2011-06-29 "Skaggs Island transferred to U.S. Fish and Wildlife" by Sarah Rohrs from "Vallejo Times-Herald" newspaper
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_18375189]
A blue and white flag raised Tuesday atop a tall pole in the midst of endless marshes makes it official: Skaggs Island belongs to the hawks and herons as part of a large wildlife preserve of rare Bay Area wetlands.
Nearly 100 dignitaries braved rainy weather Tuesday morning to mark Skaggs Island's transfer from naval hands into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"We honor the men and women who stood watch over our country at Skaggs Island in years past," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma. "At the same time, we return these lands to the shorebirds, waterfowl and other wild creatures with whom we share our future."
"This land helped protect the country for half a century. Now the country will protect this land," Woolsey said before officials raised the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service flag.
Surrounded by a winding network of sloughs, the 3,000-acre island is on the north side of Highway 37 just west of Vallejo, and is now part of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
All traces of the once-badly vandalized base buildings are gone and nature is reclaiming the land. Demolition got under way in January 2010, with the razing of an old white water tower.
For 51 years, Skaggs Island served as a secretive Naval security station, and home to nearly 300 military personnel and their families. It closed in 1993.
After demolition, nearly 95 percent of the wood, steel and other materials were recycled, said Bob Kirkbright, environmental director for Navy Region Southwest.
Because not all of the $8 million in state funds for demolition and clean-up was used, some $1 million will go into the wildlife refuge system, officials said.
Woolsey said she has worked for the island's environmental protection since her first days in Congress. She announced her retirement Monday after nearly two decades, and Tuesday said saving Skaggs Island has been chief among her accomplishments.
"This is a testament of what can happen when people of good will build strong relationships and don't let bureaucratic obstacles stand in the way," Woolsey said.
The Skaggs Island Road bridge was named after Woolsey's longtime aide Tom Roth, who worked on the island's acquisition for many years.
But while people made the environmental protection possible, the island's natural world and wildlife took center stage during Tuesday's ceremony.
"This is perfect for providing opportunity for people to be involved in something greater than concrete and video games," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Acting Director Rowan Gould said.
Skaggs Island is an important addition to the Bay Area wetlands, while also providing critical habitat to endangered birds and other species, said Ren Lohoefener, director of the wildlife service pacific southwest region.
Meanwhile, Roger Natsuhara, principal deputy assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, said that while Skaggs Island holds an important place in Naval history, the region has a new mission as an environmental preserve.
Long a magnet for vandals and graffiti artists, Skaggs Island will soon be open to limited public access in the coming months, wildlife refuge manager Don Brubaker said.
Such access could involve bird-watching tours scheduled in advance, or reserved trips made by former Skaggs Island naval base employees and residents, he said.

2011-06-26 "Diablo Canyon nuclear waste becoming 'terrible burden'" by David Sneed from "The San Luis Obispo Tribune" newspaper
Diablo Canyon Power Plant, like many other nuclear plants in the nation, is becoming its own mini Yucca Mountain -- a growing repository of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel.
For years, the identified solution was to bury the waste in a centralized underground storage facility at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert. However, the Obama administration has canceled those plans.
This means that spent fuel stockpiles at places such as Diablo Canyon won't be going anywhere for the foreseeable future. This angers many local elected officials who feel betrayed by the federal government.
"This is a terrible burden that we weren't supposed to and shouldn't have to bear," said County Supervisor Adam Hill, whose district includes Diablo Canyon.
State Sen. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, agrees. He describes seismically active San Luis Obispo County as "wholly unsuitable" as a long-term nuclear waste storage site.
"Under no circumstances should the federal government be allowed to turn San Luis Obispo County into a long-term nuclear waste dump," Blakeslee said.
Both Hill and Blakeslee think the federal government should find some way to compensate power plant communities for the long-term expense of dealing with waste.
In May, the Obama administration took the first tentative steps toward solving the nuclear waste issue. It appointed the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future to study the problem and come up with recommendations.
The panel of experts is recommending that one or more interim above-ground storage facilities be established until a permanent underground storage site can be found. A draft report is expected this summer, and final recommendations are due next year.
One of the panel's members is Per Peterson, chair man of the Nuclear Engineering Department at UC Berkeley. He also sits on the Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee.

Not first in line -
The first priority for any interim above-ground facility would be to store fuel from decommissioned plants, Peterson said. California has two such plants -- one is the Humboldt Bay plant near Eureka, and the other is Rancho Seco near Sacramento.
"It makes sense to focus on the shutdown sites because there is greater ongoing cost for security, and they would give us the opportunity to gain experience moving the fuel," Peterson said.
Peterson thinks it is unlikely that spent fuel from operating plants such as Diablo Canyon would be sent to an interim facility. Spent fuel is being safely stored onsite at operating plants, and there is likely to be substantial opposition to moving large amounts of highly radioactive fuel.
"For operating reactors, there's not a lot of logic in moving the spent fuel," he said.
Blakeslee said interim storage is an option that should be examined.
"It may be necessary to explore interim regional facilities far away from population centers," he said.
On the other hand, critics of transporting spent nuclear fuel cite the potential danger posed by accidents or terrorist attacks. They also note that creating temporary storage sites means that the waste would have to be transported more than once.
"The waste is currently sitting at zero miles per hour on presumably relatively secure reactor sites," said Mary Olson, a director with the Office of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a nationwide antinuclear group. "Putting it on wheels moving anywhere from 2 to 60 mph outside those gates will not make it safer."
The commission also said the relocation process should be transparent and consent-based, meaning that local communities should agree to have a storage facility in their midst.
This is recognition that one of the main problems associated with Yucca Mountain was staunch opposition by Nevada residents and politicians, most notably Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Critics believe getting local support for an interim facility is unrealistic. Previous centralized storage proposals have triggered strong local opposition, Olson said.

New Yucca needed -
With Yucca Mountain off the table, Peterson thinks the country should move expeditiously toward finding another permanent storage facility. Such a facility is necessary because communities considering hosting an interim facility would want assurances that the fuel would not be stored there permanently, he said.
Ideally, the facility would be located deep underground in stable geologic formations, such as clay or granite, which have minimal groundwater movement. Little groundwater movement is important because groundwater is the most likely way contamination from the fuel could be spread.
Another option for some high-level radioactive waste could be deep borehole technology, Peterson said. This would involve placing the waste in holes drilled as deep as three miles into the Earth's crust in stable rock formations.
This type of irretrievable disposal is best suited for the most dangerous kinds of nuclear waste such as weapons-grade material. Spent fuel from nuclear plants should be kept where it could be accessed in the future if reprocessing ever becomes a viable option, Peterson said.
"The United States is a large country, and we have a wide range of options that can be developed," Peterson said.
"I have a high degree of confidence that we could be successful in finding both geologic and consolidated storage sites."
Peterson and the commission as a whole make no recommendations about where interim or permanent storage facilities should be located, nor do they estimate how long the process will take.
Those questions should be answered by the Department of Energy or perhaps a new federal agency established to deal with the spent fuel problem, Peterson said.

Commission's goals for storing nuclear waste -
Draft findings from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future:
--Expeditiously establish one or more consolidated interim storage facilities.
--Safety risks associated with onsite storage methods are manageable but must be rigorously maintained.
--Fuel stored at decommissioned reactors should be "first in line" for transfer to an interim storage facility.
--A new integrated national approach is needed to revitalize the nation's nuclear waste program.
--Processes for dealing with spent fuel should be "science-based, consent-based, transparent, phased, adaptive and standards-driven."
--Planning for transporting spent fuel is complex and should start at the beginning of any storage project.
--Any storage solution should have access to the Nuclear Waste Fund, which has $24 billion. The fund was established to pay for a centralized nuclear waste storage facility.

2011-06-23 "We Talk of Climate Change But Not Human Change" by Reverend Billy
[http://www.evolver.net/user/reverend_billy/blog/we_talk_climate_change_not_human_change]
Very few of us know how much we must change. We talk of climate change but not human change. We look through a window and envision a completely different vision of life on this Earth. And then that window actually is a door. We open it and we walk to our first task – and that might be gentle sustaining love, or a shout of horror.
Horror is being changed for us by the Earth – back to the kind that carries actual death; not the packaged horror that is good for jobs, that drives the economy. Not that long row of toys, games, media – the use of horror as a laughing guilty pleasure for children. The horror movie is now only a distraction, when just behind that screen is the real horror that will fling us into the sky if it wants to.
Climb through the jagged rip in the movie theater that a tornado has blown open. Talk about doorways. Look out at the Earth and first of all note that it is not media, is not a tourist brochure, is not a landscape made in America. The Earth is alive and our death might be a decision it has made, but must step through with a faith in the Earth – that fluid lively non-fundamentalistic faith - that we have a role in a collaboration with the thing that made us.
The force that trusted us with the intelligence that we now use to drill, gouge, dam, explode and drain this place it gave us… that Earth feels pain, knows who we are, and will change us because we are a part of it’s body. That Earth will know when we walk across it, held up on it’s plain of living soil. That Earth holds me up as I type this in Salt Lake City. That Earth spares me the horror a little longer but can’t make any promises, as I step through the door.

