Environmental and Policy Focus
The Guardian - Apr 20 Three state and local officials involved in Flint’s water contamination crisis were criminally charged on Wednesday for their roles in the two-year public health debacle. Flint’s laboratory and water quality supervisor has been charged with willful neglect of office and tampering with evidence for allegedly falsifying documents that suggested Flint tested for lead in homes with lead service lines. Current and former officials with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality are charged with multiple counts of misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence, and Safe Drinking Water Act violations. The charges carry possible sentences ranging from four to five years in prison each, or fines up to $10,000. Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette said he would “guarantee” that more charges are forthcoming against individuals related to the debacle.
Sacramento Bee - Apr 19 The city of Benicia on Tuesday postponed until September any decision on Valero Refining Co.’s controversial plan to run half-mile-long oil trains through Northern California to its bay-side refinery. Valero has been seeking city approval for several years to build a rail track and oil-loading station at its Benicia refinery, which would allow it to begin receiving oil shipments on two 50-car trains per day. The refinery currently receives shipments of crude oil via marine vessels and pipelines. The trains, carrying crude from North American oil fields, would travel through Roseville, Sacramento, Davis, and other California cities en route to Benicia. The postponement came at the suggestion of several council members who say they are confused about what rights the city has to require environmental safety measures and the nature and extent of risks that the city can consider when voting on the project. Valero Refining Co. officials had requested the city take a time out to allow the oil company to ask federal officials to rule on those issues.
Courthouse News Service - Apr 20 California lawmakers on Tuesday advanced Assembly Bill 1713, sponsored by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, which would prohibit construction of the controversial $15 billion Delta tunnels project, known as California WaterFix, until the project receives voter approval. The bill would also require the state to perform and publish a cost-benefit analysis of the project. Critics and environmental groups said the project will not produce additional water, and demanded a detailed financial analysis. Dozens of water agencies and labor unions oppose Eggman's bill, including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Los Angeles Times - Apr 20 Members of the state Senate Energy, Utilities and Commerce Committee have scheduled a May 10 hearing to question the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the California Independent System Operator about a report they produced that warns of blackouts in Southern California if the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility remains closed this summer. Aliso Canyon, the biggest natural gas storage facility in the state and the fourth largest in the nation, was the scene of a major gas leak that lasted for several months before it was plugged in February of this year. Southern California Gas Co., which owns and operates the storage plant, contends that it needs Aliso Canyon because the natural gas pipeline system in the L.A. basin lacks the capacity to receive the amount of fuel needed for residential consumers and power plants during high demand periods. Consumer groups and utility critics contend that the blackout warnings are a scare tactic designed to enable Southern California Gas Co. to continue storing gas at the facility and to support an argument that costs of upgrades to the facility should be passed on to ratepayers.
KPCC - Apr 21 Hundreds of companies have signed a consent decree that requires them to spend approximately $78 million on a cleanup of contaminated groundwater at a Southern California Superfund site. The consent decree, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, is the latest settlement by companies that between 1976 and 1991 either operated the Omega Chemical Corp. hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility in the eastern Los Angeles suburb of Whittier, or that sent hazardous chemicals to the facility for disposal. Soil and groundwater at the site were found to be contaminated with Freon, trichloroethylene and other refrigerants and solvents, some of which have been linked to cancer or other health problems. The consent decree still requires a public comment period and court approval. Construction of the expanded treatment system could begin in 2018 and take several years.
ABC News - Apr 20 According to the American Lung Association’s 2016 State of the Air report, released this week, 166 million people, or 52.1 percent of the U.S. population, live in counties that have unhealthy levels of either ground-level ozone or particulate pollution, with Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California among the worst. Other California cities, including Fresno, Sacramento, Modesto, San Francisco, and El Centro also ranked in the top 10 for one or the other of these pollutants.
