Legalectric

Do tell, what amount is “SAFE,” pray tell? Vinyl chloride? Butyl acrylate? Other chemicals?”

I’d guess that this will go beyond civil suits, administrative requirement of clean up (as if that’s possible) and that there will be criminal charges.

The impacts of the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment, tank ruptures, and explosion continue, and it’s showing up in nearby water supplies:

Ohio city says butyl acrylate tested positive in water intake

The NOAA modeling has disappeared, it’s not at any of the links I’ve found. HERE IS SOME REDDIT on this model, and note of its disappearance. I gave up looking, it’s GONE.

Angry and scared, Ohio residents question response to toxic derailment

In a letter to Shaw this week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) accused the rail company of giving him and other officials inaccurate information as they were trying to decide whether to allow toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars to be released into the air — and said the company’s mismanagement of the immediate response put first-responders and residents at risk.

Several class action lawsuits filed by residents against Norfolk Southern demand money and medical monitoring for residents. One lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleged that the company’s efforts to clean up the disaster “instead worsened the situation.”

“I’m not sure Norfolk Southern could have come up with a worse plan to address this disaster,” said attorney John Morgan.

As Ohio Gov. DeWine says Ohio doesn’t need federal help:

Pa. governor accuses train company of mishandling Ohio derailment

Life After the Ohio Train Derailment: Trouble Breathing, Dying Animals, and Saying Goodbye:

After an initial $25,000 donation to the community, the company said they would give $1,000 “inconvenience checks” to residents within the evacuation zone; the company also has offered to reimburse expense receipts for residents within East Palestine

$1,000 down payment and reimbursement to residents, a start towards what will be a very high bill.

‘This is absurd’: Train cars that derailed in Ohio were labeled non-hazardous

Jury awards Fayette County dairy $4.75M in stray voltage lawsuit

Here’s the part that jumped up and hollered:

I’m familiar with the notion that transmission lines over pipelines can/do corrode the pipeline, so this use of “an anti-corrosion system that sends electricity into the ground to protect the pipeline” seems counter intuitive. So digging just a bit, the term “cathodic protection,” which does ring a bell.

Cool Science: Using Electricity to Fight Corrosion

And that article says:

To fight corrosion, we employ a technique called cathodic protection, which literally uses electrical currents to prevent rust.

With cathodic protection, a flow of electrical current is applied from an external source – a rectifier – through the ground and onto the steel pipe. The protective current changes the environment around the steel, stopping the corrosion reaction.

And “cathodic protection” is not a new concept either.

The intersection of these two concepts is what’s got me stumped. Adding this to the list of things to look into when I’m in a warm and isolated cabin up north!

The Environmental Impact Statement for the Lava Ridge wind project, proposed by Magic Valley Wind, is now available — get it here:

BLM page for Lava Ridge

I’d first learned about this when we were on the way from Craters of the Moon National Monument …

… to our next stop, which took us through Jerome, Idaho, and to the Minidoka National Historic Site.

That’s a “new” historical site, where a Japanese internment camp was located. And as we were learning about it online between the two sites, the Lava Ridge wind project popped up — turns out that the wind project as proposed would be adjacent to the historical site! Check the first map above, hunt for “Hunt” Idaho, and here’s Minidoka in relation to “Hunt.”

And from there, Friends of Minidoka popped up, and their advocacy to protect the site, so we’d learned some before we got there:

Friends of Minidoka has an excellent “Comments” page — written suggestions for EFFECTIVE and SUBSTANTIVE comments, and scroll down for a youtube (see also National Trust for Historic Preservation Action campaign), as does the linked BLM pate. From that Friends of Minidoka page:

How to Submit Effective Comments

Effective comments will produce actionable items for BLM. How to Write Substantive Comments provides tips and examples. As per Kasey Prestwich of the BLM, it is important to:

* Focus your comments on the proposed project and what is being analyzed.

* *Describe the significance of the potential impacts and how they affect you, others, places, and activities.

* Provide any new information that is relevant to the project (e.g., potential affected resources).

* Discuss modifications to existing alternatives or suggest other reasonable alternatives with justification.

* Provide detailed information and references to back up your comment.

If your comment includes a statement that describes your opposition or support for the project, ensure you describe specific elements of the project or specific potential impacts that are influencing your position. Position statements must include enough information to help the BLM inform reasonable changes to the alternatives or revisions to the assessment of potential impacts. Avoid comments like “I don’t like this” or “I do like this.”

Identical comments are treated as one comment, including form letters.

Get to work on comments!

Following on the equally damning: Senate COVID Report: “Historically Unprepared”

Documentation of Trump Administration’s abject failure in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in over 1,090,000 deaths in the U.S., over 14,500 deaths in Minnesota (that’s nearly the population of Red Wing).

Yet this, after publication of the Senate committee report: