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East Side oil recycler replaces part
 COLUMBUS — “An East Side refinery with a history of odor issues drew the attention of state officials again yesterday after neighbors reported a stench to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Ohio EPA inspectors who visited the Heartland Refinery Group’s used-oil refinery found the odors emanating from a cracked pipe.
Erica Snedegar, Heartland’s vice president of sales and marketing, said workers replaced the pipe.
The plant initially was praised by local officials and state EPA officials as a “green” recycling business when it opened in February 2009 because it would clean old motor oil and sell it for new use.
In December 2009, about 4,000 people around the plant at 4001 E. 5th Ave. were evacuated when a gasket blew, releasing a cloud of what firefighters feared might be hydrogen sulfide gas.
The Ohio EPA filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in June to demand fixes at the plant.
In related court hearings in August and September, Judge Harland H. Hale rejected state requests to close the plant until a plan to eliminate the problems was in place.”
— Spencer Hunt, Columbus Dispatch
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 COLUMBUS — A new figure has entered the Baard Energy story: Kautilya “Tony” Sharma. The first time Tony Sharma’s name appeared in the Baard documents, obtained by public records requests, was on October 12, 2010. That day, Baard Vice President Steve Dopuch wrote, “Tony has asked to set up an 11:00 AM conference call tomorrow,” in a message to Baard CEO John Baardson, Baard Vice President Craig Conner, Columbiana County Port Authority CEO Tracy Drake, Tony Sharma, and Perian Salviola, identified by Baard as the owner of Planck Trading.
The documents show the following happened the next day:
9:48 AM: Tracy Drake wrote Baardson, Dopuch and Conner.
At our Board meeting this afternoon, we’ll be ready to authorize the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] with Tony. I’ll need Tony’s information asap to put into the MOU. To educate the public, please prepare a press release the outlines the relationship between Tony and Baard Energy. Also, I’d like to have you and Tony call in at 3:15 to discuss the matter with my Executive Committee.
1:48 PM: Steve Dopuch wrote Glenda Schaefer of the Port Authority that the signatory for the Memorandum of Understanding would be Perian Salviola of Planck Trading.
2:51 PM: Steve Dopuch wrote, “John, Tony, me and possibly Craig” would be calling into a conference call at 3:15 PM.
No press release was issued and there has been no mention of Mr. Sharma in subsequent public statements by Drake, Dopuch or Baardson.
The documents don’t explain why, in the morning, the Memorandum of Understanding was planned to be with Tony Sharma, but by the afternoon it had changed to Perian Salviola. Nor why, if the relationship was to be with Salviola, she wasn’t on the conference call to discuss it rather than Sharma. Nor why none of the spokespeople have mentioned Sharma since.
In 2004, the federal government prosecuted Mr. Sharma for securities fraud. After he was arrested, Judge James Hopkins ordered Sharma held without bail as a flight risk, accepting the prosecutor’s arguments, including the following:
The Government noted that the case involves approximately $7.6 million in stock loans, and that over $5 million in proceeds went to the Defendant, his family or his business entities. The Government also proffered that the Defendant has bank accounts and businesses located offshore, in the Bahamas and India, and that much of the proceeds from the stock loan transactions was transferred to these offshore accounts and businesses, including to an uncle in India. Moreover, the Government notes that the Defendant has stated in the past that if he ever got into trouble, all he had to do was hit the doors of the New Delhi airport, where he could easily obtain a fraudulent death certificate and disappear. The Defendant has also stated that he can always get the money he needs for his companies, that he has extensive familial and political ties to India, and that his wife’s family is worth over $150 million. The Defendant had planned to travel to India to set up more companies during the weekend of May 15, 2004; however, he was taken into custody before he had the opportunity to leave. The Defendant is reportedly closing his businesses, including Geek Securities, and his employees are either leaving or not getting paid. The Defendant is also alleged to be four (4) months behind in his mortgage payments, and his children have been sent to live with relatives.
