It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, April 11, 2021
BACKGROUNDER
US asks Iran to be 'pragmatic' as optimism rises on nuclear talks
Issued on: 10/04/2021
The Vienna hotel where diplomats held talks over the Iran nuclear deal is seen in February 2016 JOE KLAMAR AFP/File
Washington (AFP)
The United States said Friday it offered "very serious" ideas on reviving the Iran nuclear accord but was waiting for Tehran to reciprocate as partner nations voiced optimism following talks in Vienna.
President Joe Biden's administration has opened indirect diplomacy with Iran in hopes of returning to the 2015 agreement, which his predecessor Donald Trump trashed as he launched a "maximum pressure" campaign in hopes of bringing Tehran to its knees.
"The United States team put forward a very serious idea and demonstrated a seriousness of purpose on coming back into compliance if Iran comes back into compliance," a US official told reporters as talks broke for the weekend.
But the official said the United States was waiting for its efforts to be "reciprocated" by Iran.
"We saw some signs of it but certainly not enough. There's still question marks about whether Iran has the willingness to... take the pragmatic approach that the United States has taken to come back into compliance with its obligations under the deal," he said.
Biden argues that the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under former president Barack Obama had been successful, with UN inspectors saying Iran was meeting its promises to scale back nuclear work dramatically.
Iran has demanded that the United States first lift all sanctions imposed by Trump, which include a sweeping unilateral ban on its oil exports, before it falls back in line with obligations it suspended.
The "US —- which caused this crisis —- should return to full compliance first," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter, adding that "Iran will reciprocate following rapid verification."
The head of Iran's delegation to the talks Abbas Araghchi stressed the need for "political will and seriousness from other parties".
"Otherwise, there will be no reason to continue negotiations," he said, according to a statement from the Iranian foreign ministry. - Stumbling block over sanctions -
The US official indicated that the major stumbling block in the initial talks was not the order of compliance but rather which sanctions were under discussion as Iran is demanding an end to all US restrictions.
The deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, covers only nuclear sanctions and not US measures taken in response to human rights or other concerns, the official said.
"All sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA and are inconsistent with the benefits that Iran expects from the JCPOA we are prepared to lift. That doesn't mean all of them because there are some that are legitimate sanctions," he said.
While Biden can lift sanctions, his diplomacy has already faced heated attacks from Trump's Republican Party, some of whose members have called in the past for attacking Iran.
Iran refused to meet directly with US negotiator Rob Malley during the talks led by the European Union, whose envoys shuttled between the two sides in different hotels.
Talks are set to resume Wednesday with Iran again meeting the other nations in the deal -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia as well as the European Union.
The EU diplomat leading the talks, Enrique Mora, said that the meetings had been "constructive and results oriented."
Moscow's ambassador to the UN in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov also said that the participants "noted with satisfaction the initial progress made" and wanted to "maintain the positive momentum."
In another sign of easing tensions, Iran released a South Korean-flagged tanker that it had seized amid a dispute over billions of dollars in frozen oil funds, the foreign ministry in Seoul said.
Due to Trump's sanctions, South Korea had blocked $7 billion it owed Iran for past oil sales but it recently said it had resolved the dispute, subject to US approval.
US officials said they were not involved in the tanker's release and that the issue was not linked to the talks in Vienna.
Talks to discuss US return to Iran nuclear deal 'on right track', says Russia Diplomatic efforts with America will be intensified when talks resume next week in Vienna
Updated: April 4, 2021
World powers will resume talks on the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna this week with mediators set to hold "separate contacts" with the United States.
Diplomatic efforts around the US's potential return to the pact will intensify alongside Tuesday's talks in the Austrian capital, the European Union said, after initial online discussions on Friday.
The talks between representatives of the EU, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran came as US President Joe Biden's administration looks to engage Tehran in negotiations over both sides resuming compliance with the deal.
Talks may be off to a difficult start. On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh reiterated the regime's maximalist position, saying that Tehran was opposed to any gradual easing of sanctions.
"No step-by-step plan is being considered," Mr Khatibzadeh told Press TV. "The definitive policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the lifting of all US sanctions."
