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Earth Day Goes Interactive

0 Comments 31 March 2011
Mother Nature to tell stories at World Peace Wetlands

Mother Nature (Donna Stjerna) will tell stories at the Omni Center's "World Peace Wetland Prairie Earthday Celebration" Sunday, April 17 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the World Peace Wetland Prairie at 11th and S. Duncan in Fayetteville.

By Kelly Mulhollan
TFW Contributing Writer

Let’s face it — Earth Day in Fayetteville is not just one day anymore.

It has turned into a full two week celebration with many events planned, starting with the big kickoff sponsored by the city on April 16 all the way to Springfest on April 30, as it should be. What could be more important than a celebration of the earth that sustains our very lives?

Sadly, we are testing the limits of exactly how much abuse this amazing resource can sustain. This event will remind us of how precious our planet is and help to empower us to find ways to be better caretakers of the earth, starting right here in our own community!

That’s why the Omni Center’s annual Earth Day Celebration at Fayetteville’s World Peace Wetland will focus on endangered species of the world with a very special interactive art show. The art exhibit is the work of area artist, Donna Stjerna, better known as half of the folk duo, Still on the Hill.

Donna says “We are going to hang about 40 little shrines to endangered animals that I’ve made from old cigar boxes in an enchanting candlelit tent. There will be mysterious animal sounds, and I will be dressed up as Mother Nature with a fanciful costume that my friend Lyn Ward and I created. I’ll tell an African tale that teaches us to be good stewards of the earth and give each a souvenir to remind them of that goal.”

Kids will also have the opportunity to have their picture taken with Mother Nature.

The art tent will feature lighting and sound effects powered by both solar panels and pedal power and everyone can help pedal!
As a finale, kids are encouraged to dress as their favorite animal and join the Animal Parade at 3 p.m.

Other kids’ activities including storytelling, aboriginal painting and planting “Seeds of Peace.”

As always, you will enjoy an acoustic song circle with many of Fayetteville’s finest musicians as well as scheduled nature walks to appreciate the delicate nature of this precious wetland environment. Local community sustainable agriculture experts will be on hand to enlighten you on new ways to feed your family healthy food this summer.

Everyone is invited to bring some raw finger food for the “raw potluck,” if so inclined. Healthy kids’ drinks will be supplied by co-sponsor Ozark Natural Foods.

Local environmental leaders will give short talks on proactive things we can all do to take better care of our earth.

Load up the whole family for a day of sunshine, birdsong and celebration of our precious earth!

To find the World Peace Wetland Prairie — Fayetteville’s best kept secret — from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, go south on Hill Ave. and then right on 11th. Alternatively, from 15th St., go north on Duncan Avenue, and it will take you right to it.

For more info, call 582-2291.
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* "The Dumb Waiter" by Step 1 Theatre tonight in Fayetteville. http://www.freeweekly.com/?p=11120 about 8 hours ago

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Poster designed by Donna Stjerna and Kelly Mullholan of Still on the Hill and Toucan Jam

Please click on image to ENLARGE view for easier reading of poster information.

2000-2005 archive of stories and photos related to creation of WPWP: www.aubunique.com
Aubrey's photos at flickr.com
Flickr collection of sets of photos from World Peace Wetland Prairie
World Peace Wetland Prairie EARTH DAY 2010 VIDEO
World Peace Wetland Prairie blog
World Peace Wetland Prairie.com
Please use link below the map to see larger view of the WPWP area, which also allows a person to travel the world by 'Google AIR' by simply using the cursor to move in any direction or search for other addresses.

View World Peace Wetland Prairie in a larger map

Tax help from AARP volunteers at Yvonne Richardson Center on Friday and next week Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday only

Please click on image to ENLARGE for easier reading.

