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

COMMUNITY FORUM: Don't want Nuclear Waste in Your Water? Get Informed and Take Action!

Presentation by 

ALAN LOCKWOOD, MD
Professor Emeritus of Neurology, University at Buffalo &

Senior Scientist, Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Thursday, March 1 at 7:00 PM,
Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. (across from Albright Knox Art Gallery) [Map]

The Presentation will be followed by a Panel Discussion 

Learn how to make comments at Scoping Hearings

For detailed information on the Scoping Hearings, 

Click Here and see Page 2 of the document. 

 

Thanks to the Burchfield Penny Art Gallery, the Western New York Environmental Alliance, Sierra Club Niagara Group
 

Anti-Fracking Law: Public Comments Move Amherst Town Board to Revise

Planning Board to review draft of anti-fracking law

The Town Board during its meeting on Monday directed the Planning Board to review a draft local law that would ban hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” in Amherst.

Fracking is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks and release the natural gas inside. People who oppose the practice believe it poses many dangers to the environment and could result in health risks to residents.

During a public comment period, Rita Yelda, a member of the community group Amherst Against Fracking, said the draft, created by the Town Attorney’s Office, lacks strength because it doesn’t cite the proper definitions of hydraulic fracturing.

Several residents following Yelda reiterated the importance of creating strong legislation that bans hydrofracking and its wastes in the Town of Amherst.

Following the comments from the public, Deputy Supervisor Guy Marlette said the reason it was put on the board’s meeting agenda was to allow the Town Board to review it first to vet any issues, such as the ones that were addressed by residents.

Following the Town Attorney’s Office working with the Planning Board to possibly amend the draft, a public hearing will be held to allow further community input on the revised version.

Marlette added that although it has been about 13 months since the Town Board directed the Town Attorney’s Office to draft a law banning fracking in the town, it was not an excessive time period.

“Our intent is to pass a law and have all of the definitions in place for a strong law,” Marlette said.

Read the full report at the Amherst Bee

For earlier reports on the dangers of fracking waste, Click Here.

Fracking Waste: Dangerous Spills and Road Spreading

Exxon to Face Criminal Charges for 50,000+ Gallon Fracking Wastewater Spill

Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy will have to face criminal charges for allegedly dumping tens of thousands of gallons of fracking waste at a Marcellus Shale drilling site in 2010, according to a Pennsylvania judge’s ruling on Thursday.

Following a preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge James G. Carn decided that all eight charges against Exxon — including violations of both the state Clean Streams Law and the Solid Waste Management Act — will be “held for court,” meaning there is enough evidence to take the fossil fuel giant to trial over felony offenses.

Pennsylvania’s Attorney General filed criminal charges back in September, claiming Exxon had removed a plug from a wastewater tank, leading to 57,000 gallons of contaminated water spilling into the soil. 

Thanks to laws pushed by corporate front groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), sponsored by ExxonMobil, states have allowed minimum disclosure of the chemicals used in the fluid. Though Pennsylvania does now require disclosure to regulators, it has a “gag rule” banning doctors from talking about the health risks.

The most recent study of health risks related to fracking was released in mid-December by the journal Endocrinology, which found the presence of hormone-disrupting chemicals in surface water and groundwater samples in Garfield County, Colorado — one county at the center of the U.S. fracking boom. The chemicals have been linked to infertility, birth defects, and cancer.
Read more at ThinkProgress.

New York’s Fracking Waste Problem | UPDATE

Even though the de facto moratorium on high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing in New York State continues, the disposal of waste from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations is occurring in New York now and deserves our attention. The extraction of natural gas using fracking produces large amounts of liquid and solid waste that can contain a number of harmful pollutants, including salts (sometimes expressed as total dissolved solids or TDS); chemical additives, which may include ethylene glycol, naphthalene, and sulfuric acid; metals; organic compounds; and other contaminants. Fracking waste from extraction activities in the Marcellus Shale can also contain naturally-occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) such as radium-226 and radium-228.