The aim of the talks in the Austrian capital is to reach an agreement within two months, according to a senior official with the EU, the co-ordinator of the negotiations.
An EU statement said that powers at Friday's meeting “recognised the prospect of a full return of the US" to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the 2015 nuclear deal.
They also “underlined their readiness to positively address this in a joint effort” and “emphasised their commitment to preserve the JCPOA”.
“Participants agreed to resume this session of the Joint Commission in Vienna next week, in order to clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures, including through convening meetings of the relevant expert groups,” it said.
“In this context, the co-ordinator will also intensify separate contacts in Vienna with all JCPOA participants and the US.”
Cautious optimism
The US confirmed it would take part in the diplomatic efforts and offered to sit down with Iran.
"These remain early days and we don't anticipate an immediate breakthrough as there will be difficult discussions ahead. But we believe this is a healthy step forward," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
The US special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, welcomed negotiations and called them a step "in the right direction".
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, said that talks were “on the right track”.
"Discussions were quite businesslike and will continue," he said.
"The impression is that we are on the right track but the way ahead will not be easy and will require intensive efforts. The stakeholders seem to be ready for that."
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the aim of next week’s meeting was to “rapidly finalise sanction-lifting”, which he said would be followed by “Iran ceasing remedial measures”.
Mr Zarif said there would be no meeting between Iran and the US, calling it “unnecessary”. Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, a senior negotiator, told Iranian TV that Friday’s talks were “frank and serious”.
IR-8 centrifuges at Natanz nuclear power plant, some 300 kilometres south of capital Tehran. AFP
"Iran will suspend its steps [scaling back compliance with deal terms] as soon as sanctions are lifted and this is verified," Mr Araghchi told the meeting.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the continuation of talks in Vienna, saying it had “worked intensively” with Britain and France towards preserving the deal.
“We have no time to lose. An agreement that is once again fully respected would be a plus for the whole region’s security and the best foundation for discussions about other important questions on regional stability,” a German statement said.
China on Friday called for the US to lift all "illegal sanctions" on Iran, saying the country’s nuclear issue was at a “critical stage”.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying blamed Washington’s unilateral exit from the deal as the “root cause” of the problem, and said China welcomed the return of the US.
Under the 2015 agreement, economic sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear programme.
Friday’s talks were chaired by EU official Enrique Mora, the political director of the bloc’s External Action Service, on behalf of the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said European powers were working closely with Russia and China to find a solution to the deadlock.
"These exchanges are more than necessary because Iran has not accepted taking part in direct contacts between the other participants and the US ... which would have eased discussions," she said.
‘First step:’ US, Iran to begin indirect nuclear-limit talks
BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER AND RAF CASERT ASSOCIATED PRESS APRIL 02, 2021
This combined photo released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, shows Iranian diplomats attending a virtual talk on nuclear deal with representatives of world powers, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 2, 2021. The chair of the group including the European Union, China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and Iran said that the participants "emphasized their commitment to preserve the JCPOA and discussed modalities to ensure the return to its full and effective implementation," according to a statement after their virtual meeting, referring to the acronym for the accord — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Abbas Araghchi, center, heads the Iranian diplomats. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)AP
The United States and Iran said Friday they will begin indirect negotiations with intermediaries next week to try to get both countries back into compliance with an accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program, nearly three years after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal.
The announcement marks one of the first bits of tangible progress in efforts to return both nations to terms of the 2015 accord, which bound Iran to restrictions in return for relief from U.S. and international sanctions.
President Joe Biden came into office saying that getting back into the accord and getting Iran’s nuclear program back under international restrictions was a priority. But Iran and the United States have disagreed over Iran's demands that sanctions be lifted first, and that deadlock has threatened to become an early foreign policy setback for the new U.S. president.
Administration officials played down expectations for next week's talks. State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the resumption of negotiations, scheduled for Tuesday in Vienna, “a healthy step forward.” But Price added, “These remain early days, and we don’t anticipate an immediate breakthrough as there will be difficult discussions ahead.”
“This is a first step,” Biden Iran envoy Rob Malley tweeted. He said diplomats were now “on the right path.”
