July 03, 2009 |
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RSVP EARLY! 11:45–13:45hrs 16:00–18:30hrs -- 07:30–09:00hrs The Environmental Toll of Plastics (BY Jessica A. Knoblauch) CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA -- From cell phones and computers to bicycle helmets and hospital IV bags, plastic has molded society in many ways that make life both easier and safer. But the synthetic material also has left harmful imprints on the environment and perhaps human health, according to a new compilation of articles authored by more than 60 scientists from around the world. Evidence is mounting that the chemical building blocks that make plastics so versatile are the same components that might harm people and the environment. And its production and disposal contribute to an array of environmental problems, too. Green solutions, however, are becoming available, the scientists say. | EHN Palin’s Pipeline: Clean Energy for the Lower 48 or Power for the Tar Sands? (BY Abby Schultz) Where the natural gas from the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline will end up is a murky question tied up in a 30-year-old treaty, expansion of Canadian tar sands operations, and trends in natural gas supplies both in the United States and in Canada. Environmentalists fear at least half of the relatively clean-burning Alaskan North Slope gas will end up fuelling tar sands operations in Alberta, where the pipeline will end, instead of coming to the lower 48 states to replace carbon-intensive coal in power plants. The tar sands operations already consume about 20 percent of Canada’s natural gas, and they are expected to need as much as twice that by 2035. | BLOG ED NOTE: AGW alarmist agenda of the site notwithstanding... Abby manages to pull off a solid overview of the ‘pipeline politics’ currently underway in North America’s upper reaches. That said, however, she a) fails to address BC’s shale gas reserves in the piece (this despite the fact that said pipeline will wind its way through the reserve basin) and b) misses a key observation made by the EIA from their Outlook’s Issues in Focus: “Obtaining permits for an Alaska natural gas pipeline in Canada. The pipeline option could encounter significant permitting issues in Canada, similar to those that have already been encountered by the Mackenzie Delta natural gas pipeline, whose construction has been significantly delayed as the result of a failure to secure necessary permits. Because there have been no filings for Canadian permits by any Alaska natural gas pipeline sponsor, the severity of this potential problem cannot be determined.” p.41 Mackenzie Valley Pipeline ‘A National Embarrassment’: MGM’s Sykes (BY Claudia Cattaneo) CALGARY, AB -- Calling the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline "a national embarrassment," the president of MGM Energy Corp. said Tuesday his company will stop drilling in the Arctic until a decision to construct the long-stalled project is made. The tiny company discovered or acquired so much natural gas it’s become the fourth largest resource holder in the Mackenzie Delta since being founded two years ago by Calgary oilman Clay Riddell to take advantage of opportunities left behind by bigger companies losing faith. | FINANCIALPOST TransCanada, ExxonMobil commit to $26B US Alaska Pipeline TransCanada Corporation said Thursday it has struck a deal with ExxonMobil to develop an Alaska gas pipeline at an initial projected cost of $26 billion US. The Alaska pipeline project would stretch approximately 2,737 kilometres from Alaska's North Slope through the Yukon and northeastern British Columbia to the British Columbia-Alberta border near Boundary Lake, where it would connect into existing pipelines. | CBC Canadian Journalist Joins Israeli Press Tour A journalist from Canadian Water Treatment Magazine will be in Israel from June 30 – July 2, as a part of a worldwide press tour put on by Israel Newtech, a division of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour. Ms. Kerry Freek will be joining journalists from around the world as they capture a glimpse of Israel’s cleantech industry and solutions. The tour will include visits to:
The Press Tour is taking place ahead of the WATEC 2009 International Water Technologies conference being held in Israel from November 17 – 19, 2009. While in Israel, Kerry will be blogging to the Canadian Water Treatment blog on the technologies and advancements in cleantech that she will be seeing and visiting.  BCEIA Member Plutonic Power Waiting for Word on Bute (BY Jennifer Walter) TORONTO, ON -- TORONTO (Dow Jones)--If Plutonic Power Corp. (PCC.T) is allowed to develop its proposed run-of-river hydro project on Bute Inlet, it will be the biggest independently built renewable power project ever constructed in British Columbia. The Vancouver-based renewable energy company is still waiting to hear whether B.C. Hydro will accept its bid for the 1,027-megawatt project, which the company says will cost between C$3.5 and C$4 billion to build. | WALLSTJOURNAL PWGSC Update Subsequent to the June 1 Information session hosted by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), SNC-Lavalin ProFac provided clarification on the Vendor Management prequalification requirements as follows:
