Nuclear Waste: Not in MY Drinking Water!

Speakers urge full cleanup of West Valley waste site - 05/31/2009
With only eight days left for public comment and no final repository decided upon for the most dangerous radioactive wastes at the West Valley Demonstration Project, a coalition of environmental groups is trying to steer the decades-old debate over how to clean up the former nuclear fuels processing center.

Federal and state officials wish to defer for up to 30 years the question of whether to leave some radioactive waste forever buried, but according to Brian Smith, western New York program director of Citizens’ Campaign for the Environment, a full cleanup of the waste site is the only “responsible option to protect our Great Lakes, health and economy.”

Smith was one of five speakers at the Erie Basin Marina Saturday, urging people to make their opinions on the issue heard. The speakers urged state residents to tell the Department of Energy (DOE) and the NY State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to fully excavate and clean the 3,300-acre site 30 miles south of Buffalo.

“Now is our chance to protect our drinking water from intensely radioactive nuclear power and weapons waste buried upstream decades ago but still able to cause large numbers of cancers now and in decades to come,” said Diane D’Arrigo, radioactive waste project director at Nuclear Information and Resource Service. “The [DOE] and [state] won’t commit to dig it all up before it leaks further unless every one of us tells them they must,” she said.

Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, spoke at the Erie Basin Marina on Saturday and he supports a full cleanup. He, along with Rep. Eric Massa, D-Corning, will ask Energy Secretary Steven Chu for a 90-day extension of the public comment period that began in November.

The public comment period on the issue ends June 8, and environmental officials and the congressmen encourage New York residents to file comments and complaints about the West Valley site [click here].

For the full Buffalo News report by Jake May, click here.


Related Reports and Information:
Study urges removing all waste from West Valley nuclear site - 12/03/2008
Excavating and removing all the radioactive material from the West Valley nuclear waste site is costly in the short term but cheaper and safer for area residents in the long run, a new study of the site cleanup found.Study urges removing all waste from West Valley nuclear site. The study’s authors say permanently burying nuclear waste at the Cattaraugus County facility would lead to higher costs and risks of radiation poisoning. Click the title for the full report by Stephen T. Watson in The Buffalo News.

Senecas endorse plan for radioactive waste cleanup - 03/24/2009
The Seneca Nation of Indians has endorsed a plan calling for the digging up and removal of all radioactive waste from the West Valley nuclear waste site in Cattaraugus County. The nation agrees with a recent cleanup study that found removing toxic material from the site is the best way to ensure the health and safety of the population and ecosystem.
Click the title for the full report by Stephen T. Watson in The Buffalo News.

West Valley: Washington, Albany must remove all nuclear wastes - 03/24/2009
Radioactive waste has leaked into West Valley’s ditches. It sends a plume of radioactive groundwater toward Buttermilk Creek. Buttermilk’s 160-foot bluff, a few hundred yards away, has had a landslide. Plutonium has been found in Cattaraugus Creek behind Scobey Hill dam. There is the potential of polluting the waters of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River with West Valley’s poisons. Clearly it was a terrible mistake to put such a dangerous facility into such unstable terrain. The only conceivable answer now is complete removal of nuclear materials from West Valley.
Click the title for the The Buffalo News article by Larry Beahan, conservation chairman of the Sierra Club Niagara Group.

Complete cleanup of West Valley site is the only real solution - 04/01/2009
The more than 600 metric tons of solidified nuclear waste, plus toxic leaks that have already been detected in surrounding water supplies, is no gift for us to leave future generations. It will be expensive, and it will take time, but the best approach to the West Valley waste site is to remove it, completely, once and for all. Editorial in The Buffalo News.

Push is on for full cleanup of NY nuclear site - 05/29/2009
Environmentalists and others say removing all traces of high- and low-level waste is the only way, given the erosion-prone geology, to ensure that it will not eventually seep into nearby creeks, make its way into Lakes Erie and Ontario and contaminate drinking water supplies.
Among others weighing in to support a full cleanup have been the Presbytery of Western New York, which passed a resolution citing its "Christian commitment to caring for creation," Catholic Charities and the Western New York Council on Occupational Safety & Health. Read the full report by Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press Writer.

The public comment period on the issue ends June 8, and New York residents can file comments and complaints about the West Valley site by clicking here.

