Heat Wave in Europe Sets Record Highs

We are greatly concerned for the people in Europe suffering from record heat causing wildfires and potential for death and destruction.

According to the BBC, “A heatwave affecting much of Europe is expected to intensify further with countries - including France, Spain and Switzerland - expecting temperatures above 40C (104F) later on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic recorded their highest temperatures for June.

Meteorologists say hot air drawn in from northern Africa is responsible.

The heat is expected to rise further in many countries over the next three days, meteorologists warn.”

This year may be even hotter than the previous year of highest temperatures in 2003 when as many as 70,000 people may have died, according to the book The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson. A combination of heat trapping particles causing air pollution affects people’s health and especially vulnerable are young children and the elderly.

Updated 6/28/19

Here’s the latest from the Washington Post:

“For a third straight day, a ferocious heat wave is baking large parts of Europe, and the exceptionally high temperatures are making history. On Friday, the town of Gallargues-le-Montueux in southern France hit 114.4 degrees (45.8 Celsius), the hottest temperature ever recorded in the country.

The scorching temperature easily surpassed the previous record of 111.4 degrees (44.1 Celsius) set in the southern town of Conqueyrac in France’s historic 2003 heat wave, which was blamed for 15,000 deaths.”

Note that the heat record is the highest ever recorded! The number of people who died from the 2003 heatwave is disputed with 15,000 reported in the current media reports and 70,000 as cited in the book The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson.

Vitamin D Protects Against Pollution-Induced Asthma

As I blog through the energy sector and related impacts to our health and the environment, I also want to share good news including medical findings. This year, a new study by NIEHS and John Hopkins University School of Medicine, “finds vitamin D has a protective effect among asthmatic obese children who live in urban environments with high indoor air pollution.”

NIEHS also reports that in 2016, “asthma affected 26 million Americans and nearly 340 million people worldwide, according to the Global Burden of Disease study. The disease can profoundly affect quality of life and financial and emotional health and is a major cause of missed time from school and work. Severe asthma attacks may require emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and can be fatal.”

Docs Want Climate Action

I grew up with asthma which gets worst living in cities and much better living in smaller towns. Environmental pollution from vehicle exhaust and burning wood or coal are the primary culprits. Burning fossil fuels is affecting our health and the climate.

According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, “Lung disease is the third leading killer in the United States, responsible for one in seven deaths, and is the leading cause of death among infants under the age of one. Some lung diseases, like asthma and emphysema, involve a narrowing or blockage of the airways resulting in poor air flow. Others, including pulmonary fibrosis, pneumonia and lung cancer, are caused by a loss of elasticity in the lungs that produces a decrease in the total volume of air that the lungs are able to hold. Research has shown that long-term exposure to air pollutants can reduce lung growth and development and increase the risk of developing asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory diseases. Results from the NIEHS-supported Harvard Six Cities Study, the largest available database on the health effects of outdoor and indoor air pollution, show a strong association between exposure to ozone, fine particles and sulfur dioxide, and an increase in respiratory symptoms, reduced lung capacity, and risk of early death.”

Over 70 medical associations are advocating that climate change is a public health crisis. Here is the Climate Health Action call to action and list of supporting groups:

Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

American Academy of Family Physicians

American Academy of Pediatrics

American Association of Community Psychiatrists

American College of Emergency Physicians, California chapter

American College of Lifestyle Medicine

American College of Physicians

American Heart Association

American Lung Association

American Medical Association

American Medical Women's Association

American Public Health Association

Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health

Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative

Berkeley Media Studies Group

Boonshoft School of Medicine Wright State University

California Conference of Local Health Officers

California Environmental Health Association

California Public Health Association-North

Callifornia Conference of Directors of Environmental Health

Center for Climate Change and Health

Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

ChangeLab Solutions

Citizens Climate Health Team

Climate 911

Climate for Health, ecoAmerica

Climate Psychiatry Alliance

Colorado Public Health Association

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Florida Clinicians for Climate Action

Florida State Medical Association

George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication

Health Care Climate Council

Health Care Without Harm

Human Impact Partners

Infectious Diseases Society of America

International Transformational Resilience Coalition (ITRC)

Maine Public Health Association

Medical Advocates for Healthy Air

Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health

Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate

Multnomah County Health Department

National Association of Social Workers

National Environmental Health Association

National Medical Association

New York State Public Health Association

Ohio Clinicians for Climate Action

Oklahoma Public Health Association

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Physicians for Social Responsibility Maine Chapter

Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin

Physicians for Social Responsibility, Arizona Chapter

Prevention Institute

PSR New Mexico Chapter

PSR-San Francisco Bay Area

PSR/Colorado Working Group

PSR/Florida

Public Health - Seattle & King County

Public Health Advocates

Public Health Alliance of Southern California

Public Health Institute

Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP)

Rutgers Global Health Institute

San Mateo County Health

Student Section of the Maryland Public Health Association

Temple University College of Public Health

Texas Physicians for Social Responsibility

University of Colorado Consortium on Climate & Health

University of Maryland School of Public Health

Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment

Vermont Climate and Health Alliance

Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action

Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility

Western North Carolina Physicians for Social Responsibility

Wisconsin Environmental Health Network

Oil and Gas Wells in Colorado with Increasing Oversight

Colorado contains abundant oil and natural gas reserves. According to EIA, crude oil production increased by four times since 2010. The state is in the top five natural gas producing states in the U.S. The photo showing well field locations is from a GIS map provided by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, COGCC.