Council of Neighborhoods meeting at 6 p.m. in room 326 of city hall: Please attend to meet the representative of your neighborhood or to BECOME the representative of your neighborhood

Calendar of Events

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Fayetteville Council of Neighborhoods *

City Clerk

Time: 6:00 PM

Location: Room 326

Kane Webb replaces Meredith Oakley as Voices Editor of the Arkansas Democrat/Gazette

www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aID=126264.54928.138387&view=all&link=perm
See Arkansas Business Web site for more of the story.
Kane went to work for the Arkansas Democrat as a writer of sporting news in the 1980s. As outdoor editor and frequently a volunteer sports copy editor and proof reader at that time I recognized his potential and can honestly say that he is an excellent editor to replace Meredith after her decades of wonderful work at the Democrat and later at the Demozette. Congratulations to both. I hope Meredith with be sharing her thoughts as a blogger. She always thinks independently and her now totally independent thoughts would be interesting. I look forward to reading Meredith.blogspot.com


Also, I hope Roy Reed or another of the great interviewers for the UA oral history site will interview her from the perspective of someone who worked on the inside when John Robert Starr was managing editor of the Democrat and overwhelmed the Gazette owners and even the mighty Gannett with perseverance.

Flying Possum leather sale on April 30, 2011

Flying Possum Leather Sale

Time	Saturday, April 30 · 9:00am - 10:00pm
Location	Flying Possum Leather 526 W Dickson St Fayetteville, AR
Created By	Zooloos Bar
More Info	In 1976 Bruce Walker opened Flying Possum Leather, he shared his passion with everyone he met. On March 7, 2011 Bruce lost his life in the store that he loved so much. A tragic fire took our neighbor, our friend, a business owner, a son and a brother from us. Bruce has two brothers who have been here tying up loose ends and working diligently, night and day, with the help of volunteers, to clean up Flying Possum. Much of the in..

Mayor's town hall meeting draws full house at Fayetteville Senior Center

Please click on individual views of two of the five city council members who attended the mayor's town hall and the mayor discussing the needs of the Fayetteville senior center with senior center users.

Sarah Lewis of Ward 4 and Adella Gray of Ward 1

TONIGHT: Mayor's Town Hall meeting at the Fayetteville Senior Center on South College Avenue

Fayetteville Senior Center

to Host Mayor's Town Hall

Meeting on Monday, March 28

03/17/2011

The Fayetteville Senior Activity and Wellness Center at 945 South College will host the Mayor’s Town Hall Meeting the evening of Monday, March 28, 2011, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. 

These Town Hall Meetings are wonderful opportunities for direct contact and conversation with Mayor Lioneld Jordan and City Department Directors. 

This is an opportunity to ask any question of your city government in a relaxing forum, as well as learn about city projects, budget information, policies, events, and other information of interest.  This is also a marvelous opportunity to see the facilities of the Fayetteville Senior Activity and Wellness Center.  The Center’s Director, Sherri Napier, will provide a welcome and remarks about the Center.

Short presentations will be made by Mayor Jordan and a few city staff members at the beginning of the Town Hall.  Most of the Town Hall Meeting will be dedicated to answering audience inquiries. Come and ask your questions directly to Mayor Lioneld Jordan and City department heads.  We are interested in hearing from you! 

Refreshments will be provided.  A painting by Fayetteville Artist Karolyn Farrell will be displayed at the Town Hall Meeting, and a free drawing will be held for an opportunity for an attendee to win the painting.

See Senior Center blog online to share comments about the center.

Earth Day Passport site and handout will guide all to wonderful events from April 16 through April 24, 2011, in Northwest Arkansas: Thanks to Mikel Lolley

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of last year's Eco-Passport and visit site to share more information about events for 2011.

Video short takes to run March 28-April 1, 2011, on Fayetteville's public-access television

Native honeysuckle vines easy to differentiate from non-native, invasive Japanese honeysuckle this time of year in Northwest Arkansas

Please click on individual images to enlarge.
If your honeysuckle looks like these, it is the native trumpet honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens.

Hank Kaminsky's studio open this afternoon for tours with 10 percent off on art of every kind

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Village Scultor studio and workshop on South Government Avenue near the Fayetteville National Cemetery.

