Maryland Settles with Verso

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has announced a settlement with Verso Corporation, owners of the Luke Paper Mill in Western Maryland, for seepages into the North Branch Potomac River that threatened the Potomac River, the regional drinking wate supply, public health and the environment.

This consent decree settles a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network (PRKN) on March 24, 2020, alleging that the release of pulping liquor at the Verso Luke Mill created an imminent and substantial endangerment to Maryland under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The State of Maryland intervened in the lawsuit on May 28, 2020, alleging, in addition to the RCRA claim, violations of state environmental laws.

“Verso repeatedly discharged toxic pulping liquor intoMaryland’s waters,” said Attorney General Frosh. “These repeated discharges degraded water quality and were harmful to fish and wildlife. Today’s settlement requires Verso to stop its discharges of pulping liquor, develop and implement a remediation plan, and pay a  civil penalty of $650,000, reimburse the State’s attorneys’ fees, and pay past and future costs to the State for the oversight of the investigation and remediation." This settlement allows the future redevelopment of the site while  the investigation and remedial work to continues at the site.

This all began in April 2019, when a fisherman saw and reported to the State of Maryland that “pure black waste” was entering the North Branch Potomac River near the mill. This observation was confirmed by the investigation of the siteundertaken by the Potomac Riverkeepers organization. They took samples that showed high pH levels, high sulfur and sodium contents and metals such as mercury and boron.

To the Riverkeepers the analysis suggested the presence of ‘black liquor,’ possibly mixed with coal ash. Black liquor, a caustic mix of chemicals and wood waste from the paper-making process at the plant, has a high pH, and contains hazardous constituents at concentrations that are harmful to aquatic life and humans. Coal ash contains a range of harmful constituents, including arsenic, mercury and boron, all of which were found in the Potomac Riverkeepers sampling. A petroleum odor was also noted by MDE.

The pulping liquors were stored in tanks on the West Virginia side of the river. In November 2018, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection issued an order to Verso to empty the tanks on their side of the river. In response, Verso piped material from the tanks in West Virginia to tanks in Maryland.

Starting April 2019, MDE directed Verso to determine the source of the seepage and take steps to contain and remove the discharge. Verso submitted a report on field work done by a contractor and, in February, submitted to MDE a “Remedial Investigation & Corrective Action Plan” describing the company’s next investigative steps, but the seepage continued and Verso was not entirely cooperative with MDE requests.

MDE filed a federal lawsuit under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) against Verso. Once the plant was closed the site became subject to regulation and enforcement under RCRA. Essentially, if it is not an operating plant it is a waste disposal site with an ongoing release. Finally, after MDE sued Verso they settled.

The Potomac Riverkeeper Network (PRKN) has been the driving force behind the regulators maintaining focus on the Verso release and should receive all our thanks for keeping this regulatory action moving forward to protect us all. The Potomac Riverkeeper Network is a party to the agreement that also requires Verso to pump and treat contaminated groundwater, close a coal ash waste lagoon, and conduct monthly water quality sampling in the river and groundwater for at least three years following all cleanup measures to verify the cleanup.  

Cicadas are Emerging- Help Map Them

Brood X area

Many people know periodical cicadas by the name "17-year locusts," but they are not the locusts of the bible. Those were a type of migrating grasshopper. However, if you live in the area of this year’s emergence, when Brood X of the 17-year cicadas arrive in mid-May, it may indeed feel like a plague for a few weeks. When they emerge in mass, you can report periodical cicadas using the Cicada Safari App, available on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store.  This will help scientists map the full extent of Brood X. If it does not feel like you are being inundated and you only see a few cicadas, they are probably stragglers from other broods and should not be reported.

