Friday, June 11, 2010

NEW DRAFT SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR NEW YORK STATE:

 

BEYOND WASTE...THE NEW PLAN

                                             Aggressive in Spirit…Limited by Funding

A new Draft Proposal Solid Waste Management Plan for New York titled;  Beyond Waste: A Sustainable Materials Management Strategy for New York, along with a supporting  Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) was outlined by representatives of  the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Solid and Hazardous Materials, at a June 7th  meeting held at Stony Brook University.

The overall Plan intends to help minimize waste, increase the number of materials that can be used or recycled, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the number of “green” jobs.

The strategy involves shifting from an “end of pipe” focus to reducing waste from the very start.  To implement this task, according to the Plan, everyone must work together in a coordinated effort between municipalities, businesses and individuals. The goal is to result in decreased reliance on waste disposal facilities in the future.

Calling the Plan “aspirational”,  but  “…clearly philosophically unsound…”David Tonjes, an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook, affiliated with the Waste Reduction Management Institute,  spoke during the comment period of the meeting stating that in his opinion “…this is a bad plan and an unacceptable environmental impact statement.”

Through increased recycling, composting and new preventative measures such as using less product packaging and maximizing re-use, according to NY State DEC Commissioner Peter Grannis
the DEC expects the Plan to reduce waste by 15% every two years from 14 million tons (2008) to the projection of 2 million tons in 2018.


According to Mr. Tonjes:

Composting, which reduces waste disposal, is strongly supported in the Plan although it requires energy use to be accomplished and causes net releases of greenhouse gases…The Plan emphasizes a need to reduce waste, because the process that led to the piece of waste causes much more pollution than managing waste does.  Eliminate waste and the chain of environmental harm is broken.  This logic is crooked.  It is like saying we can improve public health by regulating cemeteries.  We cannot change the American consumer culture nor alter fundamentals of use by banning landfills.
The DEC is making an attempt to adapt to a growing pressure to reduce demand for energy, dependence on disposal, minimize emissions of greenhouse gases and create jobs, according to the Plan.  To that end they will attempt to coordinate all levels of the production and supply chain, including; product manufacturers, distributors, retailers, consumers and government.

                     PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP:  INFLUENCE OF DESIGN

One method of accomplishing the goal of less waste is to promote “product stewardship”, according to Resa Dimino, special assistant in the DEC’s policy office, who presented the Draft Plan at the Stony Brook meeting.  “This is where the manufacturer takes responsibility for the recycling of that product and its' packaging.  This would be similar to the new Electronics Disposal Law recently signed by Governor David A. Patterson, which takes effect in April of 2011.” The law requires all manufacturers that sell electronics in New York State to have a cost free and clean method of recycling electronic waste set up for consumers" according to Ms. Dimino and it also makes it illegal for anyone to dispose of electronic waste in landfills after January, 2015.

Ms. Dimino said according to the Plan, the DEC would hope to institute similar programs for household hazardous waste i.e. pharmaceuticals, paint, mercury in thermometers, thermostats and other potentially toxic household items.

The focus of the DEC, according to Ms. Dimino is to set new goals and to accomplish these goals there is a need to acquire a “new revenue stream”, something she admitted was a real concern, considering the economic situation New York  and the nation currently finds itself in.

Increased DEC enforcement authority and a potential “pay as you throw” program were two ideas Ms. Dimino mentioned to help finance the new goals, admitting these would require legislative involvement.

The programmatic recommendations according to Ms. Dimino are that the State must lead by example, combat climate change, focus on public education, outreach and technical assistance and develop a comprehensive materials management planning system.  There must be better inter-agency communication and there is a real need to build a market for re-cycled glass.

The Plan though aggressive and well intentioned is based on full financial backing and an ability to realistically implement. This is something everyone at the meeting seemed to agree was the crux of the problem with the Plan.   David Blackman, Head of the DEC Solid Waste Management Plan, representing 350 municipal and private solid waste management facilities, said at the meeting, “A comprehensive assessment needs to be performed to determine the Environmental Impact and cost.  There is a need for funding sources.  We believe the proposed surcharge on Solid Waste “tipping fees” are taxed to the max and no more burdens can be added.  If we must add a fee it should only be to those who are not already recycling.”

