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trainsgenderfoxgirl2816 · 10 months ago

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Are any of your Emu's married pair formation?

Cause almost all Multiple Units here are Married Pairs

An introduction to VR multiple units, part 5: Sm6

The Sm6 Allegro. When I started this series about our multiple units, I first thought I would cover the Sm6 in the "operated for others" -series, then thought I would leave it out altogether... but events overtook my plans and now I'm introducing them as VR's own multiple units, although they are not yet in operation as VR trains.

An Sm6 unit on the Kerava-Lahti line, currently the only bit of high-speed rail in Finland, 2011. Teemu Peltonen, Vaunut.org.

Since the 1990s, two daily return trains had been operated between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg, Russia: the Sibelius, which used VR carriages, and the Repin, which used RŽD carriages. In 2006, the two rail operators decided to replace the locomotive-hauled trains, which took five hours to make the trip, with jointly-owned high-speed trains. For this purpose, a new jointly-owned subsidiary Karelian Trains was established.

Two Sm6's during pre-service entry test runs at Vainikkala, the border station between Finland and Russia, with the locomotive-hauled St. Petersburg train Sibelius on the right. Lari Nylund, Vaunut.org.

After a round of tenders, Karelian Trains opted for the Pendolino design (already used by VR in the form of the Sm3) from Alstom in 2007, with four units to be delivered in 2010 (there was also an option for two additional units, which was never taken up). Although the exterior design of the new Sm6 units was almost identical to the Sm3, in terms of technology they feature numerous improvements compared to the older class, and were outfitted to operate both on the Russian and Finnish electric systems. Due to the small difference in gauge between the two countries (Russia uses 1520 mm but Finland 1524 mm) the trains were given near-unique gauge of 1522 mm.

Interior of the Sm6's first-class carriage as delivered. Otto Karikoski, Wikimedia Commons.

Branded Allegro, the new Sm6 units begun operations in December 2010, cutting the travel time between Helsinki and St. Petersburg to 3½ hours. In addition to services offered on Sm3 units, the Sm6 has (or perhaps more accurately had) a space for the border patrol to use, as passport control was done en-route on the train, and a kid's playroom. The original grey-dominated interiors were replaced by new, more colourful blue designs in 2018-2019.

The new interiors were not in use for long before the Covid-19 pandemic caused for passenger train services between Finland and Russia to be suspended in March 2020. The Allegro services were restored in December 2021 (the Helsinki-Moscow sleeper train Tolstoy, however, was not), and ran for less than four months until closed again in March 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (VR subsequently stopped freight traffic to Russia too - other Finnish rail operators continue to serve freight to and from Russia, however).

Second-class carriage in the post-2019 look. VR.

After March 2022, the four Sm6 units languished at VR's Ilmala depot in Helsinki, without maintenance as RŽD refused to make any payments for their share in Karelian Trains (which, although jointly Finnish-Russian owned, was registered in Finland). In March 2023, when Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin visited Kiev, Ukrainian Railroads requested the Sm6 units be handed over to them, but nothing ever came of this. Instead, in December 2023, when Karelian Trains was on the brink of bankruptcy due to RŽD not paying their share of the company's bills, VR bought out Karelian Trains and took over the Sm6 units.

The trains will be given a thorough technical refit, which will include removal of the systems to operate with Russian electrification, and will enter services on routes within Finland in 2025. How they will be branded is unknown, though a VR representative said in an interview they will not be called Allegro. Presumably this will make the Sm6 the first VR rolling stock class to be fully painted in the new livery.

#railroad #train #vr #finland #mta metro north #metro north railroad #long island railroad #nj transit #septa regional rail #Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority #light rail #Denver RTD #rtd

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public-transportation-tournament · 1 year ago

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Round 1!

The TCAT, Tompkins County, NY, USA vs Seattle Center Monorail, Seattle, WA, USA

M1 (or Millennium Underground Railway, but also known as "the small underground" by locals), Budapest, Hungary vs Grande Recife, Recife, Brazil

London Underground, Greater London, England vs Rotterdam Metro, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Beamish Tramway, Beamish Museum, Beamish, England vs Catbus/Nekobus, Sayama Hills, Saitama Prefecture, Japan (My Neighbor Totoro)

The New York City Subway system, New York City, NY, USA vs Corviknight Flying Taxi, Galar (Pokémon Sword and Shield)

Buenos Aires Underground (Subte), Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina vs Monte Toboggan, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

The Stargate Network, throughout the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies (the Stargate franchise) vs the Deepsea Metro, Inkopolis Bay (Splatoon)

CAT, Perth, Western Australia vs SkyTrain, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Brolly Rail, Nevermoor (Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend) vs Métro Ligne 4, Paris, France

Tyne and Wear Metro, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom vs the REM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (upcoming)

Jeepney, the Philippines vs Sea Train, Water 7, connecting it with St. Poplar, San Faldo, and Pucci, as well as the Judicial Island Enies Lobby (One Piece)

The MTR, Hong Kong, PRC vs the Omnibus, New York, NY, USA (1832)

SeaBus, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada vs Wuppertaler Schwebebahn, Wuppertal, Germany

Ice Highway, the Nether Roof (Minecraft) vs Battle Subway, Unova (Pokémon Black and White)

WY Metro, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom vs Tunnelbana, Stockholm, Sweden

MRT (Moda Raya Terpadu/Mass Rapid Transit), Jakarta, Indonesia vs An Luas, Dublin, Ireland

RIPTA (Rhode Island public transit authority) (it’s buses), Rhode Island, USA vs Bakerloo Line, London Underground, London, England

Mount Vesuvius Funicular Railway, Mount Vesuvius, Italy (opened in 1880, destroyed by volcanic eruption in 1944) vs AquaBus, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Yarra Trams, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia vs SEPTA (southeast pennsylvania transportation authority), Pennsylvania, United States

Cable Cars, San Francisco, California, United States vs MAX Light Rail system, Portland, Oregon, United States

Amtrak, United States vs Fenelon Place Elevator, Dubuque, Iowa, United States

Ninky Nonk, Night Garden (In The Night Garden) vs Prague Metro, Prague, Czech Republic

Polar Bear Express, between Cochrane and Moosonee, Ontario, Canada vs the Crosstown Express, Robot City (Robots (2005))

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (the T), Greater Boston, Massachusetts, United States vs Worcester Regional Transit Authority, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States

Kakola Funicular, Turku, Finland vs Angkutan Kota (Angkot), Indonesia

Galaxy Railways, the Milky Way (The Galaxy Railways (銀河鉄道物語, Ginga Tetsudō Monogatari)) vs The Ride, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

MST Trolley, Monterey, California, United States vs People Mover, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida, United States

Public Transit Victoria, Victoria, Australia vs Carmelit, Haifa, Israel

The L, Chicago, Illinois, United States vs Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway, South Lanarkshire, Scotland

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), Morgantown, West Virginia vs Helsingin seudun liikenne/Helsingforsregionens trafik/Helsinki Regional Transport, Helsinki, Finland

Gondolas, Venice, Italy vs the Trolley from the Trolley Problem (Philippa Foot came up with it originally, but in media it was also presented in "the good place")

Zahnradbahn Stuttgart (die Zacke), Stuttgart (Marienplatz to Degerloch), Baden-Württemberg, Germany vs Detroit People Mover, Detroit, Michigan, United States

Warp Pipes (Super Mario Bros.) vs SCMaglev, Yamanashi, Japan

Transport Canberra Bus Network, Canberra, Australia vs Stagways, Hallownest (Hollow Knight)

Roosevelt Island Tram, Roosevelt Island, New York, NY, United States vs NJ Transit (Northeast Corridor), New Jersey, United States

Sunrail, Orlando, Florida, United States vs Bay Area Rapid Transit, Bay Area, California, United States

Purple Route (Charm City Circulator), Baltimore, Maryland, United States vs Alderney Ferry (Halifax Transit), Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Millennium Line, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada vs MARTA, Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Dual Mode Vehicle (DMV), Asa Coast Railway, Shikoku, Japan vs Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway, Lynmouth, England, UK

Hovercraft, Portsmouth - Ryde, UK vs Funiculars, the Questionable Area (Psychonauts 2)

WildNorWester, Sodor (The Railway Series) vs Shinkansen, Japan

Métro de Paris, Paris, France vs Metro do Porto, Porto, Portugal

Deutsche Bahn, Germany vs UC Davis Unitrans Bus System, Davis, California

Vaporetti, Venice, Italy vs Harbour Bus, Copenhagen, Denmark

#hopefully i did the links right

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landscapedesignfirm · 4 years ago

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What You Need To Know About the Spotted Lanternfly

What is the spotted lanternfly? Chances are if you live in Pennsylvania, you already have seen this insect. The spotted lanternfly is an invasive species native to China and other Southeast Asian countries. The pest was discovered in Berks County in 2014 and has spread throughout Pennsylvania. The spotted lanternfly feeds on many different plants and has caused massive damage to the environment in Pennsylvania. Many homeowners have reported sightings and damage due to this pest.. Here is what you need to know about this invasive species and what you can do if you spot the colorful insect around your property.

What You Need to Know About the Spotted Lanternfly

The spotted lanternfly is currently reported to be found in 34 Pennsylvania counties and has caused massive damage to those counties’ environments. While many Pennsylvania residents have spotted this invasive species on their landscapes, we have some information to help those who want to keep their landscape free from invasive species.

Appearance

Adult spotted lanternflies can be identified from their coloration and bodies. The insect has grayish wings with black spots, and the tips are black and gray, while the bodies are black. When flying, spotted lanternflies will show vibrant red hind wings. Adults are around 1 inch long and a half-inch wide with wings folded. They can jump several feet when startled or approached.

You can also identify the pest via their egg masses or nymph stage. Egg masses are typically found on tree bark or other smooth surfaces such as rocks, outdoor furniture, and even vehicles. The mass is usually around 1 inch long and a half to three-quarters of an inch wide, with a gray-brown, mud-like covering. Spotted lanternfly nymphs are much smaller than adults, only about ½ an inch long, but have distinct coloration: initially black with white spots and wingless, developing red patches and white spots as they mature.

Behavior & Problems

Spotted lanternflies feed on plant sap, and at a high population, this can cause significant damage to an area’s plant life. While known to feed on over 70 different plants, spotted lanternflies have shown a preference for the tree of heaven, or ailanthus tree, as well as grapevines, maple trees, black walnut, birch, willow, and other trees. Feeding on tree and plant sap can cause wilting, leaf curling, and dieback. As the spotted lanternfly feeds on plant sap, the insect excretes a sugary substance called “honeydew,” which can attract bees, wasps, other insects and promotes the growth of sooty mold, which causes further damage to plants.

To help you better identify the plant pest, here are the months that each life occurs.

Egg masses: The invasive pest will usually lay eggs from September to November, getting ready to hatch around May.

Nymphs: Nymphs will first hatch around May to June and mature until around July to September.

Adults: July to December is when most spotted lanternflies have matured into adults, ready to lay new eggs and repeat the cycle.

The insect has become so prevalent that Pennsylvania has put affected counties under quarantine to stop the movement and slow the insect’s spread to new areas within or out of the current quarantine zone. The quarantine involves traveling and transporting outdoor items.

