Christmas tree growers on hunt for stowaway lanternflies

Michelle Merlin reports for The Morning Call:

Christmastime has long haunted tree experts with threats of weevils and aphids, and (for non-Muggles) pesky nargles. With the spotted lanternfly, the real risk is not to fir, pine or spruce but in inadvertently moving the bug to a new area and helping it spread across the state or even further.
“The hazard is people cut down a tree within the quarantine area and then they take it for the holiday to some relative or friend far out of the quarantine area,” said Emelie Swackhamer, a Penn State Extension horticulture educator.
At the state level, inspectors in quarantined areas reached out to Christmas tree growers and created compliance agreements with anyone who thought their trees would be going into homes in lanternfly-free areas.
Experts fear the invasive bug, which was first discovered in eastern Berks County in 2014, will hurt stone fruit, grapes and other agricultural products. The plant hopper is native to China, India and Vietnam and was invasive in Korea, where it was found in 2004, and damaged several plant species which also grow in Pennsylvania.
The state had issued quarantines in municipalities where it had been seen until a few weeks ago, when officials issued countywide quarantines — meaning products can’t be moved from one place to another without being checked for the bugs and their eggs — and added seven new counties to the list.
Experts hope they can avoid spreading the spotted lanternfly further by warning people about its potential dispersal via Christmas tree.
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State lawmakers ask EPA to waive ethanol blend in NJ


Adding ethanol to gasoline is a federal requirement that may drive production costs at Paulsboro refinery over the top, threatening its viability

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

paulsboro refinery

Credit: WHYY.org
Top legislative leaders in New Jersey are pressing federal environmental officials to waive rules governing blending of ethanol into gasoline, a requirement they say threatens the viability of the Paulsboro refinery.
In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, the lawmakers from the Third Legislative District said complying with the rule makes it difficult and expensive to operate an oil refinery in the region.
The appeal from Senate President Stephen Sweeney; John Burzichelli, the deputy speaker in the Assembly; and Assemblyman Adam Taliaferro echoes concerns from officials in Pennsylvania, including Gov. Tom Wolf.
The ethanol-blending rule, under review by the EPA, pits segments of the oil-refining sector in the Northeast against Midwest corn farmers over a requirement to comply with a Renewable Fuel Standard involving ethanol.
The standard requires refiners to blend a certain percentage of ethanol or other biofuel into gasoline and diesel to comply with the rule. Refiners that do not have the capability to blend ethanol into the fuel can comply by purchasing credits (known as “RINs”) instead, an expensive proposition, the lawmakers said.
“The cost of compliance to this regulation puts at risk these energy-sector jobs in our region,’’ the legislators said in the joint letter to Pruitt. “In addition, these high costs also contribute to the cost of gasoline for residents and consumers.’’
The legislators note the agency has legal authority under the Clean Air Act to waive the renewable obligations “should they present a harm to a state or regional economy.”
The Paulsboro plant, now in its 100th year, employs 475 full-time workers, as well as another 300 contractors, according to the legislators.
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NJ may regulate military fire-fighting foam chemical PFOS

Maximum Contaminant Limit for PFOS would help protect human health over a lifetime of exposure to the chemical, which has been linked to cancer, immune-system problems


Jon Hurdle reports for NJ Spotlight:

water quality test

New Jersey scientists are urging the state to impose a strict limit on a chemical that has been linked to cancer, developmental problems, and changes to the human immune system in the latest move to curb the presence of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in drinking water.
The Drinking Water Quality Institute will this week consider a recommendation to set a limit of 13 parts per trillion (ppt) for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) as the level at which human health would be protected over a lifetime of exposure.
The limit, proposed by the DWQI’s health effects subcommittee, would be the strictest set by any state, and would build on New Jersey’s growing status as a national leader in the regulation of a family of chemicals that are found at higher concentrations in New Jersey’s drinking water than in most other places.
The plan to regulate PFOS follows similar recommendations for two related chemicals, PFNA and PFOA, which are being assigned “Maximum Contaminant Limits” (MCLs) by the Department of Environmental Protection after research by DWQI scientists over the past three years.
PFOS and other PFCs were made for consumer products like fabric coatings and nonstick cookware over more than 50 years and were phased out by the main U.S. manufacturer in the early 2000s because of concerns about their health effects.

Firefighting foam

But the chemicals are still used in some applications, notably in firefighting foam on military bases such as New Jersey’s Maguire-Dix-Lakehurst Joint Base, where nearby waterways have been contaminated.
The chemicals persist in soil, ground water, and surface water because they have stable carbon bonds that are extremely resistant to degradation in the environment, according to the DWQI panel’s report. PFCs are widespread in the environment, and have been found in fish and even in polar wildlife.
Sources include wastewater treatment plants, industrial discharge, and landfills the report said, in a draft that will now go out for public comment.
The DW QI plans represent an effort to set tough limits on a set of chemicals that have no federal regulations even though they are the subject of a health advisory by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA sets a looser level of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA combined. New Jersey recommends “guidance levels” on some PFCs but not on PFOS.

