Tag: clean up

Criminal Investigation Underway in Air Force Toxic Chemical Release

environmental Strategist, between the lines: The United States Military may be the world’s number one polluter. While military bases offer an economic boom for the communities where they are located, they also have a history of polluting their neighbors. Billions of tax dollars are spent each year cleaning up pollution caused by our military. Contamination from military operations can spread for miles impacting third party properties.

My experience is the military is slow to identify contamination and even slower in paying to take care of the problem. What is your financial assurance strategy if you are near a military base to address pollution liabilities? Pollution insurance can protect you from third party polluters.

Associated Press | Nov 02, 2016 | by Dan Elliott

DENVER — Military and civilian authorities are investigating whether any laws were broken in the unexplained discharge of 150,000 gallons of wastewater tainted with toxic chemicals at an Air Force base in Colorado.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are looking into the release of the contaminated wastewater at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, officials said Tuesday.

The chemicals flowed into the city’s wastewater treatment system but didn’t get into its drinking water, officials said.

The discharge was discovered on Oct. 12 and announced six days later.

Air Force officials have scheduled a news conference Wednesday to discuss the incident and other issues surrounding the chemicals, called perfluorinated compounds or PFCs.

PFCs are an ingredient in firefighting foam used at Peterson and other military installations. They have also been used in non-stick cookware coatings and other applications.

PFCs have been linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, along with other illnesses. The Air Force announced in August it would switch to some other type of foam.

Air Force officials haven’t said how high the levels of PFCs were in the wastewater released at Peterson.

The Colorado Springs wastewater treatment system isn’t set up to remove PFCs, so they were still in the water when it was discharged into Fountain Creek, officials said. State officials said no communities take water directly from the creek downstream from the treatment plant.

The water was in a storage tank used to recirculate the water to a fire training area, officials said. It would have been re-used in firefighting exercises.

The discharge was discovered during a routine tank inspection. Air Force officials said they found no obvious defects in the tank.

The Air Force is also investigating whether Peterson is the source of PFC contamination found in well water in two other nearby communities, the town of Fountain and an unincorporated community called Security-Widefield.

November 8, 2016
Wild Fires Causing Pollution Losses
environmental Strategist®, between the lines: In follow up to our recent article on “Natural Disaster Seasons Are a Great Time To Talk Pollution Insurance”, please see the article below that reviews pollution liabilities created by wildfires. These same contaminants are released during a residential or commercial building fire.

Fire policies typically exclude coverage for the cleanup of resulting contamination caused by a fire. Since the majority of real estate owners cannot afford to self-insure their exposure to pollution liabilities as a result of a fire, what is their risk transfer strategy? Pollution insurance fills in the gap created by fire policies excluding pollution resulting from a fire. Any insureds who own property need to have a strategy in place for handling the aftermath of a fire.

Research from California fires that have burned through homes and communities suggests such blazes leave a threatening legacy of caustic ash and toxic heavy metals. (Scott Olsen/Getty Images)

Fort McMurray wildfire will leave toxic legacy, experts say

Mixed with water, ash almost as caustic as oven cleaner, U.S. Geological Survey says

By Bob Weber, The Canadian Press Posted: May 09, 2016 1:22 PM MT Last Updated: May 09, 2016 2:12 PM MT

Danger from the Fort McMurray wildfire that has destroyed entire city blocks in the northern Alberta city won’t end when the flames stop.

Research from California fires that have burned through homes and communities suggests such blazes leave a threatening legacy of caustic ash and toxic heavy metals.

“There’s no doubt, it is hazardous,” said Scott Stephens, a fire scientist at the University of California Berkeley.
California has sad experience with wildfires raging through urban areas. Every summer, said Stephens, the state loses homes to marauding flames from the woods.

Wildfires big and bad enough to force their way into communities are generally hot enough to burn off hydrocarbons such as vinyl siding, nylon carpets or household chemicals.

“Fires really do incinerate most of that material,” Stephens said. “No doubt that has an impact on air quality, but the vinyls, the tires, the materials that you’d never think would burn … most of that stuff is gone.”

House fires can burn for more than an hour at temperatures reaching 1,500 C, he said.

“You’ll look and try and find your dishwasher or your refrigerator. You might find its motor, you might find a few things, but a lot of it has just disappeared.”

But the ash left behind poses real threats.

The U.S. Geological Survey found ash left after California’s home-destroying wildfires in 2007 and 2008 was far more alkaline than ash from wood fires. Mixed with water, the ash was almost as caustic as oven cleaner.

Ash contaminated with heavy metals

It was also significantly contaminated with metals, some of them toxic. Arsenic, lead, antimony, copper, zinc and chromium were all found at levels exceeding Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

Ash particles from urban-wildfire blazes tended to be smaller and more easily inhaled. Both arsenic and hexavalent chromium — a form of the metal known to cause lung cancer — were more readily taken up by lung fluids than they were in water.

Many counties treat ash from such fires as hazardous waste, said Geoff Plumlee, a geochemist who conducted much of the U.S. research.

“When large numbers of buildings burn, that does create a situation where there’s potential for much higher levels of metals to get out into the environment.”

California experts say anyone returning to a home burned in a wildfire should dress protectively — long sleeves and pants, gloves, boots, masks and goggles. People are urged to stir up the ash as little as possible.

Alberta’s last experience with a forest fire destroying homes came in Slave Lake, where more than 400 homes and other buildings were levelled in 2011 — about one-quarter as many as were burned in Fort McMurray. The ash from that fire was disposed of as hazardous waste.

