The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: EPA

  • WRRAP hosts Zero-Waste Conference this weekend

    WRRAP hosts Zero-Waste Conference this weekend

    Waste Reduction and Resource Awareness Program’s Zero-Waste Conference is a reflection of the effort the community and students put toward goals of engaging, expanding, sharing and moving forward.

    Shanti Belaustegui Pockell, an environmental studies major at Humboldt State University, is the education director for WRRAP on campus.

    Belaustegui Pockell said WRRAP hopes to grow in the future by working more with students on campus, as well as other programs to form coalitions and strengthen relationships.

    WRRAP is hosting the Zero-Waste Conference throughout the day on Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10.

    Belaustegui Pokell said the event will focus on intersectionality, social justice issues and institutionalizing sustainability practices of evolving and shaping policy.

    Multiple speakers will be attending the event to discuss community challenges.

    Sofia Pereira, the mayor of Arcata, will speak on making Arcata a zero-waste city on Friday and Andre Villasenor, a United States Environmental Protection Agency Sustainable Management of Food program representative, will speak on institutionalizing sustainable materials.

    Ceria Wilbur, an environmental science and management major at HSU, has been the zero-waste director at WRRAP for the past year.

    The conference and banquet at 5:30 p.m. on Friday is new this year and works to extend the message of a sustainable future.

    “It’s just a way for us to connect with our campus community, bring our peers together with a number of different inputs and experiences,” Wilbur said. “This year our theme is Beyond Barriers, Imagining a Zero-Waste Future.”

    Community members are encouraged to attend the event. Vegetarian and vegan options will be available.

    There are activities on Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the UC Quad that include crafting with Tinker Time and a clothing swap, along with demonstrations from the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology, or CCAT.

    Tinker Time are local and on-campus programs that have workshops for gardening and crafting body care products.

    Campus sustainability groups that are also participating in the zero-waste event are Green Campus, Humboldt Energy Independence Fund, with speakers from local officials, academic departments and the Office of Sustainability.

    WRAAP will host the second half of the Zero-Waste Conference in the Kate Buchanan Room on Saturday, covering topics such as the role of compost in carbon sequestration, biomass and the Yurok tribe.

    Jason Martinez, outreach coordinator for CCAT, will attend the Zero-Waste Conference.

    “Help is always welcome at CCAT, and for folks that come through, there is a lot they can learn, a lot they can experience,” Martinez said.

    Martinez is excited to introduce CCAT to students who don’t know about the house on campus.

    “I love seeing how the projects get started, how they are going to see how CCAT continuously is growing,” Martinez said. “Whether it’s the physical space itself or just the people, I think that is the piece I love seeing.”

    WRRAP’s Zero-Waste Conference is meant to bring together students, faculty and community members to discuss real issues the environment is facing due to human impact.

  • Sick in the ashes

    Sick in the ashes

    By | Michelle N. Meyers

    Threats to public and environmental health and safety continue to persist in the wake of the most destructive wildfire in California’s history.

    As part of an ongoing joint response to multiple wildfires in Northern California, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency begins what officials are referring to as the largest wildfire cleanup in California’s history.

    Since Sunday, Oct. 8, at the peak of the wildfires there were 21 major wildfires that burned over 245,000 acres in total, forcing around 100,000 people to evacuate. While the damage assessment is still ongoing, so far the blazes have destroyed an estimated 8,700 structures and devastatingly taken the lives of 42 people.

    The Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County alone broke the record as California’s most destructive wildfire in history. So far, the Tubbs Fire has scorched 36,807 acres, destroyed 5,300 structures, and taken 22 lives.

    “It worried me, not knowing what was going to happen to my friends,” says Damian Jimenez, former Sonoma County resident and Communications Major at HSU. “Friends whose houses have been engulfed by the fires.”

    “They lost a lot of family memories,” says Jimenez

    In the last few weeks, cooler temperatures and higher humidity across Northern California have aided firefighters in their efforts. As of now, temperatures across the state remain warm and dry. Yet despite unfavorable conditions, all fires in Sonoma County are at least 92 percent contained according to Cal Fire.

