Ocean Place Getting Energy Efficient Upgrades

From Ocean Place Resort and Spa:

Lime Energy Co. announced this month that Ocean Place has signed a partnering agreement under the NJ Clean Energy’s Pay for Performance (P4P) to help identify and implement energy reduction and conservation measures to help reduce the resort’s consumption by a minimum of 15 percent. Consisting of 254 guest rooms and event space, Ocean Place was built in 1989 and encompasses 255,000 square feet.

The investment grade audit follows Lime’s preliminary audit which identified energy conservation measures and infrastructure upgrades that would save Ocean Place over 35 percent in annual energy consumption. Lime Energy’s analysis will also establish those measures that qualify for NJ Clean Energy P4P incentives.

“Lime Energy has completed the largest P4P clean energy project in New Jersey to date,” said Al DiGuilio, Vice President of Energy Efficiency. “The combination of Lime’s clean energy expertise and experience with the P4P program with Ocean Place’s commitment to improving their facility will result in another best-in-class energy project in New Jersey.”

According to Ocean Place’s Director of Engineering Dan Walradt, environmental awareness and concern has become a significant factor in the decisions they make on a daily basis.

“Many of our clients express interest in understanding the initiatives we are taking to reduce our carbon footprint,” Walradt said. “With over 250,000 square feet of conditioned space, Ocean Place can play a significant role in energy conservation.”

“Of course, it is equally important that the energy conservation measures (ECM’S) make financial sense for the business and operating expenses,” he continued. “The Pay for Performance program will be a great fit for Ocean Place since it will have a positive impact on both.”

The P4P audit will evaluate every area of the building from the envelope down to each piece of mechanical equipment that consumes energy. The project will be part of a large renovation planned to begin this fall.

“We know how important it is that we do it right, and take everything into consideration when selecting replacement equipment and control systems,” Walradt said. “We are very excited to move forward on our vision of being an industry leader in our market as well as being a positive role model in our community.”

Article source: http://longbranch.patch.com/articles/ocean-place-getting-energy-efficient-upgrades

Report: Delaware River ranks fifth in U.S. in legal dumping

More toxins are dumped into the Delaware River annually than all but four other U.S. waterways, according to a report released by an environmental group that wants tighter controls on water pollution.

The report, “Wasting Our Waterways,” compiled by Environment America, calls the Clean Water Act an “unfulfilled promise” in the 40th year of the federal law that requires a permit to discharge pollutants into navigable water.

TOXIC RANKING

The U.S. waterways with the most permitted toxic discharge in 2010, according industry reports to the EPA:

1. Ohio River 32.1*

2. Mississippi River 12.7

3. New River 12.5

4. Savannah River 9.6

5. Delaware River 6.7

States with the most toxins discharged into waterways:

1. Indiana 27.3

2. Virginia 18.3

3. Nebraska 14.7

4. Texas 14.5

“

7. Pennsylvania 10.1

“

12. New Jersey 8.5

* millions of pounds

Source: Environment America

It cites data submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and says 10.1 million pounds of toxins were dumped into Pennsylvania waterways in 2010, ranking that state seventh. In New Jersey, 8.5 million pounds of toxins were discharged into its waterways, the 12th most of any state.

Those figures include 6.7 million pounds of toxins dumped into the Delaware River, which trailed only four other U.S. waterways.

“The problem is that government agencies allow these discharges to continue by issuing permits to pollute, a perverse interpretation of the Clean Water Act,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “This has to stop if we want to provide a healthy, economically sound Delaware River for everyone.”

The data were reported to the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory by industries that are permitted to discharge the toxins.

John Martin, a spokesman for EPA Region 2, which includes New Jersey, said the agency is pleased organizations are using the data “to make industries more transparent and to give citizens groups ” more information.

“We do a lot of enforcement in regard to ” tougher permitting,” Martin said. “We’re always looking to make sure that the waters of the U.S. remain clean and protect human health.”

Bob Considine, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said the department is skeptical of the numbers because the report doesn’t say when and how the pollutants were counted.

He said the department “works every day to ensure that companies are in compliance within the rules of their discharge permits, and it takes appropriate enforcement actions when they are not.”

