Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Westlake Landfill Testing Update

Dawn Chapman uploaded a file.

We have some more great news to share with you all!

EPA and the Responsible Party at West Lake are FINALLY finished with all the testing that is designed to locate all the previously unknown areas with radioactive waste on the landfill. There is now an updated map that EPA will be posting as well as two meetings the agency will host shortly in the next three months. We have entered the final phase right before the clean up, which is designing the plan for where to start and where to finish. EPA would also like to host another listening session so they can hear from you all what the impact of this site has been and what things you want and need. The are genuinely looking for your input so they can design their meeting and make sure they are meeting your needs for how to inform you about things having to do with the site and clean up moving forward. We are hoping to see these meetings in February and March-possibly beginning of April. Please be sure to let us know if there is a way we can help you access this meeting either in person or online. Our EPA TASK coordinator has stated that they could also help accommodate with childcare needs/ activities for the event. It's been a busy week with meetings between multiple agencies for multiple sites in our region. The one thing that appears to be the same between all the agencies and sites is that community engagement and direct interaction with agencies has had made the difference on getting these agencies to consider different plans, testing locations etc. Direct community involvement going forward is going to be critical at our site and others! The moms extend this invite to those of you on this page who care about these issues. Whether you lived in the areas decades ago, live here currently, have friends and family who live here now, or just care about the horrific situation that has been allowed to plague this region for over 70 years. No degrees or advanced degrees are required! While Karen Nickel and I have worked for over 10 years now to establish communications with this agency and help guide this process, this issue does not belong to just us and we are not, nor do we desire to be the only ones who have direct access to the agencies who make the decisions. While we are happy to take your questions back to the agencies, we also want to make sure you have the ability to reach out directly and ask them your questions. Look for invitations going forward to get more one on one time and be involved with working groups to be posted soon.

I have downloaded the file and uploaded it to my google storage files here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-GCs7DWIauJXcCK6PYFLNH3Ies18ndya/view?usp=sharing

EPA Announces Latest Actions to Protect Groundwater and Communities from Coal Ash Contamination

Agency issues six proposed determinations to deny facilities’ requests to continue unsafe coal ash disposal Issued: Jan 25, 2023 (2:29pm EST)

WASHINGTON (Jan. 25, 2023) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the latest action to protect communities and hold facilities accountable for controlling and cleaning up the contamination created by coal ash disposal. The Agency issued six proposed determinations to deny facilities’ requests to continue disposing of coal combustion residuals (CCR or coal ash) into unlined surface impoundments.

For a seventh facility that has withdrawn its application, Apache Generating Station in Cochise, Arizona, EPA issued a letter identifying concerns with deficiencies in its liner components and groundwater monitoring program.

“With today’s proposed denials, EPA is holding facilities accountable and protecting our precious water resources from harmful contamination, all while ensuring a reliable supply of electricity to our communities,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “We remain committed to working with our state partners to protect everyone, especially those in communities overburdened by pollution, from coal ash contamination now and into the future.”

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in coal-fired power plants that, without proper management, can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water, and the air. Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic associated with cancer and various other serious health effects.

Today’s action delivers protections for underserved communities already overburdened by pollution, and reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to advancing environmental justice in impacted communities.

EPA is proposing to deny the applications for continued use of unlined surface impoundments at the following six facilities:

Belle River Power Plant, China Township, Michigan.
Coal Creek Station, Underwood, North Dakota.
Conemaugh Generating Station, New Florence, Pennsylvania.
Coronado Generating Station, St. Johns, Arizona.
Martin Lake Steam Electric Station, Tatum, Texas.
Monroe Power Plant, Monroe, Michigan.