Something everyone in Northwest Arkansas ought to visit today: Hank Kaminsky's sculpture and handmade jewelry sale at his Government Avenue Shop

Hank Kaminsky's art sale at his Village Sculptor studio workshop on Government Avenue between MLK and the Fayetteville National Cemetery late morning and most of the afternoon today. Bargains on extraordinary pieces of local sculpture and jewelry.
Free coffee and a free tour of the workshop where some of Fayetteville's finest public art has been created.

Something Arkansas does NOT need now: Disastrous House Bill 1895 could be voted on by Arkansas Senate tomorrow

In the News...			GET INVOLVED...
Get the most up-to-date, national news from Sierra Club at the Sierra Club Press Room. Get local news about Arkansas legislative issues at the Arkansas Citizens First Congress site. Important Legislative Update: The Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWECPO) has drafted HB 1895 which would make it much easier for utilities to get power plants approved under the radar, hurt ratepayers and cut the public out of the commenting process. The bill can be found at http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2011/2011R/Pages/BillInformation.aspx?measureno=HB1895 This bill is bad on several levels: 1) HB 1895, written by the utility Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), would change the utility law that is the subject of pending litigation in suits where SWEPCO is a party. Changing the law right before a judge makes a ruling is not a tactic of which I want my legislature to be a part. 2) This bill would create a “declaration of need” proceeding to determine whether there should be more electricity production in Arkansas, but not create public notice requirements for the proceeding. If a government agency is conducting a decision making process that could later on affect my utility rates, I want to make sure that I’m given the opportunity to be a part of that discussion. And I won’t know how to attend if the law doesn’t require me to be notified. 3) HB 1895 would tip the scales to the utilities so that they can pressure government to raise electric rates even more. The bill would create a separate “declaration of need” proceeding where a determination for the need of increased electric capacity would provide the basis for utilities to recover new costs through increased rates. We, the ratepayers, would be stuck with higher bills. Unfortunately, it has already passed the Arkansas House. It is possible that this bill will wind up on the Senate floor, and we need concerned citizens to call their senators now and urge them to vote NO on HB 1895. In order to find your own senator, visit: http://www.arkansas.gov/senate/senatorSearch.html For more information about the bill, please contact: Lev Guter Associate Field Organizer Sierra Club - Arkansas lev.guter@sierraclub.org (941) 779-3337

What Arkansas needs NOW! A local pipeline safety policy

Local Pipeline Safety Policy
http://www.pstrust.org/resources/regs/local_pol.htm

Model Setback Ordinance for Transmission Pipelines
http://www.mrsc.org/Subjects/PubSafe/pipesetbackord.aspx

Myths and Misleading Statements About Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines
http://www.pstrust.org/library/myths.htm 

If it smells like Roundup, it may be Roundup

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of sprayed sidewalk adjacent to storm drain. According to the guy driving the spraying machine, the purpose is to suppress everything but fescue and bermuda grass. Video soon will be uploaded on You Tube.

Please clink on individual images to ENLARGE view of flowers at World Peace Wetland Prairie on March 23, 2011.

Spring beauty (Claytonia) and a bucket of bluets (Hedyotis caerulea) beautiful early blooming native wildflowers in Northwest Arkansas

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE view of two early blooming native wildflowers.

Why we needed Fayetteville's newly approved streamside ordinance many years ago: A few photos of stream abuse witnessed on March 21, 2011

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE views of pollution headed directly to Spout Spring Branch without the polluted water being allowed to soak in and be cleansed before heading to Beaver Lake.

Unpleasant looking runoff from storm drain on north edge of Fifteenth Street. Is it caused by naturally occurring algae or by whatever a homeowner on South College Avenue dumped from a bucket shown in photo below?

Drain entrance still wet two hours after I watched a guy dump a bucket there. Material appeared to be white paint chips and thick plastic-like goo that could be material from a paint can.

Flow from storm drain above enters Spout Spring Branch on north side of 15th Street.

The gel-like material at first glance looked like icicles but the the temperature hadn't been below freezing for more than a week.

