Whales Killed by Plastics
News
Toxic Plastic Production Pollutes Communities
Fracking and Plastics Factories Both Kill People and Wildlife. Creating Plastics from Fracked Ethane Releases Solvents and Kills People at Both Ends of the Pipelines. Solvents, toxics, explosions, and fires kill, sicken, and maim at the fracking site. Dangerous toxics are released in to the air and water at the plastics factory. But there are local groups organizing to stop them! Break Free From Plastic is a coalition of more than 1,400 groups. Diane Wilson, the Sierra Club (TX), and the Texas Campaign for the environment, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Rise ST. James (LA), Portland Citizens United (TX), the Center for International Law, The Breathe Project ( PA), Environmental Integrity Project (PA), and local people are speaking up against the big projects on the Gulf coast in Texas and Louisiana and in Pennsylvania. Companies are investing $ 65 billion in new plastics production. Over 300 petrochemical and plastics projects are in the works- pipelines, ports, expansions, cracker facilities that split ethane gas into plastics, etc. .. The oil companies area switching to making plastics, mostly for packaging, as the demand for gasoline drops with higher MPG cars, switches to wind and solar energy. The oil companies are concentrating on plastics and chemicals growth , as they provides more profit than oil.
How to Stay Healthy Indoors
Prevent Indoor Air pollution by using an Exhaust Hood while Cooking and Opening a Window while Cooking or Cleaning
Activist Joan Seeman and Neighbors Demand Info on Nuclear Bomb Superfund Site and Grand Jury
Often judges and the judicial system cover up and remove from access information about toxics. This happened with tobacco lawsuits and many lawsuits over toxics. The victims have to sign confidentiality agreements, and judges are pressured not to allow access to info about threats to public health. This is because powerful interests want to avoid the bad pr and potential lawsuits over their offenses. Sometimes a grand jury's purpose seems to assemble all of the info, delay things until the public uproar has died down, and then to classify all of the info as confidential, preempting other lawsuits
Joan writes " Where are the Secret Grand Jury 3.5 million pages of information from documents sealed regarding Rocky Flats? How many Colorado Superfund Site documents are sealed or confidential? City Of Denver approved sealing 7000 pages in documents recently according to Westword? Why?
Joan Seeman
“The evidence they found was ultimately considered by Colorado's first-ever special grand jury, empaneled in August 1989. After two years of deliberations, the jurors wanted to indict eight individuals — some from the Department of Energy, some from Rockwell International, which ran the plant for the DOE — for environmental crimes. Instead, in March 1992 the Department of Justice sealed a deal with Rockwell, fining the company $18.5 million, less than it had made in one year of bonuses. No individuals were named.”““We’ve reached a stalemate in this region between advocates for economic development at or near the refuge and the community groups who believe that economic development is not safe yet,” Mellen said. “So we are seeking the disclosure of this information in order to audit the clean up that happened, the risk assessment that followed it, and the determination that the refuge portion of that property is actually safe for unlimited use and exposure.”
