EPA salutes private Pennsylvania recycling efforts


The Computer Recycle Center at Temple University “could serve well as a model for other universities and large businesses,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which selected the program for one of its 2009 Environmental Achievement Awards.

Originally a safe disposal collection facility for computer equipment, the Temple recycle center in Philadelphia has grown into what the EPA describes as “a dynamic assembly line operation in which equipment is picked up from departments, cataloged, evaluated, salvaged and when possible, refurbished, according to the EPA.” During 2008, the center processed more than 2,000 computers and 1,800 monitors, and donated more than 300 refurbished computers to non-profit organizations and schools.

At an award ceremony today at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the EPA saluted six private organizations in Pennsylvania (and two each in Delaware and Maryland) for pollution prevention programs that have achieved sustained and measurable environmental results.

Three of the other Pennsylvania award winners were:

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was recognized for significant increases in the recycling, including: cardboard, paper, confidential paper, glass, plastics, metals, pallets, kitchen grease, oil, light bulbs, e-waste, linens, batteries, excess supplies donation, carpet and toner cartridges.

The Lehigh Valley Health Network of Allentown was recognized for decreasing its waste disposal, implementing new and innovative recycling programs, establishing environmental awareness training programs for employees and initiating a composting pilot program.

The Earth Conservancy from Ashely, Pa. was recognized for its work in reclaiming abandoned mine property in Luzerne County. After obtaining a $14 million federal grant in 1993 and raising $2 million from the private sector, Earth Conservancy purchased some 16,300 acres of land from a bankrupt coal company and created several comprehensive land use plans to guide its reclamation and restoration.

Read about all of the EPA award winners here.

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Uh oh…Global warming’s messing with my beer

Global warming danger signs:

  • Rising sea levels? Yawn.
  • Stranded polar bears? So yesterday.
  • Affecting the taste of your beer?

Hey, wait now. What the hell is Congress doing about THIS?

Yes. Global warming’s Paul Reveres may finally have found the message to galvanize support for climate change legislation: Global warming is messing with your beer.

Here’s the disturbing news from the Discovery Channel’s Space Disco:

In a paper recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology,
a team led by climatologist Martin Mozny of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute has found that the quality of Saaz hops — a delicate variety of hop used to make pilsner lager — has been decreasing in recent years. Why? It would appear the continuing rise of air temperature in the Czech Republic (where the crops are located) is the culprit.

The team used high-resolution weather pattern, crop yield and hop quality data to gauge the impact of climate change on the Saaz crops between 1954 to 2006. Mozny’s team found that the acidity of the hops had dropped 0.06% every year in this time period. Ideally, to get that characteristic delicate bitter pilsner taste, the hops must contain around 5% alpha acid. Unfortunately, this quantity is dropping and showing little sign of stabilizing. In fact, the team predict that it is only going to get worse.

But this isn’t an isolated case, the hop growing regions of eastern Germany and central Slovakia have noticed similar changes in their crops.

OK. Enough with the facts. Time to spring into action. So, get on the phone, fax, email, facebook and Twitter and tell Congress to stash this health care nonsense and get down to serious work on climate change.

As in, measures that will SAVE OUR BEER.

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Wind energy out to hook fishing industry support

With up to 30 square miles of fishing territory at stake, plans by three developers to build wind-energy farms off New Jersey’s coast could have been in very troubled waters had the developers tried to put the area off limits to the state’s commercial and recreational fishing industries.

Any such concerns were allayed last Thursday when Lance Miller, chief of policy and planning at the state Board of Public Utilities, announced at a meeting of the Marine Fisheries Council that none of the companies plan to impose any such restrictions.

” There have been no collisions with wind farms in Europe and I’m sure our (fishing boat)captains are just as good,” Miller said.
As Richard Degener reports in the Press of Atlantic City,

“…this means that commercial fishermen will be able to harvest their bounty between the turbines while anglers, pot fishermen and even scuba divers could fish right next to the structures.”

Degener writes that there even is some discussion of “installing buoys near the turbines so fishermen can tie up and not have to anchor in deep water.”

The three companies exploring the potential for generating electricity from offshore wind turbines are Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey, Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy and Garden State Offshore Energy. They already have leased areas from the U.S. Department of Interior to install meteorological towers to gather data to see whether wind farms are feasible.

For an interesting article on why this is necessary, see today’s EnergBiz Insider’s Forecasting Wind

One of the three companies, Bluewater Wind, has been in rocky financial shape since its primary Australian financier, Babcock and Brown, was waylaid by the international economic tailspin triggered by the U.S. banking industry implosion.

