Minnesota sealant firm takes stand vs. pollution

An Eagan-based company that is a national leader in driveway coating said Friday that it will stop using coal-tar-based sealants to help curb chemical pollution in stormwater ponds.

Jet-Black International said its franchisees in Minnesota and Wisconsin will switch to newly developed asphalt-based coatings by next year. The company said it also has recommended that its franchisees in 10 other states make the switch.

"We are concerned that continued use of coal-tar sealants will lead to unsustainable and costly pond clean-ups at the expense of the citizens of Minnesota," the company said in a statement.

The company's voluntary switch is a victory for pollution control officials, who have campaigned to end the use of coal-tar-based sealants, long an industry standard. An estimated 85 million gallons of the sealants are sold annually.

"They are doing the responsible thing," said Tom Ennis, an engineer who works for the city of Austin, Texas, and tracks the issue on a blog called Coal Tar-Free America. "It is what we who have worked on the science have been waiting for. If the industry just looks at the facts and stops arguing, then real progress
Kudos
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FG to invest $500m World Bank loan in erosion control

THE Federal Government has said it plans to use a $500 million World Bank loan to tackle erosion in some states across the country, using the watershed approach.

Director of Flood and Erosion Control, Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr. Adekunle Oshikoya, while making this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, added that, ‘The approach under this World Bank programme is the watershed approach; we are trying to solve the degradation problem from the watershed view, which is holistic.
‘We are probably not going to look at individual erosion sites alone; we are going to tackle it holistically. That’s why the approach may be like a once and for all thing to solve erosion problem in the area.’
The director added that the executors and stakeholders of the project held two joint appraisal meetings, with a third scheduled for early March.

He disclosed tha

Toxic sediment

Sediments are most often transported by water (fluvial processes), wind processes) and glaciers. Beach sands and river channel deposits are examples of fluvial transport and deposition, though sediment also often settles out of slow-moving or standing water in lakes and oceans. Desert sand dunes and loess are examples of aeolian transport and deposition. Glacial moraine deposits and till are ice-transported sediments
A grim reminded of the widespread result(s) of sediment is exacerbated with the all-too common warning of resulting and uncontrolled erosion.
A survey on the sources of sediment pollution resulting with the warning for citizens not to harvest vegetables grown on artificial wetlands.

We must take steps to mitigate erosion

WASHINGTON, October 13, 2011

A new USDA study shows that farmers using combinations of erosion-control and nutrient-management practices on cultivated cropland are reducing losses of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorous from farm fields and decreasing the movement of these materials to the Great Lakes and their associated waterways.

New USDA Report

Capitol Hill is a scrum of lobbyists fighting over a shrinking budget these days, and farm subsidies are under attack as never before. Some of those subsidies appear likely to die.
But let's talk about one kind of farm subsidy, one that environmentalists are fighting to preserve. Believe it or not, so are the people who run the water systems in American cities. This week, some of these groups wrote a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to keep funding these programs.


We're taking about "conservation" subsidies. Some people call them "green payments," and they add up to about $5 billion each year.

Under these programs, the government pays farmers to do things that are good for the environment, but aren't profitable. The biggest single source of green payments, the Conservation Reserve Program (which costs just under $2 billion each year), pays farmers to take cropland out of production for ten years or more and instead plant native grasses (or sometimes trees) on that land. At its peak a few years ago, 36 million acres were part of the CRP. That's an area the size of the state of New York. It's been declining in recent years. Now it's more like the size of Indiana.

Other programs pay farmers to turn cropland back into wetlands (good for wildlife and water quality), or to introduce farming practices that reduce soil erosion and fertilizer runoff or provide more habitat for wildlife.

Farm Subsidies Birds And Fish Would Choose

Asbestos contaminated soils: the health risk lurking in your backyard?

Asbestos was widely used in all types of buildings until about 30 years ago. As a result, asbestos contaminated soils are often present on brownfield sites – before, during and after redevelopment. We frequently come across high levels of asbestos contamination in gardens and community recreation areas. During dry weather, asbestos can easily become airborne as a result of any soil disturbance, for example from children playing, gardening and major construction activities. Asbestos contaminated soil can easily be transferred indoors on shoes or carried on vehicle wheels to public highways, causing additional, secondary exposures. Tailored risk assessments and asbestos management procedures, appropriate for the current/planned use of affected ground, are required to avoid increased risks of lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Although statistics show a growing number of people who have never worked with asbestos are suffering with an asbestos-related disease, most documented cases are caused by occupational exposure to the toxic mineral. This is due to the likeliness of repeated exposure, which occurs through standard operations in a variety of industries and jobsites.
Jobsites such as asbestos mines, processing plants and
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Green Erosion Control Solutions

Green Erosion Control Solutions and pollution prevention practices, remediate contaminants in mediums such as soil, sludge, slag, sediment, dust, flyash etc.

Ex situ soil separation processes (often referred to as "soil washing"), mostly based on mineral processing techniques, are widely used in Northern Europe and America for the treatment of contaminated soil. Soil washing is a water–based process for scrubbing soils ex situ to remove contaminants.

These include the requirements to develop erosion and sedimentation control plans, specifying plan content and erosion control structures for runoff harvesting, "best management practices" &: "best available techniques".

You will scour remedial action programs, environmental laws & regulations and erosion consulting & contracting services to develope comprehensive Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) as solutions for environmental contamination.

These methods protect families and the environment from toxic contamination.

Degraded rivers, unsustainable farming catalysts for soil erosion

Western Cape rivers are generally degraded and unstable, said Western Cape Department of Agriculture’s (DoA’s) Hans King.
He explained that this was caused by the flourishing invasive alien plant species in rivers, the disappearance of indigenous riverine plants, the narrowing of river channels, owing to developments in the flood plains, and the bulldozing of river beds by landowners.
King was one of the speakers at the International Erosion Control Association Southern Africa Chapter conference, recently held in George, in the Western Cape province.
He said that a clear dynamic of the rivers is the knock-on effect of erosion. Runaway erosion

Read this and 13 more erosion articles that cover desertification, climate change and much more

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