Professor Tonjes said that “according to section 617.9 (b) (5) (v) of the SEQRA regulations an Environmental Impact Statement must address reasonable alternatives…The language of this regulation also seems to require a need to show the preferred alternative is feasible, considering the objectives and capabilities of the project sponsor.  I see no evidence that the Plan has been shown to be possible to implement.”

The public comment period has been extended to August 16, 2010.  The draft plan can be found on the Department's website at www.dec.state.gov or 
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/41831.html.

Written statements must be received by close of business on August 16th  by mail, FAX or E-Mail:

Mail:  Mr. Ed Dassatti
          NY State Department of Environmental Conservation
          Division of Solid and Hazardous Materials
          625 Broadway- 9th Floor
          Albany, New York  12233-7250

FAX:  (518) 402-9024

E-Mail  nysswmp@gw.dec.state.ny.us

To obtain additional information of the Plan and DGEIS, please contact Resa Dimino at:
 (518) 402-9401 
 or use the above E-Mail address.


DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY TO CONGRESSMAN BISHOP: GRUMMAN WORKERS WERE NOT NOTIFIED OF BENEFITS



        "...it is unlikely that Northrop-Grumman informed it's employees about EEOICPA."
                                                                      Glenn Podonsky, DOE

In a recent article published by Freelance Investigations, it was reported that on March 24, 2010 a letter was sent from Congressman Timothy Bishop to the Department of Labor on behalf of one of his constituents; Dr. Carmine Vasile. 

Dr. Vasile had expressed outrage and concern that his former employer, Northrop-Grumman, a sub-contractor of the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), never notified him and other employees that they were eligible for medical and financial benefits under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).

In a response letter to Congressman Bishop from Glenn S. Podonsky, Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer for the Office of Health, Safety and Security, Dated June 4, 2010 Mr. Podonsky stated:

“On May 24, 2010, BNL informed us that in the past 18 years BNL has done very little business with Northrop-Grumman; perhaps only three relatively small contracts.  Therefore it is unlikely that Northrop-Grumman  informed it’s employees about EEOICPA.”

A simple Google search using Northrop-Grumman/BNL DOE Contracts ----however, yielded many projects between the two facilities.

For example:

BNL-72167-2004-CP
Successful Partnership Between Brookhaven
National Laboratory and Northrop Grumman
Corp. for Construction of RHIC
Superconducting Magnets+
Doug Fisher*, Mike Anerella, and Peter Wanderer

And also:

Advanced Energy Systems, Inc.File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
by EB Accelerators
BNL. Most recently, AES was the only US company to manufacture a 5-cell, 700 MHz ... The clean room will see its first use in support of a DOE contract to design , fabricate, ... Northrop Grumman Corp., and state-of–the-art space-based ...
epaper.kek.jp/p01/EXHIBIT/AESINFO.PDF


And also:

by T Surek - 2001 - Related articles
DOE/GO-102001-1198. FY 2000 Photovoltaic Energy Program Contract Summary ...... project with Dr. Godfrey Augustine of the Northrop Grumman Science and Technology ...... Approach/Background: The BNL Center conducts the following types of ...
www.nrel.gov/docs/fy01osti/29124.pdf - Similar

And…
Design of a harmonic generation FEL experiment at BNL - ElsevierThe harmonic generation experiment is proposed for the BNL accelerator test facility (ATF) ..... This work is performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC02-76-CH0016 and the Grumman Corp. ...
linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0168-9002(92)91052-B


In fact there were 11,000 responses in .028 seconds for the Google search Grumman/BNL D.O.E. Contracts.
Today, Freelance Investigations asked Peter Genzer, the media spokesperson for Brookhaven National Laboratory why BNL wrote to the Department of Energy that they could only identify 3 small contracts with Grumman.  Mr. Genzer had not seen the Bishop letter so it was E-Mailed to him and he sent this reply:


Brookhaven National Laboratory's retention policy is to keep subcontractor procurement records for a maximum of six-and-a-half years after completion before they are destroyed. According to our contracts and procurement staff, our existing records only show a handful of small contracts (none over $1,200) with Northrop Grumman. These date back to 2004, and were for analysis of biodiesel, oil, and sulphur samples. We no longer have records of contracts that may have existed prior to the early 2000s.


