Category: Environment

The war in Ukraine hasn’t left Europe freezing in the dark, but it has caused energy crises in unexpected places

The Conversation

The war in Ukraine hasn’t left Europe freezing in the dark, but it has caused energy crises in unexpected places

Amy Myers Jaffe, Director, Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab, and Research Professor, New York University – February 17, 2023

People protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh, over daily power cuts, July 27, 2022. <a href=
People protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh, over daily power cuts, July 27, 2022. Sony Ramany/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Through a year of war in Ukraine, the U.S. and most European nations have worked to help counter Russia, in supporting Ukraine both with armaments and in world energy markets. Russia was Europe’s main energy supplier when it invaded Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin threatened to leave Europeans to freeze “like a wolf’s tail” – a reference to a famous Russian fairy tale – if they imposed sanctions on his country.

But thanks to a combination of preparation and luck, Europe has avoided blackouts and power cutoffs. Instead, less wealthy nations like Pakistan and India have contended with electricity outages on the back of unaffordably high global natural gas prices. As a global energy policy analyst, I see this as the latest evidence that less wealthy nations often suffer the most from globalized oil and gas crises.

I believe more volatility is possible. Russia has said that it will cut its crude oil production starting on March 1, 2023, by 500,000 barrels per day in response to Western energy sanctions. This amount is about 5% of its current crude oil production, or 0.5% of world oil supply. Many analysts expected the move, but it raises concerns about whether more reductions could come in the future.

How Europe has kept the lights on

As Russia’s intent toward Ukraine became clear in late 2021 and early 2022, many governments and energy experts feared one result would be an energy crisis in Europe. But one factor that Putin couldn’t control was the weather. Mild temperatures in Europe in recent months, along with proactive conservation policies, have reduced natural gas consumption in key European markets such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium by 25%.

With less need for electricity and natural gas, European governments were able to delay drawing on natural gas inventories that they built up over the summer and autumn of 2022. At this point, a continental energy crisis is much less likely than many forecasts predicted.

European natural gas stockpiles are around 67% full, and they will probably still be 50% full at the end of this winter. This will help the continent position itself for next winter as well.

The situation is similar for coal. European utilities stockpiled coal and reactivated 26 coal-fired power plants in 2022, anticipating a possible winter energy crisis. But so far, the continent’s coal use has risen only 7%, and the reactivated coal plants are averaging just 18% of their operating capacity

The U.S. role

Record-high U.S. energy exports in the summer and fall of 2022 also buoyed European energy security. The U.S. exported close to 10 million cubic meters per month of liquefied natural gas in 2022, up 137% from 2021, providing roughly half of all of Europe’s imported LNG.

Although domestic U.S. natural gas production surged to record levels, some producers had the opportunity to export into high-priced global markets. As a result, surpluses of summer natural gas didn’t emerge inside the U.S. market, as might otherwise have happened. Combined with unusually hot summer temperatures, which drove up energy demand for cooling, the export surge socked U.S. consumers with the highest natural gas prices they had experienced since 2008.

Prices also soared at U.S. gas pumps, reaching or exceeding US$5 per gallon in the early summer of 2022 – the highest average ever recorded by the American Automobile Association. The U.S. exported close to 1 million barrels per day of gasoline, mainly to Mexico and Central America, plus some to France, and consolidated its position as a net oil exporter – that is, it exports more oil than it imports.

A tugboat helps guide the LNG Endeavor, a French liquefied natural gas tanker, through Calcasieu Lake near Hackberry, La., March 31, 2022. U.S. LNG exports to Europe reached record levels in 2022 as the continent prepared to sever energy ties with Russia. <a href=
A tugboat helps guide the LNG Endeavor, a French liquefied natural gas tanker, through Calcasieu Lake near Hackberry, La., March 31, 2022. U.S. LNG exports to Europe reached record levels in 2022 as the continent prepared to sever energy ties with Russia. AP Photo/Martha Irvine

Much like Europeans, U.S. consumers had to pay high prices to outbid other global consumers for oil and natural gas amid global supply disruptions and competition for available cargoes. High gasoline prices were a political headache for the Biden administration through the spring and summer of 2022.

However, these high prices belied the fact that U.S. domestic gasoline use has stopped growing. Forecasts suggest that it will decline further in 2023 and beyond as the fuel economy of U.S. cars continues to improve and the number of electric vehicles on the road expands.

While energy prices were a burden, especially to lower-income households, European and American consumers have been able to ride out price surges driven by the war in Ukraine and have so far avoided actual outages and the worst recessionary fears. And their governments are offering big economic incentives to switch to clean energy technologies intended to reduce their nations’ need for fossil fuels.

Developing nations priced out

The same can’t be said for consumers in developing nations like Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, who have experienced the energy cutoffs that were feared but didn’t occur in Europe. Notably, Europe’s intensive energy stockpiling in the summer of 2022 caused a huge jump in global prices for liquefied natural gas. In response, many utilities in less developed nations cut their natural gas purchases, creating price-related electricity outages in some regions.

Faced with continuing high global energy prices, countries in the global south – Africa, Asia and Latin America – have had to reevaluate their dependence on foreign imports. Increased use of coal has made headlines, but renewable energy is starting to offer greater advantages, both because it is more affordable and because governments can frame it as more secure and a source of domestic jobs.

India, for example, is doubling down on renewable energy, unveiling plans to produce hydrogen fuel for heavy industry using renewable energy and moving away from imported LNG. Several African countries, such as Ethiopia, are fast-tracking development of hydropower.