What You Can Do

So if you see any spotted lanternfly or signs of its damage on your property, contact Burkholder Plant Health Care (PHC). Burkholder PHC treats spotted lanternflies as part of our plant health care program. Our plant health care program emphasizes proper diagnosis and precise treatment, using only state-of-the-art, research-backed methods and equipment. We also utilize various pest management and control processes to keep your landscape free of invasive, harmful pests.

Contact Burkholder Brothers for Plant Health Care Services

If you want to keep your landscape beautiful, healthy, and free of spotted lanternfly, contact Burkholder Brothers for a consultation. Our team of landscape professionals has decades of experience designing, building, and maintaining refined landscapes for Main Line residents. We have up-to-date knowledge of the latest and best practices on plant health and landscape design. The passionate and experienced specialists at Burkholder will work with you to create your dream landscape. For more information on our services, contact us today.

Blog is originally published at: https://www.burkholderlandscape.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-spotted-lanternfly/

It is republished with permission from the author.

#plant health care #spotted lanternfly

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ilyaslam · 5 years ago

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The 10 Best & Worst U.S. Cities For Public Transportation

When it comes to public transportation, New York City is famous for its subways, San Francisco for its Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and Los Angeles… for its crowded freeways. With cities large and small, public transport is crucial to moving commuters, shoppers and residents back and forth with speed, accuracy and affordability.

Quality of public transportation can be an important factor when choosing what city to move to.

Here are lists of the top 10 best and worst cities for public transportation in the U.S., according to Walk Score, which rated each city based on accessibility of bike-sharing programs, buses, ferries, heavy rail, light rail and subways.

Top 10 Best Cities For Public Transportation

1. New York City, New York

It’s a well-known fact that most New Yorkers don’t own cars, instead relying on the city’s taxicabs, bike-share programs, buses, subway systems and railroads. The city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently opened the 34th Street–Hudson Yards Station that extends its already far-reaching subway service even more.

2. San Francisco, California

When you mention San Francisco, most people immediately think of its quaint cable cars that traverse the city. Despite the fact that they’re tourist-friendly, these colorful trolleys serve as part of the transit network to shuttle commuters to work. The city is rife with affordable, accessible public transport that includes municipal buses, trains, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), subways and CalTrain rail lines. Ferries are also a part of the transit system to link San Francisco with Oakland and Sausalito.

3. Boston, Massachusetts

For as crowded as Boston is, the “T” or the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, is in charge of its buses, ferries, trains and trolleys. As complicated as you’d think it would be to navigate all those travel options, fear not. Color-coded maps and schedules are available, and locals are always happy to help.

4. Washington, D.C.

Another city that’s rife with traffic gridlock is the nation’s capital. Not only is it the center of all things government, but it’s a tiny area (that covers 68 miles total) with nearly 700,000 residents and many more out-of-town commuters and 22 million annual tourists (in 2016 alone) of people trying to move around its streets. The Metrorail and Metrobus are the two major options for avoiding vehicle traffic.

5. Jersey City, New Jersey

Amtrak is big in Jersey City, and New Jersey’s second-largest city is walker-friendly. Transit buses and heavy-rail PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) trains get movers and shakers to and from Newark and Manhattan in record time. New York Waterway ferries also dock in Jersey City.

6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The City of Brotherly Love shows no shortage of public transportation options. Philadelphia’s public transit agency, SEPTA (Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority) operates the regional (commuter) rail trains, heavy rapid transit (subway/elevated) trains, light rail vehicles (trolleys), electric trolleybuses and motor buses. Also available is the city’s Indego bike-sharing transport system.

7. Chicago, Illinois

Chi-town tourists and commuters get around via “The L,” officially known as the Elevated Electric Train that’s run by the Chicago Transit Authority. Buses, taxis, water taxis, and the city’s bike-sharing program, Divvy, are all options to travel around this historic metropolis.

8. Miami, Florida

Traverse Miami proper via its buses, rail systems, and old-fashioned trolleys that transport you to the city’s hot spots and tourist venues. The Metromover Monorail is an elevated, electric train that circles downtown. The Metrorail is a nearly 25-mile long elevated train that takes visitors north and south of Miami and also connects to the Tri Rail intercity commuter system.

9. Arlington, Virginia

Arlington, Virginia has its Arlington Transit bus system and a Metro system that transports travelers to and from Washington, D.C. It also has a bike share program and commuter trains.

10. Baltimore, Maryland

Public transportation options in Baltimore included the bus, Light Rail, Metro subway and the MARC train commuter rail system. The Charm City Circulator is a free bus service that even partners with the Water Taxi Harbor Connector for free water routes!

Top 10 Worst Cities For Public Transportation

Now we count down the 10 worst cities in the U.S. for public transportation.

10. Fort Wayne, Indiana

9. Lubbock, Texas

8. Fort Worth, Texas

7. Virginia Beach, Virginia

6. Chandler, Arizona

5. Colorado Springs, Colorado

4. Plano, Texas

3. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

2. Gilbert, Arizona

1. Chesapeake, Virginia

Sorry, Chesapeake, you have the worst public transportation in the U.S.!

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newstfionline · 5 years ago

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Headlines

Turnpike pileup (Reuters) A chain-reaction crash involving a tour bus, three tractor-trailers and a passenger car killed five people and injured about 60 others on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Pittsburgh early on Sunday, state police said. National Transportation Safety Board investigators began arriving hours later in Mount Pleasant Township, about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, to determine the cause of the pre-dawn pileup.

Gun control controversy in Virginia (Washington Post) Gun rights advocates and militia members from around the country are urging thousands of armed protesters to descend on Virginia’s capital later this month to stop newly empowered Democrats from passing gun-control bills. What began as a handful of rural Virginia counties declaring themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” has jumped the state’s borders and become an Internet phenomenon. Far-right websites and commenters are declaring that Virginia is the place to take a stand against what they see as a national trend of weakening gun rights.

6.5 Quake Strikes Puerto Rico Amid Heavy Seismic Activity (AP) A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck Puerto Rico before dawn on Tuesday, the largest in a series of quakes that have struck the U.S. territory in recent days and caused heavy damage in some areas.

More than 60,000 Mexicans have disappeared amid drug war, officials say (Washington Post) More than 61,000 people have disappeared in Mexico, authorities announced Monday, sharply raising their estimate of those who have vanished in more than a decade of extreme violence by and among organized-crime groups. The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador released the new figure after an exhaustive analysis of data from state prosecutors. The previous official estimate, released in April 2018, put the number at 40,000.

Chilean university admissions tests hit by fresh protests (Reuters) University entrance exams to be taken by 300,000 students around Chile were disrupted in some cities on Monday by fresh protests over inequality and elitism, with some students blocking access to test sites and burning exam papers.

French strikes to escalate (Foreign Policy) France’s strikes over pension reforms look set to escalate this week, with talks between unions and the government resuming on Tuesday. So far, the public sector strike has gone on for a month, severely disrupting transit. Nationwide protests are expected on Thursday and Friday. One hardline union has called for a blockade of oil refineries beginning on Tuesday, which would cause fuel shortages and further disruption.

Icy dips mark the feast of Epiphany (AP) Thousands of Orthodox Christian worshippers plunged into the icy waters of rivers and lakes across Bulgaria on Monday to retrieve crucifixes tossed by priests in Epiphany ceremonies commemorating the baptism of Jesus Christ. The religious holiday of Epiphany is also celebrated in some Western Christian churches as Three Kings Day, which marks the visit of the Magi, or three wise men, to the baby Jesus, and closes out the Christmas season. At the Vatican, Pope Francis urged the faithful to reject “the god of money” as well as consumerism, pleasure, success and self. In his Epiphany homily Monday in St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis encouraged people to focus on serving others, not themselves.

Facing criticism, Delhi police probe attack on students at elite university (Reuters) New Delhi police are investigating how masked men burst into a leading university and attacked student protesters with sticks and rods, an officer said on Monday, the latest incident to ignite criticism of India’s ruling Hindu nationalists.

Taiwan elections (Foreign Policy) Taiwan holds elections on Saturday, with three candidates running for president. Incumbent leader Tsai Ing-wen is favored to win a second term, but her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could lose its legislative majority. The outcome will likely shape Taiwan’s relations with mainland China: In comparison to the DPP, the opposition Kuomintang party and its presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu, are seen as pro-Beijing.

Indonesia Mobilizes Fishermen in Stand-Off With China (Reuters) Indonesia will mobilize fishermen to join warships in the South China Sea to help defend against Chinese vessels, the government said on Monday, as the biggest stand-off with China for years escalated off Southeast Asia’s largest country.

Australia Strengthens Bushfire Defenses as Economic, Environmental Costs Mount (Reuters) Australian firefighters used a break from searing temperatures on Tuesday to strengthen containment lines around huge wildfires as the financial and environmental costs of the crisis mounted.

U.S.-Iran Tensions Grip the Region (Foreign Policy) Iran announced on Sunday that it would remove all limits on enriching uranium, days after a U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad and escalated hostilities between the countries. As the backlash against the United States grows, Iraq’s parliament has called for U.S. military forces to leave the country, with many there fearful of being caught in the crossfire between the two powers. Leaders across the Middle East have expressed concern. The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria announced on Sunday it would suspend its fight against the Islamic State. More than 5,000 U.S. troops still remain in Iraq, where they could be targets of Iranian retaliation.

Turkey sending troops to Libya (Foreign Policy) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday that he was sending troops to Libya to support the internationally recognized government in Tripoli. The move is the latest Turkish attempt to embed itself in regional affairs. It has sent arms to Libya for months and recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to carve out a sphere of influence in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey’s deepening involvement in Libya is part of an effort by international powers to shape the outcome of the country’s civil war. In September 2019, Russian mercenaries were deployed in Libya to support Gen. Khalifa Haftar in his bid to overtake Tripoli.

Libya’s East-Based Forces Say Key Coastal City Captured (AP) Libya’s east-based forces said they captured the strategic coastal city of Sirte on Monday from the U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli.

UN Chief: Highest Global Tensions This Century Risk Mistakes (AP) U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday that global political tensions “at their highest level this century” are escalating and “leading more and more countries to take unpredicted decisions with unpredictable consequences and a profound risk of miscalculation.”

#headlines #news

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years ago

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Drug-Running Plane Seized by Feds Used to Spy on George Floyd Protests

A government-owned aircraft that circled the unrest in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police originally belonged to Air America, an international drug smuggling front in the 1980s.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) aircraft N528NR was seized by the U.S. Marshals via asset forfeiture and later acquired by the DNR. The aircraft circled for hours over the protests and later riots on May 30th and 31st.

Prior to the surveillance flights in late May over Minneapolis, the Cessna T310R could typically be spotted flying over the forests of northern Minnesota. The stated objective of DNR aviation operations is to inventory and manage forestlands, provide wildfire reconnaissance and other ecological activities. The DNR has a law enforcement component, the role of which following the murder of George Floyd isn’t entirely clear yet. DNR internal documents, communications and other records are being sought to further understand the department’s place in the unprecedented law enforcement response to the protests and riots.

