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  • A Rising Tide of Contaminants

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  It may surprise you to know the vast array of contaminates our waste water treatment plants are not equipped to treat.  The untreated contaminants are then discharged into our waterways.  This article gives 40,000 foot view of what is taking place with our waterways from some of the materials / chemicals we produce along with the politics.

    By DEBORAH BLUM – SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

    Deborah Swackhamer, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota, decided last year to investigate the chemistry of the nearby Zumbro River. She and her colleagues were not surprised to find traces of pesticides in the water.

    Neither were they shocked to find prescription drugs ranging from antibiotics to the anti–convulsive carbamazepine. Researchers realized more than 15 years ago that pharmaceuticals – excreted by users, dumped down drains – were slipping through wastewater treatment systems.

    But though she is a leading expert in so-called emerging contaminants, Dr. Swackhamer was both surprised and dismayed by the sheer range and variety of what she found. Caffeine drifted through the river water, testament to local consumption of everything from coffee to energy drinks. There were relatively high levels of acetaminophen, the over-the-counter painkiller. Acetaminophen causes liver damage in humans at high doses; no one knows what it does to fish.

    “We don’t know what these background levels mean in terms of environmental or public health,” she said. “It’s definitely another thing that we’re going to be looking at.”

    Or, she might have said, one of many, many other things.

    The number of chemicals contaminating our environment is growing at exponential rate, scientists say. A team of researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey tracks them in American waterways, sediments, landfills and municipal sewage sludge, which is often converted into agricultural fertilizer. They’ve found steroid hormones and the antibacterial agent triclosan in sewage; the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) in fish; and compounds from both birth control pills and detergents in the thin, slimy layer that forms over stones in streams.

    “We’re looking at an increasingly diverse array of organic and inorganic chemicals that may have ecosystem health effects,” said Edward Furlong, a research chemist with the U.S.G.S. office in Denver and one of the first scientists to track the spread of pharmaceutical compounds in the nation’s waterways. “Many of them are understudied and unrecognized.”

    In an essay last week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, titled “Re-Emergence of Emerging Contaminants,” editor-in-chief Jerald L. Schnoor called attention to both the startling growth of newly registered chemical compounds and our inadequate understanding of older ones.

    The American Chemical Society, the publisher of the journal, maintains the most comprehensive national database of commercially registered chemical compounds in the country. “The growth of the list is eye-popping, with approximately 15,000 new chemicals and biological sequences registered every day,” Dr. Schnoor wrote.

    Not all of those are currently in use, he emphasized, and the majority are unlikely to be dangerous. “But, for better or worse, our commerce is producing innovative, challenging new compounds,” he wrote.

    Dr. Schnoor, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Iowa, also noted rising concern among researchers about the way older compounds are altered in the environment, sometimes taking new and more dangerous forms.

    Some research suggests that polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are broken down by plants into even more toxic metabolites. Equally troubling, scientists are finding that while PCBs are banned, they continue to seep into the environment in unexpected ways, such as from impurities in the caulk of old school buildings.

    PCBs have long been identified as hazardous, but not every contaminant is so risky, Dr. Schnoor emphasized.

    “Out of the millions of chemical compounds that we know about, thousands have been tested and there are very few that show important health effects,” he said in an interview.

    But, he added, the development of new compounds and the increasing discovery of unexpected contaminants in the environment means that the nation desperately needs a better system for assessing and prioritizing chemical exposures.

    That includes revisiting the country’s antiquated chemical regulation and assessment regulations. The Toxic Substances Control Act went into effect in 1976, almost 40 years ago, and has not been updated since.

    The law does require the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain an inventory of registered industrial compounds that may be toxic, but it does not require advance safety testing of those materials. Of the some 84,000 compounds registered, only a fraction have ever been fully tested for health effects on humans. The data gap includes some materials, like creosote and coal tar derivatives, which are currently manufactured at rates topping a million pounds a year.

    Not surprisingly, Dr. Schnoor and other scientists want to see the act updated and transformed into a mechanism for science-based risk assessment of suspect compounds. Indeed, everyone from researchers to environmental groups to the American chemical industry agree that the law is frustratingly inadequate.

    “Our chemical safety net is more hole than net,” said Ken Cook, president of theEnvironmental Working Group, an advocacy group. The Food and Drug Administration, for instance, doesn’t regulate the environmental spread of pharmaceuticals. And the toxic substances law ignores their presence in waterways.

