Remaking of Marcus Hook, Pa.: From oil town to gas town

Marcus Hook complex. Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Photographer DAVID SWANSON
Betting
big on predictions of inexpensive and plentiful natural gas liquids in the Marcellus Shale in Western
Pennsylvania, the facility that once made Marcus Hook an oil town is turning
its attention to gas. 

Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Caitlin McCabe writes:
Inside the complex,
hundreds of construction workers bustle every day, their hammering and drilling
echoing throughout the otherwise-quiet town.

The sprawling facility
in the tiny Delaware County borough of 2,400 wasn’t always this way: Just three
years ago, the complex – once the site of Sunoco Inc.’s oil refinery – sat
largely vacant, its smokestacks extinguished, and most of its more than 500
workers long laid off
.
For as long as residents
can remember, the refinery grounds that long belonged to Sunoco were not just a
presence in the borough. They defined it. Dominating the municipality’s one
square mile of land, the refinery shaped the lives of residents for
generations.

So when Sunoco abruptly
announced in 2011 that it was shutting down after more than 100 years,
thousands worried about the borough’s viability. Others worried about their
own.

Gradually, owing to
Sunoco Logistics, the sister company of Sunoco, new life at the once-busy
complex has begun.

Close to 200 permanent jobs have returned to the small town south of Philadelphia.
A floundering economy – slowly – is forging ahead.



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Potent methane leaking from old pipes under Manhattan

                                                                                                                                        New York Times photo
Methane is spewing from more than 1,000 natural gas leaks under Manhattan, giving it 10 times the number of leaks per mile in its aging natural gas pipelines as cities with more up-to-date infrastructure, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Phil McKenna reports for Inside Climate News that:

Methane is the second-largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, making the reduction of methane emissions a high priority in fighting climate change.

 
While methane emissions are significantly smaller than those of CO2, methane is much more potent as a greenhouse gas, trapping 86 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and 34 times more over 100 years.


In the study, researchers measured concentrations of methane on the streets of New York, which has a high concentration of decades-old cast iron and steel pipes beneath its streets. They compared the findings with measurements in Durham, N.C., and Cincinnati, which recently replaced their aging pipelines.

"What was surprising was how well [pipeline replacement] programs worked," said lead author Robert Jackson of Stanford University. "They reduced leaks to very low densities."

Methane leaks are the subject of an $18 million project led by the Environmental Defense Fund that includes work by more than 100 researchers. That project, which is not affiliated with the current study, is being done in collaboration with the natural gas industry and utilities.

The researchers in the Manhattan study concluded that pipes under Manhattan averaged 4.3 leaks for each mile of pipe. Durham had 0.2 leaks per mile and Cincinnati had 0.5.

Replacing the pipes, some of which have been in use for more than 100 years, also improves air quality and reduces the risk of explosion. One such explosion killed eight people and destroyed an apartment building in East Harlem in 2014.
 
 
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Court refuses to block Obama power plant rule

A federal appeals court declined requests Wednesday to block the Obama administration’s landmark climate rule for power plants, Timothy Hill reports in The Hill.
“In a short, two-paragraph order filed just after 5 p.m., the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that West Virginia, more than a dozen other states and a coal-mining company do not qualify for a judicial stay that would stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from implementing the regulation until the litigation is complete.

“The three-judge panel ordered that the petitions be denied “because petitioners have not satisfied the stringent standards that apply to petitions for extraordinary writs that seek to stay agency action.

“It’s the first major loss for the conservative states since President Obama announced the final version of the regulation in early August. It seeks a 32 percent slash in the power sector’s carbon emissions by 2030.
“The ruling means the states will have to wait until the EPA publishes the final rule in the Federal Register, which it plans to do by the end of October, to file a lawsuit against it and ask for a judicial stay.”

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Pinelands fire caused by Labor Day cookout briquettes?


C’mon, people. Have you forgotten everything ole Smokey the Bear taught us over years of late-night TV public service announcements?

"Only you can prevent forest fires. Make sure your campfire is out–dead out."

The sad thing about the fire that broke out on Monday near Route 72 in Burlington County and spread into Ocean County, scorching more than 1,000 Pinelands acres, is that it might have started in someone’s backyard.

The DEP’s Larry Hajna said it appears that someone, perhaps having barbecued food for Labor Day, failed to make sure that their charcoal briquettes were out—dead out.


More details in these stories: 
DEP: Charcoal briquettes may have started Woodland  fire 
Pinelands wildfire caused by charcoal briquettes
Forest fire in NJ Pines now 65 percent contained clip_image001    
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Forest fire in NJ Pines now 65 percent contained


The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection reports this afternoon that a forest fire that has destroyed about 1,000 acres of in Woodland Township, Burlington County, is now about 65 percent contained.

ABC 6′s Nora Muchanic reports:

"Measurable rain we haven’t had for at least two weeks," Incident Commander Scott Knauer told Action News Tuesday morning. "And what happens is, the bigger, dead fuels like logs, large branches – they are completely consumed down to ash."

50 firefighters from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service are fighting the blaze along with plows, a helicopter and 15 brush trucks that are able to penetrate the sandy forest.

On Monday they cut a containment line around the fire and set backfires along the perimeter.

Officials say the interior of that line continues to burn.

"There are some interior pockets that are still burning out," said Knauer, "which is to be expected. It’s going to cause some smoke, some smoke drift in Manchester Township, Lacey Township, eastern parts of Ocean County."

The cause of the blaze, which started in Woodland, Burlington County and spread to Manchester, Ocean County has not yet been determined.

A team of investigators, including representatives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office are examining the site where the fire started.
Included in that group is a "Cause and Origin" expert.

"The containment lines are holding," said Knauer. "Each hour that goes by, we’re making better progress."

The Asbury Park Press’s Susanne Cervenka reports that the fire "is a significant size, but is far from being the biggest the Pinelands has seen. In May 2007, a wildfire burned 17,000 acres and forced many residents to evacuate.

New Jersey is abnormally dry for this time of year, and the Pine Barrens are at the greatest risk for fire because of the scrubby oak and dry pine trees characteristic of the ecosystem there.

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Dropping oil prices are good, right? Not for recycling

Dropping oil prices are usually good news for most consumers, but the price of oil is so low now, it’s actually cheaper to make new plastic bottles than recycle old ones.


NPR reporter Lizzie O’Leary discovers that the  drop “not only means landfills have a few extra tons of plastic bottles on their heaps, but businesses that sell recycled plastic are also feeling the crunch. In the last quarter alone, Waste Management, the largest waste hauler in the U.S., lost $59 million because of lower recycling revenues.“


Waste Management CEO David Steiner told O’Leary: “In the history of the recycling markets going back to the early ’90s, you’ve had a couple dips, and they’ve been very short terms. They’re at most two, three months — even in the Great Recession of 2009, we had a dramatic downturn, but it only lasted four months. This is the first time we’ve seen commodity markets down for, you know, three-plus years.


“Some people might say, ‘Well, we’re still recycling 25 percent, and maybe that’s a good thing.’ I don’t view that as a good thing, I view that as a crisis. What we’re trying to do is to help drive recycling rates up not down. Is it dramatically going to affect the earnings of Waste Management? Absolutely not. From a recycling perspective, from the environment’s perspective? I think we’re staring down the face of a crisis.”  


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