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the accord in 2018, accusing Iran of continuous cheating and opting for what he called a maximum-pressure campaign of stepped-up U.S. sanctions and other tough actions. Iran responded by intensifying its enrichment of uranium and building of centrifuges in plain violation of the accord, while maintaining its insistence that its nuclear development was for civilian and not military purposes.
Israel, Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies and strategic partners are on perpetual alert against the possibility of their top rival, Iran, attaining nuclear arms, keeping tensions up in a region where the U.S. military is present and has often intervened.
Iran's enrichment was seen as upping the pressure for a U.S. return to the nuclear deal and a lifting of Trump's sanctions, which included banking measures aimed at cutting off the country from the international financial system. Other Trump administration measures sanctioned Iran's oil sales and blacklisted top government officials.
Agreement on the start of indirect talks came after the European Union helped broker a virtual meeting of officials from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran, all of which have remained in the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Price said next week's talks will be structured around working groups that the European Union was forming with the remaining participants in the accord, including Iran.
“The primary issues that will be discussed are the nuclear steps that Iran would need to take in order to return to compliance with the terms of the JCPOA, and the sanctions relief steps that the United States would need to take in order to return to compliance as well,” Price said.
The United States, like Iran, said it did not anticipate direct talks between the two nations now. Price said the United States remains open to that idea, however.
In a tweet, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the aim of the Vienna session would be to “rapidly finalize sanction-lifting & nuclear measures for choreographed removal of all sanctions, followed by Iran ceasing remedial measures.”
Iranian state television quoted Abbas Araghchi, Iran's nuclear negotiator at the virtual meeting, as saying during Friday's discussions that any “return by the U.S. to the nuclear deal does not require any negotiation and the path is quite clear.”
“The U.S. can return to the deal and stop breaching the law in the same way it withdrew from the deal and imposed illegal sanctions on Iran,” Araghchi was quoted as as saying.
Russia's ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said "the impression is that we are on the right track, but the way ahead will not be easy and will require intensive efforts. The stakeholders seem to be ready for that.” Events since Trump pulled out of the deal complicate the United States' return.
Iran since the U.S. withdrawal from the pact has been steadily violating its restrictions, like the amount of enriched uranium it can stockpile and the purity to which it can enrich it.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that over the past two years, Iran has accumulated extensive nuclear material and new capacities and used the time for “honing their skills in these areas.”
Iran in January increased uranium enrichment at its underground Fordo facility to 20% levels. That puts Tehran a comparatively easier technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran now has enough low-enriched uranium to convert to a higher level of enrichment and make a bomb. Iran insists it is not seeking to make nuclear bombs.
Iran has said that before it resumes compliance with the deal, the U.S. needs to return to its own obligations by dropping the sanctions.
As part of its ongoing violations of the deal, Iran last month began restricting inspections of its nuclear facilities. Under a last-minute agreement worked out during a trip to Tehran, however, some access was preserved.
Under that temporary agreement, Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its facilities with the International Atomic Energy Agency but has promised to preserve the tapes for three months. It will then hand them over to the Vienna-based U.N. atomic watchdog if it is granted sanctions relief. Otherwise, Iran has vowed to erase the tapes, narrowing the window for a diplomatic breakthrough.
In the U.S., conservatives have pushed the Biden administration to broaden talks to address other complaints against Iran, including its crucial support to armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Syria and its detention of American citizens, as a condition for lifting sanctions. The administration has pledged in principle to push Iran on those matters, but State Department spokespeople on Friday declined to say if or when those additional points of friction might be raised in resumed talks..
FILE—In this Dec. 23, 2019 file photo released by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, technicians work at the Arak heavy water reactor's secondary circuit, as officials and media visit the site, near Arak, 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran.
