Every three months, California gas utilities mail this warning to all of their customers. Have you read it?

PROPOSITION 65
PUBLIC WARNING

The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, commonly referred to as Proposition 65, requires the Governor to publish a list of chemicals “known to the State to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm ” It also requires California businesses to warn the public quarterly of potential exposures to these chemicals which result from their operations.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company uses chemicals in its operations that are “known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm.”

For example, PG&E uses fossil fuels (natural gas and petroleum products) in its operations. The combustion of fossil fuels can generate by-products such as carbon monoxide, soot, and formaldehyde. These chemicals are “known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm.” Use of natural gas in home or commercial appliances can also produce these combustion by-products. Properly operating gas appliances create less carbon monoxide and soot.

PG&E conducts sandblasting at power plants and compressor stations, which can release sand. Sand naturally contains crystalline silica, a chemical “known to the State of California to cause cancer”

Natural gas, in its original state, contains radon and benzene, chemicals “known to the State of California to cause cancer.” It also contains toluene, a chemical “known to the State of California to cause reproductive harm.” The benzene and toluene are destroyed when natural gas is burned. Radon does not burn but is released with the combustion by-products. Radon and natural gas combustion by-products can generally be removed through appliance vents and other exhaust systems.

A warning odorant is added to natural gas so that leaks of unburned gas can be quickly detected. If gas odor is detected, PG&E should be contacted promptly.

PG&E provides a free service to check and adjust your home gas appliances. Please call your local PG&E office if you would like your gas appliances checked.

For additional information on this Proposition 65 warning, write to PG&E at PO. Box 7640, San Francisco, CA 94120.

Molly Peterson | KPCC

Some people in Carson say they’re alarmed about chemicals left behind after Shell Oil shut down an oil reservoir in their neighborhood. KPCC’s Molly Peterson says the same people are skeptical about chemical testing on their property.

It’s been more than a year since the Regional Water Quality Control Board started to investigate chemical pollution near where a concrete-lined reservoir once held millions of gallons of crude oil. That’s too long for some people who live in Carson’s Carousel neighborhood. Hundreds of them filled a ballroom in the city’s community center. They want more answers.

Water board senior environmental planner Stephen Cain tried to explain to a sometimes hostile crowd that his agency has moved fast to establish what chemical residues might pose a threat to health. “We are a state agency… [with] a very clear simple mission,” he said. “That’s to protect human health and the environment.”

A water board scientist told the audience that samples taken on city streets found elevated levels of methane gas in the soil. Methane can explode or cause fires. Investigators also found benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer with long-term exposure. Both are associated with petroleum production.

Those results unsettled Carson residents like Barbara Post who have lived over the site for three or four decades. “Everything was buried and then covered up. That stuff has to come out of the ground,” she said, pointing a finger at Cain. She lobbied water officials to take action fast. “You guys better do something before somebody else dies and gets sick in that tract.” Post’s remarks met huge applause.

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By Timothy B. Wheeler tim.wheeler@baltsun.com
baltimoresun.com

A year after the state announced a legal settlement requiring cleanup of long-standing pollution problems at a chemical plant near Chestertown on the Eastern Shore, the work remains stalled by disputes with the plant’s owner.

Genovique Specialties Corp. has balked at demands from the state Department of the Environment that it do more testing of soil and groundwater for toxic and potentially cancer-causing chemicals at its manufacturing facility, which sits beside an unnamed stream that ultimately flows to the Chesapeake Bay. The company, based in Rosemont, Ill., first submitted a plan last August for investigating contamination at its Kent County plant, which manufactures “plasticizers” — substances that make plastics flexible. But the state found the original plan riddled with “data and information gaps” and has insisted on more sampling to ascertain how far contaminants may have spread.

“We’ve reviewed the cleanup plan, and we don’t agree with it,” said Dawn Stoltzfus, state environment agency spokeswoman. “We have requested revisions, and the party does not agree with us.”

Stoltzfus said the problems at the plant pose no immediate threat to neighboring residents. But some environmental activists are not so sure, and they fault state regulators for not pressing harder to clean up a facility that has been the source of complaints for decades.