                                                                                           Peter Genzer/Media Liason for BNL

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

NEW BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY WORKERS' SCREENING FACILITY PLANNED AT QUEENS COLLEGE



The NSSP Screening Facility proposed by DOE for BNL was denied approval by Stony Brook years ago. No one will say why.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for the National Supplemental Screening Program  (NSSP) which provides worker population medical screenings for those men and women exposed to environmental hazards in the course of their employment for the DOE or their contractors and subcontractors.


Dr. Steven Markowitz works at Queens College running the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems and manages a group of these sites across the country. According to him his sites all follow the national protocol for testing and people can use the results for any purpose including applying for benefits under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).


This act provides for free medical screenings and financial compensation for medical maladies linked to exposure and for deaths related to employee exposure on the job site to hazardous chemicals, radiation, Beryllium and other toxins.

Several years ago the DOE submitted an application to Stony Brook University, which manages Brookhaven National Laboratories (BNL) to set up a screening center at Queens College to be funded entirely by the DOE. This would have allowed any and all employees of BNL to go to Queens College and get free hands on examinations and testing including the BLpt test for Beryllium exposure, x-rays, medical and occupational examinations, breathing tests, general blood chemistry, urinalysis and other tests, according to Dr. Markowitz.

Dr. Markowitz runs similar programs in Paducah, Kentucky, Portsmouth, Oregon and seven other sites and all have been approved using the exact same protocols as the Queens College application submitted a few years ago to Stony Brook.  

But the Institutional Review Board at Stony Brook said no, and denied the application. In January 2010 the DOE formed a new IRB of 10-20 people including scientists and workers' reps etc. and Dr. Markowitz has resubmitted the original application Stony Brook declined to approve- to them.  Dr. Markowitz says he expects it to pass easily and hopes to have the program under way in a few weeks.


Last week Freelance Investigations called Stony Brook and spoke to Lauren Sheprow in the office of media relations. I asked her why Stony Brook denied the application several years ago.  She said she did not know what the NSSP Program was and would I please put my questions in writing and send them in an E-Mail.  This was the E-Mail that was sent:

          Lauren:
First a little background since you seemed to have little or no information regarding this issue when I first called. I hope this helps to narrow things down for you.  I have asked Dr. Markowitz for the numbers you requested, but just got his machine and am still waiting for his call back.  In the meantime, maybe this will help.
I have been told that a few years ago the DOE put in an application to the Stony Brook IRB for a DOE fully funded NSSP Screening Facility for BNL workers to be set up on site at Queens College for the purpose of testing for medical problems experienced by the men and women who were exposed to Beryllium, Radiation, and other chemical toxins while working at BNL which is a DOE Facility.  DOE workers, their contractors or subcontractors are covered under the EEOICPA and Beryllium and Radiation exposure are handled specifically by NIOSH.  When you go to the NSSP website it says that workers from various DOE contaminated sites are handled at other facilities across the country. All are handled through Queens College by Dr. Steven Markowitz of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems.  Dr. Markowitz told me that a few years ago that he submitted the application for a DOE funded NSSP (National Supplemental Screening Program) test site at Queens College for BNL workers and submitted the application to Stony Brook and their Institutional Review Board (IRB). This application contained the exact same protocols that were and continue to be in effect in seven other NSSP testing sites across the country.  These protocols include but are not limited to:
(All Free)      Hands on medical and occupational hazards examinations
           X-Rays
           Breathing Test
           BLpt tests for Beryllium exposure
           General blood chemistry and urinalysis tests
According to Dr. Markowitz, Stony Brook IRB denied the DOE application and the site was never opened.
Dr. Markowitz declined to comment on why the application was denied by Stony Brook except to say he thought the IRB's principal issue back then was "confidential and personally identifiable information".  
In January 2010 the DOE formed a new IRB of 10-20 people including scientists and workers' reps etc. and Dr. Markowitz has resubmitted the original application Stony Brook declined to approve- to them.  Dr. Markowitz says he expects it to pass easily and hopes to have the program under way in a few weeks.
 QUESTIONS:
Who specifically was on the committee that denied the original application...when did this actually occur (if at all) and why was the application denied...(if it was)?
Does Stony Brook have any comment about the DOE's need to make an end run around their IRB denial to develop a new DOE IRB to establish the center to get help for the BNL workers?  Will they cooperate in the new project if and when it is up and running at Queens College?  Will they encourage BNL current and former employees to go to the center for free screenings?  If so, if and how will they handle notification to current and former BNL workers?
Where do you refer exposed BNL workers to now for screenings?  
Are any of the members of the IRB in contact with Dr. Markowitz directly regarding this issue?  If so who, when and what was the upshot of the interaction?
If they did deny approval of the application for the free screening site, do the members of the Stony Brook IRB have anything to say to the sick workers, who missed getting screened on time or the families of those gone already from diseases related to their exposure as to why Stony Brook said no to the Queens College NSSP Medical Testing Center application years ago?
            Thank you for your very valuable time...                 
            Colleen Callan
               Freelance Investigative Reporter and Producer