The plane, according to decades-old documents, is equipped with thermal imaging technology. Web searches for information about DNR forestry operations indicate the aircraft also uses what’s known as hyperspectral imaging, which is becoming fairly common in resource management. This powerful imaging technology uses lasers to collect “204 millions samples per second,” according to a 2018 forestry inventory webinar, in order to ascertain information about the plant life below. How this technology can be applied to police surveillance efforts such as the two protest overflights in late May is not fully understood at this time. The DNR is currently processing a public information request submitted by Motherboard for these and other details, and the department communicated it would begin handing over documents next week.

Federal Aviation Administration records obtained by Motherboard show a fascinating and wholly unexpected chain of custody for N528NR, from drug smuggling operation to government surveillance plane.

What these documents reveal is truly mind boggling: drug runners created a small fortune running cocaine into the United States using a Cessna plane. That aircraft ferries Congressmen and others around in between drug smuggling flights. The Marshals and their partners seize that property for their own purposes, including transporting prisoners from their war on drugs. Later on, that same Cessna plane is outfitted for surveillance, is flown over Americans engaged in protest and civil unrest.

The plane’s story begins with the investigation and trial of Frederick Luytjes (pronounced Lie-Chess), the convicted proprietor of Air America who pleaded guilty to flying 7.5 tons of cocaine into the United States from 1980 to 1984. “Flying out of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport, stripped down planes would leave for Colombia with $1 million stashed in duffel bags and return with 1,300 pounds of cocaine. Authorities estimated that Luytjes made $25 million in five years, laundering much of the profit through legitimate businesses. Authorities testified that Luytjes' employees at times took cardboard boxes filled with cash to local banks for deposit.”

Luytjes acquired a great deal of property and obviously cash from these exploits. His personal estate, according to the government agents who later seized it, amounted to the largest property forfeiture action to date. Prior to his downfall, “Luytjes raised money for local and national Republican political candidates, had his picture taken with President Gerald Ford, socialized with former Gov. William W. Scranton and often flew Rep. Joseph M. McDade to Washington on Air America planes.” This coziness, between the underworld and those occupying high offices, was surprising to many and prompted those officials to publicly disavow any knowledge of Luytjes’ dealings.

The name “Air America” may sound familiar, because it was the name of an airline secretly operated by the CIA from 1946 to 1976 and which contributed to the Vietnam War efforts. The Wikipedia entry explains, “Air America flew civilians, diplomats, spies, refugees, commandos, sabotage teams, doctors, war casualties, drug enforcement officers, and even visiting VIPs like Richard Nixon all over Southeast Asia.” Allegations of drug running have haunted the legacy of the CIA’s Air America since the airline folded in 1975.

In his book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, Alfred McCoy argues illicit drugs including heroin were, “transported in the planes, vehicles, and other conveyances supplied by the United States. The profit from the trade has been going into the pockets of some of our best friends in Southeast Asia. The charge concludes with the statement that the traffic is being carried on with the indifference if not the closed-eye compliance of some American officials, and there is no likelihood of its being shut down in the foreseeable future.” During the Vietnam conflict, the majority of the global supply of heroin originated in the Golden Triangle, which remained true until it was surpassed by Afghanistan following the US invasion.

Investigators suspected that Luytjes chose the name “to create an impression he was connected with the Central Intelligence Agency,” the New York Times reported in 1986. Luytjes openly claimed to his South American business partners that he was working as a CIA informant. Apparently, his cohorts believed this would provide them some sort of cover for their operations.

“As part of his defense, Luytjes maintained he was an informant for the DEA and CIA. In one mission, he claimed, he had tried but failed to fly a general and gold out of Nicaragua… A DEA agent and a law enforcement official were among those called by Luytjes to confirm that he had assisted their agencies in investigations.” The Morning Call, a Pennsylvania newspaper, reported in 1986 that “after he was arrested… Luytjes again claimed he was on a ‘high government mission’ and really wasn't a drug smuggler.”

Just as appealing as this supposed cover were Luytjes’ professionalism and the quality of his planes. These highly modified aircraft were “guaranteed, in part, by state-of-the-art technology—custom-designed airborne radar detectors, for example, and computerized fuel management systems. In the course of about 40 missions over a four-year period, the ring never failed to make a delivery,” the New York Times reported in 1988. Luytjes used to boast that Air America's pilots could guarantee their arrival times within three minutes. “Nobody else can do that,' he claimed, 'not even Federal Express.’”

Luytjes was clearly at the pinnacle of the drug running world, largely due to his skills with aircraft acquisition and modification. This is evident by the fact that he sold the very C-123 aircraft that, upon being shot down over Nicaragua, began what’s now known as the Iran-Contra Affair.

In video from a 1988 Senate investigation Gary Betzner, another convicted drug pilot, admitted that he encountered the infamous Barry Seal at “an Air America facility in Pennsylvania.” Barry Seal was a military pilot turned drug smuggler turned informant who was ultimately gunned down by a cartel hitman.

Whether Luytjes was really involved with the CIA or not will probably never be truly settled, but regardless, the drug smuggling Cessna T310R’s strange journey was not finished.

After Air America was shut down and its assets seized by the state, it became a bonanza among government agencies to try and absorb the plentiful yield of drug money and assets. “The Deputy Attorney General presented an Equitable Sharing award in the amount of $1.1 million to the Attorney General of Pennsylvania… The US Customs Service … request[ed] office machines/equipment, furniture, conveyances, and some items of shop equipment.” The memo goes on to explain that the DEA was also preparing a list of asset requests but the Marshal’s were unaware of what that list would include at that time.

According to one document obtained by Motherboard, the U.S. Marshals wanted to use the Air America facility to “support air operations of the National Prisoner Transportation System (NPTS) throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England regional areas.” The document goes on to explain how use of this facility and the seized aircraft could save a lot of money for their prisoner transportation operations.

The Marshals noted that their agency was the only one asking specifically for the facilities and aircraft. “The assets sought for official use by the Marshals Service… consist of a five-building complex… two aircraft [and] two motor vehicles…” On June 2nd, 1987 the Marshals received notice that the Deputy Attorney General approved the transfer of the seized Air America assets.

At the time of the property transfer from Air America to the Marshal’s Service, the aircraft now operated by the Minnesota DNR had logged nearly 1,000 hours. That total would increase for a few years in service of the Marshal’s Air Operations Division and then even further under the Minnesota DNR. Upon last check of flight history via ADSB Exchange, a flight tracker, the DNR did not operate extensively this summer after circling the George Floyd protests.

Prior to the adoption of the aircraft by the Forestry wing, the DNR housed the aircraft in their Division of Enforcement, a registration more in line with the previous history of the aircraft. The DNR entered into an agreement with the General Services Administration (GSA) in late 1994 requesting the aircraft for their own purposes. The GSA brokered the deal on behalf of the U.S. Marshals, which made use of the aircraft until it was no longer required. The deal was notarized in 1996.

It appears efforts have been undertaken to keep the plane shrouded in some degree of mystery.

In 2017, an official within the DNR’s Forestry division requested a change in tail-numbers, from N37250 to the current sequence. In doing so, the old registration information would not be as easily linked to this specific aircraft and the true history of its origins would remain largely unknown to most observers. Interestingly, the old tail number N37250 currently appears in the FAA civil registry under completely unrelated and deregistered status. The years of operation under the Air America status are simply absent from the registry.

Drug-Running Plane Seized by Feds Used to Spy on George Floyd Protests syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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charliempsu207-blog · 4 years ago

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The Most Influential People In The Wiets Industry And Their Celebrity Dopplegangers

Basel Convention Fundamentals Explained

Table of ContentsWhat Does Hazardous Waste Import Mean?Indicators on Wiets You Need To KnowExamine This Report on Hazardous Waste Import

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On this Discover more web page: You might require a PDF viewers to view some of the documents on this web page. See EPA's Concerning PDF page to get more information - epa. Although importers have to comply with relevant generator needs in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Laws (CFR) Part 262, consisting of the special needs of Part 262, Subpart F, importers can not build up contaminated materials for even more than 10 days without a Resource Preservation and also Recovery Act (RCRA) storage space authorization.

Department of Transport (DOT) packaging regulations (40 CFR section 263.12). You need to complete and send EPA Kind 8700-12. Directions on how to gain access to EPA Type 8700-12 and where to submit it are available at Just how Hazardous Waste Generators, Transporters, and Treatment, Storage Space and Disposal Facilities Can Obtain EPA Recognition Numbers (electronic waste).

Till modifications to EPA Kind 8700-12 are authorized by OMB, EPA suggests that identified investors wishing to ask for an EPA ID number in order to set up for import of contaminateds materials submit as well as send the current kind. The requester ought to: 1) on web page 1 of the form, show his or her business as the site in concern; and also 2) in "Item 13-Comments" on page 4 of the form, state that she or he is an identified investor that arranges for import of contaminated materials, universal waste or invested lead batteries based on Component 262 Subpart H needs.

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The laws for imports of harmful waste allow the importer or the importer's representative to authorize the RCRA generator accreditation statement on the manifest in place of the generator (40 CFR section 262.84( c)( 1 )). plastic waste. The only requirement for a representative authorizing the reveal is that the representative must be in some way legally associated with the UNITED STATE.

The broker can authorize the show qualification only if the broker's company has an EPA identification number (needing an U.S. address) or the broker is legitimately pertaining to the importer (e.g (southeast asia)., a subsidiary). A broker finalizing as an agent because of a legal relationship to the importer should position the UNITED STATE.

EPA recognition number of the importer on the manifest (plastic waste). Under 40 CFR area 264.71( a)( 3) and 40 area CFR 265.71( a)( 3 ), the UNITED STATE therapy, storage space and also disposal facility (TSDF) obtaining a RCRA shown up hazardous waste shipment from a foreign source is called for to include the pertinent consent number from authorization paperwork provided by EPA to the TSDF for each waste noted on the reveal, matched to the pertinent listing number for the waste, and send a duplicate of the reveal within thirty (30) days of shipment to EPA utilizing the addresses provided in 40 CFR 262.82( e) until the facility can send such a copy to the e-Manifest system per 40 CFR 264.71( a)( 2 )( v).

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The waste stream authorization number for each waste stream is a mix of the EPA notification ID number together with the waste stream number from the notice. The EPA notification ID number for an import notice is always 6 numbers, adhered to by a "/", complied with by 2 numbers, complied with by "I/", followed by two numbers.

The waste stream approval number is the first six figures of the EPA notice ID number, followed by "I", adhered to by the last 2 digits of the EPA notice ID number, complied with by the sequence number from the notice for the certain waste stream concerned, cushioned out to 3 numbers - developing countries.

Only centers that are required to submit to EPA copies of RCRA manifests for import deliveries under 40 CFR area 264 (non hazardous).71( a)( 3 ) or 40 CFR area 265.71( a)( 3 ), or the state equivalent to those demands, are impacted by the import permission paperwork demands. EPA sends out a cover letter and duplicate of the notification to all UNITED STATE.

importer that the import is permitted. The EPA cover letter as well as affixed notice offer as EPA's import consent documents for the shipments. EPA will certainly mail, fax, or email the letter as well as notification using the get in touch with information detailed for the centers in the notification. EPA is offering the letter and international notification for your potential use as well as recordkeeping due to the fact that your facility is listed as an obtaining center or acting obtaining center in the attached notice - poor countries.

