THE EVILS OF CHEESE

California water-quality enforcers have agreed to drop all allegations of wrongdoing against the world's largest cheese factory in the biggest water pollution case in Central Valley history, according to a tentative settlement released Tuesday. In exchange, Hilmar Cheese Co. of Merced County will pay $3 million to be divided between the state and a Hilmar-commissioned study of groundwater pollution of the food processing industry as a whole, according to the agreement. The pact becomes effective upon approval by the politically appointed members of the state Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, which is scheduled to consider it at a Nov. 28-29 meeting in Sacramento.

Settlement talks began six weeks ago after Hilmar launched a vigorous legal defense against a $4 million penalty, the largest the environmental enforcement agency has levied in the Central Valley. The penalty followed a Sacramento Bee investigation showing that the company saved millions of dollars by delaying required wastewater treatment. Neighbors of the plant south of Turlock have complained of hordes of flies and putrid odors coming off fields of milky waste. The factory produces more than 1 million pounds of cheese daily.

The agreement effectively acknowledges the company's key argument that the water board's pollution limits were technologically impractical to meet, considerably relaxing for the interim restrictions on salinity in Hilmar's wastewater. The settlement explicitly releases Hilmar from all allegations, not only those raised by the water-quality regulators, but also allegations of criminal wrongdoing - including illegally dumping wastewater into an irrigation canal. The criminal allegations were under investigation by the attorney general's office, which determined in July it would not file charges. In all, the settlement shifts the enforcement spotlight away from its wastewater disposal practices to those of food processors statewide, many of which operate under less restrictive pollution limits. "We are embracing this settlement because it sets the foundation for solutions to the issues that plague the entire food processing industry in the Valley," said John Jeter, Hilmar's chief operating officer.

Attorneys for the regional water board accepted the settlement "to avoid the uncertainty and expense of protracted litigation, and for Hilmar to focus its resources and efforts instead on seeking solutions to salinity issues confronting the Central Valley and other areas of the state," the agreement states.

The enforcement action against the cheese maker spotlighted the salty wastes from lightly regulated cheese manufacturers in the nation's No. 1 dairy state along with the factory leftovers that wineries, canneries and other food processors routinely spread on land. Industry representatives say the wastes break down as they percolate through the soil, keeping harmful levels of salts and other pollutants out of groundwater. Hilmar Cheese's own pollution tests in the past 15 years, however, showed otherwise, The Bee found. And state water board regulators said that the more they look, the more they find high levels of salinity in the groundwater beneath other waste fields of food processors.

The settlement requires Hilmar to dedicate $1 million of its $3 million payment to studying ways food processors can reduce salinity in wastewater. Although the salts, sugars and organic wastes from food processors are not considered toxic, [Salt and sugar not toxic! Phew! Glad we found that out] high levels can render groundwater economically untreatable for drinking water and irrigation.

The agreement states that the study "will not directly benefit" state water-quality regulators. "We're not directing the study, but we're hopeful that it will be beneficial across the board to government, to industry and to the public," said Catherine George, an attorney with the regional water board. The settlement payment also includes $1.85 million to the state for water pollution cleanups and $150,000 to reimburse the attorney general's office for helping the water board fend off Hilmar's legal challenges.

Source




RESPONDING MORE RATIONALLY TO WEATHER DISASTERS

The truth is, the number and scale of disasters worldwide has been rising rapidly in recent decades because of changes in society, not global warming. In the case of hurricanes, the continuing development and urbanization of coastal regions around the world accounts for all of the increases in economic and human losses that we have experienced.

Even if tomorrow we could somehow magically put an end to global warming, the frequency and magnitude of climate-related disasters would continue to rise unabated into the indefinite future as more people inhabit vulnerable locations around the world. Our research suggests that for every $1 of future hurricane damage that scientists expect in 2050 related to climate change, we should expect an additional $22 to $60 in damage resulting from putting more people and property in harm's way.

None of this means that we should not pursue reducing greenhouse gas emissions, or that mitigating climate change is a bad idea. But we simply cannot expect to control the climate's behavior through energy policies aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

The current international policy framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions - the Kyoto Protocol - is far too modest to have any meaningful effect on the behavior of the climate system. And even the modest agreements reached under Kyoto are failing.

