I’ve often found myself in the position of being one of the Agency of Natural Resources’ harshest critics.  

Under the Douglas administration, the ANR’s team in the trenches seemed to always be hamstrung by the agenda at the top.  “Business friendly”  was a euphemism for regulation-light.

Now it’s time to give Deb Markowitz and the new, improved ANR their due.  The weekend papers carry an editorial by Sec. Markowitz that delivers some relief for the anguished concerns of environmentalists all over the state.

Irene did plenty of damage to the infrastructure of the state; but temporarily abandoning prudent regulatory practices in order to get the state up and running again came with it’s own set of damaging issues.  Some may have viewed the temporary lapse as an opportunity to be exploited rather than a trust to be honored.

In a year of  state fiscal restraints and federal obstructions, the Agency faced a dilemma:

Getting this balance right – with 2,000 locations with flooding impacted rivers and streams – is challenging, and responding to this statewide emergency clearly has strained the finite resources of the Agency of Natural Resources Rivers Program.

Now, the ANR has essentially changed the flashing yellow light to red, and reconstruction “traffic” will henceforth have to obey some rules.

Starting last week, staff began the shift from an exclusive focus on emergency response to working with communities, businesses and homeowners to maximize the long-term effectiveness of our state’s flood recovery work. We will be moving from oral authorizations to written documentation to ensure that work is done in conformity with the rules.

For those unwilling to accept the decision on a purely environmental basis, Sec. Markowitz offers this more pragmatic perspective:

Work in Vermont’s streams and rivers must be done with the knowledge that doing the work incorrectly is just money down the hole.

The Agency says it is looking forward  to

engaging Vermonters in a conversation about how we can rebuild Vermont to be stronger and more resilient to the next round of flooding.

Which brings me to the ongoing ANR Public Forums  addressing Act 250 permitting.

I approached the one last Thursday night in St. Albans with a degree of cynicism.  Notice of the forum in Franklin County had not been widely circulated, and I only learned of it the night before.

Honed by years of unsatisfactory interaction with the Agency during the Douglas years, I expected the forum to be dominated by the concerns of developers and contract engineers.

I was wrong.  

When I arrived, five minutes before the forum was scheduled to take place, I was surprised to enter a room that was completely empty except for two lawyers from the ANR seated at the front and looking anxiously for ANYONE to show up!

I quickly learned that coping with the aftermath of Irene has left the ANR severely strapped and without the necessary personnel to make more of a deal of the Act 250 Forums.  

The attorneys present, Donald Einhorn, and Ron Shems (Chair of the Natural Resources Board) were extremely welcoming and engaged.  I took advantage of my solo time with them to get right to the point about the Northwest Citizens’  particular experiences with the Act 250 process concerning Walmart.

After about ten more minutes, other people began to arrive.  Rep. Lynn Dickinson, developer Sam Smith, City Planning Commission member Ryan Doyle, and Michelle Monroe of the Messenger (who wrote an excellent account of the forum.)

That was it…just five souls representing the entire county!

But, as Mr. Shems observed at the end, the size of the group meant a more meaningful and fluid conversation was possible; and the diversity of viewpoints couldn’t have been better.  Everyone was respectful of one another despite our differences and we didn’t waste any time arguing.

The team from ANR took copious notes and did not hurry away at the end, lingering instead to compliment all of us on our knowledge of the Act 250 process and our civility.  Likewise, I think we all had nothing but praise for the encounter.

This truly felt like government as we expect it to behave in response to its citizen-employers.  

Well done, Sec. Markowitz!

There is a sense here in the U.S. that the nuclear crisis at Fukushima is a “Japanese problem,” a misapprehension that makes it all too convenient to turn our attention away.  

But the culture of regulatory laxness with regard to nuclear power that enabled the colossal failure at Fukushima was pretty much exported from our own shores, together with the technology that launched that industry; and it continues to threaten the reliability and safety of nuclear plants worldwide.

