DC Department of the Environment Director Fired

Christophe Tulou Terminated Just Before Labor Day Amid Questions

Christophe Tulou

The director of the District of Columbia’s Department of Environment (DDOE) has been fired.  Apparently, Tulou was fired for “a very serious breach of protocol,” which public accounts attribute to communications with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on stormwater management issues. Tulou had led the DDOE since May 2010.

One incident concerned efforts by city agencies to seek a waiver from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and other parties allowing it to test “low-impact development” as a substitute for expensive tunneling to prevent sewage from draining into the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. According to sources, Tulou approached the EPA without D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s knowledge to discuss seeking the waiver to a 2003 court-enforced consent decree — something Gray has publicly endorsed but which has been met with questions from some local environmental groups. 

It appears that Tulou was doing Gray's bidding, but maybe without his direct knowledge.  So why would this be controversial?  The 'breech of protocol' appears to be petty to us.  Some other forces must have led to the firing. His dismissal comes as tensions have risen between the environment department and real estate developers, who have been particularly critical of new regulations concerning stormwater management.  It does not appear that environmental groups or the business sector pressed Mayor Gray to fire Tulou.

Tulou, a former director of Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, was named to lead the department in 2010 by then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D).  He replaced George S. Hawkins, now general manager of D.C. Water. Tulou has also worked as a Congressional staffer and as secretary of Delaware’s environmental department.

Keith Anderson, who had been Tulou’s chief of staff, will lead the agency on an interim basis while the city searches for a permanent replacement. (CBSDC, 8/31/2012, Wash Post, 8/31/2012,

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Radon-222 Content In Natural Gas

Fracking Opponents and Proponents Weigh In

A debate is raging in the fracking area about the content of radioactive radon-222 in Marcellus Shale gas.  Opponents say it poses a threat to the health of residents of New York and proponents say the levels are below levels that would pose a threat to public health.  We present the data.  You decide.

Radon (chemical symbol Rn) is a naturally occurring radioactive gas found in soils, rock, and water throughout the U.S. It has numerous different isotopes, but radon-220, and -222 are the most common. Radon causes lung cancer, and is a threat to health because it tends to collect in homes, sometimes to very high concentrations. As a result, radon is the largest source of exposure to naturally occurring radiation. (EPA)

One of the primary studies cited was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, "Radon-222 Content of Natural Gas Samples from Upper and Middle Devonian Sandstone and Shale Reservoirs in Pennsylvania: Preliminary Data," and the abstract is below:

Samples of natural gas were collected as part of a study of formation water chemistry in oil and gas reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin. Nineteen samples (plus two duplicates) were collected from 11 wells producing gas from Upper Devonian sandstones and the Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. The samples were collected from valves located between the wellhead and the gas-water separator. Analyses of the radon content of the gas indicated 222Rn (radon-222) activities ranging from 1 to 79 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) with an overall median of 37 pCi/L. The radon activities of the Upper Devonian sandstone samples overlap to a large degree with the activities of the Marcellus Shale samples.

Opponents cite a January 10, 2012 report by Marvin Resnikoff entitled, "Radon in Natural from Marcellus Shale," as their front line assault on fracking gas use in New York.  The executive summary states:

A significant public health hazard associated with drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation must be seriously investigated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). This hazard is from radioactive radon gas and the potential for large numbers of lung cancer among natural gas customers. This issue, which has been ignored in the DEC’s Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, must be addressed in a revised Impact Statement and before DEC issues any drilling permits.

Energy In Depth (EID) provides a rebuttal of the Resnikoff findings.  EID posts on their blog that the USGS seriously question Resnikoff's findings:

A recent report by Resnikoff (2012) has led to increased interest in possible human exposure to radon as a component of natural gas in household settings. The report, however, relied on theoretical calculations utilizing limited data from geologic analogs.

A decision was made to release our small and preliminary dataset because, to the authors’ knowledge, measurements of radon in natural gas at the wellhead have not previously been published for the Appalachian Basin.

 

EID follows with its own rebuttal of Resnikoff: 

Marvin Resnikoff...was wrong on radioactivity levels in the Marcellus Shale, wrong on his conversions radioactivity to radium readings and wrong in his assumptions regarding what this means for radon concentrations in the natural gas that goes into the pipeline.