Despite vigorous attempts by industry to block new regulations, on April 16, 2019, Governor Polis signed into law SB 19-181 to increase regulatory oversight to of oil and gas development. According to the COGCC:

“One of the primary changes associated with Colorado’s new oil and gas law is that the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) changes from “fostering” the oil and gas industry to “regulating” the industry, prioritizing public health, safety and environmental concerns. It also enables local governments to have increased oversight of land use related oil and gas activities in their communities.”

Hopefully, this is good news for the state and citizens to make oil and gas development safer for people and the environment. We need to be aware and concerned about the multiple chemicals produced including carbon dioxide, methane, formaldehyde, benzene and many other substances!

Middle East Oil Supply, Demand and Conflicts

The U.S. continues to develop independent sources of petroleum and alternatives but still depends on significant imports brought through the Strait of Hormuz (photo by NASA). Asia consumes about three-fourths of Persian Gulf oil. This week Iran attacked two tankers and an American drone. Last month four tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman. Will a new war be fought over oil or can war be avoided such as by us becoming less dependent on hydrocarbons?

The International Energy Agency states, “The United States will lead oil-supply growth over the next six years, thanks to the incredible strength of its shale industry, triggering a rapid transformation of global oil markets. By 2024, the United States will export more oil than Russia and will close in on Saudi Arabia – a pivotal milestone that will bring greater diversity of supply in markets.”

The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) provides weekly, monthly, and annual updates on petroleum supply and demand. EIA reported that the Strait of Hormuz, “located between Oman and Iran, connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint because of the large volumes of oil that flow through the strait. In 2018, its daily oil flow averaged 21 million barrels per day (b/d), or the equivalent of about 21% of global petroleum liquids consumption. Flows through the Strait of Hormuz in 2018 made up about one-third of total global seaborne traded oil. More than one-quarter of global liquefied natural gas trade also transited the Strait of Hormuz in 2018. EIA estimates that 76% of the crude oil and condensate that moved through the Strait of Hormuz went to Asian markets in 2018…the United States imported about 1.4 million b/d of crude oil and condensate from Persian Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz, accounting for about 18% of total U.S. crude oil and condensate imports and 7% of total U.S. petroleum liquids consumption.”

Capping the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon Well

According to EPA, “On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. 4 million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged Macondo well over an 87-day period, before it was finally capped on July 15, 2010. On December 15, 2010, the United States filed a complaint in District Court against BP Exploration & Production and several other defendants alleged to be responsible for the spill.”

Working for the USGS, I got the honor to meet Dr. Paul Hsieh, the scientist who determined that the capped well would hold and not blowout causing significantly more damage. He served on a government task force and one of the biggest issues was obtaining the critical data to determine if capping the well could withstand the pressures. Here are two stories from the Daily Mail and NASA describing his heroic efforts! Luckily his scientific analysis and presentation prevailed over typical risk-adverse government politics.

In 2016, BP paid $20 billion in a global settlement according to the Department of Interior and NOAA is leading the restoration response.

Trump Tax Cut Opens Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Petroleum Companies

After about 40 years of protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) from petroleum exploration and development, in December 2017, the Republican controlled Congress and Trump Administration hid within the tax cut legislation allowing oil leasing. According to the The Hill article, Mr. Trump boasted, “We’re going to start drilling in ANWR, one of the largest oil reserves in the world, that for 40 years this country was unable to touch. That by itself would be a massive bill…They’ve been trying to get that, the Bushes, everybody. All the way back to Reagan, Reagan tried to get it. Bush tried to get it. Everybody tried to get it,” he said. “They couldn’t get it passed. That just happens to be here.”

According to the Energy Information Agency EIA, In December 2017, “the passage of Public Law 115-97 required the Secretary of the Interior to establish and administer a competitive oil and natural gas program for the leasing, development, production, and transportation of oil and natural gas in and from the coastal plain (1002 Area) of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Previously, ANWR was effectively under a drilling moratorium.”

