As there are multiplier effects for economic development around large industrial projects so are there large negative externalities that go unaccounted for.

Town of Pines, Indiana

The problem is that local communities end up carrying a disproportionate burden of the negative effects while the benefits are often directed elsewhere. These kinds of social economic arrangements are dependent on asymmetrical knowledge. This tends to be more true than not when the local community is minority and poor.

This is a continuing problem for communities on the southern shores of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana. Here, we have a particular knack for amplifying negative effects. It usually involves; an archaic industry (Steel, Oil, and Coal dependent energy) with archaic ways looking to offload an ungodly large environmental risk, a few prominent environmentalists, a cozy environmental protection agency - IDEM, a few economic development gurus, and opportunistic politicians. From one community to the next, the Southern Shore has become a string of environmental hazards.

via [ Circle of Blue ] Coal Ash: Town’s Toxic Water Embodies National Challenge: Dirty Legacy Contaminates Groundwater of an Indiana Town by Aaron Jaffe

Faces from the Town of Pines from Aaron Jaffe on Vimeo.

TOWN OF PINES, Ind. — Peggy Richardson was still in high school nearly 40 years ago when trucks began dumping the ash from a nearby coal-fired power plant in this working-class community 50 miles east of Chicago.

Like the other 800 residents, she and her family never considered whether there was a risk when a heap of ash –- known here as Yard 520 — steadily grew into a mountain of coal wastes a half-mile long and four stories tall, higher than any building in town.

Even today the risks of coal ash in the Town of Pines are not perfectly clear. In addition to Yard 520, ash was spread across the town, dumped as the foundation for roads and as fill for construction sites. Nine years ago, a resident alerted the federal Environmental Protection Agency that there was something wrong with their drinking water. The EPA found heavy metals and other contaminants in groundwater in the region.

EPA testing resulted in the discovery of about 30 homes with contaminated wells. The affected homes were located in two areas. One section is between Liberty and Ash streets, and U.S. 12 and 20. The other, smaller area is located between Columbia and Idaho streets and U.S. 12 and East Johns Street.

EPA site [ Pines Ground Water Plumb ]

Though it is one of the largest coal ash piles in the Great Lakes basin, Yard 520 nevertheless is just one example of the trail of some 600 impoundments, landfills, and storage ponds for coal wastes that are scattered across the Midwest and other regions of the United States, according to the EPA. Some 63 are toxic and leaking. Most have grown to huge dimensions, in part because neither the federal nor state governments required the same stringent health and environmental safeguards that apply to municipal landfills or chemical toxic waste sites.

That may change. In December a coal ash storage pond in Tennessee ruptured, spilling more than a billion gallons of ash slurry laden with heavy metals — a spill 50 times larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster — into tributaries of the Tennessee River. In a new report published earlier this month that was prompted by the Tennessee incident, the EPA detailed 44 “high hazard potential” coal ash storage pond dump sites across the country.

Yard 520 is not one of those high hazard sites. But its rigorously documented history of seeps and water contamination make it an emblem of the multiple costs of generating power from coal and a factor in the growing national debate over clean energy, climate change and the American economy.
There are more than 500 power plants across the United States that burn coal, producing more than 100 million tons of coal ash annually — enough to fill a million railroad cars. Some ash finds its way into industry products, but more than half of it is dumped into landfills like Yard 520 or into holding ponds like those in Tennessee.

Regardless of the storage method, environmental scientists say, when water and coal ash mix they generate hazardous compounds that are readily mobile. In the Town of Pines, toxins from the coal ash mixed with the shallow water table to release a plume of contamination into the town’s groundwater. The legacy of this town’s ash pile is the long-running struggle here to secure clean fresh water.

In the early 1970s, the Northern Indiana Public Service Corporation began dumping ash from its nearby coal-fired power plant in a cattail-filled wetland in the Town of Pines. Mixing with the groundwater, the ash generated a plume of contaminants that seeped from the landfill, according to the EPA. Toxic levels of heavy metals, including lead, arsenic, manganese and boron seeped into the town’s wells.

