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Thursday, June 10, 2004

Environment - A number of stories today

The Louisville Courier-Journal has a major story based on a review of "risk-management plans filed by the companies with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency." More:

An unchecked release of toxic chemicals from any one of dozens of plants in the Louisville metropolitan area — from chemical plants to a commercial bakery — could sicken thousands of residents. * * *

The plans outline what might happen if there's a spill or some other kind of chemical release if everything goes wrong — a scenario that companies and emergency responders agree is not likely and has never happened in the metro area. * * *

For this article, the newspaper reviewed all the risk-management plans for plants that have the ability to jeopardize people in six Louisville-area counties on both sides of the Ohio River. Plants were first required to file the plans in 1999, but some have updated them since. Plant managers are preparing to file updated submissions for a deadline this month.

A number of other stories accompany the main article, including "Some want worst-case data off-limits," which includes these quotes:
But even though the plans have been credited with enabling residents to learn about the potential risks of their industrial neighbors — and with encouraging some facilities to switch to less dangerous alternatives — some industry representatives and other groups are calling on Congress to eliminate public access to all or portions of the plans.

The Courier-Journal was able to view risk-management plans filed by companies in Jefferson County at the Louisville Metro Emergency Management Agency, through a Kentucky open-records request.

Floyd County in Indiana denied a similar request.

"Essentially, any disclosure of a record or part of a record which would have a reasonable likelihood of threatening public safety by exposing a vulnerability to terrorist attack may not be disclosed," William F. Ryall, Floyd County's emergency management director, wrote in a Feb. 23 response to the newspaper's open-records request.

The plans are also available at federal reading rooms, though it can take several weeks to get an appointment, and the government allows no photocopying and limits the number of plans that can be viewed at one time.

Another of the accompanying stories, headlined "Water company studies alternatives to disinfectant: Less risky choices being used elsewhere," reports
Utilities around the country that supply water to the public, including the one that serves Louisville, have used chlorine as a disinfectant for decades.

But nearly three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Louisville Water Co. has begun to study less risky alternatives to chlorine, which the city-owned company has used at its Crescent Hill treatment plant since 1913.

By the company's estimate, a worst-case accident at the plant could send out chemical vapors that could harm residents for almost 10 miles in any direction, depending on the wind.

Another story in the Courier-Journal today reports:
A federal judge fined the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District $100,000 yesterday for illegally ending motor-vehicle emissions testing without approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

District Judge John G. Heyburn II said the money would be paid to the Kentucky Resources Council, which sued the pollution-control district.

The judge also ordered the district to pay $30,000 in attorney fees to Tom FitzGerald, an environmental lawyer and director of the resources council.

FitzGerald said the money would be used only for advocating for improved air quality in Jefferson County. But he said he was frustrated that the ruling does nothing to offset the additional four tons per day of pollution that the VET program had been credited with preventing.

Our Courier-Journal coverage today ends with this this story, with the lead:
Kentucky ranks second and Indiana fifth in per capita deaths attributed to pollution from coal-fired power plants, according to a study done for a coalition of national environmental groups. The Abt Associates analysis, released yesterday, attributed 745 deaths annually in Kentucky to power-plant emissions, for a rate of 28.2 per 100,000 adults, second only to what the consulting group found for West Virginia: 33.1 per 100,000.

It attributed 887 deaths per year in Indiana to consequences of breathing power-plant pollution for a rate of 23.3 per 100,000. The study was released by Clear the Air, a campaign of the Clean Air Task Force, National Environmental Trust and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said Clear the Air spokesman Jonathan Banks. The groups used U.S. Environmental Protection Agency methods and consultants in preparing the report, he said.

Finally, the Washington Post today also covers the Clear the Air study, in a story available here. The NY Times coverage is here. The lead:
A research firm that the Bush administration commissioned to analyze its plan to lower emissions from coal-fired power plants compared the plan with two competing legislative proposals and concluded in a report released Wednesday that the administration's plan was the weakest.

At the invitation of the environmental coalition Clear the Air, the international research firm Abt Associates, which often conducts studies for the Environmental Protection Agency, used the same methodology in assessing all three. It found that the administration's plan, called the Clear Skies Act, would save as many as 14,000 lives but that the other bills would save more - 16,000 in one case and 22,000 in the other.

The findings, included in a report, "Dirty Air, Dirty Power," [available here in pdf] were immediately attacked by industry groups as a "repackaged" argument that focused on only one source of emissions. The administration's chief environmental policy adviser echoed the criticism, saying that the administration plan provided benefits as part of an overall strategy to meet air quality standards that were more stringent than ever.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 10, 2004 08:31 AM
Posted to Environmental Issues