It is with this systemic achilles heel in mind that, Fairewinds Associates’ Arnie Gundersen revisits the history of intimacy between the NRC and the industry it is entrusted to regulate.

In Fairewind’s latest video, he takes us back to the days before 1974, when the Atomic Energy Commission was charged both with promotion and regulation of the budding nuclear industry.

One can well imagine that the obvious fox-and-henhouse nature of this arrangement couldn’t escape the concerned notice of Congress indefinitely; and so it was that the two functions were separated, creating the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy.

In theory, the newly created  Dept. of Energy would promote the industry, while the newly created  NRC would regulate it.   But in reality, that separation did not extend much beyond the name changes,  because the same original team was represented in both entities.

It stands to reason that the old promotional priorities continued to handicap effective regulation.

By 1987, the US Congressional Subcommittee on general Oversight and Investigation was moved to investigate the NRC.

The Subcommittee titled its report: “NRC Coziness with Industry,” concluding that

“the Nuclear Regulatory Agency fails to maintain an arms length relationship with the nuclear industry.”

Nuclear Oversight Lacking Worldwide from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

From that report, Arnie highlights three key findings that still effectively capture the nature of the persistent dysfunction:

In the 1990’s, Arnie himself contributed to a report from the Inspector General of the NRC that highlighted the flawed relationship between regulators and their subjects.

That report became the subject of a congressional hearing, at which it was once again asserted that regulators should spend a lot less time listening to industry insiders, and a lot more, listening to people with legitimate concerns..  

Nevertheless, the culture of coziness persists to this day; and without correction, all the pieces are in place to enable a Fukushima-scale disaster of our own.

I have been informed that citizen activists from “Whey to Go” are organizing a protest in Waterbury near the Cabot Creamery Annex, on October 9 from 9 AM until 6 PM.  



They are requesting that fellow Vermonters join them in asking Agri-Mark to clean up their wastewater spreading operation.

According to “Whey to Go,”

The newest in Agri-Mark’s arsenal of chemicals is listed as “Orbit No. 363” contains (among other things) Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate which can be found on Material Data Safety Sheets (MSDS) listed as diethyl sulfate, which gives clearly thre Toxicology as being “Probable human carcinogen and mutagen.  May cause reproductive defects.” This single chemical “causes burns, Severe eye, skin and respiratory irritant.”

Considering that Agri-Mark/Cabot Creamery is spraying this onto fields in **large enough quantities that will literally fill half the septic tanks in Vermont on a DAILY basis, we need to make them put in a waste treatment facility and abandon it’s current practice of disposing of Industrial Wastewater on fields/receiving streams from Newport to Randolph Vermont.

You may recall that Agri-Mark’s  practice of spreading wastewater over agricultural fields in Vermont has long been a source of controversy; and that, just last year, Agri-Mark  was granted a permit to increase the volume of waste it disposes of in this way.  

**Note: I am informed by Jill Alexander that this was an abbreviated and unofficial comment. More exactly, she says that the” total permitted amount of chemically laced wastewater (185,000 gallons per day) would fill half of the septic tanks in Vermont on a daily basis.”

She points out that there is no way of knowing how their comingling might increase their individual hazards.

“Whey to Go” derives its name from the traditional organic waste product of cheese-making.

It was on the assumption that whey would be the primary material spread on farm fields that Agri-Mark’s original permit  for the practice was issued.  But the group points out that, when dairy whey itself became a marketable nutritional commodity, the wastewater distributed from the plant began to be primarily composed of cleaning agents and other non-dairy substances.

When a waste-water processing plant that was promised during the permit hearings never materialized, and neighboring residents began to experience health issues, members of the community assembled into the grassroots group now known as “Whey to Go.”

While the good folks of “Whey to Go” confront Agri-Mark/Cabot directly for its failure to observe good environmental practices, the question must really be pressed before the Legislature, who have it within their purview to impose  regulations that cannot simply be circumvented by unscrupulous industries.

Agri-Mark will predictably do what every corporation is designed to do: protect its bottom line, whatever the environmental cost.

