Tamaqua properties illegally discharging into Wabash Creek
http://www.tnonline.com/node/197237
Reported on Friday, May 20, 2011
By LIZ PINKEY tneditor@tnonline.com
Fifty six properties in the borough of Tamaqua have been identified as having active or once active illegal sewer connections to the Wabash Creek.
Those that were once active may need further investigation to determine if they will need to be addressed. Council president Micah Gursky announced the findings of a recent study at this week’s borough council meeting, stating that property owners have already been notified by certified mail.
“As sad as it is that we have illegal discharge, it’s nice to see a list finally verifying who is illegally connected,” said Gursky. “There have always been rumors.”
The list is now available to the general public and can be viewed at the borough building.
“This is just the beginning,” said Gursky. “There are a lot of folks who have to connect and a lot of work to be done over the next several months to connect them.”
The majority of the properties are located along S. Lehigh, W. Broad, Rowe, S. Railroad and Nescopec streets. Gursky added that
The borough has until August to address the problems to avoid further issues with DEP, which has already cited the borough for the illegal discharge. Property owners have 60 days to connect to the sewage system.
Borough manager Kevin Steigerwalt asked borough residents for their continued cooperation in the matter.
“So far, the people have have contacted us with questions have been very cooperative. We appreciate that,” he said.
The borough does have a revolving loan program that could be available to property owners who need financial assistance to have the work completed. More information on that program is available from the borough.
State may limit drilling byproduct from being spread on farms
Pennsylvania is seeking to limit the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer on farmers’ fields if the sludge comes from sewer plants that treat wastewater from natural gas drilling.
Environmental regulators’ concerns about the sludge were highlighted in a New York Times article on Friday that described the risks of radioactive contaminants in the drilling wastewater concentrating in the sludge during treatment. The sludge, also called biosolids, is sometimes sold or given away to farmers and gardeners as fertilizer if it meets certain standards for pathogens and metals.
The Times article quotes from a transcript of a March 15 conference call between officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection about how to better regulate discharges of the wastewater that can be high in salts, metals and naturally occurring radioactive materials.
DEP is developing a guidance document about how to include new wastewater treatment standards into permits for new or expanding treatment plants that handle the drilling fluids. The new standards limit the amount of salty discharge, called total dissolved solids, that can enter state streams.
The draft guidance document would also bar treatment plants that receive untreated drilling wastewater from using their sludge for land application.
Ron Furlan, a division manager for DEP’s Bureau of Water Standards and Facility Regulation, is quoted in the the New York Times as saying sludge was included in the guidance document because “we don’t have a good handle on the radiological concerns right now, and in any case we don’t want people land-applying biosolids that may be contaminated to any significant level by radium 226-228 or other emitters.”
The guidance does not carry the legal weight of a regulation and would not be imposed on treatment plants unless their discharge permit is up for renewal or they apply for a new or expanded permit.
The draft guidance also proposes that treatment plants accepting untreated drilling wastewater develop radiation protection “action plans” and have monitoring requirements for radium 226 and 228, gross alpha and uranium established in their permits.
In a letter this week to the EPA, DEP Acting Secretary Michael Krancer wrote that the state has directed 14 public water supplies that draw from rivers downstream from treatment plants that accept Marcellus Shale wastewater to test the finished drinking water for radioactive contaminants and other pollutants. The state also called on 25 treatment plants that accept the wastewater to begin twice monthly testing for radioactivity in their discharges.
Tests of seven state rivers at sites downstream from wastewater treatment plants last fall showed that levels of radioactivity were at or below normal levels.
In the conference call quoted by the New York Times, environmental regulators also expressed concerns about radionuclides settling in the sediment of rivers where the incompletely treated wastewater is discharged from sewer plants.
“If you were really looking for radionuclides, that’s the first place I would look,” Furlan said.
DEP spokeswoman Katy Gresh said Friday that there are currently no plans to begin testing river sediment for radionuclides.
“We will use the results of the increased testing/monitoring to see what is being discharged before making that decision,” she said.
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: April 9, 2011
http://citizensvoice.com/news/state-may-limit-drilling-byproduct-from-being-spread-on-farms-1.1130088#axzz1J1xZtYwG
Company makes diesel with sun, water, CO2
Massachusetts biotech firm promises ‘energy independence.’
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Massachusetts biotechnology company says it can produce the fuel that runs Jaguars and jet engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow.
Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it can manipulate the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels.
What can it mean? No less than “energy independence,” Joule’s web site tells the world, even if the world’s not quite convinced.
“We make some lofty claims, all of which we believe, all which we’ve validated, all of which we’ve shown to investors,” said Joule chief executive Bill Sims.
“If we’re half right, this revolutionizes the world’s largest industry, which is the oil and gas industry,” he said. “And if we’re right, there’s no reason why this technology can’t change the world.”