Energy prices and climate justice

The energy challenge that the Russia-Ukraine crisis has bred in developing countries has intensified global discussions about climate justice. One less examined impact of giant clean tech stimulus plans enacted in wealthy nations, such as the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act, is that they keep much of the available funding for climate finance at home. As a result, some developing country leaders worry that a clean energy technology knowledge gap will widen, not shrink, as the energy transition gains momentum.

Worsening the problem, members of the G-7 forum of wealthy nations have tightened their monetary policies to control war-driven inflation. This drives up the cost of debt and makes it harder for developing countries to borrow money to invest in clean energy.

The U.S. is supporting a new approach called Just Energy Transition Partnerships, in which wealthy nations provide funding to help developing countries shift away from coal-fired power plants, retrain workers and recruit private-sector investors to help finance decarbonization projects. But these solutions are negotiated bilaterally between individual countries, and the pace is slow.

When nations gather in the United Arab Emirates in late 2023 for the next round of global climate talks, wealthy nations – including Middle East oil producers – will face demands for new ways of financing energy security improvements in less wealthy countries. The world’s rich nations pledged in 2009 to direct $100 billion yearly to less wealthy nations by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change and decarbonize their economies, but are far behind on fulfilling this promise.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on developed nations to tax fossil fuel companies, which reported record profits in 2022, and use the money to fund climate adaptation in low-income countries. New solutions are needed, because without some kind of major progress, wealthy nations will continue outbidding developing nations for the energy resources that the world’s most vulnerable people desperately need.

Is the air in East Palestine safe to breathe? Here’s what experts and officials say.

The Columbus Dispatch

Is the air in East Palestine safe to breathe? Here’s what experts and officials say.

Monroe Trombly, The Columbus Dispatch – February 15, 2023

In the week since officials conducted what they called a “controlled release” of vinyl chloride from five derailed train cars in East Palestine near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, concern has grown among some over the quality of the air in and around the village of nearly 5,000 people.

The decision to conduct the release of the carcinogen was made after officials said they noticed a drastic temperature change inside the cars. Fearing an explosion with potential shrapnel, the vinyl chloride was released in liquid form into an area surrounded by a barrier and ignited, sending a giant column of flames and black smoke into the winter sky.

Here’s what we know about the air quality in East Palestine and the surrounding area:

Is the air in East Palestine safe to breathe?

Some East Palestine residents who have since returned to their homes after being evacuated have reported experiencing headaches and nausea. Others say the air has a foul odor to it.

Bruce Vanderhoff, director of Ohio’s health department, said during a news conference Tuesday that most of the chemicals on the Norfolk Southern train that derailed Feb. 3 are volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

VOCs are emitted during everyday activities like pumping gas, burning wood or natural gas, he said.

More:Ohio train derailment: What’s still unknown after chemical disaster forced evacuations?

Low levels of VOCs can be smelled and sometimes cause headaches and irritation, said Vanderhoff, who noted that most people can be around VOCs at low levels without feeling ill. High levels can result in longer-term health effects, he said.

Vanderhoff said recent testing shows the air in East Palestine was just like it was prior to the train derailment.

“We have taken every step possible to ensure people’s safety was first and foremost,” Vanderhoff said.

What does the EPA say?

When burned, vinyl chloride gives off hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it had stopped monitoring the air in East Palestine for phosgene and hydrogen chloride the day before.

“Since the fire went out on Feb. 8, EPA air monitoring has not detected any levels of health concern in the community that are attributed to the train derailment,” EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said in a statement on the agency’s website. “Air monitoring data was provided to state health agencies on Feb. 8 for review prior to the state’s decision to lift the evacuation.

Shore also said in her statement that vinyl chloride has not been detected in any of the nearly 400 homes that the EPA had screened under a voluntary program as of Tuesday morning. Sixty-five additional homes were scheduled to be screened that afternoon, she said.

What is acid rain?

Acid rain, as defined by the EPA, is a broad term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms.  This can include rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic.

Acid rain results when sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are emitted into the atmosphere and transported by wind and air currents, the EPA says on its website. The SO2 and NOX react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. These then mix with water and other materials before falling to the ground.

Coal-burning power plants are responsible for most of the nation’s sulfur dioxide pollution and a significant portion of nitrogen oxide emissions. Sulfur dioxide emissions have decreased substantially over the years.

Coal has historically been the largest electricity source in the Ohio. However, in 2019, it was overtaken by natural gas.

Could acid rain have formed after controlled release?

Acid rain could have formed after the controlled release and burn of chemicals on Feb. 6, Kevin Crist, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the director of the Air Quality Center at Ohio University, said. If it did form and fall, it would have most likely occurred downwind of East Palestine.

When burned, vinyl chloride gives off hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosphene, which was used as a weapon during World War I. Vinyl chloride in the atmosphere breaks down into hydrochloric acid, a component of acid rain.

“There would maybe be localized problems, but once that plume is gone, it’s gone. Unless it’s sticking to a residue,” Crist said.

A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains Monday, Feb. 6, 2023.
A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains Monday, Feb. 6, 2023.

East Palestine residents may want to wipe down surfaces in homes for possible residual material, he added.

“We’ll just have to listen to what Ohio EPA has to say about what their estimates about how much chemicals were spilled and how they are planning to monitor its movement,” Crist said. “And everybody should pay attention to where they’re getting their own water. If they have municipal supply, what they say about the level of risk.”