“I don’t know the reason why it’s taken so long,” said Tom Leigh, the Chester Riverkeeper, who noted that groundwater contamination was first detected at the plant 20 years ago. While the facility’s current and previous owners have taken some steps to remedy problems, he said, members of the community are frustrated by the apparent lack of progress since the consent decree was signed last July.

“They certainly deserve better from the state as well as the business owners that run the plant,” said Leigh, who monitors the condition of the river for the Chester River Association.

The consent decree had settled a lawsuit filed by the state in 2007 that accused the plant of discharging polluted wastewater and of contaminating soil and groundwater beneath its facility. Under the decree filed in Kent County Circuit Court, the company, previously known as Velsicol Chemical Co., agreed to a timetable for investigating and cleaning up the problems within two years. The company also agreed to pay a $200,000 fine in 18 monthly installments. The settlement had been billed by state officials as the final resolution of chronic pollution problems at the plant, which has been in operation since the 1950s.

Over the years, the Chestertown plant has used a series of unlined ponds to store and treat its wastewater, and state officials say pollutants have leached into the soil and groundwater, including the solvents benzene and toluene and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, also known as BEHP. Benzene can cause cancer in humans, while toluene can damage the brain and nervous system, as well as other organs. BEHP has been classified as a probable carcinogen, and exposure to high levels has caused kidney damage and disrupted reproduction and sexual development in laboratory animals. Last year Congress banned the sale of children’s toys containing some phthalates.

Marian Hwang, a lawyer for the Illinois-based corporation, declined to comment. But in a letter sent to the state earlier this month, she contends that it is being required to do more testing than is needed, because the levels of toxic pollution monitored in the ground water have declined and there is no evidence any has seeped beyond the fenceline. The company’s lawyer asked that the court-approved timetable for completing the study and cleanup be put on hold while the state mulls its appeal, but pledged to begin work in the meantime on some of the cleanup the company had proposed to do.

Genovique submitted a plan for investigating the extent of contamination and pollution at the plant last September but it has never been approved by the state.

“We’re not going to accept a substandard plan,” said Stoltzfus, the MDE spokeswoman. “We’re taking our time to make sure the cleanup is done right.”

The Chester River Association agrees that more extensive soil and water testing is needed. But the environmental group also is concerned that storm water washing off the plant site contains BEHP, while wastewater released by the facility into a holding pond that overflows into a nearby stream contains phosphorus. Phosphorus is one of the pollutants chiefly responsible for the algae blooms that create a fish-suffocating “dead zone” on the bay bottom in summer. The state has never officially limited the amount of phosphorus the chemical plant can discharge, and since the consent decree was signed last July there have been 18 times that the phosphorus levels in the plant’s wastewater exceeded the limit normally set on municipal sewage plants.

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By JOHN McFARLAND Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press

MIDLOTHIAN, Texas — To hear Sue Pope tell it, tons of toxic pollutants spewing from three nearby cement factories have ruined her immune system, stripped her lung capacity, and probably caused her husband’s cancer as well as numerous inexplicable illnesses around town.

Talk to state, local or industry officials here and they’ll tell you that decades of studies prove the air around the nation’s largest concentration of cement plants is just fine.

Both sides hope a sweeping new federal study will finally answer the question that environmentalists, industry leaders, politicians and scientists have argued about for at least 20 years: Just how toxic is this place?

Cement factory pollution has become an increasing concern around the country, with the Environmental Protection Agency in April proposing new rules to cut emissions at the nation’s 99 plants.

In Midlothian, the plants are tightly clustered a few miles apart in this town of about 16,000 just south of Dallas. The factories, with 10 massive kilns that bake limestone and other ingredients into cement at temperatures up to 2,800 degrees, can produce up to 6 million tons of cement a year. They do it in a pollution-producing process fueled mostly by coal but also by hazardous waste and old tires.

According to the most recent EPA statistics, the plants in 2007 emitted about 300 tons of sulfuric acid, nearly 20 tons of benzene, and smaller amounts of mercury, chromium, manganese and other chemicals. Those emissions were within the annual limits allowed on their state emissions permits, but that doesn’t comfort some folks in town.