    “Where does that leave us in terms of scientific understanding of what drugs to regulate?” Mr. Cook said.

    Anne Womack Kolton, vice president for communications at the American Chemistry Council, an organization representing chemical manufacturers, agreed. “Think about the world 40 years ago,” she said. “It was a vastly different place. It’s common sense to revise the law and make it consistent with what we know about chemicals today.”

    The two sides don’t agree on what standards for chemical testing are needed or what kind of protective restrictions should be put in place for chemicals deemed hazardous. And they are in deep disagreement about whether a revised federal law should preempt actions taken by tough-minded states like California.

    The council argues for federal standardization as the most efficient route; environmental groups believe that such an action would weaken public protection. Legislators have so far not been able to resolve those differences. This month yet another proposed update to the act stalled in a Senate committee.

    “Congress has not sent an environmental law to the president’s desk in 18 years,” Mr. Cook said. “And in the current environment, it’s very difficult to get something through.”

    Still, Dr. Swackhamer, who recently stepped down as chair of the E.P.A.’s science advisory board, notes that despite the lack of legislation, scientists have been working toward better ways to assess the risks posed by the increasing numbers of chemicals in our lives. Some may help whittle the inventory of T.S.C.A. compounds down to a priority list that focuses on less than a thousand products.

    That’s still a daunting number of chemical unknowns. But given the tens of thousands of materials in the inventory, it’s a start.

  • There Are 532 Superfund Sites in Indian Country! How many contaminated sites don’t we know about?

     environmental Strategist™, between the lines:  My question after you read the article below is how many contaminated sites don’t we know about?

    Under CERCLA you are responsible for the environmental condition of your property.  What if a third party contaminates your property and they do not have the financial ability to correct the problem?  Your asset has just become a liability.

    Contamination from third parties can come from air, water, soil, ground water or just over the surface of the land and below are real life examples.

    While this article points out that 25% of Superfund sites are on Tribal land, the other 75% represent and even greater impact on human health and the environment.

    Environmental Strategist™ Risk Management Tip:  Environmental insurance can protect real estate owners if third parties contaminate their property.

    Environmental Trivia Question:  Where are the highest concentration of Superfund Sites in the United States?  Answer below article.

    Kill the Land, Kill the People: There Are 532 Superfund Sites in Indian Country!

    Terri Hansen:  Indian Country Today – 6/17/14

    Of a total of 1,322 Superfund sites as of June 5, 2014, nearly 25 percent of them are in Indian country. Manufacturing, mining and extractive industries are responsible for our list of some of the most environmentally devastated places in Indian country, as specified under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the official name of the Superfund law enacted by Congress on December 11, 1980. 

    Most of these sites are not cleaned up, though not all of the ones listed below are still active. Some sites are capped, sealing up toxics that persist in the environment. In cases like the Navajo, the Akwesasne Mohawk and the Quapaw Tribe, the human health impacts are known because some doctors and scientists took enough interest to do studies in their regions. Some of those impacts may persist through generations given the involvement, as in the case of the Mohawk, of endocrine disrupters. 

    TheSalt Chuck Mine Superfund site in southeast Alaska operated as a copper-palladium-gold-silver mine from 1916 to 1941. Members of the Organized Village of Kasaan, a federally recognized tribe, traditionally harvested fish, clams, cockles, crab and shrimp from the waters in and around Salt Chuck, unaware for decades that areas of impact were saturated with tailings from the former mine. As if that weren’t enough, Pure Nickel Inc. holds rights to mining leases in the area and began active exploration to do even more mining in summer 2012, according to Ground Truth Trekking.

    The Elem Band of Pomo Indians, whose colony was built on top of the waste of what would become California’s Sulfur Bank Mine Superfund site in 1970, have elevated levels of mercury in their bodies, and now fear for their health. According to an NBC News investigation, nearby Clear Lake is the most mercury-polluted lake in the world, despite the EPA’s spending about $40 million over two decades trying to keep mercury contamination out of the water. Although the EPA cleaned soil from beneath Pomo homes and roads, pollution still seeps beneath the earthen dam built by the former mine operator, Bradley Mining Co. For years, Bradley Mining has fought the government’s efforts to recoup cleanup costs.