Seeds from pod of vine milkweed knocked down by Arkansas Highway Department machines dredging ditch the routes water from a storm drain on the south side of 15th Street directly into Spout Spring Branch. Milkweed plants of all varieties provide foliage to the caterpillars of monarchs and a few other species of butterfly and logically would be protected by a state highway department whose Web site touts its wildflower program.

Back on the northside of 15th Street, which is a state highway at that point, the water polluted by something but at least there is a remnant of vegetation including the same milkvine and a few other native species.

The highway workers dredged out part of the business owner's landscaping and widened and deepened the ditch. And hauled away the good soil to its dump in south Washington County.

Both the dumping of ANYTHING into a storm drain and the dredging of the ditch and allowing erosion violate best-management practices for watershed management and were already illegal before Fayetteville's new streamside ordinance was passed. If the ADEQ and the AHTD and the US Corps of Engineeers won't protect our water supply, maybe this new ordinance will embolden city officials to see that such things don't happen so often in the future.

Bruce Shackleford shares well-researched history of Woolsey Wet Prairie area and the prairies of Northwest Arkansas

HISTORY LESSON FROM AN ECOLOGIST  (Yes, this is outside my area of competency, but it's free!  OK?)

In 1831-1838, the Government Land Office sent surveyors to mark the corners of the townships in Northwest Arkansas.  As a reminder to those of you who are non-surveyor folks, a township is composed of 36, one-square mile sections.  It is my understanding that the corners of the square mile sections were marked soon thereafter.  The township of the Fayetteville area was named "Prairie Township".  Go figure!
Please click on individual images to ENLARGE view.

I cannot imagine what it must have been like to face the hardships of walking into the American wilds during that era to identify specific points on the planet that could be seen by others. The identifiers may have been a pile of rocks or a blaze on a tree, if one could be found nearby.  It must have taken a hardy soul with a special wanderlust character to enter the world of surveying at that time, doing the work with not much more than a compass and two sticks with a chain in the middle.  

In the 1970's, a fellow named H.M. Miller did a Masters Thesis at the U of A that showed the plant communities from sketches, maps, and notes of the 1830's GLO surveyors.  By looking at section lines and landmarks, I superimposed modern structures such as the Westside Wastewater Plant, various streets, and of course Woolsey Wet Prairie, onto Mr. Miller's drawing to get an idea of yesteryear's plant community of the area with regard to familiar landmarks (see attachment).  Much of it was savanna, or "oak barrens" as they called it back then, and there were also areas of prairies and forests, both upland and lowland.  The savannas had low density stands of large hardwoods, maybe 10 or 20 per acre.  There was little brushy understory, and the ground cover was primarily herbaceous prairie plants, due to centuries of burning by Native Americans.

Some ten to twelve years before the surveyors adventures, in 1818-1819, the explorer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft described the praires of the region, sharing with us: "The prairies, which commence at the distance of a

mile west of this river, are the most extensive, rich, and beautiful, of any which I have ever seen west of the Mississippi river. They are covered by a coarse wild grass, which attains so great a height that it completely hides a man on horseback in riding through it. The deer and elk abound in this quarter, and the buffaloe is occasionally seen in droves upon the prairies, and in the open high-land woods."

Fast-forwarding to more modern times, I have tagged the two aerial photographs in the attached file to illustrate the vast changes that have occurred at the City-owned property on South Broyles Road, from the 1941 aerial photo to the 2010 aerial photo.  Fruit orchards were at one time a common sight in Northwest Arkansas.  In fact, the northern half of Woolsey Wet Prairie was once a fruit orchard, as was the dirt farm across the street on Broyles Road in 1941.  Before the wetland cells were constructed and when the site was a hay field, you could see the remnants of where the rows of trees existed.  Small earthen rows were present, and were interestingly built up and down over the prairie mounds and wetland depressions without plowing the mounds down.  I wonder if the fruit trees did better on the mounds or the adjacent depressions?  I suppose it was a function of whether it was a dry year or a wet year.  Most of the prairie mounds of the area are in danger of extinction, and untold thousands have already departed, never to return.