Under regular situations you need to obtain authorization documents from EPA, but some examples of when you would certainly not get permission documents from EPA are: Inaccurate contact information was listed for your facility in the notification by either the international exporter or the UNITED STATE importer, or Your facility consented to recycle or throw away a solitary import delivery that was turned down by the obtaining facility detailed in the consent documents.

If the delivery was at first denied, you must get in touch with the initial assigned center or the noted UNITED STATE importer to acquire a copy of the EPA-provided approval paperwork. If the shipment was not at first turned down, you should right away get in touch with the noted UNITED STATE importer to acquire a duplicate of the consent paperwork.

About Rcra Hazardous Waste

Although the land disposal restrictions attach at the factor a hazardous waste is generated, the RCRA laws can just apply to events in the USA. When hazardous waste is imported from Canada, the UNITED STATE importer should follow all relevant RCRA demands, consisting of the hazardous waste recognition treatments for generators located partially 262.11.

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On the other hand, importers of hazardous waste have to follow all appropriate RCRA needs, consisting of LDR and the unique requirements for importers of harmful waste. Yes. Starting on December 31, 2016, all imports of RCRA unsafe waste have to have EPA approval, including those dangerous wastes managed under the alternate requirements of 40 CFR Component 266 or the global waste requirements of 40 CFR Component 273. In instances where the country of export does not regulate the shipment as a harmful waste export, the United States importer is called for to submit an import notice to EPA directly.

9 Simple Techniques For Hazardous Waste Import

Table of ContentsHazardous Waste Examples Fundamentals Explained

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Postal Mail Delivery, mail to: Focus: Notification of Intent to ImportOffice of Land and also Emergency Situation ManagementOffice of Source Conservation and RecoveryMaterials Healing as well as Waste Administration DivisionInternational Branch (Mail Code 2255A) Environmental Protection Agency1200 Pennsylvania Ave (european). NW.Washington, DC 20460 For Carrier Solution, mail to: Attention: Notification of Intent to ImportOffice of Land as well as Emergency Situation ManagementOffice of Resource Preservation and also RecoveryMaterials Recovery and Waste Monitoring DivisionInternational Branch (Mail Code 2255A) Environmental Defense AgencyWilliam Jefferson Clinton South BuildingRoom 6144, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave.

regions, such as the island of Midway, are exempt to import guidelines since they are not imported from a foreign nation. On the other hand, if a contaminated materials is imported from an U.S. army base located in one more country, import guidelines will apply. basel convention. It is the responsibility of a hazardous waste importer to accomplish all typical RCRA generator requirements - rcra.

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Where more than a single person falls within the extent of an importer, all celebrations involved with the importation of contaminated materials can be held collectively and severally liable for conformity with the generator requirements in Part 262 (basel convention). Nonetheless, we recommend that one of the celebrations think the generator obligations in support of all parties.

Nonetheless, EPA reserves the right to enforce versus any of the celebrations if the needs of Part 262 are not sufficiently fulfilled . [2] If a waste is transferred from a UNITED STATE territory or State to a second U.S. territory or State using another country, the export demands do not use because the designated facility is not in a foreign country.

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You require to fill up out as well as submit EPA Kind 8700-12. Instructions on exactly how to accessibility EPA Form 8700-12 and also where to send it are offered at How Contaminated Materials Generators, Transporters, and also Therapy, Storage and also Disposal Facilities Can Acquire EPA Identification Numbers.Changes to EPA Type 8700-12 are being created and also approved in order to clear up on the kind the demand for acknowledged traders to obtain an EPA ID number before preparing for new exports or imports of harmful waste. The requester should: 1) on page 1 of the.

kind, reflect his/her workplace as the site concerned; and also 2 )in" Item 13-Comments "on web page 4 of the type, state that she or he is an identified investor that prepares for export of harmful waste, global waste or spent lead batteries based on Part 262 Subpart H needs. United States exporters as well as notice preparers should access WIETS through EPA's Central Data Exchange( CDX) (developing countries). U.S. exporters will need to very first register in CDX as a certifier for WIETS in order to have the ability to prepare export notifications in WIETS and also certify/sign/submit them electronically to EPA. Only an US merchant can license that a digital notification is complete, sign it digitally, as well as send it to EPA. Firms that prepare export notifications for US merchants can sign up as a notice preparer in CDX for WIETS.

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Yet because notice preparers should detail an US exporter-certifier that will have to sponsor or confirm you in CDX, your client needs to complete the CDX enrollment procedure initially. EPA staff can not function as sponsors for notice preparers in CDX.Please note that exporter-certifiers should generally select the very first option when funding a notification preparer from a different business(" Sponsor individual, above, to do obligations that represent my company"). After duplicating a notification, you can after that edit details concerning the detailed waste streams, destination facilities, transporters, and also ports, or include new items as required - poor countries. Paper export notices must have permission provided before December 31, 2016. If formerly submitted paper export notifications do not receive consent prior to December 31, 2016, a new digital notification will certainly have to be sent. EPA highly advises that you finish your CDX enrollment to make sure that you can replicate and resubmit your export notice as quickly as possible if your authorization is not released prior to December 31, 2016. In this situation, the merchant must obtain authorization mirroring the new name by utilizing a changed notice or completing a new notice completely. In this situation, the exporter must submit a brand-new notice of intent to EPA as well as acquire consent prior to delivering to the different foreign facility. Yes. The reveal as well as the Acknowledgement of Authorization serve various functions. The show is needed to track the contaminated materials from "cradle to grave." As such, it is essential to identify the generator of the contaminated materials. Exporters are needed to send an export yearly record with EPA no later than March 1 of yearly summarizing the types, amounts, regularity, and utmost destination of all such dangerous waste exported throughout the previous calendar.

year. epa. If the exporter did not ship any contaminated materials after having actually acquired permission to export specific contaminateds materials, the merchant needs to submit an export yearly report keeping in mind that the amount shipped under the released permission (s )was no. For instance, if a merchant signs a manifest in 2015 for a waste to be exported, but the waste does not leave the nation till 2016, the delivery would be reported on the 2016 annual record which is due on March 1, 2017. The Acknowledgement of Authorization letter will list the waste stream authorization numbers for each and every waste stream from the export notification - rcra. The EPA notice ID number for an export notice is always six numbers, followed by a"/", followed by two digits, followed by" E/ ", complied with by 2 figures. An instance of an EPA notification ID number is" 000373/10E/10". The waste stream authorization number is the very first six digits.

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of the EPA notice ID number, complied with by" E ", complied with by the last 2 figures of the EPA notice ID number, adhered to by the sequence number from the notification for the specific waste stream in inquiry, padded out to 3 digits (basel convention).

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Table of Contents8 Easy Facts About Hazardous Waste Import Described

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As dangerous waste generators, we are all

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juliustxml999 · 4 years ago

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Why You're Failing At Hazardous Waste Examples

10 Easy Facts About Hazardous Waste Import Shown

Table of ContentsFascination About Rcra Hazardous WasteThe Buzz on Basel Convention9 Simple Techniques For Rcra Hazardous Waste

Examine This Report on Rcra Hazardous Waste

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On this page: You might need a PDF reader to view several of the files on this web page. See EPA's Regarding PDF web page to discover more - southeast asia. Although importers need to adhere to suitable generator demands in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Laws (CFR) Part 262, consisting of the unique requirements of Component 262, Subpart F, importers can not collect contaminated materials for even more than 10 days without a Resource Preservation and also Recuperation Act (RCRA) storage space permit.

Department of Transportation (DOT) product packaging regulations (40 CFR area 263.12). You require to submit and also send EPA Kind 8700-12. Instructions on how to gain access to EPA Kind 8700-12 and also where to submit it are readily available at How Dangerous Waste Generators, Transporters, and Treatment, Storage as well as Disposal Facilities Can Acquire EPA Identification Numbers (poor countries).

Up until modifications to EPA Type 8700-12 are approved by OMB, EPA recommends that acknowledged traders wishing to ask for an EPA ID number in order to schedule import of dangerous wastes fill out and also send the current type. The requester should: 1) on web page 1 of the type, mirror his/her area of company as the site concerned; as well as 2) in "Product 13-Comments" on web page 4 of the form, state that she or he is a recognized trader that schedules import of harmful waste, global waste or spent lead batteries based on Part 262 Subpart H needs.

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The policies for imports https://www.curbed.com/users/recognizedtrader of contaminated materials permit the importer or the importer's representative to sign the RCRA generator certification statement on the manifest instead of the generator (40 CFR section 262.84( c)( 1 )). poor countries. The only need for an agent signing the reveal is that the representative needs to be somehow legitimately associated with the UNITED STATE.

The broker might authorize the manifest certification just if the broker's business has an EPA recognition number (needing an U.S. address) or the broker is lawfully associated to the importer (e.g (rcra)., a subsidiary). A broker signing as a representative as a result of a legal relationship to the importer must put the UNITED STATE.

EPA recognition number of the importer on the manifest (epa). Under 40 CFR section 264.71( a)( 3) and 40 area CFR 265.71( a)( 3 ), the UNITED STATE treatment, storage and disposal center (TSDF) obtaining a RCRA shown up hazardous waste shipment from a foreign resource is called for to add the appropriate approval number from approval documents supplied by EPA to the TSDF for every waste listed on the manifest, matched to the appropriate checklist number for the waste, and send a duplicate of the reveal within thirty (30) days of delivery to EPA using the addresses detailed in 40 CFR 262.82( e) up until the facility can send such a duplicate to the e-Manifest system per 40 CFR 264.71( a)( 2 )( v).

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What Does Hazardous Waste Trade Do?

The waste stream approval number for each waste stream is a mix of the EPA notification ID number together with the waste stream number from the notification. The EPA notification ID number for an import notice is constantly 6 digits, adhered to by a "/", complied with by 2 figures, adhered to by "I/", adhered to by 2 digits.

The waste stream authorization number is the first six digits of the EPA notice ID number, adhered to by "I", complied with by the last 2 digits of the EPA notice ID number, adhered to by the sequence number from the notice for the particular waste stream concerned, padded out to 3 numbers - recycling.

Only centers that are required to submit to EPA duplicates of RCRA materializes for import shipments under 40 CFR area 264 (waste disposal).71( a)( 3 ) or 40 CFR section 265.71( a)( 3 ), or the state matching to those requirements, are influenced by the import permission paperwork needs. EPA sends a cover letter and copy of the notice to all UNITED STATE.

importer that the import is allowed. The EPA cover letter as well as connected notice offer as EPA's import permission documents for the shipments. EPA will send by mail, fax, or email the letter as well as notification using the call details listed for the facilities in the notification. EPA is offering the letter and foreign notification for your prospective usage as well as recordkeeping due to the fact that your center is detailed as a getting facility or acting receiving center in the attached notice - waste disposal.

Under normal circumstances you ought to obtain approval documentation from EPA, but some examples of when you would not obtain consent paperwork from EPA are: Wrong contact details was provided for your center in the notification by either the international merchant or the U.S. importer, or Your facility consented to reuse or take care of a solitary import shipment that was denied by the getting center detailed in the approval documentation.