2011-06-21"Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites" by Jeff Donn from "Associated Press"
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_aging_nukes_part2]
BRACEVILLE, Ill. – Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.
Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants. Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard — sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.
While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, some have migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached public water supplies.
At three sites — two in Illinois and one in Minnesota — leaks have contaminated drinking wells of nearby homes, the records show, but not at levels violating the drinking water standard. At a fourth site, in New Jersey, tritium has leaked into an aquifer and a discharge canal feeding picturesque Barnegat Bay off the Atlantic Ocean.
In response to the AP's investigation, two congressman — Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Peter Welsh of Vermont, both Democrats — on Tuesday released a study by independent federal analysts who had identified problems with the regulation of underground piping.
The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office noted that while the industry has a voluntary initiative to monitor leaks into underground water sources, the NRC hasn't evaluated how promptly that system detects such leaks. "Absent such an assessment, we continue to believe that NRC has no assurance that the Groundwater Protection Initiative will lead to prompt detection of underground piping system leaks as nuclear power plants age," the report's authors concluded.
Previously, the AP reported that regulators and industry have weakened safety standards for decades to keep the nation's commercial nuclear reactors operating within the rules. While NRC officials and plant operators argue that safety margins can be eased without peril, critics say these accommodations are inching the reactors closer to an accident.
Any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how slight, boosts cancer risk, according to the National Academy of Sciences. Federal regulators set a limit for how much tritium is allowed in drinking water. So far, federal and industry officials say, the tritium leaks pose no health threat.
But it's hard to know how far some leaks have traveled into groundwater. Tritium moves through soil quickly, and when it is detected it often indicates the presence of more powerful radioactive isotopes that are often spilled at the same time.
For example, cesium-137 turned up with tritium at the Fort Calhoun nuclear unit near Omaha, Neb., in 2007. Strontium-90 was discovered with tritium two years earlier at the Indian Point nuclear power complex, where two reactors operate 25 miles north of New York City.
The tritium leaks also have spurred doubts among independent engineers about the reliability of emergency safety systems at the 104 nuclear reactors situated on the 65 sites. That's partly because some of the leaky underground pipes carry water meant to cool a reactor in an emergency shutdown and to prevent a meltdown. More than a mile of piping, much of it encased in concrete, can lie beneath a reactor.
Tritium is relatively short-lived and penetrates the body weakly through the air compared to other radioactive contaminants. Each of the known releases has been less radioactive than a single X-ray.
The main health risk from tritium, though, would be in drinking water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says tritium should measure no more than 20,000 picocuries per liter in drinking water. The agency estimates seven of 200,000 people who drink such water for decades would develop cancer.Still, the NRC and industry consider the leaks a public relations problem, not a public health or accident threat, records and interviews show.
"The public health and safety impact of this is next to zero," said Tony Pietrangelo, chief nuclear officer of the industry's Nuclear Energy Institute. "This is a public confidence issue."
___
LEAKS ARE PROLIFIC
Like rust under a car, corrosion has propagated for decades along the hard-to-reach, wet underbellies of the reactors — generally built in a burst of construction during the 1960s and 1970s. As part of an investigation of aging problems at the country's nuclear reactors, the AP uncovered evidence that despite government and industry programs to bring the causes of such leaks under control, breaches have become more frequent and widespread.
There were 38 leaks from underground piping between 2000 and 2009, according to an industry document presented at a tritium conference. Nearly two-thirds of the leaks were reported over the latest five years.
Here are some examples:
* At the three-unit Browns Ferry complex in Alabama, a valve was mistakenly left open in a storage tank during modifications over the years. When the tank was filled in April 2010 about 1,000 gallons of tritium-laden water poured onto the ground at a concentration of 2 million picocuries per liter. In drinking water, that would be 100 times higher than the EPA health standard.
* At the LaSalle site west of Chicago, tritium-laden water was accidentally released from a storage tank in July 2010 at a concentration of 715,000 picocuries per liter — 36 times the EPA standard.
* The year before, 123,000 picocuries per liter were detected in a well near the turbine building at Peach Bottom west of Philadelphia — six times the drinking water standard.
* And in 2008, 7.5 million picocuries per liter leaked from underground piping at Quad Cities in western Illinois — 375 times the EPA limit.
Subsurface water not only rusts underground pipes, it attacks other buried components, including electrical cables that carry signals to control operations. They too have been failing at high rates.
A 2008 NRC staff memo reported industry data showing 83 failed cables between 21 and 30 years of service — but only 40 within their first 10 years of service. Underground cabling set in concrete can be extraordinarily difficult to replace.
Under NRC rules, tiny concentrations of tritium and other contaminants are routinely released in monitored increments from nuclear plants; leaks from corroded pipes are not permitted.
The leaks sometimes go undiscovered for years, the AP found. Many of the pipes or tanks have been patched, and contaminated soil and water have been removed in some places. But leaks are often discovered later from other nearby piping, tanks or vaults. Mistakes and defective material have contributed to some leaks. However, corrosion — from decades of use and deterioration — is the main cause. And, safety engineers say, the rash of leaks suggest nuclear operators are hard put to maintain the decades-old systems.
Over the history of the U.S. industry, more than 400 known radioactive leaks of all kinds of substances have occurred, the activist Union of Concerned Scientists reported in September.
Several notable leaks above the EPA drinking-water limit for tritium happened five or more years ago, and from underground piping: 397,000 picocuries per liter at Tennessee's Watts Bar unit in 2005 — 20 times the EPA standard; four million at the two-reactor Hatch plant in Georgia in 2003 — 200 times the limit; 750,000 at Seabrook in New Hampshire in 1999 — nearly 38 times the standard; and 4.2 million at the three-unit Palo Verde facility in Arizona, in 1993 — 210 times the drinking-water limit.
Many safety experts worry about what the leaks suggest about the condition of miles of piping beneath the reactors. "Any leak is a problem because you have the leak itself — but it also says something about the piping," said Mario V. Bonaca, a former member of the NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. "Evidently something has to be done."
However, even with the best probes, it is hard to pinpoint partial cracks or damage in skinny pipes or bends. The industry tends to inspect piping when it must be dug up for some other reason. Even when leaks are detected, repairs may be postponed for up to two years with the NRC's blessing.
"You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they've never been inspected, and the NRC is looking the other way," said engineer Paul Blanch, who has worked for the industry and later became a whistleblower. "They could have corrosion all over the place."
Nuclear engineer Bill Corcoran, an industry consultant who has taught NRC personnel how to analyze the cause of accidents, said that since much of the piping is inaccessible and carries cooling water, the worry is if the pipes leak, there could be a meltdown.
___
EAST COAST ISSUES
One of the highest known tritium readings was discovered in 2002 at the Salem nuclear plant in Lower Alloways Creek Township, N.J. Tritium leaks from the spent fuel pool contaminated groundwater under the facility — located on an island in Delaware Bay — at a concentration of 15 million picocuries per liter. That's 750 times the EPA drinking water limit. According to NRC records, the tritium readings last year still exceeded EPA drinking water standards.
And tritium found separately in an onsite storm drain system measured 1 million picocuries per liter in April 2010.
Also last year, the operator, PSEG Nuclear, discovered 680 feet of corroded, buried pipe that is supposed to carry cooling water to Salem Unit 1 in an accident, according to an NRC report. Some had worn down to a quarter of its minimum required thickness, though no leaks were found. The piping was dug up and replaced.
The operator had not visually inspected the piping — the surest way to find corrosion_ since the reactor went on line in 1977, according to the NRC. PSEG Nuclear was found to be in violation of NRC rules because it hadn't even tested the piping since 1988.
Last year, the Vermont Senate was so troubled by tritium leaks as high as 2.5 million picocuries per liter at the Vermont Yankee reactor in southern Vermont (125 times the EPA drinking-water standard) that it voted to block relicensing — a power that the Legislature holds in that state.
Activists placed a bogus ad on the Web to sell Vermont Yankee, calling it a "quaint Vermont fixer-upper from the last millennium" with "tasty, pre-tritiated drinking water."
The gloating didn't last. In March, the NRC granted the plant a 20-year license extension, despite the state opposition. Weeks ago, operator Entergy sued Vermont in federal court, challenging its authority to force the plant to close.
At 41-year-old Oyster Creek in southern New Jersey, the country's oldest operating reactor, the latest tritium troubles started in April 2009, a week after it was relicensed for 20 more years. That's when plant workers discovered tritium by chance in about 3,000 gallons of water that had leaked into a concrete vault housing electrical lines.
Since then, workers have found leaking tritium three more times at concentrations up to 10.8 million picocuries per liter — 540 times the EPA's drinking water limit — according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. None has been directly measured in drinking water, but it has been found in an aquifer and in a canal discharging into nearby Barnegat Bay, a popular spot for swimming, boating and fishing.
An earlier leak came from a network of pipes where rust was first discovered in 1991. Multiple holes were found, "indicating the potential for extensive corrosion," according to an analysis released to an environmental group by the NRC. Yet only patchwork repairs were done.
Tom Fote, who has fished in the bay near Oyster Creek, is unsettled by the leaks. "This was a plant that was up for renewal. It was up to them to make sure it was safe and it was not leaking anything," he said.
Added Richard Webster, an environmental lawyer who challenged relicensing at Oyster Creek: "It's symptomatic of the plants not having a handle on aging."
___
EXELON'S PIPING PROBLEMS
To Exelon — the country's biggest nuclear operator, with 17 units — piping problems are just a fact of life. At a meeting with regulators in 2009, representatives of Exelon acknowledged that "100 percent verification of piping integrity is not practical," according to a copy of its presentation.
Of course, the company could dig up the pipes and check them out. But that would be costly.
"Excavations have significant impact on plant operations," the company said.
Exelon has had some major leaks. At the company's two-reactor Dresden site west of Chicago, tritium has leaked into the ground at up to 9 million picocuries per liter — 450 times the federal limit for drinking water.
At least four separate problems have been discovered at the 40-year-old site since 2004, when its two reactors were awarded licenses for 20 more years of operation. A leaking section of piping was fixed that year, but another leak sprang nearby within two years, a government inspection report says. The Dresden leaks developed in systems that help cool the reactor core in an emergency. Leaks also have contaminated offsite drinking water wells, but below the EPA drinking water limit.
There's also been contamination of offsite drinking water wells near the two-unit Prairie Island plant southeast of Minneapolis, then operated by Nuclear Management Co. and now by Xcel Energy, and at Exelon's two-unit Braidwood nuclear facility, 10 miles from Dresden. The offsite tritium concentrations from both facilities also were below the EPA level.
The Prairie Island leak was found in the well of a nearby home in 1989. It was traced to a canal where radioactive waste was discharged.
Braidwood has leaked more than six million gallons of tritium-laden water in repeated leaks dating back to the 1990s — but not publicly reported until 2005. The leaks were traced to pipes that carried limited, monitored discharges of tritium into the river.
"They weren't properly maintained, and some of them had corrosion," said Exelon spokeswoman Krista Lopykinski.
Last year, Exelon, which has acknowledged violating Illinois state groundwater standards, agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle state and county complaints over the tritium leaks at Braidwood and nearby Dresden and Byron sites. The NRC also sanctioned Exelon.
Tritium measuring 1,500 picocuries per liter turned up in an offsite drinking well at a home near Braidwood. Though company and industry officials did not view any of the Braidwood concentrations as dangerous, unnerved residents took to bottled water and sued over feared loss of property value. A consolidated lawsuit was dismissed, but Exelon ultimately bought some homes so residents could leave.
Exelon refused to say how much it paid, but a search of county real estate records shows it bought at least nine properties in the contaminated area near Braidwood since 2006 for a total of $6.1 million.
Exelon says it has almost finished cleaning up the contamination, but the cost persists for some neighbors.
Retirees Bob and Nancy Scamen live in a two-story house within a mile of the reactors on 18 bucolic acres they bought in 1988, when Braidwood opened. He had worked there, and in other nuclear plants, as a pipefitter and welder — even sometimes fixing corroded piping. For the longest time, he felt the plants were well-managed and safe.
His feelings have changed.
An outlet from Braidwood's leaky discharge pipe 300 feet from his property poured out three million gallons of water in 1998, according to an NRC inspection report. The couple didn't realize the discharge was radioactive.
The Scamens no longer intend to pass the property on to their grandchildren for fear of hurting their health. The couple just wants out. But the only offer so far is from a buyer who left a note on the front door saying he'd pay the fire-sale price of $10,000.
They say Exelon has refused to buy their home because it has found tritium directly behind, but not beneath, their property.
"They say our property is not contaminated, and if they buy property that is not contaminated, it will set a precedent, and they'll have to buy everybody's property," said Scamen.
Their neighbors, Tom and Judy Zimmer, are also hoping for an offer from Exelon for the land and home they built on it, spending $418,000 for both.
They had just moved into the house in November 2005, and were laying the tile in their new foyer when two Exelon representatives appeared at the door.
"They said, `We're from Exelon, and we had a tritium spill. It's nothing to worry about,'" recalls Tom Zimmer. "I didn't know what tritium even meant."
But his wife says she understood right away that it was bad news — and they hadn't even emptied their moving boxes yet: "I thought, `Oh, my God. We're not even in this place. What are we going to do?'"
They say they had an interested buyer who backed out when he learned of the tritium. No one has made an offer since.
___
PUBLIC RELATIONS EFFORT
The NRC is certainly paying attention. How can it not when local residents fret over every new groundwater incident? But the agency's reports and actions suggest a preoccupation with image and perception.
An NRC task force on tritium leaks last year dismissed the danger to public health. Instead, its report called the leaks "a challenging issue from the perspective of communications around environmental protection." The task force noted ruefully that the rampant leaking had "impacted public confidence."
For sure, the industry also is trying to stop the leaks. For several years now, plant owners around the country have been drilling more monitoring wells and taking a more aggressive approach in replacing old piping when leaks are suspected or discovered.
For example, Exelon has been performing $14 million worth of work at Oyster Creek to give easier access to 2,000 feet of tritium-carrying piping, said site spokesman David Benson.
But such measures have yet to stop widespread leaking.
Meantime, the reactors keep getting older — 66 have been approved for 20-year extensions to their original 40-year licenses, with 16 more extensions pending. And, as the AP has been reporting in its ongoing series, Aging Nukes, regulators and industry have worked in concert to loosen safety standards to keep the plants operating.
In an initiative started last year, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko asked his staff to examine regulations on buried piping to evaluate if stricter standards or more inspections were needed.
The staff report, issued in June, openly acknowledged that the NRC "has not placed an emphasis on preventing" the leaks.
The authors concluded there are no significant health threats or heightened risk of accidents. 
And they predicted even more leaks in the future.