For questions, please contact SNC-Lavalin ProFac Vendor Management directly 1.877.784.5104 Buildings Seeking LEED to Provide Performance Data WASHINGTON, DC -- As part of LEED v3, the latest version of the U.S. Green Building Council’s program for green building design, construction, operations and maintenance, buildings seeking LEED certification will begin submitting operational performance data on a recurring basis as a precondition to certification. | RELEASE Related: NASA Releases ISS Photos from China’s 3-Gorges Hydroelectric Project A new reservoir is filling in central China. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River—the world’s largest dam—was completed in 2006, and the river is filling up its valley behind the dam to form a narrow reservoir extending more than 600 kilometers | EARTHOBSERVATORY Chemicals from Storm Drain May Have Killed Port Coquitlam Salmon PORT COQUITLAM, BC -- Someone dumping chemicals into a Port Coquitlam, B.C., storm drain may have killed thousands of Coho salmon fry in Hyde Creek, according to a local environmental group. Ted Wingrove, president of the Hyde Creek Watershed Society, says thousands of fish have suffocated and burned after being exposed to some sort of unidentified toxic chemical which entered the watershed east of Vancouver. | CBC ARPEL Governance Project From the other side of the Rockies, BCEIA’s sister association, the Environmental Services Association of Alberta, has posted a new request for proposal re: professional services related to the ESAA ARPEL project. Check the Request for Proposals section in the left-hand margin for further details and deadline information. Garbage a Burning Issue in Metro Vancouver VANCOUVER, BC -- Metro Vancouver is looking for public input into a plan to build six new waste-to-energy plants around the Lower Mainland to deal with the growing problem of too much garbage and not enough landfill space. The media was invited to tour the facility Tuesday as a way to get public input into the plan to build the plants in dense urban areas, the latest attempt at solving the solid waste problem in the Lower Mainland. | CBC Tennessee Spill: Regulation Hazards (BY Kelly Hearn) USA -- An investigation into the accident reveals layers of failures: the Tennessee state government didn't control how the TVA handled its ash waste, and the Environmental Protection Agency failed to heed its own scientific warning about coal ash hazards. It shows how the Obama administration has moved to fill in where past administrations have left a void, including, in one case, releasing a study linking coal ash to health problems that was suppressed by the Bush administration. Ultimately, the spill reveals the toxic fallacy that states rather than the federal government should tell big power companies how to manage a gargantuan and largely unregulated stream of industrial waste. "It's amazing that this is a problem the vast majority of the public and much of the scientific community had no idea existed," said William Chameides, an environmental toxicologist at Duke University. "Most people didn't know about it, but those who did assumed that most coal ash was either being recycled or disposed of safely." | THENATION ED NOTE: After having effectively slayed the mythic ‘clean coal’ beast, the largest environmental disaster in North American history is seemingly set to tsunami US power producers. The above article, the third in a series of reports concerning the 2008 Silent Christmas Slurry Disaster, provides a fairly even-handed analysis of the crux of the issue or regulatory hot-potatoe that is: to classify or to not classify, the fly ash residuals of coal-fired electrical production in America as hazardous waste. Indeed, a USEPA decision to do just that, would trigger a veritable cascade of environmental defence protocols, reassessments and regulatory oversight conditions across the country. A boon to the environment industry to be certain, however, for US electrical utilities, such a ruling would have massive ramifications in terms of clean-up, storage and mitigation costs – costs that would ultimately be borne by customers in the form of higher electrical rates.  Coal Ash Spills Too Dangerous to Reveal to Public Says DHS (BY Ryan Grim) USA -- Just how bad has the coal ash situation gotten in the United States? So bad that the Department of Homeland Security has told Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that her committee can't publicly disclose the location of coal ash dumps across the country. The pollution is so toxic, so dangerous, that an enemy of the United States -- or a storm or some other disrupting event -- could easily cause them to spill out and lay waste to any area nearby. There are 44 sites deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency to be high hazard, but Boxer said she isn't allowed to talk about them other than to senators in the states affected. "There is a huge muzzle on me and my staff," she said. "Homeland Security and the Army Corps [of Engineers] have decided in the interests of national security they can't make these sites known," she said. | HUFFINGTONPOST UPDATE: The list is the result of an investigation that the EPA ordered after the failure of a Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash pond in Kingston, Tenn., flooded more than 300 acres of land in December. After the spill, the EPA required electric utilities that store coal ash in surface impoundments to respond to mandatory questionnaires about their sites. The EPA initially refused to disclose the location of the high-hazard sites to the public, saying it would share the information only with members of Congress and their staffs. Sen. Barbara Boxer , D- Calif. , the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee , pressed the agency to release the list, saying the public had a right to know. | MCCLATCHY Stay Informed With the Latest BCEIANews | Events | Opportunities | Announcements |
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