If the delivery was initially rejected, you ought to get in touch with the original assigned facility or the listed UNITED STATE importer to acquire a copy of the EPA-provided consent documentation. If the delivery was not initially rejected, you ought to promptly get in touch with the noted UNITED STATE importer to get a copy of the approval paperwork.

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Although the land disposal restrictions affix at the point a dangerous waste is produced, the RCRA guidelines can just put on parties in the USA. When hazardous waste is imported from Canada, the UNITED STATE importer have to adhere to all appropriate RCRA needs, including the contaminated materials recognition treatments for generators found partially 262.11.

The Buzz on Hazardous Waste Import

On the various other hand, importers of contaminated materials need to follow all suitable RCRA demands, consisting of LDR and the unique needs for importers of contaminated materials. Yes. Beginning on December 31, 2016, all imports of RCRA contaminated materials need to have EPA permission, including those dangerous wastes managed under the alternate criteria of 40 CFR Component 266 or the universal waste criteria of 40 CFR Part 273. In cases where the country of export does not regulate the delivery as a hazardous waste export, the US importer is called for to submit an import notification to EPA straight.

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Table of ContentsThe Single Strategy To Use For Rcra Hazardous Waste

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Postal Mail Distribution, mail to: Attention: Notice of Intent to ImportOffice of Land and also Emergency Situation ManagementOffice of Source Preservation and also RecoveryMaterials Healing as well as Waste Monitoring DivisionInternational Branch (Mail Code 2255A) Environmental Management Agency1200 Pennsylvania Ave (non hazardous). NW.Washington, DC 20460 For Carrier Solution, mail to: Interest: Notice of Intent to ImportOffice of Land as well as Emergency ManagementOffice of Resource Preservation as well as RecoveryMaterials Recovery as well as Waste Administration DivisionInternational Branch (Mail Code 2255A) Environmental Management AgencyWilliam Jefferson Clinton South BuildingRoom 6144, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave.

areas, such as the island of Midway, are not subject to import laws due to the fact that they are not imported from an international nation. On the various other hand, if a dangerous waste is imported from a UNITED STATE army base located in an additional nation, import laws will use. recycling. It is the duty of a dangerous waste importer to perform all normal RCRA generator requirements - waste disposal.

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Where greater than a single person drops within the scope of an importer, all parties entailed with the importation of contaminated materials can be held collectively and severally liable for conformity with the generator requirements in Part 262 (poor countries). Nevertheless, we advise that one of the celebrations presume the generator obligations in support of all parties.

However, EPA books the right to implement against any of the events if the needs of Component 262 are not adequately met . [2] If a waste is transferred from an U - poor countries.S. area or State to a second U.S. area or State through one more country, the export requirements do not apply because the marked center is not in an international nation.

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You require to fill in and also send EPA Form 8700-12. Guidelines on just how to gain access to EPA Form 8700-12 and also where to send it are available at Just how Unsafe Waste Generators, Transporters, and Therapy, Storage and also Disposal Facilities Can Get EPA Recognition Numbers.Changes to EPA Kind 8700-12 are being developed as well as accepted in order to make clear on the form the requirement for recognized traders to acquire an EPA ID number prior to scheduling new exports or imports of contaminated materials. The requester needs to: 1) on web page 1 of the.

form, show his or her business as the site in concern; and also 2 )in" Product 13-Comments "on web page 4 of the kind, state that she or he is a recognized investor that schedules export of contaminated materials, universal waste or spent lead batteries subject to Part 262 Subpart H needs. US merchants and also notice preparers have to access WIETS via EPA's Central Data Exchange( CDX) (basel convention). UNITED STATE merchants will require to first register in CDX as a certifier for WIETS in order to be able to prepare export notifications in WIETS as well as certify/sign/submit them digitally to EPA. Only a United States merchant can accredit that a digital notice is complete, authorize it online, as well as send it to EPA. Companies that prepare export notices for United States exporters can register as a notification preparer in CDX for WIETS.

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Yet given that notice preparers must note a United States exporter-certifier that will have to fund or verify you in CDX, your customer must complete the CDX enrollment procedure initially. EPA team can not serve as enrollers for notification preparers in CDX.Please note that exporter-certifiers ought to typically select the initial option when funding a notification preparer from a different business(" Enroller individual, above, to carry out tasks that represent my organization"). After duplicating a notification, you can after that edit info concerning the provided waste streams, destination facilities, transporters, and ports, or include brand-new things as needed - plastic waste. Paper export notifications must have authorization provided prior to December 31, 2016. If previously sent paper export notifications do not obtain permission before December 31, 2016, a new digital alert will have to be submitted. EPA highly recommends that you finish your CDX registration to ensure that you can replicate and resubmit your export notice as rapidly as possible if your authorization is not released prior to December 31, 2016. In this case, the merchant needs to obtain authorization mirroring the new name by using a modified notification or finishing a new notification entirely. In this case, the exporter should send a brand-new notification of intent to EPA and also acquire permission before shipping to the different international facility. Yes. The reveal as well as the Recognition of Consent offer different purposes. The reveal is needed to track the contaminated materials from "cradle to tomb." As such, it is crucial to determine the generator of the dangerous waste. Merchants are called for to submit an export yearly record with EPA no behind March 1 of annually summarizing the types, quantities, regularity, as well as utmost location of all such unsafe waste exported throughout the previous calendar.

year. southeast asia. If the exporter did not deliver any contaminated materials after having acquired authorization to export certain contaminateds materials, the exporter needs to submit an export yearly report noting that the amount delivered under the issued consent (s )was zero. As an example, if a merchant indicators a reveal in 2015 for a waste to be exported, but the waste does not leave the country up until 2016, the delivery would be reported on the 2016 annual report which is due on March 1, 2017. The Recognition of Authorization letter will certainly list the waste stream permission numbers for each waste stream from the export notice - european. The EPA notification ID number for an export notice is always 6 digits, adhered to by a"/", adhered to by two figures, complied with by" E/ ", adhered to by two figures. An example of an EPA notification ID number is" 000373/10E/10". The waste stream consent number is the initial 6 figures.

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of the EPA notification ID number, adhered to by" E ", followed by the last 2 numbers of the EPA notice ID number, adhered to by the sequence number from the notice for the details waste stream concerned, cushioned bent on 3 figures (developing countries).

What Does Basel Convention Do?

Table of ContentsHazardous Waste Examples for Beginners

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As unsafe waste generators,

#Hazardous Waste Examples

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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Airbnb Expands Frontline Stays Initiative to Thailand

Airbnb has expanded its Frontline Stays initiative to Thailand. Launched to help house healthcare professionals, relief workers, and first responders around the world, the company is now looking to assist COVID19 key workers in Thailand by providing them with safe and convenient places to stay while they carry out their critical work.

Airbnb is encouraging its existing hosts in Thailand to offer accommodation to these key workers for free, and is actively looking for more hosts who would like to play their part by offering somewhere for these brave men and women to stay. If hosts are not able or simply unwilling to host for free, Airbnb says it will waive all fees on the stay - but only up to 100,000 stays globally. Mich Goh, Head of Public Policy (Southeast Asia), Airbnb, said, “The Airbnb community has a long history of providing accommodation to those in need when the worst happens. Amid this global pandemic, we at Airbnb recognize that medical workers are at the forefront of saving lives and we are committed to working with our community to do whatever we can to support them. We’ve been inspired by the generosity of Thai hosts and nonprofits who have reached out to us seeking ways to support their frontliners.” See latest Travel News, Interviews, Podcasts and other news regarding: Airbnb, COVID19. Headlines: SKYE Suites Fast Tracks Opening of Third Hotel in Australia Thailand Grants Automatic Visa Extensions to Foreign Tourists American Airlines Expanding Cargo Operations Sunway Resort Donates Amenity Kits to COVID19 Hospital in Malaysia Delta Cargo Adds Large Shipments to DASH Door-to-Door Service Etihad Cargo to Expand Network with Five New Routes Airbnb Expands Frontline Stays Initiative to Thailand Airbus to Cut Aircraft Production by a Third Vietnam Airlines Reduces Danang Flights AirAsia Philippines Cancels All Flights Until 30 April Avani+ Khao Lak Appoints GM and DOSM COVID19: Marriott Launches Rooms for Responders Initiative in USA Etihad to Operate Special COVID19 Flights to Melbourne and Amsterdam Philippines Eases Immigration Requirements for Foreigners Changi Airport in Singapore to Suspend T2 Operations for 18 Months Hong Kong Extends Ban on Non-Resident Arrivals and Transit Indefinitely Etihad to Trial Technology That Identifies Passengers with Symptoms of Illness Air Canada Extends Status of All Altitude FFP Members Japan Coast Guard Orders Two More Airbus H225 Helicopters Owner to Rebrand Four Seasons Hotel and Residence in Shanghai Marlon Abeyakoon Appointed GM of New Resort in Maldives Boeing to Suspend 787 Operations in South Carolina ITE Hong Kong Postponed Until August 2020 IATA Postpones 76th AGM and World Air Transport Summit InterContinental Bali Distributing 'Homemade' Face Masks Etihad Encourages FFP Members to Donate Miles Avani Seminyak Bali Appoints I Made Subrata as GM Two Dassault Falcon Business Jets to Assist Operation Resilience in France Delta Extends SkyMiles FFP Benefits and Status Airbus Uses Test Aircraft to Fly 4 Million More Face Masks to Europe Royal Netherlands Air Force Takes Delivery of First of 20 CH-47F Chinooks IATA: This is Aviation's Darkest Hour Accor to Close More Hotels; Cut Costs Airlines in Asia Pacific Need Urgent Financial Support Thai Airways Staff on Temporary Leave From 4 April - 31 May American Airlines Makes Further Changes to Flight Schedule Air Canada to Operate More Repatriation Flights Boeing to Suspend Production in Ridley Township, Pennsylvania Oakwood Opens Third Property in Jakarta, Indonesia Increasing ORs Hint at Early Signs of Recovery for Hotels in China Air Cargo Demand Slumps in February Vietnam Airlines to Operate Just Three Return Flights Per Day Qatar Airways Suspends JFK Flights; Madrid and Barcelona Next Airbus Sites in Germany and Spain Producing 3D Printed Visor Frames EU Waives Airport Slots Use Rule for Summer Season CapitaLand Appoints Kevin Goh as CEO - Lodging Relais & Châteaux Adds First Hotel in Bangkok to Collection Airlines Could Burn Through US$61 Billion of Cash Reserves in Q2 Marriott Warns Millions of Guests About Security Breach Airbnb to Support Hosts During COVID19 Crisis Vietnam Airlines Launches Cargo-Only Flights 774-Room Grand Richmond Convention Hotel in Nonthaburi Closes for Two Months Sindhorn Midtown Bangkok Opens Tower with 49 Serviced Residences Air Canada to Layoff 16,500 Employees; Reduce Q2 Capacity by 85-90% Qatar Airways Launches Belly-Hold Cargo Flights to Six Destinations in China Vietnam Airlines Closes Airport Lounges RevPAR of Hotels in USA Forecast to Drop 50.6% in 2020 Delta Retains Cargo Tender and Acceptance Capabilities at Tokyo-Narita Airbus Pauses Majority of Production in Spain Vietnam Airlines to Reduce Frequency of Domestic Flights WHO Launches COVID19 WhatsApp Service in Arabic, French and Spanish Qatar Airways' FFP Offers 12-Month Tier Extension Etihad Cargo Using Boeing 787-10 Aircraft as Freighters Air Canada Continues COVID19 Repatriation Flights Airbus Flies Over 4 Million More Face Masks to Europe American Airlines Reduces Capacity Further Hilton to Take Over 1,080-Room Hotel on Orchard Road, Singapore AirAsia Suspending Most Flights Across Network Asia Pacific Airlines Carried 17 Million Passengers in February SIA to Issue S$5.3b in New Equity and Raise Up To S$9.7b via MCB Qatar Airways Expands Flights to Australia to Help Get People Home Virgin Atlantic Operates First Ever Cargo-Only Charter IATA Calls for Urgent Financial Relief from European Governments Bombardier Suspends 'All Non-Essential Work' in Canada ANA Partners Skyscanner; Achieves IATA NDC Level 3 COVID19: 75 Million Travel and Tourism Jobs at Immediate Risk Air Cargo Supply Lines Must Remain Open American to Operate Repatriation Flights from Honduras and Brazil Air Canada Launches Cargo Flights to Europe Air New Zealand Ramps Up Cargo Operations AirAsia Updates Rebooking Policy Embraer Helping to Combat COVID19 in Brazil Thai Airways Cancels Flights to Australia, Europe and Regionally Tokyo 2020 to Take Place in 2021 Air Canada Organises Two Extra Flights from Quito, Ecuador Korean Air Execs Take Pay Cut; Airline to Use Passenger Planes for Cargo Aviation: IATA Calls on Governments to Give More Support American Airlines Closes Lounges, Changes In-Flight Service and Seating France's Daily Hotel Occupancy Plummets to Just 3.3% A400M Delivers Critically-Needed Mask Supplies to Spain Air Canada to Operate Six Special Flights to Barcelona, Lima and Quito Bangkok Airways to Close All Airport Lounges UAE to Ban ALL Passenger Flights for Two Weeks Etihad Airways Suspends Transit Travel Through Abu Dhabi Hong Kong's Airport Authority Launches New HK$1 Billion Relief Package Ryan Jette Joins Capella Singapore as Executive Chef Austrian Airlines Extends Flight Suspension to 19 April Singapore Airlines to Ground 138 of 147 Aircraft COVID19: Sabre to Cut Costs by US$200 Million HD Videos and Interviews Podcasts from HD Video Interviews Travel Trade Shows in 2019, 2020 and 2021 High-Res Picture Galleries Travel News Asia - Latest Travel Industry News Read the full article

