P-R

Pavement sealcoat a source of toxins after storms, new UNH study shows

New research conducted at the University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center (UNHSC) indicates that sealcoat may contribute to increasingly significant amounts of polyaromatic hydrocarbons entering waterways from storm-water runoff. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons, more commonly known as PAHs, are found in diesel and crude oil and are considered to be carcinogenic. Although small amounts of PAHs are typically found in the waters around the New Hampshire Seacoast, the sudden spike in the hydrocarbon concentrations in water draining from a university parking lot used for research caused a UNH associate professor of civil engineering to be concerned about unknown impacts. “Our society has been sealcoating pavement for decades and there are things we’ve never asked about,” he says. “Now we’re starting to probe and ask these questions.” Although it is intended to remain on the pavement surface, much of the sealcoat eventually washes or scrapes off and ends up in nearby streams and rivers, says an affiliate faculty member at the UNHSC. The PAHs from the sealcoat attach to organic matter, such as leaves or sediment, where they may be ingested by organisms or buried in other sediments. Unlike other compounds, PAHs do not break down easily and thus persist in the environment for decades. Even a small amount of PAHs coming off sealcoated parking lots may overwhelm an aquatic ecological system already stressed by other contaminants. Increased PAH concentrations in waterways could be a human health issue if people are exposed to it regularly.

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first published week of:   04/20/2009

PG&E: older pipes susceptible to cracking

A “significant portion” of the 20,000 miles of piping throughout California is susceptible to cracking, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) said on January 28. Following a Christmas Eve explosion in Rancho Cordova, many people have been questioning the safety of their gas pipes. The National Transportation Safety Board warns in an investigative report from 1998 that older, plastic gas piping may be “vulnerable to brittle-like cracking.” “Primarily, you’ll find this type of pipe in areas that were built out in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s,” said a PG&E representative. KCRA 3 has learned that because of the leak concern, PG&E is now testing samples of its natural gas piping to determine its safety and reliability. The representative said the company believes that there are several years of reliability left in such pipes. The results of that testing will be available later this year.

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first published week of:   02/02/2009

Power line angers some Northern California residents

A plan to build two sets of power transmission lines from far Northern California is drawing protests from residents whose property would be affected. The $1.5 billion project would string 600 miles of lines from Lassen County to Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area by 2014. It would be the largest Northern California power project in nearly two decades. The project is supported by 15 Northern California municipal power providers. State energy officials say the Lassen area has enough potential alternative energy, such as hydropower, to serve between 1.3 million and 1.6 million homes. But residents near where the high-voltage lines would run are upset. They say the lines would harm the environment and their views.

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first published week of:   05/18/2009

Power plants polluting water sources: NY Times

In the latest of his series on the worsening pollution of America’s waters and regulators’ responses, a New York Times reporter looks at how the push for cleaner air sometimes results in polluted drinking water sources. He reports that according to a New York Times analysis of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data, power plants are the nation’s biggest producer of toxic waste, surpassing industries like plastic and paint manufacturing and chemical plants. His report, “Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways” was published in the October 12 print edition of The New York Times. In it, he examines how tougher air pollution laws mean that more of what formerly went into the sky now goes into lakes and rivers, or into landfills that have leaked into groundwater. Among scenarios described in the report, he includes Allegheny Energy’s coal-fired power plant in Masontown, PA. The power company was sued by five states claiming the plant caused air pollution resulting in respiratory diseases and acid rain. The power company cleaned up the plant’s air emissions by installing scrubbers, but the technology used has put tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River. More than 350,000 rely on the river as a drinking water source.  

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first published week of:   11/02/2009

PPL says new GPS will cut response times

PPL has spent three years and $12 million equipping its electric utilities vehicle fleet with enhanced laptop computers in a drive to cut response times to outages and let customers know sooner when they can expect the lights to come back on. The Mobile Operations Management (MOM) project has already proven its value in trial runs across the utility company’s central and eastern Pennsylvania service area, officials said Monday as they demonstrated one of the Panasonic Toughbook laptops at the PPL Service Center on Plymouth Avenue in Allentown. More than 700 vehicles, from pickups to cherry pickers, are now equipped with MOM. The electrical grid - lines, poles, substations - is mapped out on the software. With the touch of an icon, crews can find out the precise area served by wires and whether a transformer is new or old. Dispatchers can send safety alerts and emergency notifications and tell at a glance who is available and closest to a scene. Crews no longer have to return to service centers to get job orders. Also, in the event of major emergencies, crews from other parts of the state can be sent directly to scenes, instead of to staging areas where they sometime spend hours awaiting instructions.

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first published week of:   09/28/2009

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Volume 31

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