Monroe Trombly covers the workplace and environmental issues for The Dispatch.

The Water Crisis No One In America Is Fixing

Time

The Water Crisis No One In America Is Fixing

Bryn Nelson – February 16, 2023

drone photograph showing the continuing cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio
drone photograph showing the continuing cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio

This photo taken with a drone shows the continuing cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 9, 2023. Credit – Gene J. Puskar—AP

On Feb. 3, 2022, a train loaded with toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, igniting a fire and forcing the controlled release and burn of vinyl chloride, a known cancer-causing compound, to avert a disastrous explosion. The environmental catastrophe killed thousands of fish in nearby streams and has triggered growing concerns over the impact on residents’ health and on the village’s surface, ground, and well water.

East Palestine joins a long list of other places in the United States facing major threats to clean water. In October 2022, a campaign called “Imagine a Day Without Water” asked Americans to stand with those who lack adequate drinking water, sanitation, or both. In one of the richest countries on Earth, the tally of those who live even without basic indoor plumbing might surprise you: more than 2 million.

The acronym WASH, which stands for “water, sanitation, and hygiene,” is often associated with nonprofits like the World Toilet Organization, working in developing parts of the globe. But the lack of access to clean drinking water, sanitary bathrooms, and treated wastewater is an ongoing emergency for many parts of the U.S. as well. In rural and urban communities throughout the country, water tainted by pollutants, woefully inadequate sewage treatment, and a lack of restrooms (or plumbing at all) have laid bare the legacy of neglect.

This photo provided by the Ohio National Guard, ONG 52nd Civil Support Team members prepare to enter an incident area to assess remaining hazards with a lightweight inflatable decontamination system (LIDS) in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 7, 2023.<span class="copyright">Ohio National Guard/AP</span>
This photo provided by the Ohio National Guard, ONG 52nd Civil Support Team members prepare to enter an incident area to assess remaining hazards with a lightweight inflatable decontamination system (LIDS) in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 7, 2023.Ohio National Guard/AP

In her book Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, author Catherine Coleman Flowers describes how rural residents in Lowndes County, Ala., often have no means of wastewater treatment. They lack what most of us take for granted, “because septic systems cost more than most people earn in a year and tend to fail anyway in the impervious clay soil,” Flowers writes. “Families cope the best they can, mainly by jerry-rigging PVC pipe to drain sewage from houses and into cesspools outside.” With her assistance, researchers found that more than one-third of 55 stool samples collected from county residents tested positive for hookworms—intestinal parasites often associated with poor sanitation in developing countries.

To the west, historic flooding incapacitated an aging water treatment plant in Mississippi’s capital of Jackson in September 2022, leaving residents of the predominantly Black city without safe drinking water for weeks. When students returned from their holiday break in January 2023, more than half of the city’s public schools lacked water and had to hold virtual classes after cold weather again damaged the system. The majority-Black Michigan cities of Flint and Benton Harbor faced severe lead contamination in their own drinking water, a consequence of aging lead pipes leaching the toxic contaminant into the water supply. And in West Baltimore, E. coli bacteria contaminated the water, a crisis again blamed on aging water treatment infrastructure.

A 2021 analysis, “The widespread and unjust drinking water and clean water crisis in the United States,” found that nearly half a million U.S. households lacked complete plumbing, while many more were living in communities with unclean water. Surveys suggest that the former problem is a disproportionately rural issue while the latter is disproportionately urban. “As it currently stands, counties with elevated levels of incomplete plumbing and poor water quality in America—which are variously likely to be more indigenous, less educated, older, and poorer—are continuing to slip through the cracks,” the authors of the study concluded.

Without urgent action, those cracks will only continue to widen. The 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, released by the American Society of Civil Engineering, gave a dismal D+ grade to the country’s more than 16,000 wastewater treatment plants, a significant fraction of which have reached or exceeded their design capacities. The U.S. drinking water infrastructure earned only a marginally better rating, with a C-grade.

Read more: We’re in a Water Crisis. We Need to Act Like It

As local and state investment in vital infrastructure has faltered, so too has federal action. Amid decades of chronic underfunding, the U.S. government’s share of capital costs on water infrastructure fell from more than 60% in 1977 to less than 10% 40 years later. A 2020 report by the American Society of Civil Engineering spelled out the growing investment gap in stark terms. But the costs of failing to update the country’s aging and deteriorating drinking water and wastewater infrastructure could be far greater, with trillions lost in preventable diseases, higher medical costs, lost productivity, and environmental pollution.

That inattention couldn’t come at a worse time. A 2021 study by Just Security, based at the NYU School of Law, explained how extreme weather events—exacerbated by global warming—are leading to even more failures of inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure. Undoing the harm will require sustained attention, especially in what environmental justice pioneer Robert Bullard at Texas Southern University describes as the “invisible” communities of color that have disproportionately shouldered the burden of environmental racism.

Effecting change will require a major investment in urban and rural systems. Nearly $800 million in federal funds have been earmarked for water projects in Jackson. And in 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture launched the Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap Community Initiative, to be piloted in Lowndes County and ten other underserved communities where residents lack basic wastewater management. The federal Inflation Reduction Act provided another $550 million for water systems in disadvantaged communities—not nearly enough but a start in reversing the decades of damage.

Well-considered projects could make a big impact by not only improving public and environmental health, but also redistributing wealth back to those same communities. More wastewater treatment plants are becoming resource recovery facilities, preventing pollution from the treated liquid waste and extracting valuable resources. Biogas and electricity, pure water, charcoal-like biochar, nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, and soil amendments can all be recovered, creating new sources of local wealth.