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noisymiagy · 5 years ago

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The 10 Best & Worst U.S. Cities For Public Transportation

With regards to public transportation, new york metropolis is famous for its subways, san Francisco for its bay location fast transit (Bart) gadget and Los Angeles.… for its crowded freeways. With towns big and small, public delivery is crucial to shifting commuters, customers, and residents from side to side with speed, accuracy, and affordability.

First-class public transportation may be a vital element when selecting what metropolis to transport to.

1. New York City, New York

It’s a famous fact that most new yorkers don’t personal cars, as a substitute counting on the town’s taxicabs, motorcycle-proportion packages, buses, subway systems, and railroads. The city’s Metropolitan Transportation authority currently opened the thirty-fourth road–Hudson yards station that extends its already a long way-achieving subway service even extra.

2. San Francisco, California

3. Boston, Massachusetts

For as crowded as Boston is, the “t” or the Massachusetts bay transportation authority, is in the price of its buses, ferries, trains, and trolleys. As complex as you’d assume it might be to navigate all those journey alternatives, fear not. Color-coded maps and schedules are to be had, and locals are always satisfied to assist.

4. Washington, D.C.

5. Jersey City, New Jersey

Amtrak is big in jersey city, and new jersey’s 2d-largest town is walker-pleasant. Transit buses and heavy-rail path (port authority trans-hudson) trains get movers and shakers to and from newark and manhattan in record time. Big apple waterway ferries also dock in jersey city.

6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

7. Chicago, Illinois

Chi-metropolis vacationers and commuters get around through “the l,” formally called the improved electric educate that’s run through the Chicago transit authority. Buses, taxis, water taxis, and the town’s motorbike-sharing program, divvy, are all alternatives to travel around this historical metropolis.

8. Miami, Florida

9. Arlington, Virginia

Arlington, Virginia has its Arlington transit bus device and a metro device that transports vacationers to and from Washington, d.C. It additionally has a bike percentage program and commuter trains.

10. Baltimore, Maryland

#article of the day #public transportation problems #morning commute #lifeinbigcities #americancity

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todaystoriesclub · 5 years ago

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The 10 Best & Worst U.S. Cities For Public Transportation

When it comes to public transportation, New York City is famous for its subways, San Francisco for its Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and Los Angeles… for its crowded freeways. With cities large and small, public transport is crucial to moving commuters, shoppers, and residents back and forth with speed, accuracy, and affordability.

Quality of public transportation can be an important factor when choosing what city to move to.

Here are lists of the top 10 best and worst cities for public transportation in the U.S., according to Walk Score, which rated each city based on the accessibility of bike-sharing programs, buses, ferries, heavy rail, light rail, and subways.

San Francisco’s BART

Top 10 Best Cities For Public Transportation

1. New York City, New York

It’s a well-known fact that most New Yorkers don’t own cars, instead of relying on the city’s taxicabs, bike-share programs, buses, subway systems, and railroads. The city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently opened the 34th Street–Hudson Yards Station that extends its already far-reaching subway service even more.

2. San Francisco, California

3. Boston, Massachusetts

For as crowded as Boston is, the “T” or the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, is in charge of its buses, ferries, trains, and trolleys. As complicated as you’d think it would be to navigate all those travel options, fear not. Color-coded maps and schedules are available, and locals are always happy to help.

4. Washington, D.C.

Another city that’s rife with traffic gridlock is the nation’s capital. Not only is it the center of all things government, but it’s a tiny area (that covers 68 miles total) with nearly 700,000 residents and many more out-of-town commuters and 22 million annual tourists (in 2016 alone) of people trying to move around its streets. Metrorail and Metrobus are the two major options for avoiding vehicle traffic.

New Jersey’s PATH

5. Jersey City, New Jersey

6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The City of Brotherly Love shows no shortage of public transportation options. Philadelphia’s public transit agency, SEPTA (Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority) operates the regional (commuter) rail trains, heavy rapid transit (subway/elevated) trains, light rail vehicles (trolleys), electric trolleybuses and motor buses. Also available in the city’s Indego bike-sharing transport system.

7. Chicago, Illinois

8. Miami, Florida

9. Arlington, Virginia

Arlington, Virginia has its Arlington Transit bus system and a Metro system that transports travelers to and from Washington, D.C. It also has a bike-share program and commuter trains.

10. Baltimore, Maryland

Top 10 Worst Cities For Public Transportation

Now we count down the 10 worst cities in the U.S. for public transportation.

10. Fort Wayne, Indiana

9. Lubbock, Texas

8. Fort Worth, Texas

7. Virginia Beach, Virginia

6. Chandler, Arizona

5. Colorado Springs, Colorado

4. Plano, Texas

3. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

2. Gilbert, Arizona

1. Chesapeake, Virginia

Sorry, Chesapeake, you have the worst public transportation in the U.S.!

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public-transportation-tournament · 1 year ago

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Yarra Trams, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia vs SEPTA (southeast pennsylvania transportation authority), Pennsylvania, United States

Yarra Trams: World's largest operational tram network, has been continuously running since 1885, and is the reason the Melbourne is one of the very few places that has hook turns. Absolutely terrifying thing to discover in peak hour traffic on one's first visit driving in Melbourne.

SEPTA: i’m from philly and i miss it plus it has range (outside of philly and even nj, as a kid we took the regional rail up to villanova)

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kansascityhappenings · 5 years ago

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Pennsylvania Turnpike crash kills 5 people and injures about 60 others

https://newsource-embed-prd.ns.cnn.com/videos/newsource-video-embed.js

A massive pileup involving tractor-trailers, a tour bus and passenger cars killed five people and injured at least 60 others in western Pennsylvania Sunday morning, authorities said.

The crash happened around 3:34 a.m. on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Mount Pleasant Township southeast of Pittsburgh, the Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety said.

“Crash involves 2 tractor trailers, a tour bus and passenger vehicles. Turnpike is closed in both directions from New Stanton (#75) to Breezewood (#161). A prolonged closure likely,” Pennsylvania Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo tweeted.

The crash shut down all lanes of the Pennsylvania Turnpike for dozens of miles. Five hours after the crash, an 86-mile stretch of the turnpike remained closed, DeFebo said.

The five people killed were found dead at the scene, county coroner Ken Bacha said. About 60 patients were taken to three area hospitals, DeFebo said. Excela Frick Hospital received 25 patients ranging from ages 7 to 52, spokeswoman Robin Jennings said. She said nine of the patients are children. Eleven patients from the crash were taken to Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, hospital spokeswoman Stephanie Waite said. One patient was in critical condition and 10 are in fair condition, Waite said. The ages of the patients were not immediately available.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

The National Transportation Safety Board is aware of the crash and is gathering information, spokesman Christopher O’Neil said Sunday morning. But “at this point no decision has been made as to whether or not the NTSB will investigate the crash,” O’Neil said.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2020/01/05/pennsylvania-turnpike-crash-kills-5-people-and-injures-about-60-others/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2020/01/05/pennsylvania-turnpike-crash-kills-5-people-and-injures-about-60-others/

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circlebeam4-blog · 5 years ago

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Should We Be Afraid of the Mariner East Pipeline?

City

The ongoing battle over the project is taking place in the backyards of Chester and Delaware county residents, who live in fear of a catastrophe.

Exton’s Paula Brandl and the Mariner East Pipeline construction barricade cutting through her backyard. Photograph by Shira Yudkoff

It was dark outside, around 5 a.m., when the flames took over the sky. Neighbors described it like this: a loud hissing noise. A massive ball of fire. A jet, or a meteor, crashing into the earth. Night turning into day.

On September 10, 2018, a section of the Revolution Pipeline — which had begun carrying natural gas just a week earlier — leaked and ignited in rural Beaver County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh. The rupture shot flames 150 feet into the air, destroying one house, collapsing several overhead power lines, and forcing the evacuation of nearly 50 residents.

Fortunately, no one was injured; the couple who lost their home had fled in the nick of time.

But for residents living along the thousands of miles of natural gas pipelines in Pennsylvania — second only to Texas as the nation’s largest producer of the fossil fuel and home to the newly booming, energy-rich Marcellus Shale region — the fire and the charred earth it left behind serve as a haunting reminder: Something like this could happen in our backyards.