    The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California requested EPA involvement in the cleanup of an abandoned open pit sulfur mine on the eastern slope of California’s Sierra Nevada that became the Leviathan Mine Superfund site. The Washoe Tribe had become concerned that contaminated waters were affecting their lands downstream, causing impacts to culture and health, environmental damage, remediation, monitoring and testing, posting of health advisories, drinking water, effects on pregnancy, and cancer. Aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, iron, manganese, nickel and thallium have beendetectedin surface water and sediment downstream from the mine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that exposures could result in cancerous and non-cancerous health effects.

    The abandoned FMC phosphorus facility occupies more than 1,000 acres of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, and lies within Eastern Michaud Flats Superfund site. The primary contaminants of concern at the site are arsenic, elemental phosphorous and gamma radiation. FMC left a legacy of contamination in the air, groundwater, soil and the nearby Portneuf River, which threatened plants, wildlife and human health on the reservation and in surrounding communities. The Shoshone-Bannock have long asked for a cleanup of contaminated soils, but instead the EPA’s 2012 interimremedyis to cap and fill, including areas containing gamma radiation and radionuclides.

    Answer to trivia question:  Silicon Valley

  • Potential value of environmental liability insurance — AST spills into Colorado River

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  Businesses often times question the value environmental liability insurance offers their business model.  Below is s simple spill that only released 7,500 gallons of oil from an Above Ground Storage Tank.

    The premium for a $1,000,000 Above Ground Storage Tank policy runs roughly $400.  So the premium versus the face value of the policy means it cost the insured $.0004 cents on the dollar for the insurance versus self insuring and paying 100 cents on the dollar out of your own pocket for cleanup costs, defense, third party bodily injury, third party property damage, third party business interruption….

    Environmental insurance versus self insurance, what adds more value?

    7,500 gallons of oil spills into Colorado river

    Fort Collins Coloradoan – by Ryan Handy

    FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A storage tank damaged by recent flooding has dumped 7,500 gallons of crude oil into the Poudre River near Windsor, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) reported late Friday afternoon.

    “At this time we know of no drinking water intakes affected by this spill. The release is not ongoing,” COGCC spokesman Todd Hartman said

    The oil has stained vegetation as far as a quarter of mile away from the damaged tank, Hartman said.

    The tank’s operator, Noble Energy, discovered the spill Tuesday afternoon and later reported it to the COGCC, the state’s regulatory agency for the oil and gas industry. Recent high river flows undercut the bank where the storage tank was sitting, causing the tank to drop and breaking a valve. About 178 barrels of oil dumped into the river.

    The well near the tank has been shut in, and a second tank in the area appears to be unaffected, Hartman said in a news release.

    COGCC and water quality experts from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment were at the scene of the tank spill, where clean-up efforts were underway Friday. Clean-up crews are working to absorb the spilled oil and a vac-truck is removing oil-filled standing water from a low-lying area around the tank.

    The site of the spill is southeast of Fort Collins near the Poudre River Trail.

    Contributing: Associated Press

  • ‘New normal’: No one escapes pain in drought areas

    environmental Strategist, between the lines: Everything that exists on our planet is impacted by environmental exposures as the article below points out.  According to the report below “drought now covers about 38 percent of the lower 48 states”, so people living in drought areas are getting a real life experience just how precious a resource water is.

    We can’t control our environment but we can do a better job of utilizing the resources we need to live.  Since 99% + of species that have inhabited earth are extinct the odds say we better wake up or we won’t be smelling any roses.

    Our environment is creating demand for environmental Strategist™ much like computers created demand for IT professionals.  The big difference being one you can live without and one you can’t.  For a better life www.estrategist.com.

    Mark Koba | @MarkKobaCNBC , 5-20-14:

    The dry conditions in the western U.S. are so bad that even many of the companies that are thriving in the drought feel economic pain.

    Case in point—Limoneira, of Santa Paula, California, and one of the largest U.S. growers of lemons and avocados: It reached record revenue of $100 million this year thanks to higher prices brought on by a freeze in South America, said president and CEO Harold Edwards.

    Despite the higher sales, however, getting through the drought is costly, said Edwards, who noted that his firm constantly monitors its underground wells so as not to overuse them.

    “We have to do more water pumping, invest in sprinkler systems, and every extra irrigation costs us,” said Edwards, whose company has some 11,000 acres in agricultural production.

    eS factoid:  80% of the worlds fresh water is used for Agriculture.

    Analysts say that no matter what, farmers, businesses and consumers are going to feel the effects of the drought, and survival will mean shared pain through conditions that show no sign of letting up.

