GreenBeat Newsletter

[irishbobcat]

GreenBeat-Official Newsletter of the Green Party of Ohio
June 21, 2011



NRC works for TAXPAYERS but is in the pocket of the nuclear energy industry.

Today the Associated Press released a report that found that federal regulators from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have repeatedly and systematically lowered or failed to enforce the operating standards for nuclear power plants. The AP report provides welcome documentation for those of us who have been standing in opposition to the nuclear power industry for many long years. This report coupled with the call from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN agency charged with overseeing nuclear power, for random unannounced inspections of nuclear plants in its member countries provides us with crucial leverage in challenging the re-licensing of the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant here in Oak Harbor Ohio.

It would be great to do another rally against radiation here in Toledo.

I am providing a letter to the editor of the Toledo Blade that I submitted but which was rejected because it was too long. I believe that my letter is very clear in addressing a mindset of the NRC in favor of the plant operators and against the general public and didn't feel I could cut it in half as the Blade had requested.

Letter to the editor of the Toledo Blade

Last week on Wednesday June 15th the Nuclear Regulatory Commission(the NRC) held a public meeting to discuss Davis-Besse's 2010 performance. This meeting was announced in the Blade on Tuesday the 14th of June. The location for that meeting was the Davis-Besse Energy Education Center in Oak Harbor. If the NRC was interested in having the public actually attend such a meeting they should have provided sufficient notice and should have located that meeting closer to Toledo, the most populous area within a 50 mile radius on Davis-Besse. The way that this public meeting was set up made it inevitable that there would be limited public input.

The NRC is paid for by our taxes and is ultimately responsible to us in carrying out their mandate to oversee the safety of the nuclear energy industry so it is right that they should make an effort to gather input from the public. Unfortunately the NRC seems to be following the same operating principles as did the Department of the Interior in it's lack of oversight of the Deepwater Horizon, that spewed thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and the Securities and Exchange Commission that failed to regulate the risky practices that led to the economic meltdown. Those agencies were more closely allied with the industries that they were charged with regulating than with the tax payers who pay their salaries and who they are mandated to protect. The NRC scheduled their meeting on the 15th assuring that the operators of Davis-Besse would not have to venture from their comfort zone or be inconvenienced. They showed no such concern for the public who were given a one day notice that they could travel 20 miles to participate in this "public" hearing.

The evacuation zone recommended by the American embassy for the Fukushima nuclear disaster is 50 miles. Toledo is well within a 50 mile radius of Davis-Besse and while none of us wants to consider what could happen if a natural or man made disaster were to occur at Davis-Besse it is in our best interest that we do just that, and to plan for worst case scenarios. The residents of Toledo have a very important stake in the discussion of nuclear power and in Davis-Besse in particular and the NRC has a responsibility to both inform and obtain input from us. It is time for the NRC to hold a public hearing in Toledo.

Anita Rios

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Latino/Latina activists organizing within the Green Party.

Dear Greens,
Some of us Latino Greens are once again trying to bring together a
Latino caucus. We feel that it is essential to have a Latino organized, accredited, and
active in Green Party organizing and decision making by the 2012 election cycle.

We have received support in our efforts from the Green Party Black caucus and are looking forward to actively supporting Green Candidates with a vibrant Black-Brown-Green coalition.

To that end we are reaching out to all Latino/Latina Greens are asking for the assistance of all our State Green Parties in doing that. If you are a member of the Green Party and are a Latino or Latina please contact us at:
Anita Rios(Ohio GP) rhannon@toast.net
Angel Torres(Arizona GP) aatorres29@hotmail.com

We are trying to make contact with as many Latino Greens as possible before
the annual national meeting in August of 2011.

We already have 5 members in Lucas County alone and I know there are more Latino/a Greens in Ohio.
Thank you for your assistance in this very important effort.
Anita Rios
419-243-8772

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Ohio is now the dumping ground for toxic PA. Brine water from fracking wells
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Millions of barrels of salty, toxic wastewater from natural-gas wells in Pennsylvania are coming into Ohio despite efforts to keep it at bay.

