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Birds killed, others saved in HB oil spill

January 28th, 2010, 2:13 pm by

The count so far: 21 birds dead and five rescued from the scene of a crude-oil spill in Huntington Beach, while investigators continue trying to determine the source of the oil. scaupss

Friday’s spill of nearly 700 gallons in a flood-control channel drew Huntington Beach officials, the Coast Guard , the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is now in charge of the operation. Booms have been erected to corral the oil while the agencies continue to remove it.

They’re recovered three to four barrels so far — 126 to 168 gallons — said EPA on-scene coordinator Robert Wise. The total spill was estimated at 16 barrels, or 672 gallons.

“We’re still trying to figure out where it came from,” Wise said.

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Posted in: Environmental law enforcement • Green at home • Green events • Water • Wildlife and the natural world • • • • | 2 Comments »

New power plant rules raise desalination doubts

January 25th, 2010, 8:00 am by

Read part one: To save sea life, power plants face tough new rules

Read part two: San Onofre cooling towers: An expensive eyesore?

Part three: New power plant rules raise desalination doubts

New rules proposed by the State Water Board would likely bring radical changes to the ocean-water cooling systems of 19 coastal power plants, two of them nuclear plants.

But the proposed regulations also throw into question future plans for seawater desalination. aesplant

Poseidon Resources hopes to build a desalination facility next to Huntington’s AES power plant by 2014, drawing its seawater from the plant’s intake pipe. It would be similar to the desalination plant being built alongside another power plant in Carlsbad.

If AES were forced to abandon its ocean-water cooling system, Poseidon would have to get a separate permit to pull in seawater on its own, said spokesman Brian Lochrie.

Lochrie said the amount of seawater needed would be far less than that for a coastal power plant, making destruction of eggs and larvae less of an issue.

But Joe Geever, California policy coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group that supports the proposed regulations, said he believes Poseidon’s plan is doomed.

“Poseidon is out,” he said. “Poseidon’s system is not going to work.”

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Posted in: Environmental law enforcement • green technology • Wildlife and the natural world • • | 13 Comments »

San Onofre cooling towers: An expensive eyesore?

January 24th, 2010, 8:00 am by

Read part one: To save sea life, power plants face tough new rules

Part two: San Onofre cooling towers: An expensive eyesore?

New state rules could force coastal power plants, including the San Onofre nuclear plant, to make radical changes in their cooling systems. sanopool

The seawater-intake systems now used by such plants take a toll on sea life, the State Water Board says, sucking in billions of eggs and larvae and millions of fish. Marine mammals such as sea lions are sometimes killed as well.

A technological alternative would involve building huge cooling towers across the freeway from the plant, officials at Southern California Edison say.

But while the company created a realistic rendering of what the cooling towers would look like, Stuart Hemphill, Edison’s senior vice president of power procurement, says such a massive construction project would likely cost billions, and would not be economically feasible.

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Posted in: Environmental law enforcement • green technology • Wildlife and the natural world • • | 29 Comments »

To save sea life, power plants face tough new rules

January 23rd, 2010, 8:00 am by

The massive cooling towers would rise like a row of silos along Intertate 5, the domes of the San Onofre nuclear plant facing them across eight lanes of traffic. sanorendering

At night, a dense fog generated by the towers would roll over passing cars.

That’s the nightmare scenario suggested by officials at Southern California Edison, the nuclear plant’s owners and operators, if they are forced by a state environmental agency to abandon the plant’s ocean-water cooling system. The system’s screened pipe can suck in two billion gallons of seawater a day to condense steam heated by the plant’s two nuclear reactors, though the seawater never makes contact with nuclear material.

The State Water Resources Control Board is expected to consider Feb. 16 whether to impose new rules on California’s 19 coastal power plants, two of them nuclear plants, that seek to reduce the ecological toll from their cooling systems.

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Posted in: Environmental law enforcement • green technology • Wildlife and the natural world • • • | 27 Comments »

State adopts mandatory green-building code

January 12th, 2010, 4:55 pm by

prefabhouseCalifornia adopted the nation’s first mandatory green-building code Tuesday, requiring that new buildings cut water use by 20 percent, divert half of construction waste away from landfills and include low-pollution building materials beginning in 2011.

The code also will require separate indoor and outdoor water meters for non-residential buildings, moisture-sensing irrigation systems for large landscape areas and mandatory energy inspections for buildings over 10,000 square feet.

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Posted in: Environmental law enforcement • green building • Green business • | 9 Comments »

Local regulators back tightened EPA smog standards

January 7th, 2010, 4:11 pm by

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a tightening of standards Thursday for ground-level ozone, the main component of smog, and regional smog regulators say they support the effort. Read Associated Press story.EPA Smog

The standards would be more stringent than under the Bush administration, but are in line with what scientists recommended at the time.

The proposed new standard for ozone would be 60-70 parts per billion in the air we breathe. The standard adopted by Bush in 2008 was 75 parts per billion.

Such a standard would likely require increased smog regulation in coastal Southern California, including Orange County, said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District — especially pollution from autos and other “mobile sources.”

“AQMD strongly supports EPA’s proposal for a more stringent and health-protective ozone standard,” Atwood wrote in an e-mail Thursday. “The best science clearly demonstrates that the current ozone standard does not adequately protect Southland residents from the harmful effects of smog.”

At 88 parts per billion, Orange County’s ozone level is in violation of both the existing standard and the one proposed by EPA.

(AP photo of smoggy Los Angeles skyline by Nick Ut.)

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Posted in: Environmental law enforcement • pollution • • • | 24 Comments »

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