GE Cleanup Update

During the week of February 11, GE and its contractor, Maxymillian Technologies, Inc., began removal and remediation activities at the East Street Area 2-North Removal Action Area (RAA). This work is being performed under the Consent Decree. East Street Area 2 -North is the GE facility bounded by New York Avenue, Tyler Street, Woodlawn Avenue and Merrill Road. The activities follow GE's investigation and characterization of the RAA and will include the removal of approximately 900 cubic yards of soil from six different locations within the RAA, including locations on GE property at the corner of Merrill Road and New York Avenue and along Merrill Road in the vicinity of Building 100. All of the soil removed will be transported to a licensed off-site disposal facility and none will be placed in the Hill 78 OPCA. Following soil removal, the excavations will be backfilled with clean soil and reseeded or repaved as required. The project is anticipated to take approximately four to six weeks to complete. If you have any questions, please call Dean Tagliaferro at (413) 236-0969 or Skip Hull at (617) 918-1882.
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Energy Bill is close to becoming a reality!
(from Clean Water Action
Massachusetts...Our water. Our health. Our future.)

The conference committee for this session's landmark energy bill has been announced and is expected to move forward soon with negotiations to iron out differences between the versions that passed both the Senate (S. 2468) and the House (H.4373).

Many activists worked hard to improve upon vital sections of the House bill. One key victory: coal gasification was removed from the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, and it now has greenhouse gas emissions standards and carbon storage requirements. Help make sure that we keep new coal subsidies out of the bill by signing the petition.

Please call your Senators and Representatives and let them know that the final energy bill being negotiated between S. 2468 Generate Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now ("GREEN") [Insert Link: ] and H.4373 "Green Communities" should:

• Preserve the Senate greenhouse gas emissions standards and coal gasification safeguards
• Remove dioxin laden paper cubes (made of medical and paper wastes) from the Alternative Energy Portfolio standard added to the Senate version of the energy bill. This provision opens a major loophole that would subsidize the burning of trash and solid waste in coal-fired power plants.

Also please sign the no new coal subsidies petition

The conference committee members will be deciding the fate of the final energy bill. Please take action now and call your State Senators/Representatives and ask them to contact the conferees to keep dirty energy out of the final bill.

Senate Conferees:

• Steven Panagiotakos (617) 722-1630
• Michael Morrissey (617) 722-1494
• Bruce Tarr (617) 722-1600

House Conferees:

• Brian Dempsey (617) 722-2263
• Robert DeLeo (617) 722-2990
• Paul Loscocco (617) 722-2220

Find your State Senator's name online. To call senators: dial 617-722-1455 for the Senate Switchboard. Ask for their Legislative Directors.

Here is a sample message. Please personalize the message and tailor to your Senator.

I'm a constituent of Senator/ Representative ________, calling about the energy bill being negotiated by the conference committee. I would like you to know that I support energy efficiency and renewable energy investment in Massachusetts, but I am concerned about the inclusion of dirty energy in the Green Communities Act. Coal gasification should never be eligible for public money, and all proposed coal plants must be required to sequester and store CO2 emissions. Also please remove dioxin-laden paper cube fuel out of the Alternative Energy Portfolio standard mix.

If you have not already, please sign the no new coal subsidies petition

Please ask your friends, families, and neighbors to call their Senators too. If you have any questions, please contact:

Lilah Glick
Global Warming Cordinator
Clean Water Action Massachusetts
lglick@cleanwater.org
617-338-8131 x209
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EPA Helps Communities Increase Water System Sustainability

EPA is providing tools and timely information to help communities improve sustainability of their water systems. Two new documents that describe how EPA is carrying out efforts to help are the "National Capacity Development Strategic Plan" and "Analysis on the Use of Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Set-Asides: Promoting Capacity Development." EPA works with a number of partners, including organizations that provide technical assistance to small public water systems, to improve technical, managerial, and financial capacity of systems.

"Our strategic plan and SRF report will help communities increase capacity for maintaining and sustaining their drinking water assets," said Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles.

The "National Capacity Development Strategic Plan" describes how EPA, state drinking water programs, drinking water system owners and operators, and technical assistance providers will work together to achieve the objectives and anticipated outcomes of the national capacity development program. The strategy outlines how EPA and its partners will promote proactive communication and outreach to help ensure that water systems have the capacity to demonstrate long-term sustainability. Funding made available through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program can be critical in advancing capacity development programs at the state level. EPA's report titled "Analysis on the Use of Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Set-Asides: Promoting Capacity Development" provides information on how states have used their funds and will help state drinking water personnel, drinking water system owners and operators, and technical assistance providers to better understand how the DWS RF can support supporting capacity development programs and EPA's sustainable infrastructure initiative. For information about capacity development: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/smallsys/ssinfo.htm
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DOWNLOAD REST OF RIVER PRESENTATION
(from Mike Ward's-Ward 4 Newsletter)

Some folks have asked me for the information from the EPA's meetings on the Rest of River process.
If you were unable to attend the meeting at St. Stephens Church last
month you can still get the information by downloading the EPA's
presentation at:
http://www.epa. gov/ne/ge/ publiceventsandm eetings.html
Look for "Corrective Measures Study Process
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Bat-killing disease strikes New England's largest cave

Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
By Candace Page
Free Press Staff Writer

A new mysterious and deadly illness of bats has struck New England's largest bat cave, a cavern in a Dorset mountain where 23,000 bats spend the winter, a state wildlife biologist confirmed Monday.

Scott Darling saw the signs as he approached Aeolus cave Thursday. Carcasses of the tiny creatures lay in the snow. More bats flitted around the mouth of the cave, unnatural behavior for a frigid February day.

"It was as though they were running out of energy and their last effort was to go outside in search of food," said Darling, a biologist with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department on Monday.

"White-nose syndrome," which killed as many as 11,000 bats in caves around Albany, N.Y., last winter, also was identified for the first time in a Massachusetts cave last week. <more>
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