LAKE TOWNSHIP USES AQUAFALINA ON ITS ROADWAYS
INCLUDING ITS RESIDENTIAL STREETS
But there is blowback from the producer of AquaSalina.
See owner Dave Mansbery's note to the SCPR a few paragraphs down in this blog.
WHERE IN STARK COUNTY-SO FAR DETERMINED-THAT AQUAFALINA IS IN USE?
Stark County Engineer Keith Bennett tells this blogger that his office does NOT use AquaSalina in its highway maintenance program.
However, in a survey of various Ohio/Stark County governments just begun; Lake Township road superintendent Daniel Kamerer has told this blogger (I live in Lake Township on a street treated with AquaSalina) that Lake does use the product and is convinced not only is it a money saver for Lake taxpayers but in his assessment is safe to use. He says AquaSalina is much cheaper and effective than rival deicing products.
Kamerer put the SCPR in touch with Dave Mansbery of Nature's Own Source, LLC who sent the following rebuttal information to that published in the Plain Dealer article, to wit:
NATURE'S OWN SOURCE, LLC's RESPONSE
Superintendent Kamerer advised me you had read an article in the Plain Dealer this past weekend regarding AquaSalina. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Several important points were left out of the article. I am going to send you the exact summary of our 1/31/19 interview below. I advised him we do not use “fracking brine”. Number one there is no such product and number two, water used to frac wells are generally fresh and freshwater doesn’t melt ice. Every effort to educate him was effort wasted.
Please contact me if you have any questions. Channel 8 and 19 did interviews with me today so, I am happy to answer questions.
There has been almost $ 1,000,000 in studies by PennDOT and ODOT done on the product. The product is safe and actually reduces by 30% salt going into our lakes, rivers and streams. Please note salt is radioactive as well in the attached report on 10 Commonly Radioactive Foods attached.
Regards,
Dave Mansbery
Nature’s Own Source, LLC
Mansbery provided the SCPR of what he says is the complete transcript of the conversation he had on January 31, 2019 with the Cleveland.com (Plain Dealer) reporter who wrote the story.
A copy of that transcript is included in the Annex portion of this blog.
STARK COUNTY HAS A HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
Legendary Stark County environmental watchguard Chris Borello now of Plain Township (formerly of Lake Township where she led the fight [beginning in the early 1980s])
- to protect area families from incurring health problems
- due the proximity of the Uniontown Industrial Excess Landfill (aka the Uniontown Dump, created in 1966; also see EPA report)
- in which the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio EPA officials found hazardous chemicals to have been buried.
Borello forwarded an e-mail to the SCPR among others a heads up on the aforementioned Plain Dealer report.
When President Trump gave his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, February 5, 2019 one of his invited guests was a child with brain cancer.
Joining Melania in the gallery this evening is a very brave 10-year-old girl, Grace Eline. Every birthday since she was 4, Grace asked her friends to donate to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She did not know that one day she might be a patient herself.
Last year, Grace was diagnosed with brain cancer. Immediately, she began radiation treatment. At the same time, she rallied her community and raised more than $40,000 for the fight against cancer. When
Grace completed treatment last fall, her doctors and nurses cheered with tears in their eyes as she hung up a poster that read: "Last Day of Chemo." Grace -- you are an inspiration to us all.
Many childhood cancers have not seen new therapies in decades.
My budget will ask the Congress for $500 million over the next 10 years to fund this critical life-saving research.
This is, in part, what Borello had to say in reaction:
IF you watched last night's State of the Union address by Mr. Trump, you saw him use an adorable, precious little girl with brain cancer, to assert he supposedly desires some ( vague) effort to deal with /combat childhood cancer in the U.S... I wanted to hurl...yell, I don't know what....Having talked with parents of such children regarding our Uniontown IEL Superfund way too many times over some 30 years ...
It is probably "deja vu" (all over again) for Borello with the revelation by the Plain Dealer that it appears that Ohio's legislators seemed to be prepared to allow the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to purchase and apply a product called AquaSalina to the roadways of Ohio which, of course, includes Stark County.
