California toxic waste case settled

 

A toxic waste dump near a San Joaquin Valley community plagued by birth defects will pay $400,000 in fines and spend $600,000 on laboratory upgrades needed to properly manage hazardous materials at the facility, federal authorities announced Wednesday.

The settlement capped an 18-month joint investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control into the Chemical Waste Management landfill about 3 1⁄2 miles southwest of Kettleman City, a community of 1,500 mostly low-income Latino farmworkers.

An analysis of company records revealed at least 18 instances over the past six years in which toxic waste had to be excavated from the landfill after it was learned that the laboratory, prior to disposal, had mistakenly concluded the material met treatment standards, EPA officials said.

Under terms of the settlement, the largest hazardous waste facility west of the Mississippi River must use an outside laboratory for a minimum of two years and invest in improved records management systems, laboratory equipment and leachate monitoring programs, the EPA said.

“Significant shortcomings at Chemical Waste Management’s lab compromised the company’s ability to accurately analyze the toxic waste to be disposed of in their landfill,” said Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “These were serious compliance issues and they have now been resolved. But that doesn’t mean we are going to go away. We will remain vigilant and continue checking to make sure that the facility operates in full compliance.”

The action came two years after activists petitioned state and federal health agencies to investigate whether the 29-year-old landfill owned by Houston-based Waste Management Inc. might be linked to severe birth defects including heart problems and cleft palates among the community in Kettleman City.

In a statement, Waste Management spokeswoman Jennifer Andrews said, “Although we disagree with EPA’s findings, the consent agreement will allow us to move forward with a common understanding of acceptable waste management practices and will allow us to close out several complex regulatory issues.”

Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, a San Francisco-based group that has organized the community, said, “Today’s fines and upgrades are very important. But a company with this many serious violations should not be entitled to renew its permits. How many chances will they get when they are dealing with the deadliest chemicals known to science next door to a community with serious health problems?”

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-- Louis Sahagun

Photo: Kettleman City, a poor town of farmworkers just off Interstate 5, lies near a toxic waste facility. Credit: Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times

Public artwork at downtown Los Angeles' Downey Pool facility gets a name

When artist Sylvia Tidwell began painting a work to liven up the entrance of one of the oldest public swimming pool facilities in downtown Los Angeles, she aimed to celebrate the beauty and refreshment that recreation in water offers to city children.

The artwork, which is 20 feet wide by three feet tall, was installed three weeks ago high on a wall in the foyer of the Downey Pool on the 1700 block of North Spring Street.

The panel of rainbow colors and dreamlike reflections was an immediate hit at the pool, which reopened a year ago after extensive renovations.

Looking up at the panel on a recent weekday, pool manager David Fornelli smiled and said, “It’s cool. I really like it. It looks like water.”

“That’s exactly what I was aiming for,” responded Tidwell.

But the piece was not finished until Friday afternoon, when Tidwell finally gave it a name.

“I’d been mulling over a name for months,” said Tidwell, who created the work under the auspices of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

“Like your child, you want your painting to have a good name,” she said. “A proper title becomes part of a work, and adds meaning to it.”

The artwork was christened Pool Painting (Shimmer).

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Photo: Pool Painting (Shimmer) oil painting by Sylvia Tidwell. Credit: Couresy of Wild Don Lewis Photography.

Arcadia tree-sitters plead no contest, get community service

 

A judge Thursday sentenced four tree-sitters who tried to save a grove of century-old oaks and sycamores in the foothills above Arcadia to community service.

Each of them pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor trespassing charge, ending a legal battle that began eight months ago when the group known as the “Arcadia 4” occupied trees to block Los Angeles County Department of Public Works crews from cutting down the 11-acre grove to create a dumping site for mud scooped out of Santa Anita reservoir.

John Quigley, a veteran of such protests, and Travis Jochimsen were sentenced on Thursday in Alhambra Municipal Court to 20 days of community service with a nonprofit organization of their choice. In an earlier proceeding, Andrea Bowers and Julia Posin pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor trespassing charge and were sentenced to 10 days of community service.

On Thursday, in a statement read on the courthouse steps after sentencing, Quigley, 50, claimed his actions on Jan. 12 “were out of necessity to defend the public good and our natural heritage,” and that the removal of what he called the “Arcadia Woodlands” was “a crime against nature and the people of Southern California.”

“I’m proud of us,” added Posin, 23.

Quigley’s attorney, Colleen Flynn, said the pleas will be dismissed after one year. “It’s quite a victory in light of the fact that the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office originally wanted jail time and over $20,000 in fines and restitution,” Flynn said.

Prosecutors dropped more serious misdemeanor charges of failure to disperse and obstructing, delaying or resisting a police officer in lawful execution of his or her duties, Flynn said.

After the department razed the trees, residents from adjacent neighborhoods organized a community-based organization called the Urbanwild Network, which is dedicated to seeking alternatives to the destruction of woodlands across Los Angeles County.

