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Coalition Sues EPA Over MO Streams
August 6, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Georgina Gustin
A Missouri environmental group sued regulators Thursday, charging the government with failing to protect 80 percent of Missouri's waterways from pollution.
The Missouri Coalition for the Environment filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of failing to apply standards to roughly 150,000 miles of Missouri streams and rivers.
"The condition of our water today is a result of the fact that we've ignored water quality standards on 80 percent of the waterways in Missouri," said Kathleen Logan Smith, the group's executive director. "We can't afford to continue down this path."
Under the 1972 Clean Water Act, states are required to give permits for the discharge of pollution. In Missouri, state regulators give discharge permits in larger, classified waters — the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, for example — and unclassified waters, such as Ballwin's Kiefer Creek. Permits issued for unclassified waters, however, don't have specific discharge limits and are difficult to enforce or patrol.
"They're not enforced as a routine matter," Logan Smith said.
Read more...
Castlewood creek popular despite E. coli levels
July 27, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Stephen Deere
The creek forms a pool at a concrete bridge, and on most days, the water is so clear, you can see the rocky bottom 4 feet below the surface.
It's an inviting respite from the heat after a hike through Castlewood State Park, in St. Louis County just south of Ballwin. Thirsty dogs lap up the waters of Kiefer Creek. When the temperature rises, mothers wade in with their children. Teenagers drift lazily in the gentle current.
But while the popular swimming hole is no more than 20 yards in diameter, the question lately is just how safe it is to wade into the water.
A monitoring station about a half-mile upstream has for years has registered high levels of E. coli, bacteria that can cause symptoms similar to food poisoning.
Read more...
Ask the Expert: How can homeowners determine if solar panels are a smart purchase?
July 23, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The use of solar electricity more than tripled between 2000 and 2008 in the United States. California has 50,000 houses that operate on solar power. Summer reminds us that Missouri has a strong solar resource and the economics of solar in the state are now better than ever.
Combining the voter-enacted Proposition C solar rebate with the current 30 percent federal tax credit and the lowering prices of solar panels means installing panels costs half as much as it did three years ago. Benefits include less dependence on imported fossil fuel, lower carbon emissions and more "green" jobs. Solar also produces the most electricity on summer days, when utility power demand is highest.
For homeowners considering solar, the first step is to make energy-efficiency upgrades, including improved insulation, lighting or windows. Such upgrades could cut energy usage in half and significantly reduce the amount of solar power needed to meet a home's requirements.
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Swim At Your Own Risk In MO Waterways?
June 30, 2010
Missouri Public News Service
By Heather Claybrook
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - While the Show Me State has not battled its own oil spill, it has had its share of waterway problems - most notably with E coli at the Lake of the Ozarks and Jacks Fork River. Zach Crow with Friends of Ozark Riverways says Missouri falls short of meeting standards set by the Clean Water Act, the federal law that governs water quality and pollution.
Crow points out that although not all waterways are tested for E coli, those that are need stronger enforcement, stronger permitting regulations and an improved monitoring process to protect the public.
"It's not a question of it being dangerous. It's a question of 'How much risk do we take by letting people swim in these waters?'"
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Missouri's E. coli problems are not confined to the Lake of the Ozarks
June 16, 2010
Riverfront Times
By Nadia Pflaum
A year ago this month, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources was getting spanked over the revelation that the department had failed to report data on dangerous E. coli levels at Lake of the Ozarks. The motivation, media outlets reported, was tourism dollars — the DNR knew about the high E. coli readings before that Memorial Day weekend but didn't make them public until the holiday beach traffic subsided.
The resulting scandal prompted a state Senate investigation. That probe ceased in February, but fallout continued until, on the last day of the legislative session, the Senate's committee on Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources let the clock run out without passing the bill to renew the DNR's Water Protection Program. Industrial and agricultural polluters pay for permits granted by the program; permit fees provide as much as 37 percent of the DNR's regulatory operations. Because the bill didn't pass, the DNR will be unable to collect permit fees in 2011. If the DNR can't afford to operate its federally mandated clean-water program in 2011, under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will step in and take over the program.
Big-business lobbyists and Sierra Club activists agree that the Missouri DNR needs an overhaul. Right now, it can afford to monitor only a small fraction of the state's water bodies for pollutants and pathogens such as E. coli. But building a new water-quality program under a different agency could take years.
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Mass. study: Wood power worse polluter than coal
June 11, 2010
Associated Press
By Steve LeBlanc
A new study has found that wood-burning power plants using trees and other "biomass" from New England forests releases more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than coal over time.