I still recall as a college student in 1980 the great excitement when President Carter announced protecting ANWR. Despite the Iranian oil embargo causing massive fuel shortages, he valued preserving wildlife and the environment leading to Mr. Carter’s announcement for energy independence using alternative sources and to restore American confidence. Protecting ANWR in 1980 is described by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

“President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). The Act re-designated the Range as part of the larger, approximately 18 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, designated eight million acres as Wilderness, and designated three rivers as Wild. It also called for wildlife studies and an oil and gas assessment of 1.5 million acres of the Refuge coastal plain. In addition, ANILCA allowed KIC to relinquish their selected lands outside the Refuge and instead to select the remainder of their Corporation lands within the Arctic Refuge. Section 1003 of ANILCA states that the "production of oil and gas from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is prohibited and no leasing or other development leading to production of oil and gas from the [Refuge] shall be undertaken until authorized by an act of Congress." The FWS website for ANWR describes the, “Arctic Refuge contains the largest area of designated Wilderness within the National Wildlife Refuge System, "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man." [The Wilderness Act, 1964].”

This year, when Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, they and a few Republicans introduced the Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act. However, like most of the multitude of other bills passed by the House, this bill is stuck in the Republican-led Senate.

Update: On Thursday, June 20th, I caught C-SPAN when full House voted to block oil drilling and seismic exploration for one year as part of the Department of Interior’s spending bill for 2020.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska

On my blog yesterday regarding Mitigating Petroleum Hazards - Part 1, I mentioned a great book to read about the many activities of the oil and gas industry written by Steve Coll, Private Empire: Exxon-Mobil and American Power published in 2013.

The book begins discussing the Exxon Valdez oil spill ten years after the event. In 1989, the oil tanker ran into a reef along the coast of Alaska and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil. There were many causes for the accident, including the crew, company and even the U.S. Coast Guard was found to be negligent.

Here is what NOAA learned from mitigating the oil spill based on a twenty-five year review:

“In the case of the Exxon Valdez spill, after two years we understood that aggressive shoreline treatment caused more harm than the oil itself; after three to four years, we saw those differences diminish as biological productivity at the most impacted places compensated; after four to six years, shoreline communities had mostly recovered from spill activities; and over five to ten years, we discerned that changes occurring on the shoreline appeared to be linked to subtle, much larger-scale processes that we would not have noted had we not had the long-term record.”

While natural processes may be more effective than human intervention in cleaning up oil spills, the death toll on wildlife can be devastating as reported by NOAA: “How many animals died outright from the oil spill? No one knows. The carcasses of more than 35,000 birds and 1,000 sea otters were found after the spill, but since most carcasses sink, this is considered to be a small fraction of the actual death toll. The best estimates are: 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales, and billions of salmon and herring eggs.”

The ‘Private Empire’ book describes NOAA and other government scientists try to do their job conducting investigations of the oil spill assessment but running into confrontations with industry officials. Feds got fed up with the company’s intimidation tactics to suppress their work and many quit their jobs. I had no idea how powerful Exxon Mobil Corporation became until reading this book that mentions U.S. President George W. Bush, a former oil man himself, saying “no one tells them what to do!”

Another book I look forward to reading is Rachel Maddow’s Blowout, available on October 1st. Here’s a summary:

“Rachel Maddow’s Blowout offers a dark, serpentine, riveting tour of the unimaginably lucrative and corrupt oil-and-gas industry. With her trademark black humor, Maddow takes us on a switchback journey around the globe—from Oklahoma City to Siberia to Equatorial Guinea—exposing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas. She shows how Russia’s rich reserves of crude have, paradoxically, stunted its growth, forcing Putin to maintain his power by spreading Russia's rot into its rivals, its neighbors, the United States, and the West’s most important alliances. Chevron, BP, and a host of other industry players get their star turn, but ExxonMobil and the deceptively well-behaved Rex Tillerson emerge as two of the past century's most consequential corporate villains. The oil-and-gas industry has weakened democracies in developed and developing countries, fouled oceans and rivers, and propped up authoritarian thieves and killers. But being outraged at it is, according to Maddow, “like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle. You can't really blame the lion. It's in her nature.”

This book is a clarion call to contain the lion: to stop subsidizing the wealthiest industry on earth, to fight for transparency, and to check the influence of predatory oil executives and their enablers. The stakes have never been higher. As Maddow writes, “Democracy either wins this one or disappears.”

Oil Spills and Mudlogging

In 1974, during a high school summer vacation, my parents took me on a cross-country drive from D.C. area to California. I fell in love with driving the car and scenery, especially when we visited Grand Tetons -Yellowstone National Parks. I got an early interest in geology by reading Geology of the National Park System. But my joy turned to sorrow when we visited Santa Barbara, California by finding the beaches were still covered by the black tar oil spill that occurred five years earlier.

Here are some specifics on the Pacific Ocean oil spill:

• A blowout on a Union Oil Co. well happened on Jan. 28, 1969.

• The well was under under Platform A, roughly 5 1/12 miles off the coast.

• An estimated 3.3 million gallons of oil spilled.

• The well was capped on Feb. 7, but oil continued to vent from cracks in the sea floor for months.

• On Jan. 31, the oil slick was reported to be 30 square miles.

• Oil was spotted onshore from Pismo Beach to the U.S.-Mexico border.