    “This is the new normal,” said Lori Anne Dolqueist, a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and an expert in California water regulations. “In terms of the drought, we can’t just expect to wait it out and pray for rain. We have to do a lot more through education on how we use water, stricter laws on water use and other means to get a handle on it,” she said. “And that means a tough conversation for everyone about water.”

    Severity of drought

    The current drought is not a new one. Various states have been in drought conditions for the last three to four years. But the severity of what’s happening now is alarming to many observers.

    For the first time in this century, the entire state of California is in a severe drought or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

    Drought conditions in Oklahoma have farmers there expecting only 20 percent of their normal wheat yield this spring. States like Kansas Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado are also caught in the grasp of extremely dry conditions.

    And a dearth of rain over the past four years in Texas has climatologists saying the state is suffering the worst drought conditions of the past 500 years. Dozens of Texas communities, especially in the southern part, are said to have less than 90 days of water, putting lives at risk.

    California’s drought will deal a severe blow to Central Valley irrigated agriculture and farm communities this year, and could cost the industry $1.7 billion and cause more than 14,500 workers to lose their jobs, according to preliminary results of a new study by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.

    Consumers are taking a hit as well: Prices for meat, eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables and other foods are on the rise, in large part because of the drought that has seized western states.

    The drought has an economic trickle-down effect that could leave some towns and communities devastated, said Umar Sheikh, an industry sector credit analyst at insurance firm Euler Hermes.

    “Without water, there are no crops, and you have an exodus of people moving out of the areas,” argued Sheikh. “That means less kids in schools, less tax money for the towns and more dependence on government assistance.”

    With weather conditions as they are, a whole new way of thinking about water use is necessary, said Wayne Tucker, founder of BIO S.I. Technology, which makes microbial soil that helps increase water nutrients and efficiency for agriculture.

    “Instead of planting 5,000 acres of a crop that could use thousands of gallons of water, we need to reduce crop planting to something like 2,000 acres, ” argued Tucker. “We’re not getting the sufficient rainfall we need to keep doing what we have been doing.”

    Lynn Wilson, academic chair at Kaplan University and an environmental researcher said it will take more than just shorter showers to help the situation.

    “We have to look at all kinds of methods to save and produce water, like desalination as expensive as that is, and reusing waste water,” she said.

    Preparation for drought conditions is key, said Euler Hermes’ Sheikh.That means bigger reservoirs for storing water when it rains so there’s enough to go around during dry spells, he said.

    An online wine-selling outlet, NakedWines.com, said it’s helping wine growers in California with its own relief efforts. CEO Rowan Gormley explained that NakedWines, which uses crowd funding from its customers to invest in wineries, allows those wineries to switch to producing other wines that aren’t threatened by the drought.

    The online outlet has also invested in wineries that have their own water sources. But the company’s efforts don’t help everyone—Gromley noted that it’s primarily premium wines whose growers have sufficient water, whereas the drought is a bigger concern for “entry-level wines sourced out of the Central Valley of California.” NakedWines doesn’t focus on those areas.

    ‘Share the burden’

    According to the most recent outlook, drought now covers about 38 percent of the lower 48 states. Most of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, northeastern New Mexico, and southwestern Kansas received only a few tenths of an inch of rain from mid-April to mid-May, when precipitation is usually on the increase in this region.

    And drought persistence is highly probable along the West Coast and in the mountain areas of states such as Colorado, where summer is a relatively dry time of year and both surface and subsoil moisture almost always decline.

    Experts say even if there were huge amounts of rainfall in the months ahead, the drought won’t go away, and it’s time to look for new ideas.

    “Whole civilizations in the past have disappeared because of lack of water,” said Kaplan University’s Wilson. “We’re going to be fighting over resources like water and it’s time we looked at them as having limits.”

    —By CNBC’s Mark Koba.

  • Trawling: destructive fishing method is turning sea floors to ‘deserts’

     environmental Strategist™, between the lines:  Agriculture uses 80% of the worlds fresh water supply and it accounts for 70% of the contamination in our waterways.  Should we stop agriculture?

    The fact that each ones of us eats food means we support agriculture, therefore, each an everyone of us is a polluter.  The challenge we face is how can we pollute in a way that has the least amount of impact on human health and the environment?

