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Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Environment - More stories today

Lead Paint. Real Estate News reports here today that "Federal Government Settles Cases Against Minnesota Landlords." Some quotes:

RISMEDIA, July 6-Federal authorities have achieved a victory in removing lead-based paint in apartments in four states.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Attorney in Minneapolis and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached settlements against one of the largest Midwest property management companies and a Minnesota landlord for failing to warn their tenants that their homes may contain lead-based paint hazards.

Combined, the settlements will result in the complete removal of all lead-based paint in nearly 4,500 apartments in four states in the upper Midwest-Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Indiana.

U.S. EPA. The Salt Lake Tribune reports today in a fascinating story: "Colleagues say Leavitt energized as EPA head." Some quotes:
WASHINGTON -- Eight months into the job, friends and colleagues say former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt is "invigorated" working as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency despite the challenges of a grueling work schedule, grasping highly technical issues and carrying out national policy in a charged political atmosphere.

If Leavitt had been in a rut after 11 years at the helm of Utah state government, confidants say, he appears energized by the job he began Nov. 6. "New challenges bring new enthusiasm," says Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Lane Beattie, former Utah Senate president and Leavitt's Olympic officer. Beattie and a group of chamber members met with Leavitt during a trip to Washington last month.
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The handful of former Utah state house staff who migrated east with him to work at EPA have watched with some fascination as he has adapted to both the tireless pace of Washington's power elite and the casual but committed work atmosphere inside EPA. For those veterans of Leavitt's Utah regime who are accustomed to addressing him only as "Governor" or "Boss," hearing EPA employees now regularly call him "Mike" in meetings has been a mild culture shock.

Former EPA employees say one of the factors that isolated agency staff from Leavitt's predecessor, Christine Todd Whitman, was the unspoken rule that she be referred to as "Governor," an honorific title retained from her previous position as New Jersey's top elected official.

"That caused many people at EPA to bristle," says Washington communications consultant Russ Dawson, press secretary to former EPA Administrator Lee Thomas. "It's a tough place to run, but if the staff thinks you embrace what the agency is about and care about what they do, they are more likely to work with you."

Illegal Dumping. This report, from the July 2 Greencastle Banner-Graphic, is headed "Illegal dumping source of hazmat spill." Some quotes:
CLOVERDALE - An investigation into two separate chemical spills at the Cloverdale Waste-water Treatment Plant this week has led workers at the plant to seek help from the Cloverdale Police Department.

On Monday, a citizen reported seeing a green substance floatingin Rabbit Run Creek downstream from the plant. The creek runs south from the plant and eventually connects with Doe Creek.

Then on Thursday morning, workers arrived at the sewage plant to discover that sewage had backed up in the drains inside the plant itself. Both incidents are being blamed on illegal dumping. * * *

[S]omeone is believed to be coming to the plant under the cover of darkness and illegally pumping sewage and related chemicals into one of three manholes near the plant.

Stremmings and a group of investigators from the Indiana Department of Envoironmental Management (IDEM) spent Wednesday examining the Monday spill and were able to track it back to the plant.

It is speculated that someone came to the plant late Sunday night or early Monday, removed a manhole cover near the plant and then pumped in a green liquid which Stremmings believes is used to treat waste in portable restrooms.

From the manhole, the "emerald green" liquid then made its way into the nearby creek through a drain pipe that is normally used to handle excess rainfall that comes into the plant. During those times, Stremmings explained, IDEM permits him to keep the solid waste inside the plant for proper treatment but allow some of the liquid waste, which is diluted with the excess rainfall, to run out of the plant and through the drainage pipe.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 6, 2004 04:14 PM
Posted to Environmental Issues