Antibiotic Resistant Denialists

Pig Farm With Manure Ponds

The FDA wants to force companies that use triclosan in hand soaps to prove their case that their products safely kill germs and do not cause the proliferation of anti-biotic resistant bacteria.

Meanwhile, Big Agriculture forces antibiotics down the throats of pigs and chickens on a massive scale, keeps the animals sequestered together until it is slaughtering time, and spreads their manure as fertilizer over neighboring farmlands.

Well, do you get more problems from a bunch of individuals washing their hands a couple times a day, or do you get more trouble from a immense hot house breeding ground of antibiotic use?

Let's appoint a commission, then argue about the science, possibly getting up an "Antibiotic Resistance Denial" faction in the "conservative" minds of the country.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/mrsa-col-cafo/

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Keystone Pipeline, Aquifers, and Long-Term Consequences

Risk.
The risk of a spill, and the aftermath.
Governments come and go, but the residents live with the long-term aftermath of the accidents left by governmental policies, such as the nuclear facility in Hanford, Washington, which has been a potential problem since 1943.

Read about long-term consequences, on the ground and below the ground where an aquifer would be, in a ral-life situation:

AGU Blogosphere
Terra Central
http://blogs.agu.org/terracentral/2013/03/21/epa-to-enbridge-dredge-more-submerged-oil-from-the-kalamazoo-river/
21 March 2013
EPA to Enbridge: Dredge More Submerged Oil from the Kalamazoo River

Posted by John Freeland

The EPA has ordered additional dredging at three locations shown in red (Source: USEPA)

On July 25 2010, the 30-inch diameter Enbridge 6B pipeline ruptured near Marshall, Michigan. Roughly 1 million gallons of diluted bitumen (DilBit) from Canadian oil sands spilled into Talmadge Creek, a tributary to the Kalamazoo River. Nearly three years later, the cleanup continues.

Last week, the U.S. EPA issued a final Administrative Order requiring Enbridge, the owner of the pipeline, to conduct additional dredging to remove submerged oil from three portions of the Kalamazoo river and from sediment traps installed after the spill. EPA’s Cover letter and supporting documents are available here.

Rationale for Additional Dredging
Briefly, the EPA’s rationale for more dredging comes from data collected after extensive and ongoing monitoring of oil sheen and sludge. Analytical chemistry has identified the ruptured Enbridge 6B pipeline as the source...

Results of the poling identified three areas of submerged oil accumulation, as shown on the above map... The three areas are located in segments of the river with relatively low flow velocities, consistent with a hydrodynamic model of the river’s variable current along its length. Sampling over the past year has shown that the oil is not stationary, however, but is slowly moving downstream and into portions of Morrow Lake.

Weak Natural Attenuation and Net Environmental Benefit Analysis
An EPA bench study found that potential biodegradation of the oil in the Kalamazoo River, under optimum conditions, is only about 25 percent. Cold, dark benthic conditions make for slow decomposition. This undoubtedly played a major part in the decision to order additional dredging. Most cleanup operations inflict some kind of negative impact on the environment...

Concerns over DilBit
Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks, a 2011 joint report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club and the Pipeline Safety Trust, raises concerns over the chemical and physical properties of DilBit. The diluents added to reduce the viscosity of tar sand crude in pipelines contain benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Benzene is a carcinogen and levels found in the air following the Enbridge 6B discharge prompted a voluntary evacuation of nearby homes.

(note: emphases mine; :benthic" = deep earth)
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Sinum Conservate... Omnia Conservate !

reprint in part

The House of St. Paul, Oikumene, Tilghman Island, MD

Spring is the time to think of working the soil and conservation. I always think of the Chesapeake Bay, because it is a paradigm to me of the "human cycle" of Good and Bad, of Paradise and East of Eden, of Sin and Repentance...
For what is it all but a continual flow in the spirit, an emptying out (kenosis) which creates hunger and thirst, and a filling up, which gives satiety and sleep of craving (pleroma): we turn to God and yearn for Eden, and once having come close, we allow ourselves to be deceived by the abundance, only to discover how quickly everything goes to heck once we let our guard down.

So it is with Ecology; so has the Chesapeake Bay been trashed and polluted, and turned into lands east of Eden where there was plenty of the old sweat of the brow available; yet so has the Chesapeake been cleaned up, over and over again, and made that wonderful spot where four divine rivers meet.

I have a high school friend who joined the Order of St. Paul Oikumene, which is actually an abbreviation of "St. Paul of the Oikumene and the Antioikumene, which literally means "St Paul of the Inhabited Lands and the Uninhabited Lands".  Their monastery is down on the Chesapeake on Tilghman Island on highway 33 west and south of St. Michael's on the Outer Shore of Maryland.

Their monastery is actually an aggregation of individual houses that had been built during the bubble by a developer who had declared bankruptcy. They had sat empty for a few years, but had been minimally maintained by Mungo Reeves, a County employee, who had scoured the neighborhoods about for money to keep the development from falling into ruin, and thereby destroying surrounding property values.

Then the Small Brothers came into the picture. ("Small Brothers" is a trans of "Fratres Pauli" which could mean both "brothers of Paul" or "small brothers" in Latin; it is short for Fratres Pauli Oikumenes kai Antoikumenes, a combination of Latin and Greek that is pretty uncommon for the Bishop of Rome and his pals.)

The order bought the development very cheaply and the structure that had been intended to function as a club house and community center was turned into a chapel and refectory and library, the rest of the units becoming domiciles for the members of the order.

 

The "Small Brothers" of St. Paul  in Clean Up The Bay Day in 2010 At Neavitt, MD.