2011-06-20 "Radioactive Tritium has Leaked From 75% of U.S. Nuke Plants — Drinking Wells Were Contaminated in Illinois and Minnesota"
BRACEVILLE, Ill. (AP) – Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.
Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP’s yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants. Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard – sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.
While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, some have migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached public water supplies.
At three sites – two in Illinois and one in Minnesota – leaks have contaminated drinking wells of nearby homes, the records show, but not at levels violating the drinking water standard. At a fourth site, in New Jersey, tritium has leaked into an aquifer and a discharge canal feeding picturesque Barnegat Bay off the Atlantic Ocean.
Any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how slight, boosts cancer risk, according to the National Academy of Sciences. Federal regulators set a limit for how much tritium is allowed in drinking water, where this contaminant poses its main health risk. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says tritium should measure no more than 20,000 picocuries per liter in drinking water. The agency estimates seven of 200,000 people who drink such water for decades would develop cancer.
The tritium leaks also have spurred doubts among independent engineers about the reliability of emergency safety systems at the 104 nuclear reactors situated on the 65 sites. That’s partly because some of the leaky underground pipes carry water meant to cool a reactor in an emergency shutdown and to prevent a meltdown. Fast moving, tritium can indicate the presence of more powerful radioactive isotopes, like cesium-137 and strontium-90.
So far, federal and industry officials say, the tritium leaks pose no health or safety threat. Tony Pietrangelo, chief nuclear officer of the industry’s Nuclear Energy Institute, said impacts are “next to zero.”
—
LEAKS ARE PROLIFIC
Like rust under a car, corrosion has propagated for decades along the hard-to-reach, wet underbellies of the reactors – generally built in a burst of construction during the 1960s and 1970s.
There were 38 leaks from underground piping between 2000 and 2009, according to an industry document presented at a tritium conference. Nearly two-thirds of the leaks were reported over the latest five years.
For example, at the three-unit Browns Ferry complex in Alabama, a valve was mistakenly left open in a storage tank during modifications over the years. When the tank was filled in April 2010, about 1,000 gallons of tritium-laden water poured onto the ground at a concentration of 2 million picocuries per liter. In drinking water, that would be 100 times higher than the EPA health standard.
And in 2008, 7.5 million picocuries per liter leaked from underground piping at Quad Cities in western Illinois – 375 times the EPA limit.
Subsurface water not only rusts underground pipes, it attacks other buried components, including electrical cables that carry signals to control operations.
A 2008 NRC staff memo reported industry data showing 83 failed cables between 21 and 30 years of service – but only 40 within their first 10 years of service. Underground cabling set in concrete can be extraordinarily difficult to replace.
Under NRC rules, tiny concentrations of tritium and other contaminants are routinely released in monitored increments from nuclear plants; leaks from corroded pipes are not permitted.
The leaks sometimes go undiscovered for years, the AP found. Many of the pipes or tanks have been patched, and contaminated soil and water have been removed in some places. But leaks are often discovered later from other nearby piping, tanks or vaults. Mistakes and defective material have contributed to some leaks. However, corrosion – from decades of use and deterioration – is the main cause. And, safety engineers say, the rash of leaks suggest nuclear operators are hard put to maintain the decades-old systems.
Over the history of the U.S. industry, more than 400 known radioactive leaks of all kinds of substances have occurred, the activist Union of Concerned Scientists reported in September.
Nuclear engineer Bill Corcoran, an industry consultant who has taught NRC personnel how to analyze the cause of accidents, said that since much of the piping is inaccessible and carries cooling water, the worry is if the pipes leak there could be a meltdown.
“Any leak is a problem because you have the leak itself – but it also says something about the piping,” said Mario V. Bonaca, a former member of the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. “Evidently something has to be done.”
However, even with the best probes, it is hard to pinpoint partial cracks or damage in skinny pipes or bends. The industry tends to inspect piping when it must be dug up for some other reason. Even when leaks are detected, repairs may be postponed for up to two years with the NRC’s blessing.
“You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they’ve never been inspected, and the NRC is looking the other way,” said engineer Paul Blanch, who has worked for the industry and later became a whistleblower. “They could have corrosion all over the place.”
—
EAST COAST ISSUES
One of the highest known tritium readings was discovered in 2002 at the Salem nuclear plant in Lower Alloways Creek Township, N.J. Tritium leaks from the spent fuel pool contaminated groundwater under the facility – located on an island in Delaware Bay – at a concentration of 15 million picocuries per liter. That’s 750 times the EPA drinking water limit. According to NRC records, the tritium readings last year still exceeded EPA drinking water standards.
And tritium found separately in an onsite storm drain system measured 1 million picocuries per liter in April 2010.
Also last year, the operator, PSEG Nuclear, discovered 680 feet of corroded, buried pipe that is supposed to carry cooling water to Salem Unit 1 in an accident, according to an NRC report. Some had worn down to a quarter of its minimum required thickness, though no leaks were found. The piping was dug up and replaced.
The operator had not visually inspected the piping – the surest way to find corrosion- since the reactor went on line in 1977, according to the NRC. PSEG Nuclear was found to be in violation of NRC rules because it hadn’t even tested the piping since 1988.
Last year, the Vermont Senate was so troubled by tritium leaks as high as 2.5 million picocuries per liter at the Vermont Yankee reactor in southern Vermont (125 times the EPA drinking-water standard) that it voted to block relicensing – a power that the Legislature holds in that state.
In March, the NRC granted the plant a 20-year license extension, despite the state opposition. Weeks ago, operator Entergy sued Vermont in federal court, challenging its authority to force the plant to close.
At 41-year-old Oyster Creek in southern New Jersey, the country’s oldest operating reactor, the latest tritium troubles started in April 2009, a week after it was relicensed for 20 more years. That’s when plant workers discovered tritium by chance in about 3,000 gallons of water that had leaked into a concrete vault housing electrical lines.
Since then, workers have found leaking tritium three more times at concentrations up to 10.8 million picocuries per liter – 540 times the EPA’s drinking water limit – according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. None has been directly measured in drinking water, but it has been found in an aquifer and in a canal discharging into nearby Barnegat Bay, a popular spot for swimming, boating and fishing.
—
EXELON’S PIPING PROBLEMS
To Oyster Creek owner Exelon – the country’s biggest nuclear operator, with 17 units – piping problems are just a fact of life. At a meeting with regulators in 2009, representatives of Exelon acknowledged that “100 percent verification of piping integrity is not practical,” according to a copy of its presentation.
Of course, the company could dig up the pipes and check them out. But that would be costly.
“Excavations have significant impact on plant operations,” the company said.
Exelon has had some major leaks. At the company’s two-reactor Dresden site west of Chicago, tritium has leaked into the ground at up to 9 million picocuries per liter – 450 times the federal limit for drinking water. Leaks from Dresden also have contaminated offsite drinking water wells, but below the EPA drinking water limit.
There’s also been contamination of offsite drinking water wells near the two-unit Prairie Island plant southeast of Minneapolis, then operated by Nuclear Management Co. and now by Xcel Energy, and at Exelon’s two-unit Braidwood nuclear facility, 10 miles from Dresden. The offsite tritium concentrations from both facilities also were below the EPA level.
The Prairie Island leak was found in the well of a nearby home in 1989. It was traced to a canal where radioactive waste was discharged.
Braidwood has leaked more than six million gallons of tritium-laden water in repeated leaks dating back to the 1990s – but not publicly reported until 2005. The leaks were traced to pipes that carried limited, monitored discharges of tritium into the river.
“They weren’t properly maintained, and some of them had corrosion,” said Exelon spokeswoman Krista Lopykinski.
Last year, Exelon, which has acknowledged violating Illinois state groundwater standards, agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle state and county complaints over the tritium leaks at Braidwood and nearby Dresden and Byron sites. The NRC also sanctioned Exelon.
Tritium measuring 1,500 picocuries per liter turned up in an offsite drinking well at a home near Braidwood. Though company and industry officials did not view any of the Braidwood concentrations as dangerous, unnerved residents took to bottled water and sued over feared loss of property value. A consolidated lawsuit was dismissed, but Exelon ultimately bought some homes so residents could leave.
—
PUBLIC RELATIONS EFFORT
An NRC task force on tritium leaks last year dismissed the danger to public health. Instead, its report called the leaks “a challenging issue from the perspective of communications around environmental protection.” The task force noted ruefully that the rampant leaking had “impacted public confidence.”
For sure, the industry also is trying to stop the leaks. For several years now, plant owners around the country have been drilling more monitoring wells and taking a more aggressive approach in replacing old piping when leaks are suspected or discovered.
But such measures have yet to stop widespread leaking.
Meantime, the reactors keep getting older – 66 have been approved for 20-year extensions to their original 40-year licenses, with 16 more extensions pending. And, as the AP has been reporting in its ongoing series, Aging Nukes, regulators and industry have worked in concert to loosen safety standards to keep the plants operating.
In an initiative started last year, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko asked his staff to examine regulations on buried piping to evaluate if stricter standards or more inspections were needed.
The staff report, issued in June, openly acknowledged that the NRC “has not placed an emphasis on preventing” the leaks.
And they predicted even more.