Today, an apple tree and a pear tree near the north gate at Woolsey Wet Prairie appear to be the lone survivors of the pre-World War II orchards.  Though severely damaged by age and elements, they still bear fruit.  The pear tree in particular has especially sweet fruit, as I have heartedly raccoon-sampled them myself, picking up a spent limb from the ground under the old tree, to play piñata in seek of the succulent treasure.  I believe they were there in the 1941 aerial photo, which means they are at least 70 years old.  Hope I live that long, but then again maybe more, since that age is only 11 years away for me.  Regardless, I do hope the fruit trees outlive me.

Likewise, the old barn standing today was there long ago, as shown in the 1941 aerial, along with several homes.  A fellow named John Brumley once lived in the rock house that is now a mass of overgrown rock ruins, near the only remaining barn on the property.  Brumley probably never realized, or even cared, that the catalpa tree in his front yard would become famous as the place where the second known siting of the Northern Shrike in the whole State of Arkansas would take place, earlier this month.... and he would certainly be aghast to look out his window to see a huge state-of-the-art wastewater facility that puts his outhouse to shame, and be told he would be required by law to tie into the sewer line that goes to it.  That would have been so unimaginable to him that he would have probably thought that the Martians had landed in the South Forty when he saw the top of the big equalization basin!

Though I figured most, or all, of the Woolsey proximity was all a working farm back in the day, I spoke with Mrs. Jordan several years ago before the history she holds perishes forever, to find otherwise.  As I recall, she said she had lived on Broyles Road since 1957.   When asked about the historical land uses at our beloved mitigation site, she said that all of the Woolsey Wet Prairie area was once part of a Soil Bank and laid fallow for 10 to 15 years.  The Federal Soil Bank Program of the late 1950s and early 1960s paid farmers to retire land from production for 10 years, and was basically the predecessor to today’s Conservation Reserve Program.  Maybe that is why Woolsey's ancient seed bed of native plants was there to gladly reawaken when called upon, saving the City lots of money many years later.  I wonder if they had to pull up all the fruit trees to be eligible to enter the Soil Bank program?

Another local elder, Richard Swafford, told me that corn, wheat, and beans had once been propagated on the City property in the 1930's, where the wastewater plant now churns, washing the water from dirty to clean, as told to him by previous generations.  He still cuts hay from portions of the city property today, and has encountered a few drainage tiles with his tractor over the years, that were apparently installed to keep the wet prairie from being too wet for crops.

Though the mention of Woolsey Wet Prairie evokes few to think, or even know, about the tired and retired fruit trees; the rock house ruins where a family once slept, ate their meals, and raised there children; or the old barn where a calf or two had been born, they are very much elements of Fayetteville's heritage.  The area has taken on a new persona from the 1830's to 1941 to 2010, yet still holds on to a very small morsel of what was commonplace in the past. 

Perhaps the most important history and ecology lesson to be learned from seeing how our Woolsey Wet Prairie site has responded to a little nudging, is that much has been destroyed, but it's ALL restorable.  Whether or not that is a fact or a myth may be a matter of perspective, but should, nonetheless, become a mindset before we run out of the ground and the other life that depends upon it who have lived here long before we did.

Nature has a unique way of repairing itself with a little help!

Hope you enjoy the history!

Bruce Shackleford

Bruce Shackleford, M.S., REM, REPA, CPESC

President, Environmental Consulting Operations, Inc.

17724 I-30, Suite 5A

Benton, Arkansas 72019

"Integrating ECOnomy and ECOlogy, since 1990"

office: 501-315-9009

mobile: 501-765-9009

bruceshackleford@aristotle.net

Daffodils varied and plentiful at World Peace Wetland Prairie this week

Please click on image to ENLARGE.

Fayetteville square's farmer's market in past years

Sample of my photos from farmer's market on the fayetteville square and a few other events near the square from reason years.

Watch slide show of sample of photos from the square and nearby downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas, activities.

