Regulations - Technologies - Companies - People - Events

Local efforts to protect Yucca Mountain

As the battle continues over the use of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste storage site, Governor Kenny Guinn announced a national public information campaign to inform people in other states of the risks to their communities of transporting spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain. Guinn’s Nevada Protection Fund effort, a component of Senate Bill 494, opposes the federal government’s plans to transport high-level nuclear waste to the site.

The Nuclear Projects Agency of Nevada has chosen Brown & Partners Advertising and Public Relations to develop and execute the campaign. According to the Nuclear Projects Agency, hundreds of major cities and thousands of communities will be impacted by nuclear transport because as many as 140,000 shipments hauling 77,000 tons of nuclear material will travel through their states to Yucca Mountain.

Electricity Generation

Consumer choice could increase renewable energy

According to a new study by two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories, allowing consumers to choose their means of electricity generation could increase use of solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, biomass and other “green power” sources by 40 percent in the next eight years.

Green pricing is offered by more than 85 utilities in 29 states and provides an option for producing electricity through renewable sources. In order to increase the success of green pricing, more states would need to become competitive power markets and the green pricing programs currently offered would need to expand, according to energy analysts who conducted the study at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Green power marketing also has seen success in a limited number of states with retail market competition, but the recent suspension of customer choice in California represents a setback to the development of competitive market choices in other states.

For the full report, see the NREL Web site at http://www.eren.doe.gov/greenpower/pdf/30101.pdf.

New Study

Recycling boosts the economy

According to the recently published U.S. Recycling Economic Information Study commissioned by EPA, the U.S. recycling and reuse industry supports more than 56,000 recycling and reuse establishments that gross over $236 billion in annual revenues and employ over 1.1 million people, with an annual payroll of nearly $37 billion.

The data proves that recycling is more than just beneficial by cutting pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and energy, but also helps the country’s economy. See http://www.epa.gov/jtr for further information.

PE People

Scott Specialty Gases announces the addition of Ken Eichelmann to their marketing department as product manager for SCOTTY Transportable Products.

Keith Long P.E. has been promoted to director of East Coast region operations for Trinity Consultants.

Solvay Minerals Inc. has appointed Cameron Berry to the position of director of logistics and sales services.

Brad Bowman has been named area manager of environmental engineering and health services for the Mid-Atlantic region of Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas Inc.

Jon Nagel has been named product manager of SERFILCO, Ltd.

Standard Filter Corp. has appointed Toby Wiik to serve as chief operating officer.

EnviroCraft Corp. has appointed Charles Weatherby to its Business Development team.

Awards

Watlow, a St. Louis-based provider of thermal solutions, has been named company of the year by the St. Louis chapter of the American Production & Inventory Control Society Inc.

Langboard Inc. – MDG in Willacoochee, Georgia, has received a Return on Environment Partnership Award from BetzDearborn for production improvements that conserved water, reduced air emissions, minimized the discharge of solid waste to the municipal sewer system and saved money.

Budget EV Rental Cars, an environmental vehicle rental company, estimates that by driving 5 million miles, the fleet has saved more than 130,000 gallons of gasoline that would have been used by conventional rental cars. Equally as valuable is the air pollution prevented by the rental vehicles, calculated at more than 20 tons. This environmental contribution has won the company numerous awards, including the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Hero Award from the U.S. Department of Energy. Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. has received an ROE Partnership Award from BetzDearborn for a wastewater filter cleaning and treatment program that minimized the impact of water discharged into the Ohio River that was discolored with trace amounts of oil.

In regognition of its industry-leading approach to recycling and environmental issues, Vicro Mfg. Corp. has been named a 2001 Waste Reduction Awards Program winner by the California Integrated Waste Management Board.