2011-06-17 "US Orders News Blackout Over Crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant"
[http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/06/17/us-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-nebraska-nuclear-plant/]
A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant [photo top left] located in Nebraska.
According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area [http://www.businessinsider.com/faa-closes-airspace-over-flooded-nebraska-nuclear-power-plant-2011-6].
Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a “Level 4” emergency by stating: “This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.” [http://www.oppd.com/AboutUs/22_007105]
Russian atomic scientists in this FAAE report, however, say that this OPPD statement is an “outright falsehood” as all nuclear plants in the world operate under the guidelines of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) which clearly states the “events” occurring at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant do, indeed, put it in the “Level 4” emergency category of an “accident with local consequences” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_Event_Scale#Level_4:_Accident_with_local_consequences] thus making this one of the worst nuclear accidents in US history.
Though this report confirms independent readings [http://www.radiationnetwork.com/] in the United States of “negligible release of nuclear gasses” related to this accident it warns that by the Obama regimes censoring of this event for “political purposes” it risks a “serious blowback” from the American public should they gain knowledge of this being hidden from them.
Interesting to note about this event was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief, Gregory B. Jaczko, blasting the Obama regime just days before the near meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant by declaring that “the policy of not enforcing most fire code violations at dozens of nuclear plants is “unacceptable” and has tied the hands of NRC inspectors.” [http://www.propublica.org/article/nuclear-regulatory-commission-chief-blasts-agencys-approach-to-fire-safety]
[ ... ]
Perhaps even more sadly for the American people is this report stating that the Obama regime is “walking in lockstep” with Japan in their attempts to keep the truth of nuclear accidents from their citizens; which in the case of the Japanese can only be labeled as horrific as new evidence points to them knowing within hours of the Great Tsunami that their atomic reactors had melted down, but have only today ordered an evacuation of pregnant women from what are called “radiation hotspots.”
With a country that some scientists are now warning may soon become uninhabitable due to radiation damage, and with reports of mutant rabbits and radioactive whales now being reported, one wonders if in knowing the truth the American people would really want to follow Japan’s “example” instead of those people in Germany and Italy?
But, with an already documented 35% increase in the infant mortality rate for American mothers living in the western coastal regions of the US caused by radiation blowing onto them from Japan being ignored by these people there doesn’t seem to be much hope for them.



"Flood Rumor Control" from "Omaha Public Power District"
[http://www.oppd.com/AboutUs/22_007105]
Following are responses to flood-related rumors that OPPD has heard about.
In a cable television news clip that is widely circulating on the Internet, a wide array of topics related to Fort Calhoun Station is discussed. We hope this background information may be helpful to put comments in context.

Rumor: A National Weather Service (NWS) river gauge malfunction is affecting safety at Fort Calhoun Station. Not true.
* First, Fort Calhoun Station has its own river gauge, and is not reliant on NWS gauges.
* Second, the use of any river gauge would be to determine when to shut down the plant. Fort Calhoun already was shut down for refueling.

Rumor: Tritium is leaking from Fort Calhoun Station.
* In 2007, OPPD notified the NRC that tritium and Cesium were found inside a building at Fort Calhoun Station, not in the ground water.
* During regularly scheduled testing since 2007, very low levels of tritium have been detected in water samples taken from the protected area immediately inside the plant. No tritium has been found in water samples taken from wells outside the protected area of the plant. The levels found inside the plant have been below reportable limits and testing will continue to monitor the situation.
* All measures have, and will continue to be taken to ensure the public is safe.
* More information on tritium can be found on this page of the Environmental Protection Agency: [http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/tritium.html]

Rumor: Water in the spent fuel pool came close to boiling.
* The temperature of the water surrounding and above Fort Calhoun’s fuel and spent fuel is and has been around 80 degrees.
* Even when the spent fuel pool pumps were not circulating water for about an hour and a half, temperature only rose about two degrees.