The USGS study went on to note that the half-life for radon-222 is 3.8 days and after two half lives (7.6 days) the radon content of gas from the wells with the highest concentrations would only naturally decay to 19.8 pCi/L. It should be noted that the EPA recommends “that Americans consider fixing their home for radon levels between 2 pCi/L and 4 pCi/L.

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EPA Opens Campus RainWorks Competition

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has opened registration for student teams from colleges and universities across the country to participate in its new design competition, the Campus RainWorks Challenge, through which teams will compete to develop innovative approaches to stormwater management. This first annual competition, will help raise awareness of green design and planning approaches at colleges and universities, and train the next generation of landscape architects, planners, and engineers in green infrastructure principles and design. Stormwater is a major cause of harmful water pollution in urban areas in the U.S., impacting tens of thousands of miles of rivers, streams, and coastal shorelines, as well as hundreds of thousands of acres of lakes, reservoirs, and ponds.

Student teams, working with a faculty advisor, will submit design plans for a proposed green infrastructure project for their campus. Registration for the Campus RainWorks Challenge is open from September 4 through October 5, and entries must be submitted by December 14, 2012 for consideration. Winning entries will be selected by EPA and announced in April 2013. Winning teams will earn a cash prize of $1,500 - $2,500, as well as $8,000 - $11,000 in funds for their faculty advisor to conduct research on green infrastructure. In 2013, EPA plans to expand Campus RainWorks by inviting students to design and complete a demonstration project assessing innovative green infrastructure approaches on their campus.

EPA is encouraging the use of green infrastructure as a solution to help manage stormwater runoff. Green Infrastructure uses vegetation, soils, and natural processes to manage stormwater runoff at its source and provide other community benefits. Green infrastructure is increasingly being used to supplement or substitute for single-purpose “gray” infrastructure investments such as pipes, and ponds. The Campus RainWorks Challenge will help encourage the use of green infrastructure projects on college and university campuses to manage stormwater discharges. (EPA)

More information on the Campus RainWorks Challenge

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Japan Turns To Russia For LNG

Russia and Japan are sealing an agreement to construct a liquefied-natural-gas shipping terminal in, and build a natural gas pipeline from Vladivostokin to, Niigata, Japan. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda are expected to give their formal backing to a $13 billion terminal in Vladivostok that will export LNG to Japan. Actual construction of the terminal will depend on reaching an agreement on the price of the gas to be shipped. If all goes smoothly, the terminal should be completed by around 2018, and will produce 10 million tons of LNG a year, equivalent to about 12% of Japan's annual imports, according to Itochu Corp., a main Japanese partner in the joint venture.

The proposed construction of a Vladivostok pipeline to Japan would efficiently and cost effectively deliver the natural gas. Japan now gets all of its natural-gas imports by boat, in expensive liquefied form.

The most likely route for a Japan-Russia pipeline link would be between Vladivostok and Niigata, on the coast of central Japan across from Russia. The task would require laying a 500-mile pipeline across the ocean as deep as 1.2-to-1.9 miles—presenting major technical and financial challenges.

The biggest hurdle for any deal with Russia is the pricing of natural gas. Russia wants to set prices near the going spot rates in Asia, which are the highest in the world—boosted by Japan's rush for alternative fuel to nuclear power.

 

 

Russia is poised to become one of Japan's biggest energy suppliers from a relatively minor provider of oil, gas and coal now. Japan imports 90% of its crude oil and 25% of LNG from the politically volatile Middle East, a situation Japan is working hard to change. It imports 9% of its gas from Russia. Russia, meanwhile, exports 80% of its energy to Europe, a region with dim prospects for economic growth because of the sovereign-debt crisis. Russia is the world's second-largest natural-gas producer, with the largest amount of known reserves.

The flurry of business activity in Vladivostok highlights a shift in Japan's approach to the world that has accelerated after the March 11, 2011, disasters sidelined most of the country's nuclear-power plants, sending the country's utilities scrambling to procure alternative sources of energy.

The government even unveiled a "resource-diplomacy strategy" in June, which calls for targeting diplomatic efforts at key resource-rich countries, such as Russia and Mongolia, providing economic assistance for things like infrastructure development and clean-energy technology. As part of this strategy, Japan signed an agreement with Kazakhstan for joint development of rare earth metals, key ingredients for high-tech products.  (WSJ, 9/4/2012)

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Fracking News: Heckmann Corporation Buys Power Fuels

Wastewater-treatment company Heckmann Corporation has purchased Power Fuels Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $381 million.  Heckmann supplies water and equipment used in fracking, in which drillers use a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to break apart energy-rich rocks. Fracking is behind the recent boom in U.S. oil and gas production.

