By Harry Stevens, The Washington Post, July 18, 2024
Southern California Edison, one of the country’s largest power companies, has just announced a deal to buy electricity from a seven-year-old start-up called Fervo Energy. Like other energy companies, Fervo will use hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to tap an energy source trapped deep underground.
But instead of oil and gas, Fervo is hunting heat, a more abundant resource that neither pollutes the air nor contributes to global warming. The heat will fuel a new type of power plant: an enhanced geothermal plant.
Most power plants work by converting a turbine’s rotating energy into electricity. Many of the world’s energy challenges stem from this seemingly simple problem: how to get a turbine to keep spinning.
In contrast, conventional geothermal power plants capture steam from natural underground hot springs in places such as Iceland or the Geysers in Northern California. These require a rare combination of geologic conditions — heat, underground water and porous rock.
Enhanced geothermal plants use technology pioneered by oil and gas drillers to reproduce the conditions of a conventional geothermal well. This makes it possible to extract heat in many more places.
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Upson Park is on the list of contaminated commercial and residential properties in Lockport that will be remediated using funding from the U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The park is in the Eighteen mile Creek Corridor Superfund site, which stretches 13 miles from the Erie Canal to the mouth of Lake Ontario at Olcott. (US&J file photo)
From the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
NEW YORK (July 19, 2024) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is inviting the public to comment on its proposed cleanup plan to address contaminated creek sediment and floodplain soil along a portion of the Eighteen Mile Creek Superfund site in Niagara County, New York. The 30-day public comment period runs from July 19 to August 19, 2024. EPA will host a public meeting at Newfane Townhall located at 2737 Main Street, Newfane, New York onAugust 1, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. to discuss the cleanup plan.
“EPA’s proposed cleanup for this portion of the creek is to remove and dispose the contaminated sediment and floodplain soil that threaten human health as well as fish and wildlife,” said Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “We encourage the public to join our meeting, ask questions and share their views on the proposed plan.”
Under the proposed cleanup plan and with EPA oversight, contractors would remove and dispose of contaminated sediment, replace clean fill and monitor sediment, surface water and fish tissue long term. The plan recommends that contractors remove and properly disposed of floodplain soil that is contaminated with lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) within a specific 11-acre area. By targeting these specific areas, the EPA can accelerate the cleanup by removing some known sources of contamination while continuing to evaluate the downstream segment of the creek. EPA will propose further cleanup for the areas of the creek not covered by this proposed plan.
Eighteen Mile Creek has a long history of industrial use dating back to the 19th century when it was used to produce hydropower. The main channel of the creek originates just south of the New York State Barge Canal and flows north for about 15 miles until it discharges to Lake Ontario in Olcott, New York. The Eighteen Mile Creek watershed includes the two main tributaries: East Branch of Eighteen Mile Creek and Gulf Creek.
EPA added the Eighteen Mile Creek site to the National Priorities List in 2012 and is cleaning up the site in several phases, or Operable Units (OUs). OU1 addressed residential soil contamination and structural hazards posed by buildings at the former Flintkote Plant property. OU2 focuses on soil cleanup at nearby commercial properties acting as sources of contamination to the Creek Corridor and sediment within the Creek Corridor. The current proposal relates to OU3 and will address contaminated sediment and the contaminated creek floodplain soil, extending roughly 5.3 miles downstream from Harwood Street. OU4 is dedicated to resolving lead contamination in residential soil near the former Flintkote Plant property. Cleanup actions for OU1, OU2, and OU4 are underway, with construction set for Summer 2024, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Written comments on the proposed plan may be submitted to Christopher O’Leary, Remedial Project Manager, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 290 Broadway – 19th Floor, New York, NY 10007 or via email: OLeary.Christopher@epa.gov.
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Written by Shirin Sood, a 2024 NJ Governor’s STEM Scholar
PolyGone Systems has announced plans for a Microplastic Removal Pilot Project and Educational Pavilion at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA). The installation will open to the public on September 12, 2024, at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority Wastewater Treatment Facility in Atlantic City.
The event will showcase PolyGone Systems’ industrial-scale microplastic removal pilot project within the Atlantic County Utilities Authority’s Wastewater Treatment Facility. Alongside the pilot deployment, PolyGone will unveil the Microplastic Educational Pavilion, an on-site exhibition for public visitors and students to learn about microplastic pollution and PolyGone’s environmental mission. Keynote speakers from the NOAA Sea Grant Office will be featured at the Grand Opening.