For example, the European Environment Agency reported in 2004 that 11 of the 15 European Union signatories to Kyoto "are heading toward overshooting their emission targets, some by a substantial margin." And the other four are meeting their targets only because of non-repeatable circumstances, such as Britain's long-term move away from coal-based energy generation. To make matters much worse, most of the growth in emissions in coming decades will occur in rapidly industrializing nations such as China and India, which are exempt from Kyoto targets.

To make matters still worse, because of the way that greenhouse gases behave in the atmosphere, even emissions reductions far more rapid and radical than those mandated under Kyoto would have little or no effect on the behavior of the climate for decades. As James Hurrell, a scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, testified before the U.S. Senate in July, "It should be recognized that [emissions reductions actions] taken now mainly have benefits 50 years and beyond now."

The implications are clear: More storms like Katrina are inevitable. And the effects of future Katrinas and Ritas will be determined not by our efforts to manage changes in the climate but by the decisions we make now about where and how to build and rebuild in vulnerable locations.

Do we have the will to pay the upfront economic and political costs of strict building-code enforcement and prudent land-use restrictions? Will we have the imagination to build resilience into the local economy, rewarding companies that find ways to preserve jobs after a disaster and contribute to a faster recovery? Do we have the decency to counter the market forces that cause poor people to live in the most vulnerable areas?

As we learn the lessons of this terrible hurricane season, the answers we give to these kinds of questions will create the conditions that determine the effects of future hurricanes. We are, that is, about to begin the process of managing the next disaster. What kind of disaster do we want it to be?

More here





KATRINA, RITA PART OF POWERFUL STORM CYCLE

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the muscular headliners of this hurricane season, are just a preview of what to expect in coming years: More powerful storms. And the trend could span decades.... "We are solidly into one of these active periods," said Colin McAdie, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center. "We're figuring we're 10 years into this one. We could be looking at 10 to 20 more years."

That means next year, and the years after that, could be just as scary as this one, with mega-storms taking aim at Florida, the Carolinas or the Gulf Coast, spiking the anxiety levels of those in their path.

Hurricanes feed on warm water and scientists say the pattern of increased storm frequency and strength is caused by a cyclical rise in ocean temperatures. Besides fueling more powerful hurricanes, a higher number of storms means more of them will be stronger. "Certainly, with more frequency of active systems, we can see a lot more chances to have more intense hurricanes," said another storm forecaster, Chris Sisko.

The cycles commonly run about 25 to 30 years, scientists say, but can vary and see breaks of as much as a decade. The current cycle started around 1995. Prior to then, from 1975 to 1995, only four major hurricanes, defined as a Category 3 or higher, impacted the state. "In the `70s and `80s," McAdie said, "people were saying, `I guess we don't get hurricanes any more.'"

By contrast, 23 hurricanes hit South Florida alone during the last cycle of high hurricane activity, from 1926 to 1965. Of those storms, 15 were major ones. "We had about a 40-year period when it was very busy," said meteorologist Chris Landsea with the National Hurricane Center. During that cycle, on Labor Day 1935, a Category 5 hurricane hit the Florida Keys....

A cycle of warm ocean water fuels individual storms like Rita, and gives rise to stronger hurricanes during high activity cycles such as the present one. Researchers say a higher salt content in the Atlantic causes the water to become more dense, which in turn causes the water to grow warmer, perhaps by as much as a degree. That single degree can make a difference in whether a tropical wave rolling across the sea will develop into a devastating hurricane.

Researchers have yet to decipher the rhythm of the storm cycles. "The oceanographers are looking into that, trying to understand that," Landsea said. Contrary to speculation, the cycles may not result from human-induced global warming. Prevailing scientific opinion says global warming has little or nothing to do with the trend. "The science is not settled on that," McAdie said. "It's an open question."

More here

***************************************

Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

Comments? Email me here. My Home Page is here or here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there are mirrors of this site here and here.

*****************************************