This event contributed to public outrage that resulted in the EPA begin created in 1970 and several new laws including the National Environmental Policy Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, Clean Water Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act, all within a three year period.

My interest in college focused on environmental science issues but there were few prospects for jobs. After graduating with a geology bachelor’s degree in 1980, I found a job from a newspaper advertisement in Denver to work for an oil service company as a “mud logger.” The first day on the job we meet at the office at 8 am and spent the day gathering supplies. It was January, got dark early, and we didn’t leave town until late in the afternoon. I recall driving on Interstate 70 West, up past Eisenhower tunnel, and then heading north to the oil drilling rig site. We arrived around midnight and my “mud logging boss” said I must collect samples in bags off the shaker every 30 minutes and he would show me the next day what to do. He went to bed and I kept working along with the drilling crew that kept going 24/7. So my first day on the job I worked 24 hours straight. But I also learned that first night to drink lots of coffee to stay warm causing me to became wired. I learned the drilling site was an exploratory well to see if economical oil or gas existed by drilling over one mile deep at a cost of over $1 million.

We examined the samples making a descriptive log and checking for natural gas under an ultraviolet light. The primary environmental impacts included road construction and drilling pads, drilling solutions added in the well, diesel exhaust, noise, salt water disposal wells and mud pit wastes, This job lasted about two weeks and then we moved on to the next site. I worked in several Rocky Mountain states, eventually becoming the boss so I could work daytime and sleep nights. Working in the Rangely Basin in northwestern Colorado, I learned that the well field became highly fractured so many new wells would be needed to recovery oil. I also heard stories that earthquakes were caused by oil companies injecting water which USGS confirmed that close to 1000 minor earthquakes occurred in the 1960’s.

I worked “mud logging” for seven months before returning to graduate school at the University of Wyoming and knew that I wanted a career involving water quality more than working in the oil fields.

A great book to read about the many hazards of the oil and gas industry is by Steve Coll, Private Empire: Exxon-Mobil and American Power published in 2013.

I will write more about my direct and indirect experiences in coming blog posts.

Electricity Grid Cyber Insecurity

A cyber attack on the electricity grid is being considered as one possible reason for power lost to tens of millions of people in five South American countries this weekend. When the lights went out, so did train transportation, water supply pumps, food refrigeration, voting machines, and more.

Nearly coincidental is a report from the New York Times that the U.S. is becoming more offensive in cyber attacks of the Russian power grid. DHS and FBI issued an alert last year that Russians have been attacking nuclear power plants, water stations, and other critical infrastructure, “Russian government actions (are) targeting U.S. Government entities as well as organizations in the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors.”

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission takes prime responsibility for grid operations in the U.S. including mandatory cyber security reliability standards. The challenge is developing an interconnected smart grid to improving digital efficiencies while preventing cyber attacks.

The SmartGrid is being developed by Department of Energy to fulfill the promise by President Obama in 2009, "It will make our grid more secure and more reliable, saving us some of the $150 billion we lose each year during power outages. It will allow us to more effectively transport renewable energy generated in remote places to large population centers, so that a wind farm in rural South Dakota can power homes in Chicago. And by facilitating the creation of a clean energy economy, building this 21st-century energy infrastructure will help us lay a foundation for lasting growth and prosperity."

I can still recall the 2003 blackout in the Northeastern U.S. which also affected air travel in many countries. Some trees hit powerlines causing the fault on the grid. When this happens, power plants may need to shut down to stop producing electricity as supply must equal demand. You can read about this event and some of the largest that occurred in India (affecting over 500 million people) and other countries on the Wikipedia page.

Happy Father's Day

Today to celebrate Father’s Day in the U.S., I thought how can I link this occasion with my series on mitigating nuclear hazards? What came to mind is one of many books I just borrowed from the library titled The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age. I’ve not read it yet but will let you know what I learn. Here are the notes from the Amazon book page (see update below):

“Enrico Fermi is unquestionably among the greats of the world's physicists, the most famous Italian scientist since Galileo. Called the Pope by his peers, he was regarded as infallible in his instincts and research. His discoveries changed our world; they led to weapons of mass destruction and conversely to life-saving medical interventions.

This unassuming man struggled with issues relevant today, such as the threat of nuclear annihilation and the relationship of science to politics. Fleeing Fascism and anti-Semitism, Fermi became a leading figure in America's most secret project: building the atomic bomb. The last physicist who mastered all branches of the discipline, Fermi was a rare mixture of theorist and experimentalist. His rich legacy encompasses key advances in fields as diverse as comic rays, nuclear technology, and early computers.

In their revealing book, The Pope of Physics, Gino Segré and Bettina Hoerlin bring this scientific visionary to life. An examination of the human dramas that touched Fermi’s life as well as a thrilling history of scientific innovation in the twentieth century, this is the comprehensive biography that Fermi deserves.”

Have a Safe and Happy Father’s Day where ever you are!