At the grass-roots level, organizations like PHLUSH (Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human) are pushing for equitable access to toilets and sanitation systems. PHLUSH has positioned public restrooms as critical elements of the U.S. infrastructure, rightfully arguing that they are “as essential to community well-being as sidewalks, traffic signals and street lighting.” For people experiencing homelessness, a lack of access to sanitary toilets can be dehumanizing, dangerous, and disease-causing. The public health crisis for that segment of the population is growing throughout America, with a recent report calling for more stigma-free access to WASH facilities in rural areas.

In rural communities from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, advocates are introducing advanced biofilters and composting or incineration toilets as more affordable, sustainable, and sanitary alternatives to leaking, broken, or altogether lacking septic systems. Installing these systems in large enough numbers to make a difference will require revisions to outdated or punitive local codes and a rethinking of what might be recouped through long-term investments in our communities.

The Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, founded by Flowers, is working to “eliminate the health, economic and environmental disparities suffocating rural and marginalized communities.” Doing so will be easier with renewed local, state, and federal backing, bolstered by public awareness and the recognition that reinvesting in neglected communities helps us and our environment. Most of all, it will require a reaffirmation that access to water and sanitation are fundamental human rights—no matter where you live.

Snowpack continues to grow in California, Colorado River Basin

The Hill

Snowpack continues to grow in California, Colorado River Basin

Sharon Udasin – February 16, 2023

Deep snowpack has continued to accumulate and expand in California, the Great Basin and the Colorado River Basin, federal meteorologists reported on Thursday.

Following a series of severe storms that drenched the region earlier this winter, moderate systems with less moisture have yielded smaller but persistent gains, according to an update from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).

Total “snow water equivalent” — the amount of water stored in snowpack — at a subset of monitoring stations in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona has reached the highest or second highest levels to date, NIDIS reported.

Such accumulation is now 150 percent above the mid-February average at many of these stations, according to the agency.

Snow water equivalent levels at many of the long-term snow courses in California’s central and southern Sierra Nevada have achieved record highs not seen in 60 to 90 years, the meteorologists added.

While NIDIS reported good news for snowpack in much of the West, the agency warned that much of Oregon, Washington and Idaho experienced very little growth over the past 30 days.

Most of these areas are not yet considered to be experiencing “snow drought,” but a relatively dry January has left open the possibility that such conditions could develop in the coming months, according to NIDIS.

Another location of concern cited by NIDIS is the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico — including the headwaters region for the Rio Grande and Arkansas rivers.

Across this region, snow water equivalent sits at about 45 to 60 percent of quantities typical for the date, the agency reported.

How dangerous was the Ohio chemical train derailment? An environmental engineer assesses the long-term risks

The Conversation

How dangerous was the Ohio chemical train derailment? An environmental engineer assesses the long-term risks

Andrew J. Whelton, Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University – February 15, 2023

Several cars that contained hazardous chemicals burned after the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment. <a href=
Several cars that contained hazardous chemicals burned after the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Headaches and lingering chemical smells from a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have left residents worried about their air and water – and misinformation on social media hasn’t helped.

State officials offered more details of the cleanup process and a timeline of the environmental disaster during a news conference on Feb. 14, 2023. Nearly a dozen cars carrying chemicals, including vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, derailed on the evening of Feb. 3, and fire from the site sent up acrid black smoke. Officials said they had tested over 400 nearby homes for contamination and were tracking a plume of spilled chemicals that had killed 3,500 fish in streams and reached the Ohio River.

However, the slow release of information after the derailment has left many questions unanswered about the risks and longer-term impact. We put five questions about the chemical releases to Andrew Whelton, an environmental engineer who investigates chemical risks during disasters.

Let’s start with what was in the train cars. What are the most concerning chemicals for human health and the environment long term, and what’s known so far about the impact?

The main concerns now are the contamination of homes, soil and water, primarily from volatile organic compounds and semivolatile organic compounds, known as VOCs and SVOCs.

The train had nearly a dozen cars with vinyl chloride and other materials, such as ethylhexyl acrylate and butyl acrylate. These chemicals have varying levels of toxicity and different fates in soil and groundwater. Officials have detected some of those chemicals in the nearby waterway and particulate matter in the air from the fire. But so far, the fate of many of the chemicals is not known. A variety of other materials were also released, but discussion about those chemicals has been limited.

State officials disclosed that a plume of contamination released into the nearby creek had made its way into the Ohio River. Other cities get their drinking water from the river, and were warned about the risk. The farther this plume moves downstream, the less concentrated the chemical will be in water, posing less of a risk.

Long term, the greatest risk is closest to the derailment location. And again, there’s limited information about what chemicals are present – or were created through chemical reactions during the fire.

It isn’t clear yet how much went into storm drains, was flushed down the streams or may have settled to the bottom of waterways.

There was also a lot of combusted particulate matter. The black smoke is a clear indication. It’s unclear how much was diluted in the air or fell to the ground.

How long can these chemicals linger in soil and water, and what’s their potential long-term risk to humans and wildlife?

The heavier the chemical, often the slower it degrades and the more likely it is to stick to soil. These compounds can remain for years if left unaddressed.

After the Kalamazoo River oil pipeline break in Michigan in 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency excavated a tributary where the oil settled. We’ve also seen from oil spills on the coasts of Alaska and Alabama that oil chemicals can find their way into soil if it isn’t remediated.