The Washington Metropolitan Area will be at the epicenter of the Brood X emergence which will cover parts of 14 states. In Virginia there are eleven primary broods of the 17-year cicada and two primary broods of the 13-year cicada. Every year they emerge somewhere within the Commonwealth, but Brood X due any week now is one of the largest and impacts our area in Northern Virginia including Prince William, Loudoun, Fairfax, and Fauquier counties and into the

Cicadas, probably both Magicicada septendecim and Magicicada cassinii will emerge from the soil and climb onto nearby vegetation and other vertical surfaces. They then molt to the winged adult stage. The emergence is tightly synchronized, with most adults appearing within a few nights. Adult cicadas live for only two to four weeks. When the 17-year periodical cicadas emerge the density can be shocking and noisy. It is common to have tens to hundreds of thousands of periodical cicadas per acre, but there are records of up to a million and a half periodical cicadas in an acre. This is far beyond the density of most other cicada species and half of the cicadas are “singing.” Male cicadas sing quite loudly by vibrating membranes on the sides of their abdominal segment. Male songs and choruses are a courtship ritual to attract females for mating. If you hear the cicadas chorus in the spring take a picture and report thefinding to the University of Connecticut that is running the mapping projectusing their phone apps.  

from Cicadas Safari

The males’ choruses have been known to drive people to distraction-stay inside with the windows closed if needed. However, for most people, the droning song of the cicada is nothing more than a slight annoyance. To me the “song” sounds like wind on a cell phone connection, but you can listen to the actual chorus on the u-Tube video. Most people are more familiar with the dogday cicada that is prevalent annually in mid-summer. Their song is later in the summer and not as persistent.

The 17 year or 13-year periodical cicada is black, with red eyes and orange legs. “Adults have clear wings with distinctive orange veins. When viewed from the front the wings form an inverted "V" and meet at the top like a roof.” After mating, females lay their eggs in narrow young twigs slicing into the wood and depositing up to 400 eggs in total for each female in 40 to 50 locations each. It is the egg laying that does most of the damage associated with periodical cicadas. Cicada eggs remain in the twigs for six to ten weeks before hatching. The nymphs do not feed on the twigs and all but the youngest trees will recover.

Occoquan River Crossing Project

Growth in data centers, residential housing and commercial building has increased demand for drinking water in Prince William County. To meet that demand, Prince William Service Authority and Virginia American Water in collaboration with Fairfax Water will build two new 42-inch, parallel water mains to deliver water from the Fairfax Water Frederick P. Griffith Jr. Water Treatment Plant located in Fairfax County near Lorton. The new water mains will cross under the Occoquan River inside a 400-foot long tunnel and connect to existing water mains on the Prince William County side of the river. In addition, a new water main will be installed to connect the Griffith Water Treatment Plant  to the 42-inch water mains at the Occoquan River. This and the necessary ancillary equipment- two water interconnections and a new drinking water pump at Fairfax Water’s Griffith Plant make up the Occoquan River Crossing Project. The project will cost $13,637,000 and will be funded 30% from the “Availability Fees” the fee charged for new connections and 70% from “User Rates” folded into the cost of water for all.

When completed the project will include construction of two 700-foot long 42-inch steel water mains inside a 400-foot long tunnel that runs under the Occoquan River, 2,400 feet of 36-inch water main for to the existing transmission main and a new finished water pump at Fairfax Water’s Griffith Water Treatment Plant. This project will increase transmission capacity and reliability between the Griffith Water Treatment Plant  and the Service Authority’s existing and future customers by eliminating a single point of failure due to an existing single pipe at the Griffith Plant that supplies eastern Prince William County.

from Fairfax Water Townhall

 

User Rates: The Prince William County Service Authority sets user rates to cover the projected costs of operating and maintaining the water and sewer system, as well as debt service, and capital costs, for repair and replacements of the existing water and sewer system that benefit customers. User rates are set to recover the costs budgeted in the Operating Fund and Replacement Fund. The Authority’s Board of Directors approves the user rates.