Public Comments on Decommisioning of the West Valley Nuclear Site Extended to May 25

Positive Declaration Extension of Scoping Period

 

Cattaraugus County - The New York State Energy Research and Development Agency (NYS ERDA), as lead agency, has determined that the proposed Phase 2 Decommissioning of the West Valley Site may have a significant adverse impact on the environment and a Draft Environmental Impact Statement must be prepared.

On February 21, 2018, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYS ERDA) and the United State Department of Energy (US DOE) announced their intent to jointly prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Decommissioning and/or Long-Term Stewardship at the West Valley Demonstration Project and Western New York Nuclear Service Center (DOE/EIS-0226-S1) (SEIS) and to conduct a public scoping process. The SEIS will assess the range of reasonable alternatives for Phase 2 decommissioning of the West Valley Site.

NYS ERDA and US DOE invited public comments on the scope and content of the SEIS for the West Valley Site during a public scoping period through April 23, 2018. NYSERDA and DOE have determined to extend the public comment period deadline from Monday, April 23, 2018, to Friday, May 25, 2018.

Written comments on the scope of the SEIS, requests to be placed on the SEIS mailing list, and requests for information may be submitted by U.S. mail to the DOE Document Manager, Martin Krentz, West Valley Demonstration Project, U.S. DOE, 10282 Rock Springs Road, AC-DOE, West Valley, New York 14171-9799, by e-mail to SEISWestValleySite@emcbc.doe.gov, or via the SEIS website at www.SEISWestValleySite.com. The Notice of Intent and Draft Scope is available on the SEIS website and on the NYSERDA website at www.nyserda.ny.gov/-/media/files/ee/west-valley/Supplemental-Environmental-Impact-Statement-NOI.pdf.

Further information, including a form for submitting comments, is available on the project website at www.SEISWestValleySite.com.

The project is located at 10282 Rock Springs Road in West Valley, New York.

Contact: Dr. Lee Gordon, NYS ERDA, 9030-B Route 219, West Valley, NY 14171; Phone: (716)942-9960, extension 4963, Fax: 716-942-9961, E-mail: lee.gordon@nyserda.ny.gov

Nuclear Waste Must be Secured and Our Waters Protected -- Take Action!

Buffalo Niagara Region has a serious waste problem and perhaps none is so serious as the West Valley Nuclear Waste Facility 30 miles south of Buffalo.  An array of nuclear waste has been stored and some buried on an erodible plateau since the 1960s, put in place before there were any laws on the siting of such dangerous waste.  This site is managed by the Department of Energy and owned by the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, agencies responsible for cleaning up the waste and protecting public health and our waters.

Charley Bowman, of the Sierra Club Niagara Group, points out that “the protection of fresh water supplies underpins organized existence of human beings. There are enormous amounts of radioactivity (100,000’s of Curies) buried and stored at the West Valley nuclear waste site. Some of that radioactivity is escaping beyond the site boundaries and now resides in the surrounding unstable soils, trees and creeks. Some of the radioactive elements will be dangerous for millions of years.”

The Department of Energy begins Scoping Hearings for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on March 19, 20 and 21, to determine the final disposition of this waste site.  Joanne Hameister who has been working with the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes since the 1970s states that her group “has been involved with the decision process for four decades.  After three Environmental Impact Statements and a fourth to begin in March, billions of dollars, a lot of surveys and studies, lawsuits and many 'duct tape' solutions to problems, we might have a direction for the future of the site.  The next decision must protect the water of the Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario, drinking water for millions of people downstream and for thousands of generations that could inherit these risks of radiation if we do not 'do the right thing' now.  It is a big order: dig it up, secure the waste and do not forget it.”

 “The government scoping meetings March 19, 20 and 21 are the public’s chance to tell the Department of Energy and NY Energy Research and Development Authority that we want full cleanup of the West Valley nuclear waste site. But the only way the deadly waste will be removed from the Great Lakes watershed is if our elected officials MAKE IT HAPPEN.”  Diane D’Arrigo argues that “the Department of Energy, NYSERDA, all their contractors and other ‘regulatory agencies’ will not step up unless they are forced to do so” based on the communities experience with the 2010 Environmental Impact Statement that delayed the decision for over a decade.