But the Riverkeeper Network and New Jersey Environment, the Garden State chapter of the group that did the study, want tougher standards. They’re calling for industries to reduce their discharges, for the Clean Water Act to apply to all waterways and the EPA to set pollution limits that would get stricter over time with stiff penalties.

The report says 226 million pounds of toxins were discharged into 1,400 U.S. waterways in 2010.

Article source: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120408/NEWS90/204080330

Online beach alert system wins award

An innovative online project which provides real-time alerts on the cleanliness of Westcountry beaches has won a national award.

Beach Live was launched by South West Water last summer to provide live bathing water information about 21 popular or Blue Flag beaches across Devon and Cornwall.

It was developed by South West Water in partnership with Surfers Against Sewage, the Environment Agency, local authorities, tourism leaders and beach managers.

The website, which was named community project of the year at the annual Water Industry Achievement Awards, is set to be expanded to 40 beaches this summer.

South West Water chief executive Chris Loughlin said: “This is fantastic news and we are very proud that this key project has been acknowledged in this way.

“Sustainability, the environment and working in partnership and with our local communities is at the heart of what we do here so it is great to be recognised for our work in these areas. These awards are a testament to the hard work of our staff and all our partners.”

Cornwall Council portfolio holder for community safety and public protection Lance Kennedy said greater communication helped to “maintain confidence in the quality of Cornwall’s seas and beaches for residents and visitors alike”.

He said: “We already know we have some of the consistently best bathing water quality in Europe but we can’t just take that for granted. We have to show others that fact and demonstrate what is going on to keep it that way.”

Malcolm Bell, head of Visit Cornwall, added: “Beach Live is an exciting service which gives our visitors information they can use. It’s live information that adds to our world class beach management and our competitiveness.”

Article source: http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Online-beach-alert-wins-award/story-15762284-detail/story.html

EPA Must Clean Up Its (Water) Act

Your editorial “Supremes 9, EPA 0″ (March 22) concluding that it is time for Congress to amend the Clean Water Act (CWA) was on target. This agency has lost its way particularly as it relates to administering the CWA. The EPA’s misguided policies are not limited to the private sector but hurt the public sector as well. Its unilateral and unbridled aggression to impose unfunded mandates based on interpretation of the CWA is having profound consequences on local governments.

The CWA has had a remarkable impact on improving the quality of all U.S. waters. During the first two decades of the act, the EPA partnered with state and local governments to improve water quality. Through this partnership, projects were based on cost sharing, cost benefit, good science and prioritization.

That sense of partnership has been lost. The new EPA is indifferent to the cost of compliance because it no longer has a monetary stake in its mandates and chooses whatever it deems as acceptable science to justify its decisions. Without a monetary stake, the EPA imposes unfunded mandates with impunity on local governments. The process for challenging its edicts is severely skewed in the agency’s favor to the extent that few communities choose to appeal its orders.

We need to preserve our aquatic resources and use validated science to guide how and where to spend the public’s money effectively. It is time to declare a moratorium on new CWA regulations or interpretations that will add to the burden of local government. The EPA must return to administering the CWA in a way that is sustainable and reasonable.

Robert L. Moylan Jr., P.E.

President

Massachusetts Coalition for Water Resources Stewardship

Worcester, Mass.

A version of this article appeared April 7, 2012, on page A14 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: EPA Must Clean Up Its (Water) Act.

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303299604577324143756645260.html

Pollution Playing A Major Role In Sea Temperatures

The Atlantic Ocean, especially the North Atlantic, is peculiar: Every few decades, the average temperature of surface water there changes dramatically.

Scientists want to know why that is, especially because these temperature shifts affect the weather. New research suggests that human activity is part of the cause.

Scientists originally thought that maybe some mysterious pattern in deep-ocean currents, such as an invisible hand stirring a giant bathtub, created this temperature see-saw.

And that may be part of it. But there’s a new idea: The cause isn’t in the water; it’s above it — a kind of air pollution called aerosols.

NASA Earth Observations

This NASA map shows the size of aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Green areas indicate larger, more naturally occurring particles like dust. Red areas indicate smaller aerosol particles, which can come from fossil fuels and fires. Yellow areas indicate a mix of large and small particles.

Click to see a high-resolution version of this image

Ben Booth, a climate scientist at Britain’s Met Office Hadley Center, says that aerosols create clouds.