March 14, 2011, video recorded at Community Access Television with Aubrey Shepherd's photos from Bruce Walker Memorial at George's on March 13, 2011: To run next week on Cox 218 on your big-screen TV

Community Access Television (now called Fayetteville Public Access Television) operated by Your Media under a contract with Fayetteville's city government.
Whatever is showing at a given moment on CAT is also simulcast at the CAT Web site.
Appearing at Channel 218 on Cox Cable for people with a digital receiver box from Cox. Also one of the Channel 99 extensions on AT&T U-verse in Northwest Arkansas and showing its programs at the CAT watch now link.
It is a free-speech public-access channel that trains people to produce their own shows and airs shows submitted and requested by residents.

Controlled burn at Woolsey Wet Prairie helps reduce invasive, nonnative grass such as fescue and prepares land for growing season of native grass such as big bluestem

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE view of Woolsey Wet Prairie. For more photos from Friday at Woolsey Wet Prairie, click live link.
For information about the American Indian company that did the work,  please see Choeleta

Bruce Shackleford and Frou Gallagher. Gallagher is a Fayetteville Government Channel staff videographer and a volunteer producer of many shows for Community Access Television in her spare time.

Bruce Shackleford is a Fayetteville contractor who oversees environmental matters for the Water and Sewer departments and ensures that the city complies with all state and federal watershed issues, including the creation and management of Woolsey Wet Prairie.

Joe Woolbright manages Chesney Prairie, a state nature preserve

Joe Woolbright observing burn at Woolsey Wet Prairie

Greg Howe is Fayetteville's urban forester

Mudwompers no longer is available at its original address, but I believe it exists someplace online and will endeavor to find it to share again soon.
Here is my May 2003 on the issue of mishandling of our watershed and particularly the mishandlng of the once city-owned Wilson Spring property.

I was working at a newspaper in central Arkansas the first day the Northwest Arkansas Times put advertising on its front page

Please click on image to ENLARGE.

Working journalists considered the move a desperate lapse from tradition and a major mistake. But it brought revenue and has continued. Today, I looked down at the yellow bag in my driveway and began laughing. A cursory search of my newspaper brought me to the back page of the sport section (yes, the 's' ought not to be on the word because 'nouns used as adjectives in general do not need to be plural'), but the mindless, needless pluralization of nouns as adjectives is now an established tradition in 'sport' writing that no literate person has ever justified. That is a different topic. If the editors and writers do it, teachers and professors must be allowing it. That is frightening to some of us.

My laughter returned when I skimmed over the full-page advertisement for a truck with a 390-horsepower engine.

I suppose a dealer truly needs a sticker over the masthead and folio information on the front page in order to draw even a single buyer for a vehicle with a payload likely to be less than a ton but with an engine capable of moving a much heavier load.

Such a potential fuel-guzzling machine being manufactured for sale to people who don't need it is the American way, I suppose, and legal. But with a major crisis raising the price of everything, it should not be driven, just bought and parked where passers-by can admire it.

As a person who made a tiny wage for years designing and building newspaper pages, I not only could never have bought such a vehicle new but also hate to have to pull that sticker off my paper for fear of damaging that front page. I value the look and factual accuracy and correctness of word choice and the quality of photographs on the front page I now pay to see. And my concerns about fossil-fuel production and the need for use of renewable energy make the sticker on the front more than a bad joke to me.

I doubt that such advertisement is running in a Japanese paper today, where the reality of the absurdity is more than television or Internet fodder at this moment.

April 12, 2010, video features summer 2009 native flowers as promo for Earth Day 2010. Earth Day 2011 is set for April 17

Why we don't count on public education to save our world or even our neighborhood

Meredith Oakley has resigned her position as editor of the Voices page of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette after 30 years' service to the Democrat, including time before the Democrat's Republican owner, Walter Hussman, bought the Gazette, reports Arkansas Business' online service

PRINT | CLOSE WINDOW

Meredith Oakley Leaves Arkansas Democrat-Gazette By Joanna Kauffmann - 3/10/2011 11:11:40 AM Meredith Oakley, the associate editor in charge of the Voices page at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has left the position. Oakley said that she had resigned on Tuesday and given her two weeks notice, and was busy now fulfilling that obligation.  She had been employed by the newspaper for well over 30 years. Paul Greenberg, the Democrat-Gazette's editorial page editor, could not be reached for comment.  Copyright © 2011, Arkansas Business Limited Partnership. All Rights Reserved.

