Environmental: January 2010 Archives

CSX Transportation's appeal in a case alleging a Pittsburgh law firm conspired with a radiologist to fabricate an asbestos exposure claim is drawing attention from tort reform groups and asbestos expert witnesses.

Several organizations, including the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the American Tort Reform Foundation, are supporting the appeal of CSX. A federal judge granted Robert Peirce's law firm on its motion for summary judgment two weeks before a September trial was to begin.

For more, see legalnewsline.com. 

The executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality testified last week that his organization will follow any plan that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops regarding water quality in the Illinois River watershed, although he expressed skepticism that the effort will be finalized as quickly as the federal agency projects.  Steve Thompson said during his testimony in federal court in Tulsa that the EPA rarely, if ever, meets its initial deadlines in such situations.  EPA Acting Deputy Regional Administrator Miguel Flores sent a letter Oct. 1 to state officials in Oklahoma and Arkansas to inform them that over the next 12 to 18 months, the agency would develop a "scientifically robust model of the Illinois River watershed" to form the basis for a water-quality restoration plan in the area.

The trial began Sept. 24, and the state spent several weeks introducing environmental expert testimony buttressing its claims about the phosphorus, copper, zinc and arsenic in the watershed that it asserts can be traced to the poultry industry.

For more, see waterworld.com.

After months of the state public hearing process, the town of Darian, CT, is one step closer to receiving the final word from the state Department of Environmental Protection on the Baker Park Flood Mitigation Project.  On Jan. 4, state hearing officer Kenneth Collette issued his official recommendation, stating that, after three months of testimony, including the credible testimony of three expert witnesses, evidence, and presentations, it was his recommendation to award the town the necessary permits for the Baker Woods project. According to his recommendation, the Baker Woods project is the “most prudent and feasible alternative” to alleviate flooding in Darien. 

The DEP commissioner has the final say in the proposed project which calls for a new pipe underneath the Noroton Heights railroad tracks and a 3.5-acre detention pond in Baker Park woods to help alleviate the flooding on Heights Road. To create the proposed detention pond, more than 300 trees in Baker Park woods would be cut down which drew opposition from neighbors and led to the state’s public hearings. 

For more, see dariantimes.com. 

Scientist Victor Bierman, an expert witness for Oklahoma poultry companies, testified in federal court Thursday that a study by the state showing phosphorous pollution in a sensitive watershed was incomplete, rife with errors and "not scientifically defensible." The testimony targeted Oklahoma's closely watched case against 11 Arkansas poultry companies in a trial that began in September.

Bierman's testimony focused on a report by state expert Bernard Engel, a Purdue University professor who tried to estimate the tons of poultry manure dumped in the Illinois River watershed each year and its effect on the environment.

For more, see wtop.com. 

In Is Mold Causing Your Indoor Air Quality Problem?, environmental health and safety expert James L. Unmack, PT, CIH, CSP, REA, writes:

But how does this process occur in the first place? When carpets, dust, wall board, wallpaper, insulation, or other organic products become wet or saturated with water, they become breeding grounds for spores or growth parts (hyphae). The original materials for colony formation are in the air we breath, just in smaller concentrations (we call these Colony Forming Units or CFUs). Because fungi reproduce so rapidly (even after a period of dormancy), the concentrations of spores in ducts or walls or carpets escalate accordingly, thereby increasing the concentrations of fungal reproductive materials in the air we breath.

As microorganisms compete for food and space, they have developed several forms of defense that prevent or retard other microorganisms from growing on the same food source. Human engineering has taken advantage of this condition.