Hearings will be held at three different locations: 

Monday, March 19, 2018, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
West Valley Volunteer Hose Company, Inc., Firemen’s Memorial Hall and Training, 9091 Route 240, West Valley, NY 14171, in the Main Hall.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018, from 6:00p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Erie Community College, City Campus, Post Office Building, 121 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, in the Minnie Gillette Auditorium.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Seneca Nation of Indians Cattaraugus Council Chambers, 12837 Route 438, Irving, NY 14081

Pat Townsend of the Interfai th Climate Justice Community says that she is “already writing my comments to email them to DOE and NYSERDA during the public comment period that has just started. I remember the rainfall that caused the Gowanda flood of 2009 and the landslide it caused at West Valley. With our crazy, changing weather, who knows what erosion will do to the West Valley nuclear wastes? I've seen the maps: erosion could take radioactive waste right down the creeks to Lake Erie and Buffalo's water."

--  Submitted by Lynda Schneekloth, Sierra Club Niagara Group


More information:
Nuclear Information and Resource Service   www.nirs.org/campaigns/west-valley
Information Center   www.seiswestvalleysite.com 
Sierra Club Niagara Group   www.niagarasierraclub.com/issues/west-valley-nuclear-waste-site

Clean Up the West Valley Nuclear Site

Let NY State Know

it's time to

Clean Up the West Valley Nuclear Site

Bring your mop, bucket and broom to a West Valley Cleanup Crew Media Event!

• WHAT: News Conference and Media Event
  

• WHEN: Tuesday, September 1, at Noon (Please arrive at 11:45 AM)

• WHERE: NYS Energy Research & Development Agency, Larkin Building, 726 Exchange Street, Buffalo [Map]

Join a coalition of environmental, religious, conservation and community groups and state policymakers. The media event will alert the public to the end of the public comment period on the West Valley cleanup plan and announce a "Phone-a-thon Day" on September 2nd where people are asked to call the Department of Energy in support of a full cleanup.

The main theme of the event is to have a "cleanup crew" of people with mops, buckets and brooms call on the state and federal agencies to approve a full cleanup of the West Valley site to protect Lake Erie.

Sponsored by Center for Health, Environment & Justice, Catholic Charities, Citizens' Environmental Coalition, Great Lakes Sports Fishing Council, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Sierra Club Niagara Group and others. For more information, contact Diane D'Arrigo, NIRS, at dianed@nirs.org

Information on the need to cleanup the West Valley Nuclear Site, click here.

Information on the decommissioning of the West Valley Nuclear Waste Site is here.

Cleanup Nuclear Waste at West Valley

Coalition urges complete West Valley cleanup - 9/02/2009

A coalition urged the public Tuesday to contact state and federal officials in the next week to demand full cleanup of the state’s largest nuclear waste site at West Valley.

Surrounded by about 20 people holding mops, buckets and brooms, speakers assembled outside the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority offices in the Larkin at Exchange Building in Buffalo. They called on the agency and the federal Department of Energy to support the complete cleanup of the West Valley nuclear waste site to avoid future radioactive contamination of Lake Erie drinking water.

The coalition, which includes representatives of environmental, religious and sportsmen groups, urged the public to make their voices heard by the public comment deadline, Tuesday, September 8. “Tell them you’re concerned about the water quality of the Great Lakes and the drinking supply of fresh water for yourselves and your children,” said Bob Ciesielski of the Sierra Club.

“We are tired of waiting for New York State and the Department of Energy to make a decision to clean up the nuclear waste at West Valley,” said Diane D’Arrigo of the Nuclear Information and Resource Center.

Read the full report by Mark Sommer in The Buffalo News.

NOTE: I phoned U.S. Dept. of Energy Secretary Steven Chu's office, and they said they had received many calls about this issue. However, they also said that they are taking comments only by U.S. mail or by FAX. Their contact information is below:

U.S. Mail:

Attn: Catherine Bohan
EIS Document Manager
West Valley Demonstration Project, U.S. Department of Energy
P.O. Box 2368
Germantown, MD 20874

Toll Free Fax: 866-306-9094

NOTE: I phoned NYSERDA President Frank Murray's office ( 866-697-3732 x 3320) after hours and was able to record a message and send it to him.

Public Meeting: West Valley Nuclear Waste

From the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes (CWVNW):

The Department of Energy (DOE) will be conducting its Quarterly West Valley Meeting on Tuesday, May 4, 6:30pm at the Ashford Office Complex, 9030 Route 219, West Valley, NY [Map].

This is an important public meeting. IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, PLEASE TRY TO ATTEND as a show of support for the protection of our Great Lakes Erie and Ontario and all the people living downstream.

The Record of Decision, issued 4/15/2010, for the Environmental Impact Statement issued in December 2008, does not afford long-term protection downstream because it does not commit to a complete and full waste exhumation, as recognized and requested by the hundreds of comments, representing hundreds of thousands of affected citizens.