A week ago, Public Works crews hauled 3,000 cubic yards of sediment out of the reservoir, which was last dredged in 1993. The 83-year-old facility is a crucial component of the county's aging flood-control system and is used to recharge underground aquifers that the cities of Sierra Madre and Arcadia rely on for drinking water.

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Photo: A tree is removed from Arcadia after tree-sitters were evicted. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times

Eagle deaths investigated at LADWP wind power generation site

An investigation has been launched into the deaths of migratory birds including several federally protected golden eagles at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Pine Tree Wind Project in the Tehachapi Mountains, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday.

Should the inquiry result in a prosecution, the 120-megawatt facility on 8,000 acres of rugged terrain would be the first wind farm to face charges under the Endangered Species Act, which could cause some rethinking and redesign of this booming alternative energy source.

Wildlife service spokeswoman Lois Grunwald declined to comment on what she called “an ongoing investigation regarding Pine Tree.” But Joe Ramallo, spokesman for the DWP, said, “We are very concerned about golden eagle mortalities that have occurred at Pine Tree. We have been working cooperatively and collaboratively with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game to investigate these incidents.

“We have also actively and promptly self-reported raptor mortalities to both authorities,” he added. “Moving forward, we will be ramping up further our extensive field monitoring and will work with the agencies to develop an eagle conservation plan as part of more proactive efforts to monitor avian activities in the Pine Tree area.”

An internal DWP bird and bat mortality report for the year ending June 2010 indicated that overall bird fatality rates at Pine Tree, were “relatively high” compared with the 45 wind energy facilities elsewhere across the country.

DWP officials acknowledged that as many as six golden eagles have been struck dead by wind turbine blades at the 3-year-old Pine Tree facility, which is designed to provide 1.4% of the city’s goal of a 20% renewable-energy portfolio.

“In June we were in communications with the DWP over our concerns that the golden eagle death rate at Pine Tree was not sustainable,” said Travis Longcore, president of Los Angeles Audubon. “We must deal with the problem right now because Pine Tree is only one of several industrial energy developments proposed for that area over the next five to 10 years. Combined, they have the potential to wipe this large, long-lived species out of the sky.”

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Photo: Biologist Joseph DiDonato cradles a golden eagle chick for a Bay Area study. On average, 67 golden eagles are killed each year by wind turbines. Credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

Rare bats, battered by white-nose syndrome, may warrant endangered species protection

Two types of bats may deserve Endangered Species Act protection because of the threat from white-nose syndrome as well as habitat destruction, federal wildlife authorities announced Tuesday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it had launched a status review of Eastern small-footed and Northern long-eared bats in response to a petition filed in January 2010 by the Center for Biological Diversity, which fears those animals are now on the brink of extinction due to white-nose syndrome, an infectious and lethal cold-loving fungus.

“The writing is on the cave wall,” Mollie Matteson, conservation advocate for the center, said in a statement. “If action isn’t taken to close caves in uninfected areas, conduct research on treatment and protect bats from other threats, we will lose these two bats and perhaps many others.”

The Eastern small-footed bat is one of the smallest bats in North America and occurs from eastern Canada and New England south to Alabama and Georgia and west to Oklahoma.

The Northern long-eared bat is associated with old-growth forests and ranges from eastern North America to the Midwest and northward across Canada.

The review is only the first step in a process that triggers a more thorough study of all the biological information available on distribution, status, population size and trends; life history; and threats including white-nose syndrome, which has killed more than a million bats since its discovery in 2006.

The agency in December initiated a comprehensive review of the little brown bat, which faces regional extinction due to white-nose syndrome.
 
Over the last five years, the fungus has swept across 19 states, as far west as Oklahoma. It has killed mostly little brown bats, which have lost an estimated 20% of their population in the northeastern United States in five years.

The fungus seems to prefer the 25 species of hibernating bats, but each of the 45 species of bats in the United States and Canada may be susceptible to white-nose syndrome.

A recent study published in Science estimates that the value of pest control provided by bats each year is at least $3.7 billion nationwide.

"Without aggressive efforts to secure their habitat and stem further losses from all causes, including human transmission of the new bat disease," Matteson said, "these bats may soon join the sad list of American species we know only from textbooks and museums.”

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-- Louis Sahagun

Photo: Eastern small-footed bat with white-nose syndrome. Credit: Ryan von Linden / New York Department of Environmental Conservation

California farmers paid to protect tricolored blackbirds

Paying three farmers to delay harvesting their fields through the nesting season resulted in the protection of an estimated 50,000 tricolored blackbirds in Riverside County and Central California, where the species’ population has plummeted in recent years.

Audubon California negotiated the agreements, two of which were funded by the California Department of Fish and Game. However, Audubon California used revenue from its online “5 dollars/5 birds” fundraising campaign to protect the Riverside County colony.

In that case, a dairy farmer near Hemet was compensated to delay cutting tall grass on a 30-acre field holding 4,000 tricolored blackbirds, which is roughly 70% of the birds left in Southern California.

“When you crunch the numbers, the amount we paid worked out to roughly $1 per bird,” said Audubon California spokesman Garrison Frost.

