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August 26, 2003 To: KRC Members From: Tom FitzGerald
Here at the Council, we take your e-mail privacy seriously. We attempt to avoid spreading any computer viruses, and never send or forward frivolous messages. Due to the recent concerns with virus attachments, KRC will NOT send any attached e-mails to our general mailing list. Instead, as issues or work of interest is generated by KRC, we will send you a message noting that the work has been posted (here) to our website, www.kyrc.org. If you receive any message from KRC that claims to have an attachment, or includes a questionable "subject," PLEASE let us know immediately in order that we may take steps to correct the problem. Thank you. Tom FitzGerald KRC
There is an organization in Frankfort that will take old computers, as long as they are Pentium or above, and old printers and monitors. They will fix them, and in turn donate the equipment to needy families. The name of the organization is the Salvation Student Technology Center, 119 West Main Street, Frankfort, KY 40601. The phone number is 502/226-6062. Cartridges that contain ink for inkjet printers and toner for laser printers and copying machines are being accepted in Jefferson County at: # 595 Hubbards Lane. # 3520 Newburg Road. # 7219 Dixie Highway (beind the Southwest Government Center). # 9300 Whipps Mill Road (behind police station). # 7201 Outer Loop (behind the Central Government Center). # 10620 W. Manslick Road (behind the police station). The Salvation Army of Frankfort will also take some type of gear. KRC has moved. Our new street address is: 213 St. Clair St. Suite 200. Court Square, Frankfort, 40601. Our mailing address is still the same P. O. Box 1070, 40602. |
An agreed-upon settlement between Laurel Tarbis and the City of LaGrange, Hill Land and Development Co. and Pollard Builders will assure that as land along Commerce Parkway in LaGrange is developed, the existing neighbors on Clifford Lane will not face increased traffic, and that the land nearest Clifford Lane will be developed for residential use only. Laurel was represented by Liz Edmonson, KRC's staff attorney. In response to a request from Representative Jim Wayne, KRC prepared an analysis of HB 221 and recommendations to strengthen transparency and public participation regarding the decision by local wastewater utilities to form or join a regional wastewater commission, and the operations and decisions of such a commission. This analysis forms the basis of a proposed revision to HB 221 that KRC prepared for the sponsors, which was incorporated into the bill as House Floor Amendment 1 to HB 221 HCS. The bill has been assigned to the Senate State and Local Government Committee on March 5. Click the headline to read KRC's concerns regarding the doubtful constitutionality of HB 213, which would allow a private pipeline company to condemn an easement on the lands of others for pipeline installation, in violation of the "public use" requirement of Kentucky's Constitution. KRC's testimony can be viewed by visiting www.ket.org and clicking on the February 11 Natural Resources and Environment Committee meeting. Click the headline to read KRC's written testimony in opposition to SB 133, which would allow billboard companies to destroy trees in highway rights-of-way to assure billboard visibility. Click the headline to read KRC's concerns regarding House Bill 312, which seeks greater access for equine recreation on state parks, nature preserves and fish & wildlife management areas. Click the headline to read KRC's letter to Kentucky's state Senators regarding SB 26, which would lift the 25-year requirement that a permanent waste disposal strategy precede construction of a new nuclear power plant. The bill passed 27-10 on January 20, and goes to the House for assignment to a committee for consideration. Click the headline to read KRC's comments on the proposal by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining to strengthen oversight of state mining programs. Kentucky lost a true environmental hero Wednesday evening, January 13, 2010. After a valiant battle over nearly six years with ovarian cancer, Madisonville environmental and social justice advocate Sue Anne Salmon passed from this world. Sue Anne was involved in scores of local and statewide issues regarding waste management, mining, and more - and spoke truth to power in her hometown and across the Commonwealth at a time when it took particular courage to do so. Diminutive in stature, she was known as "mighty mouse" to her friends, always battling for justice. In her honor, on January 9, 2010, the Board of KRC authorized the establishment of the first annual award ever granted by KRC in its 25-year history, to be called the "Sue Anne Salmon Community Advocacy Award." The award, details of which will be published next month, will recognize those who, like Sue Anne did her whole life, demonstrate principled and courageous advocacy for the betterment of community and the environment. When Sue Anne was told of the award last week by her sisters, she "smiled ear to ear," said her sister Lucy - "it just delighted her." We at KRC will forever cherish our friendship, and her exemplary patterning of courage, tenacity, grace, and love of others, and in her honor, we recommit ourselves to the unfinished task of restoring sanity and equity to environmental policy. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 23. Details are pending and we will update the website when they are known.. Click the headline to read KRC's observations on the barriers to new nuclear power plant siting, presented at a panel discussion at the Governor's Conference On The Environment on October 1, 2009 Click the headline to read Campbell Wood's synopsis of the presentations at the November 5, 2009 Forum on Coal In Kentucky. KRC's Fitz participated on a panel with author Jeff Goodell, Fred Palmer of Peabody Energy and Joe Craft of Alliance Coal. In a November 16 Opinion, the Franklin Circuit Court reversed and remanded to the Energy and Environment Cabinet, the decision to issue "no-discharge" permits to 9 industrial-scale hog operations in western Kentucky. The Court ruled that under state law, the operations should have obtained KPDES discharge permits, and that the corporate integrator, Tosh Farms, should have been co-permittee with the