“The more aerosols you have, the more places there are for water vapor to condense,” he says. “And so what aerosols do is they cool.”

They cool the ocean because clouds reflect sunlight back into space before it can hit the ocean.

Aerosols are fine particles like soot or sulfur compounds, mostly from burning fuel. They seed a kind of cloud that’s especially good at reflecting solar radiation back into space. Even on their own, without clouds, these aerosols act like sunblock.

Volcanoes create aerosols, too, but air pollution appears to produce more, and then the aerosols sweep across the Atlantic sky.

Booth has calculated their effect on sea surface temperature swings.

“If you combine the role of volcanic activity and the human emissions of aerosols, we account for 76 percent of the total variation in sea surface temperature in our study,” Booth says. That’s a huge amount.

Booth and his colleagues aren’t the first to propose that aerosols influence sea surface temperatures. But climate scientist Amato Evan at the University of Virginia says they’ve done the most thorough job to date of tracking and confirming those changes.

“If they’re right, human activity has a huge influence on just so many climate processes around the Atlantic Ocean,” he says.

Surface temperatures around the Atlantic influence the amount and timing of rainfall in West Africa and the Amazon in South America, and whether there’s drought there. They affect the number and strength of Atlantic hurricanes and even where hurricanes go.

That’s if, as Evan says, Booth and his team are right.

Booth used computer models to analyze a very complicated process — the interaction of ocean and atmosphere over many decades. The models’ predictions didn’t match all the changes people have actually observed in the Atlantic.

Evan says scientists need more hard evidence to nail down exactly how aerosols affect oceans, but he’s observed a similar process going on in the Indian Ocean.

“The same type of release of pollution aerosols coming from the Indian subcontinent is actually changing the monsoon,” he says, referring to the pattern of rainy and dry weather in the Indian Ocean.

The new research appears in the journal Nature. If it’s confirmed, it could foretell a warmer Atlantic, because the aerosol pollution has apparently cooled the Atlantic some. But new pollution controls are reducing the amount of those aerosols — that’s good for public health, but it also means the ocean loses its sunblock.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/04/150005074/pollution-playing-a-major-role-in-sea-temperatures

Marine Scientists Discover New Chemosynthesis Process In “Mussel Power”

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology and the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM)  have discovered a third form of energy that powers the likes of certain mussels, shrimp, and worms found in the surroundings of hydrothermal vents. Earlier discoveries of chemosynthesis at the vents included sulfur oxidation and methane oxidation systems, but now it appears that the creatures oxidize hydrogen too - and a lot of it!

Hydrothermal vents spew hot minerals into the sea from newly formed crusts in the earth: © MARUM

Discovered some 30 years ago, hydrothermal vents are created at the depths of the ocean floors where tectonic plates have shifted and, like an underwater volcano, spurt tremendously hot, dissolving minerals into the sea.  As hot as 400°, the inorganic compounds delivered by the liquid minerals provided energy for life through a process called chemosynthesis.

The first two sources of energy discovered to power chemosynthesis at hydrothermal vents were hydrogen sulfide and methane, each utilized by animals with symbiotic oxidation systems. But this latest discovery led by the Max Planck Institute found that the deep vent mussels, shrimp, and the giant tubeworm at Logatchev, a vent field halfway between the Caribbean and the Cape Verde Islands on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, were powered by hydrogen.

Assisted by remotely-driven submersible excavators, researchers took live samples on board their ships and conducted experiments showing that the mussels consumed hydrogen. In their land-based labs, they discovered that the mussels had a key enzyme for hydrogen oxidation, the symbiont hydrogenase.

Mussels at the Logatchev hydrothermal vent site are powered by hydrogen: © MARUM

In fact, the hydrogenase proved to be more powerful than the hydrogen sulfide and methane in converting geofuels to biomass in the Logatchev region. One researchers estimated that the population of some 1/2 million mussels could be consuming up to 5,000 liters of hydrogen per hour.

Maybe some day we will run our cars on mussel power….

Article source: http://inventorspot.com/articles/marine_scientists_discover_new_chemosynthesis_process_mussel_pow

USDA announces major water quality effort in Florida

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced $100 million in financial assistance to acquire permanent easements from eligible landowners in four counties and assist with wetland restoration on nearly 24,000 acres of agricultural land in the Northern Everglades Watershed.