[ Read more ]

To think these properties are adjacent to the Dune National Lakeshore

Thomas The Water I Drink

There is a lot to celebrate today.

via [ WBEZ - Chicago Public Radio ] Michael Puente

via [ NWI Times ] East Chicago Mayor George Pabey indicted

East Chicago Mayor George Pabey and an employee of the city’s engineering department have been indicted in Hammond federal court on criminal charges they conspired to use city property and services in a home that Pabey purchased in Gary’s Miller Beach neighborhood.

The four count indictment was announced Wednesday afternoon, and names the 59-year-old Pabey and Jose Angel Camacho, a 52-year-old supervisor in the city’s engineering department who is currently assigned to the East Chicago Marina.

Pabey and Camacho are expected to surrender and appear Thursday for an initial appearance in Hammond federal court.

“This is another indictment in the ongoing federal effort to investigate public corruption,” U.S. Attorney David Capp said. “Our office will continue to investigate allegations of corruption and we will follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

East Chicago spokesman Damian Rico said city officials wouldn’t comment Wednesday, and that Pabey would issue a statement mid-day Thursday.

Federal prosecutors allege that between October 2007 and August 2008 Pabey and Camacho conspired to use city employees and money to remodel and renovate the Gary home that Pabey owns at 8530 Locust Avenue.

Specifically, Pabey and Camacho used East Chicago employees to pour concrete, paint and complete general home improvements at the Locust Avenue house.

While performing the work, employees were paid by the City of East Chicago.

The indictment also alleges that Camacho used an engineering department account to purchase items for the Miller Beach residence, including bathtub fixtures, a 40-gallon gas heater and doors.

The purchases were billed to and paid for by the city, and East Chicago employees installed the items in the Miller Beach residence, prosecutors allege.

According to the indictment, Camacho later attempted to interfere with witnesses, and approached a city employee who worked at the Miller residence, telling them to investigators about his work at the home. Count 4 of the indictment alleges that Camacho approached another city employee and told that employee not to tell investigators anything about having worked at the Miller residence.

The indictment also seeks forfeiture of any property considered proceeds from the alleged criminal activity.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General.

More to come?

Thomas Local

There is not doubt I tend to conflate the political economy on the southern shores of Lake Michigan with Israel’s occupation & settlement of Palestinian land. Granted there are significant limits to this comparison. Yet, it is clear the concentration of negative externalities attributable to our nation’s heavy industrial base seriously impairs our fence line communities and is very much a scar on the values of Democracy we hold dear. Simply put, Democracy does not exist here.

Existing Conditions:

• A Gated Industrial Community
• Arguably the most polluted waters in the country - the Indiana Harbor Shipping Canal (IHSC): The only waterway to fail all beneficial uses.
  • Joerse Beach: most contaminated beach in the Great Lakes and third most in the country.
• Arguably the most polluted air-shed in the country - Lake county indiana ranking as the 9th most polluted air-shed in the country with the sources of pollution concentrated on East Chicago’s lakefront
• >80% of East Chicago’s land-use is dedicated to heavy industry - ~50 of these industrial lands are out of productive use and considered contaminated, e.g., brownfields
  • 14% of East Chicago’s land-use is dedicated Residential - ~17% of these residential properties are apart of a superfund site.

When I look at the impact our nation’s heavy industrial base has had on the local populations, culture, land, air, water and biology in my community, I see a misapplication of rights and justice - environmental justice. This prompts me to identify the problems with the fragmented pattern of land use, populations, and the expression of political will seen in the mapping of Palestinian lands.

From the [ American Friends Service Committee ]

via [ Matthew Yglesias ]

One of the lessons I took away from the Carter controversy was that the use of the term “apartheid” seems to shut down people’s critical faculties and make them defensive. So I generally prefer to set it aside. The point is that there’s a political system in the West Bank where the Jewish residents have the right to vote, have privileged access to water, have exclusive access to some roadways, have privileged rights to travel, etc., none of which are shared by the non-Jewish residents. You can call it what you like, but it’s not democracy.

Thomas International

Thomas View of Lake Michigan

Thomas Misc

via [ Feltron ]

Thomas Information Graphics

via [ digital urban ]

Second Movie of the ‘Growing’ London Underground Network from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Thomas Information Graphics

The apparatus of manufacturing opinion & the development of a national paranoia

via [ New York Times Magazine ] January 27, 2010

Thomas Visual Culture

Thomas Information Graphics

During these difficult economic times there are many losers, including our land, water, air, biology and the local population.

