months early without compensation.

The Board of Directors will name an independent, Non-Executive Chairman in the near future. The Board’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee is considering potential candidates with no previous substantive relationship with Chesapeake and will be soliciting input from major shareholders. Upon the appointment of a Non-Executive Chairman, Mr. McClendon will relinquish the position of Chairman and continue as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. McClendon has indicated his support of the Board’s decision to name a Non-Executive Chairman and waived any rights he might have under his employment agreement as a result of no longer serving as Chairman. As previously announced, the Board is reviewing the financing arrangements between Mr. McClendon (and the entities through which he participates in the FWPP) and any third party that has had or may have a relationship with the company in any capacity.

The announcement follows the recent stories about McClendon’s business dealings.

Secret meetings, April 27, 2012

April 27, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

Today’s issue of The State Register contains one meeting that violates the public notice provisions of West Virginia’s open meetings law — but it’s a pretty interesting one.

The agency involved is the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.  Their notice, published today, indicates that they are having a meeting on Monday to interview semi-finalists for the higher education system’s new chancellor.  Of course, today’s publication of a notice for a meeting on Monday is short of the five-day notice required under West Virginia law.

Just for the record, violations of the open meetings law can lead to court injunctions blocking any action taken at a meeting. And knowing violations can prompt criminal charges against public officials.

As we’ve reminded folks before, the West Virginia Open Governmental Proceedings Act requires agencies to send meeting notices to the Secretary of State in time for notices to appear in the State Register five days prior to a scheduled meeting. Every week, we list the agencies that didn’t comply, thanks to the Secretary of State’s office, which kindly marks those agencies with an asterisk in the list of meetings published each Friday in the Register.

Charleston’s air improves – but problems persist

April 25, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr.

The latest American Lung Association State of the Air report — due out today — has some good news for residents of West Virginia’s capital city:

… Air pollution levels in the Charleston metro area are the best ever recorded since the organization’s first annual report 12 years ago.

Of course, it depends on how you look at things. The lung association reports:

Even at a time when air quality has generally improved nationwide, Charleston’s ranking among over 200 U. S. cities improved for all measures of pollution: In ozone (smog), the area went from 80th to 114th worst and for daily particle pollution (soot), from 43rd to 80th worst.

On the other hand:

… The metro area remained on the “25 Most Polluted” list for average annual particle pollution,

Still:

Charleston’s rank improved, going from 12th to 17th worst in the U.S.

The lung association continues:

Since monitoring for air pollution is not conducted in Boone, Clay, Lincoln, and Putnam counties, the only results for the Charleston metro area were obtained in Kanawha County. Its grade for ozone pollution improved from an “F” to a “C,” as did its grade for daily (short-term) particle pollution. The county averaged only one bad air day a year for the latter pollutant in the 2008-2010 period, the report’s years of measurement. In year-round particle pollution, Kanawha County received a “Pass” grade.

Deb Brown, president and CEO of the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic, said:

State of the Air shows that we’re making steady progress in cutting dangerous pollution from the air as a result of cleanup efforts required under the Clean Air Act. But millions of Americans across the country, including the residents of the Charleston metro area, are still forced to breathe unhealthy levels of air pollution as a result of air quality standards that are outdated.

 UPDATED:

The new State of the Air report also lists six other West Virginia communities as among the most polluted in terms of year-round particulate matter in the air. They included Weirton, Parkersburg, Wheeling, Huntington, Martinsburg, and the Fairmont-Clarksburg area. More information on West Virginia’s scores is available here.