Tree and Landscape Committee meeting in March 2011

Agenda for today's 6 p.m. meeting of the Fayetteville City Council discussed last week. See details in video below

Tuesday, March 15, 2011, screening of CARBON NATION at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at UA continuing ed center, now known as UA Global Campus, just so you'll have to google it and hope to learn its address

Peter Byck, director and producer, is coming to Fayetteville to screen his latest documentary, Carbon Nation, on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 7:00 pm at the University of Arkansas’ Global Campus on the square in Fayetteville.  A second screening has been scheduled for 2:00 pm, same location. Fayetteville will be among the first cities in the nation to screen this film featuring climate change solutions.  This event is FREE and open to the public.

Click here to see a trailer of the film:  www.carbonnation.tv.     Click here to reserve your ticket:  https://secure.sceao.uark.edu/EventCalendar/default.aspx

Brought to you by the UA Applied Sustainability Center, UA Global Campus, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, the Arkansas Chapter of the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters of Washington County, and Arkansas Interfaith Power & Light.

Managing Director

Applied Sustainability Center

University of Arkansas

Fayetteville, AR  72701

479.575.3044 (O)   479.200.8262 (C)  www.asc.uark.edu

Make your personal sustainability pledge:  www.ecologicalcommunities.org

Set up your personal dashboard:  www.earthaid.net

Tokyo Electric to build two nuclear plants in Texas: Truthout report

Published on Truthout (http://www.truth-out.org)

---

Tokyo Electric to Build US Nuclear Plants: The No BS Info on Japan's Disastrous Nuclear Operators

Greg Palast | Monday 14 March 2011

I need to speak to you, not as a reporter, but in my former capacity as lead investigator in several government nuclear plant fraud and racketeering investigations.

I don't know the law in Japan, so I can't tell you if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) can plead insanity to the homicides about to happen.

But what will Obama plead? The administration, just months ago, asked Congress to provide a $4 billion loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors to be built and operated on the Gulf Coast of Texas - by TEPCO and local partners. As if the Gulf hasn't suffered enough. Here are the facts about TEPCO and the industry you haven't heard on CNN:

The failure of emergency systems at Japan's nuclear plants comes as no surprise to those of us who have worked in the field.

Nuclear plants the world over must be certified for what is called "SQ" or "Seismic Qualification." That is, the owners swear that all components are designed for the maximum conceivable shaking event, be it from an earthquake or an exploding Christmas card from al-Qaeda.

The most inexpensive way to meet your SQ is to lie. The industry does it all the time. The government team I worked with caught them once, in 1988, at the Shoreham plant in New York. Correcting the SQ problem at Shoreham would have cost a cool billion, so engineers were told to change the tests from "failed" to "passed."

The company that put in the false safety report? Stone & Webster, now the nuclear unit of Shaw Construction, which will work with TEPCO to build the Texas plant. Lord help us.

There's more.

Last night, I heard CNN reporters repeat the official line that the tsunami disabled the pumps needed to cool the reactors, implying that water unexpectedly got into the diesel generators that run the pumps.

These safety backup systems are the "EDGs" in nuke-speak: Emergency Diesel Generators. That they didn't work in an emergency is like a fire department telling us they couldn't save a building because "it was on fire."

What dim bulbs designed this system? One of the reactors dancing with death at Fukushima Station 1 was built by Toshiba. Toshiba was also an architect of the emergency diesel system.

Now be afraid. Obama's $4 billion bailout in the making is called the South Texas Project. It's been sold as a red-white-and-blue way to make power domestically with a reactor from Westinghouse, a great American brand. However, the reactor will be made substantially in Japan by the company that bought the US brand name, Westinghouse - Toshiba.