This is what I see when I look at existing conditions and opportunities along the southern shores of Lake Michigan here in East Chicago. Below is a vision to reindustrialize our lakefront.

Existing Conditions:

• A Gated Industrial Community
• Arguably the most polluted waters in the country - the Indiana Harbor Shipping Canal (IHSC)
  • Joerse Beach: most contaminated beach in the Great Lakes and third most in the country.
• Arguably the most polluted air-shed in the country - Lake county indiana ranking as the 9th most polluted air-shed in the country with the sources of pollution concentrated on East Chicago’s lakefront
• >80% of East Chicago’s land-use is dedicated to heavy industry - ~50 of these industrial lands are out of productive use and considered contaminated, e.g., brownfields
  • 14% of East Chicago’s land-use is dedicated Residential - ~17% of these residential properties are apart of a superfund site.

via [ NWI Times ]

“Blast furnace restart could jump-start 750 jobs - MARKET DEMAND PROMPTS MITTAL TO FIRE UP INDIANA HARBOR WORKS NO. 4 FURNACE” by

Read more…

Thomas East Chicago, Northwest Indiana, View of Lake Michigan

via [ Matthew Yglesias ]

Thomas National

via [ NYTimes ]

Bob Noorda, an internationally known graphic designer who helped introduce a Modernist look to advertising posters, corporate logos and, in the 1960s, the entire New York City subway system, died on Jan. 11 in Milan, his adopted city. He was 82.

The cause was complications of head trauma suffered in a fall, said Duska Karanov, a designer in the Noorda Design studio in Milan.

“Don’t bore the public with mysterious designs,” Mr. Noorda once said, and he put that dictum into practice. He was a master of spare, elegant and logical designs that caught the eye, from minimalist corporate logos for the Italian publishing house Feltrinelli and the ENI Group of Milan to impressionistic posters for Pirelli, the Italian tire maker.

Mr. Noorda’s best-known work in the United States was for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which in 1966 commissioned his firm, Unimark International, to modernize and unify the look of the subway system’s signs. The firm had been recommended by Mildred Constantine, an influential design curator at the Museum of Modern Art

Thomas Design

via [ Post-Trib ] “Hauler of no help, cleanup crew says” by Teresa Auch Schultz

HAMMOND — Officials are at a loss to know what, if any, pollutants were in a spill on 165th Street on Monday because the hauling company doesn’t have the necessary records, an official said.

The spill happened when a truck carrying sediment from the Grand Calumet dredging project was cut off by another driver and hit the breaks around 11 a.m. Monday on 165th between Columbia Avenue and Indianapolis Boulevard, said Ron Novak, Hammond environmental manager director.

The material in the truck shifted and spilled onto the road, causing police to shut it down for about three to four hours, Hammond Police Lt. Rich Hoyda said.

Read more…

Thomas Environment

via [ the Washington Note ]

Columbia University Professor and world renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz spoke at a New America Foundation/Economic Growth Program public policy forum about his new book, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy.

Thomas Economics

via [ Planetizen ]

For possibly the first time, the EPA has issued a report the directly links climate change mitigation with local land use strategies, says Patty Salkin.

The EPA’s new report is called “An Assessment of Decision-Making Processes: The Feasibility of Incorporating Climate Change Information into Land Protection Planning.

“Says Prof. Salkin, “Although this report focuses only on land preservation programs, it may signal the beginning of some thoughtful and needed discussions in (the) area of federalism and climate change.”

Abstract via [ Law of the land ]

Land protection decisions are long-term, hard to reverse, and resource intensive.  Therefore these decisions are important to consider in the context of climate change, because climate change may directly affect the services intended for protection and because parcel selection can exacerbate or ameliorate certain impacts. This research examined the decision-making processes of selected programs that protect land to assess the feasibility of incorporating climate-change impacts into the evaluation of land protection programs. The research focused on a sample of the LandVote database, which documents land protection ballot initiatives that sought to protect wildlife and watersheds. Of this sample, we reviewed the decision-making frameworks of 19 programs. Most programs use quantitative evaluation criteria and a bottom-up process for selecting parcels. Almost all programs have one or more advisory committees. The  analysis revealed that strategies that might be useful for incorporating climate change into decision making include new decision-support tools for advisory committees, promulgation of different land protection models, and educational outreach for elected officials. As jurisdictions learn more about possible climate change impacts, certain land protection strategies may become more desirable and feasible as part of a portfolio of adaptation strategies that ameliorate impacts on watersheds and wildlife.