Updated June 24, 2019:

I read and can recommend the interesting book about events leading to the Italian immigrant Enrico Fermi and many other scientists discovering atomic energy and subsequent Manhattan Project that ended WWII and proceeded to the Cold War. The biggest takeaway to me, beyond the interesting scientific discoveries, are the values of freedom that America and our allies fought against fascism and imperialism. Many scientists of Jewish decent or marriage escaped to America as Hitler rose to power in 1932. How different the world would be had Hitler developed atomic weapons? Fermi conducted the first nuclear self-sustaining chain reaction experiment (called Critical Pile-1) that directly created nuclear power and atomic weapons. However, he and other scientists strongly argued against themonuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs called the “Super”) developed in 1950’s by Edward Teller at Los Alamos. As cited by the Atomic Heritage Foundation, Fermi wrote:

"A decision on the proposal that an all-out effort be undertaken for the development of the "Super" cannot in our opinion be separated from considerations of broad national policy...necessarily such a weapon goes far beyond any military objective and enters the range of very great natural catastrophes. By its very nature it cannot be confined to a military objective but becomes a weapon which in practical effect is almost one of genocide..."

More to come in future blogs to share experience about nuclear energy and weapons.

Climate Commitments by BlackRock

Yesterday’s announcement by the Vatican on carbon pricing as a control on climate impacts included BlackRock, Inc., the largest asset management company in the world. They hold over 6.5 trillion dollars in assets for institutions and individual investors. They created iShares exchange-traded funds (ETFs) which holds stocks like an index mutual fund that are traded as stocks with low management fees. They also manage U.S. federal employee retirement pensions in the Thrift Saving Plan.

First for full disclosure, I own stock in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) but it has not performed well in the past 52 weeks, down 15%. The yield of over 3% is attractive and has a low price to earnings ratio (P/E). They have 70 offices in 30 countries but recently needed layoffs to control costs.

According to the BlackRock history webpage, eight people created BlackRock in 1988 (including the current CEO Larry Fink) “to put clients’ needs and interests first.” They became a public company in 1999 and have tremendous influence on other companies and investors.

In September 2016, BlackRock issued a statement on climate change: “Investors can no longer ignore climate change. Some may question the science, but all are faced with a swelling tide of climate-related regulations and technological disruption. We show how to mitigate climate risks, exploit opportunities or have a positive impact.”

In January 2019 they announced the BlackRock Investment Stewardship’s approach to engagement on climate risk, “As part of its investment process on behalf of its clients, BlackRock assesses a range of factors that might affect the long-term financial sustainability of the companies in which we invest. We have determined that climate change presents significant investment risks and opportunities that have the potential to impact the long-term value of many companies.”

Therefore, BlackRock is taking a leadership role in the climate change debate by showing business sustainability must consider short and long-term risk factors. Climate change poses the greatest risk to humanity so businesses cannot afford to ignore science realities despite the noise and confusion coming from some sectors of government and industry.

Climate Commitments by Big Oil

Today, the Associated Press reports that, “Some of the world’s major oil producers pledged Friday to support “economically meaningful” carbon pricing regimes after a personal appeal from Pope Francis to avoid “perpetrating a brutal act of injustice” against the poor and future generations.”

The AP quotes Pope Francis stating, ”Faced with a climate emergency, we must take action accordingly, in order to avoid perpetrating a brutal act of injustice toward the poor and future generations.”

The article also provides the joint CEOs statement, “Reliable and economically meaningful carbon pricing regimes, whether based on tax, trading mechanisms or other market-based measures, should be set by governments at a level that incentivizes business practices ... while minimizing the costs to vulnerable communities and supporting economic growth.”

Big Oil cannot hide the truth any longer about our climate crisis which affects us all. Climate change is both a local health issue, such as gasoline engines and coal-fired power plants emitting carbon dioxide and many other air pollutants, as well as a global crisis affecting life on our planet. See what the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says about health impacts from air pollution causing climate change.

Pressure continues to mount on taking climate action and is affecting Main Street and Wall Street, school children, and all life, knowingly or unknowingly. Two years ago I wrote a blog on Auden Schendler ‘s 2009 book Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution (see Products page). Last October, he and Andrew P. Jones wrote an opinion column for The New York Times titled, Stopping Climate Change Is Hopeless. Let’s Do It. Mr. Schendler was kind enough to share the link upon my request this week for his latest work. They state in the article, “It begins with how we live our lives every moment of every day.”

I totally agree and sincerely hope that all available resources, including Conserve & Pro$per, can help to make a difference! Please share your comments or send an email at info@conserve-prosper.com

Reduce Overconsumption

When Madonna sang Material Girl: Living in a Material World, in 1984, it was all about glamour and not garbage! Given the material world we live in, especially here in the U.S., we need more awareness - including Pop Culture music - for the peril that we’re all in! Just in the U.S., we overconsume the world’s resources and generate too much waste affecting our shared Planet Earth. Just like intoxicated alcoholics, most of the commericals advocate we need more STUFF to make us happy.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency EPA, “With less than 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. was responsible for about one-third of the world’s total material consumption in 1970-1995.” This report continues that the U.S. consumes: 33% of paper, 25% of oil, 15% of coal, 17% of aluminum, and 15% of copper. In addition, the U.S. produces the largest percentage of waste.