Excerpts from the cited-above Plain Dealer article:
Ohio Department of Transportation snowplows had been spreading AquaSalina, a deicing solution, on the state’s roadways for years when an environmental group last year obtained an unreleased Ohio Department of Natural Resources report that found high levels of radioactivity in the product.
After the 2017 report became public, state government and company officials attempted to debunk it, criticizing the testing protocol and findings as flawed and “worthless.”
A team of scientists from ODNR’s division of Oil and Gas Resources Management/Radiation Safety Section, and the Environmental Safety Section compiled the seven-page report. The team tested 14 samples of AquaSalina from six locations in Cuyahoga, Summit, Tuscarawas and Guernsey counties.
All of the samples were found to contain elevated levels of radioactivity in excess of state limits on the discharge of radioactive materials. The average radioactivity in AquaSalina also exceeded the drinking water limits for Radium 226 and Radium 228 by a factor of 300. Human consumption of any amount of AquaSalina is highly discouraged, the report said.
Members of the state legislature rejected the reports’ findings, introducing a law [House Bill 393] last year that would ease regulations on AquaSalina, treating it as a commodity rather than toxic waste derived from oil- and gas-drilling operations. The law would also prevent ODNR from imposing any additional requirements. (emphasis added)
Notice that Kirk Schuring's name is missing on the HB 393 vote which did not become law because the 132nd OGA ended before the Ohio Senate could take it up. The SCPR speculates that for whatever reason Republican Schuring and Democrat John Boccieri could not make the vote and therefore there might have been an agreement that neither would be on the record as voting one way or another.
Boccieri did vote "no" in committee, to wit:
NOTE: Much of the rest of the material in this blog is misformatted and this blogger has not been able to figure out where the problem is.
A team of scientists from ODNR’s division of Oil and Gas Resources Management/Radiation Safety Section, and the Environmental Safety Section compiled the seven-page report. The team tested 14 samples of AquaSalina from six locations in Cuyahoga, Summit, Tuscarawas and Guernsey counties.
All of the samples were found to contain elevated levels of radioactivity in excess of state limits on the discharge of radioactive materials. The average radioactivity in AquaSalina also exceeded the drinking water limits for Radium 226 and Radium 228 by a factor of 300. Human consumption of any amount of AquaSalina is highly discouraged, the report said.
Members of the state legislature rejected the reports’ findings, introducing a law [House Bill 393] last year that would ease regulations on AquaSalina, treating it as a commodity rather than toxic waste derived from oil- and gas-drilling operations. The law would also prevent ODNR from imposing any additional requirements. (emphasis added)
Notice that Kirk Schuring's name is missing on the HB 393 vote which did not become law because the 132nd OGA ended before the Ohio Senate could take it up. The SCPR speculates that for whatever reason Republican Schuring and Democrat John Boccieri could not make the vote and therefore there might have been an agreement that neither would be on the record as voting one way or another.
Boccieri did vote "no" in committee, to wit:
NOTE: Much of the rest of the material in this blog is misformatted and this blogger has not been able to figure out where the problem is.
Of course, following the Republican line, Christina Hagan voted "yes" in committee. A political courage SCPR "tip of the hat" to Republican Jay Edwards for his "no" in committee.
State Rep. Thomas West (D, 49th House District) voted "no' on HB 393.
Of course, following the Republican line, Christina Hagan voted "yes" in committee. A political courage SCPR "tip of the hat" to Republican Jay Edwards for his "no" in committee.
State Rep. Thomas West (D, 49th House District) voted "no' on HB 393
State Rep. Thomas West (D, 49th House District) voted "no' on HB 393
Naturally, we all know the name Christina Hagan (quit the Ohio House to run for the U.S. House which race she lost in May, 2018) because of her six year effort to get the OGA to pass what is called "heartbeat" legislation which would prohibit abortions once a fetus heartbeat is detected.
One has to wonder how Hagan could, for consistency sake, lead the fight to
save the unborn but reject credible findings by Ohio government that radiation from AquaSalina might be a risk to the health safety of Ohioans nearly all of whom use Ohio roadways?