Rumor: The White House has declared a media blackout on news about Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station
* Since May 24, OPPD spokespersons have been answering questions from news media representatives about the flooding impact on OPPD’s operations, including Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station.
* On June 17, OPPD President and CEO Gary Gates and OPPD Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer * Dave Bannister held a news conference to discuss the situation at Fort Calhoun. The news conference was attended by local media, including three television stations, a radio station, the Associated Press and the local newspaper. All carried stories on the news conference, which addressed issues affecting the flood effects on the entire district, including Nebraska City Station and the transmission and distribution system.
* Most recently, stories on the situation have appeared in the Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Times, local broadcast and numerous other outlets, traditional and alternative.
* In addition, OPPD has been and continues to post information about its flood-mitigation efforts on its website, oppd.com, and its blog site [http://oppdstorminfo.blogspot.com/].

Rumor: Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station is at a Level 4 emergency or level 4 alert.
* The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission comments on rumors about Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and the current flooding: NRC Public Blog [http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2011/06/17/rumors-and-the-rising-river/]
* This terminology is not accurate.
* Fort Calhoun Station (FCS) declared a Notification of Unusual Event (NOUE) on June 6.
* A NOUE is the least-serious of four emergency classifications established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
* FCS declared a NOUE because the Missouri River was projected to reach 1,004 feet above mean sea level. (It reached that height on June 9.)
* The FCS plant’s reactor has been in cold shut down for a planned refueling outage since April 9. It will remain in that condition until the river recedes.
* The reactor and spent-fuel pool are in a normal, stable condition and are both protected; there has been no release of radioactivity and none is expected.

Rumor: A no-fly zone was set up around Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station because of a release of radiation, similar to what happened with the Fukushima reactors in Japan.
* There has been no release of radioactivity at Fort Calhoun Station due to the flooding and none is expected.
* The flight restrictions were set up by the FAA as a result of Missouri river flooding.
* OPPD’s extensive, preplanned actions to protect the FCS reactor and spent-fuel pool from the floodwaters have been effective.
* The reactor is housed in a watertight containment building, and is in a normal and safe “cold shutdown” condition, covered by more than 23 feet of purified reactor coolant water.
* In addition, OPPD has installed Aqua Dams® and other berms around such vital equipment and buildings at the FCS site.

Rumor: Because of a fire at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station on June 7, the plant’s spent-fuel pool was in danger of boiling and releasing radioactivity.
* There was no such imminent danger with the Fort Calhoun Station spent-fuel pool.
* Due to a fire in an electrical switchgear room at FCS on the morning of June 7, the plant temporarily lost power to a pump that cools the spent-fuel pool.
* The fire-suppression system in that switchgear room operated as designed, extinguishing the fire quickly.
* FCS plant operators switched the spent-fuel pool cooling system to an installed backup pump about 90 minutes after the loss of power.
* During the interruption of cooling, temperature of the pool increased a few degrees, but the pool was never in danger of boiling.
* Due to this situation, FCS declared an Alert at about 9:40 a.m. on June 7.
* An alert is the second-least-serious of four emergency classifications established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
* At about 1:15 p.m. on June 7, FCS operators declared they had taken all appropriate measures to safely return to the previously declared Notification of Unusual Event emergency classification. (See first item above.)

Rumor: OPPD will run out of coal if railroads cannot reach the plants.
* Currently, trains are arriving at both of OPPD’s coal-fired power plants. OPPD and a private contractor have raised the tracks at Nebraska City Station to allow coal to continue to be delivered to the plant.
* OPPD has several months' worth of coal already on plant sites.

Rumor: A red flag tied to an overhead power line means OPPD has – or is about to – de-energize that line and cut power to the area.
* An orange ball or red flag on an overhead line serves as a warning to alert aircraft and operators of heavy equipment of an energized line.
* A red flag on a power pole means power has been disconnected at that pole.



2011-06-15 "Airspace Over Flooded Nebraska Nuclear Power Plant Still Closed" by Ricky Kreitner
[http://www.businessinsider.com/faa-closes-airspace-over-flooded-nebraska-nuclear-power-plant-2011-6]
A fire in Nebraska's Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant briefly knocked out the cooling process for spent nuclear fuel rods, ProPublica reports [http://www.truth-out.org/electrical-fire-knocks-out-spent-fuel-cooling-nebraska-nuke-plant/1308155673].
The fire occurred on June 7th, and knocked out cooling for approximately 90 minutes. After 88 hours, the cooling pool would boil dry and highly radioactive materials would be exposed.
On June 6th, the Federal Administration Aviation (FAA) issued a directive banning aircraft from entering the airspace within a two-mile radius of the plant [http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_1_6523.html].
"No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM," referring to the "notice to airmen," effective immediately.
Since last week, the plant has been under a "notification of unusual event" classification, becausing of the rising Missouri River. That is the lowest level of emergency alert.
The OPPD claims the FAA closed airspace over the plant because of the Missouri River flooding. But the FAA ban specifically lists the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant as the location for the flight ban.
The plant is adjacent to the now-flooding river, about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, and has been closed since April for refueling.
WOWT, the local NBC affiliate, reports on its website [http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Ft_Calhoun_Flood_Defenses_123878599.html]:
"The Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Facility is an island right now but it is one that authorities say is going to stay dry. They say they have a number of redundant features to protect the facility from flood waters that include the aqua dam, earthen berms and sandbags."
OPPD spokesman Jeff Hanson told Business Insider that the nuclear plant is in a "stable situation." He said the Missouri River is currently at 1005.6" above sea level, and that no radioactive fuel had yet been released or was expected to be released in the future.
Asked about the FAA flight ban, Hanson it was due to high power lines and "security reasons that we can't reveal." He said the flight ban remains in effect.
Here's a video from last week. The first forty seconds are video that Omaha's Action 3 News shot of the besieged plant, despite OPPD's requests that it not do so. The rest of the video is from a radio show in New York reporting on the unfolding events in Nebraska.

2011-06-15 "Scenic Green Valley CA tract to remain open space; $3.5 million deal reached to buy 1st piece of scenic Solano County tract from developer" by Peter Fimrite from "San Francisco Chronicle" newspaper
[http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-06-15/news/29659683_1_open-space-oak-trees-corridor]
 Conservationists have reached a deal to preserve a chunk of oak-studded Solano County countryside with sloping rocky mesas and sweeping panoramas so intoxicating that developers have sought for decades to plop homes on the silky golden fields and bluffs.
 The Solano Land Trust paid $3.5 million to buy 330 acres of what is called Green Valley, a pastoral area nestled between Vallejo and Fairfield that environmentalists say is key to the preservation of a corridor of open space stretching through Napa County all the way to Clear Lake.
 The deal, reached last week, is in essence a down payment on 1,500 acres of former Indian hunting grounds and settlements that contain some of the Bay Area's most sensitive habitat. The land trust now has until February to raise an additional $10.5 million to buy the remaining 1,170 acres from White Wing Highlands Associates or the developers could exercise their right to build 185 homes.
"This is the first time in 30 years that we have the opportunity to preserve this land for the entire community, and it is really amazing to be a part of it," said Nicole Byrd, executive director of the Solano Land Trust. "It's an extraordinary asset."

Extraordinary views -
The property has been the subject of numerous development plans over the past three decades, prompting furious legal and political battles. The latest building plan, by White Wing Highlands Associates, was to construct 370 homes. The development was approved by Solano County supervisors, prompting a lawsuit by the Green Valley Landowners Association and the Sierra Club claiming that the plan violated numerous provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act.
 The lawsuit was settled after the land trust's agreement to buy the land was finalized.
The land, known as Rockville Trails Estates, is next to the 650-acre Rockville Hills Park, owned by Fairfield. Once the purchase is completed, the land would connect with the 800,000-acre Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area and form a huge corridor of open space with the potential for a regional trail system and numerous recreational opportunities for the public.
The property, which is still used for cattle grazing, has golden valleys and steep rocky ridges. There are stands of oak trees, including blue and live oaks, and extraordinary views from the bluffs toward Mount Diablo, Suisun Valley and the delta.
The core of an ancient volcano sweeps up to a mesa that is often covered in wildflowers. Golden and bald eagles have been spotted, and Indian artifacts are scattered about in undisclosed locations, indicating ancient settlements.
 "It is just truly beautiful," said Solano County Supervisor Linda Seifert after a tour of the property. "You might see golden hills covered with trees, brilliant wildflowers. It's absolutely stunning in every direction. Houses don't belong there. They just don't."

Fighting development -
The latest effort to save the land was essentially instigated by about 750 neighbors who are part of the nonprofit Green Valley Landowners Association. They joined the Sierra Club and filed suit in 2008, questioning whether there would be adequate water and sewage capability for the proposed homes. They also pointed out that there is an earthquake fault that runs through the property.
"We saw the way the development was planned as decimating the whole mountain, and we just said it can't be done this way," said Bill Mayben, the president of the landowners association. "They hadn't accounted for water, sewage and traffic. It just wasn't well thought out."
 The collapse of the Bay Area housing market caused the value of the land, which was once worth about $125 million, to plummet. Seeing an opportunity, the association joined with the land trust and made an offer that the developer accepted on condition that the lawsuit against the county be settled. The settlement agreement would allow the developer to build half the approved number of homes if the land trust cannot come up with the rest of the money.
 "We never could have afforded this property in the past, but market forces have brought the price down to the point that we could afford it," Mayben said. "To get it for $13.5 million is a great deal for the environmental community."