I once had a Toshiba computer. I only had to send it in once for warranty work. However, it's kind of hard to mail back a reactor with the warranty slip inside the box if the fuel rods are melted and sinking halfway to the earth's core.

TEPCO and Toshiba don't know what my son learned in eighth grade science class: tsunamis follow Pacific Rim earthquakes. So, these companies are real stupid, eh? Maybe. More likely is that the diesels and related systems wouldn't have worked on a fine, dry afternoon.

Back in the day, when we checked the emergency backup diesels in America, a mind-blowing number flunked. At the New York nuclear plant, for example, the builders swore under oath that their three diesel engines were ready for an emergency. They'd been tested. The tests were faked; the diesels run for just a short time at low speed. When the diesels were put through a real test under emergency-like conditions, the crankshaft on the first one snapped in about an hour, then the second and third. We nicknamed the diesels, "Snap, Crackle and Pop."

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(Note: Moments after I wrote that sentence, word came that two of three diesels failed at the Tokai Station as well.)

In the US, we supposedly fixed our diesels after much complaining by the industry. But in Japan, no one tells TEPCO to do anything the Emperor of Electricity doesn't want to do.

I get lots of confidential notes from nuclear industry insiders. One engineer, a big name in the field, is especially concerned that Obama waved the come-hither check to Toshiba and TEPCO to lure them to America. The US has a long history of whistleblowers willing to put themselves on the line to save the public. In our racketeering case in New York, the government only found out about the seismic test fraud because two courageous engineers, Gordon Dick and John Daly, gave our team the documentary evidence.

In Japan, it's simply not done. The culture does not allow the salary men, who work all their lives for one company, to drop the dime.

Not that US law is a wondrous shield: both engineers in the New York case were fired and blacklisted by the industry. Nevertheless, the government (local, state, federal) brought civil racketeering charges against the builders. The jury didn't buy the corporation's excuses and, in the end, the plant was, thankfully, dismantled.

Am I on some kind of xenophobic anti-Nippon crusade? No. In fact, I'm far more frightened by the American operators in the South Texas nuclear project, especially Shaw. Stone & Webster, now the Shaw nuclear division, was also the firm that conspired to fake the EDG tests in New York . (The company's other exploits have been exposed by their former consultant, John Perkins, in his book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.") If the planet wants to shiver, consider this: Toshiba and Shaw have recently signed a deal to become worldwide partners in the construction of nuclear stations.

The other characters involved at the South Texas Plant that Obama is backing should also give you the willies. But as I'm in the middle of investigating the American partners, I'll save that for another day.

So, if we turned to America's own nuclear contractors, would we be safe? Well, two of the melting Japanese reactors, including the one whose building blew sky high, were built by General Electric of the Good Old US of A.

After Texas, you're next. The Obama administration is planning a total of $56 billion in loans for nuclear reactors all over America.

And now, the homicides:

CNN is only interested in body counts, how many workers burnt by radiation, swept away or lost in the explosion. These plants are now releasing radioactive steam into the atmosphere. Be skeptical about the statements that the "levels are not dangerous." These are the same people who said these meltdowns could never happen. Over years, not days, there may be a thousand people, two thousand, ten thousand who will suffer from cancers induced by this radiation.

In my New York investigation, I had the unhappy job of totaling up post-meltdown "morbidity" rates for the county government. It would be irresponsible for me to estimate the number of cancer deaths that will occur from these releases without further information; but it is just plain criminal for the TEPCO shoguns to say that these releases are not dangerous.

Indeed, the fact that residents near the Japanese nuclear plants were not issued iodine pills to keep at the ready shows TEPCO doesn't care who lives and who dies, whether in Japan or the USA. The carcinogenic isotopes that are released at Fukushima are already floating to Seattle with effects we simply cannot measure.

Heaven help us. Because Obama won't.

Source URL: http://www.truth-out.org/tokyo-electric-build-us-nuclear-plants-the-no-bs-info-japans-disastrous-nuclear-operators68457

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