Pipeline in California oil spill was moved 105 feet along sea floor. Was a ship’s anchor the cause?

By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Oct 5 (Reuters) – A section of the oil pipeline that burst off the Southern California coast was displaced 105 feet (32 meters) across the ocean floor, officials said on Tuesday, fueling speculation that a ship’s anchor may have caused the environmental disaster.

The revelation came as the U.S. Coast Guard and drilling company Amplify Energy Corp (AMPY.N) came under further scrutiny about the time it took to respond to the spill, amid reports that mariners first reported seeing oil in the water on Friday night, when official notification did not come until Saturday around midday.

Roughly 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of crude oil spilled into the Pacific Ocean, killing wildlife, soiling the coastline and forcing officials to close beaches in the cities of Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles.

Oil, tar wash ashore in San Diego County

The oil appears to have leaked through a 13-inch (33-cm) gash in the pipe, which was “pulled like a bowstring” about 105 feet from where it should have been, Martyn Willsher, chief executive of Amplify Energy, told a news conference. Amplify owns the pipeline and connected rigs.

In all a 4,000-foot (1.2-km) section of the 17.7-mile (28.5 km) pipeline was displaced laterally, as discovered by a remotely operated vehicles, U.S. Coast Guard Captain Rebecca Ore told reporters.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said the accident underscored the risks of relying on fossil fuels in a state already suffering from drought and wildfires that experts link to human-caused climate change.

“We need to grow up and grow out of this dependency,” Newsom told a separate news conference in Huntington Beach, promoting renewable energy alternatives.

Read the full story here

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Vinyard Wind offshore wind farm project in Massachusetts is the first in the U.S. to achieve financial close

At $2.3B, it represesnts one of the largest investments in a single renewable energy project


(NEW BEDFORD, MA) – Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), has announced that its first project has achieved financial close. 

Working with nine international and U.S. based banks, $2.3 billion of senior debt has been raised to finance the construction of the project.  The milestone enables Vineyard Wind to provide a notice to proceed to its contractors in the coming days and weeks, allowing suppliers to start hiring, training and mobilizing people to prepare for both on and offshore construction. 

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Onshore work will begin this Fall in Barnstable, with offshore work commencing in 2022.  The first power from Vineyard Wind 1 will be delivered to the grid in 2023.

“There have been many milestones passed over the last several months, from securing the final federal permits to signing the U.S.’s first offshore wind project labor agreement,” said Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen. 

“Achieving financial close is the most important of all milestones because today we finally move from talking about offshore wind to delivering offshore wind at scale in the U.S.  With the signing of these agreements, we now have everything in place to start construction, launching an industry that will immediately start to create jobs and make a significant contribution to meet Massachusetts’ carbon pollution reduction targets.  We couldn’t have made it this far without the tremendous support we’ve received from local residents, elected officials at every level of government and so many others.  We can’t thank you enough and look forward to working together for many years to come.”

Read the full story here

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Ex-Atlantic City mayor, now NJ Assembly candidate, claims he went after corrupt pols, but can’t name one

Democrats call ex-Atlantic CIty mayor an ’empty bowtie’ with no integrity

By David Wildstein, NJ Globe

Republican Assembly candidate Don Guardian claims to have gone after corrupt politicians when he was the mayor of Atlantic City, but when pressed on a radio show for specifics he was unable to name 

A caller to Scott Cronick’s radio show on WOND 1400 AM in Atlantic City said that while he was on hold to ask about Guardian’s wrongful termination suit against Toms River, he heard a GOP radio ad where Guardian said he “went after corrupt politicians” as an example of how he saved Atlantic City.

“Can you name two politicians that you went after?” the caller asked.

Guardian stumbled.

“I can not,”he said.

Read the full story here

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New Jersey looks to share solar energy with low-income residents

The solar industry employs about 7,000 people in New Jersey.


By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight

The state is planning to make permanent a pilot program that delivers electricity from community solar projects to low- and moderate-income communities that mostly have not benefited from solar’s cheaper power.

Board of Public Utilities President Joseph Fiordaliso announced the extension of the program Wednesday at a bimonthly meeting of the agency, setting in motion a proceeding before the board during which it will determine the parameters and scope of the new program and canceling the third year of the pilot.

The pilot proved to be surprisingly popular during its two years. In its second year, the agency received more than 400 applications from solar developers seeking to build 800 megawatts of solar projects to deliver solar energy to customers.

The board is expected to decide on what projects will move forward later this month or in November, Fiordaliso said. The agency expects to award roughly 150 megawatts of new power. In the first year of the program, all 45 community solar projects involved low- and moderate-income communities.

“Our solar industry continues to evolve,’’ said Fiordaliso, who added that community solar is an important part of the sector. “We all have to be part of it in order for it to be effective.’’

Until the community solar program, many low- and moderate-income households were left out of the solar boom in New Jersey. A variety of factors prevented those households from participating, including cost, a shaded property or lack of roof control.

Expanding access

Solar developers welcomed the announcement by the BPU, noting the agency is allocating 1,125 megawatts of community solar capacity through 2026, sending strong signals to the community solar industry and guaranteeing the market capacity that is needed to serve more New Jersey residents in a timely manner.

Read the full story here

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EPA finalizes plan for Superfund site in Camden/Gloucester City




From an EPA news release:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its interim plan to address groundwater contaminated with radium at the Welsbach/General Gas Mantle Superfund site located in Camden and Gloucester City, New Jersey.