Infrastructure Plan Shortchanges Drinking Water

Last week the Biden Infrastructure Plan was released. The plan would allot $111 billion to drinking water, water pipes, waste water and sewer pipes and storm water. $45 billion would go to eliminating lead pipe laterals and $56 billion would go to modernizing drinking water, waste water and stormwater systems. That is woefully inadequate to restore and improve our water infrastructure.  Let's take a look at some of the drinking water system needs. 

Let’s start with lead because the Infrastructure Plan has a lead pipe line ite.. Lead in drinking water is a national problem. Flint Michigan was not an aberration nor was it the worst incidence of lead in drinking water supplies. The lead in drinking water is predominately coming from the pipes. Lead does not exist in in most groundwater, rivers and lakes. Instead, lead in drinking water is picked up from the pipes on its journey into a home. In older homes the water service lines delivering water from the water main in the street into each home were commonly made of lead. This practice began to fade by the 1950’s but was legal until 1988. 

There are about 75 million homes across the country built before 1980, meaning they’re most likely to contain some lead plumbing. It was estimated by the American Water Association that there are 6.5 million lead water distribution pipes still in service in the United States while the EPA estimates that number at around 10 million. Based on the experience in Lansing, Michigan that replace all 14,000 lead laterals in the city, that cost is about right to finally eliminate lead water distribution pipes from our water delivery system if the nation as a whole is as efficient as Lansing, Michigan was in their program. Unfortunately, that leaves almost nothing to the rest of the water delivery system and inadequate money to upgrade the water treatment systems of the nation. 

Our nation’s drinking water infrastructure system is made up of 2.2 million miles of underground pipes that deliver drinking water to millions of people. There is a water main break every two minutes and an estimated 6 billion gallons of treated water is lost each day to leaks and water main breaks. This is water we can no longer afford to waste. There are 5,280 feet per mile and it costs between $100-$500 a foot to replace a water pipe and repair the road. Most of the nation’s largest water systems are old, very old. If only 5% of the water pipes were in need of replacement at this time, and the cost were $100 per foot that would be another $70 billion. Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Report Card for America’s Infrastructure reviews and evaluates the condition and performance of American infrastructure. According to their report, in 2019 alone the annual water infrastructure capital investment was $81 billion less than would have been necessary just to maintain the nation’s water systems. That does not include any upgrades and once the system was brought into repair, the annual expense to keep it that way would be around $21 billion.

 There are more than 148,000 active drinking water systems in the nation, although just 9% or 13,320 community water systems serve 78% of the population- over 257 million people. The rest of the nation is served by small water systems (about 8%) and private wells (about 14% of the population). The amount of money allotted for water infrastructure will not bring the nation’s water systems into repair or expand the treatment to meet the demands of emerging contaminants like PFAS that EPA is just beginning the process to develop a Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) maximum contaminant level (MCL). Our water treatment plants should be more robust as more and more contaminants begin to appear in our national water supplies. Our modern world is filled with chemicals, they exist in pharmaceuticals, household products, personal care products, plastics, pesticides, industrial chemicals, human and animal waste; they are in short, all around us. 

All the water on Earth has been here since the earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago (or so). There is no mechanism on Earth for creating or destroying large quantities of water, the water here continually cycles through the water cycle. Contaminants are building up in the waters of the earth. In their study of surface water used for drinking water supplies the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found a diverse group of contaminants in the source water used by our cities and towns. The concentrations were low, but the contaminants were ubiquitous; nonetheless, the most commonly detected contaminants in source water were generally detected in finished drinking water at about the same frequency and concentration- Our current water treatment is not removing these chemicals. Our drinking water treatment systems do not remove these trace contaminants and we need to change that.

According to EPA's 6th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment released in 2015  $472.6 billion is needed to maintain and improve the nation’s drinking water infrastructure through 2035.

Most water system needs are not directly related to violations of, or compliance with, SDWA regulations. Most needs, such as the replacement or rehabilitation of leaking water mains, are ongoing investments that systems must make to continue delivering safe drinking water to their customers.