EPA is proposing to deny these applications because the owners and operators of the CCR units fail to demonstrate that the surface impoundments comply with requirements of the CCR regulations. Specifically, EPA is proposing to deny these applications due to:

Inadequate groundwater monitoring networks.
Failure to prove groundwater is monitored to detect and characterize any elevated levels of contaminants coming from the coal ash surface impoundment.
Evidence of potential releases from the impoundments and insufficient information to support claims that the contamination is from sources other than the impoundments.
Inadequate documentation for the design and performance of the impoundment liners.
Failure to meet all location restrictions.

If EPA finalizes these denials, the facilities will have to either stop sending waste to these unlined impoundments or submit applications to EPA for extensions to the deadline for unlined coal ash surface impoundments to stop receiving waste.

In the significant interest of maintaining grid reliability, the Agency is also proposing a process for these facilities to seek additional time, if needed to address demonstrated grid reliability issues. This process relies in part on reliability assessments from the relevant regional transmission organizations, ensuring a reliable supply of electricity while protecting public health.
EPA is collecting public comments on these proposals for 30 days through dockets in Regulations.gov. For more information, visit the Part B implementation webpage.

Background
The CCR Part B Final Rule, published November 12, 2020, allowed facilities to demonstrate to EPA that, based on groundwater data and the design of a particular surface impoundment, the operation of the unit has and will continue to ensure there is no reasonable probability of adverse effects to human health and the environment. EPA approval would allow the unit to continue to operate.

EPA received applications for alternate liner demonstrations from eight facilities with 17 CCR surface impoundments. These applications were from facilities in Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Texas. One Arizona facility and the Louisiana facility have since withdrawn their applications.

Learn more about coal ash

For further information: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Italian researcher says hemp stalks from polluted soil OK for building, energy

Italian researcher says hemp stalks from polluted soil OK for building, energy Hemp grown to clean up polluted soil could be used for hempcrete construction and to produce energy, with virtually no health risks, an Italian researcher has suggested. Vito Gallo, Professor of Chemistry at the Polytechnic of Bari, said the hemp plant’s performance in the phyto-remediation (phyto-purification) process leaves only trace amounts of any pollutants behind. “Hemp allows a sort of dilution of metals in the biomass and this results in material that, in principle, presents very limited or even no health risks,” Gallo, who is also coordinator of BIO SP.HE.RE., a hemp-specific research initiative, told Canapa Industriale. Gallo suggested that scientific organizations could get together to set acceptable levels of concentration of any foreign substances in downstream hemp products. Robust research Italian stakeholders are working on significant research regarding phyto-remediation, in which specific plants are grown both to clean up pollutants such as heavy metals, and to stimulate the degradation of organic compounds to enrich the soil. Hemp has proven itself to be highly effective in both roles, as Italian scientists have set out to further document. The question has always been what would be done with the adulterated hemp once it’s harvested from polluted fields. Italian researchers have posited that most of the heavy metals absorbed by hemp are stored in the roots and leaves of the plant, leaving only miniscule amounts in the hemp stalk, and continue to study that process. Hemp and soil The research in Italy builds on studies from as far back as 2002, when researchers from the University of Wuppertal and the Faserinstitut of Bremen, Germany, showed that hemp plants sown for remediation collected most heavy metals in the leaves, while plant stalks were virtually unaffected by contamination. A later study in India in 2014 identified hemp as a promising tool for the hyperaccumulation of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, copper, chromium and nickel. Further studies since then have underpinned both analyses. In addition to using the hemp stalks for hempcrete, hemp biomass can be burned for energy. With the ashes collected under controlled conditions, the metals can be extracted and re-used, Gallo said.