The wetland restoration will reduce the amount of surface water leaving the land, slowing water runoff and the concentration of nutrients entering the public water management system and ultimately Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.

This is the largest amount of funding Florida has ever received for projects in the same watershed through the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) in a single year.

“Protecting and restoring the Northern Everglades is critical not just to Floridians, but to all Americans,” said Vilsack.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates the Obama Administration’s strong commitment to conserve our national treasures, enhance the quality and quantity of our water, and secure the economic opportunities afforded by a healthy Everglades ecosystem.

“This announcement would not be possible without our local conservation partners and our relationship with private landowners who play a critical role in restoring wetlands and protecting wildlife in this unique habitat.”

Vilsack also participated in a signing ceremony with A.J. Suarez of Hendry County Nursery Farms — a landowner who will benefit from the funding.

Suarez signed an agreement with USDA to start the process to acquire the easement rights to 3,782 acres.

After the signing ceremony, Vilsack toured the 550-acre Winding Waters Natural Area, a site restored with $1.5 million from WRP in 2007. The nature area, owned by Palm Beach County, is home to bird species such as little blue heron, snowy egret and great egret, white ibis and Florida sandhill crane.

It also contains large areas of pine flatwoods, Cyprus forests, freshwater marshes and wet prairies.

Under WRP, landowners sell development rights to land and place it in a conservation easement that permanently maintains that land as agriculture and open space.

Article source: http://southeastfarmpress.com/government/usda-announces-major-water-quality-effort-florida

South Florida Farmers Achieve Record Year in Water Quality Success

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Aug. 11, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ — Farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), south of Lake Okeechobee, achieved a record-setting 79 percent phosphorus reduction in the water leaving the farming region — more than three times less phosphorus than the state requirement.

The South Florida Water Management District, the agency tasked with Everglades restoration, announced today that the EAA’s on-farm Best Management Practices (BMPs), developed by university scientists in collaboration with farmers, are a resounding success. The District praised EAA farmers for being proactive and often implementing more BMPs than what is required.

“We’re proud of farmers’ accomplishments cleaning water, with an average phosphorus reduction of 55 percent over the last 16 years,” said Barbara Miedema, vice president of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative. “When the BMP program was first envisioned in 1991, no one imagined it would be this effective over the long term. It’s an example of the kind of success that can be achieved in partnership with scientists and farmers, who roll up their sleeves to get the job done.”

In addition to improving water quality using high-tech sustainable practices, more than $200 million has been paid by farmers for the construction of Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) to further clean water. Built on 60,000 acres of former farmland, the STAs have reduced phosphorus to the Everglades Protection Area by an additional 1,470 metric tons. That’s in addition to the 2,400 metric tons of phosphorus removed by farmers.

“Along with being stable economic drivers and job providers for our state and county, farmers have a long track record of supporting and implementing Everglades restoration,” said Gaston Cantens, vice president of Florida Crystals Corporation. “Today’s record-breaking results are another example of the proven success of our sustainable practices and demonstrate the significant role our farms continue to play in protecting and preserving the Everglades ecosystem, as the design was intended.”

Florida Agriculture Fast Facts:

• Supports 766,000 jobs
• Generates $100 billion annual economic impact in Florida
• Responsible for $3 billion in tax revenue for local and state government
• Florida Sugar Industry provides 7,000 direct jobs 23,500 indirect jobs
• Florida Sugar Industry generates $2 billion economic impact

About Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative and Florida Crystals Corporation

Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative and Florida Crystals Corporation are two Palm Beach County-based sugar producers and owners of the world’s largest sugar company, American Sugar Refining, whose global production capacity is 7 million tons of refined sugar annually. Its products are marketed through its brand portfolio: Domino®, CH®, Redpath® and Tate Lyle®. Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, based in Belle Glade, is made up of 46 small and medium size farms in Palm Beach County. The grower members produce approximately 300,000 tons of sugar from 65,000 acres of land. The primary functions of the Cooperative are the harvesting, transporting and processing of sugarcane and the marketing of raw sugar to one of its American Sugar Refining facilities. Florida Crystals Corporation farms 190,000 acres in South Florida, where it also mills, refines and packages sugar and rice products. The company is the only producer of certified organic sugar grown and harvested in the USA, sold through the Florida Crystals® brand. Florida Crystals also produces clean, renewable energy from sugar cane fiber and recycled wood waste in its Palm Beach County biomass power plant.