In June 2010, Ohio quadrupled the fees that out-of-state haulers must pay to dump brine into 170 disposal wells. Ohio officials thought that raising the fees from 5 cents to 20 cents per barrel would help keep the brine in Pennsylvania, where drilling has exploded since the discovery of huge gas deposits deep in Marcellus shale. Ohio wants to keep its injection wells open for Ohio brine, which also might explode in volume if the state's own shale begins to give up natural gas.

But then, Pennsylvania officials told 27 sewage-treatment plants to stop dumping brine into streams. The state's geology doesn't support brine-injection wells.

Ohio's does.
From January through March, nearly half the brine that went into disposal wells in Ohio came from Pennsylvania and other states, said Tom Tomastik, chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' disposal-well program. That's 1.18 million barrels of brine, enough to fill 76 Olympic-sized swimming pools. "It's a dramatic increase," Tomastik said. "No one was really foreseeing Pennsylvania shutting down its treatment plants."

None of this sits well with environmental groups that consider brine - and the hydraulic fracturing process used to draw gas from the ground - a threat to groundwater and drinking water. Trent Dougherty, staff attorney with the Ohio Environmental Council, said the state should examine what's in the brine before it is pumped underground. "This is a brand-new set of chemicals and constituents that are going to be put in these wells," Dougherty said. "We need more study to make sure what's going in there should be allowed to go in there."

In hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," drillers inject millions of gallons of pressurized water laced with industrial chemicals into wells to break apart the shale and help release gas. About 15 percent of that water comes back up, tainted with salt, drilling chemicals and hazardous metals. After they're "fracked," the wells continue to produce brine that contains higher concentrations of salt, metals and minerals.

Pennsylvania sewage plants dumped so much brine that it became a threat to drinking water. The brine contains high levels of bromides, which help form hazardous compounds called trihalomethanes in drinking water. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett made it clear to the plants that they must stop dumping brine. Kevin Sunday, spokesman for the state's Department of Environmental Protection, said all the plants have stopped.

Tomastik states that Ohio's disposal wells are safe. "We have not had any subsurface contamination of groundwater since we took over the program in 1983," he said.

Pennsylvania's loss was great for waste haulers such as Kim Parrott, owner of Bessemer Supply Inc. in Bessemer, Pa.
He said his two 100-barrel tanker trucks used to deliver Pennsylvania brine to Ohio injection wells three days a week. "Now, they work about six days a week," Parrott said.

The Green Party of Ohio opposes fracking and the distribution of fracking water into the Buckeye state.



The Green Party of Ohio call for candidates for the 2011 and 2012 elections
The Green Party is looking for progressives to run for elected office in 2011 and in 2012. 

In 2011, an off-year election, all kinds of local offices are up, from city councils to school boards to township trustees.  In 2012 , seats in the US Congress, the  Ohio State Senate and House of Representatives and  other local offices are up for election.

To be competitive for these seats, candidates need to begin their campaigns early. If you or someone you know is thinking of running, please contact your local Green Party or the Candidates Committee of the Green Party of Ohio. All across the country hundreds of Green Party candidates will be challenging the two corporate parties.

This will be a great time for someone to learn the art of running for office, and  a smart, energetic person could win. We are looking for people who are under-represented in elective office, women, African Americans, Hispanic, Asian Americans,  gays and lesbians, people with disabilities and other minorities. The Green Party is a grassroots activist party working for social change.

We are also looking for people to work with the candidates as campaign coordinators, managers and campaign volunteers.

* The filing date is fast approaching for many city council races. Filing dates vary for municipal offices, check with your local board of elections. Filing dates for school board of education and township trustee races across the state will be sometime in August.

The Green Party of Ohio Candidates Committee

Logan Martinez   greensofwcohio@hotmail.com / cell 937-260-2591

David Berenson   greenerdavid@sbcglobal.net / cell  216-548-0254

Joshua  Krekeler  joshxles@fuse.net  / 513-351-1289 

Nicholas Teti   nteti@clover.net  / 740-502-4772