    We can’t begin to answer that question until we are environmentally educated.  For businesses and business professionals, www.estrategist.com is your first step as a polluter to have the least amount of impact upon human health and the environment.

    From: Morgan Erickson-Davis, MONGABAY.COM,  Published May 29, 2014 01:30 PM :  Bottom trawling is a practice used by commercial fisheries around the world in which a large, heavy net is dragged along the ocean floor to scoop up everything in its path. Previous research has linked trawling to significant environmental impacts, such as the harvest of large numbers of non-target species, collectively termed “by catch,” as well as destruction of shallow seabeds. Now, a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds this method is also resulting in long-term, far-reaching consequences in the deeper ocean and beyond.

    diagram courtesy of FRDC Australia

    Trawling dates back to the 1300s, and it became widespread in coastal areas around the world after the industrialization of commercial fishing in the late-1800s. Bottom trawling targets commercially valuable species that live near the sea floor, such as cod, rockfish, and various kinds of squid and shrimp. Gear varies depending on the fishing outfit, but nets can be nearly as large as a city block and scoop thousands of fish and other marine animals in a single drag.

    Bottom trawling has one of the highest bycatch rates of all commercial fishing practices. In the North Pacific, the practice accounts for 18 percent of annual groundfish harvests, and 82 percent of the region’s discarded by-catch. At times, bycatch accounts for upwards of 90 percent of a net’s total catch.

    In addition to directly killing many fish and other marine species, studies have shown that bottom trawling is very destructive to the seabed. It dislodges sediment, which destroys the habitat of ground-dwelling organisms, makes the water more opaque and unsuitable for many species, and releases pollutants and carbon that had been trapped below the seafloor.

    As populations of many fish species dwindle due to intensive commercial fishing effort, bottom trawling outfits are searching for new fishing grounds in ever-deeper regions of oceans around the world. However, this new study indicates that deeper ocean bottoms are also being affected by trawling, as the nets destroy delicate seafloor ecosystems at a level akin to desertification.

    “Cumulatively, the impacts of trawling on the sediment structure, the benthic biodiversity, and the most basic of all of the nutritional resources in these deep-sea sedimentary ecosystems resemble the catastrophic effects caused by man-accelerated soil erosion on land, and the general environmental deterioration of abandoned agriculture fields exposed to high levels of human impact,” write the researchers, from various institutions in Italy and Spain.

    Continue reading at ENN affiliate, MONGABAY.COM.

  • Report backs Chinese drywall health complaints

    environmental Strategist™, between the lines:  Who are you doing business with?  This is the first question a business answers as they develop and execute their environmental Management Strategy (eMS).  The article below is an excellent example of why it’s critical to find out who you are doing business with.

    An eMS is the first step a business takes on their sustainable path.  An eMS is designed to identify your environmental foot print to drive growth and profits in today’s business environment.

    The four footings of an eMS are:

    1. What’s coming in your front door? (Who are you doing business with?)
    2. What goes on inside your corporate walls
    3. What goes out your back door
    4. Who are your neighbors

    For more on developing and executing your eMS go to www.estrategist.com.

     

    Report backs Chinese drywall health complaints

    Elizabeth Weise, USATODAY1:04 a.m. EDT May 2, 2014

    Chinese-made drywall used in more than 20,000 homes in the United States could have caused nosebleeds, headaches, difficulty breathing and asthma attacks in tens of thousands of Americans exposed to it, the federal government said in a long-awaited report released Friday.

    The drywall was installed in mostly Southern homes since 2005, and it has been the subject of multiple lawsuits. In addition to health-related complaints, homeowners have also alleged sulfur dioxide and other chemicals found in the drywall caused foul odors and corroded pipes and wiring. There have been five settlements totaling more than $1 billion, but it’s not clear how much of the drywall was replaced.

    “The bottom line is that this modeling data suggests that levels of sulfur dioxide and other sulfur compounds found in the Chinese manufactured drywall were sufficiently high to result in the health effects people have been reporting,” said Vikas Kapil, chief medical officer with the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    The health research began in 2011 but was not finished until now because of the work necessary to create scientifically valid models that allowed researchers to estimate what the sulfur emissions from the drywall samples “might mean for people in a room in a house” containing that drywall, Kapil said.

    As of Jan. 20, owners of 20,244 properties had registered for compensation in a multistate settlement program overseen by the New Orleans federal court where all the lawsuits were consolidated. Claims have been filed by homeowners, home builders, contractors and construction material distributors.