    While the dangers of a powerful active wildfire fire are beginning to pass, environmental and health concerns associated with the aftermath of a wildfire continue to threaten local communities and emergency personnel.

    One of the main concerns for residents returning to a damaged or destroyed home is the presence of hazardous materials such as household hazardous waste or HHW. Household hazardous waste include, “leftover household products that can catch fire, react, or explode under certain circumstances, or that are corrosive or toxic,” said Michele Huitric, EPA Public Information Officer, in a press release. “Products such as paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides can contain hazardous ingredients and require special handling and disposal.”

    In order to ensure the safety of residents, local authorities continue to warn residents returning to what is left of their homes to beware of these possible hazards. Residents are required to read and sign a form that is intended to ensure that the homeowner acknowledges these dangers before entering the property. That form is called a Debris Removal Right-of-Entry Permit and can be found on the County of Sonoma website. In addition, the State of California has declared a state of emergency in the area.

    Cleanup efforts of hazardous and non-hazardous materials are also now underway in what is being referred to as the largest wildfire cleanup in California’s history.

    The EPA, in coordination with representatives from Sonoma and Napa Counties and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its state and local partners began conducting surveys to identify the locations of household hazardous waste and other hazardous materials as of Oct. 25. These surveys are being conducted on residential properties in the neighborhoods of Coffey Park in Santa Rosa as well as Soda Canyon and Silverado in Napa.

    Once these properties are surveyed, collection teams will begin the safe removal, transport, and disposal of hazardous and nonhazardous materials.

    Wildfire cleanup efforts also include the removal of contaminated soil and stabilization of the creek bed according to the EPA.

    In addition, as part of the EPA’s response effort, they are “working with California and tribal governments to track the status of more than 150 public drinking water systems, some of which have been damaged, destroyed or otherwise affected by the fires,” says Huitric.

    The extensive cooperative effort is intended to reduce potential threats to public health and safety.

    Officials are aiming to, “Have all that damage debris cleaned up by early 2018,” says Kathleen Hie, Cal Fire Information Officer.

    “We’re in the rebuilding stages,” says Jimenez. “I think caring for one another is really important right now.”

     

     

     

  • Congress plays the game of environmental legislation

    Congress plays the game of environmental legislation

    By Kelly Bessem

    President Donald Trump stated he would cut 70 percent of agency regulations according to an article by Forbes. A new strategy being employed by Congress, makes this plausible and has environmental regulations in its crosshairs.

    With congress having a Republican majority, the  Congressional Review Act has allowed Congress to rush large-scale rule elimination. According to the House Committee on Natural Resources, the Congressional Review Act is a law that allows Congress to expedite purging agency rules. It was originally made to improve Congress’s oversight of federal agencies and states that no rules substantially similar to those purged can be issued in the future.

    The White House website cites using the Congressional Review Act to overturn “burdensome compliance requirements that force jobs out of our communities and discourage doing business in the United States.”

    In contradiction to this is the 2016 Office of Management and Budget report on federal regulations. It shows the benefits versus costs of the Environmental Protection Agency regulations to be a 4-to-1 ratio.

    According to the Congress website, environmental regulation affected by the Congressional Review Act includes the following:

    • Signed by the president: Reversal of the Stream Protection Rule and a rule calling for the disclosure of payments made by resource extraction issuers (H.J.Res.38 and H.J.Res.41).
    • In line to be signed by Trump: Disapproval of rules that allow the Bureau of Land Management to make regional land management plans (H.J.Res.44).
    • Moving through the Senate and House: Disapproval of the rule that reverses policy protecting predators on Alaska’s national wildlife refuges (H.J. Res. 69) as well as a rule that requires oil and gas producers to reduce natural gas waste and emissions (H.J. Res. 36).

    This only includes legislation related to the Congressional Review Act. It does not include the long list of pending environmental bills. These include everything from a bill to terminate the Environmental Protection Agency (H.R.861) to a bill that will eliminate the current renewable fuel standards (H.R.1314).