The efficiency of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in remediating sites

Conclusions

It was demonstrated that hemp accumulates copper, chromium, nickel, and zinc preferentially in the leaves, while lead is distributed mainly in the stems of the plant. Such selective compartmentalization is enhanced when the plant is irrigated with water containing spirulina. It was found that, at higher concentrations, spirulina acts as a growth promoter, contributing to an increase in the final generated biomass. Also, it was demonstrated that the treatment with spirulina during the cultivation of the hemp induced an enhancement in the uptake of heavy metals, except for lead. Such a result may be explained by assuming a strong affinity of spirulina towards the lead, resulting in confinement of this metal inside the soil and hampering its uptake by the plant. The NMR analysis allowed to identify the crucial variations of the metabolic composition that were induced by the treatment with spirulina. Results reported in this work pave the way to further studies aimed to understand the optimal dose of spirulina to enhance the efficiency of this innovative combined remediation bio-system. Furthermore, the results described may encourage the application of spectroscopic methods for the rapid detection of structural changes in the various environmental spheres, allowing prompt intervention through the adoption of remediation schemes

A B S T R A C T

The efficiency of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in remediating sites contaminated with heavy metals has received

great attention in recent years. The main advantage of this technology relies on its inherent sustainability with a

potential re-utilization of the significant amount of produced biomass which acts as a valuable flow resource. In

this study, a combined system consisting of Cannabis sativa L. (hemp) and the blue-green alga Arthrospira platensis

(spirulina) was tested to clean up soils contaminated with cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, and zinc.

The application of non-targeted NMR methods combined with ICP-AES quantification provided an efficient

strategy for detecting residual heavy metals within plant tissues and soil. Importantly, non-targeted metabolomic

analysis helped to reveal the relationships between metabolites distribution in hemp tissues and the sequestered

metals. It was demonstrated that hemp accumulates copper, chromium, nickel, and zinc preferentially in the

leaves, while lead is distributed mainly in the stems of the plant. Moreover, it was found that, at higher con-

centrations, spirulina acts as a growth promoter, contributing to an increase in the final generated biomass.

Results reported in this work indicate that the hemp/spirulina system represents a suitable tool for remediation

of metal contaminated soils by modulating biomass production and metals uptake.

1. Introduction

Dispersion of heavy metals in soils is an age-old problem deriving

from both natural and anthropic sources (Awa and Hadibarata, 2020).

Among the anthropic contribution to soil contamination by metals, land

application of treated wastewater, sewage sludge, fertilizers, and in-

dustrial activities are major concerns (Vareda et al., 2019). Unbalanced

amounts of heavy metals may cause perturbation of soil parameters with

consequent toxic effects on plants, in the nearby water supplies, and,

ultimately, in the whole food chain (Arora et al., 2008; Kumar et al.,

2019; Manzoor et al., 2018). Typically, elements, such as copper (Cu),

nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), and chromium (Cr) are biologically essential for

plant growth but become toxic for animals and plants when their con-

centrations exceed certain threshold levels (Edelstein and Ben-Hur,

2018; Rizvi et al., 2020; Tiwari and Lata, 2018). Other heavy metals

often found in contaminated soils, such as cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb)

are not essential for plants growth, and many studies associated their

presence with neurological and endocrinological toxicity for humans

along with carcinogenic effects (Ali and Khan, 2019; Pratush et al.,

2018; Rehman et al., 2018).

Since heavy metals are not biodegradable, they tend to accumulate in

the environment becoming a high risk for biota over several years after

their introduction in an ecosystem (Olsson et al., 1998; Tchounwou

et al., 2012; Zwolak et al., 2019). The search for new solutions that can

remediate heavy metals-contaminated soil is a critical prerequisite for

the sustainable development of agriculture (Edelstein and Ben-Hur,

2018; ; Vardhan et al., 2019; Wuana and Okieimen, 2011), thus repre-

senting a topic of paramount importance. The most consolidated stra-

tegies to remediate heavy-metals contaminated soils include physical

and chemical approaches, like isolation, through capping and subsurface

* Corresponding authors at: Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry (DICATECh), Polytechnic University of Bari, Via

Orabona, 4, Bari 70125, Italy.

E-mail addresses: biagia.musio@poliba.it (B. Musio), vito.gallo@poliba.it (V. Gallo).

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Advances

journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/environmental-advances

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envadv.2021.100144

Received 4 October 2021; Received in revised form 17 November 2021; Accepted 19 November 2021