Tricolored blackbirds once numbered in the millions. Today, the population, which has one of the smallest ranges of any bird in North America, has declined to about 400,000.

“With the continuing loss of native marshes and grasslands, the species has become dependent on agricultural lands, and most of the large colonies nest in grain fields,” Frost said. “Because tricolored blackbirds nest in just a few large colonies, a farmer harvesting a field unknowingly might wipe out a huge portion of the entire species’ young in just a few minutes."

"More than 95% of the world’s tricolored blackbirds live in California,” he added, “so we have a special responsibility to protect them.”

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 Photo: Tricolored blackbird Credit: Lee Karney/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Environmentalists concerned about Forest Lawn's plan to clear trees

A proposal to replace 835 oak, sycamore and walnut trees with 199,000 new interment spaces at a prominent Hollywood Hills cemetery near Griffith Park is at the heart of a controversy over the future of what little remains of the Los Angeles area's undeveloped wildlife habitat.

Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries wants to develop 120 acres of its grounds because its existing expanse of carefully manicured lawns has nearly run out of room for interments in grassy havens with names like "Ascending Dawn" and "Vale of Hope." Read more here.

-- Louis Sahagun

Photo: Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries wants to develop 120 acres of its grounds because its existing expanse of carefully manicured lawns has nearly run out of room for interments. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Newhall Ranch developers must not harm California condors, feds say.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday said it would not tolerate the harm or killing of an endangered California condor during construction of a proposed Newhall Ranch community of 60,000 residents along the Santa Clara River.

In a long-awaited, 178-page opinion, the agency also said, however, that it would allow the developer to capture and relocate one condor over the next 25 years, if necessary, according to agency wildlife biologist Rick Farris.

“We anticipate that there might some occasion over the 25 years in which a California condor may become attracted to some human activity such as construction of a house,” Farris said. “If it can’t be hazed off the property without hurting it, then they will have to capture it.”

“Additional condors that become habituated to such activities, however, would not be covered by the exemption."

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has questioned whether the  Army Corps of Engineers, which is set to permit the development's construction 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, has adequately considered its impacts on an array of rare and endangered plants and animals.

The corps is expected soon to issue a Clean Water Act permit authorizing the developer, Newhall Land, to use 20 million cubic yards of excavated soil to fill in wetlands in areas to be developed over the next 20 to 30 years on the 12,000-acre ranch.

Of particular concern to the EPA are plans to fill in much of Potrero Canyon, which includes roosting and foraging grounds for condors.

Adam Keats, spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “I’m pretty happy to hear that the agency will is not going to let them harm one of these magnificent birds.”

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Photo: California condor. Credit: Ben Margot/ Associated Press

 

Endangered turtles haven is tucked into Ventura County foothills

 
Somewhere in the foothills of Ventura County, in paddocks and aquariums protected by surveillance cameras and electric wire, Okinawa leaf turtles feast on silkworms and mulberries in a temperature-controlled greenhouse. Nest-building Burmese black mountain tortoises relax in piles of freshly cut oak, sycamore and bamboo. Forest-dwelling impressed tortoises dine exclusively on organically grown oyster mushrooms. Philippine pond turtles spend the night in snug tunnels made of cork bark.

The Turtle Conservancy keeps its location under wraps to protect the animals from black-market poachers. But a few new arrivals are making news: eight ploughshare tortoises flown in from Hong Kong. With fewer than 300 remaining in the wilds of Madagascar, it’s one of the rarest species in the world. Previous efforts to breed the animals in captivity have gone awry, but biologists at the Turtle Conservancy are about to try again.

Times staff reporter Louis Sahagun has the full story: A secret oasis for the world’s most endangered turtles.

Photo: Eric Goode holds a ploughshare tortoise at the conservation facility.  Credit: Stefano Paltera / For The Times

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unveils plan to fight white-nose syndrome in bats

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday released a national plan to enhance collaboration among the states, federal agencies and tribes trying to manage a rapidly spreading disease that has killed more than 1 million hibernating bats since it was discovered in New York in 2007.

Over the last five years, white-nose syndrome, which was named for the presence of a white fungus around the muzzles, ears and wings of affected bats, has spread to 18 states and four Canadian provinces. Bat colony losses at the most closely monitored sites have reached 95% within three years of initial detection.

A recent study published in Science magazine showed that pest-control services provided by bats save the U.S. agricultural industry at least $3.7 billion a year.

The service considered about 17,000 comments received on the draft plan made available to the public in October.

The 17-page plan recommends decontamination protocols to reduce transmission of the fungus by humans, surveillance strategies and diagnostic procedures designed to ensure that white-nose syndrome testing results are accurate and comparable between laboratories.

“We’ve learned a lot in the past few years about the disease, but there is much more work to be done to contain it,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a prepared statement. “This national plan provides a road map for federal, state and tribal agencies and scientific researchers to follow and will facilitate sharing of resources and information to more efficiently address the threat.”

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Photo: A hibernating brown bat. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times