The REPLY:



Dear Colleen,

In response to your inquiry, the IRB's role is to review proposals involving human subjects according to criteria specified by federal regulation. If the criteria are not met, the proposal may not be approved.  

I hope this helps.

Best,
Lauren
Lauren M. Sheprow
Office of Media Relations
Stony Brook University
631-632-4965 / 631-444-7880

To which I replied:
   Lauren: 
I already knew what the IRB's role is.     That was never one of my questions.  You are not answering any of the questions I did ask and you are answering ones I didn't ask.  Interesting.
I wanted to know specifically, why this Queen's College proposal did not meet Stony Brooks' criteria.
Since according to Dr. Markowitz, it was exactly the same as seven other Federally approved sites...what specifically made Stony Brook say no?
That's really what I asked and still need to know and you are not willing to answer.
You are obviously ducking all the questions from the E-Mail you insisted I send you. 
I will give you one more opportunity to answer them.  If not...they will be put into the article exactly as written and your exact responses along with them.    3 PM Deadline.
                       Colleen

Dr. Markowitz originally said in a recent interview, to the best of his recollection Stony Brook did not approve the initial proposal based on “confidential and personally identifiable information”. 
At the time, when asked to explain the statement he could not say what it meant.

When pressed today regarding the real reason Stony Brook said "No"- Dr. Markowitz admitted he knew the real reason, had it in his files, but would not reveal the answer, despite agreeing several weeks ago to look for the information and to release it when he found it.

Why are both Stony Brook and Dr. Markowitz not willing to answer the simple question of why Stony Brook denied the application a few years ago?  What’s the big secret here?
Why the change of heart by Dr. Markowitz regarding the answer?  No one will even give the exact year of the denial, even though they obviously know the answer to at least that question. Why?

Asked the same question asked to Stony Brook IRB members, what he would say to the BNL workers who were not screened and may be in a later stage of a disease than they might have been if they had been screened when the Queens College program was first proposed and denied, he replied, “We don’t screen for cancers.” and according to Dr. Markowitz the screenings “Are not so much life saving because for many we don’t have the medicine to cure these diseases anyway”.  

I called Lauren Sheprow again and asked her if she intended to actually answer any of the written questions she requested and she said the E-Mail answer was the "on the record response" and the only answers she and Stony Brook intended to give. I asked her to at least tell me where Stony Brook currently refers BNL workers to now for screenings?  She declined to answer.
  
Dr. Markowitz said today he hopes to have the Queens College program up and running in the very near future. 

To Contact Dr. Markowitz regarding the program call:
718 670-4184

To Contact Lauren Sheprow to see if she will give you an answer to why Stony Brook said No to the NSSP Screening Program for BNL workers at Queens College several years ago call:


631 632-4965 or E-Mail her at: lsheprow@notes.cc.sunysb.edu