In the end, Tony Sharma pled guilty and on October 18, 2004, was sentenced to 58 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years supervised release. Among the conditions for his release was the following:
The defendant shall not be engaged in any business that offers securities, investments, or business opportunities to the public. . . .The defendant shall not own, operate, act as a consultant, be employed in, or participate in any manner as a broker-dealer, equity trader, financial and operational principal, general securities principal, general securities registered representative, options principal or financial advisor during the period of supervision.
If Mr. Sharma is still under supervised release, it is not clear whether his signing the Memorandum of Understanding would have violated this condition, nor whether his current role with Baard would violate it.
— Paul Ryder, Organizing Director, Ohio Citizen Action
 In this photo taken Dec. 15, 2010, pecan grower Harvey Hayek walks past a fallen dead Pecan tree limb as he walks back to his truck in Ellinger, Texas. (David J. Phillip) BASTROP, TX — “Along a stretch of Highway 21, in a pastoral, hilly region of Texas, is a vegetative wasteland. Trees are barren, or covered in gray, dying foliage and peeling bark. Fallen, dead limbs litter the ground where pecan growers and ranchers have watched trees die slow, agonizing deaths.
Visible above the horizon is what many plant specialists, environmentalists and scientists believe to be the culprit: the Fayette Power Project — a coal-fired power plant for nearly 30 years has operated mostly without equipment designed to decrease emissions of sulfur dioxide, a component of acid rain.”
— Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press
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 CINCINNATI — “Rumpke Haul-it-Away is partnering with St. Vincent de Paul to divert additional items from the waste stream.
Haul-it-Away, Rumpke’s full service garbage collection and removal team, removes unwanted items such as furniture and appliances directly from any location at homes or businesses. Once collected, a team of professionals sorts through items and properly disposes of them through recycling, charitable donations or disposal.
‘Our goal is to recycle or donate the majority of items collected on our jobs,’ said Gary Sheppard, Haul-it-Away manager. ‘Our partnership with St. Vincent de Paul will help us meet our diversion goals.’”
— press release, Rumpke
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EPA report found manganese levels fluctuate; more studies planned
 Warren Elementary School MARIETTA — “The final report from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study that measured air quality at three local schools has been released, but more monitoring is expected.
The study, which began in August 2009 and measured pollutants in the air at Warren Elementary School, the Ohio Valley Educational Service Center in Marietta and Neale Elementary School in Vienna, W.Va., found that all three sites had fluctuating levels of manganese that sometimes were higher than the level thought to be safe.
‘The bottom line is that it’s running above what the EPA has said is a safe level and that does give cause for concern,’ said Dick Wittberg, executive director of the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department. ‘Part of the EPA’s conundrum is that at this point, they don’t know the effects of manganese on human health. They’ve said in the report that there is no immediate health concern, but I don’t know how they can say that because none of us really know.’”
— Kate York, Marietta Times
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 COLUMBUS — Baard Energy has just missed another deadline. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio had given Baard until December 27 to respond to CH2MHill’s plaintiff’s motion and affidavit for default judgment seeking $229,466.75 for breach of contract. The contractor is suing for payment of bills dating back to 2008, for work performed on the proposed coal refinery in Wellsville, Ohio. As of this morning, the court docket shows neither a response by Baard nor the name of an attorney representing Baard.
— Paul Ryder, Organizing Director, Ohio Citizen Action
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC — “As the rates of learning disabilities, autism and related conditions rise, the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to release a roster of the pollutants likely to contribute to these or other neurological disorders.
In an ongoing, three-year effort, an EPA team has determined which developmental neurotoxicants — chemicals that damage a fetal and infant brain — may pose the biggest risk to the American public.
Some compounds on the EPA’s list are ubiquitous in household products, drinking water, medicine, and within the environment. They range from cadmium, used to etch colorful cartoons onto children’s glasses, to flame retardants used to fireproof upholstered furniture.”
