1/7/14

EPA announces brownfields funds

The US Environmental Protection Agency contributed over $47 million in funding programs for South Dakota in 2012 through the GOP-owned Department of Ecocide and Natural Ruination (DENR). EPA has posted funding opportunities for 2014. Here is the page for EPA's Office of Brownfields & Land Revitalization.

It's no secret that South Dakota is a chemical toilet.

Last year EPA imposed fines for violations by ethanol facilities in Aberdeen and Huron:
EPA inspections conducted in January, 2012 found that Advanced BioEnergy’s ethanol plants had deficiencies in their Risk Management Plans associated with the use and storage of hazardous chemicals. Advanced BioEnergy also failed to accurately file TRI forms detailing the chemicals processed, manufactured or used at its facilities.
South Dakota's K Street-owned christofascist junior senator Thune was a lobbyist for industrial chemical companies before his handlers bought him a blogger and a Senate seat.
A Pierre man was arrested Friday night on several drug charges at a Pierre residence. Police Captain Elton Blemaster says Christopher Hashman, 31, was arrested after there were reports of illegal drug activity happening at a home in the Lakeview Trailer Court. Hashman was charged with Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor, Possession of a Controlled Substance, Distribution or Manufacturing of a Controlled Substance, Ingestion of a Controlled Substance and a detainer.[KCCR Radio News]
Rapid City sez: screw you, Mr. President but thanks for the dough!
In our view, Ellsworth’s future is dependent on approval of the Powder River Training Complex. Expanding the current training area would remove a potential strike against Ellsworth in a future base closure round. Thune told the Journal editorial board that approval of the training complex is vital to keeping Ellsworth open. [somewhere out in deep right field]


Thirty minutes after I tweeted those observations a B1-B caught fire and nosed into the Powder River Training Complex in southeastern Montana: another incident that grounded operations at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, South Dakota.

While the cause of the explosion and fire that injured airmen has been determined the why remains a mystery.

Accidents have plagued the aircraft:
Back in 1997, [a B-1B attached to] the 28th Bomb Wing of the 37th Bomb Squadron from Ellsworth crashed in Alzada, Montana. That is in the same county as Monday's crash. Unfortunately, in that crash the four crew members lost their lives. One year later, in 1998, the same Bomb Wing crashed into the Indian Ocean on its way to a combat mission in Afghanistan. Those four crew members survived and were rescued by a Navy ship in the area. [Sammi Bjelland, KELO]


Snipped from the Black Hills Pioneer:
On Dec. 12, 2001, a B-1 crashed into the Indian Ocean near the island of Diego Garcia. A cause has never been determined. The crew had reported having difficulty controlling the bomber. All four crewmen ejected safely, including the pilot and co-pilot, who were from Ellsworth. The aircraft was destroyed.
From a piece by the AP's Dirk Lammers in the Great Falls Tribune:
In April 2008, an Ellsworth B-1B bomber caught fire after landing at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The crew members all escaped safely. A month earlier, an Ellsworth B-1B collided with two emergency-response vehicles during landing after reporting an in-flight emergency at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.
Recall this from Tom Lutey's piece in the Billings Gazette:
Ellsworth Air Force Base officials say plans for a South Carolina-sized training area over portions of four western states are moving ahead. A key piece of the approval process, a final environmental impact statement, has not been finalized. Spokesman Maj. Matthew Reese said the EIS is out of Ellsworth’s hands. The base has moved on to arranging meetings with state and tribal governments in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota.
There were numerous concerns when the Air Force held public hearings about the 27,500-square-mile Powder River Training Complex in 2009. Two years ago, U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, D-Mont., asked the Air Force not to expand the PRTC into southeastern Montana.
After the 1997 crash of a B-1 in Carter County a responding volunteer firefighter from Alzada told this interested party the multi-million dollar aircraft was brought down by a rancher with a .30-30 Winchester.

There is a movement in DC aimed at convening the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) so the move to ground the EAFB aircraft should come as little surprise to Rep. Krusti Noem (earth hater-SD).

With voices of the cut, cut, cut from her ALEC/Tea Party handlers in one ear while the armed services industry in her other ear telling her that they are worried about losing their cushy relationships with Ellsworth Air Force Base, Noem mused in committee:
the least disruption to national readiness was to "first focus on support systems such as military schools . . . rather than going after -- seeking to close bases that house bombers or fighter wings."
Ellsworth's sister brother codependent facility, Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, Montana recently failed a key nuclear weapons evaluation.

It's time for endangered sage grouse to get a reprieve from extirpation: close this training range and convert Ellsworth to a fire-fighting tanker base.

Senator don Juan Thune (earth hater-SD) was for extending jobless benefits before he was against them.
A $6.4 billion plan to extend unemployment insurance benefits to eligible workers for another three months cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday as 60 senators -- including six Republicans -- voted to move ahead with debate on the measure. Democrats got help from Republicans Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire; Dan Coats of Indiana; Susan Collins of Maine; Dean Heller of Nevada, Lisa Murkowski of Arkansas; and Rob Portman of Ohio. [Ted Barrett and Halimah Abdullah, CNN]
Thune abstained from participating in the confirmation vote of Janet Yellen for Chair of the Federal Reserve, too. Talking Points Memo is telling readers that the fight over a safety net for workers will likely continue.


Now, Thune is on yet another crusade: to end environmental protection. Someone in his staff writes in the Rapid City Journal:
Most recently, the EPA provided the environmental groups Earth Justice [sic], the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the environmental arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts personal producer information for 80,000 livestock farms around the country, including farms right here in South Dakota. While the records released by the EPA cover properties in more than 30 states, the information included more than 500 livestock operations in South Dakota.
"here in South Dakota:" as written from where? Virginia?

From Jeff Miller at The Center for Biological Diversity
Many EPA-approved pesticides are linked to cancer and other severe health effects in humans. Some pesticides can act as endocrine disruptors, interfering with natural hormones, damaging reproductive function and offspring, and causing developmental, neurological and immune problems in wildlife and humans. Endocrine-disrupting pesticides cause sexual deformities such as intersex fish (with male and female parts) that cannot reproduce. Scientists believe that pesticides may also play a role in colony collapse disorder, the recent mass disappearance of bees that are agriculturally important pollinators.
So, as The Founding Fathers institutionalized slavery, John Thune wants to make us all food slaves. Thune isn't protecting South Dakota: he is covering his own ass.

Pink slime is in the news again.

Its fabricator, Beef Products, Inc., is a major campaign contributor to both GOP members of South Dakota's congressional delegation. Sen. don Juan Thune sang their praises in a story written by Denise Ross and published in the Mitchell Daily Republic. Here's a quote from the state's junior Senator:
“This is about a product that USDA has stated is safe for consumption. All of us have been consumers of the product produced by BPI. As more facts come out and are shown to be the truth, I hope there’s a way of getting the genie back in the bottle.”
A judge blocked Iowa State University from releasing documents about the manufacture of the product Thune sells for his client:
District Judge Dale Ruigh ruled last month that releasing the information would cause "irreparable harm" to Sioux Falls, SD-based Beef Products, Inc., by revealing information about proprietary food-processing techniques.--The Associated Press, published in the Rapid City Journal.
Pink slime: greasing SDGOP one tube at a time.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Larry Thune's hypocrisy talking about being a fiscal conservative yet fueling the military industrial complex. A new bomber program will be hyper expensive and we don't need it. Besides whatever intellectual developments we put into it the Chinese and other governments will hack it unless we do something about cyber security. What a bunch of BS! Lynn G.

January 7, 2014 at 1:49 PM

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