If, in more than twenty years, they have never been compelled by law to do the right thing and build that promised wastewater plant, there is no reason to expect that they will do so in response to the anguished pleas of their Cabot neighbors.

Personally, I’ve sworn off of Cabot brand products because the waste-spreading story turns my stomach; but boycotts and demonstrations simply can’t do the job that responsible legislation could so readily accomplish.

Last March, I reported on a public forum on Death With Dignity, hosted in St. Albans by Patient Choices Vermont.  The speaker was George Eighmey, an Oregon attorney whose efforts contributed significantly to making Oregon the first state in the country with a law allowing this choice.  

Mr. Eighmey presented a compelling account of the Oregon experience, and explained how H.274 (then under consideration by the Vermont House) went even further than the Oregon law in providing additional safeguards against errors and abuses.

The struggle to enact legislation in Vermont to allow this choice for terminally ill patients continues.  Once again, Patient Choices Vermont is hosting four public forums on the topic around the state. This time, the guest speaker is Nancy Niedzielski who worked for passage of Washington State’s “Death With Dignity Law.”

Compassionate issues of choice are not popular in much of the country these days, and “Death With Dignity” is no exception. Patient Choices Vermont has its work cut out for.  If the Vermont legislature is to be persuaded to provide this humane choice to all of us, persistent myths must be dispelled and replaced with a clear understanding of the protections that are possible under the law.

If you can make it to one of these public meetings, your mere presence,and the information you take away with you, can do much to help the cause.

FERRISBURGH – Town Hall – Tuesday, October 4, 2011 – 6:30 pm-8 pm

MONTPELIER – Pavilion Auditorium – Wed., October 5, 2011 – 11:45 am-1:15 pm

WILDER – Wilder Center – Wed., October 5, 2011 – 6:30 pm-8 pm

DANVILLE – Town Hall – Thursday, October 6, 2011 – 6:30 pm-8 pm

For more information go to http://patientchoices.org

Fairewinds Introduces a Japanese Language Edition and Identifies Safety Problems in all Reactors Designed Like Fukushima from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

While, here at home, a recent fire in the office of Vermont Yankee has both sides of the relicensing controversy eyeing each other suspiciously; in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the NRC has just released a report detailing concerns about those other Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactors, which are identical to the one operating at VY.

In a new video analysis that appeared simultaneously on the brand new fairewinds.jp Japanese site, Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates discusses three key issues that were neatly excluded from the NRC report .

These include fatal design flaws in the Mark 1 BWR containment which were identified long ago.

It is apparent from NRC correspondence dating back as far as the early ’70’s, not long after the Mark 1 had been put into widespread use, that they became aware of the problems in a timely manner.

In the case of  the Mark 1 “pressure suppression containment,” which was recognized to be ineffective, the NRC chose not to impose an outright ban on the design because to do so might curtail the prospects of a nascent nuclear industry.  

When it was later discovered that hydrogen build-up could cause an explosion, the industry was allowed to make a voluntary modification, adding a vent that was supposed to alleviate the problem.  As Arnie points out, by “proactively” making the modification on a “voluntary” basis, the industry excused itself from scrutiny it would have undergone from both public and regulatory inquisitors, had the NRC acted to make the modification compulsory.

Before the Fukushima accident, neither the vents nor the containment had ever been tested.  At Fukushima, they were tested three times and failed.

Another design issue raised by Fukushima but ignored in the NRC report, is the location of the control rods in the bottom of the reactor rather than at the top where they are located in pressurized water reactors.  

To  put it simply, this effectively makes the reactor bottom a sieve, with sixty drill holes into which hollow metal tubing has been inserted.  If, in the event of an accident, the core melts,  how long do you think it takes for those hollow metal tubes to dissolve, leaving sixty convenient down-spouts through which molten core can flow?

By contrast, in pressurized water reactors, with their top-loaded control rods, the bottom of the reactor vessel is thick, solid and uninterrupted.