“A lot of people have paid the price,” said Pope, a 69-year-old former horse breeder who lives near one plant and leads an environmental watchdog group. “They are responsible for a lot of the pollution and are causing the climate catastrophe.”

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By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer

The Washtenaw County Road Commission unearthed benzene – a chemical component of fuel and a serious pollutant – on their property on the corner of Wilkinson and Middle Street on June 10.

The road commission was beginning construction of a salt storage building at the Chelsea Maintenance Yard at 630 W. Middle Street when they made the find. County workers were digging out a two bank retention pond to deal with storm water on the site when they hit the top of a four-foot tall derelict fuel tank two feet below the surface.

Road Commission Civil Engineer and lead on the project, Mike Bernbeck made himself available to concerned residents Friday.

One of the many topics discussed beneath Chelsea State Bank in a Chelsea city office conference room packed with neighbors and local officials including County Commissioner Mark Ouimet and Chelsea City Manager John Hanifan was whether or not the dig and subsequent hauling of the contaminated soil led to neighbors’ exposure.

According to the Center for Disease Control benzene causes cells in the human body to malfunction in various ways, such as stunted red blood cell production in bone marrow leading to anemia or damage to the immune system affecting blood levels of antibodies which causes a loss of white blood cells.

The neighbors became aware of what was going on when they noticed numerous trucks hauling dirt away from the site and investigated the matter. They charged the road commission with failure to properly notify them and act as “a good neighbor,” considering the yard is located in the midst of a residential neighborhood and right down the road from Chelsea Retirement Community.

Notice of exposure is a critical issue. The CDC says those exposed to benzene should immediately remove their clothing, wash their bodies and dispose of said clothing in sealed plastic bags in case clothing fibers have caught airborne benzene particles. Benzene is a known carcinogen.

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By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin lawmakers are paying more attention to the environment than at any time in the past decade.

Pollution bans, river and groundwater protections, pro-hunting and fishing initiatives, and measures to fight global warming are getting strong consideration, even as the state grapples with record budget deficits.

“It’s been an incredibly proactive pro-conservation session,” said Jennifer Giegerich, capitol liaison with the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.

The activity has been pushed along by Democrats, who took control of both houses of the Legislature in January. But it’s also driven by a sharper interest in energy and environmental issues, especially renewable power and strategies to control greenhouse gas emissions.

“What you’ve seen is that we had about a dozen years of rather relaxed efforts on environmental legislation,” said Rep. Spencer Black (D-Madison), chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. “Now we are going full steam.”

Environmentalists say they are better organized than when Republicans controlled the Assembly and environmentalists had to fight efforts to thwart green regulation.

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Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer

In a major reversal of Bush administration policy, the Environmental Protection Agency’s ruling was hailed by California politicians and national environmental groups as a breakthrough in curbing carbon dioxide – a leading contributor to global warming.

Tuesday’s waiver highlights the state’s decades-long tradition of environmental leadership, said Roland Hwang, transportation program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“When you look at California’s leadership across the board on energy and global warming, it provides almost a perfect template for the activity going on in D.C.,” he said. “What’s happening out here with Tesla (Motors’ electric car production) is what should be happening in Detroit.”

California has a history of setting environmental standards more rigorous than the federal government’s since before 1970, and the Clean Air Act passed that year permits the state to continue to do so, providing it receives a waiver from the EPA.
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PAVILLION, Wyo. (AP) ― A coalition of conservation groups have petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to overturn an air pollution permit issued by the state of Wyoming.

The permit allows EnCana Corp. to continue operating a natural gas processing plant near the town of Pavillion in Fremont County.

The EPA has 60 days to grant or deny the petition by the Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens, WildEarth Guardians and the Powder River Basin Resource Council.

The groups submitted the petition in early July. They contend the processing plant emits too much nitrogen oxide, benzene and other pollutants.

The groups also have asked the state to monitor air quality and require emission controls in the Pavillion area.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)