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PolyGone Systems is a cleantech company spun out from Princeton University, specializing in developing novel microplastic filtration technology. This pioneering industrial-scale pilot project is funded by the NOAA Sea Grant Program Marine Debris Challenge Competition 2023 and the NJCSIT Pilot CleanTech Demonstration Grant Program. With the collaboration of project partners and ACUA, PolyGone will deploy its latest technology in the wastewater treatment plant to monitor and remove microplastic pollutants.
The hosting facility, ACUA, is a 40 million-gallon-per-day treatment plant and a regional collection facility serving approximately 225,000 residents in New Jersey. The Authority ensures a better quality of life by protecting the water and land from pollution, accepting wastewater from 14 municipalities in Atlantic County, as well as additional sludge/biosolids, grease, scum, dried municipal sludge, and leachate for treatment and disposal. ACUA is a leader in environmental initiatives and supports transformative and impactful technologies to provide the highest quality and most cost-effective environmental services. The Grand Opening represents a significant step toward protecting our marine ecosystems from harmful microplastic pollutants.
State environmental regulators issued a limited approval Thursday for a natural gas power plant at a sewage treatment plant adjacent to a neighborhood known to already be overburdened by pollution.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced an environmental justice approval for the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s Standby Power Generation Facility Project, which is a proposed natural gas-fired power plant that is meant to keep the PVSC’s sewage treatment plant in Newark running during power outages.
But the DEP’s approval was made with conditions that significantly restrict how the sewerage commission would be able to use its proposed power plant.
Those conditions specifically call for:
PVSC to only run the power plant as a backup generator in the event of a power outage, with one exception per month for test runs to ensure the power plant remains ready for any emergencies. PVSC would not be allowed to run the power plant continuously or run it as a revenue-generating asset.
PVSC will be required to install additional pollution controls at the sewage treatment plant, such as upgrading sludge heat treatment boilers and removing or upgrading outdated equipment.
PVSC will be required to install a minimum of 5 megawatts of solar at the sewage treatment plan, as well as a minimum of 5MW of battery storage.
PVSC must immediately study how to transition from this natural gas plant to a renewable energy alternative, including the possibility of green hydrogen.
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BEACHWOOD, NJ — After a fourth straight week of Beachwood (NJ) officials have shut down swimming for the rest of the summer at the beach on the Toms River., Beachwood officials have shut down swimming at the borough’s beach for the rest of the summer of 2024.
“For the safety, health and welfare of the residents and others, the Mayor and Council have decided to close swimming at the beach for the remainder of the 2024 season due to the Ocean County Health Department reporting of excessive bacteria levels found in the water,” a statement posted on the borough website said.
“You may still sit and take in the lovely view of the scenery but no one will be permitted to swim,” the statement said.
The Beachwood beach, which sits on the Toms River, has had water quality issues for several years, with repeated instances of high levels of Enterococci bacteria. The standard is 104 colonies per 100 milliliters of sampled water.
Water samples that exceed 104 colonies prompt swimming advisories, and swimming bans when retesting shows continuing levels that exceed the standard.
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A sailboat passes below one of the remaining ramps of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on the northeast side of the Patapsco River months after the catastrophic bridge collapse. (Jerry Jackson/Staff)
Nearly four months after a ship strike decimated the Francis Scott Key Bridge and killed six construction workers, who would build and pay for a new bridge and the impact on Marylanders’ wallets were among the topics on the minds of readers during a Reddit AMA on Wednesday with Baltimore Sun reporter Hayes Gardner.
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Below are selected questions and answers from the discussion on the r/Maryland subreddit. Some comments have been edited for formatting, length or clarity.
Any update on contractor selection? Dates, possible contractors, shortlist, etc? (asked by Agile_Wafer_1291)
So, the state’s transportation authority has said it will select a builder by “mid-to-late summer,” but has not specified beyond that.
And while several potential builders have not disclosed whether or not they are interested, Webuild, an Italian builder, and its American subsidiary Lane Construction, have not been shy. They released a preliminary vision for a new span in May and confirmed to The Sun that they are part of a team that submitted a proposal. They also recently launched an ad campaign in the U.S.
Another construction and engineering company, Kiewit, said on social media it was “assembling a team,” but has declined to say anything more about its proposal. Regardless, the selected contractor will likely be a group of several companies that team up for the project, expected to cost $1.7 billion.