Borello in her tireless work to deal with/eliminate life harmful/threatening chemical/industrial waste pollution that she says affects Stark County residents' health has pretty much gotten the 'deaf ear' from (she says) the likes of (in her words):
One has to wonder how Hagan could, for consistency sake, lead the fight to
Borello in her tireless work to deal with/eliminate life harmful/threatening chemical/industrial waste pollution that she says affects Stark County residents' health has pretty much gotten the 'deaf ear' from (she says) the likes of (in her words):
- Dave Johnson,
- Scott Oelslager.,
- Bob Horowitiz,
- ll the Stark County Commissioners,
- Capestrain,
- Dick Watkins,
- Norm Sponseller..
- local Stark Judges who dealt with IEL cases....since those cases reportedly were precedent setting
- Congressman Regula, and
- his local chief of staff back then, Daryl Revoldt, who had dual role of Mayor of N. Canton,
- Sen. Metzenbaum,
- John Glenn...,
- Congressman Tom Sawyer, who threw CCLT under the bus
- Sue Ruley [... Lake Twp. Trustees... ] played the CCLT really good for quite awhile
- even though we told her how we didn't trust her due to her:
- A) telling us she worked for our major polluter, Firestone
- B).. She worked on IEL issues, ... AND,
- She had been the Zoning Inspector the year, 1966, IEL was PERMITTED to begin officially...
- Voinovich's office claimed they needed to "defer" to Lake Twp/Ruley, because Voinovich was a "Federalist"...you know...local government stuff rules..
The SCPR infers from the Borello list as possibly being an indication that one cannot depend on/trust politicians to step forward on environmental issues like the the AquaSalina matter and err on the side of caution.
It could be that AquaFalina's Dave Mansbery is correct and the ODNR division of Oil and Gas Resources Management/Radiation is incorrect on AquaFalina's safety factor.
It could be that AquaFalina's Dave Mansbery is correct and the ODNR division of Oil and Gas Resources Management/Radiation is incorrect on AquaFalina's safety factor.
Given this government finding, repeating partially text from the Plain Dealer piece linked to above:
A team of scientists from ODNR’s division of Oil and Gas Resources Management/Radiation Safety Section, and the Environmental Safety Section compiled the seven-page report. The team tested 14 samples of AquaSalina from six locations in Cuyahoga, Summit, Tuscarawas and Guernsey counties.
All of the samples were found to contain elevated levels of radioactivity in excess of state limits on the discharge of radioactive materials. The average radioactivity in AquaSalina also exceeded the drinking water limits for Radium 226 and Radium 228 by a factor of 300. Human consumption of any amount of AquaSalina is highly discouraged, the report said.
it hard to believe that on December 6, 2018 the Ohio House (mostly Republicans) were willing to proceed apparently without fully vetting this safety issue.
Politicos are prone to side with business interests until it becomes compelling that the likes of Borello and fellow activists have made a clear case that they have ill-served their constituents.
In the meantime, it seems that they (mostly elected politicians) try to marginalize the likes of Borello.
What are they afraid of?
They should be gratified that Borello et al raise questions about public safety issues and embrace them with a full unbiased vetting of particular concerns.
Politicos are prone to side with business interests until it becomes compelling that the likes of Borello and fellow activists have made a clear case that they have ill-served their constituents.
In the meantime, it seems that they (mostly elected politicians) try to marginalize the likes of Borello.
What are they afraid of?
They should be gratified that Borello et al raise questions about public safety issues and embrace them with a full unbiased vetting of particular concerns.
The only Stark County politician who has stood up and fought for an environmental concerns was then-Plain Township trustee Louis P. Giavasis (now Stark County clerk of Courts) in 2010-2011 when the "fracking" controversy nationwide surfaced.
Here is a video from the archives of the SCPR of an interview with Giavasis.
The question today is whether or not Giavasis would show similar political spunk in 2019.
ANNEX
What Dave Mansbury says is the full transcript of this January 31, 2019 conversation with Cleveland.com (the Plain Dealer)
No comments:
Post a Comment