The long-term impact in Ohio will depend in part on how fast – and thoroughly – cleanup occurs.

If the heavily contaminated soils and liquids are excavated and removed, the long-term impacts can be reduced. But the longer removal takes, the farther the contamination can spread. It’s in everyone’s best interest to clean this up as soon as possible and before the region gets rain.

Air-stripping devices, like this one used after the derailment, can help separate chemicals from water. <a href=
Air-stripping devices, like this one used after the derailment, can help separate chemicals from water. U.S. EPA

Booms in a nearby stream have been deployed to capture chemicals. Air-stripping devices have been deployed to remove chemicals from the waterways. Air stripping causes the light chemicals to leave the water and enter air. This is a common treatment technique and was used after an 2015 oil spill in the Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana.

At the derailment site in Ohio, workers are already removing contaminated soil as deep as 7 feet (about 2 meters) near where the rail cars burned.

Some of the train cars were intentionally drained and the chemicals set on fire to eliminate them. That fire had thick black smoke. What does that tell you about the chemicals and longer-term risks?

Incineration is one way we dispose of hazardous chemicals, but incomplete chemical destruction creates a host of byproducts. Chemicals can be destroyed when heated to extremely high temperatures so they burn thoroughly.

The black smoke plume you saw on TV was incomplete combustion. A number of other chemicals were created. Officials don’t necessarily know what these were or where they went until they test for them.

We know ash can pose health risks, which is why we test inside homes after wildfires where structures burn. This is one reason the state’s health director told residents with private wells near and downwind of the derailment to use bottled water until they can have their wells tested.

The EPA has been screening homes near the derailment for indoor air-quality concerns. How do these chemicals get into homes and what happens to them in enclosed spaces?

Homes are not airtight, and sometimes dust and other materials get in. It might be through an open door or a window sill. Sometimes people track it in.

So far, the U.S. EPA has reported no evidence of high levels of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride in the 400 or so homes tested. But full transparency has been lacking. Just because an agency is doing testing doesn’t mean it is testing for what it needs to test for.

Media reports talk about four or five chemicals, but the manifest from Norfolk Southern also listed a bunch of other materials in tanks that burned. All those materials create potentially hundreds to thousands of VOCs and SVOCs.

Are government officials testing for everything they should?

People in the community have reported headaches, which can be caused by VOCs and other chemicals. They’re understandably concerned.

Ohio and federal officials need to better communicate what they’re doing, why, and what they plan to do. It’s unclear what questions they are trying to answer. For a disaster this serious, little testing information has been shared.

In the absence of this transparency, misinformation is filling that void. From a homeowner’s perspective, it’s hard to understand the true risk if the data is not shared.

‘There’s No Spring Break Here’: Florida’s Gulf Coast Fights to Rebound After Hurricane Ian

The New York Times

‘There’s No Spring Break Here’: Florida’s Gulf Coast Fights to Rebound After Hurricane Ian

Shannon Sims – February 14, 2023

Al Marti, 80, watches the waves roll in on a Sanibel beach as work continues to rebuild the area's infrastructure devastated by Hurricane Ian, on Sanibel Island, Fla., Feb. 9, 2023. (Scott McIntyre/The New York Times)
Al Marti, 80, watches the waves roll in on a Sanibel beach as work continues to rebuild the area’s infrastructure devastated by Hurricane Ian, on Sanibel Island, Fla., Feb. 9, 2023. (Scott McIntyre/The New York Times)

On Sept. 28, Hurricane Ian made landfall on Cayo Costa, a barrier island northwest of Cape Coral and Fort Myers, Florida, as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of more than 150 mph. Killing 149 people in Florida, it was the state’s deadliest hurricane since 1935. More than four months later, the storm’s extraordinary power remains evident: In Fort Myers Beach, multistory oceanfront apartment buildings are still just piles of twisted steel and concrete rubble, and massive shrimping boats sit tilted and smashed together like toys in the corner of a tub.

The storm’s wrath extended up and down the west coast of Florida. But Sanibel Island, one of the area’s most popular vacation destinations, was hit especially hard. The fish-hook-shaped barrier island, some 12 miles long and 3 miles across at its widest, was devastated. Even the causeway that connects it to the mainland was partly destroyed.

On a recent afternoon, sitting at a table outside the Sanibel Grill, which roof and water damage kept closed for months, the mayor of Sanibel, Holly Smith, 61, was blunt. “There’s no spring break here,” she said. “As far as the recovery of tourism, we have a long way to go.”

Smith said that during the storm, the island had “a complete washover” — the 12-foot storm surge covered everything.

Beth Sharer, 66, a homeowner on the island, said when she went back to her ravaged condo, she couldn’t find the high-water mark that flooding usually leaves. “And then I realized there wasn’t one: The water was higher than the entire apartment,” she said.

When Smith visited the island with Gov. Ron DeSantis in the days after the storm, the area looked like a war zone, she said. “It was like ‘Mad Max,’ with dirt across the roads.”

Fears of Becoming a ‘New Miami’

Before the hurricane, Sanibel and Captiva, a smaller island connected to the north of Sanibel by a short bridge, offered an estimated 2,800 lodging units, including hotel rooms and short-term rentals, according to the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce. Today there are just 155 available, the chamber said. “We’ve changed our communication strategy from promoting the island to helping manage guest expectations for the next 12 months,” said John Lai, CEO of the chamber, which is now encouraging visitors to sign up for “voluntourism” options like helping to clear trails at the nature reserve or clean debris from the beaches.