The doing, though, isn’t quite done, and there’s skepticism Joule can live up to its promises.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientist Philip Pienkos said Joule’s technology is exciting but unproven, and their claims of efficiency are undercut by difficulties they could have just collecting the fuel their organism is producing.
Timothy Donohue, director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says Joule must demonstrate its technology on a broad scale.
Perhaps it can work, but “the four letter word that’s the biggest stumbling block is whether it ‘will’ work,” Donohue said. “There are really good ideas that fail during scale up.”
Sims said he knows “there’s always skeptics for breakthrough technologies.”
“And they can ride home on their horse and use their abacus to calculate their checkbook balance,” he said.
Joule was founded in 2007. In the last year, it’s roughly doubled its employees to 70, closed a $30 million second round of private funding in April and added John Podesta, former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, to its board of directors.
Work to create fuel from solar energy has been done for decades, such as by making ethanol from corn or extracting fuel from algae. But Joule says they’ve eliminated the middleman that’s makes producing biofuels on a large scale so costly.
That middleman is the “biomass,” such as the untold tons of corn or algae that must be grown, harvested and destroyed to extract a fuel that still must be treated and refined to be used. Joule says its organisms secrete a completed product, already identical to ethanol and the components of diesel fuel, then live on to keep producing it at remarkable rates.
Joule claims, for instance, that its cyanobacterium can produce 15,000 gallons of diesel full per acre annually, over four times more than the most efficient algal process for making fuel. And they say they can do it at $30 a barrel.
JAY LINDSAY Associated Press
February 28, 2011- Link
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DEP orders Tamaqua to fix sewer discharge
http://republicanherald.com/news/dep-orders-tamaqua-to-fix-sewer-discharge-1.1080322
DEP orders Tamaqua to fix sewer discharge
BY BEN WOLFGANG (STAFF WRITER bwolfgang@republicanherald.com)
Published: December 21, 2010
TAMAQUA – The borough has a little more than eight months to identify and reroute all illegal sewer discharge into Wabash Creek, the state Department of Environmental Protection ordered last week.
“The borough’s failure to address the problem left us with no choice but to order them to comply,” DEP’s Northeast Regional Director Michael Bedrin said in a written statement Monday.
According to DEP, at least two locations have been illegally discharging sewage directly into the creek, and there are 39 other potential illegal discharge sites.
The Tamaqua Public Library, 30 S. Railroad St., is one of the two confirmed locations, according to DEP.
DEP conducted dye tests earlier this year confirming the illegal discharge. Complaints about the discharge have been ongoing for several years and efforts to fix the problems have been unsuccessful, DEP said.
The discharges violate Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law.
“We want this addressed as quickly as possible,” DEP spokesman Mark Carmon said Monday. “This isn’t something new. They should have been looking at this for a while.”
DEP has ordered the library to connect to the borough sewer system by May 31, 2011. The other sites have until Aug. 31 to comply.
“There are no excuses for these violations. The borough was responsible for dealing with this pollution, failed in that responsibility and allowed raw sewage to be discharged into the creek,” said Bedrin.
DEP has ordered the borough to:
– Take whatever steps necessary to require the library to connect to the Tamaqua wastewater system
– Take whatever steps are necessary to investigate the sources of the sewage, notify owners of the problem and order them to correct it
– Identify any and all pipes funneling sewage directly into Wabash Creek
– Submit a report to DEP by Sept. 30 documenting the results of borough investigations and outlining the steps taken to address the problem
– Submit quarterly written progress reports
Tamaqua Mayor Christian Morrison and solicitor Michael Greek had no comment and directed all questions to borough manager Kevin Steigerwalt, who did return calls Monday.
Official seeks ordinance barring use of biosolids
http://www.tnonline.com/node/146100
Official seeks ordinance barring use of biosolids
Reported on Tuesday, October 26, 2010
By CHRIS PARKER cparker@tnonline.com
Lansford needs to have an ordinance in place barring the use of biosolids – commonly known as sludge – in the community, Tommy Vadyak of borough council’s Public Safety Committee said Monday.
He hopes that if Lansford adopts such an ordinance, surrounding communities will follow suit to the material, the byproduct of domestic and commercial sewage and wastewater treatment, out of the area.
Council may discuss the matter when it meets at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in the borough’s community center at 1 W. Ridge St.
“It’s a safety matter,” he said. “Years ago, there were two young boys who died … I’m on the down side of life. It’s not to protect me, it’s to protect the youth coming up. I’m just looking out for their safety.”
Vadyak referred to 17-year-old Daniel Pennock of Mohrsville, Berks County, who died in 1995 days after coming in contact with biosolids used as fertilizer in a farmer’s field. Pennock died about six months after an 11-year-old Clearfield County boy, Tony Behun, died after riding his dirt bike across a strip mine where biosolids had been used.
