Monday, January 29, 2007

1,4-dioxane at Lowry Officials are wondering how a plume of 1,4-dioxane in the groundwater near the Lowry Landfill came to be, according to the Denver Post. From the article, "No one is certain why a probable human carcinogen is ending up in the groundwater near Arapahoe County's Lowry Landfill - Colorado's largest Superfund toxic-waste site. The chemical 1,4-dioxane is used to stabilize industrial solvents and has caused cancer in lab animals at high levels. In the fall of 2003, 1,4-dioxane was detected in a monitoring well a mile from the old landfill. That set off a three-year investigation, in which 13 wells were drilled into private property, and a plume of 1,4-dioxane was discovered in groundwater as far north as the Murphy Creek Golf Course - about 2.5 miles from the landfill. The matter likely will be part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's five- year review of the site, which is expected to be released within a week. The release has been delayed four months because it has been through a heavy vetting process, say EPA officials. Levels in the wells have ranged from undetectable to 42 parts per billion. The state standard for 1,4-dioxane in groundwater and surface water is 6.1 parts per billion. Officials say the chemical has not been found in drinking water, but a plume in groundwater is a concern - especially to a community watchdog group. 'To date, everyone is saying no one is dying and no one is sick,' said Bonnie Rader of Citizens for Lowry Landfill Environmental Action Now. 'We are saying it doesn't belong there,' Rader said. 'The people in Murphy Creek should be concerned that the chemicals are there at all.' State and federal regulators disagree about why 1,4-dioxane is in the groundwater. Federal regulators speculate the chemical is left over from when treated wastewater from the site was pumped into the ground instead of being sent to the metro area wastewater treatment facility, as it is now. That water wasn't required to be treated for 1,4-dioxane, said Bonnie Lavelle, EPA project manager. It is now." Category: Colorado Water 5:50:14 AM     Global warming? According to Fox News, "Later this week in Paris, climate scientists will issue a dire forecast for the planet that warns of slowly rising sea levels and higher temperatures. But that may be the sugarcoated version. Early and changeable drafts of their upcoming authoritative report on climate change foresee smaller sea level rises than were projected in 2001 in the last report. Many top U.S. scientists reject these rosier numbers. Those calculations don't include the recent, and dramatic, melt-off of big ice sheets in two crucial locations: They 'don't take into account the gorillas - Greenland and Antarctica,' said Ohio State University earth sciences professor Lonnie Thompson, a polar ice specialist. 'I think there are unpleasant surprises as we move into the 21st century.' Michael MacCracken, who until 2001 coordinated the official U.S. government reviews of the international climate report on global warming, has fired off a letter of protest over the omission. The melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are a fairly recent development that has taken scientists by surprise. They don't know how to predict its effects in their computer models. But many fear it will mean the world's coastlines are swamped much earlier than most predict. "Others believe the ice melt is temporary and won't play such a dramatic role. That debate may be the central one as scientists and bureaucrats from around the world gather in Paris to finish the first of four major global warming reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel was created by the United Nations in 1988. After four days of secret word-by-word editing, the final report will be issued Friday. The early versions of the report predict that by 2100 the sea level will rise anywhere between 5 and 23 inches. That's far lower than the 20 to 55 inches forecast by 2100 in a study published in the peer-review journal Science this month. Other climate experts, including NASA's James Hansen, predict sea level rise that can be measured by feet more than inches. The report is also expected to include some kind of proviso that says things could be much worse if ice sheets continue to melt. The prediction being considered this week by the IPCC is 'obviously not the full story because ice sheet decay is something we cannot model right now, but we know it's happening,' said Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate panel lead author from Germany who made the larger prediction of up to 55 inches of sea level rise. 'A document like that tends to underestimate the risk,' he said." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 5:35:39 AM

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