Tag: environmental management strategy

  • 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.

  • Chemical spill a blow to W.Va. capital’s economy

    environmental Strategist™, between the lines:  This environmental loss below is a very simple real life example of why environmental Strategist state that every business is impacted by environmental exposures.  While the company that caused the spill is probably toast, how are the impacted third party businesses going to be compensated for being forced to shut down?  What about defense cost, third party property damage, third party business income…?  What about employees not getting paid because their employer was forced to shut down?  This means bills are going to be paid late so other business are also going to be impacted.  And so on and so on…

    Environmental losses can cut deep and wide with those they impact.  Since every business is impacted by environmental exposures, common sense tells us businesses must have an environmental Management Strategy (eMS) that shows how to manage and transfer their environmental exposures.  Why has an eMS become part of “Best Practices” for business?  Because common sense tells us without our environment nothing else really matters because we’re toast.

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

    Chemical spill a blow to W.Va. capital’s economy

    Brendan Farrington and Jonathan Mattise , AP Business Writers, 7:59 a.m. EST January 12, 2014

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — On the third day without clean tap water, business owners with empty dining rooms and quiet aisles of merchandise around West Virginia’s capital were left to wonder how much of an economic hit they’ll take from a chemical spill.

    Most visitors have cleared out of Charleston while locals are either staying home or driving out of the area to find somewhere they can get a hot meal or take a hot shower. Orders not to use tap water for much other than flushing toilets mean that the spill is an emergency not just for the environment but also for local businesses.

    A water company executive said Saturday that it could be days before uncontaminated water is flowing again for about 300,000 people in nine West Virginia counties. The uncertainty means it’s impossible to estimate the economic impact of the spill yet, said the leader of the local chamber of commerce.

    Virtually every restaurant was dark Saturday, unable to use water to prepare food, wash dishes or clean employees’ hands. Meanwhile, hotels had emptied and foot traffic was down at many retail stores.

    “I haven’t been able to cook anything at home and was hoping they were open,” Bill Rogers, 52, said outside a closed Tudor’s Biscuit World in Marmet, just east of Charleston. “It seems like every place is closed. It’s frustrating. Really frustrating.”

    In downtown Charleston, the Capitol Street row of restaurants and bars were locked up. Amid them, The Consignment Shop was open, but business was miserable. The second-hand shop’s owner said she relies on customers who come downtown to eat and drink.

    “It’s like a ghost town,” Tammy Krepshaw said. “I feel really bad for all my neighbors. It’s sad.”

    The person she doesn’t feel bad for is Freedom Industries President Gary Southern, who told reporters the day before that he was having a long day and quickly wrapped up a news conference on the chemical spill so he could fly out of the area.

    “People want answers. They deserve answers,” Krepshaw said.

    The emergency began Thursday, when complaints came in to West Virginia American Water about a licorice-type odor in the tap water. The source: the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol that leaked out of a 40,000 gallon tank at a Freedom Industries facility along the Elk River. State officials believe about 7,500 gallons leaked from the tank, some of which was contained before flowing into the river. It’s not clear exactly how much entered the water supply.

    Thirty-two people sought treatment at area hospitals for symptoms such as nausea. Of those, four people were admitted to the Charleston Area Medical Center but their conditions weren’t available Saturday.

    Federal authorities, including the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, opened an investigation into Thursday’s spill.

    By Saturday morning, FEMA said it had delivered about 50 truckloads of water, or a million liters, to West Virginia for distribution at sites including fire departments.

    There’s no question businesses have been hurt — particularly restaurants and hotels, said Matt Ballard, president of the Charleston Area Alliance, the state’s largest regional chamber of commerce.

    “I don’t know that it can be quantified at this point because we don’t know how long it will last,” Ballard said. “I’m hoping a solution by early next week so business can get back to normal.”

    While restaurants are having the most trouble, the effect ripples to other businesses, Ballard said. When people go out to dinner, they also shop. And restaurant workers who miss paychecks aren’t spending as much money.

    During the emergency, many people are just staying home, and some of those who aren’t are leaving the region and staying with family and friends who have a water supply. Ballard said that includes one of his employees who is staying in Ohio for the weekend.

    “It’s smart, but it certainly has a negative impact on what would be a normal business weekend,” Ballard said.

    The Alliance is urging businesses owners to check their insurance policies to see if they can make claims over lost business. It plans to hold workshops to assist businesses with those issues, Ballard said.

    In downtown, the store Taylor Books usually fills the 40 seats in its cafe. But the cafe was shut down by the state Department of Health on Friday because it said employees had no way to safely wash their hands before serving customers. On Saturday only three people sat in the bookstore using the wireless Internet. Manager Dan Carlisle said he canceled a musician scheduled to play that night and the store was going to close five hours early.

    “It’s pretty annoying,” Carlisle said about Freedom Industries’ response to the spill. “I feel like you should just be honest with people immediately.”

    Some bars have remained open, but they’ve seen a large drop in business. State officials were working Saturday on alternative sources of water that may allow restaurants to reopen.