The six-month study, commissioned by Massachusetts state environmental officials, found biomass-fired electricity would result in a 3 percent increase in carbon emissions compared to coal-fired electricity by 2050.
Coal is considered one of the chief culprits of greenhouse gas emissions.
The report, conducted by the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, concludes that the net cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases from replacing coal-fired plants with biomass would be 3 percent greater by 2050 than from using coal to generate electricity.
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Advocates call for more energy efficiency in Mo.
June 8, 2010
KWMU
By Marshall Griffin
Environmental advocates are calling on the Missouri Public Service Commission to adopt new regulations to promote energy efficiency. If adopted, investor-owned utilities, such as AmerenUE, could require their customers to use energy-efficient lighting, appliances and building improvements.
Erin Noble is Director of the group Renew Missouri, which is a project of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. She says utilities would also provide customers with incentives.
"Whether they wanted to give incentives to businesses, for instance, to update their lighting, or whether they wanted to target residential customers through energy audits and better insulation, it's a market-driven policy," Noble said.
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Public Service Commission adopts Prop C rules
June 8, 2010
Missourinet
By Jessica Machetta
The Public Service Commission has adopted rules that will help keep energy production within state lines and makes the state less reliant on coal. Public Service Commission Chairman Robert Clayton says the goal is to slowly produce and use more clean energy in the state.
It’s a fairly gradual change in their portfolio, he says. Missouri law requires that by 2011, electric companies must either generate or purchase at least 2 percent of the electricity they sell from renewable sources. That percentage increases to approximately 15 percent by 2021.
The electric companies are required to meet those required percentages by either generating the electricity through the use of renewable energy sources or by purchasing renewable energy credits. Under the rules, at least 2 percent of the renewable energy must be from solar.
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A year after E. coli scandal, progress but still problems at Lake of the Ozarks
May 29, 2010
Kansas City Star
By Karen Dillon
Last year, it took Missouri almost a month to notify the public about high E. coli readings in the Lake of the Ozarks. Last week, state employees needed only two hours and 17 minutes to sound an alert after learning about high levels of bacteria at three beaches, including one at the lake.
This weekend marks the unofficial anniversary of the E. coli controversy at the lake, and clearly much has changed. The Department of Natural Resources has overhauled the way it sends an alarm about E. coli, which the government calls a serious health hazard. Also, a task force has been formed to consider a centralized sewer district around the lake, where thousands of septic tanks overflow into the water.
The DNR's steps to notify the public are real progress, but other problems still need to be corrected, said Scott Dye, the director of the Sierra Club's Water Sentinels program.
"You are talking about a problem that is enormous in scale," Dye said. "There is no reason to expect that this problem is going to go away. It is in the best interest of everybody who lives and recreates or has a business at the lake to work together to find a permanent solution."
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Draft EPA's Reanalysis of Key Issues Related to Dioxin Toxicity
and Response to NAS Comments
May 21, 2010
Environmental Protection Agency
EPA is announcing a 90-day public comment period for the external review draft entitled, "EPA's Reanalysis of Key Issues Related to Dioxin Toxicity and Response to NAS Comments" (EPA/600/R-10/038A). This draft report responds to the key recommendations and comments included in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 2006 report. In addition, it includes new analyses on potential human effects that may result from exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-
dioxin (TCDD). These analyses have not been in previous versions of draft reports related to EPA's dioxin reassessment activity. This draft report is now considered to be under EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program, and thus, the new IRIS process announced in May 2009 (http://www.epa.gov/iris/process/) is being followed. Per the May 2009 process, this draft report is beginning Step 4--independent external peer review and public review and comment. This draft dioxin report was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) within the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD).
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Biomass as power source is generating opposition
May 11, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Kim McGuire
When Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition C in 2008, they made a commitment to support renewable energy, including biomass. And energy producers responded, vowing to build several power plants that promise to turn timber, wood chips and even corn cobs into electricity to power thousands of Missouri homes.
But as those plans now go before state regulators, some environmentalists, property owners and timber industry officials are beginning to balk. They worry some of the proposed plants will create new sources of air pollution, strain local water supplies and possibly prompt Missouri's Ozark forests to be clear-cut.
"I think the environmental community wants to embrace biomass because it's not coal," said Kathleen Logan Smith, director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. "Nobody wants to see more coal plants. But I'm not sure 'it's not coal' is a good enough reason to jump on board."