    The homes smelled like rotten eggs, many reported. Appliances and electronics failed as their wiring corroded and metal in the homes tarnished and pitted.

    The only way to deal with the problem is to rip out and replace the faulty wallboard.

    The drywall, sometimes called wallboard, was imported from China beginning in 2005, after the record-breaking hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 created a shortage of U.S.-made wallboard.

    Drywall is made of gypsum plaster pressed between two thick sheets of paper, and is used to make interior walls and ceilings.

    The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry sent staff to China, where they obtained samples of wallboard manufactured there in 2005, 2006 and 2009.

    The samples were tested by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. Results from those samples were then used to estimate how much of the chemicals would be present in the air of a home with the defective wallboard.

    High levels of sulfur dioxide were found in the samples of Chinese wallboard, as well as hydrogen sulfide, carbon disulfide, methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulfide, carbonyl sulfide and ethyl mercaptan.

    Samples of U.S.-made wallboard had very low or undetectable amounts of those chemicals.

    The samples gave off the highest amounts of chemicals when they were exposed to hot, humid conditions — much like those found in Florida and Louisiana, two states with the largest number of cases linked to the wallboard.

    Tainted Chinese drywall is no longer sold in the United States since the 2012 passage of the Drywall Safety Act, which set chemical standards for domestic and imported drywall.

  • Drought, Hurricane Bigger Threat to World’s Top Companies – Economic Impacts of Global Warming

    Environmental Strategist, between the lines:  As the research below points out, big business is better understanding that proactively managing their environmental exposures will increase profits while better competing in today’s business environment.

    The bottom line, without our environment nothing else matters or should I say exists.  We can’t control natural disasters and the size of your business does not matter because natural disaster occur all over the world.  Since our environment impacts everything, logic tells us businesses proactively managing the environmental exposures impacting their operations are going to better compete.

    The first step for any business in better managing and transferring their environmental exposures is www.estrategist.com.  The computer industry created demand for IT professionals and today’s business environment is creating demand for environmental Strategist™.

    Drought, Hurricane Bigger Threat to World’s Top Companies

    Bloomberg News Service – MAY 16, 2014

    Drought, hurricanes and rising seas are becoming more significant threats to the world’s biggest companies and the risk is accelerating, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project.

    Companies planning for various threats related to climate change say they’re grappling now with about 45 percent of the potential risks, or will be within five years, according to a report issued today by the London-based non-profit group. That’s up from 2011, when members of the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index expected 26 percent of the potential risks to affect them within five years.

    The results show that climate change is having a measurable impact on business operations, and that many companies expect it to increase costs or hinder sales.

    “Significant costs are already being incurred,” Tom Carnac, president of CDP North America, said in a phone interview yesterday. “It’s not just about making plans for the future, it’s about having to change what they do today.”

    About 60 companies disclosed risks resulting from the planet’s rapidly changing environment. These included buildings destroyed by hurricanes, rising costs for raw materials, increasing insurance premium, slowing demand for cold-weather clothing and higher winter heating expenses.

    Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) said sales slipped as much as 7 percent after floods in Thailand in 2011 led to a shortage in disc-drive components.

    Waste Management Inc. said both flooding and drought affect the rate of organic decay at landfills, driving up the cost of collecting landfill gas.

    Operational Threats

    The companies said that 68 percent of the potential risks would directly affect their operations, up from 51 percent in 2011. About 22 percent of the threats were to their supply chains and nine percent would impact clients.

    The report highlighted how different companies’ operations are intertwined. For example, revenue at Union Pacific Corp. (UNP), the largest U.S. railroad, slowed in 2012 as the worst drought in more than 50 years drove down corn shipments by 11 percent.

    “This is a great example of how our economy has become so complicated, how a change in agricultural yield affects the revenue achieved by a railroad,” Carnac said.

    Union Pacific is reducing emissions by improving fuel efficiency, using more locomotives and improving the aerodynamics of train cars, Tom Lange, a company spokesman, said yesterday.

    “We put a lot of energy into how we get better fuel efficiency,” Lange said. “It’s about finding the base hits of fuel technology — there aren’t any home runs. We’re trying to hit a bunch of singles, add a couple percentage points here, a couple percentage points there.”

    The report was funded in part by Bloomberg Philanthropies, formed by Michael Bloomberg, majority owner of Bloomberg LP.