Tests of the ash found lead, a powerful neurotoxin especially dangerous to children, was at three times the recommended levels for residential soils. Dioxins and furans, some of which are highly potent carcinogens, were anywhere from 13 to 52 times the guideline levels.

Government officials argued the ash shouldn’t be held to the same standards as soil and said the ash was not a health risk. But scientists at the time questioned that assessment.

Plumlee emphasized that risks are manageable and fade over time. Ash quickly becomes less caustic when it mixes with small amounts of carbonic acid in rainfall.

But the risks are real.

“It’s not alarmist at all. We don’t really know if there are long-term effects,” he said. “(But) there are common-sense things people can do to minimize their exposure.”
May 12, 2016
Above Ground Storage Tank Risk Management Strategies

12/9/15 – by Chris Bunbury, eS – Environmental Risk Managers President:

From contractors to agriculture, manuifacturers, auto dealer and repair facilities, trucking companies, gas stations… Above Ground Storage Tanks (AST’s) are abundant if our business world.

Initial reactions generally are AST’s make sense versus Underground Storage Tanks (UST’s). In talking with insurance professionals I will hear the insured does not really have an environmental exposure because their raw materials are stored in AST’s with secondary containment. The AST pictured above is in secondary containment. However as you and I am sure the contractor at this job site can see the integrity of the secondary containment has been compromised. It is important to annually test the integrity of an AST’s secondary containment.

More than likely if there is a release from this AST it will breach the secondary containment and allow pollutants to spread. As a side note this tank is located in an area where local residents get their potable water from wells on their property, no city water supplied.

I also point out this picture was taken after hours and there was no lock on the tank that would restrict vandals from stealing fuel or just pumping it on the ground for fun. Regardless, the owner of the tank is responsible if there is a release, even if caused by vandals.

At least this tank was placed in some type of secondary containment. I would say more times than not AST’s are just placed on the ground with no secondary containment. Farmers, like contractors will move AST’s around on their property to conserve fuel. We see claims for this after it rains and the ground the AST was placed on gets saturated and unstable allowing the tanks to tip and spill its contents.

Is an AST’s located where natural disasters (tornados, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes…) occur? Natural disasters can destroy the integrity of the tank releasing its contents?

While AST’s seem to be a better option than UST’s, when a spill does occur, the contents can spread faster and further than with a UST release.

Most states do not require financial assurance on AST’s like they do for regulated UST’s. One benefit to financial assurance is when a loss does occur there are some monies available to address the environmental liability. AST’s can easily be insured on a standalone basis or using a contractors pollution liability policy or a site pollution insurance policy.

If you are a AST owner you need to have not only a risk management strategy to reduce your exposure to loss but a financial assurance strategy for when a release occurs.

As you environmental team member Environmental Risk Managers can assist you in proactively addressing your client’s environmental exposure to storage tanks.

December 10, 2015
It’s Spring Time and The Smell of Meth Is In The Air
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers wearing protective Hazmat gear work to dismantle a ” meth lab cave” built into the side of a hill in a wooded area. An investigation into a meth manufacturing operation led to the discovery of the underground lab.
Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Meth labs are a huge environmental hazard that can impact each and every one of us. Meth labs can be found in places such as homes, trailers parks, apartments, automobiles, hotel rooms, commercial buildings, storage units, or as the link below points out, mother nature.

From the US Forest Service website on meth labs:

As an environmental hazard, the byproducts of meth labs contaminate their surroundings with harmful fumes and highly explosive chemical compounds. Abandoned meth labs are basically time bombs, waiting for the single spark that can ignite the contents of the lab. In the hands of the untrained chemists simultaneously using meth and working with the flammable chemical components, a working meth lab is just as unsafe.

Simply put, meth kills. The drug stimulates the central nervous system, producing excess levels of neurotoxins the brain cannot handle. As a health concern, meth eliminates brain functions and leads to psychosis and, in some cases, deadly strokes. Other long-term effects of meth use include respiratory problems, irregular heartbeat, extreme anorexia, tooth decay and loss, and cardiovascular collapse and death.

How to recognize a Methamphetamine lab?
- Unusual, strong odors like cat urine, ether, ammonia, acetone or other chemicals.
- Coffee filters containing a white pasty substance, a dark red paste, or small amounts of shiny white crystals.
- Glass cookware or stove pans containing a powdery residue.
- Shacks or cabins with windows blacked out.
- Open windows vented with fans during the winter.
- Excessive trash including large amounts of items such as antifreeze containers, lantern fuel cans, engine starting fluid cans, HEET cans, lithium batteries and empty battery packages, wrappers, red chemically stained coffee filters, drain cleaner and duct tape.
- Unusual amounts of clear glass containers.
Getting rid of a meth lab is dangerous and expensive. Meth cookers dump battery acid, solvents and other toxic materials into rivers or the ground. Much of the waste is highly flammable and explosive.
- One pound of meth produces six pounds of toxic waste.
- Even months after meth labs have been closed, chemical residue still remains.
- The chemicals used in the manufacturing process can be corrosive, explosive, flammable, toxic, and possibly radioactive.
- Solvent chemicals may be dumped into the ground, sewers, or septic systems. This contaminates the surface water, ground water, and wells.
- Traces of chemicals can pervade the walls, drapes, carpets, and furniture of a laboratory site.
Pollution liability insurance can protect you against the environmental exposure to meth labs. Contact your environmental team member at environmental Risk Managers to strategize in more detail. Instead of poisoning Mother Nature, let’s embrace her

More Reading –

Spring thaw uncovers meth-related dump sites across Michigan

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/05/spring_brings_visibility_to_me.html#incart_m-rpt-2
May 7, 2015