In July 2013, [Hudson] Riverkeeper wrote to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and requested information about one method of handling fracking waste that New York is currently allowing: the use of production brine from conventional, low-volume fracking on New York roads for de-icing, dust control, and road stabilization. Specifically, we asked the agency to provide information regarding its approvals – known as Beneficial Use Determinations or BUDs – of the use of natural gas production brine for road spreading from June 2011 to July 2013.

UPDATE: Further review shows that road spreading of natural gas production brine has been approved for use in portions of at least 23 municipalities in 7 western New York counties: Wyoming, Erie, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genessee, Niagara, and Seneca. Road spreading of natural gas brine from natural gas storage has been approved in at least 10 municipalities in 2 western New York Counties: Allegany and Steuben. In addition, the New York State Department of Transportation Region 6 received approval to spread what appears to be brine from natural gas storage on state roads in portions of Steuben, Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, and Yates Counties.

Read more at Hudson Riverkeeper.

For additional details, see The Facts about New York and Fracking Waste at Hudson Riverkeeper.

Public Statement on Fracking Waste -- By Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper

High standards of excellence are needed to protect Buffalo Niagara's local waterways. Careful consideration must be employed in how we use and apply various chemicals in our community.

In January 2012, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper prepared a 9 page technical document regarding High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF), which concluded that "HVHF activities cannot be conducted in a manner that is protective of both human health and the environment until issues related to water quality and water quantity impacts are resolved."

In response to our recent technical review of the Beneficial Use Determination (BUD) by NYSDEC, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper supports a ban on the road application of shallow well or storage brine as a de-icing agent.  (The permit does not allow application in wet weather, or when rain is imminent, or within 50 feet of any stream, creek, lake or other body of water. The BUD permit as written does not allow use of "flow back" brine, nor the use of byproduct from Marcellus Shale HVHF.)

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper has additional concern about lack of control and monitoring associated with current use of shallow-well brine for road application as dust suppression. The testing conducted to submit a BUD application is a snapshot in time that does not adequately monitor the inherent fluctuation of levels of chemical constituents that vary over the production life of each well or brine source.  More robust testing, monitoring and regulation is needed.

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper supports a ban on any WNY wastewater facility to accept HVHF wastewater.  Riverkeeper's technical comments in 2012 stated, "In New York State, there are no municipal or industrial wastewater facilities in existence that currently have the ability to accept, adequately process or treat high volume hydrofracking wastewater."

To view Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's technical documents regarding high volume hydrofracking, Click Here.

~ Fracking Wastewater Pit ~

Gov. Cuomo: Protect our Health and Safety from Fracking

Governor Cuomo has promised to complete the "most comprehensive health review ever done" on the potential public health risks of fracking before making any decisions regarding whether or not to allow the practice in New York State.

Over two dozen environmental and public health organizations have launched www.callcuomo.com to remind the Governor of his promise to put the health and safety of New Yorkers first.  If you have not already done so, please take a moment to show your support and let the Governor know that you haven’t forgotten his words.

Take Action: Call Governor Cuomo today at (866) 584-6799 and tell him that he must keep his promise to protect our health and safety, and wait for the science and facts from critical health studies before making a decision about whether to move forward on fracking.

NY State Won't Fund Hydrofracking Health Impact Study

By David Kowalski  

 

An Economic Impact Study was Funded Last Year

The $132,600,000,000 budget passed by New York State last week did not include funds for a $100,000 study intended to protect the health of NY residents from the fallout of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) already seen in other states.

Many lawmakers, as well as the governor and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), seem bent on moving forward on unconventional shale-gas drilling. Sadly, they ignored sound advice from 250 physicians and healthcare/scientific experts [1] who recognize the lack of a Health Impact Assessment as a major flaw in the DEC’s draft hydrofracking regulations.

Dr. Gina Solomon, a physician with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said health concerns include air pollution, potential contamination of ground or surface water with methane or chemicals used in fracturing fluids, fires or explosions, heavy truck traffic, and altered social conditions.
 