So…one more reason why it’s crazy to allow those Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactors to continue operating…right?

Not if you’re crunching numbers in a computerized cost/benefit analysis model that has, itself, a fatal flaw.

… And this is what it appears the NRC has been doing!  

Watch the video; you won’t be sorry.  Or maybe, you will.  

It comes as no surprise that poverty in the U.S. is on the upswing, but some of the statistical representations of this fact are quite staggering.

A report delivered today to Congress by Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging starkly poses the question:

Is Poverty a Death Sentence?  

As explained in the report, the brutal answer seems quite possibly to be “yes;” especially if you happen to be poor and female.

Some salient facts gleaned from the report:

.  46-million Americans, roughly one in six, live in poverty

. Life-expectancy for low-income women has actually declined over the past twenty years in 313 counties of the U.S.



Senator Sanders concludes that the very institutions enabling the rich to occupy that privileged high plane of health and longevity in America, share the blame and therefore, the responsibility, for undermining the health and longevity of its population as a whole:

As bad as the current situation is with regard to poverty, it will likely get worse in the immediate future.  As a result of the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of Wall Street we are now in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.  Millions of workers have lost their jobs and have slipped out of the middle class and into poverty. Poverty is increasing.

Regardless of how much the poor are despised by Tea Party Republicans, by virtue of sheer numbers, their plight cannot be ignored except at ultimate peril to the entire nation.

I  don’t believe in God, who endows womankind with the gift for new life yet despises and humiliates her.

I don’t believe in God who fears knowledge and sets himself up against science.

I don’t believe in God who favors one people’s prayers and arcane rituals over all others.

I don’t believe in God who creates one race of people as inherently superior to any other.

I don’t believe in God who endorses murder and revenge for any reason.

I don’t believe in God who creates free-will and then mandates we should not use it.

I don’t believe in God who condemns any expression of love between two consenting adults.

I don’t believe in God who kicks the poor and weak when they are down.

I don’t believe in God who holds that disproportionate wealth is the just reward of the righteous.

I don’t believe in God who believes in any cruelty toward or abuse of children.

I don’t believe in God who teaches children to hate and suspect those different from themselves.

I don’t believe in God who holds that animals have none of the rights of man.

I don’t believe in God who anoints mankind as the center of the universe.

I don’t believe in God who decrees the earth is ours to despoil and dispose of as we see fit.

I don’t believe in God who is petty, spiteful and unforgiving.

I don’t believe in God.

Japan has a cautionary tale to tell for those who care to listen.  It’s all about the unfolding actuarial nightmare that is quietly cutting some of its citizens adrift.

The Wall Street Journal, that bastion of industry indulgence, is reporting that residents of Date, Japan, some 35 miles away from nuclear ground zero at Fukushima Daiichi are being advised not to evacuate unless their own house is specifically identified as a mini “hot spot.”  

Under lax exposure standards implemented post Fukushima, only 113 residents of this town of 21,800 are eligible for evacuation and the accompanying compensation.

Residents are understandably bemused by government recommendations on how to stay safe without evacuating:

contamination in Date (pronounced DAH-tay) is deemed low enough to be manageable-as long as residents don’t spend too long outside, and avoid spots such as parks and forests, where radioactive elements tend to gather. Radioactive cesium has a tendency to bind to earth, and flow along with silt in water.

That’s right; instead of wholesale evacuation of the entire radioactive town, most residents are being advised to “decontaminate” their houses and fields (!) and avoid the great outdoors!  

In a country where nature has played a singularly important role in the spiritual life of the population, the people of Date are now directed to regard nature as the single specific threat to their health and safety, and to overlook their proximity to the simmering stewpot of lethal emissions that Fukushima Daiichi continues to be.