Full Report

Thomas Case Studies, The Land I Use, Urbanism

via [ Post-Trib ] by Gitte Laasby

DNA from Asian carp has been detected in Lake Michigan for the first time — but it’s still not certain whether the fish themselves have entered the lake, a federal official said Tuesday.

Major Gen. John Peabody of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that two pathways for the carp to reach Lake Michigan are the Grand Calumet River and the Little Calumet River, which might be sampled next.

“We have not sampled in that area, but we will take a look at that,” Peabody said. “Both of those waterways are possible vectors for the migration or the travel of Asian carp or other species between the lake and the Chicago-area waterway system.”

Peabody said federal officials will confer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources on where water samples should be collected next. A plan should be ready in a month or two.

One sample of genetic material from the invasive carp was found Dec. 8 in Calumet Harbor, which is part of Lake Michigan. Federal officials insisted that does not mean carp have actually reached the lake.

“Our current eDNA process provides indications of likely presence, but it does not yet provide information about Asian carp quantity that may be present, age, size, how they got there or how long they may have been there,” said David Lodge, director of the eDNA project at the University of Notre Dame.

Peabody said no live or dead fish have been spotted in Lake Michigan but that agencies will use netting and other tactics to search for stronger evidence.

The university processes 40 samples a week and has a backlog of 440 samples from the region, he said.

But the Army Corps still doesn’t intend to close the locks and gates that form the final barrier between waterways near Chicago and the lake, he said.

The Supreme Court had refused earlier Tuesday to order the immediate closure of two shipping locks — Navy Pier and O’Brien south of downtown Chicago — to prevent Asian carp from infesting the Great Lakes.

Scientists fear if carp reach the Great Lakes, they could disrupt the food chain and endanger the $7 billion fishery.

Asian carp can grow 4 feet long and weigh 100 pounds while consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in plankton — the foundation of the Great Lakes food web. Scientists have said the carp, which have no predators, could starve out sport fish, such as trout and salmon.

The carp are spooked by passing motors and often hurtle from the water, colliding with boaters forcefully enough to break bones.

The court rejected Michigan’s request to shut the locks and gates temporarily while officials and interest groups debate a long-term strategy. Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin filed briefs supporting Michigan.

The Obama administration opposes closing the locks, saying such action could cause flooding in Chicago and would disrupt the transportation of coal and other commodities on waterways linking Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River system.

Asian carp have been migrating up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers for decades. Federal officials said they weren’t sure how the carp may have come so close to Lake Michigan.

Biologists have speculated that carp might have slipped through the electric barriers when the Army Corps turned off power to them for about a week in October 2008 to do maintenance. Another theory is that the barriers may not have been strong enough, or turned up enough, to fend off younger fish.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Alliance for the Great Lakes response

Thomas The Water I Drink, View of Lake Michigan

via [ NY Times ] “Guantanamo Reunion, by Way of BBC” by Brian Stelter

New to Facebook, Brandon Neely was searching the site for acquaintances in 2008 when he typed in the names of some of the detainees he had guarded during his tenure as a prison guard at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Captor and Captives Meet Post Guantánamo - NYTimes.com.

Thomas International

via [ Andrew Sullivan ]

Thomas Information Graphics

“What’s It All Mean” - Retrospect at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

via [ NY Times ] “In Case You Missed the Revolution, Man” by Ken Johnson

Thomas Painting, What I am Looking at

via [ AP ]

DETROIT — Water levels in the Great Lakes are continuing a two-year rebound.

The Detroit News reports today that the latest estimates from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers show levels in the Lake Michigan-Huron system and Lake Superior are between five inches and nine inches above levels from one year ago.

Statistics also show Lake St. Clair is one inch lower than last year, and Ontario is three inches lower.

Army Corps data indicates Lakes Ontario, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Superior ended November within inches of historical levels for this time of year. Lake St. Clair is slightly above its historical level.

The lakes had been declining for most of the past decade

Thomas View of Lake Michigan