“I am an FBI agent. My superiors have ordered me to lie about a criminal investigation I headed in 1989. We were investigating the US Department of Energy, but the US Justice Department covered up the truth.” retired FBI Special Agent Jon LipskyWhere are the Secret Grand Jury 3.5 million pages of information from documents sealed regarding Rocky Flats?“The plant closed after an FBI raid discovered mishandling of radioactive materials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared it a Superfund site. Special Federal Grand Jury 89-2 was launched August 1, 1989. Through subpoenas and informal requests, the grand jury collected more than 760 boxes of documents containing 3.5 million pages of information which remains under seal three decades later. ““Former grand jury foreman McKinley chronicles his experiences in the 2004 book he co-authored with attorney Caron Balkany, The Ambushed Grand Jury, which begins with an open letter to the U.S. Congress from Special Agent Lipsky:“I am an FBI agent. My superiors have ordered me to lie about a criminal investigation I headed in 1989. We were investigating the US Department of Energy, but the US Justice Department covered up the truth.” However, some activists dispute the reasons for records confidentiality:[49] Dr. LeRoy Moore, a Boulder theologian and peace activist[50]; retired FBI Special Agent Jon Lipsky,[46] who led the FBI's raid of the Rocky Flats plant to investigate illegal plutonium burning and other environmental crimes; and Wes McKinley, who was the foreman of the grand jury investigation into the operations at Rocky Flats (and served several terms as Colorado State Representative).[34][51][52]I have refused to follow the orders to lie about what really happened during that criminal investigation at Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. Instead, I have told the author of this book the truth. Her promise to me if I told her what really happened was that she would put it in a book to tell Congress and the American people.“Because this grand jury ended decades ago, because these documents would have been created under routine business operations anyway, there are exceptions to the rule that permit disclosure in the proper circumstances,” said environmental attorney Pat Mellen who is representing the plaintiffs. “We believe those circumstances apply here because we are seeking these documents preliminary to litigation.”“Don't forget that Rocky Flats is one of the facilities that the Energy Department now admits may be "irreversibly contaminated."Radioactive Rag April 1989Newsletter of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety SantaFe,NewMexicoUSALet's rename it Sloppy Flats“The Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Golden, Co. is in the news once more. On February 23, chromic acid, including hexvalent chromium-a highly toxic metal overflowed from a holding tank into the plant's watertreatment system. The tainted water was then sprayed onto nearby fields. Colorado Department of Health's PattyCorbetta described "bad operating procedures...they found the waste and went ahead and sprayed before they had the analyses back." Countered Rocky Flats spokesman Pat Etchart, "We're continuing sampling and evaluating...we plan to assess and mitigate."Don't forget that Rocky Flats is one of the facilities that the Energy Department now admits may be "irreversibly contaminated."And the Sierra Club recently filed suit against Rocky Flats to force compliance with state and federal regulations governing the burning of mixed hazardous waste. Incinerators at the· plant burn plutonium-contaminated weapons parts and equipment although the facility has never been licensed to treat or dispose of hazardous waste.”
Nature Notes- Phenology
4-9-19 Saw a retail land in its nest.
4- 7-19 Canyon wrens with their swinging, descending songs, a fox, a bobcat, stellars jay, wild turkeys
Today 4-2-19 there were 2 water ouzels feeding in the shallows on Boulder Creek. They stand in the shallow water and on the shore and rocks. They do knee bends. Also, today there was a large group of shoveler ducks swimming in close knit disk about 4 feet wide, dipping their heads down to feed.
On 4-2 I looked down from a bridge on two mallards feeding. I could see their necks and bills swiveling from side to side as they fed and swam upstream.
I started to hear the calls of frogs and toads by a wetland west of 55th.
On 3-31 at dusk in the foothills at about 5600 ft, there were 2 wild turkeys. They called, ran sideways and fanned out there tails. 2 others joined them.
On 3-12, 3 water ouzels were on rocks in Boulder Creek calling. This was right after a ranger had told a friend and me that they have beautiful calls, which he then played for us on his phone. Later that day I looked down at 2 water ouzels from a bridge. The water was so clear that I could see them swimming underwater.
The swallows returned on 3-29! Also, on a cool day with mist and rain in the low 30s, I saw what looked like an upside down bee hive or wasp nest on top of a branch. As I walked closer, I spied a large owl all puffed out. It had bands of light brown and dark brown. Its ears were dramatic, thin from the side and spread out from the front. Its chest stuck out like two mounds.
saw a white pelican gyring up higher and higher the week of May1.
continue to see and hear water ouzel near net on creek
saw 22 species of wildflowers in foothills 5-4-19
heard canyon wrens in low foothills , saw 15 species of wildflowers.and 2 beavers 5-5-19
saw 5 fox kits romping, leaping, and leaning on each other; , plus night heron, great horned owl, and great blue heron 5-15-19
Utilities make many Millions More by Opposing Local Rooftop Solar
The more utilities spend on large projects, the more they get. In Colorado, Xcel energy has opposed renewable energy goals, more efficient street lights, a local Boulder city municipal electric utility, etc. over the years. Utility companies want to install centralized wind and solar that they own and that sometimes costs over twice the amount it would if they were to buy the energy from a lower priced bidder, instead of building and operating it themselves