But Bluewater Wind’s president Peter Mandelstam says he’s confident a new investor is coming to the company’s rescue.

In a September 6 story in The News Journal, (Bluewater works on new financing) Mandelstam said a deal should be completed within 60 days with a new ownership partner and that Babcock and Brown will be out of the project by the end of the year.

In addition to the New Jersey project, Bluewater plans to erect at least 79 turbines off the coast of Delaware.


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PA-DEP Sediment/Erosion & Stormwater rules

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has proposed changes to its erosion and sediment control and stormwater management regulations.

The proposed changes include requirements for establishing and protecting existing streamside and riverside forest buffers and increasing protection for exceptional value waterways, incorporate existing post-construction stormwater management requirements into state regulation to bring Pennsylvania into line with federal requirements, and enhance agricultural stormwater management provisions beyond plowing and tilling to include animal heavy -use areas.

What’s won’t likely to come as a surprise to the regulated community is that the new regulations will include an updated permit fee structure.
They also include a new permit-by-rule option that the DEP says will offer “a simplified permitting process for eligible low-risk construction projects that will reduce permitting delays while improving oversight of projects by the department.”

Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger says the changes will shift the focus of water protection “from reviewing paperwork to holding permittees more accountable, conducting more on-the-ground inspections to verify that best management practices are being implemented and maintained, and increasing protections for our waterways.”

The Environmental Quality Board will hold public hearings on the proposed changes:

• Sept. 29 at the Cranberry Township Municipal Building, 2525 Rochester Road, Butler County. The public meeting is at 4 p.m. and the public hearing is at 5 p.m.

• Oct. 1 at the Department of Environmental Protection, Southcentral Regional Office, Susquehanna Room B, 909 Elmerton Ave., Harrisburg. The public meeting is at 4 p.m. and the public hearing is at 5 p.m.

• Oct. 5 at the Salisbury Township Municipal Building, 2900 South Pike Avenue, Allentown. The public meeting is at 4 p.m. and the public hearing is at 5 p.m.

The Department notes that:

Individuals wishing to present testimony at a hearing are requested to contact the Environmental Quality Board, P.O. Box 8477, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8477, (717) 787-4526, at least one week in advance of the hearing to reserve a time to present testimony. Oral testimony is limited to 10 minutes for each witness. Witnesses are asked to submit three written copies of their oral testimony to the chairperson at the hearing. Organizations are limited to designating one witness to present testimony on behalf of the group at each hearing.

PA-DEP Sediment/Erosion & Stormwater rules Read More »

We should all be in the solar and wind business

“The Obama administration split a half-billion “recovery” dollars among nine U.S. windmill operators and a couple of solar-power projects yesterday, and said it has lots more where that came from.”
So reports Philadelphia Inquirer business writer Joseph N. DiStefano, one
of a group of reporters on
a conference call with Matt Rogers of the U.S. Energy Department who said:
“We’re moving the money out the door.”
“There is no cap to this program. As long as they’re making applications, we’ll be making awards” for the next two years, added Dan Tangherlini of the U.S. Treasury Department.

When DiStefano asked if there were limits on what windmill operators and solar farmers could do with the money. Tangherlini said no. As long as the project qualifies as renewable energy, windmill owners can use tax dollars to pay back lenders, pay themselves a bonus, or even build more windmills, if they want.

The government says this is necessary to stiffen the usual tax credits that windmills enjoy, which aren’t worth so much these days, since business is slow and tax payments are falling, DiStefano wrote.
His entire piece (it’s not long) can be viewed here.

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Jackson’s EPA criticizes Jackson’s DEP

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, led by Lisa Jackson, has released an audit report critical of the site remediation program at a the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection during the term of its former commissioner, Lisa Jackson. Yes, the same Lisa Jackson.

Honest to a fault.

What’s the matter with the Obama Administration? Didn’t they learn anything from eight years under George Bush? Surely they must know how to squash, delay or simply lose anything so embarrassing.

Shouldn’t they have sent it to the President’s office first? Then his lawyers could refuse to release it, claiming executive privilege.

Or simply send the only copy to the Vice President’s secret location. Oh, that’s right, it’s no longer a secret. Biden took care of that.

These new folks have a lot to learn. No problem, they can play catch-up by reading Chaney’s book when it comes out.

In the meanwhile, here’s the Bergen Record story on the EPA report.


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