    There is an information section on the House Committee on Natural Resources’ website related to the policy protecting predators on Alaska’s national wildlife refuges (H.J. Res. 69). Within this exists an entire section entitled “‘Bull Poop’ Talking Points.” Terminology such as this suggests that the Congressional Review Act is not being used in a serious way to further the interests of the general public.

    Over 60 days have passed since Trump became president. The Congressional Review Act can only be used for rules submitted to Congress or the Government Accountability Office within the past 60 days. In theory, the time to use the Congressional Review Act would be over for “midnight” regulations passed at the end of Obama’s presidency.

    In 2014, a report on agency regulation was released by Curtis W. Copeland, a former government specialist for the Congressional Research Service. It showed that, in 2014, up to 50 percent of agency rules had not been submitted properly. All of these improperly submitted rules are still subject to the Congressional Review Act, meaning that there are still plenty of plays to be made.

  • Pruitt to head US Environmental Protection Agency

    Pruitt to head US Environmental Protection Agency

    By | Bryan Donoghue

    President Donald J. Trump and his administration have selected the Oklahoma Attorney General Edward Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This action could disrupt former President Barack Obama’s efforts to combat climate change and could also limit the power held by the EPA.   

    According to The Washington Post, Pruitt has long been a critic of the EPA and has led legal challenges against some of the agency’s actions. These actions include efforts to lessen greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and determining which wetlands and streams are subject to federal regulation.

    William Fisher, HSU economics professor, said of Pruitt, “He’s openly hostile to things like climate change and he’s representative of the fossil fuel industry.”

    Under Pruitt’s leadership of the EPA, incommensurate views on various environmental topics may result in inhospitable outcomes.

    The most crucial concern of Pruitt’s appointed position among the local Humboldt community seems to be budget cuts.

    “He has the power to defund research,” said biochemistry major Marcella Atencio. “So if something doesn’t support his political view or agenda, he does have the ability to defund that. If he does, there’s not much the research can do about that unless they get a private investor. The odds are that he has to agree with that and that makes things much more difficult.”  

    The sentiment around budget cuts in the EPA seem to be universal among students and faculty. Fisher doesn’t know for certain whether the EPA will receive budget cuts. He believes that it is likely under this specific administration, though not necessary, for overall budget concerns nationally.

    “Really, you see in many different administrations, they don’t have to eliminate certain programs, or even the budgets for those,” said Fisher.

    According to The New York Times, Pruitt plays a hero to conservative activists. He is one part of a group of Republican attorney generals who allied with some of the nation’s leading energy producers to push back against the Obama administration’s plans. This conflict of interest surrounding fossil fuel has been received with controversy, but played a large part with President Trump’s selection of Pruitt.

    Journalism major Alex Gonzalez pictures the change in EPA leadership as backtracking all progress the nation has made over the past few years to lessen our effects on the environment. 

    “It’s saddening to think how little our country will care about the environment because the U.S. sets an example for all the other nations to follow,” Gonzalez said. “Under new conservative views, other countries will follow leading to an overall decline to the health of the earth.”

    An unavoidable hurdle in the EPA that will most likely happen under Pruitt’s leadership is dormancy of the agency.

    “He could attempt to gut a lot of the regulations of the EPA, some of that would take time,” Fisher said. “So probably the biggest impact that he’d be able to have immediately would be not utilizing the powers of the EPA.”

    Though Pruitt will likely still utilize the EPA’s power, a change in policy takes time.

    “Dismantling things like the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act can take a lot of time and effort, and underfunding the EPA will probably happen,” Fisher said. “It’s almost guaranteed that they won’t police what they’re supposed to be policing.”

    The Washington Post states that dismantling regulation, if it survives the courts, would not be simple because the EPA has already finalized it. This means that to undo and replace regulations would require a public notice and comment process. Environmental groups would likely sue the agency over such a move. 

    Pruitt has yet to take his seat as the head of the EPA, as he still needs to be approved. According to a recent article in The Huffington Post, Pruitt is now being backed by the Koch Brothers, a name synonymous with success in the crude oil industry. For now, we can only wait to see which actions Pruitt will take.