The Japanese government says the ceiling for what it is calling safe-20 millisieverts of accumulated radiation exposure per year-is one-fifth the level at which scientists see the first solid signs of health risk. A chest X-ray is around 0.05 millisievert. But 20 millisieverts per year is at the top of an internationally set range for safety in long-term exposure situations. Officials say they’re suggesting evacuation at lower levels for pregnant women and children, thought to be the most vulnerable to radiation, though they won’t say precisely what those levels are.

The absurdity of the arrangement is best illustrated by one case in particular.

Lumber-company owner Morio Onami says his house didn’t qualify for evacuation, even though his son’s, just a few steps away, did.

As is common in Japanese extended families, the two households share many functions, including a single bath.    

In Date, mini “hot-spots” have been discovered scattered randomly all over the place.   One likely reason why only 113 residents have been favored with government-backed evacuation is that radiation measurements were recorded in only two locations at each house, over a period of just two days in June.

At each house the inspectors measured two spots-in the yard and at the front door-at heights of about 20 inches and one yard (one meter). In choosing the spots, the inspectors were warned to stay away from areas such as drains, shrubbery and rainspouts, where radioactive elements tend to gather, potentially skewing results.

This conveniently superficial survey pretty well guarantees that industry and the government keep their own exposure to compensatory losses to a bare minimum.    

I seem to have been added to the bottom feeders mailing list, so I thought I’d add this link to their latest scheme to profit from environmental calamity.  It seems that impending famine provides another excellent opportunity for investment.

This little gem of corporate cynicism from some place called “Wealth Wire,” came by chance to me today. Their website poses the come-on question:

Is Water the new Gold?

Talk about your mixed metaphor!  

The video begins as a clumsy “documentary” discussing the many  threats to world water supplies. This perfectly valid premise is supported by a smattering of possibly credible statistics and science.

Then comes the wrap-up, where viewers, presumably now impressed with the gravity of the situation, are encouraged to subscribe to an investment newsletter that claims it will provide investors with sure-fire advice on how to profit from this world-wide crisis!

Watch this puppy and then think about it every time you are tempted to drop a dollar on commercially bottled water.

( – promoted by Sue Prent)

Hopefully everyone is getting back to at least a new “normal,” following Irene.  So it’s about time we bring back the Green Mountain Gourmet feature contest.  This time, barring natural disaster, we’ll give everyone until Thursday, Sept. 22 to get their entries into the comments section.  Then our astute panel of jaw-flappers will declare a winnah!

As everyone gets a little “antsy” in the declining days of August,  we’ve cooked up a little contest for our GMD community to get your minds off the weather and your creative juices flowing.

We’d like to know what local food treasures you have found, whether at a farm stand, the corner store or even in your own backyard.  We’re inviting you, our readers, to become guest food-writers and describe for us as vividly as you can, two of the best local products you’ve found in your little corner of the world.  

All entries will be judged by our esteemed panel of career eaters and editors. One lucky writer will be named our “Green Mountain Gourmet” and receive the coveted prize of a GMD mug and one-pound of my favorite local coffee, “Woodchuck Blend” by Kahwa Coffee of Swanton, Vermont.

Woodchuck is a dark earthy roast, deeply satisfying and smooth.  It really delivers on the promise of its classic “fresh-perked” aroma, evoking memories of checkered tablecloths and my mother’s fresh-baked stollen.  Tastes so good it’ll bring tears to your eyes!



See how easy it is?  Here’s another:

My favorite ice cream discovery this summer is, not surprisingly, a local standout:  “Habanero Maple” by Island Ice Cream of Grand Isle, Vermont.  While all the Island flavors put the big names to velvety shame, “Habanero Maple” is the creme-de-la-ice-creme of gustatory narrative.  It begins its palatable journey on the tongue as a cool whisper, all satin-smooth dairy and quiet caramel. Melting sensuously down the throat, it bursts into crackling warmth as the pepper asserts itself for a grand finale.  Pure fireworks!

Okay, now it’s your turn…

Entries will be judged on mouth-water, stomach rumble;  and, probably, what I had for breakfast.  So sell it large and make it tasty, and you, too, could wash it all down with a big cup ‘o Chuck!