The key message of Conserve & Pro$per, is to show how we can do with much less material consumer products in our lives by making the most of what we have which brings more happiness!

While I claim no great expertise about garbage, waste and recycling, I’m just another concerned citizen of the world we live in by wanting to express my opinion. I never gave much thought much about garbage until I attended Guilford College (1976-1980). In 1979, I got a summer job at a waste water (sewer) treatment plant in Greensboro, North Carolina to perform lab chemical analyses. The City municipal landfill existed on the adjacent land just downstream of the water treatment plant. I learned that water pollution coming from the landfill was entering the same river that had just been cleaned up! I wrote a senior thesis and presented my results at a professional conference — they were amazed at what a college kid could learn! I took my results to EPA in D.C. and they were surprised I had access to get samples when they were being blocked by local governments. This made me question how effective EPA regulations would be in solving waste generation and disposal problems.

Also, around this time my oldest brother, a mechanical engineer, showed me his home trash compactor in 1979. This became replaced with garbage trucks that compacts trash.

Plastic waste is especially problematic. I visited India in 1995 and learned that many foods sold on the street had been for centuries wrapped in banana leaves but that plastics were being introduced causing a huge litter problem. In addition, to the U.S. overconsuming materials and products, we’ve been sending lots of waste and recycling to Asia and as China says they will no longer accept plastic this is putting pressure on Southeast Asia! The news is full of stories about plastics in the ocean affecting marine life and washing up on beaches.

I believe that we need a national campaign and grassroots organizations, like Alcoholics Anonymous AA, to fight consumer intoxication and waste in the form of Public Service Announcements. We need to find ways to reduce and reuse material items.

Perhaps companies should be responsible for recycling shipping containers and boxes when items are purchased by consumers. I take recycling to the local municipal center (combined with other trips to town) rather than paying extra for monthly pickups. It became a hassle that the company wanted every type of item separated in separate containers before pickup. A group called Recycling Across America has a great idea to improve recycling where you can purchase labels for each bin.

Please share your comments or send us an email on this or other topics.

Mitigating Nuclear Hazards - Part 8, Accidents

**It Happens! While the risk of nuclear accidents are rare compared to other power industries, like coal or oil and gas, when accidents do occur they make worldwide news. People must evacuate or shelter-in place. Plumes of radioactive fallout particles can enter the atmosphere and circle the planet spreading contamination in air, soil, food, and water that can last decades or longer. The photo shows the 1986 Chernobyl site after that accident. Reactor core meltdowns can leave the area around the nuclear power plant uninhabitable for generations. The current HBO series Chernobyl is generating tourist attention and today BBC reported on separating fact from fiction.

Union of Concerned Scientists provides a brief summary of 7 major accidents over the past 60+ years.

In addition, there have been many major safety incidents or lapses that could have caused major catastrophes, like the incident at Davis-Besse nuclear power plant located along Lake Erie between Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio. I was working for NRC when this occurred in 2002 and heard from several experts as well as later at commission hearings about the serious event that was discovered during an inspection. Corrosion of the reactor head vessel could have caused a meltdown. Fines of over $30 million were levied by the government against the utility, FirstEnergy. They are currently in bankruptcy and Davis-Besse is set to close next year.

The International Atomic Energy Agency tracks accident and incident information provides a scale from 0 (not significant to safety) up to 7 (like the Chernobyl accident) called the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, INES. Here is a list of INES accidents and incidents “events” for the past 6 months with information from 74 participating countries rated between 1 (normal) to 3 (serious incident). These events include use of x-ray machines for medical and well field applications that caused harm to the operators.

Extreme Floods

Extreme flooding is occurring across the U.S. due to record rainfall affecting the midwest, central states and east coast. In addition, in Colorado and other mountain states we are seeing rapid snowmelt causing flooding along major waterways. The U.S. Geological Survey provides Water Watch information on streamflow and flood locations.

Mitigating Nuclear Hazards - Part 7, High-Level Waste

I’ve spent most of my 35-year professional career directly involved in, or as an interested observer of, the nuclear waste crisis. This could be one of the biggest and most dangerously expensive problems for humanity to resolve worldwide as it has direct implications for the health and safety of communities, affects the military’s ability to use nuclear powered ships, as well as necessity of operating nuclear power to limit climate change impacts. Let me give a brief overview to provide my insights.

The issue is what to do with highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel that is now high-level waste (HLW) that it will be a problem for hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, a federal court required EPA to require calculations of future dose amounts up to one million years in the future!

The waste currently is filling up wet and dry storage capacity at existing nuclear power plants as well as military sites that are close to population areas. The risk of accidents or terrorist activity only increases over time so something must be done as soon as possible.