DOE and NYSERDA have to be challenged on this flawed decision that is not supported by valid science, nor was it supported by the impressive and vast majority and sincerity of comments submitted to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

The Cattaraugus Creek and Lake Erie and drinking water for millions of people are at high risk for thousands of generations and we owe them the right decision now.

For more information, contact Joanne Hameister, Chair, CWVNW Steering Committee.

Buffalo News Editorial: West Valley needs more

Earlier blog posts on the need for a full clean up of the radioactive waste are here.

Phone-A-Thon: PROTECT LAKE ERIE

JOIN A

PHONE-A-THON

TO

PROTECT LAKE ERIE

On Wednesday, September 2nd

PLEASE CALL

US Department of Energy Secretary
Steven Chu
202-586-6210

and

NYS Energy Research and Development Authority

President Frank Murray
866-NYSERDA x 3320 or 866-697-3732 x 3320

TELL THEM:

• To DECIDE NOW to FULLY CLEAN UP the West Valley Nuclear Waste Site
• FULLY REMOVE the WASTE so it cannot spread into the water in the Great Lakes

Brief Background:
The Department of Energy is proposing to clean up only 1% of the radioactive waste, delaying cleanup of the remaining 99% of radioactivity for up to 30 years.
Heavy rain and flooding caused a landslide bringing a nearby Creek closer to the radioactive waste trenches in just one day! Recent Severe Flooding highlights the need for a FULL CLEANUP at West Valley.

An earlier blog post, "Nuclear Waste: Not in MY Drinking Water!", contains multiple News links in support of a full cleanup.

Additional information is here.

The Phone-a-thon is sponsored by the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, Catholic Charities, Citizens' Environmental Coalition, Great Lakes Sports Fishing Council, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Sierra Club Niagara Group and others. For more information, contact Diane D'Arrigo, NIRS, at dianed@nirs.org

Is there an Environmental and Economic Place for Nuclear Power, Given the Awesome Potential of Renewable Energy?

Nuclear power is not the answer to our energy needs

By Lynda Schneekloth


There are some of us still alive today who were here when the first atomic bomb was exploded on July 16, 1945, near Socorro, N.M.

That test was code-named Trinity. Within one month, on Aug., 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Another was dropped Aug. 9 on Nagasaki. At least 200,000 people were killed instantly. After the war, we developed procedures to harness the power of nuclear material to make steam and electricity.

In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower proposed “Atoms for Peace.” Those of us in our 70s, 80s and 90s well remember “duck and cover,” the drill to hide under our school desks to protect us if an atomic bomb exploded nearby.

We also remember “The Atom is your Friend,” with lovely animated characters assuring us that nuclear power was an enormous contribution to civilization. Or was it?

I won’t go into the dangers of nuclear war right now, except to say that the Doomsday Clock, which gives a scientific approximation of the probability of global catastrophe from nuclear war, is at 2.5 minutes to midnight, not this close since the 1950s.

But let’s look at nuclear power, since it is being promoted as the solution to climate change. Those of us who live in Western New York have intimate relationships with nuclear material because the Manhattan Project, which conducted research on the atomic bomb, had facilities here.

Many here died from unprotected exposure while working on that project and, in fact, some land in our region remains contaminated with nuclear material. Since the 1970s, nuclear waste from energy and military production has been stored at the West Valley Demonstration Project, a nuclear waste facility 30 miles south of Buffalo.

This site is still being “studied” to figure out what to do, and in the meantime, it is leaking.

After more than 70 years of exploding bombs and splitting atoms, we do not know what to do with the deadly waste, much of which will persist on the Earth for 10,000 years.

Here in Western New York we have more nuclear problems than West Valley and illegally disposed of waste. We are a route for shipping liquid, highly radioactive waste from Canada to South Carolina. Further, we live in a state where the governor proposes to offer a $7.6 billion subsidy to a private company – Exelon – so it can continue running aging nuclear power plants in our state, generating more dangerous waste. This in spite of excellent science that argues that nuclear power worsens climate change. Remember, there is no safe level of exposure to nuclear radiation.

No one asked us if we wanted to split the atom; no one has said he was sorry. In my lifetime, we have spread lethal material across the globe. Perhaps in the lifetime of my grandchildren we should find, contain and secure the deadly nuclear waste and pledge to not make anymore.