The interim decision, in the form of a Record of Decision (ROD), calls for allowing natural processes to continue to break down contamination while restricting access to the groundwater and continuing to clean up the soil that is the source of contamination. The groundwater contamination will be monitored to determine that it is decreasing over time, as expected. Following the cleanup of the contamination source, EPA will revisit the site conditions and make a final decision regarding the groundwater.

“EPA has invested more than $350 million in the cleanup of the Welsbach and General Gas Mantle facilities and surrounding properties to ensure that the health of people who live in Camden and Gloucester City are protected,” said Acting Regional Administrator Walter Mugdan. “This Record of Decision moves us one step closer to a complete cleanup. This plan safely and responsibly addresses the impacted groundwater, allowing EPA to continue its work in cleaning up the source of contamination at the former Welsbach facility.”

Cleanup of the site is divided into four phases of work called operable units (OUs), which are discrete phases of the wider cleanup effort. This interim plan addresses the fourth operable unit (OU4), which is groundwater.

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Under a cleanup plan for operable unit 1 (OU1), EPA is currently addressing radiologically impacted soil in in Gloucester City, New Jersey. The interim decision today will be implemented while the OU1 cleanup of the radiologically contaminated soil is on-going. Once contamination in the soil, which is the source of groundwater contamination, is fully addressed, the interim groundwater cleanup decision will be reevaluated, and EPA will establish a permanent groundwater cleanup plan. EPA reached its decision based on review of site information including the results groundwater sampling collected between 2018 and 2020.

EPA completed the cleanup work for OU2 in 2017, which included decontaminating building surfaces at the Armstrong Building (the last remaining building from Welsbach’s gas mantle operations) and disposing of the radiologically contaminated soil and waste in an approved off-site facility. After a thorough review of the data, EPA determined that no cleanup action was needed for OU3, which consists of wetlands, surface water, and sediment since they pose no radiological threat to people or the environment.

EPA will monitor the groundwater and conduct a thorough review of site conditions within five years to ensure the effectiveness of this interim decision, and fully review the groundwater conditions after completion of the soil cleanup, leading to a final remedy decision for the groundwater. The estimated cost of this work is approximately $460,000.

On August 24, 2021, EPA publicly proposed this plan, and held a virtual public meeting on September 8, 2021, to explain the plan and take comments. The Record of Decision released today addresses all comments received and formalizes EPA’s selected cleanup plan.

EPA’s Record of Decision and the agency’s responses to public comments will be available at https://www.epa.gov/superfund/welsbach-ggm

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EPA to clean up contamination at Riverside Industrial Park Superfund site in Newark

From an EPA news release

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues its important work toward Environmental Justice by finalizing its cleanup plan for the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund site on the bank of the Passaic River in Newark, New Jersey. The final decision, in the form of a Record of Decision (ROD), includes a combination of cleanup technologies and other measures to address contaminated soil, soil gas, groundwater, sewer water and waste at the site.

“We have already taken action to address some of the more immediate risks facing this community, and this final cleanup plan will allow us to move forward on the work needed to address risks in the longer-term,” said Acting Regional Administrator Walter Mugdan. “This final decision builds on previous EPA actions of plugging a discharge pipe and addressing the underground storage tanks, which were releasing hazardous chemicals into the Passaic River.”

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EPA’s cleanup plan calls for:

  • Excavating contaminated soil. Lead-contaminated soil and fill material around Building #7 will be removed and disposed of off-site. The bulkhead bordering the site along the river will be reinforced or reconstructed, and a site-wide cap will be constructed. To protect the cleanup measures, deed notices will be recorded and amended, and fencing will be maintained and enhanced, as appropriate, across the site.
  • Assessing vapors in the soil and the indoor air in occupied buildings on the site and, if needed, installing mitigation systems to protect people in those buildings from vapor intrusion. EPA will require that special systems be installed in any buildings constructed in the future to protect occupants. EPA will establish site-wide deed notices and appropriate restrictions on property use.
  • Installing a system to pump and treat contaminated groundwater to minimize migration of groundwater contaminants to the Passaic River. Groundwater will also be monitored to ensure the pump and treat systems is effective. EPA will also restrict the use of groundwater.
  • Removing sewer water and solids from an inactive sewer line and transferring it into appropriate containers for off-site treatment and disposal. The sewer line will be closed.
  • Transferring waste from underground storage tanks (USTs), contaminated soil surrounding the USTs and various waste found across the site into appropriate containers for off-site treatment and disposal.

The Riverside Industrial Park Superfund site is a 7.6-acre active industrial property, located at 29 Riverside Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. From 1902 to 1971, the Patton Paint Company (which merged into the Paint and Varnish Division of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in 1920, later changing its name to PPG Industries, Inc. in 1968) manufactured paint, resins, linseed oil, and varnish.

From 1971 to the present day, the site was subdivided into fifteen lots and has been used by many companies for a variety of businesses from warehousing and packaging to chemical and cosmetics manufacturing. The soil and groundwater contamination are attributed to historic site operations, accidental spills, illegal dumping, improper handling of raw materials, and improper waste disposal.

EPA held a virtual public meeting on August 5, 2020, to explain its cleanup plan. EPA accepted public comments and considered public input before finalizing the plan. EPA granted several comment period extensions and closely reviewed all public comments that were submitted.

EPA’s final decision, outlined in the ROD and EPA’s complete response to all comments, can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/riverside-industrial

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