Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Salt Lake County Tops List of Toxic Releases The EPA has released the 2001 Toxic Release Index. The release shows that Salt Lake County with 60 Facilities releasing toxic chemicals, emitted nearly 732 million pounds of these chemicals into the air and water. Top 10 Counties with Largest TRI ON-Site nad Off-site Releases, All Industries, 2001 Nearly 696 million pounds of these chemicals belonged to the Kennecott Utah Copper Mine Concentrators and Power Plant in Copperton. Top 10 Facilities with Largest Total On-site and Off-site Releases, All Industries, 2001 Copper compounds led the list of chemicals released, with a United States total of over a billion pounds. Top 20 Chemicals with Largest TRI ON-site and Off-site Releases, All Industries, 2001 The top states for toxic chemical emissions are Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. TRI On-site and Off-site Releases by State 2001 Full EPA Report 11:31:01 AM

Utah County Receives SAMSHA Funds The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced a grant of over $300,000 to Utah County to add treatment slots to the drug court to assure service availability. Treatment drug courts provide substance abuse treatment for substance abusing parents and juveniles. [SAMSHA News Release] 2:37:13 PM

	Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Utah Medicine and Medicare The organization Public Citizen will hold a news conference tomorrow to discuss a new study showiing that most Medicare doctors in Utah do not participate with the private managed care plans that are envisioned in the Bush Administration's Medicare reform proposal. Meanwhile a look at the Public Citizen website has some interesting information about Utah doctors.  The Public Citizen site compiles information on disciplined doctors and reveals these facts: Utah ranks 10th in the nation in number of serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 MDs in 2001. Utah's access to disciplinary information was rated B for content and C for user-friendliness. The largest single offense for which doctors were disciplined from 1992  to 2001 was disciplinary action by another state or agency (24%) and overprescribing or misprescribing drugs (11%). [Public Citizen / Questionable Doctors] [Utah Disciplinary Actions] 1:35:50 PM

	Tuesday, June 03, 2003

Utah Medicaid Waiver Touted to help uninsured residents The Federal Health and Human Services Administration announced the approval of a Utah Medicaid waiver amendment that will provide subsidies to low-income workers with access to employer-sponsored insurance who cannot presently afford it. Individuals would have to make less than around $14,000 to qualify. Also, workers who qualify for the Primary Care Network will have their annual $50 enrollment fee reduced. All of this is an amendment to the 1115 waiver granted to the state in February of 2002 which expanded primary and preventitive services for Utah residents. [HHS Uninsured Initiative Information] [Utah Medicaid Program] [2002 Utah Waiver] [Utah Programs and Waivers] 1:21:19 PM

	Friday, May 23, 2003

States Get Medicaid Tax Relief Amerigroup, a multi-state managed health care company focused on communities receiving health care benefits through publicly sponsored programs, breaks down state savings resulting from a portion of the newly passed Tax package that provides $10 billion in fiscal relief for states. Utah should receive a total of $117 million dollars. [Amerigroup] 12:17:40 PM

	Thursday, May 22, 2003

Utah Receives FEMA Grant The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that Utah would be one of 12 states to each receive nearly $250,000 to support development of hazard mitigation plans meeting FEMA guidelines. These funds represent about 75% of the anticipated cost of these plans.  Such plans are aimed at controlling response to primarily natural hazards. [FEMA Announcement]  10:11:04 AM

Chemical Plants Redux Finding Offsite Consequence Analysis (OCA) data dealing with word-case and alternative release scenarios for chemical plants is problematic. The EPA offers a Vulnerable Zone Indicator System, which is somewhat misleading. It says Most of us have driven past an industrial plant and wondered what was happening inside. Did you ever think to yourself: I wonder what they're making in there. Could they be using hazardous chemicals? What if there is an accident...The Vulnerable Zone Indicator System allows you to quickly find out if an address of interest to you could be affected by a chemical accident. The implication seems to be that filling out this form will reveal significant information about any possible chemical threat. A sample submission to this form brought the following information buried in a return email: Results: The EPA's Vulnerable Zone Indicator System shows that the location you submitted is likely to be in at least one RMP facility's vulnerable zone. One is then directed to a page which notes that actual information about which chemical plant and the nature of the danger is not available over the internet. Other options on this page: 1) ask someone at a regulated facility; they may choose to share this information. (Of course you would have to know what the plant is first). 2) Executive summaries of RMPs (Risk Management Plans) which leads to a dead link (and again, in any case, knowledge of the plant involved would be necessary).  3) Federal Reading Rooms (Utah's link leads to a dead page). 4) Utah's State Emergency Response Commission Contacts (at http://www.epa.gov/ceppo/serclist.htm#ut, and 5) right back around to the Vulnerable Zone Indicator System. Apparently, access to these RMP reports has been limited since 9/11, although proposed EPA restrictions on this information date back to April of 2000. [Vulnerable Zone Indicator System] [Washington Post Article 2000] 9:52:55 AM

	Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Chemical Plants, Terrorists, and Greanpeace Sen. Jon Corzine of New Jersey has been pushing a bill in Congress (Chemical Security Act) that would require chemical plants with "worst-case scenarios" filed with the EPA that would put people at risk of terrorist attacks to submit vulnerability assessments, increase security and implement safer practices. Although the bill was supported by a broad range of advocates, from national security proponents to environmentalist groups like Greanpeace, recent lobbying from major chemical associations and industry goups and put the bill offtrack. In March the GAO issued a report highlighting the risk posed by unsecured chemical plants to terrorist attacks. Utah is listed by the EPA as containing 1 (unidentified) chemical plant whose required "worst-case scenario" submission indicated vulnerability to terrorist attack. [GAO Report] [EPA Chemical Plant Information] 10:01:41 AM

Halliburton, Asbestos Texas corporate giant Halliburton, recently awarded a no-bid contract to do reconstruction work on postwar Iraq is also being watched carefully by investors because of the impending settlement and limits to asbestos litigation, a problem dogging its subsidiary, Dresser Industries. Sen. Orrin Hatch is prepared to introduce legislation in Congress calling for the creation of a universal asbestos trust fund of $108 billion dollars, to be financed by insurers and companies facing asbestos claims, that would be the sole source for future liability claims. The bill would move thousands of pending asbestos-related claims out of state courts and into a five-judge federal court. The AFL-CIO has denounced the proposal as a corporate bailout. [Business Week] 9:42:31 AM

	Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Utah Considered for Mercury Storage Utah is one of the sites being considered by the Federal Government for stockpiling of mercury. Mercury is used in the manufacture of atomic bombs and has been linked to human neurological, reproductive and immune problems. Other sites being considered are in New York and Nevada. [Mercury Management] 11:40:57 AM

	Thursday, May 15, 2003

Provo Foundry Focus of Federal Probe McWane Inc. has been in the spotlight recently, the subject of television documentaries and newspaper features, for its remarkable record of workplace safety and environmental pollution. Now the federal Justice Department has opened a probe of the company which has one of its foundries, the Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Company, in Provo. A former executive of McWane said that in 1999 and 2000, the Provo foundry was falsifying air emission tests. The New York Times reports today than a former engineer for Pacific States said that the plant had systematically lied about smokestack test results to Utah air quality officials. The company is one of the larger employers in Utah County, with 300 employees. (Utah County Web Site). An info.utah.gov search of Pacific States shows that the company has received several violation notices from the Division of Air Quality, on 10/15/99, 8/11/00, and 11/14/01. Pacific States was issued a new 5 year operating permit (required by Title V of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments) by DEQ on April 10 of this year. (Title V Permits Issued). Utah compliance inspector Robert Simine told the Times, If a company intentionally wants to falsify records or produce more than they are allowed to produce or burn a lot of hazardous waste, then there is no way we can catch them unless an insider decides to report it. [Allowables for Companies within the PM10 SIP Domain (Excel spreadsheet) [New York Times (Registration required)] 8:54:05 AM

	Wednesday, May 14, 2003

NRC To Conduct Skull Valley Nuclear Waste Hearing The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will conduct two sessions May 29 on the application of Private Fuel Storage, LLC to build and operate a temporary above-ground storage facility for spent nuclear fuel on the Goshute Reservation about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The hearing will be held in Rockville, MD. PFS has requested the Board to issue a license for a smaller facility than originally proposed, falling below the aircraft crash hazard threshold. 10:04:15 AM

	Wednesday, May 07, 2003

Psychiatric Treatment of Children - Part II Utah Representative Katherine Bryson testified before a House Subcommitee yesterday on her view about HB1107, a measure that would prohibit schools from mandating the use of such drugs as Ritalin by students as a precondition of attending school.  Her testimony is here. Meanwhile, Roll Call reports that opposition to any prescription of drugs such as Ritalin or any psychiatric techniques continues to be pushed by The Church of Scientology's Citizen's Commission on Human Rights. 10:10:09 AM