By comparison, Fort Myers Beach had 2,384 hotel rooms before the storm, according to the Lee County government. In the wake of the storm, none of those rooms were open. As of this month, 360 of those rooms were available — just 15% of prehurricane inventory.

Before the hurricane, JPS Vacation Rentals, a local agency, had 32 properties available in Fort Myers Beach, said Heidi Jungwirth, the owner. Seven of those remain standing, but all were damaged, and none are currently rentable, she said. She has turned her office into a distribution center for donations. Distinctive Beach Rentals, which used to be the largest vacation management company in Fort Myers Beach, with 400 properties, saw 380 of those units “wiped out,” said Tom Holevas, the area manager, adding that the company has now pivoted to offering more inland rentals.

At the Lighthouse Resort’s Tiki Bar & Grill, where today the bathroom doors are shower curtains and the kitchen consists of a grill behind the outdoor bar, Betsy Anderson, 50, expressed concern about the area’s future. She owns an apartment in Cape Coral, just inland from the beach, that she rents via Airbnb. She said she had several guests cancel after the storm because the beaches were closed, and she is currently renting to a couple fixing up their own flooded house on Sanibel.

She worries that the storm will accelerate change. “We don’t think it can come back,” she said, referring to the area’s laid-back character and “old Florida” style. “Now people are saying big investors are going to come in with big money and turn this into the new Miami.”

Reviving an Economic Lifeline

On Sanibel, the push to rebuild began early, in part because the island draws so many visitors from across the country to its famous shelling beaches. A temporary causeway opened less than two weeks after the storm, allowing a convoy of electrical companies’ cherry picker trucks to reach the island. On Oct. 19, the bridges — one lane in each direction, with reduced speed limits — were opened to residents. For the rest of 2022, piece by piece, the area started to come back online.

“This place is on a lot of people’s bucket lists,” said Smith, alluding to visitors who “just want a shell from Sanibel.” But it will be at least a year before the island can accommodate tourists in any numbers, she said.

It doesn’t help that the island’s beaches are currently suffering from Florida’s persistent red tide, which is caused by a higher-than-normal level of microscopic algae that produce toxins in the water, turning it a rusty brown color and killing fish. The tide can significantly affect visitors’ experiences, aggravating respiratory problems, leaving beaches littered with rotting sea life and discouraging time spent near the water.

Still, residents and businesses are trudging toward getting tourists — their economic lifeline — back to the shore.

In just the past month, the first hotel rooms reopened for visitors at Sanibel’s Island Inn and the ’Tween Waters Resort & Spa on Captiva Island.

Some restaurants that were only lightly damaged have reopened quickly. Others are now operating out of food trucks. Some shops are back open, too, and many outdoor activities are once again available: renting kayaks and stand-up paddleboards or chartering fishing boats.

In early February, the first wedding since the storm was held at ’Tween Waters; the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum reopened with limited hours; and the doomsday-ish electronic sign that met visitors as they came off the bridge into Sanibel — “ALL SANIBEL BEACHES CLOSED” — was turned off, as the first beaches were officially reopened to the public. There is a sense on the island now that the wheels of tourism are finally beginning to turn.

Still, many hotels, restaurants and businesses that cater to tourists are a long way from reopening their doors. Some, like Sanibel Inn, are essentially starting from scratch, their buildings in ruins.

That’s why businesses are handing visitors the most useful item a tourist can pick up in Sanibel today: a printed list of what’s open, where and when.

‘It Breaks Your Heart’

For now, a visit to the area is more a pledge of support than a vacation.

On a sunny day in early February, Lisa Taussig of Overland Park, Kansas, and Christy, her adult daughter, were among the few tourists on the beach in front of the Island Inn, where they were staying. They come to the island about three times a year, Taussig said, and this year is no different. “After the storm passed, we just said, ‘You know what? We’re going to come down here and support Sanibel,’” she said.

“You feel welcome here,” she added, before turning and gesturing to the series of plywood-covered, battered condo buildings behind her. “Now it feels isolated, and there aren’t the lush trees that are usually here.

“It breaks your heart,” she said.

In Fort Myers Beach, residents still pick up their mail at a trailer. Glass, nails and unidentifiable twisted debris remain scattered along the ground. Around town, many flags, bumper stickers and T-shirts are emblazoned with “FMB STRONG.”

On a recent Saturday, a tiny spot called the Beach Bar was packed with a crowd of locals who looked storm-weary but exuded an ornery refusal to retreat. Even before the storm, the bar’s physical structure — right off Estero Boulevard, the beach strip that’s historically packed with visitors cruising in top-down vehicles — didn’t amount to much: It was a two-story, open-air wooden building facing the water. Now only the concrete slab remains.

But that hasn’t stopped the regulars. The crowd showed up with beach chairs and coolers, which they set up on the concrete. “They’re operating right now with a trailer, two outhouses and a band,” said Randy Deutsch, 72, from Chicago, who said he’d been coming to the bar since 1972.

“Our concept didn’t change,” said Matt Faller, the manager. “Cold beer, live music, toes in the sand.”

California Reservoirs Refilled by Winter Deluges, Satellite Images Show

Yale Environmental 360

California Reservoirs Refilled by Winter Deluges, Satellite Images Show

February 13, 2023

Lake Oroville before and after December's heavy rainstorms. NASA
Lake Oroville before and after December’s heavy rainstorms. NASA

In the wake of a series of destructive storms in late December and early January, California’s long-ailing mountain reservoirs have risen, satellite images from NASA show.