In a statement after a virtual meeting on Friday, April 2, 2021, the chair of a group of high-level officials from the European Union, China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and Iran said the participants "emphasized their commitment to preserve the JCPOA and discussed modalities to ensure the return to its full and effective implementation." (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, File) AP
WE NEED OUR OWN WORKER REPS FOR CPPIB
'A short on human ingenuity': Why CPPIB's new chief says fossil fuel divestment is off the table under his watch John Graham believes science will find solutions to many of the issues facing the oil and gas industry today
Author of the article: Barbara Shecter
Publishing date: Apr 09, 2021 •
John Graham, the new chief executive officer of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. PHOTO BY CANADA PENSION PLAN INVESTMENT BOARD
The new chief executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has no plans to institute a blanket divestment of oil and gas assets during his tenure, in part because he believes science will find solutions to many of the issues that have made environmentalists and some investors question such holdings.
“Simple divestment is essentially a short on human ingenuity,” John Graham told the Financial Post in a recent interview, adding that there are “incredibly bright, talented” scientists and engineers in the oil and gas industry.
“We’ve taken the position that we invest in the entire energy ecosystem, and we do not pursue a path of blanket divestment,” he said.
Invoking science to support energy investments may not be a popular position in some quarters these days, but the 49-year-old, who was abruptly named to the top post at the $475 billion fund in February, has the credentials to back it up.
A research scientist for more than a decade, Graham has a PhD in chemistry from the University of Western Ontario, as well as an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
Navigating the political minefield around energy investments will be one of the key challenges Graham faces as head of the investment platform for Canada’s national pension scheme, which has mandate to “maximize investment returns without undue risk of loss.” Like other large institutional investors, CPPIB is facing criticism not only from environmentalists but from academics who are quick to point out that fossil fuels, no matter how lucrative now, represent risk.
But Graham is not taking sides.
We will continue to invest across the entire energy ecosystem
JOHN GRAHAM
OnTuesday, CPPIB announced that two existing investment groups — energy and resources and power and renewables — will be rolled into a single $18-billion platform called the Sustainable Energy Group to build on investments in renewables, conventional energy and innovation through new technologies and services.
“We will continue to invest across the entire energy ecosystem including active investments we have in Alberta,” Grahamsaid in the interview, which took place shortly before the announcement.
Among those investments is Calgary’s Wolf Midstream, which hepointedto as an example of what he sees as the path forward.
The company, which CPPIB first invested in six years ago, is involved in the conventional oil and gas sector. But Wolf also built and is part owner of the 240-kilometre Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, which captures industrial emissions from fertilizer facilities and refineries and delivers the carbon dioxide to use in enhanced oil recovery at mature oil and gas reservoirs and for permanent storage.
“It is one (investment) we’re quite proud of — a great example of some of the forward-looking thinking around carbon capture,” Graham said.
The 240-kilometre Alberta Carbon Trunk Line captures industrial emissions and delivers the carbon dioxide to use in enhanced oil recovery and for permanent storage. PHOTO BY ALBERTA CARBON TRUNK LINE
“I’ve met lots of people through my career, scientists and engineers, who work in the oil and gas sector, and they’re incredibly bright, talented people who will undoubtedly play a role in the energy transition.”
Graham is the second consecutive executive with a science background to lead the investment management team for Canada’s national pension scheme. His predecessor, Mark Machin, was trained as a medical doctor before turning his attention to high finance. Machin resigned from his job as CEO of CPPIB suddenly in February after it was revealed that he had travelled to the United Arab Emirates and been vaccinated against COVID-19 while those his age in Canada were still awaiting inoculation.
While Machin only worked as a doctor for about a year before moving into the world of investing at Goldman Sachs, Graham worked for several years asa researcher in the innovation group at Xerox, before transitioning to a strategy role at the technology company.
He had begun to work on his MBA when a headhunter came calling and lured him to CPPIB. He started in portfolio construction before moving into private investments and credit. As he moved up the ranks, his application of the scientific method was evident.
Take his decision in 2018 to move all CPPIB’s credit investors into a single department, a shift he describes as deliberate and methodical.
Before then, what had become one of the largest global asset classes was being managed within regional departments and asset class groups such as real estate, with a district focus on investment grade versus non-investment grade assets.
Graham’s view was that a broader lens across geographies and assets would help CPPIB capitalize on the opening of less-developed credit markets in China, India and Latin America, where there were fewer such silos or distinctions.