— Sheila Kaplan, Politics Daily
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Coal operators, environmentalists ponder rebranding
BECKLEY, WV — “Coal operators and environmentalists have been pondering the value of a name since the revelation that the coal industry may push for ‘rebranding’ surface mining as ‘mountaintop development’ instead of ‘mountaintop removal.’
The process of blasting the top of a mountain to obtain its underground coal reserves instead of digging a mine has been a much easier target for environmentalists since it has become known as mountaintop removal. However, coal industry executives say the term ‘mountaintop development’ would paint a more accurate picture of the practice…
However, Vivian Stockman, an organizer for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that a flyover of the southern West Virginia coalfields suggests little development on former surface mine sites.
‘If they’re hoping to, you know, create shopping malls on some of these, I don’t know where they’re going to get all the shoppers,’ she said. ‘All the communities around these areas have been driven away.’”
— Taylor Kuykendall, Beckley Register-Herald Reporter
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 MIDDLETOWN — “It only takes a couple of milk jugs before Thomas Allen is out of room for his recycling.
The First Ward councilman said he has long awaited a new recycling bin with more capacity than his little toter. In January, his wish may be granted as a new contract with Rumpke Inc. will offer Middletown residents the chance to receive a larger, 65-gallon recycling bin free of charge.
The city Public Works Department is compiling a list of residents who want a new recycling bin. The receptacles will be delivered by Rumpke to residents as the program rolls out in January, said Dave Duritsch, Public Works director.”
— Jessica Heffner, Middletown Journal
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 John Baardson, CEO, Baard Energy. LISBON — “The Columbiana County Port Authority has received $600,000 to purchase some of the land for the Baard Energy project, but another option extension will be needed for the remaining property.
Port Authority CEO Tracy Drake said they received $600,0000 late Wednesday, which is enough to exercise the option agreements to purchase some of the 522 acres outside Wellsville for Baard’s Ohio River Clean Fuels plant. The money is to come from Planck Trading LLC, a Florida-based investment firm that has agreed to provide the financing on behalf of Baard.
The port authority’s option agreements with the 17 landowners expire Dec. 31, and Drake said Baard officials told him the funding to purchase all of the land is coming as part of a larger financing package, but until that occurs the company is in a position to close on only some of the property acquisitions.
Drake believes the initial purchases will focus on the property that makes up the “core” of the project, and they are in the process of seeking option extensions on the remaining land that serves as a buffer around the core. Some of the $600,000 will be used to cover the option extension payments.”
— Tom Giambroni, Salem News
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Fuel plant investors meet deadline to keep project alive
WELLSVILLE —“County Port Authority CEO Tracy Drake tells 21 News Baard Energy has wired a 600-thousand dollar payment to purchase core properties needed to build a clean fuels plant in Wellsville.”
— WFMJ
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 AK Steel in Middletown, Ohio. photo by coalcampusa from flickr. MIDDLETOWN — “AK Steel received four notices of violations this year, most recently in September, from Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services for heavy smoke emissions. AK has since submitted a plan for corrective actions and, according to an environmental services official, the smoke is now clear.
‘In three hours of observation, there were no violations at all. At this point, we’re very pleased there were very dramatic corrections,’ said Mike Ploetz, environmental compliance specialist for Hamilton County Environmental Services, who addressed a letter today to AK’s Middletown Works Environmental Affairs Manager, Patrick Gallo, to that effect.
The observation on Friday showed that the oxygen furnace emissions were compliant for the three hours, but there will be additional monitoring to see if the improvement continues and returns the furnace to full compliance, according to Ploetz.
According to a letter addressed to Ploetz on Oct. 28, AK Steel ordered a new type of lance seal design that was supposed to be operational by Dec. 3. The seal design would create three barriers for smoke emissions: a nozzle to redirect nitrogen; better alignment of the hood to capture more fumes; and create an aspirating or sucking action to recirculate fumes from the hood to the nitrogen gas stream, according to the letter from Gallo.”