EPA’s assessment shows that improvements are primarily needed in:

•     Distribution and transmission: $312.6 billion to replace or refurbish aging or deteriorating pipelines this excludes lead pipes.
•   · Treatment: $83 billion to construct, expand or rehabilitate infrastructure to reduce contamination only to meet current standards not improve them.
•        Storage: $47.6 billion to construct, rehabilitate or cover water storage reservoirs to meet forecast demand without accounting for changes in climate.
•          Source: $21.8 billion to construct or rehabilitate intake structures, wells and spring collectors

That is just the needs for the nation's drinking water  without even looking at the needs of waste water and storm water systems. The Biden Infrastructure Plan allocates  only $56 billion to modernizing drinking water, waste water and stormwater systems. 

Drought and Water Quality

The article below is extracted from the press release from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the underlying study “Assessing the Impact of Drought on Arsenic Exposure from Private Domestic Wells in the Conterminous United States” published in Environmental Science and Technology at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.9b05835.  

From 2010 to 2018, the U.S. experienced three droughts of historic proportions including the Southern Plains drought (2010–2011), a 2012 drought that impacted a large portion of the continental United States, and a persistent West Coast drought. The drought of 2012 in the U.S. was one of the worst droughts on record. On September 25, 2012, that drought encompassed 66% of the continental United States. This was the largest extent of a drought since the U.S. Drought Monitor began keeping records in 2000.The regions of the continental United States that were hardest hit by the 2012 drought were the West, Great Plains, Midwest, and Southeast. Only New England and the Pacific Northwest regions did not experience drought during 2012.

Climate projections are for much of the United States to grow warmer and drier. We are fortunate that here in Virginia that the climate projections indicate that the mid-Atlantic states, on average, will continue to get “wetter.” However, climate scientists also warn that extreme conditions- floods and droughts, will become more severe. Unlike other climate-related hazards such as flooding, hurricanes, and heat waves, drought typically occurs over longer period of time ranging from months to years. There is a need for better understanding of potential drought impacts to public health and safety in order to properly prepare.

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey are beginning to look at some of the impacts that drought might have on water quality. In the study “Assessing the Impact of Drought on Arsenic Exposure from Private Domestic Wells in the Conterminous United States,” USGS scientists utilized a statistical model as a tool to assess the potential impact of drought on arsenic exposure from domestic wells. A limitation of this approach is that statistical models may not account for all interactions between the climate and arsenic concentrations in domestic well water. However, arsenic is primarily a geogenic contaminant often seen in drinking-water supply wells, so a simplified estimate it has validity. This statistical method is widely used to understand the potential impact of climate change on the environment, especially at large spatial scales where climate is a dominate variable.

As can be seen below, even without drought conditions, relatively large numbers of people are estimated to be exposed to elevated arsenic levels in private domestic well water. Based on the model estimates, the population with arsenic concentrations greater than 10 μg/L (the EPA Safe Drinking Water limit) is 2.7 million or 7.1% of domestic well users.  Under non-drought conditions, the largest populations potentially exposed to high levels of arsenic are in Ohio (approximately 241,000 people), Michigan (226,000 people), Indiana (162,000 people), California (157,000 people) and Maine (121,000 people).

When the model was run under drought conditions, the overall high-arsenic domestic well population increased from 2.7 million to 4.1 million people, or a 54% increase. The model predicted that the states with the largest populations with elevated arsenic levels in private domestic well water during drought would be Ohio (approximately 374,000 people), Michigan (320,000 people), Indiana (267,000 people), Texas (200,000 people) and California (196,000 people).

“The population potentially exposed to arsenic levels exceeding the EPA standard during simulated drought conditions amounts to roughly one-tenth of the estimated 37.2 to 43.2 million people in the continental U.S. who use domestic wells for household water supply,” said Melissa Lombard, a USGS hydrologist and lead author of this study.