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Rep. Emery, CWIP is a Mistake
May 3, 2010
Joplin Independent
Editorial by Kathleen Logan Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment
There are books to be written on why CWIP is a mistake but here's a condensed version in response to Ed Emery's piece:
Thank you for the opportunity to air this issue where Missourians can make up their own minds. Missouri voters banned utilities from charging us for Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) in 1976. Last year alone our ban on CWIP saved us $50 million from being added to the rate base as the Public Service disallowed CWIP costs for Callaway II, the second proposed nuclear reactor Ameren wants at Callaway.
This is the Show Me State, so let's look at nuclear power and money. There are a few states already traveling on this nuclear road and it is worth noting how it's going for them.
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HB 2343 is called a massive corporate giveaway
April 28, 2010
Joplin Independent
Editorial by Kathleen Logan Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment
A monumental change in Missouri's electric utility regulation has just cleared the House Utilities Committee yesterday (April 27, 2010). HB 2343 proposed by Rep. Ed Emery (R-126) would allow utilities to pass on to ratepayers the entire risk and cost of coal and nuclear energy projects before they are works in progress and could take decades to come online.
In 1976, Missouri voters approved a ballot initiative by a 2-to-1 margin that prohibited Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) charges. HB2343 would overturn this law and essentially provide power companies with a blank check for raising rates before a power plant is built. Missouri voters had decided that ratepayers would only pay utilities for electricity that actually exists, or, technically, only pay for the costs of building a power plant after if became "fully operational and used for service."
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Stagnant government stalls quest to clean up pond near livestock sale barn
April 24, 2010
Kansas City Star
By Karen Dillon
GALLATIN, Mo. | Sharon Berten’s pond used to be the place family and neighbors spent warm days out on a pontoon boat fishing. Smells from a barbecue grill wafted through a gazebo and trees on the bank.
Then, more than three years ago, storm water began carrying into her pond chunks of manure from a cattle sale barn across the highway. Today the fish are dead. The pond water is too filthy to swim in or for horses to drink. The once-clear water is murky and sometimes covered with a slab of algae.
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Going Green Within Means
April 22, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Kim McGuire
It's not always cheap to go green. Even on Earth Day, when environmental awareness is high, tight budgets can get in the way of green intentions.
Sure, using cloth grocery bags or composting don't exactly strain the pocketbook. But some home retrofits that have big energy savings potential can also carry big price tags.
Take solar panels. While they help homeowners save on electric bills in the long run and reduce pollution, a new system can cost from $15,000 to $30,000.
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West Lake: the most dangerous nuclear waste site that doesn't exist
April 19, 2010
Show Me Progress Blog
I don't know strontium this from thorium that from polonium the other. But people who do, tell me that the nuclear waste that Mallinckrodt Chemical Works illegally dumped at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton in 1973 is the kind you don't want to put on a floodplain. Eight miles upstream from the water treatment plant for all of North St. Louis County. With no liner or cap. And a levee that's no higher than the one that the flood of '93 breached in Chesterfield.
A group of us stood on that five foot high levee last week as Robert Criss, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University, explained that most floods don't come from overtopping but from the water finding a weak spot and pushing a passage through the lower part of the levee.
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Speakers spar over effects of proposed wood-burning power plant in Perryville
April 8, 2010
Southeast Missourian
By Melissa Miller
PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Economic benefits and environmental effects of a new $120 million wood-fired power plant in Perryville were considered during a public forum Wednesday night.
About 100 people attended the meeting at the Perryville Senior Center to hear from project developer Jack Farley and environmental advocate Dr. William Sammons of Massachusetts. Participants submitted questions anonymously on notecards.
Liberty Green Renewables of Georgetown, Ind., plans to build a 32,000-kilowatt facility next to the Perryville Industrial Park to burn wood chips to produce electricity. It would produce enough energy supply for more than 23,000 homes and bring jobs to Perry County.
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Water Quality Report for Small Streams of the St. Louis Area
April 6, 2010
Robert E. Criss and Elizabeth A. Hasenmueller, Washington University
Comprehensive analyses of water quality parameters of more than 900 samples of creeks in the St. Louis area are available (USGS, 2010). Most of the creeks have high levels of E. coli, and they commonly, though intermittently, exhibit high to acute levels of chloride and low levels of dissolved oxygen. Problems tend to be most severe in the most urbanized watersheds. Moreover, these problems are absent in Huzzah Creek, a well-studied creek in rural Crawford County that was chosen for comparison. The impairment of St. Louis' streams is widespread and surprisingly uniform.