Lynda Schneekloth is a member of the Nuclear Committee of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, and the Sierra Club Niagara Group

This article was originally published in The Buffalo News. 

~     ~     ~

So do we really need nuclear power? 

Is nuclear sustainable? Given the awesome potential of renewable energy, is there an economic place for nuclear power? Why is nuclear power globally in decline at present? What are the limitations?

These are some of the key questions examined in a detailed report, Nuclear Power - Game Over, by Derek Abbott, physicist and electrical engineer.

In the NEWS 11/29

West Valley cleanup could take 30 years - 11/27/2008
Phased shutdown is one of four alternatives unveiled in Department of Energy report
WASHINGTON — State and federal agencies are recommending a phased shutdown of the West Valley Nuclear Demonstration Project, a process that will take 30 more years.
Their report leaves many crucial issues unsettled, including which level of government is ultimately responsible for cleaning up the site and where radioactive waste would be shipped.
The full article by Douglas Turner is here.

Insulating your windows - 11/28/2008
Your Utility Bills by James Dulley
The savings from installing insulating shades and/or curtains often provides a much faster payback than expensive replacement windows.
The additional insulating value from indoor window coverings can range from R-1 to R-5, but the insulation is only part of the story. Insulating shades which have the edges trapped in vertical side tracks are most effective. This reduces the room air flow around the shade and across the cold glass. Read more here.

Pedestrians and bicyclists get place in road plans - 11/28/2008
Nondrivers vital to green road mind-set
Bicyclists, walkers and people pushing baby strollers have a right to the road, some green-minded people say, as they urge Erie County and City of Buffalo officials to see streets as paths for people, not just vehicles.
“The whole idea is to make sure that if people are walking and cycling, they are provided with a safe place to do so, and that we think about people before thinking about moving automobiles from Point A to Point B,” said Justin S. Booth, director of Green Options Buffalo.
The full article by Matthew Spina is here.

Everybody's Column - 11/29/2008
Devise a plan to repair tattered infrastructure
"How about a “big idea” plan to bring our electrical grid into the 21st century? And include in the plan the requirement that all materials, parts and machinery be produced in the United States and that one must be a U. S. citizen to be employed by this massive endeavor." The full letter is here.
~Art Borgeson

Timing traffic lights will help fuel efficiency
"It is increasingly frustrating to do everything I can to practice fuel-efficient driving and still have to stop at nearly every single light. It’s time for better design so we can eliminate part of our dependence on oil." The full letter is here.
~Leslie Latham

Protect Zoar Valley and Drinking Water from Fracking

The Zoar Valley is one of the most spectacular wilderness areas of Western NY. I have hiked and snowshoed the rim trails of the gigantic gorge, looking down from the cliffs at Cattaraugus Creek, 400 feet below. I've navigated a canoe through the current and rapids on one-way trips from west of Springville to Gowanda. So much to do there, and so much to see - spring wildflowers, waterfalls cascading down the cliffs, virgin and secondary-growth forests, herons, hawks and even an occasional bald eagle - this is a sacred place that must be protected.

Recently, I was shocked to learn of a proposal by the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to allow gas drilling in the Zoar Valley State Forest using hydrofracking and horizontal drilling (see article by Larry Beahan, below). The controversial fracking process contaminates millions of gallons of fresh water per gas well with toxic chemicals to help release the shale gas, permanently buries most of the water deep underground (see article by Lynda H. Schneekloth, below) and has been blamed for contamination of drinking water and human illnesses. We can not let this happen in our beautiful Zoar Valley. Keep in mind too that the Cattaraugus Creek drains into Lake Erie, the source of drinking water in the Buffalo area.

The DEC writes that public comment is encouraged and will be accepted through 4:45 p.m., Friday, October 29, 2010. Please read the articles below, review the information on the DEC website, and submit comments to the DEC by email to State Forest Strategic Plan (stateforestplan@gw.dec.state.ny.us). Comments may also be mailed in a letter to Strategic Plan for State Forest Management, NYS DEC, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4255.

Larry Beahan: State’s management plan would destroy Zoar Valley

...the Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed a “Strategic Forest Management Plan” for Zoar Valley and the rest of the 770,000 acres of New York State Forests. These forests are patches of wild land scattered across the state, set aside for their unique natural wonders or for simple reforestation.

This plan was sprung upon us with a bare two months until the Oct. 29 deadline on comments. The plan would industrialize these wild preserves with deep-well gas extraction using hydrofracking and horizontal drilling.