Tightest standard in U.S.

“The proposed drinking-water standard for PFOS in New Jersey would set the most health protective standard in the country for exposure to this toxic chemical,” said Dr. David Andrews, senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for tighter controls on PFCs and other contaminants. “The federal government has failed to protect Americans from PFOS contamination or set a legal limit for this contaminant and New Jersey is stepping up to protect health.”
While the new level would set a higher bar than that used by federal or other state governments, it’s still not clear whether 13 ppt is safe, given that drinking-water exposure just adds to that from other sources such as food, consumer products, and household dust, Andrews said.



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Some Pa. state employees raking in big pensions

Rodney Erickson, former Penn State Prez  Michael Bryant photo for Philly.com

Maddie Hanna reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Three years after retiring as president of Pennsylvania State University, Rodney Erickson is netting $477,590 a year — from a state pension.

Gary Schultz, the former Penn State vice president who pleaded guilty in the Jerry Sandusky scandal, takes home $330,699 in pension benefits. Former state lawmaker Frank Oliver, a Democrat who represented North Philadelphia, gets $286,117.

More than 127,000 former Pennsylvania state employees or their beneficiaries collect public pension checks each month, and most are comparatively paltry. The average paid out last year was $27,722.

But despite reforms in the system — which mostly affect future retirees — and a move by some states to cap retirement payments, a separate class of Keystone State pensioners will continue to receive checks that alone put them among the top tier of all income earners in the United States.

As the costs of public pensions continue to be a point of debate for struggling state and municipal governments, the Inquirer and Daily News reviewed data for hundreds of Pennsylvania’s highest-paid beneficiaries, all current through August.

They showed that 20 state retirees collect more than $215,000 a year — a payout so big it exceeds an IRS mandated pension cap and must be paid from two plans. More than 500 retirees collect $100,000 or more.


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Chemours’ response to chemical water worries: silence
Chemours Co. chemical manufacturing facility in Fayetteville, NC

Emery P. Dalesio reports for The Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Americans have grown accustomed to hearing apologies from everyone from cheating car-makers to cheating presidents, but a Fortune 500 chemical company with a pollution problem in North Carolina is following a different model: don’t apologize, don’t explain.

For six months, Wilmington, Delaware-based Chemours Co. has faced questions about an unregulated chemical with unknown health risks that flowed from the company’s plant into the Cape Fear River, which provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people.

The company has said virtually nothing in its own defense about chemicals it may have discharged for nearly four decades, and it skipped legislative hearings looking into health concerns.
Earlier this month, North Carolina environmental regulators said they might fine Chemours, revoke its license to discharge treated wastewater into the nearby river and open a criminal probe. State officials said the company chose silence over reporting a chemical spill last month as required.

In a rare response, Chemours said it’s committed to operating the plant, which employs about 900, “in accordance with all applicable laws and in a manner that respects the environment and public health and safety.”

New tests have detected the chemical GenX, used to make Teflon and other industrial products, at levels beyond the state’s estimated but legally unenforceable safety guidepost in 50 private water wells near Chemours’ Fayetteville plant and at a water treatment plant in Wilmington, about 100 miles (62 kilometers) downstream. There are no federal health standards addressing GenX and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies it as an “emerging contaminant” to be studied.


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Community solar heads to NYC public housing rooftops

New York City’s public housing authority is taking bids in a plan to lease its roofs for community solar projects that could power thousands of urban homes.


Miguel Rodriguez. Credit: New York City Housing Authority

Miguel Rodriguez, who grew up in public housing in New York, is developing skills as a solar installer through a public housing-connected program. Credit: New York City Housing Authority
Lindsey Gilpin reports for InsideClimate News:
When you look out across New York City from the top of the Empire State Building, thousands of empty rooftops come into view. They could be ripe for solar panels, but the overwhelming majority of residents and business owners inside are renters with no control over those sunny patches of real estate.
The city’s public housing authority, the largest public housing landlord in the United States, recognizes the potential, and it has a plan to put hundreds of those rooftops to work.
In January, the authority will start reviewing bids for phase one of a project to increase the amount of solar power generated in the city. It’s a small step, but one could that could help grow the market for urban solar power. The goal is to install 25 megawatts of solar panels atop the city’s public housing buildings, enough capacity to power 6,600 households, as part of New York City’s 100 percent renewable commitment.
There’s one catch: The New York City Public Housing Authority (NYCHA) can’t directly use that power. It already has a deal with the electric utility Con Edison.
Instead, the authority plans to lease its rooftops for community solar projects―an arrangement that will allow companies to install solar panels in one location and sell the energy to customers who can’t install their own. 
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