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Renew Missouri wins Growing Green Award
March 31, 2010
USGBC St. Louis Regional Chapter
A great night at the Soulard Preservation Hall, emceed by KWMU's Matt Sepic and keynote by the Honorable Linda Goldstein (Mayor of Clayton, MO) revealed this year's Growing Green Award Winners, including Renew Missouri (a project of Missouri Coalition for the Environment).
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Biomass Incinerator Alert
March 22, 2010
KDHX 88.1 FM's Earthworms Environmental Radio Program
Pediatrician Dr. William Sammons has taken an activist turn, alerting eight states to the health, environmental and - frankly - economic hazards of biomass incinerators touting this route to electric power. Asthma, bad data, particulate matter, fast use of taxpayer "incentive" funds - all bear serious watchdogging! Learn more from the Missouri COalition for the Environment and nobiomassburning.org.
Hear more...
Crystal City iron ore smelter moving ahead
March 22, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Leah Thorsen
CRYSTAL CITY — For nearly three years, the prospect of an iron ore smelter being built here has divided residents in this Jefferson County town rooted in factory life.
Now, construction trailers have moved to the site of a former glass plant, signaling the start of the controversial project.
The smelter is to be built and operated by Wings Iron Ore Co. of Sullivan. Some city officials tout it as an economic boon that will bring 1,000 jobs to this city of 4,000. Foes of the project worry about noise and pollution. They allege that secrecy has shrouded the project from the start.
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Doe Run's new technology could end need for lead smelter
March 21, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Kim McGuire
Doe Run Co. officials confirmed last week that they've successfully tested an environmentally friendly technology that could change how the company produces lead — a development that might mean the end of smelting operations in Herculaneum.
The new technology relies on a wet chemical process that would essentially replace the heat-based smelting process used in lead production for more than 100 years.
Company officials said the technology would help them improve overall recovery rates of lead while dramatically curbing pollution, including air emissions of both lead and sulfur dioxide. Lead is a neurotoxin that can interrupt normal brain development and has been linked to behavioral problems in children.
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Critics Pan Water-Testing Proposal
March 1, 2010
Columbia Daily Tribune
By Terry Ganey
Leaders of two Missouri environmental organizations are criticizing a legislative suggestion that the state Department of Health and Senior Services take over the testing of rivers, streams and lakes for the presence of human health hazards.
"Is this the same Department of Health and Senior Services that couldn't find lead in Herculaneum?" asked Kathleen Logan Smith, executive director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
The state Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and Environment Committee is expected to release a final report today on the Department of Natural Resources' failure in the summer to quickly warn the public about high levels of E. coli bacteria at Lake of the Ozarks. A draft copy of the report made public last week recommended that DHSS take over the testing, analysis and reporting of lake water quality. It also suggested merging DNR’s environmental services program into DHSS.
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Lead in Air: Adjusting to a New Standard
February 1, 2010
Environmental Health Perspectives
By Charles W. Schmidt
When it comes to industrial lead processing, The Doe Run Company's smelter is in a class by itself. Perched on the banks of the Mississippi River in Herculaneum, Missouri, the smelter's blast furnaces convert vast amounts of lower-grade ore into more than 125,000 tons of nearly pure commercial-grade lead every year. In operation since 1982, this is both the nation's largest primary lead smelter and its largest point source for lead emissions, with just over 59 tons of lead released to the air in 2005, according to the most recent figures from the National Emissions Inventory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By comparison, that year's next-highest emitter—a Missouri lead recycling facility also operated by Doe Run—released 12.4 tons.
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NPS Stakeholder Meeting Generates Controversy
February 21, 2010
River Hills Traveler
"Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting," goes the western saying and it comes to mind as the National Park Service – Ozark Riverways prepares to bring together park officials, a mediation company from Nevada and representatives of approximately thirty diverse park stakeholder groups in Rolla late this week to provide more input as NPS attempts to craft a draft General Management Plan acceptable to almost everyone.
"The workshop that is being held on February 24-25 was proposed as a means to build upon and refine the public input that was received during the public comment period in 2009," said Dena Matteson, park spokeswoman. "It became clear from that input that there were several issues that were somewhat contentious and required additional input."
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Greening Up Nuclear Energy
February 17, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Editorial
Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition C in 2008. It requires investor-owned utilities to obtain 15 percent of the energy that they sell from renewable sources by 2021.
State Rep. Jerry Nolte, R-Gladstone, wants to make two tiny little changes in that law: He wants to remove the words "not including nuclear energy" from one part of a sentence and insert the words "nuclear energy" in another.
The tiny changes in House Bill 1851 would alter the law’s meaning. They would transform nuclear energy into "renewable energy" and stand the will of the voters squarely on its head.