More money needed -
The first $3 million of the initial $3.5 million payment came from Fairfield and county open space assessment district funds that were approved by voters about two decades ago. Byrd said the California Coastal Conservancy has agreed to pay another $3 million toward the purchase of the rest of the land. The trust hopes to get the balance of the money from public and private foundations.
 Plans are in the works to complete a portion of the Bay Area Ridge Trail through Rockville Hills, opening up miles of open space to the public. The trust may offer docent-led hikes through the 330 acres, but Byrd said public access will be limited until the rest of the land has been purchased.
 "The first part is a done deal, but clearly the challenge now is to find the resources to purchase the remaining acreage," Seifert said. "It's extremely important. We need to do everything we can to make sure we secure the remaining property."

2011-06-10 "A 35% Spike in Infant Mortality in Northwest Cities Since Meltdown: Is the Dramatic Increase in Baby Deaths in the US a Result of Fukushima Fallout?" by JANETTE D. SHERMAN, MD and JOSEPH MANGANO
[http://www.counterpunch.org/sherman06102011.html]
U.S. babies are dying at an increased rate. While the United States spends billions on medical care, as of 2006, the US ranked 28th in the world in infant mortality, more than twice that of the lowest ranked countries.  (DHHS, CDC, National Center for Health Statistics.  Health United States 2010, Table 20, p. 131, February 2011.)
The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:
* 4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 - 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)
* 10 weeks ending May 28, 2011  - 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week)
This amounts to an increase of 35% (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3%), and is statistically significant.   Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster.  In 2001 the infant mortality was 6.834 per 1000 live births, increasing to 6.845 in 2007. All years from 2002 to 2007 were higher than the 2001 rate.
Spewing from the Fukushima reactor are radioactive isotopes including those of iodine (I-131), strontium (Sr-90) and cesium (Cs-134 and Cs-137) all of which are taken up in food and water.  Iodine is concentrated in the thyroid, Sr-90 in bones and teeth and Cs-134 and Cs-137 in soft tissues, including the heart.  The unborn and babies are more vulnerable because the cells are rapidly dividing and the delivered dose is proportionally larger than that delivered to an adult.
Data from Chernobyl, which exploded 25 years ago, clearly shows increased numbers of sick and weak newborns and increased numbers of deaths in the unborn and newborns, especially soon after the meltdown.  These occurred in Europe as well as the former Soviet Union. Similar findings are also seen in wildlife living in areas with increased radioactive fallout levels.
(Chernobyl – Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,  Alexeiy    V. Yablokov, Vasily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko.  Consulting Editor:  Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger. New York Academy of Sciences, 2009.)
Levels of radioisotopes were measured in children who had died in the Minsk area that had received Chernobyl fallout.  The cardiac findings were the same as those seen in test animals that had been administered Cs-137.  Bandashevsky, Y. I, Pathology of Incorporated Ionizing Radiation, Belarus Technical University, Minsk. 136 pp., 1999.  For his pioneering work, Prof. Bandashevsky was arrested in 2001 and imprisoned for five years of an eight year sentence.
The national low-weight (under 2500 grams, or 5.5 lbs) rate has risen 23% from 1984 to 2006.  Nearly 400,000 infants are born under 2500g each year in the U.S.  Most of the increase in infant mortality is due  specifically to infants born weighing less than 750 grams (I lb 10 1/2 oz).  Multiple births commonly result in underweight babies, but most of the increase in births at less than 750 grams occurred among singletons and among mothers 20-34 years of age.  (CDC, National Vital Statistics Report, 52 (12): 1-24, 2005.)
From an obstetrical point of view, women in the age bracket 20 to 34 are those most physically able to deliver a healthy child.  So what has gone wrong?   Clues to causation are often revealed when there is a change in incidence, a suspicious geographical distribution, and/or an increase in hazards known to adversely affect health and development.
The risk of having a baby with birth defects is estimated at three to four of every 100 babies born.  As of 2005, the Institute of medicine estimated the cost of pre-term births in the US at more than $2.6 billion, or $51,600 for each infant. 
Low birth weight babies, born too soon and too small, face a lifetime of health problems, including cerebral palsy, and behavioral and learning problems placing an enormous physical, emotional and economic burdens on society as a whole and on those caring for them.  Death of a young child is devastating to a family.
As of June 5, 2011, The Japan Times reported that radiation in the No. 1 plant was measured at 4,000 milliseverts per hour.  To put that in perspective, a worker would receive a maximal “permissible” dose in 4 minutes.  In addition there are over 40,000 tons of radioactive water under that reactor with more radioactivity escaping into the air and sea.  Fuel rods are believed to have melted and sunk to the bottom of reactors 1, 2, and 3.
Tepco, the corporate owner took more than two months to confirm the meltdowns and admitted lying about the levels of destruction and subsequent contamination, resulting in “Public Distrust.” Over 100,000 tons of radioactive waste are on the site.
Why should we care if there may be is a link between Fukushima and the death of children?  Because we need to measure the actual levels of isotopes in the environment and in the bodies of people exposed to determine if the fallout is killing our most vulnerable.  The research is not technically difficult – the political and economic barriers may be greater.  Bandshevsky and others did it and confirmed the connection.  The information is available in the Chernobyl book.  (Previously cited.)
The biological findings of Chernobyl cannot be ignored:  isotope incorporation will determine the future of all life on earth – animal, fish, bird, plant and human.  It is crucial to know this information if we are to avoid further catastrophic damage.
---
Janette D. Sherman, M. D. is the author of Life's Delicate Balance: Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Chemical Exposure and Disease, and is a specialist in internal medicine and toxicology. She edited the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and Nature, written by A. V. Yablokov, V. B., Nesterenko and A. V. Nesterenko, published by the New York Academy of Sciences in 2009.  Her primary interest is the prevention of illness through public education.  She can be reached at:  toxdoc.js@verizon.net  and www.janettesherman.com
---
Joseph Mangano is an epidemiologist, and Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project research group.

2011-06-06 "Enormous sturgeon crowding into San Pablo Bay" by Alastair Bland from "Marin Independent Journal" newspaper
A large, unusual concentration of big sturgeon in San Pablo Bay has scientists baffled and local fishermen thrilled.
Thousands of the lumbering bottom-feeding fish seem to be gathered in the waters between the Carquinez Strait and the Tiburon Peninsula. Sport anglers, who generally are accustomed to long and tedious hours of fishing to catch just one sturgeon, are deeming 2011 one of the best fishing years in history.
But just why the white sturgeon -- whose smaller and rarer cousin, the green sturgeon, is a threatened species -- are swarming in San Pablo Bay more than elsewhere is uncertain. The season's intense precipitation almost certainly has something to do with the phenomenon. Fishermen generally associate heavy rainfall with increased sturgeon activity. Some anglers say the influx of fresh water into the bay stimulates the fish's appetite.
Keith Fraser, a veteran fisherman and owner of Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael, speculates that the season's first big downpours "pushed" the sturgeon from higher in the estuary into San Pablo Bay.
"In November, the (sturgeon) fishing was hot up around Pittsburg and Antioch," Fraser said. "Then the rain started, and the fish all came down into our lap."
Scientists, though, are dubious. According to state Department of Fish and Game biologist Marty Gingras, the expected response to high rainfall of sturgeon is to move upriver. High river flows, he explains, can trigger sturgeon spawning activity, which takes place between December and June in the Sacramento River.
Indeed, decades' worth of data collected by the department show that years of high rainfall are often followed by an abundance of baby sturgeon.
Another biologist, Michael Thomas at UC Davis, was surprised to hear of the fast fishing action downstream of the Delta. "We'd expect the fish to go upstream when it rains this much," Thomas said.
He has a hypothesis, though: "It's possible that the high river flows in the winter caused the fish to spawn early, and if that's the case, then what we're seeing is a large congregation of post-spawn fish in San Pablo Bay."
Whatever the explanation, local fishermen know one thing: The slow and sluggish pastime of catching sturgeon has become one of the fastest games in town.
"The sturgeon fishing now is as good as I've ever seen it," said Jim Cox, a San Rafael sport-fishing captain and operator of the boat Touch of Gray. Cox has been fishing in the Bay Area for three decades.
Spurts of good sturgeon fishing arrive periodically but 2011, he said, tops any year he can remember. He has landed keeper-sized sturgeon on nine consecutive outings this spring -- a remarkable streak by sturgeon fishing standards.
A fellow San Rafael party boat captain, Gordon Hough, took 10 clients fishing last month on his boat, the Morning Star, and the group caught -- and mostly released -- 20 fish in an exceptional fishing outing.
Also remarkable for this year is the large size of the fish being caught. Fairfax fisherman Rico Petri, who said sturgeon fishing is usually "really boring," has caught and released 20 sturgeon since November and said 10 were longer than the 5.5-foot maximum size limit. One, Petri said, was 7.5 feet long. Multiple 8-foot fish have been caught, released and reported to bait shops. Fraser tells of a 9-footer.
But the biggest of all was caught near China Camp State Park on March 29. The fish was reeled in by a San Francisco man who estimated the fish at more than 12 feet long and roughly 1,000 pounds.
California's official state record for white sturgeon is a 468-pounder caught in 1983, a decade before a maximum size limit made keeping such giants illegal. But the largest sturgeon ever known in state waters may have been a 1,500-pound white hauled from the Sacramento River by a team of horses in the 1880s. The 16-foot-long fish reportedly inhaled a rabbit used as bait on a meat hook. Even bigger fish have come from the waters of the Columbia River system.
Around the turn of the last century, a short-lived commercial industry devastated California's white sturgeon population. The commercial fishery was shut down and has never reopened.
But sport fishing has always been tightly restricted. By state law, anglers can only keep one white sturgeon per day and three per year. A fish must measure 46 to 66 inches long if it is to be kept -- a "slot limit" system that theoretically gives lifelong protection to large fish, though sturgeon poachers regularly violate the law.
Despite careful fishery management, the annual sturgeon catch is declining. According to Department of Fish and Game records, Bay Area party boat captains, who must report all sturgeon kept to officials, took an average of 1,900 fish per year from 1966 to 1970, 525 from 1976 to 1980, and 500 from 1986 to 1990. Since 2000, party boat skippers have reported just 240 sturgeon per year. In 2009, their collective tally came to 175 fish -- the second-lowest ever recorded.
Lack of fishing effort may be a factor, Cox said. But Cox warned that the state's white sturgeon population has "definitely dropped," and he blames environmental degradation in the Delta and Sacramento River.
Sean Daugherty, a San Rafael fisherman, believes enforced fishing restrictions could make sturgeon fishing a sustainable recreation.
"People are catching a lot (of sturgeon) this year, but the slot limits should protect the big ones indefinitely," he said.