Its 5-acre wellheads, massive truck traffic, maze of roads, insatiable demand for fresh water and inevitable pollution of surface waters with salt, heavy metals and radon has no place in our state, let alone in such vulnerable and revered places as Zoar Valley.

The DEC’s plan proposes not only “fracking” in the forests but using forest resources to support fracking elsewhere. The plan would inject the witch’s brew of waste water from other sites into exhausted state forest gas wells and hope that it would not migrate into our drinking water. It would “steal” fresh water from these forests and turn it into polluted fracking waste.

Write the DEC and call legislators. Tell them to protect our State Forests from fracking and stop the Strategic Forest Management Plan.


Lynda H. Schneekloth: Hydrofracking puts fresh water beyond reach forever

Is it OK to ruin ground water, to “disappear” fresh water from the planet when only 1.5 percent of all the water on earth is fresh to begin with?

Hydrofracking leaves trillions of gallons of our fresh water deep in the bowels of the earth — forever.

Presentation: PROTECTING OUR WATERS -- From the Lake of Betrayal to Defend the Ohiyo

The Sierra Club
Climate and Clean Energy Writers Group

Thursday, April 19, 2018 

 PROTECTING OUR WATERS

From the Lake of Betrayal to Defend the Ohiyo

By Caleb Abrams, Onödowa’ga:’ (Seneca) filmmaker and multimedia artist

Caleb’s presentation and discussion will cover impacts on water and the Seneca people from the displacement and damage caused by the Kinzua Dam to nuclear waste at West Valley. He will give an overview of the now successful Defend the Ohiyo campaign to protect the Allegheny River from a proposed frack waste facility at the river’s headwaters in Coudersport, PA. With local interest now reinvigorated towards clean-up of Cattaraugus Creek, join us and learn how to support this effort.

6:00-7:30 PM
Crane Branch Library
633 Elmwood at Highland
2nd Floor Meeting Room

Free and open to the public – writers and non-writers alike

Sierra Club Niagara Group Announces Annual Awards

The Sierra Club Niagara Group held its Annual Awards Dinner on Monday, May 6, 2013. This year they recognized two outstanding citizens of Western New York as well as to announce the winners of our Environmental Education contest.

The Blake Reeves Award, given in honor of the founder of the Niagara Group of the Sierra Club, this year went to Joanne Hameister of the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Water. Since the mid-1970s, Hameister and a group of dedicated citizens have been our regional “watchdogs” and provided public oversight on the nuclear waste facility only 30 miles from Buffalo.  Hameister’s expertise in research and statistics have protected us from misguided and easily misinterpreted studies endlessly prepared by DOE and NYSERDA as the agencies continue to postpone a decision on the final clean-up of this site.  This has been a labor of love and compassion, and required perseverance, knowledge and communication skills.

David Kowalski received the Bruce Kershner Award, an award designed to honor a person who has continued to fight tirelessly on behalf of an environmental issue in the way that Kershner fought for old growth forests. Kowalski has worked to protect the land, air and waters of New York State in his ongoing and evidence-based critique of the proposed deep horizontal hydrofracking.  His education of the public on this matter and the creation of the informative blog, “Re-Energize Buffalo” have been very effective in the ongoing protection of our natural resources.

Sierra Club Niagara Group also presenting a certificate and monetary support for Environmental Education to two WNY teachers whose work is being recognized:  Kevin Powers of Nichols School and Melisa Dettbarn of Pembroke High School.  Powers helped to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum, “A Rising Tide” into the schools that will address the theme of environmental refugees, especially those displaced by climate change.  Ms. Dettbarn’s Applied Science class created an on-line field guide to the trails near their school.  

FRACKING NEWS

Excerpts from articles in the news:
 
NY high court rejects Dryden fracking suit revival

New York’s highest court rejected an attempt to revive the fight against the Town of Dryden and its fracking ban.

In a precedent-setting decision last June, the Court of Appeals ruled 5-2 that communities have the right to use local land-use authority to prohibit oil and gas operations within their borders.

On Thursday, the court denied a motion by the trustee for bankrupt Norse Energy to re-argue its case against the Town of Dryden.

Read more here.


More New Yorkers Oppose Fracking: Poll

A new poll conducted by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental activist group, shows 56 percent of New Yorkers oppose fracking in the state. The survey of 802 New Yorkers was conducted by a third-party research firm in late September.

A similar survey by Quinnipiac University in mid-August found that only 48 percent of voters opposed fracking.