  • Marinas, Yacht Clubs, and Shipyards…What is your strategy?

    Environmental Strategist, between the lines: 

    I often talk on the three benefits environmental insurance offers insureds besides what most people think of, first party cleanup.

    3 benefits of environmental insurance: 

    1.  Defense Coverage
    2. Specialists to assist you in handling a claim
    3. Coverage for third party Bodily injury, third party property damage, Third party business interruption.

    You can read the story below and view videos on how a simple boat fire impacts all three of the benefits offered by environmental insurance.  I would also like to point out that over the years when I have strategized on marine fires the quick response back I most often hear from the environmentally uninformed is a boat will burn and sink, besides fuel you won’t have any other liabilities.  Read On!

    La Conner boat fire. Photo courtesy of the Seattle Times
    La Conner boat fire 2/21/14. Photo courtesy of the Seattle Times

    La Conner marina fire: sunken boats and ‘broken hearts’

    A fire destroyed seven boats and damaged at least eight more, totaling an estimated $1 million in damage at Shelter Bay Marina near La Conner in Skagit County on Friday afternoon.

    The fire started at about 4 p.m. on one boat at the residential marina and quickly spread to adjacent boats, according to Shelter Bay community manager David Franklin.

    One dock was engulfed in flames, which allowed one burning boat to float to another dock and further spread the fire, he said.

    Firefighters were able to contain the damage on the adjacent dock, but they weren’t able to fully knock down the fire until shortly after 6 p.m., Franklin said.

    “There were no injuries,” he said, “just a lot of broken hearts for those boats that were lost.”

    Dylan Furst, of Bellingham, said he saw the cloud of black smoke from about two miles away while he was driving to Bellingham from Deception Pass. He could smell the smoke from more than 400 yards away, he said.

    Furst said firefighters had trouble aiming directly at the flames because the boats kept drifting.

    “It was just one big fire of boats,” Furst said. “They weren’t separated at all.”

    Firefighters from multiple agencies responded, including the Swinomish Reservation, Skagit County, La Conner and the U.S. Coast Guard.

    Some residents tried to move unaffected boats away from the flames as firefighters battled the blaze with water and foam, the Swinomish Yacht Club reported via Twitter.

    “With boat fires, with the water, fiberglass, fuel and the intensity of the flame, it’s very difficult to put out,” La Conner Fire Chief Dan Taylor said.

    The 15 boats that burned are 40- to 50-foot pleasure craft kept at the 325-slip marina in the private, gated community of Shelter Bay on the Swinomish Channel. Six of the seven boats that were destroyed sank, and the seventh was severely burned, Skagit County Fire District 13 Chief Roy Horn told the Skagit Valley Herald.

    One resident told the newspaper that his $300,000 yacht, with 400 gallons of diesel fuel, burned and then sank.

    “They were nice boats,” Franklin said. “Very nice boats.”

    Franklin said officials will work to determine the cause and the full extent of the damage Saturday, as well as the possible environmental impacts, including the diesel fuel that leaked into the channel.

    “We’ll see what the morning light brings,” Franklin said. “Hopefully, tomorrow, it won’t be as bad as we think.”

    Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

    Paige Cornwell: 206-464-2530 or pcornwell@seattletimes.com

    Update 2-26-14:  LA CONNER —

    Recovery operations of several sunken ships continue this week in Shelter Bay.  Crews were able to remove two damaged vessels this weekend but have run into problems recovering the remaining five ships. Fire damage to the ships has complicated the salvage efforts.

    Crews are also using placing booms and absorbent pads on the water to recover fuel after discovering skimmers to be ineffective. Damage is estimated at more than $1 million. The cause is still under investigation.

    Update:  All burned boats removed from La Conner marina

    The Associated Press LA CONNER, Wash. — 

    All six boats that sank during the fire at the Shelter Bay Marina in La Conner have been pulled from the water.

    Ecology Department spokeswoman Lisa Copeland also says 600 gallons of diesel were removed from a seventh vessel that was destroyed in Friday’s fire but did not sink.

    The Skagit Valley Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1k9f0HC ) cleanup of an estimated 2,400 gallons of spilled oil and fuel may continue through Friday.

    Copeland says there have been no reports of oiled birds or other impact to wildlife.

    The property loss from the fire is estimated at more than $1 million.

