EnviroPolitics Blog

California went big on rooftop solar. Now that’s a problem for landfills

*Solar panels purchased for home use under incentive programs many years ago are nearing the end of their life cycle. Many are already winding up in landfills. (Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times*

BY RACHEL KISELA, Los Angeles Times

California has been a pioneer in pushing for rooftop solar power, building up the largest solar market in the U.S. More than 20 years and 1.3 million rooftops later, the bill is coming due.

Beginning in 2006, the state, focused on how to incentivize people to take up solar power, showered subsidies on homeowners who installed photovoltaic panels but had no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle.

Many are already winding up in landfills, where in some cases, they could potentially contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium, and cadmium.

Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert, and chief executive of Recycle PV Solar, says that only 1 in 10 panels are actually recycled, according to estimates drawn from International Renewable Energy Agency data on decommissioned panels and from industry leaders.

The looming challenge over how to handle truck loads of waste, some of it contaminated, illustrates how cutting-edge environmental policy can create unforeseen problems down the road.

“The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”

Read the full story here

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EPA plans to clean up contaminated groundwater in Olean Well Field Superfund Site in Cattaraugus County, New York

From the USEPA

NEW YORK (July 15, 2022) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a plan to inject material into constructed wells to break down the hazardous contamination in groundwater across several areas south of the former AVX Corporation (AVX) property at the Olean Well Field Superfund site in Olean, New York.

“This proposed cleanup plan reflects EPA’s recommendations on how to best address groundwater contamination,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “It safely brings us one step closer to a comprehensive cleanup of the AVX portion of the site.”

The cleanup technique, called in-situ treatment, uses various minerals and bacteria to spur the decontamination of harmful compounds found in contaminated groundwater. This method supplements the natural process of breaking down the contamination over time. The cleanup includes long-term monitoring to ensure the cleanup is working as intended and other controls to prevent exposure to the contaminants.

The Olean Well Field Superfund site contains various wells, homes, and manufacturing facilities. Earlier industrial operations at the AVX property, as well as three other facilities that EPA considers sources of site contamination, resulted in the contamination of soil and groundwater with trichloroethylene, 1,4-dioxane, and other volatile organic compounds. The contaminants migrated from the AVX property in groundwater south of the AVX property. As a result of the contamination at all four facilities, EPA added the site to the Superfund list in 1983. Since that time, several investigations have led to cleanup remedies for the four source facilities and impacted groundwater, most of which are being implemented by potentially responsible parties for the site.

The proposed plan’s 30-day public comment period will occur from July 15, 2022, to August 15, 2022. In addition, EPA will host a Public Meeting on July 27, 2022, at 6:00 p.m. at the TECH Building, Mangano Reception Room, near the Cutco Theater, 305 North Barry Street, Cattaraugus County Campus of Jamestown Community College in Olean, New York.

To learn more about the public meeting, contact Mike Basile at Basile.Mike@epa.gov or (716)-551-4410.

Written comments on EPA’s proposed plan may be mailed or emailed no later than August 15, 2022, to Maeve Wurtz, Remedial Project Manager, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 290 Broadway – 19th Floor, New York, NY 10007, Email: Wurtz.Maeve@epa.gov.

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EPA spending $5.5M to clean up Bucks and Montgomery County Superfund sites

From the USEPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency broke ground today at the North Penn Area 6 Superfund site in Lansdale, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where EPA is accelerating construction to clean up the site. North Penn Area 6 is one of 49 Superfund Sites nationwide to receive a total of $5.4 billion in new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding for accelerating the cleanup of legacy pollution.

The Chem Fab Superfund Site in Doylestown, Bucks County, is also among the 49 sites receiving this first wave of the Biden/Harris Administration’s BIL funding, allowing EPA to initiate work where Superfund construction projects were backlogged.

“Revitalizing communities and helping create economic vitality is a primary goal of EPA’s Superfund cleanups,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “Because of this infrastructure funding, people living and working in Lansdale and Doylestown can now look forward to these sites finally getting completely cleaned up and ultimately being transformed and reused for the benefit of those communities.”

The North Penn site received $4.9 million in BIL funding to remove and replace industrially contaminated soil. EPA plans to engage the community early and often to make sure they remain aware of planned construction activities and future work.