“We think of credit as an investment in credit, and really have built this department that can do public, it can do private, it can do corporate, it can do real estate, it can do structured credit,” he said. “The investment teams will build a portfolio with the best opportunities.”
The investment management organization won’t set “hard” allocations for specific asset classes, Graham said, adding that he will rely on chief investment officer Ed Cass when it comes to assessing macro-economic factors such as interest rates to determine portfolio construction and capital allocation.
While Graham’s ascent to the top job in February was abrupt, given the circumstances, he was far from a dark horse and had been on a very short list of possible successors to Machin since last summer, according to sources with knowledge of the succession planning.
His experience on the credit side of investing is understood to have worked in his favour, given the growing prominence of private debt alongside the sometimes flashier world of private equity. A person with knowledge of the pension management organization’s inner workings said Graham worked under seasoned fund veterans such as Cass andMark Jenkins, who spearheaded CPPIB’s $12-billion acquisition of major credit platform Antares Capital, and was recognized as a smart and disciplined investor who also possessed a combination of strong leadership skills and strategic sense.
Graham is one of three CPPIB executives on the board of Antares, which was purchased in 2015. He described the in-house investment process that drove that acquisition as a guide to what can be expected under his leadership. Perhaps not surprisingly, the two-year process was methodical — it involved identifying a promising market segment and its key players, the writing of a research paper to back the investment thesis, and then careful observation.
“We watched the market…. When GE went to sell Antares, in many ways we’d already done all the homework,” he said. “We knew it was the market leader, we knew it was the platform we wanted to buy, and the organization was able to move (with) speed. And it’s been a fantastic investment for us.”
Dozens of Floridians testified against the legislation, with many condemning it as a racially tinged attack on free speech. Republican legislators who spoke in favor of the measure echoed DeSantis’ stance that it’s needed to protect businesses and communities from violence.
The governor proposed the legislation following the Black Lives Matter protests last year that followed the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Some of the demonstrations around the nation turned violent, with stores burned and looted, while protesters and police were injured in confrontations.
“I believe those rioters took away from what those peaceful protesters were trying to change,” said Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, Senate sponsor of the measure, which already cleared the House on party lines.
The legislation (HB1) toughens penalties for crimes that occur during protests that turn violent and creates new crimes including “mob intimidation,” “inciting a riot,” and “defacing, damaging or destroying a monument,” largely aimed at protecting Confederate statutes across Florida that are occasional targets of protests.
Senate Democrats, who unsuccessfully tried to water down the legislation with amendments beaten back by ruling Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, said the proposal is not needed – and likely unconstitutional.
“This language is so broadly worded, so badly defined, so potentially harmful to the right of free speech that, you know, you could have peaceful protesters prosecuted simply for being present while someone near them ... breaks the law,” said Senate Democratic Leader Gary Farmer of Lighthouse Point.
Floridians who traveled to Tallahassee to testify remotely blocks away from the Capitol blistered the legislation and warned that the criminal sanctions are certain to be applied more rigorously against Black protesters.
The Rev. James T. Golden, a minister and member of the Manatee County School Board, said the approach reflected the state’s Republican-dominated government seeking to quash criticism.
“This is not about race. This is about power,” Golden told the committee.
Along with the tougher criminal penalties, city and county governments could be held financially liable for damages if they failed to control protests that get out of hand. They also could be subject to new challenges if they attempt to reduce spending on law enforcement.
“This punitive and political preemption is not how democracy works,” said Sabrina Javellana, a Hallandale Beach city commissioner, urging lawmakers to kill the legislation.
Republican leaders unveiled the anti-riot measure the evening of Jan. 6, when a pro-President Trump mob overran the U.S. Capitol. But DeSantis talked about taking the steps contained in the bill as early as September – when the Black Lives Matter protests were still fresh.
“This is a very robust package,” DeSantis said when he outlined tougher penalties against protesters, most of which are contained in HB 1. “I think what it’s saying is we are not going to let Florida go down the road that some of these other places have gone.”
Among the provisions in the package approved Friday is a mandatory six-month sentence for anyone convicted of battery on a police officer during a riot. Another would impose a felony carrying penalties ranging from a $5,000 fine to 10 years in prison for anyone convicted of injuring someone or damaging property during a “violent public disturbance” involving three or more people.