In 1984-85 working for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I joined a technical group reviewing nine environmental assessments for potential locations to store and dispose HLW. Department of Energy proposed and NRC agreed with three sites for characterization (bedded salt in Texas, basalt in Washington state, and volcanic tuff in Nevada) but Congress decided only one site would be characterized at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The extreme dry desert conditions seemed ideal for HLW disposal. However, working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1998 on site hydrology, I learned the southwestern U.S. had been a very wet site during the Pleistocene epoch about 15,000 years ago. The water table had risen 300 meters and altered clay minerals. Several underground experiments in the 7 kilometer tunnel indicated much more water was present than anticipated which flowed through fractures and could pose a problem for building a repository to hold HLW.

I kept working on the Yucca Mountain project at NRC from 1999 to 2004 to evaluate geologic interactions with HLW. One of my first assignments in 1999 at NRC was to review the Environmental Impact Statement by Department of Energy on the proposed Yucca Mountain repository site. It became obvious that leaving the used fuel in current locations near population areas is much riskier than getting the waste moved to remote desert location(s). The greatest projected risk would be to miners creating the underground repository from being exposed to naturally-occurring radon.

We looked at many issues (risk scenarios) and developed performance assessment methods. As with everything we found pros and cons for the site but no other alternatives were considered. I gained confidence in the site by looking at multiple natural and engineered barriers such as the two billion year old Oklo nuclear reactor that occurred in nature so we can look at how far radionuclides migrated. I also got to tour underground walking through the seven kilometer experimental studies facility the day after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the Mojave Desert and shook Las Vegas. Underground I became surprised to learn there were no fallen rock or damage.

I left NRC in 2005 to become an environmental consultant then joined DOE in 2008 at the Las Vegas office to answer NRC questions on the Yucca Mountain license application and we made very good progress overall. However, after spending 20 years and $11 billion or so, President Obama ended the site program in 2010.

A book published this year by a former NRC Chairman, Greg Jaczko, describes his rise to power. After earning a Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics, he went to work in Washington on a AAAS fellowship with Congressman Ed Markey and then states, “In March 2001, I joined Senator Reid’s staff…to help him fight the Yucca Mountain project.” He describes the powerful Nuclear Energy Institute and cites his concern for the nuclear industry having too much control over the regulatory environment. With Reid’s support, he became Commissioner of NRC for four years then was appointed Chairman with the election of President Obama. He cites a conversation with chief of staff Rahm Emanuel who said, “…the president wants to address climate change and he needs to have nuclear power as part of that program.”

However, support for nuclear energy did not include Yucca Mountain for storage and disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Jaczko states, “…I pushed to make good on the president’s promise to end the program to store nuclear waste in Nevada. The administration had bungled the effort to close down the Yucca Mountain project, so I stepped in, using my full authority of my office to finish the job.” Later in the book he states, “Yucca Mountain was, after all, essential to the industry’s success. Without a permanent depository for used nuclear fuel, it would continue to face challenges to its effort to operate and possibly even expand.”

Jaczko (in my opinion) coldly describes what happened next, “In February 2010…DOE closed down the Yucca Mountain site. Thousands of contractors and federal workers were terminated.”

A blue-ribbon commission (BRC) confirmed that geologic disposal in required. Despite any technological progress that had been made, there is no political willpower to resolve the HLW crisis. The BRC listed their recommendations:

“The strategy we recommend in this report has eight key elements:

1. A new, consent-based approach to siting future nuclear waste management facilities.

2. A new organization dedicated solely to implementing the waste management program and empowered with the authority and resources to succeed.

3. Access to the funds nuclear utility ratepayers are providing for the purpose of nuclear waste management.

4. Prompt efforts to develop one or more geologic disposal facilities.

5. Prompt efforts to develop one or more consolidated storage facilities.

6. Prompt efforts to prepare for the eventual large-scale transport of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste to consolidated storage and disposal facilities when such facilities become available.

7. Support for continued U.S. innovation in nuclear energy technology and for workforce development.

8. Active U.S. leadership in international efforts to address safety, waste management, non-proliferation, and security concerns.”

In addition, the U.S. government agreed in 1982 to take HLW from the industry by 1998 so the feds are paying industry for not taking HLW. A report in 2015 stated that the federal government will pay utilities an estimated $27 billion assuming they can find a storage site by 2021.

The DOE made several failed attempts to get consent-based siting including in North Dakota and a storage site in New Mexico does not have local support either.

On June 7, 2019, Congressional Representative Harley Rouda, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, held a field hearing in Laguna Niguel, California on “Examining America’s Nuclear Waste Management, Storage, and the Need for Solutions with the following takeaways:

• The Chairman, Ranking Member and all witnesses recognized that the disposal of nuclear waste is a bipartisan issue and stressed the need for a bipartisan solution.