That dread is perhaps nowhere more evident than 300 miles southeast of Beaver County, in the dense suburban neighborhoods west of Philadelphia, a city that energy industry leaders have, in the past decade, eyed as a global processing and trading hub. Here, tensions surrounding the cross-state Mariner East pipelines — a project much larger than Revolution and owned by the same parent company, Dallas-based Energy Transfer — are only intensifying.

The pipelines (Mariner East 1 and 2 and the not-yet-completed 2x) carry highly compressed natural gas liquids. Once they are fully operational along a 350-mile route from their Marcellus Shale source to a revitalized former oil refinery in Marcus Hook, they promise to be vastly lucrative for Energy Transfer — and for the state, which, the company boasts, could see an economic impact of more than $9 billion from the project. But since work began in February 2017, Mariner East has been plagued by nearly 100 state Department of Environmental Protection violations, multiple sinkholes, service shutdowns and construction chaos. Glaring gaps in state regulatory oversight have been exposed, and opposition has grown into significant pushback from neighbors and a bipartisan group of lawmakers who say Pennsylvania communities are at risk of — and unprepared for — a potential pipeline disaster.

Mariner East is headed for an inflection point: Construction could continue despite opponents’ pitched efforts, or officials could take steps to pause, end or remedy a project that’s been embattled since its inception. In the meantime, those at the heart of the Mariner East conflict zone live in fear of an incident like Beaver County’s — or worse.

•

In April, a fortress-like metal barricade was erected across the center of Paula Brandl’s quiet, grassy backyard in Exton, Chester County. The scene outside her kitchen window is almost dystopian. Brandl says land agents connected with Sunoco Pipeline LP, the Energy Transfer subsidiary that’s building the lines, told her the wall was installed as a noise barrier. For roughly two weeks after it went up, she says, she and her family members were “in shock.” Brandl contacted the agents and various state agencies to inquire about vibrations caused by the hidden construction as well as diesel exhaust in the air in and around her home, but she says no one she spoke with was helpful or informative.

“I have every right to know what is going on back there,” Brandl says at her dining room table one late-April day. “It’s just as if I don’t even own that land anymore.”

Energy Transfer is able to occupy Brandl’s backyard (and yards in 17 Pennsylvania counties) through what a recent New Yorker story termed a “legal loophole” linking the Mariner East project to the route of a 1930s pipeline that formerly transported heating oil. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the main state agency tasked with overseeing oil and gas projects, has deemed the project a public utility, stressing that state code “recognizes the intrastate transportation by pipeline of petroleum products.” Doing so grants the pipelines right-of-way, which is typically reserved for utilities offering some sort of benefit to the general public, like schools or highways.

Energy Transfer spokesperson Lisa Dillinger says that putting additional pipelines into an existing right-of-way is a common practice that “helps to reduce our environmental footprint.” But the pipelines’ public utility status enrages Brandl and other residents, especially since a significant quantity of the product the lines carry is to be shipped overseas to make plastics.

“The PUC failed us,” Brandl says. “This is not a utility. This is not a gas line that’s serving the benefit of Pennsylvanians. And that’s basically the root of this entire issue.”

In Pennsylvania, there’s no state agency responsible for approving the routes of intrastate hazardous-liquid pipelines — nor does federal law require that oversight. David Hess, who served as Pennsylvania’s DEP secretary under Republican governors Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker from 2001 to 2003, says the lack of any such authority puts Pennsylvania “in a very disadvantageous position … because the pipeline route is critical. If the law was different, I don’t think you’d ever approve a route through populated areas like these, given the risks with some of these materials being carried.”

Dillinger says that Energy Transfer goes “above and beyond what is required to ensure the safety of our lines.” But it’s clear that the state agencies left to regulate the massive Mariner East project — the Pennsylvania DEP and the PUC — have an unprecedented situation on their hands, with what Hess calls “unanticipated impacts” in areas “overgrown with development.” Chief among those impacts are sinkholes that have opened in yards along the pipeline construction route in Chester County, twice exposing the buried pipe of the 1930s line (now repurposed as Mariner East 1) and prompting pipeline shutdowns to avert what the PUC called a potentially “catastrophic” risk to public safety.

The residents who owned those once-quaint yards — on Lisa Drive, just outside Exton — said they were terrified for their lives. Then, in April, Energy Transfer bought two of the homes, and the families moved out. Now, the properties sit eerily quiet and mostly empty, save for construction equipment and a small sign in one of the yards: notice: audio and video recording in progress. When I visited the area in early May, a man who identified himself as a relative of one of the former homeowners told me that in the neighborhood, “Everybody wants to get out.”

•

Paula Brandl and other residents who have endured the complications of hosting Mariner East construction on or near their properties — water contamination, spills of drilling mud, intimidating contractors — say those side effects pale in comparison to their biggest fear: a pipeline leak.

Natural gas liquids can rapidly change to an explosive gaseous state during a leak, and the gas can be ignited by sources as small as static discharge from using a cell phone, flicking a light switch or ringing a doorbell. Leaks, which can be caused by welding failures, material defects, pipeline corrosion, shifting land and other factors, have already happened along Mariner East 1 — three since 2014, though none resulted in an explosion. Energy Transfer’s Dillinger says the 88-year-old pipeline underwent “integrity testing and major upgrades” when it was repurposed for natural gas liquids service, and in April, two years after a high-profile leak in Berks County, the company said it would conduct a “remaining life study” of the line.

Energy Transfer’s safety record is, however, bleak in general. Between 2002 and the end of 2017, pipelines affiliated with the company across the country experienced a leak or an accident every 11 days on average, according to an analysis of federal pipeline data compiled by environmental advocacy organizations Greenpeace USA and Waterkeeper Alliance. In an evaluation by NPR affiliate StateImpact Pennsylvania, the same federal data showed that Sunoco Pipeline is responsible for the industry’s second-highest number of incidents reported to inspectors over the past 12 years.

“When it comes to number of accidents, Sunoco’s not just an outlier; they’re sort of an extreme outlier,” Eric Friedman, a Delaware County resident who lives steps from the Mariner East pipeline route, tells me. Friedman, a former airline pilot who has worked for the FAA since 2006, sees Mariner East through a risk-management lens. (“Everything we do in commercial aviation is based on risk,” he says.) He learned of the pipelines in 2013 — a year after buying his home in an affluent Glen Mills neighborhood — and has been researching the project ever since. He’s in regular contact with the offices of lawmakers like U.S. Rep Mary Gay Scanlon and Chester County State Senator Andy Dinniman — the politician widely considered to be the pipelines’ most vocal opponent — and he’s one of the leaders of a nonpartisan residents group called the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety. In November 2018, seven residents of Chester and Delaware counties filed a complaint with the PUC against Sunoco Pipeline LP, alleging that the subsidiary hasn’t provided the public with a sufficient emergency notification system or management plan in the event of a pipeline-related disaster. The petitioners (nicknamed by residents the “Safety 7”) argue that as a public utility operator, Sunoco is tasked by federal regulations enforced by the PUC with providing an emergency-preparedness plan for potential disasters, like a possible leak along the Mariner East route. The failure to release a satisfactory plan, they say, places residents in the pipelines’ blast zone “at imminent risk of catastrophic and irreparable loss, including loss of life, serious injury to life, and damage to their homes and property.”

Energy Transfer has disputed the residents’ claims, saying that its emergency-response professionals “work and train with local first responders” and that it has shared a written public-education program specific to the area with emergency-response professionals along the line. Still, residents say the company hasn’t sufficiently involved the public in its preventative plans; the complaint is scheduled for hearings before an administrative law judge in July.

Meanwhile, the PUC has said it won’t release information about the potential impact of a leak or an explosion for several reasons, including that the state’s Right to Know law prohibits the disclosure of records that are “reasonably likely to jeopardize or threaten public safety.” Sharing the hazard assessments, the PUC argues, could compromise pipeline security by revealing information “which could clearly be used by a terrorist to plan an attack … to cause the greatest possible harm and mass destruction to the public living near such facilities.”

Brandl and other residents stress that living next to a “mass destruction” target is terrifying, with or without a disaster plan. To make matters worse, a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found major weaknesses in how the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration — which is responsible for addressing terrorism risks along the nation’s 2.7 million miles of oil and gas pipelines — manages its pipeline security efforts.

“I don’t think I’d be living 25 feet away from that pipeline,” Hess, the former DEP secretary, says. “But again, the question is, why was someone allowed to live within 25 feet of this pipeline in the first place?”

•

In December, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced a criminal investigation into conduct related to the Mariner East project, saying that potential charges against individual Energy Transfer employees or corporate officers could include causing or risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief and environmental crimes. More recently, Delaware County DA Katayoun Copeland and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro launched a joint investigation into Sunoco Pipeline LP and Energy Transfer over allegations of criminal misconduct related to the project, with Copeland stating that there “is no question that the pipeline poses certain concerns and risks to our residents.” (At press time, both investigations were ongoing.) Energy Transfer’s Dillinger says that the company remains “confident that we have not acted to violate any criminal laws in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and are committed to aggressively defending ourselves.”

After years of pressure, residents might finally be getting through to the state. At a Pennsylvania Senate committee meeting in June 2018 — before, even, a number of critical developments regarding Mariner East — former Republican State Senator Don White of Indiana County made a surprising statement: If issues raised at the committee’s meetings regarding pipeline safety consistently involve one project — referring to Mariner East — then “we have the ability in this state to find a way to deal with this company and put them out of business.”

David Hess, the former Republican DEP secretary — he was also executive director of the state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in the ’90s — says that for a “Republican senator to say that is astounding … [it] really underscores the problems this company is generating.”

As frustration and fear about Mariner East spread to constituents in red and blue districts alike, lawmakers who are typically supportive of the oil and gas industry (like north-central Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw) are voicing concern. White’s proposition poses a question that residents are forcing officials — particularly Governor Tom Wolf, who has positioned himself as an ally to environmentalists and residents but has received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from oil and gas industry affiliates — to consider: How should they deal with the Mariner East pipelines?

Several months after the Revolution Pipeline incident in Beaver County, Wolf released a statement calling on state lawmakers to “address gaps in existing law which have tied the hands of the executive and independent agencies charged with protecting public health, safety and the environment.” His suggestions included giving the PUC authority over the routing of intrastate pipelines, ordering companies to work with local emergency coordinators, and requiring the installation of remote shutoff valves to contain leaks. But the GOP-dominated legislature has yet to move any bills that would allow for those reforms. And none of that changes the fact that Mariner East has been unfolding on Wolf’s watch. The Governor has yet to visit Delaware or Chester counties to speak firsthand with residents living near the pipelines about their experiences. (Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman visited before the 2018 primary; a spokesman for Wolf’s office said the Governor has met with residents and lawmakers about the project in Harrisburg.) Constituents say Wolf is simply not doing enough to prevent a potential disaster. Whether his administration will adopt a firmer stance toward Mariner East — as residents and local lawmakers have requested — remains uncertain.