Power Fuels, another wastewater-treatment company involved in the fracking business, is based near the North Dakota oil fields.  Heckmann is located in Pennsylvania, where natural-gas production is rising sharply but lower prices have hurt the profits of companies that depend on producing it. (WSJ, 9/4/2012)

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Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Regulations

GHG emissions are regulated under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD), Title V, and New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) programs.

First, the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v EPA clarified that GHGs are an “air pollutant” subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act.

Next, EPA’s Endangerment Finding determined that greenhouse gases may “reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare.”

When the Tailpipe Rule set emission standards for cars and light trucks, GHG became a regulated pollutant. This necessitated the Timing and Tailoring Rules, which determined that only the largest stationary sources would initially be subject to permitting requirements.

Finally, the proposed GHG NSPS would force new coal-fired boilers to meet the same emissions levels as a natural gas-fired combined cycle turbine, essentially killing new coal plants.

Opposition to this series of rulemakings came to a head in a case decided June 26, 2012 by the D.C. Court of Appeals. The Petitioners challenged EPA on the rulings mentioned above as well as the fact that EPA did not conduct its own assessment of climate science but rather relied upon those conducted by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.S. Global Climate Research Program (USGCRP), and the National Research Council (NRC). The Court rejected all of the objections and ruled firmly for EPA, using language that appears to scold the Petitioners for continuing their fight.  (Power Engineering, 8/1/2012)

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Greasy Sewer Pipes

Lumpy grease buildup from cooked animal and vegetable fat from pizza joints, Chinese restaurants, cafes, giant franchises and grease from hundreds of millions of people nationwide clog our sewer lines. Coagulated fat from fried bacon, steaks, chicken, burgers and potatoes cools into a pipe-choking yellowish blob after flowing into sewers, causing serious overflows that threaten homes, creeks, rivers and bays. People use the sewer system as an alternative trash can.

This year and last, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) inspectors issued 31 citations to establishments in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties for failing to properly maintain interceptors that stop thick grease from backing up pipes.

When you put grease on top of food products, it is like glue. It sticks to the pipes. In the extensive and poorly funded American sewer infrastructure, with pipes as old as the Gettysburg Address in many places, grease from commercial operations and households is causing up to 40 percent of sewer overflows nationwide that back raw sewage into sinks and bathtubs and into local waterways.

Money used by utilities to upgrade facilities and cut down on overflows to meet Environmental Protection Agency regulations could buy larger and more efficient pipes that can overcome grease, tree roots and other problems. But the estimated pricetag for fixing the nation’s new water infrastructure over the next 20 years is steep — $334 billion, according to the EPA. So cash-strapped utilities are making do with what they have, relying on patch work.

Wastewater treatment inspectors bypass homeowners and target businesses with fines. Last year, for example, WSSC hit a local mall with penalties of nearly $10,000 for interceptors that failed to trap enough grease. The mall finally bought interceptors worth $200,000 after being threatened with a $50,000 fine. In 2009, Fairfax County sued a donut plant in a dispute over whether a facility in Lorton flooded its sewers with grease. The donut company settled the case for nearly $2 million. Last year, as in years past, the WSSC paid $82,000 to suck grease out of that one station. There are about 45 others.

Sewer overflows caused by grease trigger fines because they are among the worst stinking, with no rain or stormwater runoff to dilute waste that oozes from manhole covers and up toilets and kitchen sinks — and often into waters that sustain wildlife and that people rely on for recreation. If a sanitary sewer overflow happens with grease and not rain, it is pure raw waste.

During the 2002 swimming season, sewer discharges from pipes prior to treatment were responsible for 7 percent of beach closings and advisories, according to an EPA survey. Along with the smell, microbial pathogens are a good reason to avoid sewer overflows. Just touching them can make people queasy enough to vomit, or worse. Eating shellfish contaminated by an overflow has put people in hospitals. According to EPA, you don’t have to swallow microbes to get sick; they can seep through your skin.

WSSC recommends that you buy a plastic container or tin can, pour grease into it, let it cool, then toss it in the trash.  Of course, most homeowners ignore this advice.  (Wash Post, 9/2/2012)

Additional Information:

WSSC Fats, Oil & Grease Program

U.S. Army Corp of Engineers - WSSC Consent Decree on Rehab of Sewer Pipes

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