Lake Oroville, which sits in the northern reaches of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, was at just 28 percent of capacity in late November and is now at 69 percent capacity, following the winter deluge. Long depleted by drought, the reservoir is now close to its historical winter level. Lake Shasta, in far northern California, was at just 31 percent of capacity in late November and is now at 58 percent capacity, bringing it in line with the historical average.

Recent storms “certainly helped reservoir storage in California following the driest three years in the state’s recorded history,” Jeanine Jones, an official with the California Department of Water Resources, told the Los Angeles Times. “Over the next two months, it is important that we still see periodic rain and snowstorms to keep an above-average pace for our precipitation totals.”

Shasta Lake before and after December's heavy rainstorms. NASA
Shasta Lake before and after December’s heavy rainstorms. NASA

Experts warn, however, that recent storms will likely do little to ameliorate long-term shortfalls. While this winter’s snow and rain will help recharge stores of groundwater in the near term, “if the climate pattern is the same as before — dry and hot in summer followed by low precipitation — and the water demands are still high, then we expect the groundwater drawdown will continue,” Pang-Wei Liu, a NASA scientist involved in groundwater monitoring, said in a statement.

A recent study found that the drop in groundwater in California’s Central Valley has accelerated over the last two decades. “The years 2000–2021 represent the driest 22-year period since at least 800,” authors wrote. They highlighted the need for better management of groundwater “to ensure its availability during the increasingly intense droughts of the future.”

Natural disasters, boosted by climate change, displaced millions of people in U.S. in 2022

NBC News

Natural disasters, boosted by climate change, displaced millions of people in U.S. in 2022

Lucas Thompson – February 12, 2023

Ricardo Arduengo

Natural disasters forced an estimated 3.4 million people in the U.S. to leave their homes in 2022, according to Census Bureau data collected earlier this year, underscoring how climate-related weather events are already changing American communities.

The overwhelming majority of these people were uprooted by hurricanes, followed by floods, then fires and tornados. Nearly 40% returned to their homes within a week. Nearly 16% have not returned home (and may never do so), and 12% were evacuated for more than six months.

The Census Bureau count is based on 68,504 responses it received as part of the Household Pulse Survey conducted Jan. 4-Jan. 16. The data collection is one of the few federal efforts to track displaced people, starting only in 2020. The bureau does note that the data is “experimental,” and is extrapolated based on its sample data.

“These numbers are very distressing,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, who was not involved in the data collection. “These numbers are what one would expect to find in a developing country. It’s appalling to see them in the United States. … They’re only going to get worse in the years to come because climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and more severe.”

Some states experienced far more of an impact than others. Florida had more than 888,000 people displaced. Louisiana had more than 368,000 displaced.

The U.S. was hit by a series of major disasters in 2022. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that 18 extreme weather events had each caused at least $1 billion in damage. Climate experts have warned for years to expect more intense weather disasters as global temperatures rise.

The Census Bureau estimate, almost 1.4% of the U.S. adult population, is higher than other estimates. Data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, part of the humanitarian organization The Norwegian Refugee Council, previously estimated that disasters displaced an average of 800,000 U.S. residents a year from 2008 through 2021.

“The United States is not in the least prepared for this,” Garrard said. “Our settlement patterns have not reflected the emerging risks of climate change to the habitability of some parts of the country.”

The data showed that the more than half a million people who never returned home experienced multiple hardships, including lack of housing, food, water, sanitation and child care.

“These are all things that we take for granted in a modern society,” Gerrard added. “Its absence is deeply disruptive to physical and emotional health as well as to child development.”

The data also showed disparities between people of different economic status, race and identities. Those earning less than $25,000 a year had the highest evacuation rate of any economic group, and Black and Hispanic residents had slightly higher evacuation rates than white residents.

According to the data, adults who identify as LGBTQ were disproportionately affected — 4% of LGBTQIA+ adults had to leave their homes compared with 1.2% of straight, cisgender people.

“It’s important to note that a lot of these individuals that are LGBTQ are often also considered to be socially vulnerable, and really putting a strong intersectional lens to disaster response preparedness and recovery,” said Michael Méndez, a professor of environmental policy and planning at the University of California, Irvine.

“Much of the LGBT community that’s vulnerable, and most socially vulnerable to disasters, are those that are African American, transgender and low income,” he said. “Oftentimes, that’s why they’re rendered invisible in the context of disaster policy and planning and preparedness. People write them off as not needing to provide extra resources for this community.”

Imperial Valley has made enough sacrifices already in the water rights war

Palm Springs Desert Sun

Imperial Valley has made enough sacrifices already in the water rights war

Craig William Morgan – February 12, 2023

There is an old saying in the water world that it is better to be upstream with a shovel than downstream with a law book, which is the position California finds itself in as it stands apart from its neighbors on the Colorado River in negotiations over the use of the river’s water.

On Jan. 31, representatives for the six other basin states submitted a proposal to the Bureau of Reclamation describing the measures by which the supply deficit on the Colorado River should be closed in the near term. Not surprisingly, the other basin states have asked that California reduce its water use beyond that which the state had previously proposed last fall. California was right to decline its neighbors’ new proposal notwithstanding its position on the river.

As many readers know, California water users have priority rights to Colorado River water that allow them to receive water first in times of drought. These rights are derived under the appropriative rights doctrine known as “first in time, first in right” that has been a mainstay of western water law for more than a century and a half. Those without such rights are legally bound to reduce their use.