Anti-fracking activists have redoubled their efforts in recent weeks, following Gov. Cuomo on the campaign trail in an attempt to have him take a stance on fracking before the election, but the governor has kept a steadfast ambivalence on the subject.

Read more here.

 
Report: New York Governor’s Office Altered And Delayed Fracking Study

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration edited and delayed a fracking study commissioned by the state, according to a review by Capital New York.

The New York news outlet reported Monday that the Cuomo administration had altered a report on the natural gas extraction technique commonly referred to as fracking. The report was commissioned in 2011 and was “going to result in a number of politically inconvenient conclusions” for the governor. A comparison of the original draft of the report, which was put together by the U.S. Geological Survey, and the final version, showed that some of the original descriptions and mentions of fracking-related health and environmental risks were “played down or removed.”

Read more here.


Duke researchers explore potential dangers of fracking

With North Carolina's ban on fracking set to expire next year, Duke researchers are looking into the potential dangers of the technique.

“We sampled hundreds of homes with private drinking water wells, and found that people living near shale gas wells are more likely to have methane, ethane, and propane, the components of natural gas, in their water,” said Robert Jackson, formerly of the Nicholas School of the Environment and now a professor of environment and energy at Stanford University.

“I think there’s a perception amongst some people in Raleigh that they don’t want to hear about problems that might occur,” Jackson said. “I think the Mining and Energy Commission was designed to establish rules to help drilling come to North Carolina, not to decide whether or not drilling should come to North Carolina. That discussion never really happened.”

Read more here.


Residents Harmed by Fracking Demand EPA Administrator Drink their Tainted Water
Want EPA to Reopen Investigation of Drinking Water Contamination By Fracking

WASHINGTON - Affected community members from Dimock, Pennsylvania, along with advocacy organizations, rallied outside of EPA Headquarters to demand that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy either re-open investigations into fracking’s impact on people and the environment, or drink frack water from Pennsylvania that her agency has told residents is safe.

The action came after a year of gathering over 250,000 petitions, thousands of calls, and dozens of events asking McCarthy to meet with them, following the Los Angeles Times story that revealed the Obama Administration had shut down the EPA fracking investigation that found their drinking water contamination linked to drilling and fracking operations.

“My water is brown and smells so bad it will make you nauseous, yet EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy tells me and my neighbors that this poison is safe to drink,” said Ray Kemble, a resident from Dimock, PA who was part of the EPA’s fracking-related water investigation in 2012. “To make matters worse, Gina McCarthy is promoting more and more fracking across the country, meaning my story will be shared by millions of Americans. This has to stop.”

Read more here.


Frackers are dumping toxic waste into California’s groundwater

California can officially add one more disaster to its rapidly growing list of water woes: The EPA just found that at least nine fracking sites throughout the state have been dumping billions of gallons of contaminated wastewater into its protected aquifers.

Not only do many of these aquifers supply drinking water to residents throughout the Central Valley, they’re also reaching dangerously low levels due to overuse, as many farmers rely on aquifers for irrigation and have been overpumping groundwater supplies as the drought carries on.

According to a letter sent to the EPA by the California State Water Resources Board, roughly 3 billion gallons of wastewater were illegally injected into aquifers throughout central California. The EPA ordered the report following contamination concerns after 11 fracking wastewater injection wells were shut down in July by state officials.

Read more here.


Michigan landfill operator suspends receipt of low-level radioactive waste

A Van Buren Township hazardous-waste landfill operator, slated to receive up to 36 tons of low-level radioactive waste from a Pennsylvania fracking company, announced Monday that it will suspend receipt of such materials from all oil and gas operations pending a review by the state.

The announcements follow an Aug. 19 Free Press report on plans by a Pennsylvania oil and gas development company, Range Resources, to ship radioactive fracking waste to Wayne Disposal. The sludge was rejected by landfills in western Pennsylvania and its shipment to a landfill in West Virginia was halted by the state and voluntarily discontinued by the company, as West Virginia reforms its laws for handling such waste.

Ohio and West Virginia, two states with more intensive fracking activity than Michigan, have changed regulations on how to store, treat, process and dispose of radioactive oil and gas drilling wastes. Pennsylvania also doesn’t allow the materials in its landfills. Each of the states leaves it to oil and gas developers to find a disposal site. As Ohio tightened its regulations, state officials listed the Wayne Disposal site in Van Buren Township as an option for Ohio drillers.