— Chelsey Levingston, Hamilton Journal-News
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The EPA plans to take a closer look at the manganese levels of schools which are near — and downriver from — a local manufacturing plant
 VIENNA, WV — “Wednesday was is the last day before the holiday break for youngsters at Vienna’s Neale Elementary School.
And while Neale is among the monitoring points for air for sites near Washington County’s Eramet ferroalloy plant, even when the kids are outdoors, the school takes precautions to ensure they aren’t affected by the manganese emissions the plant has had for years. One way is by laying mulch in the area around the school’s playground.
‘It’s a metal particle, and it wouldn’t land on the ground,’ says Neale Principal Michael Fling. ‘And if we’re putting on new mulch, we’re actually covering it up, and the exposure level would be reduced.’”
— Brad Bauer, WTAP
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 DURHAM, NC — “Today marks two years since a coal ash impoundment collapsed at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee, sending a billion-gallon tidal wave of toxic waste into a nearby community and rivers.
The disaster also pushed the issue of coal ash regulation into the public policy spotlight, with incoming Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson vowing to replace the existing patchwork of weak state regulations with federal rules to prevent a similar disaster in the future.
But on the second anniversary of the Kingston spill, the American public is still waiting for federal protections from the hazards of coal ash — with no idea when those might be in place.
This week the EPA released its upcoming regulatory agenda, which addresses the final rulemaking for coal ash. The agenda classes the coal ash rule as a ‘long-term action,’ with the date of the final release ‘to be determined.’”
— Sue Sturgis, Institute for Southern Studies
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Coalition wants utility to install equipment to reduce fish deaths
 AKRON — “A coalition of national and local environmental groups has filed an appeal of an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s decision on FirstEnergy Corp.’s Bay Shore power plant near Toledo and fish kills.
The Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Ohio Environmental Council and the Alliance for the Great Lakes have filed an appeal with the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission.
The eco-groups want the Akron utility to install cooling towers at the coal-fired plant in suburban Oregon to reduce fish killed by the plant’s water intakes and by releases of heated water to Lake Erie. Such a project could cost as much as $100 million.”
— Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal
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 Eramet in Marietta, Ohio VIENNA, WV — “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday the air around a Wood County elementary school requires further monitoring because sampling showed high levels of manganese.
The agency said there’s no immediate health concern for children at Neale Elementary in Vienna, or at two other schools across the Ohio River — Warren Elementary and The Ohio Valley Educational Service Center in Marietta, Ohio.
All three are affected by Eramet Marietta Inc., an Ohio metallurgical manufacturing plant that is the nation’s largest emitter of manganese.”
— Associated Press
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Letters supporting the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act 7,546 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and made personal phone calls urging state legislators to support the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act as of May 8, 2013.
Ohio coal-fired power plants
Resources on proposed Cleveland incinerator
AEP’s Muskingum River Power Plant
Letters to American Electric Power 989 neighbors have sent handwritten letters urging AEP to retire its Muskingum River coal plant as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Duke Energy 2,307 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and telewires urging Duke Energy to retire Miami Fort Unit 6 and Beckjord coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Kokosing Asphalt 8,709 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging Kokosing Asphalt to be a good neighbor as of February 25, 2011.
Letters to Rumpke 9,205 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging Rumpke to be a good neighbor as of April 15, 2011.
Letters to FirstEnergy 3,914 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging FirstEnergy to retire their four Lake Erie coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Mountaintop removal coal mining
Letters to Senator Sherrod Brown and Senator Rob Portman 6,615 members have sent handwritten letters and petitions to Senator Brown urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
3,751 members have petitioned Senator Portman urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
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COLUMBUS — “An East Side refinery with a history of odor issues drew the attention of state officials again yesterday after neighbors reported a stench to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