    These videos give a prime example of the public outcry that results when pollution incidents occur, and show another major reason why environmental liability coverage is such a valuable asset for businesses. Especially when local residents are potentially impacted and government regulators get involved –

    Video of the fire scene and local residents reactions  

    Video of the aftermath

    Video of Salvage operations 

    Video of the fire from third party spectators  

     

     

     

  • Gasoline gets into southeast Kentucky cave system

    environmental Strategist™, between the lines:  The majority of the time when you ask a business how they purchase their raw materials they will tell you they buy them FOB (Freight On board) point of shipment.  Why, because it’s cheaper.  The story below is a simple example of the dangers a business can experience buying their raw materials FOB point of shipment.

    Before you say it, let me, “This is a loss that could never Happen.”  Environmental liabilities for businesses generally are not a frequency problem but a severity problem.

    Gasoline gets into southeast Kentucky cave system – February 3, 2014 

    Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection crews are working with cavers after a fuel spill late last week.

    Early on the morning of January 30th 2014, a gasoline tanker truck left the pavement of US Highway 27 and rolled down an embankment just south of Burnside in southern Pulaski County.

    Due to a considerable delay between the time of the accident and when it was finally reported, most if not all 8,200 gallons of gasoline had already leaked out of the tanker by the time emergency personnel arrived on the scene.

    The fuel had flowed overland to a gully and several hundred feet over frozen ground to a swallow hole, believed to be connected to the Sloan’s Valley Cave system.

    Efforts to clean up the fuel remaining on the surface are underway, but the majority is thought to now be in the cave and groundwater.

    Although six cave entrances were checked and no fumes were detected, dangerous conditions inside the cave could exist inside. Several sumps exist along the base level stream passage and the gasoline is expected to be trapped on top of the water for a significant period of time.

    Fuel vapors may make self-contained breathing apparatus a necessity to enter the cave and there is also the potential for an explosion.

    Signs have been posted at the entrances warning of the potential hazardous conditions.

    In the future, before caving in Sloan’s or Neely’s Creek please obtain the latest information from the Kentucky Division of Water.

    [via Jared Snyder] & Gasoline gets into southeast Kentucky cave system [courier-journal.com]

     

    eS Risk Management Strategy:  environmental Strategist™ (eS) understand that sustainability is just another word for environmental risk management.  Through environmental risk management, eS offer four simple risk management strategies a business can implement to reduce their environmental liability exposures in receiving their raw materials.

    1.  Stop buying your raw materials FOB point of shipment, purchase them FOB point of delivery.

    2.  Working with your attorney team member, have then draw up a contract that transfers the transportation liability to the transporter until your raw materials are delivered and off loaded.

    3.  Only deal with transporters that carry transportation pollution liability coverage.

    4.  Businesses can purchase an insurance policy that protects them while third parties are transporting their goods.

    Business owner, what would you like to do?

    Through environmental risk management eS offer businesses options on managing and transferring their environmental exposures to increase profits in today’s business environment.  For more go to www.estrategist.com.

  • Wal-Mart’s Environmental Risk Transfer Strategy

    A few years ago we told you about Wal-Mart paying a multimillion dollar fine to the EPA for storm water runoff from their construction sites.  The fines were generated through the construction vendors Wal-Mart hired to do work for them.

    We suggested one strategy Wal-Mart would probably institute would be requiring certain vendors they hire to evidence proof of environmental liability insurance.  That day has arrived.

    Over the course of the last few weeks we have had agents contact us on insureds looking to do work for Wal-Mart but in order to even offer a bid a vendor has to be able to include with their bid package an insurance certificate evidencing proof of Contractors Pollution Liability (CPL) insurance being in force.  So Wal-Mart has gone a step further and said if you do not have CPL in place we do not want you to even submit a bid to us.

    In other words, No CPL, no work with Wal-Mart.

    We all know that Wal-Mart carriers a big stick and the businesses they impact are vast.  So if it makes good business sense for Wal-Mart to require CPL insurance I am sure you will see vendors of Wal-Mart along with other businesses implementing this same risk transfer strategy.

    environmental Strategist, risk management strategy:  For years we have stated that environmental insurance allows insureds to use the environmental insurance they purchase as a marketing tool to drive growth and profits.  Wal-Mart has now reinforced this and do not be surprised when this becomes a requirement for more and more contractors bidding jobs.  We have been seeing this trend growing for years and with companies like Wal-Mart getting on board it just solidifies that CPL coverage will become part of doing business for contractors.