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Bill McKibben: Fracking Will Not Save Our Climate

Global Warming’s Terrifying New Chemistry

Our leaders thought fracking would save our climate. They were wrong. Very wrong.

By Bill McKibben | March 23, 2016 | The Nation

Global warming is, in the end, not about the noisy political battles here on the planet’s surface. It actually happens in constant, silent interactions in the atmosphere, where the molecular structure of certain gases traps heat that would otherwise radiate back out to space. If you get the chemistry wrong, it doesn’t matter how many landmark climate agreements you sign or how many speeches you give. And it appears the United States may have gotten the chemistry wrong. Really wrong.

There’s one greenhouse gas everyone knows about: carbon dioxide, which is what you get when you burn fossil fuels. We talk about a “price on carbon” or argue about a carbon tax; our leaders boast about modest “carbon reductions.” But in the last few weeks, CO₂’s nasty little brother has gotten some serious press. Meet methane, otherwise known as CH₄.

In February, Harvard researchers published an explosive paper in Geophysical Research Letters. Using satellite data and ground observations, they concluded that the nation as a whole is leaking methane in massive quantities. Between 2002 and 2014, the data showed that US methane emissions increased by more than 30 percent, accounting for 30 to 60 percent of an enormous spike in methane in the entire planet’s atmosphere.

To the extent our leaders have cared about climate change, they’ve fixed on CO₂. Partly as a result, coal-fired power plants have begun to close across the country. They’ve been replaced mostly with ones that burn natural gas, which is primarily composed of methane. Because burning natural gas releases significantly less carbon dioxide than burning coal, CO₂ emissions have begun to trend slowly downward, allowing politicians to take a bow. But this new Harvard data, which comes on the heels of other aerial surveys showing big methane leakage, suggests that our new natural-gas infrastructure has been bleeding methane into the atmosphere in record quantities. And molecule for molecule, this unburned methane is much, much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

The EPA insisted this wasn’t happening, that methane was on the decline just like CO₂. But it turns out, as some scientists have been insisting for years, the EPA was wrong. Really wrong. This error is the rough equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange announcing tomorrow that the Dow Jones isn’t really at 17,000: Its computer program has been making a mistake, and your index fund actually stands at 11,000.

These leaks are big enough to wipe out a large share of the gains from the Obama administration’s work on climate change—all those closed coal mines and fuel-efficient cars. In fact, it’s even possible that America’s contribution to global warming increased during the Obama years. The methane story is utterly at odds with what we’ve been telling ourselves, not to mention what we’ve been telling the rest of the planet. It undercuts the promises we made at the climate talks in Paris. It’s a disaster—and one that seems set to spre2ad.

The Obama administration, to its credit, seems to be waking up to the problem. Over the winter, the EPA began to revise its methane calculations, and in early March, the United States reached an agreement with Canada to begin the arduous task of stanching some of the leaks from all that new gas infrastructure. But none of this gets to the core problem, which is the rapid spread of fracking. Carbon dioxide is driving the great warming of the planet, but CO₂ isn’t doing it alone. It’s time to take methane seriously.

To understand how we got here, it’s necessary to remember what a savior fracked natural gas looked like to many people, environmentalists included. As George W. Bush took hold of power in Washington, coal was ascendant, here and around the globe. Cheap and plentiful, it was most visibly underwriting the stunning growth of the economy in China, where, by some estimates, a new coal-fired power plant was opening every week. The coal boom didn’t just mean smoggy skies over Beijing; it meant the planet’s invisible cloud of carbon dioxide was growing faster than ever, and with it the certainty of dramatic global warming.

So lots of people thought it was great news when natural-gas wildcatters began rapidly expanding fracking in the last decade. Fracking involves exploding the sub-surface geology so that gas can leak out through newly opened pores; its refinement brought online new shale deposits across the continent—most notably the Marcellus Shale, stretching from West Virginia up into Pennsylvania and New York. The quantities of gas that geologists said might be available were so vast that they were measured in trillions of cubic feet and in centuries of supply.

The apparently happy fact was that when you burn natural gas, it releases half as much carbon dioxide as coal. A power plant that burned natural gas would therefore, or so the reasoning went, be half as bad for global warming as a power plant that burned coal. Natural gas was also cheap—so, from a politician’s point of view, fracking was a win-win situation. You could appease the environmentalists with their incessant yammering about climate change without having to run up the cost of electricity. It would be painless environmentalism, the equivalent of losing weight by cutting your hair.