Meanwhile, the project continues to highlight the limitations of both the DEP and the PUC. After all, there were warning signs before the Beaver County leak, which Energy Transfer has said resulted from a landslide that followed heavy rains. (Both the company and the PUC are still investigating the incident.) The DEP had fined Energy Transfer three months before the Revolution Pipeline explosion for failing to mitigate erosion on a hillside about a mile from the site; the DEP says that at the time, it was “unaware of the issues associated with the blast site.” Critics have also questioned the agency’s decision to allow Sunoco Pipeline to use relatively new and potentially disruptive drilling methods that geologists say may have increased the risk of sinkholes along Lisa Drive in Chester County. The PUC and state DEP have penalized Energy Transfer for many of the company’s missteps, at times (and increasingly) seriously. Revolution Pipeline remains out of service, and since February, the DEP has suspended all Energy Transfer permit applications (including for Mariner East) until the company reaches compliance in Beaver County. To Hess, the agencies are “working in the best way they can.” But, he argues, lawmakers need to consider more stringent regulation, especially of pipeline routes.

The question for residents is whether officials or Energy Transfer will act before an emergency. Until then, Eric Friedman says, they’ll continue to feel unprotected.

“I think at some level, the most important function of government is to reasonably provide for the public’s safety,” he says. “And how can you have a project like this, that could kill hundreds or thousands of people in the worst-case scenario, and hope for the best and not plan for the worst?”

Published as “What Lies Beneath” in the July 2019 issue of Philadelphia magazine.

Source: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/07/06/mariner-east-pipeline-sunoco-pennsylvania/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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tastydregs · 6 years ago

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Bizarre 'Sonic Attack' Symptoms Reportedly Spreading to US Diplomats Around the World

GIF: Getty, Sound Waves Wikia

For more than 18 months, US diplomats have come down with similar illnesses that include mild brain damage and hearing loss after they claim to have heard unusual sounds. The incidents began in Cuba but reports have now spread to other countries. As authorities have ramped up efforts to treat any potential cases, almost 200 people have reportedly come forward to be tested.

The State Department has had little to say about the incidents that began in Havana in the fall of 2016, and the resulting information vacuum that has left the door wide open for conspiracy theories and other unverified claims. For now, no one can say for certain what is happening in these cases, but it appears US diplomats are being targeted in some sort of attack that’s left experts baffled. In the beginning, officials believed that some unknown “sonic device” was being used against the victims, but other theories have emerged in the meantime.

Some American diplomats reported hearing strange sounds, of which an audio recording was later released to the public. Symptoms varied between victims but the list included “hearing loss, dizziness, tinnitus, balance problems, visual difficulties, headaches, fatigue, cognitive issues and sleeping difficulties.” Since then, we’ve seen reports of diplomats falling ill in China.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that 26 Americans have been “medically confirmed” to have been injured in wave of incidents, and diplomats who have served in at least seven cities in four countries have sought testing. Nearly 200 employees from the US diplomatic mission and their family members have elected to take part in a new screening program that US officials, speaking anonymously, told the AP is part of “an abundance of caution.” Of those Americans, fewer than a dozen were said to have been transported to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for further review by medical professionals.

The AP described a previously unreported incident that had officials worried about President Trump’s recent visit with Kim Jong-Un:

As President Donald Trump was heading to Singapore for a historic summit with North Korea’s leader, a State Department diplomatic security agent who was part of the advance team reported hearing an unusual sound he believed was similar to what was experienced by U.S. diplomats in Cuba and China who later became ill.

The agent immediately underwent medical screening — part of a new U.S. government protocol established to respond to such potential health incidents anywhere in the world. And while the president was flying to the Southeast Asian city state, the U.S. delegation preparing for his arrival was exchanging urgent messages with the State Department headquarters back in Washington, including the agency’s Diplomatic Security and the U.S. Secret Service.

Four US officials told the AP that it turned out to be a false alarm, but there is a heightened awareness among security officials as the White House prepares to meet with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin next month.

Suspicions of Russian involvement in the attacks were raised last September when an unnamed USAID officer and his wife were flown out of Tashkent, Uzbekistan for evaluation after they reported events that echoed what happened in Havana. The State Department later said that it isn’t “going to discuss ‎every case individually,” but “We can confirm that there was no incident in Uzbekistan.”

At this point the only medically confirmed cases have occurred with diplomats stationed in Cuba and one stationed in China. The US has issued an alert warning Americans traveling to China to seek medical attention if they experience “auditory or sensory phenomena” similar to what was reported in Havana, and the State Department recommended anyone traveling to Cuba should “reconsider” their plans.

Since reporters first blindsided spokesperson Heather Nauert with questions about the incidents last August, the State Department has been reluctant to give on-the-record details about its investigation. It still refers to these cases as “specific attacks” without saying what is specifically happening. We’ve seen numerous theories for what could cause these kinds of symptoms floated over the last year, including weaponized microwaves or radio waves and malfunctioning surveillance gear. The fact that they don’t know how the attacks occur tends to obscure the fact that we don’t know why they’re occurring in the first place.

What does seem to be clear is that authorities are so concerned that they’re rushing to address any potential incident that arises. And the longer the mystery goes on, diplomats abroad are only more susceptible to private fears that they may be a victim.

[Bloomberg/AP]

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mrhotmaster · 5 years ago

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How Can You Break Lockdowns With Coronavirus? Tech, Test, Science

How Can You Break Lockdowns With Coronavirus? Here Is About Technologies, Tests, Teamwork & More

On Tuesday, the government extended for a further two weeks the world's highest lockout to 1.3 billion.

Governments fighting an infection that has crossed fringes with stunning quickness nailed their expectations Tuesday to tests, innovation and a planned way to deal with facilitate the tight social-separating limitations that have eased back the pandemic yet choked the worldwide economy.

While the European Union investigated making a COVID-19 cell phone application that could work over the alliance, governors on both US coasts promised to cooperate as they arranged a conclusion to the control of millions. The primary concern is to maintain a strategic distance from new coronavirus problem areas and flare-ups of contaminations. Be that as it may, attempting to construct such a framework while still in mid-emergency during the pandemic is demonstrating troublesome.

In India, the legislature on Tuesday expanded the world's biggest lockdown on 1.3 billion individuals for two additional weeks, until May 3 for a large portion of the nation, as its caseload crossed 10,000.

China confronted another erupt along its remote northern fringe with Russia, a long way from the first focal point of Wuhan, which has everything except pronounced triumph in its fight against the pandemic. That huge fringe has been fixed and crisis clinical units have raced to the territory to keep explorers from bringing the infection once again from abroad.

New diseases seem to have leveled off in quite a bit of Asia and Europe, including Italy, France, Spain and Germany, said Dr. Sebastian Johnston, a teacher of respiratory medication at Imperial College London.

Indeed, even in New York — where announced coronavirus passings spent 10,000 on Monday — Gov. Andrew Cuomo pronounced the "most exceedingly awful is finished on the off chance that we can keep on being savvy." More than 23,000 individuals have kicked the bucket of the infection in the United States by and large, with 582,000 affirmed diseases, as indicated by a count by Johns Hopkins University.

With social removing and lockdowns set up over an enormous bit of the world, bleak projections that the infection that would spread with equivalent fierceness to different corners still can't seem to appear. In any case, without far-reaching counteracting agent tests to decide what number of individuals are insusceptible to the infection, governments dread that loosening up social separating could prompt new flare-ups.

Germany's remote pastor, Heiko Maas, called Tuesday for a solitary cell phone application to be utilized over the 27-country EU to enable nations to organize when and how to loosen up their pandemic lockdown measures.

"It's significant we don't wind up with an interwoven of 27 crown applications and 27 information insurance systems, however, arrange as most ideal as," he told Germany's Funke media gathering.

Maas said an agreement following application previously being mutually evolved by a few nations demonstrated that the EU "doesn't need to duplicate the Big Brother strategies for tyrant states" yet can rather defend individual security and general wellbeing simultaneously.

The leader of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's infection control focus, said trading data among nations and organizations is critical to battling the pandemic. Lothar Wieler said Tuesday his gathering is in consistent contact with others to share which measures are successful in keeping the infection from spreading, how to test for contamination, which immunization studies to reserve and how best to secure helpless populaces.

Apple and Google a week ago reported a different joint exertion to help general wellbeing organizations overall influence cell phones by utilizing Bluetooth remote innovation to follow the contacts of those contaminated to slow the spread of the infection. That will run on iPhones and Android telephones the same. The applications would accumulate a record of different telephones when they came into nearness.

In China, where newly revealed infection cases have dwindled, life is governed by a green image on a cell phone screen that says a client is sans indication and can board a tram, look into a lodging or simply enter Wuhan, the city of 11 million individuals where the pandemic started in December.

South Korea and Israel have both forcefully utilized cell phone information to follow the developments of infection transporters. Be that as it may, when all is said in done, disease transmission experts state contact following must be successful with broadly accessible testing, which has been troublesome even in well off nations, for example, the United States and Britain.

Specialists state the disease rate despite everything remains generally low in territories of the creating scene that have poor or nonexistent medicinal services foundation and far fewer assets to follow the contacts of coronavirus patients.

The fast spread of the coronavirus past urban communities to progressively rustic zones regularly relies upon movement and social associations, said Dr. Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization's crisis boss. That could clarify why Germany and Switzerland, with their reality class train frameworks, have more than 155,000 diseases between them.

In any case, he noticed that country regions frequently have less advanced wellbeing reconnaissance frameworks to get potential ailment groups,

"Is it that it's not there, or is it that we're not identifying the malady when it is there?" he inquired.

Johnston, the Imperial College educator, said he stressed the infection may take off across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. He likewise communicated worry about Russia.

In spite of the nonappearance of an organized leave system, in some European nations, authorities highlighted positive signs as they started preparing to revive to a great extent covered economies and enterprises.

Italy's everyday increment in diseases was one of the most reduced in weeks, supporting a for the most part descending pattern. Marginally facilitated limitations were going to produce results in certain divisions of the nation, for example, permitting stores selling infant necessities to revive.

In hard-hit Spain, laborers returned Monday to some plant and development occupations. Retail locations and administrations were as yet shut and the legislature required office laborers to continue telecommuting.

In the United States, governors in the Northeast and along the West Coast declared separate state compacts to organize reopenings.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would declare a nitty gritty arrangement Tuesday for lifting infection limitations. He advised it would utilize "science to manage our dynamic and not political weight."

"The house is still ablaze," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said. "We despite everything need to put the fire out ... (be that as it may, we have) to ensure this doesn't reignite."

His state is in an alliance with Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island while the governors of California, Oregon and Washington reported a comparative arrangement.

President Donald Trump pushed back against the governors, guaranteeing "the government has outright force" over facilitating the limitations on the off chance that it picks. The Constitution, be that as it may, to a great extent gives expresses the power to control their own issues.

More than 1.9 million contaminations have been accounted for and more than 119,000 individuals have kicked the bucket around the world, as indicated by Johns Hopkins University. The figures downplay the genuine size of the pandemic, because of restricted testing, lopsided tallying of the dead and inconsistent figures from certain legislatures.

For Regular & Fastest Tech News and Reviews, Follow TECHNOXMART on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Subscribe Here Now. By Subscribing You Will Get Our Daily Digest Headlines Every Morning Directly In Your Email Inbox. 【Join Our Whatsapp Group Here】

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#corona #corona cases #coronavirus #coronavirus india #coronavirus news #coronavirus outbreak #coron

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