SOURCE Florida Crystals

Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/11/3831541/south-florida-farmers-achieve.html

Texas Petroleum Investment Company Fined for Violating the Clean Water Act (LA, TX)

Texas Petroleum Investment Company Fined for Violating the Clean Water Act (LA, TX)

(DALLAS – August 11, 2011) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined the Texas Petroleum Company of Houston, Texas, $163,487 for violating federal Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations outlined under the Clean Water Act.

A federal inspection of oil production facilities in Terrebonne, Plaquemines, Lafourche, St. Charles and Iberia parishes in Louisiana revealed the company had failed to prepare and implement SPCC plans as required by federal regulations. Today’s announcement also settles Clean Water Act violations for discharges of oil into wetland areas and unnamed canals in Terrebonne, Plaquemines and Iberia parishes.

SPCC regulations require onshore oil production or bulk storage facilities to provide oil spill prevention, preparedness and responses to prevent oil discharges. The SPCC program helps protect our nation’s water quality. A spill of only one gallon of oil can contaminate one million gallons of water.

Additional information on SPCC regulations is available at: http://www.epa.gov/oilspill

More about activities in EPA Region 6: http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html

EPA audio file is available at: http://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/aug2011.html

Article source: http://www.manufacturing.net/News/Feeds/2011/08/mnet-mnet-industry-focus-environmental-texas-petroleum-investment-company-fined-for-viola/

Groups sue Millennium over alleged Clean Water Act violations

Vancouver and Longview citizens groups announced Tuesday they will sue the owner of a proposed coal dock in West Longview, contending that Millennium Bulk Terminals is violating the federal Clean Water Act by handling coal without a permit.

An attorney representing the two groups said he will file a federal suit within 60 days to force Millennium to obtain permits for cleanup work at the former Reynolds metals aluminum plant on Industrial Way. The two groups are Longview-based Land Owners and Citizens for a Safe Community and Vancouver-based Rosemere Neighborhood Association.

“Millennium is not a cleanup company. They are a newly formed company that’s in the export business,” said Gayle Kiser, president of the Longview group, an nonprofit with about 80 members in Cowlitz County.

The conservation groups’ Portland attorney, Scott Jerger, alleges in the suit that Millennium has failed to obtain the proper permits for stormwater and wastewater disposal for the past 209 days while handling coal, petcoke and other materials on the site. Millennium has been working on a cleanup of the Columbia River site since the beginning of the year.

Millennium inherited a giant pile of petcoke — a waste byproduct of the oil refining process — from the site’s former tenant, Chinook Ventures, and Millennium officials say they are trying do determine how to remove it. Millennium also is handling about 9,000 tons of coal per month, which it delivers to Weyerhaeuser Co. The conservation groups allege that stormwater running through these materials is causing water pollution.

The total fines for alleged violations would be about $7.8 million, Jerger argued.

The suit was a surprise for Millennium, said Kristin Gaines, the company’s environmental and health manager. She said Tuesday she needed to review the filing before commenting on specific allegations.

“At first glance, I honestly don’t think there’s a lot of merit to their accusations,” she said.

Millennium owns the buildings and equipment on the 416-acre site where it plans to build a export terminal, bringing in coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming and offloading it to ships bound for Asia, mostly China.

Millennium is jointly owned by Australian coal company Ambre Energy and St. Louis-based Arch Coal. The company bought the property for $10.9 million in January from Chinook Ventures.

The mile-long coal trains would likely come through Vancouver rail yards, which is why the Rosemere Neighborhood Association became involved in the suit, said Djiva Bertish, the group’s director of environment and conservation.

The land is owned by Alcoa, which is on the hook with state federal regulators to clean up the site from years of contamination from aluminum smelting by Reynolds. Alcoa plans to submit a cleanup timeline to the state Department of Ecology early next year.

Article source: http://tdn.com/news/local/article_ce213a80-c2e2-11e0-98b8-001cc4c002e0.html

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