2011-06-05 "Birders swoop in to aid 'threatened' hawks at construction site near Vacaville" by Tony Burchyns from "Vallejo Times-Herald" newspaper
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_18210623?source=rss]
VACAVILLE -- For some, protecting the environment is for the birds. But local hawk experts might take that as a compliment.
Especially those grabbing binoculars and rearranging their schedules to monitor a Swainson's hawk nest near a construction site outside of Vacaville.
The bird species is listed as "threatened" under the California Endangered Species Act.
"Birders are dedicated people," said James Walsh, of Fairfield, who's part of a handful of volunteers from Vallejo to Sacramento to Santa Rosa. "Once you get hooked, it's like a drug."
Their concern deals with Vacaville's construction of new wastewater plant facilities, expansion of existing buildings and demolition of other structures at 6040 Vaca Station Road, in the unincorporated hamlet of Elmira.

Two-year project -
The work is expected to start this month, and wrap up in spring 2013, according to Vacaville's public works department. The project is meant to improve the quality of water discharged into Old Alamo Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
But California Department of Fish and Game records show several documented Swainson's hawk nest sites within a half-mile of the project area.
And on May 23, a city-commissioned biologist pinpointed an active nest within a eucalyptus tree on a farm just 820 feet northeast of the site. A Swainson's hawk was seen flying into the nest, remaining there for five minutes and leaving to forage in the agricultural field east of Lewis Road, project documents show. A hawk was also seen leaving the nest the next day, May 24.
Meanwhile, a second raptor's nest was spotted in a eucalyptus tree adjacent to the site's northwest boundary. However, the nest did not appear to be occupied, the biologist reported.
A third nest, roughly 1,300 feet from the site, was observed on May 24. It was monitored for an hour, but no hawks were seen.
However, the two-day survey concluded there is at least one active nest within 1/4 mile of planned construction activities.

'Appropriate buffers' -
As a result, the city has begun working with Fish and Game to establish "appropriate buffers," develop measures to avoid nest disturbance and launch a monitoring and reporting program before the work begins. Another round of nest surveys will be conducted on June 13 and 14.
"We have been working with Fish and Game since the beginning (of the project) regarding the hawks," said Deborah Faaborg, the city's environmental project manager. "We're confident that the mitigation and monitoring details we prepared are going to work."
In an April letter to Fish and Game, the city suggested that the hawks nesting in the area "have become well adapted" to human activities. It's generally accepted that the birds have become accustomed to living near people's homes in places like Sacramento.
Fish and Game officials and local hawk experts, however, say it cannot be assumed that these birds will tolerate the project's intensive noise levels and visual disturbance created from demolition and construction activities.
Also of concern is that a failed nesting attempt could cause a pair to not return to its nest site in future breeding seasons between March 1 and Sept. 15.

Courtship activities -
During an April 5 visit, a Fish and Game environmental scientist observed a pair of Swainson's hawks circling the large eucalyptus tree, and an adult hawk was seen flying out of this particular nest tree. The hawks' behavior suggested initiation of courtship or nesting activity, the scientist concluded.
Fish and Game has advised the city that if eggs or young birds are killed, shot, trapped or die by nest disturbance as a result of the project, it would be "illegal" under state law unless the city applies for a special permit.
Meanwhile, Walsh and about seven other volunteers are mobilizing to keep an eye on the nest -- and report any signs of distress to Fish and Game officials.
Walsh, 53, manages a Fairfield landscape company and leads people on hawk-watching tours and hikes through Lynch Canyon and the King-Swett Ranches. He's been a nature buff all his life.
"They are a threatened species," Walsh said of his motives. "One of the reasons why is ... the loss of nesting sites and human encroachment onto both their summer and wintering grounds (in South America)."

Eighty percent decline -
Once a relatively common species found throughout California's foothill grasslands, the Swainson's hawk population has declined more than 80 percent in recent decades, biologists say. The predatory birds are now restricted to portions of the Central Valley and Great Basin regions. Due to their significant drop in numbers, the hawks have been state-listed as "threatened" since 1983.
A 1979 Fish and Game survey found just 350 nesting pairs remaining in the state and determined this to be a 90 percent population reduction of the historic Swainson's hawk numbers.
Since 1980, several research efforts have added information on the hawks' ecology and distribution.
In a related move, an ad hoc committee of researchers and agency biologists was established in 1989 to advise regulators on land use issues affecting the species.
About 10 years ago, the committee estimated the nesting population to include between 700 and 1,000 breeding pairs, mostly in the Central Valley.
Other studies in the Sacramento Valley, however, suggest that this still may be an underestimate of the statewide population. A 2005-06 count estimated more than 2,000 breeding pairs, Fish and Game Environmental Program Manager Scott Wilson said.
But rapid urbanization and human population growth continue to place the hawk at the center of development controversies.
Walsh added, "I am not going to say all construction should be stopped because it is detrimental to the environment, but there has to be a middle ground in any situation."

'Hawk Watch Team' -
Another volunteer, Santa Rosa resident Larry Broderick, said he's been a raptor enthusiast for more than 20 years, studying them in college and doing various things to support birds of prey in general.
In his spare time, Broderick educates people on threats that directly affect hawks, falcons and eagles, including power lines, wind turbines, poachers, poisonings and habitat loss.
In the last six or seven years, Broderick, 44, a salesman at Donahue Truck Centers, has been taking people out on hawk watching tours and hikes with land trusts and Audubon groups.
Walsh participates in Broderick's West County Hawk Watch team, which includes a handful of other volunteer docents.
"I watch the hawks because they are an environmental barometer at the top of the food chain," Broderick said. "When something affects them, it won't be long until it affects us."
Broderick mentioned the harmful effects of the pesticide DDT on bald eagles and peregrine falcons before humans fully understood the dangers.
"Another reason why I am concerned about this particular pair of 'Swainies' is that the birds in the Yolo Basin have been having issues with finding nesting trees, with lots of nests being taken over by red-tailed hawks and herons," Broderick said. "Also, sudden oak death is doing a number on (their) traditional nesting sites."

Nesting site search -
Thirty years ago, Swainson's hawks had been driven out of their traditional Solano County breeding areas. But with their numbers on the rise, and fewer oaks and other big trees dotting the landscape in Yolo and other Central Valley counties, biologists say the hawks are re-establishing their old stomping grounds.
"So this pair is trying to strike out and find new habitat ... yet we are in jeopardy of driving them off with noise, tractors, dirt, dust and whatever else goes on at that site," Broderick said.
Walsh suggested that the $22.6 million project could be scheduled around the birds' nesting season.
But Vacaville is on a tight deadline.
The plant upgrade is one of four projects needed to meet the requirements of the city's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Ordered in 2008, it will include adding facilities needed to meet the government's "denitrification" -- conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas -- regulatory requirement by May 2013, as well as upgrades to improve plant operations.
Headworks will be modified, aeration basins expanded, a flow equalization basin constructed, an existing biosolids storage lagoon modified and a second standby generator added.
But minimizing harm to the hawks remains of high importance, Faaborg said. So far, the city's even considering holding an environmental education session for the construction team and appointing someone through Fish and Game to watch the nest three days a week during certain project phases.
Fish and Game officials are reviewing the plans, which include many other measures, but their approval is not required, Wilson said.
Meanwhile, members of the public are welcome to keep an eye on things, as long as they stay clear of the construction zone, Faaborg said.
"That's fine with us," she said.
Walsh said the group doesn't want to get in the way, but rather encourage maximum vigilance.
"I think the city is being sincere," he added. "It's in their best interest."

On the web:
For information about Solano County hawk watch tours, email Larry Broderick of West County Hawk Watch at northcoastraptor@gmail.com. Or, visit solanolandtrust.org and click on "Get Involved" or "Events Calendar."