owners of the hog barns. The Court also agreed with the Petitioners that the Cabinet failed to properly apply the state air toxics regulation to assure that ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions presented no health risk to neighbors. The Petitioners were represented by Hank Graddy, Bettsy Bennett, and KRC. Click the headline to read Jim Bruggers' article on the decision. Oral arguments were presented to the Franklin Circuit Court on November 9 concerning the issuance of the Certificate of Public Convenience and Need to Kentucky-American Water Company authorizing the construction of a 20 million gallon per day water treatment plant at Pool 3 on the Kentucky River. Click the headline to read the Lexington-Herald and WTVQ coverage of the hearing. The case is now submitted for consideration and decision by the court. As Pittsburgh, PA seeks solutions to elevated levels of benzene, styrene and other air toxics, Louisville's air toxics program has been highlighted as a potential model for addressing air toxics. Click the headline for links to a series of investigative reports by Jim Parsons of Pittsburgh's Team 4 News, including discussions with KRC's Director and REACT's Eboni Neal Cochran.. Click the headline to read Fitz's brief (yes, we said brief!) presentation from "The Act of Activism" symposium at the IdeaFestival. The Division of Water has clarified that dischargers seeking to demonstrate social and economic importance in order to justify a lowering of water quality associated with a coal mining discharge cannot rely on general policy statements in state or federal law regarding the importance of coal, but must instead rely on fact-specific and area-specific demonstrations of the effect of a proposed operation on the local economy. KRC sought the clarification after reviewing the DOW website, which allowed the applicant to rely in part on a former Governor's executive order and one subsection of the "findings" section of the 1977 federal mining law. The DOW website has been revised to remove those references. KRC appreciates the clarification from the DOW that each application stands on its own merits in demonstrating compliance with 401 KAR 10:030. Click the headline to read a September 15 press release from the office of the Attorney Geneal concerning a settlement reached in a rate case filed by Columbia Gas of Kentucky before the Public Service Commission (PSC). KRC represented AARP in this case as an intervenor, seeking PSC disapproval of the request to impose late fees, to increase reconnection costs, and to change the ratesetting formula to shift recovery of non-commodity costs to a monthly charge that would have nearly tripled the average monthly cost to residential customers simply to be connected to the system. Under the settlement, the ratesetting formula will not be changed, no late fees will be imposed on low-income customers receiving bill payment assistance, and the reconnection fee will remain at $25. The Commission approved the settlement on October 26, 2009. Under the settlement, the only change for residential customers will be a $3.05 increase in the monthly customer charge. In her neverending quest to bring Fitz into the 21st century, Liz has put KRC on Facebook and Twitter. You can access KRC's Facebook page by searching for Kentucky Resources Council in the "pages" section and click on "Become a Fan" to get updates about current issues and events. We are also on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KyResources. If you tweet, be sure to follow KRC! Thanks so much for your continued support! The passage of SB 83 by the General Assembly expanded the availability of net metering to utility customers, and sought to streamline the process of interconnecting distributed energy sources (such as solar, wind, and hydro) to the grid. The Public Service Commission published guidelines and required each utility to file a tariff complying with those guidelines. Intervenors commented in opposition to the KU / LG&E tariff, which was intended by the utility to streamline the PSC Guidelines, but which Intervenors believed lacked key provisions. The parties agreed on certain changes that make the tariff substantively consistent with the Commission Guidelines. The proposed tariff has been submitted to the PSC for review and approval. To read the proposed tariff, go to www.psc.ky.gov and browse through the non-electronically filed cases to find the July 14, 2009 filing in Case 2008-169. Click the headline to read a summary of the major cases, policy work, and legislative activity undertaken by KRC during the 2008-2009 year. In Memorandum Opinions entered in lawsuits pending against the DuPont and Rohm & Haas Rubbertown chemical plants, U.S. District Court Judge Heyburn allowed 30-days for the defendant companies to decide whether to accept an amended class settlement that would limit the five-year proposed injunction against new lawsuits to those class members that did not opt out of the lawsuit, and would provide that no one moving into the area after the entry of the order would be bound by the settlement. KRC represented Eboni Cochran Neal in both cases in objecting to the proposed settlement agreement as being unfair for these and other reasons. |
Click the headline to read more about the bills and resolutions that KRC is supporting, opposing, and tracking during the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly Regular Session, complete through end of legislative day March 12, 2010. After several months of negotiations among state and federal mine regulatory agencies, the Louisville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, EPA Region IV, representatives of the eastern Kentucky coal industry and John Morgan, a mining engineer with Morgan Worldwide Consultants who represented the Kentucky Resources Council, a protocol has been developed that will greatly reduce the amount of spoil material that is off-loaded from mine benches into valley fills. The protocol, titled "Fill Placement Optimization Process" is already in use by the Louisville District of the Corps of Engineers and by Region IV of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. To read more about the protocol, click the headline. Click the headline to read the text of Fitz's presentation on a Governor's Conference on the Environment Panel On Balancing Energy and