In a Senate Session on the 2012-2013 Budget last week, Senator Mark Grisanti (R-Buffalo), Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee, spoke on the budget. He said that "in other states where high-volume hydraulic fracturing is occurring there are health impact studies that I believe that the DOH [Dept. of Health] to the advisory council is going to be taking a look at. It's very difficult to do a health study on high-volume hydraulic fracturing in NY state when it's not occurring here." [see video here]

Human health impacts deserve far more investigation than "a look." A proper study requires research and funding. Also, the fact that high-volume hydraulic fracturing is "not occurring here" in NY did not stop the DEC from hiring a consulting firm, Ecology and Environment Inc., to do an economic study at a cost of $223,000. That study [4Mb PDF] was in fact based primarily on the occurrence of hydrofracking in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania.

The Assembly Majority had already passed a bill calling for a health study. The $100,000 study would include research into other states' experiences with fracking. It would estimate costs of any health impacts to the state, insurers, employers and the health care system and include a long-term plan for monitoring and mitigating health impacts.

The Senate drafted a health impact assessment bill to fund an in-depth $300,000 study. Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens), the bill's sponsor and a member of the Environmental Conservation Committee, said in a statement, "Before we allow companies to start drilling for gas and pumping chemicals near our watersheds, it is only reasonable that a study be conducted to provide us with more information about the hydrofracking process and the potential health impacts."

At the 2012-2013 Budget session last week, Sen. Avella introduced an amendment to environmental budget legislation that would have included a health impact assessment on hydrofracking. Avella said, "No matter which side of the aisle you are on, whether you are for hydrofracking or against hydrofracking, the very fact that we could do this process without analyzing the seismic or health impacts of hydrofracking, in my opinion is an absolute disgrace." [see video here]

Senator Avella, the Senate Democratic Conference, and the Assembly Majority should be commended for demonstrating their leadership and dedication to protecting the health and well-being of the people of New York. The bill (S.6772) sponsored by Avella is currently in the Environmental Conservation Committee chaired by Senator Grisanti.

Claire Sandberg, Executive Director of Water Defense, said, “One only need to look at the devastation wreaked by fracking in Pennsylvania to see that gas drilling cannot be done safely. There are perhaps hundreds of families just across the border who are without access to safe drinking water because of fracking-related contamination. How can we trust our elected officials who say we can regulate this inherently dangerous practice, if they don't even support basic funding to study its effect on our public health?"

A full assessment of its health impacts must be completed before a decision can be made about whether or not hydrofracking is permitted in New York.

Kate Hudson, Watershed Program Director at NY Riverkeeper said, "We would still call on the governor to take action. He is in a position to accept or reject any of the proposed change. We think this is way too important and we are going to continue to lobby the Legislature."

Dr. Sandra Steingraber speaks to the DEC about their recent Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) and calls for a comprehensive study on the Health Impacts of hydrofracking. Listen: 

Footnote:
[1] Experts included the Medical Society of the State of New York, the American Academy of Pediatrics of New York State, the NY State Nurses Association, the Academy of Family Physicians of New York State, and over 250 individual physicians and scientists.
 

FRACKONOMICS: Economic Myths of Fracking

FOOD AND WATER WATCH…SIERRA CLUB NIAGARA GROUP

WNY DRILLING DEFENSE

Are Sponsoring

CHRIS BURGER

ON

 THE ECONOMIC MYTH$ OF FRACKING

Is this really a contest between the economy and the environment?

Learn about the myths and hype being used by the gas industry and some politicians to convince us that environmental and health risks are worth the money to be made.

DATE:    Sunday, February 26, 2012

TIME:    4pm to 5:30pm

WHERE: Lafayette Presbyterian Church, 865 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo NY

 Use the church entrance near the Lafayette Ave parking lot

FLYER:   Click here

 Chris Burger, a Co-Chair of the SC Atlantic Chapter’s Gas Task Force, is a college instructor who has degrees in Chemical Engineering, Economics and Social Psychology. His many activities in environmental issues include his being the Co-founder and Chair of the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition. He was a former Broome County Legislator and Chair of the Cornell University Eco-Justice Project.
 

This program is free and open to the public