According to Wellowner.org: “NSF International is anot-for-profit organization that develops stand­ards, product testingprocedures, and certification services for products including water treatmentdevices. NSF has certified point-of-use reverse osmosis and distillationdevices for the reduction of arsenic in drinking water. Pretreating waterthrough chlorination or oxidation and filtration may be necessary to makereverse osmosis devices effective for arsenic re­moval.”

 

BP money goes to Louisiana to Punch a Hole in the Levee

 The Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulted in the covering of about 1,100 kilometers of Louisiana wetland coastline with crude oil. The heaviest damage occurred in the Barataria Basin, resulting in substantial damage and injury to natural resources and wildlife in the basin. However, there is some good that can result from that disaster. The long term erosion of the coastline had caused the fragile condition of the basin even before the spill which  served to accelerate the process.

The Barataria Basin is located immediately south and west of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Barataria Basin is bounded on the north and east by the Mississippi River from Donaldsonville to Venice, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west by Bayou Lafourche. The Barataria Basin is an irregularly-shaped area bounded on each side by a distributary ridge formed by the present and former channels of the Mississippi River. A chain of barrier islands separates the basin from the Gulf of Mexico. Barataria Basin suffered the brunt of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill damage.

The State of Louisiana and the federal Trustees that negotiated the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damages settlement allocated $4 billion, almost half of the total settlement amount, to restoring Louisiana’s wetland, coastal, and nearshore habitats. The State of Louisiana recognized the need for increasing the resiliency and sustainability of this highly productive Gulf ecosystem following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Louisiana Legislature created CPRA to coordinate the local, state, and federal efforts to achieve coastal protection and restoration and combat Louisiana’s coastal land loss crisis.

After 2007, state and federal investments in the protection and restoration of Louisiana’s coast increased dramatically, but money could only be allocated slowly. These investments allowed for the implementation of improvements to Louisiana coastal communities’ hurricane protection systems, as well as shoreline protection, marsh creation, barrier island repairs, and other projects. These projects taught the engineers and planners involved in this effort many lessons and allowed them to begin to plan for and evaluate larger-scale efforts. Then the Deepwater Horizon spill happened and ultimately resulted in the $4 billion settlement to restore Louisiana’s wetlands.

Now, with the concurrence of the Army Corps of Engineers it was decided that the best method of restoration would be to cut a hole in the levee  near Myrtle Grove and install gates that would allow continual large-scale sediment diversion. Though there is the potential for some adverse impacts, the CPRA  determined that this preferred alternative will provide long-term ecosystem benefits and restoration of damaged estuary and would provide ongoing benefits to the Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore, and has a high likelihood of success, and would reduce future erosion. The Trustees also identified multiple potential benefits from such projects. These benefits included helping “maintain the Louisiana coastal landscape and its ability to overcome other environmental stressors by stabilizing wetland substrates; reducing coastal wetland loss rates; increasing habitat for freshwater fish, birds, and benthic communities; and reducing storm risks, thus providing protection to the essential nearby infrastructure” (DWH NRDA Trustees, 2016, page 5-25). The video below covers all the restoration going on in the Barataria Basin.

Fairfax Water and PFAS

In early March the Environmental Working Group (EWG) released the results of a a new analysis, they commissioned of tap water samples taken from various location throughout the Northern Virginia region. The EWG reported that they detected total PFAS in 19 samples of tap water ranged from about 6 parts per trillion, or ppt, in a state park in Fairfax County, to about 62 ppt in a public park in Prince William County. In 2019 the EWG had reported that the results from the sampling conducted as part of the EPA’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 3 from 2013 to 2015.  All results in Fairfax were non-detect, meaning that all results were below the detection limit of the test used. The analysis was conducted using EPA Method 537. In the Prince William County Service Authority Eastern service area was found to have 12 ppt of PFAS in 2014. This year’s findings were more wide spread and in some cases at a higher level.

