Over 50 Percent of U.S. Rivers Are In Poor Health, Says A Newly Released EPA Survey

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finally released the most recent data on the health of about 2,000 rivers and streams from across the country – and the results aren’t pretty.

The New River originates in Mexico and flows into the United States through Calexico, California. The river eventually meets up with the Salton Sea, a large inland sea. The New River is reported to be the most polluted river flowing into the U.S. from Mexico, says the California Report. Photo courtesy of the California Report.

States and tribes participated in the data collection, and found that 55 percent of the country’s rivers and streams are in poor condition based on their ability to support life.

The information was published in a collaborative survey report called the 2008-2009 National Rivers and Streams Assessment. The report looked at random samplings from river systems as large as the Mississippi River to as small as mountain headwater streams.

The report looked at how major stressors – both chemical and physical – are affecting these aquatic systems over time.

Chemical stress factors on the rivers and streams included excessive levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and mercury.

To begin with, the report showed that 28 percent of the country’s rivers and streams had excessive levels of nitrogen, and 40 percent had high levels of phosphorus.

Known as nutrient pollutants, the EPA explains that too much nitrogen and phosphorus in water can cause significant increases in algae that can harm water quality, food resources, habitats, and decrease the oxygen that fish and other aquatic life need to survive.

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New York City Expanding Municipal Recycling Service To Now Accept All Plastics, Even Toys

New York City selected the 30th Street Pier in the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, as the location for a new state-of-the-art recycling facility to be built and operated by Sims Municipal Recycling. The facility is slated to open in Summer 2013 and will process the majority of New York City’s commingled curbside material. Rendering courtesy of Sims Municipal Recycling.

We all know how confusing it can be trying to figure out what plastics you can and can’t recycle, but at least in New York City, it’s about to get a little easier for residents.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last week, that effective immediately, the city for the first time will allow residents to recycle all rigid plastics, including toys, hangers, shampoo bottles, coffee cups, and food containers. Until now, only plastics bottles and jugs were allowable.

The new service is part of the city’s partnership with Sims Municipal Recycling. The Bloomberg Administration says the recycling expansion will result in the removal of about 50,000 tons of waste from landfills every year and save “city taxpayers almost $600,000 each year in export costs.”

The administration says this is part of the city’s commitment to double its “recycling rate to 30 percent by 2017.” For the next few months, much of the recycling will go to the Sims-operated Claremont Recycling Center in Jersey City, N.J.

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Asia Pulp & Paper Vows Commitment To Stop Clear Cutting Natural Rainforests In Indonesia

The often embattled Asia Pulp & Paper Group, Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper producer – ranking fourth largest in the world – says it has decided to put “an end to the clearing of natural forests across its entire supply chain in Indonesia.”

Asia Pulp & Paper logging truck passing through the degraded lands in Indonesia. Photo by David Gilbert, and provided by the Rainforest Action Network.

APP says that all of its suppliers have suspended natural forest clearance while an independent assessment takes place to identify areas of high conservation value that will be protected through a long-term management program.

APP has been repeatedly attack over the years from environmental groups (including Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, the Rainforest Action Network, and the environmental coalition Eyes on the Forest) with allegations that it has indiscriminately clear cut many of Indonesia’s  most pristine natural rainforests, including sanctuaries for endangered species including the Sumatran tigers, orangutans, and elephants.  

A Greenpeace’s report called How Sinar Mas Is Pulping The Planet took an investigative look at the practices of APP’s parent company in two vital rainforest areas in Sumatra – the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape in Central Sumatra, which is one of the last refuges for the Sumatran tiger; and the Kerumutan Peat Swamp forest, which is another important tiger habitat and carbon rich peatland.

Greenpeace said that it “documented Sinar Mas in the act of clearing rainforests and destroying peatland in these areas.”

In addition, Eyes on the Forest published a report called APP: default on environmental covenant, which accused the company of converting parts of the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary in Sumatra into pulpwood plantations.

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LA Metro Authority Signs Deal To Install Kinetic Energy Harvesting Technology From Rail Lines

Looking for a solution to yearly increasing energy costs, the LA Metro Authority has signed a $3.6 million deal with the technology company VYCON to design a system for the city’s railways that will capture and store kinetic energy for reuse from train braking systems.

The Metro said in a committee report that it “annually spends approximately $26 million to $29 million for electricity with about $20 million for propulsion power” and for which it faults “the volatile and costly energy market.”

The Metro added that as the years have progressed, it has “seen electricity costs rise due to periodic utility rate increases,” and is now “embracing sustainability, energy efficiency, conservation, and installation of renewable energy sources” as a primary way of gaining control of, and reducing the transit energy usage, costs, and energy dependence.

VYCON designs and manufacturers high-speed energy storage flywheel systems, and plans to install into the transit system a “Wayside Energy Storage Substation (WESS) at the LA Metro Red Line Westlake/MacArthur Park Station” incorporating the company’s REGEN clean energy flywheel system.

To understand it a little better, VYCON explains that the “flywheel-based energy storage systems holds kinetic energy in a spinning mass, and converts this energy to electric power through the use of a high-speed electric motor generator.”

VYCON says that the technology used in the LA transit authority will recycle part of the energy in the system by absorbing and storing kinetic energy generated by braking trains, and returning the stored energy to the trains during acceleration.

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Phillips 66 Company Settles Hazardous Waste Violations For Its Former Pennsylvania Refinery

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that Phillips 66 Co., ConocoPhillips Corp.’s successor, has agreed to pay a $50,000 penalty to settle alleged hazardous waste violations in the company’s former refinery in Trainer, Pa.

Phillips 66 Co. refinery in Trainer, Pa. Photo courtesy of examiner-enterprise.com.

The EPA cited the company for violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which is the federal law governing the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste.

More specifically, following EPA inspections in 2011 and 2012 and subsequent requests for information, the agency cited the company for RCRA violations involving hazardous waste stored at the facility, including oil refinery hydrocarbon waste, chromium waste, heavy metal waste from batteries, and mercury waste from florescent bulbs.

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