Those arrested as part of a riot would be unable to immediately bond out and would have to wait for a first appearance before a judge.
While the legislation was an early priority for the House, which approved the bill two weeks ago, Friday’s hearing was its debut in the Florida Senate. The delay was viewed by some as a sign senators had problems with at least a few of the provisions. But the governor’s priority bill now looks set for a final vote well ahead of the Legislature’s scheduled April 30 finish.
FLORIDA
Nearly "catastrophic" wastewater leak could devastate marine life
Li Cohen
CBS NEWS
4/11/2021
Florida officials have been scrambling over the past week after a wastewater pond at the former Piney Point phosphate mining facility sprung a major leak — a situation officials described as a potential "catastrophe." While officials have managed to drain the reservoir enough so that a "tidal wave" of wastewater did not flood the area, experts told CBS News that the threat to the environment remains.
Residents who live immediately around the area are physically safe for the time being, state officials said, but millions of gallons of water have flowed into the ground and local waterways, and millions more were pumped directly into Port Manatee, an entrance to Tampa Bay on Florida's west coast, to prevent the reservoir from collapsing.
From March 26 to April 9, approximately 237 million gallons of water either leaked or were intentionally discharged from the reservoir, the state's environmental department said. Officials stopped discharging water into the port on Friday, according to the state's water quality dashboard.
The water was determined to not have harmful levels of radioactive material, and officials have said the water in the reservoir meets marine water quality standards "with the exception of pH, total phosphorus, total nitrogen and total ammonia nitrogen." When questioned by CBS News, the state's environmental department did not specify what the water quality standards are for both the facility and marine waters. "It is slightly acidic, but not at a level that is expected to be a concern," the department said in a statement. "Field operation teams are now deploying nutrient reduction and removal treatments of the water on-site to address any required discharges in the future. This will significantly reduce nutrient loading to Port Manatee and help minimize water quality impacts." Dr. Henry Briceño, a professor and water quality researcher at Florida International University who has several degrees in geological engineering, told CBS News that despite what officials say, the water does not meet water quality standards and officials should not "try to play games with people."
"The concentrations of the nutrients are way higher than the receiving water body," he said, referring to Port Manatee. "Those waters are not within normal, regular criteria of water quality for Tampa Bay. "
The nutrients most of concern when it comes to the wastewater — which is a combination of saltwater from a local dredge project, process water and stormwater — are nitrogen and phosphorus. While both are essential to plant life, excessive amounts can destroy ecosystems, experts say. A joint statement issued this week by the environmental groups Suncoast Waterkeeper and Tampa Bay Waterkeeper estimated that the amount of nutrients entering Tampa Bay were equal to "approximately 100,000 bags of fertilizer" and that the wastewater "has approximately ten times the nitrogen of raw sewage." These figures, the groups said, are based on recent samples and levels of nitrogen may vary throughout the water column.
Jenna Stevens, state director of the organization Environment Florida, described the impact of this "nutrient pollution" to CBS News.
"Each body of water has a certain amount of pollution that it can take before things get really, really bad and we start seeing large water quality problems. And this amount of nutrient pollution can be really damaging," Stevens said. "When [officials] were like, 'Oh, well, it's no more acidic than a cup of coffee,' well, it still doesn't meet water quality standards for marine waters. It's too acidic for our waterways and it's too loaded with these pollutants."
The Tampa Bay Estuary Program, which is tracking water data near Piney Point, says on its online database that they are most concerned about increased total nitrogen and ammonia going into the coastal waters because of the drastic impact these nutrients can have on the ecosystem's health. Nitrogen concentrations higher than 5-10 milligrams per liter may be problematic, the program says, and reports show that water near Piney Point was recorded with nitrogen levels significantly higher than that.
On March 31, five days after the company that owns Piney Point submitted a report to the state that water was seeping into the gypsum stack that holds the water, one water sample from Piney Point Creek, which wastewater was initially leaking into, registered 191.5 milligrams per liter of nitrogen, an amount more than 19 times higher than the noted limit. Another point nearby registered 214.4 milligrams per liter, which is more than 21 times higher, according to the database.
