Category Archives: pollution

by

Thank you Hyatt

“Hyatt is the latest international hotel brand to ditch travel-sized toiletries from its rooms, following Holiday Inn-owner InterContinental Group and Marriott International.

Portable tubes of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel will be replaced with bulk-sized toiletries across Hyatt’s global chain of 220,000 rooms beginning in June 2021. The changes will affect Hyatt’s 900 hotels worldwide, encompassing 20 brands, including Park Hyatt, Hyatt Place and the Andaz.

“Plastic pollution is a global issue, and we hope our efforts will motivate guests, customers and, indeed, ourselves to think more critically about our use of plastic,” Mark Hoplamazian, president and CEO of Hyatt, said in a press release.”

It takes everybody working together to reduce plastics….why all the packaging? Ever since Tylenol scare back in the 1980s, companies have gone packaging crazy…time to ease up on Plastics. Buying local is a starting point…

by

2 gallons of radioactive nuclear waste done; 56M gallons to go | The Columbian

http://www.columbian.com/news/2018/may/16/2-gallons-of-radioactive-nuclear-waste-done-56m-gallons-to-go/

“It’s a big deal,” said Dawn Wellman, sector manager for environmental health and remediation at the national lab in Richland. “At a scaled version we have done what they will do at full scale at Hanford.”

The vitrification plant — or Waste Treatment Plant — at the Hanford nuclear reservation has been under construction since 2002, with a court-ordered deadline of 2023 to start treating some of the 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks.

Much of the waste, which is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program, is planned to be vitrified, or turned into a solid glass form for disposal.”

by

EPA orders extensive cleanup of radioactive waste site near St. Louis

https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/09/27/epa-orders-extensive-cleanup-radioactive-waste-site-near-st-louis/

“The West Lake Landfill contains thousands of tons of radioactive material from the World War II-era Manhattan Project that was dumped at the site in the 1970s, where it has languished ever since amid other waste. The latest plan calls for excavating 70 percent of the radioactive waste from the site — a far cry from a 2008 solution proposed by the George W. Bush administration to cover and monitor the waste.“

by

Hanford waste, 9 year wait worth it

https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article213801829.html

The first shipment of highly radioactive sludge left an annex at the Hanford nuclear reservation’s K West Reactor Basin, which is near the Columbia River, at about 10:30 a.m. Monday. It was taken to central Hanford for storage away from the river.
Courtesy Department of Energy
by

From stltoday.com

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/parson-signs-law-setting-up-funds-for-radioactive-waste-probe/article_5962ba0a-6ac9-5d82-941a-fdad2212d872.html

Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who was sworn in on June 1 after the resignation of Gov. Eric Greitens, approved the proposal championed by Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City.

The measure will allocate $150,000 annually to the Department of Natural Resources to probe sites like the West Lake Landfill in north St. Louis County, where radioactive material was dumped more than 40 years ago.

by

What to do with nuclear waste-From forbes.com

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/06/19/stop-letting-your-ridiculous-fears-of-nuclear-waste-kill-the-planet/

“What is usually referred to as nuclear waste is used nuclear fuel in the shape of rods about 12 feet long. For four and a half years, the uranium atoms that comprise the fuel rods are split apart to give off the heat that turns water into steam to spin turbines to make electricity. After that, nuclear plant workers move the used fuel rods into pools of water to cool.”

Congress wants to ‘bury’ Nevada in nuclear waste?

by

Floating “Titanic” nuclear plant launched for St Petersberg

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/floating-nuclear-power-plant-russia-floating-chernobyl-nuclear-titanic-akademik-lomonosov-launch-a8327316.html
The floating plant, the first of its kind in the world, will then be loaded with nuclear fuel before being towed to the Arctic port of Pevek in the summer of 2019, where it will be put into service.

by

West Lake Landfill Superfund Site is an approximately 200-acre, inactive solid waste disposal facility located in Bridgeton, Missouri

The EPA thinks the best choice is alternative 4. The plan calls for about 70% of the waste would be removed from the site by digging down 16 feet deep. Then a permanent cap would be placed on the area. It would cost about $246 million and take 5-years to implement.

Many residents said a partial removal is only a partial solution and when over 1,000 residents were asked during the meeting who would like alternative 4 not one person raised their hand.

3
5 years to fully implement at an estimated cost of $236,000,000. The EPA has identified this preferred
alternative over 7 others that were evaluated in the RIA/FFS — including no action, two cap-in-place
alternatives, and five excavation alternatives — each of which is described in greater detail below. The EPA
believes that this preferred alternative is protective and represents the best balance of the criteria prescribed
by the CERCLA, as amended, and the NCP.
The EPA is issuing this proposal as part of its public participation responsibilities under Section 117 of CERCLA
and 40 C.F.R. 300.435(c)(2) of the NCP. This proposal is intended to inform the community of the EPA’s
preferred alternative and to solicit public comments relating to the remedial alternatives evaluated, including
the preferred alternative. The final decision to amend the ROD will be made after consideration of the
comments received and any new information raised during the public comment period. Therefore, the public
is encouraged to review and provide comment on all remedial alternatives.
The Administrative Record file, including the RIA/FFS reports, is available on the EPA’s website at https://
semspub.epa.gov/src/collections/07/AR/MOD079900932. The EPA encourages members of the public to
review these documents to obtain facts about the Site and the activities that have been conducted as part of
the Superfund process.
The West Lake Landfill Superfund
Site is an approximately 200-acre,
inactive solid waste disposal
facility located in Bridgeton,
Missouri (Figure 1). T
,
39,000 tons of (potentially
contaminated) surface soil
8,700 tons of
.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC), as successor to
the AEC, performed and/or
commissioned multiple site
investigations

by

Residents voice support for plan to remove all radioactive waste from West Lake Landfill – FOX2now.com

http://fox2now.com/2018/03/06/residents-voice-support-for-plan-to-remove-all-radioactive-waste-from-west-lake-landfill/amp/

”

The EPA thinks the best choice is alternative 4. The plan calls for about 70% of the waste would be removed from the site by digging down 16 feet deep. Then a permanent cap would be placed on the area. It would cost about $246 million and take 5-years to implement.

Many residents said a partial removal is only a partial solution and when over 1,000 residents were asked during the meeting who would like alternative 4 not one person raised their hand.”

Yet another Superfund site….

by

There’s a Persistent Hum in This Canadian City, and No One Knows Why – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/world/canada/windsor-hum.html

The Windsor hum is back in the news! NYT reporting: “The University of Windsor report said the hum’s likely source was blast furnace operations on Zug Island on the Detroit River, which is densely packed with manufacturing. Activists complained that United States Steel, which operates the furnaces, has been uncooperative and secretive. A company spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.”

They also identify othwr places in the world with this low frequency hum like Taos.