    “We will work around the clock, 24-7, and try to open … as many businesses as possible in the next couple of days,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston and Putnam County boards of health.

    Several businesses that had arranged other sources of water were inspected Saturday. Gupta said health officials considered the closures’ impact on workers when they decided to allow businesses to reopen if they have potable water.

    “This is not only the businesses but also the folks that work in those businesses,” he said.

  • Myrtle Beach groundwater pollution trial headed back to court

    environmental Strategist™, between the lines:  Historically, real estate developers have not factored in environmental exposures in their business models and it has caused for a multitude of real estate development failures.  Regardless of whether the economic collapse in 2008 was at fault or not is not the point. This article gives a very good overview of why businesses are moving away from being litigious to developing and executing an environmental Management Strategy (eMS).  (For more on developing and executing an eMS go to www.estrategist.com)

    What we have learned with being litigious is it can stress time and resources and rarely are the desired outcomes achieved.  Isn’t that a Beach!!!!!

    With an eMS you understand, budget for and use sustainability to leverage your business while virtually eliminating litigation from your business model.

    eS, eMS:  Since every business is impacted by environmental exposures and the fact that the United States has hundreds of millions of acres of contaminated land, sustainable businesses use this to a competitive advantage.

    A simple example are brownfields (for more on Brownfields go to www.estrategist.com).  Let me digress, if a business uses a vendor to manufacture a product at the end of the day they lose partial control of product quality and they show an expense for using a vendor.  With a Brownfield, in many cases you have a physical plant in which you can get grants and tax breaks to clean up and rehabilitate while maintaining 100% control of product quality, creating more jobs, increasing the tax base and at the end of the day you have an asset versus a cost of doing business.

    Myrtle Beach groundwater pollution trial headed back to court 

    Publication Date 07/20/2013
    Source: Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC)

    July 19–MYRTLE BEACH — A pollution trial that was sidetracked last year by a lack of jurors is scheduled to start Monday in Conway with would-be condominium developers JDS Development of Myrtle Beach Inc. blaming the failure of their project on groundwater contamination caused by electronics manufacturer AVX Corp.

    David and Steve Nance, partners in JDS Development, claim groundwater containing trichloroethylene, or TCE, migrated from the AVX site along 17th Avenue South to their property, causing their bank to withdraw a construction loan for their planned Southern Pines condo project at the intersection with Beaver Road.

    AVX denies the allegations and is expected to argue that the real estate collapse — not polluted groundwater — caused the project’s demise.

    The case — originally filed in January 2008 — was supposed to go to trial last year, but only 20 potential jurors showed up during the first day of jury selection and the trial had to be delayed. Judge Benjamin Culbertson has said at least 200 people will be summoned this time to provide a sufficient jury pool.

    In addition, AVX has filed more than a dozen pre-trial motions that will have to be heard before the trial begins. Most of those motions seek to have certain evidence and testimony excluded from the trial. For example, AVX previously asked Culbertson to bar any references to TCE’s health hazards, claiming such references are irrelevant to the property damages claim and are only an attempt to scare jurors. Culbertson took that request under advisement last year.

    TCE, an industrial degreaser commonly used by the military and others decades ago, can cause cancer after long-term exposure. State regulators do not consider the pollution near AVX to be a health hazard because the groundwater there is not used for drinking water.

    The Nances have said they had all the permits and financing in place for their condo project by September 2007, but their construction loan was canceled once the contamination was made public through a series of reports in The Sun News.

    When the contamination was publicized, the developers “lost all financing for the project and could no longer market the [condos] to prospective buyers,” according to court documents.

    The Nances want AVX to pay an unspecified amount for damages to their 4.4-acre parcel and for the loss of income that would have been generated by the condo sales. The developers had been marketing the condos at prices starting at $180,000.

    AVX has said the groundwater pollution does not hinder development and points to the nearby The Market Common project — where homes, restaurants and shops have been built on former military property polluted with TCE and other contaminants — as evidence. AVX also says the pollution has not permanently damaged property values because the company is cleaning up the groundwater to meet federal standards, a process that should be finished within five years. The Nances’ lawyers dispute that timeframe.

    This is the second of three civil lawsuits filed over pollution generated at the AVX site.

    AVX in 2011 settled a similar pollution lawsuit filed by Horry Land Co. — which owned property across the street from the manufacturer — just as a federal jury trial in Florence was entering its fourth day. AVX agreed to purchase Horry Land’s 21.5-acre parcel after testimony and trial documents showed the company knew about the pollution since at least 1981 but did not try to stop its migration and did not inform adjoining land owners, city, state or federal officials about the problem.

    A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of property owners near the AVX facility is pending and no trial date has been scheduled.

    Horry Land discovered the groundwater contamination in July 2006, when environmental tests performed in advance of planned development showed TCE levels of up to 18,200 parts per billion in the groundwater. The maximum amount allowed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is five parts per billion.

    Contact DAVID WREN at 626-0281.