• Don Hancock of the Southwest Research and Information Center testified that it will be necessary to have multiple repositories in several locations across the country, not just a single facility located in Yucca Mountain,  as the Trump administration proposed.  

• Reprocessing nuclear waste is not a long-term solution for America’s nuclear waste storage problem.  Nuclear waste disposal will be needed for the foreseeable future.

• Chairman Rouda focused on the need to provide economic incentives to encourage communities to consider hosting long-term storage solutions.  Siting long-term nuclear storage facilities must take into account environmental and health impacts as well as safety concerns.

Other countries including Finland, Sweden, and France are making much more progress with finding solutions to nuclear waste storage and disposal. In Finland, according to World Nuclear News, a First in the World full scale test is planned this summer for underground disposal of spent fuel which needed to obtain an operating license.

Concert at Former Uranium Mill Site

Saturday night we enjoyed the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra playing with Imagine Beatles tribute band in a concert at Las Colonias Park Amphitheater. This fun event involving 1000’s of people would not have been possible without the 30 year revitalization of the area! This site serves as a worldwide testament to many local people who cared enough and persevered through incredible obstacles to turn a horribly polluted site into a wonderful multi-use business park.

There is one person in particular who I believes deserves special recognition for this achievement and I thought of him, at least during the concert, as the Fifth Beatle! First, let me set the context with some interesting site history involving many cultures and generations. City of Grand Junction employees took great care to preserve the history of the site by including signs at the park in collaboration with Colorado Mesa University (CMU). According to the CMU history project,

“Above all, the story of Las Colonias Park is the story of different people coming together to form communities. From the Spanish and Ute traders to the Hispanic migrants who built lives and homes on its banks to the more recent community-wide efforts to restore and preserve the riverfront, this stretch of land has been a convergence point for people and culture. After nearly 30 years of work, the land is poised to enter into a new era as a developed city park, but it is important that its history not be forgotten in the transition. The history of the Old Spanish Trail, the sugar beet industry, the uranium years, and the remediation and restoration of the land are all vital to the story of Grand Junction: these themes demonstrate both the various cultures and the economic changes that have shaped the Grand Valley.”

In 1950, the Climax uranium mill began operating to produce yellowcake uranium but with the byproduct of over two million tons of waste tailings. This process is described on my recent blog mitigating nuclear hazards for production. The uranium mill operated for about 20 years and then became an auto junk yard.

The State of Colorado began in the early 1970’s to deal with radioactive mill tailings that became used in concrete construction as the mill had offered “free sand.” In 1978, Congress passed the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) and the program identified over 4000 vicinity properties around the Grand Junction area that needed to be cleaned up. Department of Energy built a new disposal site to remove the tailings away from the Colorado River. However, DOE could not remove the junk autos but instead provided funding to the State and City for removing non-radiological waste. More on the revitalization efforts are available on the DOE-LM, State CDPHE, and City websites.

After site remediation in 1994, the land was vacant for 20 years until the City obtained many sources of funding support to enable redevelopment. They are building the park in phases — I’m most proud of contributing to the City Park Phase 2 Amphitheater by providing permit reviews and a federal grant to support redevelopment of the former mill processing site as well as interpretive historical signs.

Now for my view of the most important person in this redevelopment process! Mr. Bennett Boeschenstein served Grand Junction as the Mesa County Planning Director and held various positions over his 40 year career including City Council and most recently as acting Mayor before his recent retirement.

Mitigating Nuclear Hazards - Part 6, Spent Fuel

As a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission project manager, I took tours and inspected several nuclear power plants for how utilities handle spent fuel. The fuel rods are very hot and extremely radioactive after being used in the reactor. The U-235 fuel produced heat energy as well as radioactive isotopes (elements that have the same number of protons but different number of neutrons) which are called fission products. For example, water is well known by the chemical symbol H2O with two hydrogen protons. Tritium is called heavy water because of an extra neutron and designated as H3. Radioactive substances give off three types of radiation: alpha, beta, and gamma which can all be harmful without proper protection.

There are three ways to protect against radiation: time, distance, and shielding. Radiation decreases over time following half-lives of radionuclides. For example, tritium (also mentioned in the previous blog) has a half life of 12.4 years so concentrations dissipate quickly as compared to strontium-90 which takes about 30 years for amounts to decrease by half or plutonium-239 with a half-life of 24,000 years. The more distance provided will decrease exposure to radioactivity as well as using metal and concrete for shielding.

If you look at a periodic table, calcium and strontium are in the same group 2 alkaline earth metals. They behave in similar ways, so the big concern would be that Sr-90 substitutes for Ca and gets into milk products or bones! That is why testing of the environment around nuclear power plants is so important to prevent exposures.

At the power plant, spent fuel is commonly kept in steel and concrete lined pools in water about 40 feet deep for at least five years. Some utilities have transferred older fuel to “dry cask” storage located at the power plant. I understand that the spent fuel will never be useful for reprocessing as is done in France and must be stored or disposed in a geological repository which is the subject of the next blog.