He said there are few areas where biosolids might be used in Lansford. However, Lehigh Coal & Navigation of Pottsville has extensive mine pits in the Panther Valley where the substance could be used.
“I want to get a start here. Maybe if we get something started here, maybe the other communities around us will pick up on it and get one in place in their communities,” he said. “There are proper places to take biosolids; it’s not to dump it in our backyards.”
Vadyak said toxins from the material can be carried up to four miles on the wind. “I want to have a buffer,” he said. “Maybe we can get something going here to protect the whole area. This is not a dumping ground.”
Vadyak said that the biosolids matter surfaced in 1999-2000, when Lehigh Coal & Navigation of Pottsville proposed using the material to reclaim mine lands behind the Panther Valley High School in Summit Hill along Route 209 between Lansford and Nesquehoning. That plan was later dropped.
Lansford In June 2004 expected to adopt an ordinance governing biosolids, after neighboring Summit Hill adopted such an ordinance. That borough’s action was prompted by LC&N’s proposal to use biosolids, along with fly ash and kiln dust, for mine reclamation. The ordinance required that biosolids be tested for germs, chemicals, metals, radioactivity and material that would attract rodents.
Vadyak wants his council and those of neighboring communities to adopt an ordinance modeled after the much tougher one in place in East Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County, one that has withstood legal challenges at the state level.
East Brunswick’s ordinance will also likely be adopted Schuylkill Township supervisors. On Oct. 6, the Harrisburg Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility withdrew its plans to use biosolids in a Schuylkill Township mine reclamation project. The mine is on land owned by the county and leased to Premium Coal of Hazleton. The treatment facility and Material Matters, the Lancaster County consultant representing it, ran into a wall of opposition from residents and township officials.
Although Schuylkill Township has an ordinance in place regulating the use of the material, supervisors plan to update the law by adopting one based on the East Brunswick Township ordinance.
No biosolids dumping
http://www.tnonline.com/node/140749
No biosolids dumping
Reported on Thursday, October 7, 2010
By LIZ PINKEY TN Correspondent tneditor@tnonline.com
LIZ PINKEY/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS More than 70 residents and local officials packed into the Schuylkill Township building last night to protest a proposed biosolid dumping project.
Overflow Schuylkill Township crowd learns company will not pursue project
By LIZ PINKEY TN Correspondent tneditor@tnonline.com
It was standing room only at last night’s Schuylkill Township meeting. Approximately 65 residents filled the township hall, while another 10 spilled out into the hallway.
The group gathered to voice their opposition to a proposal to dump biosolids in the township. Also on hand to lend their support were state Rep. Jerry Knowles, East Brunswick Township Supervisor Jeff Faust, Tamaqua Mayor Christian Morrison, and Christine Verdier, state Sen. David Argall’s chief of staff.
The issue first came to light at last month’s meeting when representatives from Material Matters, an Elizabethtown-based consulting firm, presented a proposal to use biosolids for mine reclamation in the township.
Although residents came armed with “Stop the Dumping” signs and were clearly prepared to vehemently protest the use of biosolids, the point became moot when the supervisors received a fax from Material Matters just minutes before the start of the meeting, advising them that Material Matters would not be pursuing the project at this time.
A sigh of relief swept the audience, but many are aware that it is only a matter of time before the issue comes up again. Despite invitations to meet with Material Matters personnel and tour another facility where the biosolids have been utilized, Knowles said that he is not satisfied that the material is safe.
“I have a 2 1/2-year-old grandson and I would not want this stuff anywhere near him,” he said. “I don’t pretend to be a chemist, but I’m smart enough to know when something is bad.”
Verdier said that her primary concerns were not as Argall’s chief of staff, but as a resident of the immediate area.
“I’m your neighbor. I not only live here, I am active on the water authority. I walk the ball field often,” she said. “My relationship with the community was priority number one.” Verdier encouraged residents to stand united and behind the supervisors on the issue.
“This does not mean they will be gone forever,” she said of the company’s decision not to pursue the project.
Morrison also applauded the community’s determination to keep the sludge out of their township.
“The best thing you can do is what you’re doing right here,” he said. Faust, who as a supervisor in East Brunswick Township, has done battle with the sludge companies, encouraged the township to adopt an ordinance similar to the one that his township has in place. Faust related the three-year battle that East Brunswick waged against the state’s attorney general.
“We have been lobbying for three years to get legislation initiated to protect ourselves. If they’re not going to ban it, then it must come back to local control,” he said.
Township solicitor Michael Greek said that the township has an ordinance banning the dumping of biosolids in place; however, they are looking to update the ordinance based on the one that East Brunswick, that has withstood legal challenges. Supervisors Linda DeCindio and Charles Hosler agreed that the ordinance will be approved as quickly as possible.