Fairfax Water responded to the new release from EWG by stating that when they tested in 2013 to 2015 that no perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were detected in Fairfax Water’s service area, and pointing out that:  “There is currently no established federal water quality regulation for any type of PFAS.  In May of 2016, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the health advisory levels at 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).  Both chemicals are types of PFAS.” In February 2020 and in February 2021 the EPA announced its intention to regulate PFOA and PFOS under the safe drinking water act. No limit was identified. In late 2020 the European Union (EU) issued a directive  setting a limit value of 500 ppt for total PFAS concentration in drinking water.   

Fairfax Water says “There are no treatment processesavailable for drinking water utilities that would not significantly increase water rates for customers. Nor would such treatments produce a demonstrated health benefit. “ It appears that they are going to see what concentration the EPA intends to regulate PFOS and PFOA for drinking water. Changing the water treatment chain at the Corbalis and Griffith water treatment plants would be necessary to treat the source water to remove PFAS. This would "significantly" increase the cost of water for all the residents of Fairfax and Prince William Counties. 

In May of 2016, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the health advisory levels at 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). All the samples taken by EWG are below that level.  I do not know at what level the EPA or Virginia intends to regulate PFOS and PFOA at. Several states have set significantly lower levels for some PFAS contamination. Studies indicate that high concentrations of PFOA and PFOS can cause reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects in laboratory animals. Both chemicals have caused tumors in animal studies. The most consistent findings from human studies are increased cholesterol levels among exposed populations, with more limited findings related to cancer, thyroid hormone effects, other reproductive and developmental impacts in humans, infant birth weights and adverse effects on the immune system. The EWG is pushing for a federal limit if 1 ppt.

The source of PFAS contamination in the latest samples is not known. The level of PFAS in a sample of tap water is largely determined by the source of the water supply. However, the EWG speculates based on the location of the samples that the Occoquan Reservoir and/or the Occoquan watershed in Prince William, may be the source of the contamination. In February 2020, a malfunction released a large spill of PFAS-based firefighting foam from a hangar at Manassas Regional Airport, in the Occoquan River basin. It is not known whether the spill contaminated water supplies, but it is possible and would explain the difference in the sampling results reported in 2014 and 2020.

PFAS are synthetic fluorinated organic chemicals. Manufacturers have produced PFAS for a variety of industries and products, including surface treatments for soil/stain/water resistance; surface treatments of textiles; paper; metals; and for specialized applications, such as fire suppression for hydrocarbon fires, and have been widely used on military bases.

PFAS are resistant to metabolic and environmental degradation, are highly persistent in the environment and can bioaccumulate in humans; and therefore are often called “forever chemicals.” PFAS include a large number of important chemicals that can be used in some food packaging and can make things grease- and stain-resistant. They were used in firefighting foams and in a wide range of manufacturing practices. The result is that according to the CDC more than 95% of the U.S. population has measurable levels of PFOA and PFOS in their blood; and babies are born with PFOA in their blood.

Drinking water can be a source of exposure in communities where these chemicals have contaminated water supplies. Such contamination is typically associated with a specific facility, for example: an industrial facility where PFAS were produced or used to manufacture other products, or locations where firefighting foam was used such as oil refineries, airfields or other training facilities for firefighters.

Activated carbon or commonly granulated activated carbon (GAC) has been shown to effectively remove PFOS and PFAS from drinking water. The EPA says, “GAC can be 100 % effective for a period of time, depending onthe type of carbon used, the depth of the bed of carbon, flow rate of thewater, the specific PFAS you need to remove, temperature, and the degree andtype of organic matter as well as other contaminants, or constituents, in thewater.” Activated carbon treatment an inexpensive and readily available point of use treatment. “High-pressure membranes, such as nanofiltrationor reverse osmosis, have been extremely effective at removing PFAS. Reverse osmosis membranes are tighter than nanofiltrationmembranes.  Research shows that these types of membranes aretypically more than 90 percent effective at removing a wide range of PFAS,including shorter chain PFAS.”