Not surprisingly, those without such rights have developed a new theory of law that effectively says the priority system of water allocation is no longer applicable because of climate change.

The new buzzword describing this change is “aridification.” The terms “shortage” and “drought” that have historically been used they claim are no longer relevant to describing water conditions. The reason for this change in nomenclature is because existing law is very clear that water is apportioned based on priority during times of shortage and drought.

They argue that aridification is somehow different. It is not.

If state and federal courts were to interpret a distinction in such terms, water law would not only be upended along the Colorado River system, but indeed across the entire United States.

The Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico have joined the chorus of Nevada and Arizona in arguing that aridification demands the priority system be ignored. They also argue that the requirement under the 1922 Colorado River Compact among the basin states guaranteeing a fixed quantity of water be delivered to the Lower Basin states should be ignored on the same grounds. Their fears are that such a requirement will limit their existing and proposed future diversions of Colorado River water. To date, these states’ diversions have been well below their junior allotment. The imbalance on the Colorado River they argue is a Lower Basin concern, not an Upper Basin concern.

But such a position is inconsistent and self-serving. If in fact, aridification demanded that the priority system be ignored along the river, wouldn’t it make sense that all water users within the Colorado River basin take a reduction, not just those in the Lower Basin as Upper Basin users have proposed? It is noteworthy that Upper Basin states thus far have not meaningfully participated in reducing demands on the Colorado River. Yet they should.

Why haven’t Arizona and Nevada looked harder at the Upper Basin states to reduce their water use to balance demands instead of focusing on California? Perhaps they are hoping that California’s Imperial Valley will once again come to the rescue of the river’s water users as was done in 2003 when the Imperial Irrigation District signed the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) and reduced its water use by more than 15 %. As the river’s biggest water user (and least politically potent), surely, they must have more water to spare.

The residents of Imperial Valley are right to be concerned about the future of their community. In 2003, the Imperial Irrigation District, despite holding senior water rights to the river for the benefit of its farming community, succumbed to the political pressures within California and from other basin states to reduce their demands on the Colorado River.

The argument made at the time by the river’s other water users was that the district was wasting water. However, the fact of the matter was that the district’s water use was no different than that of other irrigation districts across the west. The QSA water transfers have created significant hardships on the local communities and an ecological nightmare for the Salton Sea.

As the basin states and federal government move forward in crafting solutions to the water shortage problem on the Colorado River, they must consider the sacrifices that have already been made by those living in Imperial Valley: Sacrifices that have been made by those holding senior water rights. They must also consider the damage that would be done to the legal structure governing water use across the west if the priority system is to be ignored.

Craig William Morgan is a water resources engineer who served as consultant to farmers opposing the QSA. He is the author of the recently published book about the QSA and the fight for Imperial Valley’s water called “The Morality of Deceit.” 

California fuel pipeline to resume service Saturday after fuel leak caused disruption

ABC News

California fuel pipeline to resume service Saturday after fuel leak caused disruption

Nadine El Bawab – February 11, 2023

A California pipeline, that delivers the majority of fuel to the Las Vegas Valley and surrounding areas, is expected to resume operations Saturday afternoon, the pipeline operator announced.

The Kinder Morgan gas pipeline, which supplies about 90% of needed gas, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products to the Las Vegas Valley and surrounding areas, experienced a disruption that resulted in a temporary shutdown of the line.

“We have isolated the source of the release within our Watson Station in Long Beach, California. Restart activities are underway for Watson Station’s associated SFPP West and CalNev pipelines. We expect these pipelines to resume operations this afternoon and begin delivering fuel to their respective market areas later today. We continue to be in close contact with our customers and the appropriate regulatory agencies as we work to resolve this issue,” Kinder Morgan, the pipeline operator, said in a statement to ABC News.

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Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency Friday due to the disruption.

On Thursday, Kinder Morgan, the pipeline operator, began investigating a leak inside its Watson Station in Long Beach, California, the company said in a statement.

PHOTO: In this March 7, 2011, file photo, a motorist fuels up at a gas station in Santa Cruz, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP, FILE)
PHOTO: In this March 7, 2011, file photo, a motorist fuels up at a gas station in Santa Cruz, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP, FILE)

“Watson Station and its associated SFPP West and CALNEV pipelines have been isolated and shut down while we work to resolve this issue. There are no injuries or fire reported as a result of this incident,” Kinder Morgan said in its statement.  Kinder Morgan’s 566-mile CALNEV pipeline system transports gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from Los Angeles to terminals in Barstow, California, and Las Vegas.

“The appropriate regulatory agencies have been notified, and an investigation into the cause and quantity of the release will be conducted. We are working closely with our customers on potential impacts,” Kinder Morgan said.

The disruption may cause a shortage of fuel supplies in Nevada, according to the declaration of emergency.

PHOTO: In this Nov. 14, 2022, file photo, Nevada Gov.-elect Joe Lombardo speaks at his alma mater, Rancho High School, in North Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images, FILE)
PHOTO: In this Nov. 14, 2022, file photo, Nevada Gov.-elect Joe Lombardo speaks at his alma mater, Rancho High School, in North Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images, FILE)

The emergency declaration will allow Nevada to receive federal waivers, resources to repair the pipeline and allow the state to increase the transportation of fuel by other means, according to Lombardo.

“To avoid any unnecessary shortages, I strongly urge all Las Vegas residents to avoid panic buying while awaiting repair timeline updates,” Lombardo said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The declaration expires in 15 days unless it is renewed.