GreenWatch

Burning garbage to get energy is a scam. B. Mcpherson The Regional District of Nanaimo Board of Directors firmly rejected the idea of establishing a garbage burner in the area, adding that they did not wish to see one anywhere on Vancouver Island. Last night, June 25 th , RDN bureaucrats floated the idea that they should liaise with Metro Vancouver bureaucrats regarding the criteria for establishing a garbage burner at Duke Point. In a split vote, the area directors voted to allow communications but with the proviso that the bureaucrats emphasize that the district is not open to be a dumping ground for MetroVancouver’s garbage. Officials in the Lower Mainland have been looking for a site to establish a “Waste to Energy” incineration plant. The communities in the Fraser Valley voted unanimously to reject such an installation in their area citing air pollution. North Vancouver rejected the idea as did Powell River. The elected officials sitting around the room were only i...

B. McPherson If You Build It, It Will Leak The oil pipeline company that is lobbying to build an oil pipeline through British Columbia has had a leak of one of its major pipeline systems. Line 37 which serves as a link from the Alberta Oil Sands to Hardesty Alberta, has had to be shut down after a leak was discovered near Fort McMurray. The company estimates that between 500 and 750 barrels of oil escaped containment. There is speculation that the record breaking rainfall in Alberta may have caused the sodden earth to shift, breaking the pipeline. A crew will have to be dispatched to the scene for confirmation. There is the danger, that other pipelines which criss-cross the province will fail in the aftermath of the widespread flooding. Early in the epic floods, a sour gas pipeline ruptured near the town of Black Diamond in the Turner Valley. Enbridge is unable to communicate with the media efficiently at this time because their head office is in downtown Calgary which r...

B. McPherson Want a little dioxin with your breakfast? The Metro Vancouver area is a predatory polluter. For years the City of Vancouver has shipped their waste to other places. Whether it is sewage released into the ocean or garbage, it is consistently moved to someone else’s back yard. The Iona Island and Lion’s Gate sewage treatment plants are primary treat plants. Iona the largest of the treatment plants spews over 500 million litres of poopy water a day into Georgia Strait. A standard Canadian wastewater test places ten rainbow trout into a tank of undiluted effluent; if less than half of the fish survive, the plant is said to have failed the test. Primary treatment facilities reduce the oxygen requirements of effluent by approximately 30% – just enough for half of the fish to survive. This is the treatment employed at the Iona facility. - See more at: The Dependent  When the tourists come to town, when the wealthy in their million dollar condos, the old mon...

B. McPherson The wrecked Fukushima power plant in Japan is continuing to contaminate the environment with radioactive materials. High levels of tritium and strontium-90 have been detected in the groundwater beneath reactor 2. Tepco officials are maintaining their record of incompetence and obfuscation by speculating that the high levels likely leaked via the turbine building. The ground water levels of strontium-90 have increased 100x since December 2012(measurments taken in May). Strontium-90 is a dangerous radioactive element that the body incorporates in the same way as it incorporates calcium. It was prevalent in the atmosphere during the post WWII Cold War, when many nations were doing nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere. The half-life for strontium-90 is 28 years, so it continues to release radiation for many years. Tepco is now partially owned by the Japanese government. In a clever way to spread the costs of the attempted cleanup, the Japanese governmen...

Wal-Mart needs to have a look at what their customers already know. B. McPherson Washington DC. WalMart has been assessed an $81.6 million fine for dumping hazardous waste materials into municipal dumps and water treatment facilities. The violations that the company was prosecuted for started in 2006 when returned and damaged packages were routed to Missouri where they were repackaged for sale in contravention with safety regulations. The court contended that while WalMart did not directly dump and repackage hazardous goods, the company that was tasked with handling the material, Greenleaf LLC, was not adequately supervised. Truckloads of hazardous products, including more than two million pounds of pesticides, were improperly handled under Wal-Mart’s contract,” said Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri . Environmental News Service In addition to the $81.6 in penalties assessed in the Missouri case, an additional $28 million in fin...

B. McPherson Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, who worked as well site leaders on the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, are facing manslaughter charges. The charges arise from the deaths of 11 workers who lost their lives in the fiery explosion that saw over four million barrels of oil spew into the waters of the Gulf. The months long spill fouled water, beaches and wetlands. It affected the health of countless people exposed to the oil fumes. The jury is still out on the eventual effect of the dispersant Corexit which was sprayed on the oil slicks. In the legal action it is alleged that the site leaders ignored the warning signs that the well was not secure. The defense argues that the USA has no jurisdiction over the Deepwater Horizon drill platform because it was outside the territorial waters. It was tethered 50 miles offshore and the control extends only 12 miles. Beyond the 12 miles, the defense argues, if a vessel is flo...