Environmental Protection Click the headline to read the speech celebrating the graduation of the Fall, 2009 class of neighborhood advocates who successfully completed the 12-week Neighborhood Institute. The Center for Neighborhoods has offered this training program since 1987. In comments submitted to the Kentucky Department of Mine Permits, KRC requested a full hydrologic impact assessment of a proposed 11,000 acre underground mine in Letcher and Harlan Counties. To read the comment letter, click the headline. Click the headline to read KRC's letter requesting that an environmetnal impact statement be prepared prior to a decision on whether to authorize a new barge loading and unloading facility on the Ohio River near Battletown, Kentucky, and requesting a public hearing on the proposed Section 10 permit application of Meade County Quarry LLC.. By Order entered November 23, 2009, Administrative Law Judge Blanton overruled a motion to dismiss David Bell's challenge to the issuance of a limestone quarry permit to Meade County Quarry LLC to conduct open pit limestone mining near Battletown in Meade County. The Energy and Environment Cabinet argued that the Petitioner needed to demonstrate standing with respect to each deficiency alleged in the permit issuance rather than injury arising from the determination to issue the permit. The Hearing Officer rejected the proposition, finding that Mr. Bell's standing allegations were sufficient to survive the motion to dismiss, and that even under the Cabinet's restrictive standard the allegations for most of the errors alleged were sufficient. The case now moves into the discovery phase. KRC represents Mr. Bell. At the Kentucky Heartwood annual dinner on November 6, Hugh Archer received the Stu Butler Award for his life's work protecting Kentucky's natural lands. KRC was honored to be among those who paid tribute to Hugh that evening. Click the headline to read Fitz's remarks. State and federal mining laws require that the applicant for a permit show proof of the right to enter and mine the area to be permitted. Despite this requirement, the Kentucky DNR has adopted a policy of allowing permits to issue with proof of the right to enter and mine as little as 1/3 of the area under permit. KRC has today served notice that unless the policy is stopped immediately and those affected permits modified to exlcude all areas for which right to enter and mine has not be dmonstrated, it will file suit to force such changes. Click the headline to read the text of the notice. KRC has sent a letter to the Public Service Commission in support of the request by E.On that a new case be opened to investigate whether "unbundling" of gas supply at the retail level would be in the best interests of Kentucky's gas customers. Click the headline to read the letter. In a final report requested by the 2009 General Assembly, the Kentucky Sports Safety Work Group has recommended that the High School Athletic Association develop a model plan for addressing air quality alert days. Click the headline to read the recommendations. Click the headline to read this article from the Rural Blog, the publication of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. Click the headline to read KRC's presentation regarding the need for comprehensive federal regulation of coal combustion waste management, presented at the Centers for Disease Control on November 4, 2009. In written comments submitted to the Division of Waste Management, KRC has asked that the requested permit renewal be denied. KRC also requested that appropriate action be taken to address the apparent acceptance of two drums labeled as "hazardous waste" by the facility that contained levels of benzene in the drum sludge in excess of regulatory limits for solid waste; as well as the apparent disposal of the contents of one of those drums into a land farm cell. Click the caption to read the full text of the comments. At the 86th Annual National Association of State Foresters meeting this fall, Kentucky's Division of Forestry Director Leah MacSwords received the "Sustained Excellence Award" for her advocacy and support of the American Tree Farm System. The Tree Farm System promotes sustainable management of privately-owned forestlands. KRC joins with the ATFS in celebrating Leah's many years of public service to the Commonwealth. The Board and Staff of KRC salute Steve Hohmann on the occasion of his receiving the Stan Barnard Award, the highest honor of the National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs. Steve is a dedicated career public servant, and has directed the Kentucky AML Program for the past 14 years. Battling through serious illness during this past year, Steve is back at work, and the Commonwealth is all the better for his years of dedicated work to reclaim mines left abandoned by Kentucky's coal industry. KRC is proud to post a letter from Louisville native Scott Moore, who recently concluded a year of study on the ecological effects of rapid development in China. Click the headline to read Scott's reflections. KRC has joined with the American Medical Association and hundreds of other health, consumer, environmental, agricultural and humane organizations in endorsing H.R. 1549 / S.619, bills introduced in Congress that would address the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance, by directing the Food and Drug Administration to rereview the approvals it has issued for animal feed uses of the 7 classes of antibiotics that are important to human medicine. Some 70% of antibiotics produced each year in the U.S. are used in confined animal feeding operations to accelerate animal growth and to prevent rather than treat diseases in the crowded and unsanitary living conditions. To read the Act and to becoming an endorser, visit the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists at www.ucsusa.org. Click the headline to read KRC's presentation to the September 10, 2009 Kentucky Forum on the potential impact of climate change and federal climate legislation on Kentucky's farms and forests. Jerry McCarthy, Director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment, asked KRC to reflect on what VEE's support from 1984 - 1993 has meant to KRC. Click the headline to learn more about the roots of KRC's 25 years of advocacy and legal assistance. |
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