It is difficult to imagine a more arrogant proposal, even though there is a lot of precedent.
Read more...
Legislators Call Attention to North County Radioactive Dump
February 17, 2010
St. Louis American
Editorial
View the video here
A river floodplain is probably the worst place to store radioactive waste, said Robert Criss, a geology professor at Washington University.
But in fact, that's where such waste has ended up after Mallinckrodt Chemical Works started producing uranium for atomic bombs in 1942 – right next to the Missouri River floodplain.
The waste landed only eight miles upstream from Missouri American Water Company's intake for drinking water in Florissant that supplies all of North County. That's also upstream from the Chain of Rocks water intake, a main supplier for St. Louis city's water.
Dumped illegally in 1973, the waste is now buried in the West Lake landfill, west of Interstate 270 on St. Charles Rock Road. As the radioactive waste gets older, it becomes more dangerous, said representatives of Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
Read more...
Head of Missouri Department of Natural Resources Faces Tough Questions
February 17, 2010
Kansas City Star
By Jason Noble and Karen Dillon
JEFFERSON CITY -- Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Mark Templeton tangled with two groups of senators on Wednesday, fielding a barrage of questions about his budget and his leadership.
Before the Senate's appropriations committee, Templeton supported a budget proposal vastly at odds with earlier statements by him and other DNR officials. Later, before the Senate committee on environmental issues, Templeton answered pointed questions about a chemical leak into the Mississippi River.
After Templeton addressed the department's budget proposal, lawmakers focused on conflicting messages over the need for increased fees. Earlier, DNR officials had said higher fees were critical to maintaining water-quality operations and avoiding insolvency in some enforcement programs.
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Raising DNR Fees an Investment in Missouri
February 7, 2010
Springfield News-Leader
Editorial
Something's got to give.
With streams, lakes and rivers so essential to the Ozarks' way of life -- not to mention the economy -- we've got to keep them clean.
Yet, the state provides nowhere near the level of funding needed to ensure proper and reliable testing.
That problem bubbled to the surface -- along with lots of E. coli -- during this summer's controversy at Lake of the Ozarks. The only good that came from the messy story was publicity that the state Department of Natural Resources needs more money to adequately perform its water monitoring role.
Read more...
Sunny, But Still Cloudy For Renewables
February 3, 2010
West End Word
By Julia Werner
This year promises to be a greener one for Missouri.
Last month, St. Louis was awarded almost $50 million in Recovery Act Grants to advance the development of biofuels and provide green energy jobs. Meanwhile the Missouri Clean Energy Initiative, which passed as Proposition C in 2008, finally began to take shape in the form of solar installation rebates.
Though plans for the grant funds have been established, the clean energy initiative has yet to be fully implemented and its biggest effects are 10 years in the making.
The process began three years ago with PJ Wilson, executive director of Renew Missouri (now an affiliate of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment). At that time, Wilson was training volunteers, working on ballot language with an attorney and fundraising. In November 2008, Missouri became the 27th state to have a renewable electricity standard and only the third to pass it by ballot initiative behind Colorado and Washington.
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DNR Short of Funds; Fees Set to Expire
January 27, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Kim McGuire
Dinged by criticism over the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' decision to delay the release of water quality results at Lake of the Ozarks this summer, Gov. Jay Nixon announced sweeping new initiatives aimed at cleaning up the state's rivers, lakes and streams.
It was clear protecting water quality had become a top priority for the administration.
But now the Department of Natural Resources is teetering on the edge of being unable to pay for some of its most basic regulatory functions such as protecting the state's water resources.
Read more...
MSD Faces Big Challenges in Reducing Sewage Overflows into Mississippi
January 3, 2010
St. Louis Beacon
By Jo Seltzer
The Mississippi River that flows by our town may get cleaner faster as a result of a recent Environmental Protection Agency decision. In fact, the federal government is requiring Missouri to make the river along its entire 195-mile stretch on the Missouri border suitable for "whole body contact" -- meaning it should be both fishable and swimmable.
This decision does not mean that we can take a dip as soon as warm weather arrives. A Mississippi River in which folks would want to swim is a long-term goal that presents great challenges to the state and the city. Everyone will be asked to play a role in developing solutions, including businesses large and small and even homeowners.
In late October, the EPA ordered the Missouri Clean Water Commission to adopt more stringent water quality standards for the 28.6 miles of the Mississippi that flows past St. Louis. The decision came in the wake of a suit filed by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. That means that the area will have to get a better grip on handling stormwater runoff that overwhelms the region's sewer systems.
Read more...
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