The Chem Fab Site received $6.3 million, $500,000 of which is from BIL, for the construction of a state-of-the-art groundwater extraction and treatment system to treat contaminated groundwater and return it to nearby Cooks Run.

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Owner of NY hauling business indicted on wire fraud charges

By Haley Rischar, Waste Today

The owner of a New York-based hauling company is facing federal indictment related to his business operations, reports the Westchester Journal News.

Robert Chomicki, 60, of Briarcliff Manor, allegedly arranged for his company—Riverside Hauling—to pay less than it was supposed to when dumping waste at a Yonkers transfer station between April 2019 and June 2020. According to court documents, he plead not guilty and was released on a $250,000 bond following his indictment on wire fraud charges.

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Riverside Hauling, which is licensed by the Westchester Solid Waste Commission, provides container rental for generators of construction and demolition debris and then hauls it to transfer stations.

Although Chomicki is facing federal charges, the Journal News reports the company has not been charged and continues to operate.

The transfer station, A1 Compaction Inc., is owned by Houston-based WM. WM, formerly Waste Management, told Waste Today in an email that it cannot provide comment on the matter as it is a pending criminal investigation.

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New Jerseyan Dr. Oz is running in Pa Senate race, but first he has to run away from Donald Trump

Dr. Mehmet Oz (right) and former hedge fund executive David McCormick . McCormick is a Pennsylvania native who would have been a shoo-in in the general election, but thanks to Donald Trump he lost to Oz, who has a palatial home in Bergen County.

By Paul Mulshine | Star-Ledger Columnist

It seems like every time I open my email I see a new pitch for money from the Republican Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate who calls himself Dr. Oz.

A recent one read,” Fellow Conservative: Dr. Oz is officially LOSING in the polls to Radical Socialist John Fetterman. And I’m frightened.”

I’m frightened, too. I’m afraid the Republican Party is missing yet another chance to take control of the Senate thanks to the stupidity and incompetence of Donald Trump.

It was The Donald who decided to tell his acolytes to vote for Oz in the Pennsylvania Republican primary – despite the fact the TV doctor is from New Jersey, Cliffside Park to be specific.

With Trump’s support, Oz won the GOP primary over David McCormick, a solid conservative who was born and grew up in the heartland of Pennsylvania. But even with Trump’s backing, Oz won by a mere 951 votes.

Fetterman, the sitting lieutenant governor who is known for his sense of humor, immediately went on the attack.

“Do want someone who’s all about North Jersey? He’s not one of us” he asks in one attack ad.

Another ad shows footage of an Oz campaign ad in which the celebrity doctor stands in front of a bookcase as he calls for the Philadelphia mayor to resign amid a crime wave there. Other footage shows the bookcase is in Oz’s Cliffside Park crib.

Read the full opinion piece here

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New Jersey’s Union Beach to start new coastal-defense project 27 years in the works

Town official says planned measures changed little despite Sandy’s devastation

*File photo: A bayfront house in Union Beach that was cut in half by Superstorm Sandy became one of the most photographed damage sites from the storm until it was torn down several weeks later.*

By JON HURDLE, NJ Spotlight

Twenty-seven years after state and federal officials started planning coastal flood defenses for Union Beach, a contract was signed this week to build a berm and other flood-control measures in the devastated Monmouth County town.

Although the project was finally funded after Superstorm Sandy famously pummeled the borough in October 2012, the measures that are due to begin this fall are little different from what was planned in 1995 when the process began, said Robert Howard, administrator for the town of some 5,600 people on the shore of Raritan Bay. He said the project was first approved in 2007 but didn’t attract federal funding until 2013 in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

Howard said it was “hypothetical” whether the town would have fared better during Sandy if the new measures had been in place then, but he hoped it would have been completed. “I believe the project would have assisted with dealing with Sandy,” he said in an interview.

The new contract, worth $50 million, was announced Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Pallone said the project will help to protect the town’s homes and businesses from the bigger and more frequent storms resulting from climate change and rising seas.

“Coastal states like New Jersey are on the frontlines of rising sea levels and stronger storms due to climate change,” Pallone said in a statement. “With this funding, the Army Corps will replenish beaches with a dune, build pedestrian crossovers and repair existing decking that will help protect residents from future storm damage and flooding events.”

Read the full story here

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