Their function as an order is to maintain the ecological quality of the Chesapeake Bay along the Outer Shore and the Inner Shore of Maryland. The Small Brothers are the first ecological order of workers that I am aware of. Their goals are the maintenance of the Bay and the lower reaches of the rivers flowing thereto, which covers an enormous territory which is presently beyond the abilities of the twenty one brothers and their helpers among the laity, but eventually they intend to reach their goal.

When I visited last year, Brother Bob (my old friend, Robert Patterson III from high school) showed me around the grounds. He showed me things you don't expect at a monastery:  outboard motors and run-abouts, working scows, testing equipment... I was amazed.

The State contributes some money, but it is far less than it used to spend on clean up in the area the Brothers can effectively maintain.  In my life, I seem to remember three distinct eras of "The Chesapeake is dying! Let's clean it up!"  Flurry of money and activity, then everyone would forget. That's when the Small Brothers entered the picture. They have but one goal and no other distractions. Most of their monies come from appeals they make at churches around the Chesapeake, not only RC churches but churches of other denominations - and temples and mosques - that want to hear them preach the word of Good Husbandry of Nature.

I understood that the order would be establishing a womens' arm, Sorores Pauli. Where their place would be no one seemed to know as of last year. There were ten women interested, and that would be a welcome addition to their force. I don't know the status of that right this moment.

God bless the brothers and sisters of St. Paul of the Sown, the Settled, and the Empty Lands!
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Ojibwe Buzz Saw

Sometimes it is an all-out war on people, and the environment:

 http://www.dailyyonder.com/ojibwe-women-vow-oppose-mining/2013/03/12/5707

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker... is soon to run head on, or rear on, into the buzz saw that is the angry Ojibwe woman in full out defense mode.

He and his fellow Republicans have finally pushed a mining bill through the legislature that will allow the creation of a huge open pit iron ore mine just south of the Bad River Ojibwe reservation on the shores of Lake Superior. A similar bill was narrowly defeated in 2011, igniting some of the most vocal environmental protests that the state has seen in years.  (See my stories for the Yonder and Indian Country Today Media Network for more background.) The Republican dominated assembly and senate, however, redrafted the bill that handily passed both houses this week.  Gov. Walker is expected to sign the legislation this week and probably anticipates smooth sailing for the much-touted jobs bill.

Republicans maintain that by diminishing current mining laws, the new bill will help create jobs in the economically depressed northern part of the state. Tribal members and concerned citizens, however, argue that the proposed open pit iron mine will pose serious environmental hazards to the water, wildlife and quality of life in this pristine woodland.  Indeed, the language in the new law presumes damage to wetlands and includes a mitigation plan that Democrats argue is not viable.

and  the damage which is foreseen by the bill's proponents:

http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/jessica_vanegeren/mining-bill-author-admits-it-will-cause-environmental-harm/article_c9679d4a-8299-11e2-b886-0019bb2963f4.html

Gov. Scott Walker's comments Thursday to The Business Journal in Milwaukee are typical: “We are going to go forward with a permitting process that still protects our natural resources. It’s incredibly important to tourism, it’s important to agriculture and timber in (northern Wisconsin). We’re not going to do something that jeopardizes that.”

But the main author of the controversial mining bill that's moving quickly through the Republican-led state Legislature admitted otherwise on Thursday.
And, with numerous groups already vowing to challenge the bill in court, Sen. Tom Tiffany also acknowledged that changes were made to the legislation to put the state on stronger legal ground to withstand such a challenge.

“The bill reflects the reality of mining. There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body,” said Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst. “If the law is challenged and ends up in court, the judge needs to know it was the Legislature’s intent to allow adverse (environmental) impacts. That way, a judge can’t find fault if the environment is impacted.”
Tiffany made the admission after being asked Thursday in an interview with the Cap Times how Republicans could continue to claim the mining bill doesn't risk environmental harm when:

• It specifically changes the wording of existing state permitting law from “significant adverse affects (to wetlands) are presumed to be unnecessary” to “significant adverse affects are presumed to be necessary.”

• Bill Williams, present of Gogebic Taconite, which is proposing a massive iron ore mine in Ashland and Iron counties, said in a recent Wisconsin State Journal article that as much as 30 to 40 percent of the 3,300 acres it is leasing could be covered by waste piles if it builds a $1.2 billion open-pit iron ore mine.

• The land above the rich vein of iron ore contains hundreds of acres of wetlands, numerous pristine trout streams and several small tributaries that feed into the Bad River. The Bad River wends its way to Lake Superior through the Bad River Indian Reservation, which includes culturally and economically significant rice beds.

“We are simply being honest,” Tiffany says. “There will be some impacts but they will be limited. Changing the word 'unnecessary' to 'necessary' lets the judge know it was the Legislature’s intent that there will be some adverse impacts.”

People differ on how they value things, but I admire Sen. Tiffany for his honesty.
Gov. Walker, however, is typical of so many of the power elite for whom Truth and Honesty are like poker chips.
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Water and Oil Don't Mix?

Get up to speed on Water, Oil, the Ogalalla Aquifer, and the Keystone XL Pipeline about which President Obama must make some decision by the end of February.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ogallala-aquifer-6531527

Something We Should Be Worried About, but Aren't: Water.

Charles P. Pierce
at 4:17
October 27, 2011

I keep thinking of the BP Deepwater fiasco, but transferred right smack-dab into the middle of the Midwest.

Perhaps it is time to form a Regional Third Party to protect the interests of the Midwest from the Republicans and Democrats?
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