All Entries in the "EnviroReporter" Category
City of LA to Feds – Clean up SSFL
The Los Angeles City Council votes unanimously to demand that NASA clean its polluted 450 acres at the Santa Susana Laboratory to background levels of radiation and chemical contamination. The victory comes courtesy of Councilmen Mitch Englander and Dennis Zine, two Republicans who aren’t fooled by NASA’s crafty maneuvering and Boeing’s meltdown makeover. Activists in city hall rejoice in victory which could save Los Angeles River from decades more pollution sluicing off the former Rocketdyne lab, site of three partial meltdowns and astronomical radiological and chemical contamination.
EnviroReporter’s 2012 Year in Review
2012 was a banner year for EnviroReporter.com’s in-depth investigations of Fukushima, Rocketdyne, Runkle Canyon, fracking, perchlorate and a host of controversial environmental issues. New Media technology helped propel site’s coverage to new levels of investigative journalism excellence as scandal after scandal are exposed by the multi-award winning news website.
Will SOPA Nuke the Internet?*
Don’t count on being able to access uncensored information about Fukushima, or anything else, if SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) or its Senate version PIPA (the Protect IP Act) becomes law. A crucial vote on SOPA is January 24 in Washington D.C. which will possibly change the Internet forever.
Toxies Take Tinseltown
Even the multiple meltdowns and melt-throughs in Japan at the worst nuclear reactor disaster in history can’t crimp the style of the Second Annual Toxies Red Carpet Awards for Bad Actor Chemicals taking place at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood California June 16, 2011 at 4 pm and is also streaming live on the Toxies website. This reporter’s favorite Toxie remains the silver siren with rocket booster boots named Perchlorate which has impacted water supplies in 43 states including California where millions drink this toxic rocket fuel oxidizer. Perchlorate the foxy Toxie redefines what it means to be bad.
AAN the Finalists are…
Deputy Editor, News of LA Weekly Jill Stewart surprises Michael Collins and EnviroReporter.com‘s editor Denise Duffield with word that our environmental exposés in the paper had made the finals in the AltWeekly Awards 2010 held by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies to be awarded July 16 in Toronto, Canada. Collins’ exposes on pollution hotspots Rocketdyne, Runkle Canyon, Corporate Pointe and the Brentwood nuclear dump resonate with the judges thanks in large part to these two delightful dynamos.
The Toxies
Just days before the 82nd Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, the First Annual Toxies Awards took place at the legendary Egyptian Theatre across the boulevard. A rogue’s gallery of “bad actors” with names like Trichloroethylene, Hydrofluoric Acid and Toluene competed for Toxies in this first-ever awards ceremony celebrating the worst of the 85,000 chemicals we come into contact with on a regular basis. One bad actor, Perchlorate, was a sleak silver rocket girl with thrusters for feet, so beautiful as fireworks, she was ‘the chemical that launched a thousand rockets’ including mine.
Challenger Remembered
EnviroReporter.com remembers the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger that perished 24 years ago January 28, 1986. These people represent the very best of this country and of this planet. Remembering our heroes, and emulating the bravery of their deeds, is their due honor.
Cain Was Able
EnviroReporter.com was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our friend Steve Cain, senior environmental planner for the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, on December 16. In our last communications, Steve provided us with information crucial to an investigation that could impact the health and well-being of untold numbers of people, speaking volumes about Steve’s integrity. We will miss this delightful and dedicated man.
Darkness Over the Land
EnviroReporter.com experiences the tragedies and triumphs of California’s Inyo County and it’s timeless treasure, Death Valley National Park. This rowdy romp includes a cast of characters whose devotion to their earthly paradise is devilishly dangerous. Their sizzling tales shed light on the hopes and hazards of the hottest, lowest land in North America.
It’s a Gas
The U.S. EPA just announced new draft guidelines for the vapors of the toxic solvent, trichloroethylene or TCE, and they are four times stronger than they already were in recognition of the chemical’s dangers. This will make an alarming TCE groundwater crisis in Southern California even more important as the solvent spreads.
Bowled Over
The old Bowl Test Facility has extremely contaminated soil like much of the rest of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. What sets this rocket testing area apart from the rest of Rocketdyne is that it duplicates the Nazi rocket test stand design for the terrifying V-2 rocket that killed thousands of civilians and soldiers in World War II. Today Bowl sits as a silent and deadly reminder of Southern California’s Nazi-influenced past.
Bad Air Day?
Schwarzenegger’s condescension towards environmentalists and embrace of big business polluters, combined with a possible fatal flaw in Obama’s new greenhouse gases plan, virtually assures that Californians will have many more bad air days ahead.
Chem and Get It
The Obama Administration announces a bold new Environmental Protection Agency initiative to test previously ignored chemicals that may be harming humans and the environment. Bisphenol A, linked to obesity and cancer, brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds and a host of other potential goo will be tested and regulated under the new plan, the most important of its kind since the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. EnviroReporter.com wonders whether this leadership at the top will filter throughout the ranks of the federal and state EPA.
Up in Smoke
The 6,400 fireworks at Santa Monica Pier’s 100th birthday celebration September 9 fail to ignite much excitement. The tepid pyrotechnics get lost in toxic smoke which descends on the city, gassing thousands of unsuspecting yuppies with perchlorate and heavy metals.
Hell’s Belles
Dawn Wilde and Mike make their way to Anaheim to see a spectacular AC-DC show. Fireworks and explosions fill the air with perchlorate and heavy metals that never smoke out the fans in the well-ventilated arena. The desert lovers are blown away by dirty deeds done dirt cheap.
Sputnikfest
Today begins the second annual Sputnikfest in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In 1962, a fiery chunk of space debris from a Soviet Sputnik satellite shot across Canada and eight pounds of it slammed into 8th and Park where the wacky festival takes place. Turns out that my very own alien, D-bot, has her optical sensors set on becoming “Miss Space Debris Queen of all that is Sputnik.”
Stalin Must Be Smiling
Sixty years ago today, the Soviet Union detonated their first atomic weapon, “Joe-1” which was the size of “Fat Man” that America dropped on Nagasaki four years before, killing 80,000 people. The biggest Soviet bomb ever was 2,273 times bigger! Despite the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, don’t expect an end to the threat of nuclear Armageddon anytime soon.
Children of the Atomic Bomb
“This used to be marsh and reeds,” said Dr. James Yamazaki, 93, as we pass by Maltman Avenue on Wilshire Boulevard approaching Koreatown. “Now look at all these big buildings!” I was chauffering Yamazaki and his wife of 65 years, Aki, to the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles where he would speak about the human toll of nuclear warfare and the specific vulnerability of children to the effects of these weapons.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Commemoration
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Area Disarmament Coalition held an event to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event began with a service at the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo, which was followed by a “mindful walk” to City Hall.
Merry Widow Health Mine
This being the vacation time of year, we thought we’d check up on the Merry Widow Health Mine in Montana to see if we should recommend it to you folks still searching for an exciting and hot place to visit with the fam. Sure enough, the mine is not only going strong, there are a couple of YouTube videos about the place hailing its radium waters and radon gases as the ultimate cure for just about all that ails you.
Welcome to EnviroReporter.com v2!
Denise Anne Duffield, my multi-award-winning website designer, editor and better half, pulls out all the stops in this redesign which now features a blog, posts with comments, an RSS feed, and easy ways to share articles with others via e-mail and social bookmarking sites.
