Guilty plea in San Francisco Bay oil spill case

 

The operator of a tanker that spilled 53,000 gallons of fuel oil into the San Francisco Bay pleaded guilty Thursday to two criminal charges and will pay a $10 million fine, according to federal officials.

Hong Kong-based Fleet Management Ltd. pleaded guilty to violating the federal Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The company also pleaded guilty to felony obstruction of justice and false statement charges in the spill’s aftermath.

On Nov. 7, 2007, the Cosco Busan sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the dense fog. The incident fouled 26 miles of shoreline and delayed the start of crab season.

At least 2,000 migratory birds died in the spill, including brown pelicans, a federally endangered species, and marbled murrelets, which are on the California endangered species list.

“In pleading guilty, Fleet admitted that after the ship hit the Bay Bridge, it concealed ship records and created materially false, fictitious and forged documents with an intent to influence the Coast Guard’s investigation,” the said U.S. Department of Justice in a written statement.

Marc Greenberg, Fleet’s attorney, declined to comment on the agreement Thursday because he said it has yet to be accepted by the court. Two earlier pleas were turned down. A hearing is set for Dec. 11.

In March, the ship’s pilot pleaded guilty to two counts of breaking federal environmental laws.
John Joseph Cota of Petaluma acknowledged negligence and was sentenced to 10 months in prison, a year of supervised release and 200 hours of community service. He is scheduled to surrender to authorities on Sept. 18.

-- Maria LaGanga

Photo: Crews clean up oil on Rodeo Beach in Marin County in November 2007, after spill by the Cosco Busan. Credit: Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times

 

Obama administration set to reverse Bush on perchlorate levels in drinking water

The Obama administration may be poised to reverse another Bush administration decision on toxic chemicals.

Under President Bush in 2008, the Environment Protection Agency decided not to regulate perchlorate, a chemical used to make rocket fuel that has been found in drinking water and has been linked to thyroid hormone disruption in young children. Now, it looks like the agency is reconsidering that stance.

In California, perchlorate used in manufacturing has seeped into groundwater. High levels of the chemical in drinking water has caused alarm in Rialto and Santa Clarita. The chemical has also turned up in tainted lettuce. In the absence of federal regulations, California moved to set state standards for perchlorate in drinking water in 2006. Massachusetts was the only other state with an enforceable standard on the chemical. 

That same year, the EPA drew a response  from scientists at its the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, who said the agency's recommended standard on perchlorate failed to protect infants and children.

Now, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has said the organization will take another look at the chemical and accept public comments.

“It is critically important to protect sensitive populations, particularly infants and young children, from perchlorate in drinking water,” Jackson said.  “As we re- re-evaluate the science around perchlorate, we will seek public input before making a regulatory determination based on the best science.”

The chemical is found naturally on Earth and is used to make fireworks, flares and rocket propellant. It has also been found on Mars.

-- Amy Littlefield

Photo: Perchlorate is a chemical found in drinking water that has been linked to thyroid hormone disruption. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times

Cough! Cough! EPA's new effort to clean the air

More than a third of Californians report that they or an immediate family member suffer from asthma or respiratory problems, according to a recent survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Now the federal Environmental Protection Agency, under a court-ordered deadline, has proposed a major new regulation to control nitrogen dioxide (NO2),  a key factor in respiratory illness. The new EPA rule, which will be the subject of a public hearing in Los Angeles on Thursday, is the first to address the dangerous gas in 35 years.

"We're updating these standards to build on the latest scientific data and meet changing health protection needs," EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said in announcing the proposal last month.

N02 spews from power plant smokestacks and from the tailpipes of automobiles and trucks, which also cause pollution from ozone and particulates, two other substances that attack the lungs. It is particularly concentrated along highways. The new EPA rule would require stronger monitoring near roadways, a key provision for many of the mainly poor and minority communities that hug the freeways in Los Angeles and other big cities.

The new regulation would retain current annual limits of 53 parts per billion, considerably higher than California's state standard of 30 ppb.  But for the first time, it would establish a one-hour federal standard of between 80 and 100 ppb, stricter than California's current hourly limit of 180 ppb. That would prevent NO2 levels from spiking during shorter periods such as rush hour.

Can California adapt to global warming?

In 2006, California adopted the nation's first comprehensive law to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists have found to be heating the planet. Last year, state officials laid out a detailed plan of how they plan to slash the state's emissions to 1990 levels in the next 11 years. And they began to adopt regulations, such as the nation's first rule to mandate low-carbon fuel.

But California can't control whether Congress will adopt an effective national climate law and it has no control over whether U.S. action could spur China, India and other fast-growing nations to commit to reducing their carbon footprint at the December negotiations in Copenhagen to draft a climate treaty.

So the nation's most populous state has already begun preparing for the worst: heat-waves, a rising sea level, flooding, wildlife die offs and other expected consequences from what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of the world's top scientists, predict will be a dramatic temperature increase by the end of this century.

Its called adaptation.

A new comprehensive plan from California's Natural Resources Agency offers strategies to deal with threats in seven sectors from fire-fighting to public health and water conservation. The public is invited to submit comments to the draft over the next 45 days (email address is adaptation@resources.ca.gov.)  Public hearings will be held in Sacramento on August 13, and in Los Angeles on a later date.

Steer clear of the beach after rain, scientists say

Fecal pollution at 227 California beaches rose 4% from 2007 to 2008, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council study released Wednesday. Los Angeles County had the worst beach water quality in the state, with 20% of its water samples violating state daily maximum standards.

Overall, samples taken at more than 400 California beaches violated state standards 10% of the time. California waters ranked among the most polluted in the country. The state came in 22nd out of 30 coastal states for beach water quality.

The report recommends a range of precautions, including steering clear of urban beaches after a rainstorm, when storm water contaminated with animal and human feces can carry bacteria into the water and sicken swimmers.

For more information, see the Los Angeles Times story and the NRDC report online here.

Photo: A surfer on Surfrider Beach. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Arnold's budget dealing: a public health issue?

 

Earlier this year, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hunkered down with legislators in budget negotiations, the result was a delay of regulations to crack down on cancer-causing diesel pollution from construction and farm equipment. It was a provision intensely sought by business interests, but one with little effect on budgetary or fiscal matters.

Now, once again, environmentalists are sounding the alarm that eco-issues are on the table in the budgetary arm wrestling that has paralyzed Sacramento in recent weeks.

Eight major advocacy groups wrote Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders on July 16 asking that they resist efforts to insert into the budget a provision that could enable the building of new power plants in the Los Angeles Basin.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, a regional agency, is pushing the provision, incorporated in a stalled Senate bill, SB 696. The air district has been prevented by a recent court ruling from giving out emissions credits for power plants until it fully analyzes the environmental impact. Republican and some Democratic legislators, along with the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, want any new budget deal to overturn the court decision.

South Coast officials said they view new power plants as necessary to serve a growing population and prevent blackouts. But as a result of lawsuits brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups, the agency has delayed the permits for power plants, as well as for hundreds of other businesses, until the credits issue is resolved.