Swainson's hawk at a glance:
* Scientific name: Buteo swainsoni
* Habitat: Open grasslands, prairies, farmlands and deserts. Winters in eastern Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil.
* Diet: California voles, gophers, ground squirrels, rabbits, birds, snakes, lizards, grasshoppers and other insects.
* Reproduction: Females typically lay two to three eggs a year. Breeding pairs mate for life. The oldest bird on record is 24 years old.
* Population: More than 2,000 breeding pairs and growing as of 2006. State-listed as "threatened" since 1983.
* Description: 17-22 inches long with a 4-4 1/2 foot wingspan. Weighs 1 1/2-2 1/2 pounds. Most birds are dark red with white chest and throat patches.

Veolia transnational corp. and hostility against the ecology, and human rights

"Veolia's Other Offenses: Different names, same games..."
2011 from "Global Exchange" [http://www.globalexchange.org/economicactivism/veolia/otheroffenses]:
Originally named Compagnie Generale des Eaux in 1853, the French multi-national Vivendi Universal had over a third of the directors of its main board under investigation for corruption in 1996. Vivendi Universal sold off a majority stake in its water subsidiary, Vivendi Environment and renamed it Veolia in 2002 after a decade-long merger spree.  The company sought to jettison its debt load with their credit rating reduced to 'junk' status and the forced resignation of former CEO, Jean-Marie Messier. He was convicted and fined a million dollars for fraud by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, and denied a $25 million severance package in addition to fines and a conviction in France.  Veolia has hundreds of subsidiaries in dozens of countries; various names for Veolia exist under the same umbrella: US Filter, Apa Nova, United Water, PVK, General-Des-Eaux, Onyx Environmental, Dalkia, Veolia Water North America, Connex, etc... See a 2005 report by Public Citizen titled Veolia Environment: A Corporate Profile [link] (.pdf) and a 2011 report by Food and Water Watch titled Veolia Environnement: A Profile of the World's Largest Water Service Corporation for more information on Veolia's history as a corporation [link].

Profits over people...
Veolia is the largest water privatization business in the world, and has come under attack by water rights activists for many of its contracts that reveal consistent prioritization of private profit at the expense of the environment and public interest. See the 2011 report by Food & Water Watch for more information. While public facilities are accountable to the public, often creating increased transparency and efficiency, private facilities are not. If a company chooses to abuse its privilege by hiking up price rates or cutting costs in ways that are detrimental to the public, it is much more difficult to fight.  Worldwide, consumers report that Veolia consistently charges high rates, provides poor service, and fails to make promised improvements.
As highlighted in a report prepared by Novato Friends of Locally Operated Wastewater as part of their campaign against this company [link] (.pdf), Veolia has additionally shown a lack of care for public welfare by:
* Cost-cutting and lack of proper oversight
* High staffing turnover and failure to attract experienced staff
* "Regional Response" plans slow down emergency responses
* Liability assignment provisions skirt full responsibility
* Contract fee schedules encourage maintenance deferrals & substandard equipment use while discouraging water conservation efforts

Veolia contracts gone bad...
***These examples from the United States are compiled from the 2009 report by Food & Water Watch titled Money Down the Drain: How Private Control of Water Wastes Public Resources [link] (.pdf), a 2010 Food & Water Watch Factsheet titled A Closer Look: Veolia Environnement [link] (.pdf), a 2011 report by Food and Water Watch titled Veolia Environnement: A Profile of the World's Largest Water Service Corporation [link], and a report prepared by Novato Friends of Locally Operated Wastewater titled Veolia and the Environment: A Bad Fit for Novato [link] (.pdf).

California:
Burlingame, CA -
Veolia settled out of court when sued under the Clean Water Act for dumping more than 10 million gallons of wastewater and untreated sewage over a 5 year period into the San Francisco Bay after creating an inadequate improvement project.

Richmond, CA -
Veolia and Richmond settled out of court when sued for dumping more than 17 million gallons of sewage into tributaries after initiating a capital improvement project.  Voters approved a $20 million bond to pay for sewer repairs, which Richmond used to privatize its sewers over three years and then sign a 20-year, $70 million contract with Veolia.
Taxpayers had to shell out $500,000 annually to compensate for related property damage. In 2008, the plant had 22 spills of more than 2 million gallons of sewage.

Connecticut:
Bridgeport, CN -
Mayor convicted on 16 counts including taking kickbacks, bribes and extortion, along with 8 other defendants over a PSG (Vivendi) contract proposal.

Danbury, CN -
In a short-sighted attempt to balance its municipal budget, the city leased its sewers in exchange for a $10 million upfront payment, at $22 million overall expense.

Delaware:
Wilmington, DE -
Failures to upgrade and repair, have resulted in years of sewage spills; environmental violations; state fines; horrendously foul odors; sewage overflow outlets which annually send over a billion gallons of contaminated wastewater into area waterways; and contract disputes over a 55% rate hike.

Idaho
Burley, ID -
In 2009, after cancelling its wastewater contract with Veolia, the city had to make thousands of dollars in repairs to the treatment plant because of the company's neglect and poor maintenance.

Indiana
Indianapolis, IN -
Veolia has been sued for breaking state contract law, and for overcharging 250,000 residents.  Non-union employees have had pension, health care and benefits cut $50 million over the 20-year contract.  With the second worst drinking water in the country, a grand jury has subpoenaed four Veolia employees for allegations of falsifying water reports amid accusations by city and county officials that Veolia was skimping on staffing, water testing, maintenance and chemicals.

Iowa
Tama, IA -
In 2011, the city sought to end a 20-year contract with Veolia because it believed the city could save money with a public operation.

Louisiana
New Orleans, LA -
Consideration of a bid containing uncertainties, inadequacies, and omissions cost the city $5 million. Failure to take action on a known equipment problem resulted in an electrical fire.  Raw sewage backed up into the East Bank Sewage Treatment Plant and was diverted into the Mississippi River for two hours. An executive was convicted of bribery in seeking wastewater contract extension and fined $3 million.

Massachusetts
Lee, MA -
Lee rejected a bid that seemed to be a scheme to turn the city's wastewater treatment facilities into a regional waste plant/Veolia profit stream.

Lynn, MA -
The city was forced to end a weak contract that left it liable for expenses due to sewer overflows and flooding as a result of poor design or workmanship of system upgrades and an expired letter of credit. The city lost $22 million.

Rockland, MA -
A forensic audit led to a contract termination amid embezzlement charges involving a sewer department official and a local company executive, charged with embezzling more than US$300,000.

Ohio:
West Carrollton, OH -
An explosion at Veolia Environmental Service's plant injured two workers, damaged over a dozen homes within a mile radius from the blast, caused $50 million in damage to the plant itself.
(Image Source: http://www.novatoflow.org/shame.html)


Pennsylvania:
Meadville, PN -
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined Veolia ES Solid Waste of Pennsylvania Inc. $160,278 for violations related to vehicle licensing and failing to abide by the terms of its  permit and more than $11,200 for residual and municipal waste violations amid complaints a Veolia truck driver draining an estimated 100 gallons of dilute coolant and rust preventative into a storm drain leading to the Driftwood Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek.

Cameron and Centre Counties, PN -
Veolia was also fined by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for municipal and residual waste violations in Cameron and Centre Counties.

Rhode Island:
Woonsocket, RI -
Years of serious sewage spills, violations and fines followed kept the city's plant out of Clean Water Act compliance including seven informal enforcement actions and five formal actions and the plant's manager had to attend a remedial training program, sponsored by the state.

Texas:
Angleton, TX -
Failure to maintain adequate staffing levels, submit capital project reports, and charging expenses properly led to a contract termination a lawsuit for breached contract.

Houston, TX -
A federal investigation into the financial transactions of high-profile consultants hired to lobby city officials in unsuccessful bids.  After a legal battle with Veolia's competitor, the city expects to save 17%, or $2 million in public operation.

Fighting back against Veolia...
Even throughout Veolia's home base of France, communities have begun taking back their water systems from Veolia mismanagement. In its home city of Paris in 2009, after a 25-year contract,  the city decided not to renew its contract with Veolia in order to stabilize water rates and save money--which it has. In Belgium, Germany, Romania, and around the world, municipalities are taking back their water systems from Veolia and restoring public control to improve operations.
Locally, campaigns have sprung up against the company as well; for instance, in Novato the Committee for No on F organized in 2010 to veto Veolia's privatization of their wastewater treatment plant. They were ultimately unsuccessful by a very narrow margin, yet are noteworthy for the impressive coalition that joined around this issue - including the Sierra Club, Green Party, Marin United Taxpayers Association and California Healthy Communities Network. See here for their report, titled: Veolia and the Environment: A Bad Fit for Novato [link] (.pdf).

The end of an era...
Veolia's offences are beginning to be reflected in their profit margin, which has plummeted since 2008, especially in the area of water. As this article explains, Veolia is expecting a downturn, and has lost more than half its market value this year. Veolia has already experienced economic slowdown for several years, due to contract losses in Paris, Italy, and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the implementation of a cost-cutting program. The current CEO has pledged to sell $1.8 billion of its assets in 2011 and to stop operations in at least 37 countries. Another article adds that Veolia has disclosed accounting fraud in the U.S. from 2007-2010 amounting to $120 million, which took place in their Marine Services unit in the Gulf of Mexico. As of August 2011,  Veolia shares had dropped 28% since the issuing of their profit warning.