According to environmental officials, the total nitrogen concentration in marine water should be limited to 0.74 milligrams per liter.
A week later, on April 7, officials said "elevated levels of phosphorus" were detected in Port Manatee, where wastewater from the Piney Point reservoir was being discharged. An April 5 water sample detected 2.1 milligrams per liter of orthophosphate, a form of phosphorus. That level is 21 times higher than the marine quality standard for phosphorus, which is 0.10 milligrams per liter. Other samples taken from the port on that date also had levels at least double the standard threshold.
Stevens, from Environment Florida, fears what this spill, or any in the future, could do to Tampa Bay, which for decades has been the focus of restoration and protection after being disastrously polluted in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s, locals, the state and the federal government took on extensive efforts to revitalize the area.
A priority of those efforts was maintaining appropriate levels of nitrogen. Excessive amounts of the nutrient leads to more algae, which reduces the amount of light able to enter the water. Algal blooms, Briceño explained, create a devastating cascading effect for marine life, as the algae changes oxygen levels as it continues to expand, and even when it dies and rots.
"It's a mechanism that feeds itself and is continuous," Briceño said, adding he "will not be surprised" if it happens.
Environmental officials told CBS News on Saturday that there are "visual observations" of increased algae in the water.
"Algal bloom samples have been collected in an abundance of caution and are currently being processed," they said.
And if it does, it will also take a negative toll on seagrass, a vital plant for Tampa Bay's ecosystem. Seagrass, along with being a vital food and habitat source for manatees and other marine life, is essential for improving overall water quality.
It's taken decades and millions of dollars to restore seagrasses, and all it takes, Stevens said, is extra acidity to wipe it all out.
"So much of our way of life here in Florida is about our time on the water... It's where we get outside and enjoy our lives," Stevens said. "Scientists and advocates alike have been saying for decades that this is a problem, and polluters were not held accountable. And now, Floridians have to pay the price for their mess."
And if the seagrass goes, it could jeopardize Florida manatees, which are a threatened species that are in the midst of an unexpected die-off event, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. More than 600 manatees were found dead between January 1 and April 2. Between 2016 and 2020, the population averaged 203 deaths per year.
Experts believe that manatees' access to food is a contributing factor, though not the sole reason, for the sudden die-off.
"There needs to be more studying obviously done to totally determine what are the causes of all these deaths," Stevens said, "but what we are seeing leads us to believe that these manatees are running out of food, that they are potentially starving to death because of seagrass loss around the state."
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has made similar statements, nothing that food loss is a "contributing factor" to manatee deaths.
"Seagrass like many plants requires sunlight to grow," the commission says on its website. "Since 2011, persistence of algal blooms has resulted in reduced water clarity and light penetration which led to a dramatic reduction of seagrass. Seagrass is the primary food for manatees in these systems."
The Florida Senate voted to allocate $3 million for the 2021-2022 fiscal year to help clean up the wastewater at Piney Point. But the funds, if they are included in the final budget, would not be available until July 1 — a month after hurricane season officially begins.
Tropical storms and hurricanes pose a larger risk to local and environmental safety around Piney Point, as strong storms could cause damage overflows in ponds and infrastructure. These storms have become more frequent and more intense over the years, and this year, the National Hurricane Center will start routinely monitoring tropical weather.
Todd Crowl, director of the Institute of Environment at Florida International University, said that while the wastewater dump into Port Manatee is bad, normally ecosystems can recover as long as they are not continuously infiltrated.
"But if you whack it once, and then you whack it again in a pretty short amount of time," he said, "it never has time to quite recover."
Tampa Bay, he said, "is getting dangerously close" to such a problem, and a hurricane hitting before the system can recover may create more permanent damage.
It could take months to see the full effects of the wastewater dump, but Briceño fears that the ramifications will impact South Florida's already fragile waters.
"That's what I am afraid that we could have in those ecosystems... that we go beyond those tipping points," he said. "And then we don't know what's gonna happen, but it's not gonna be good, for sure."
Environmental concerns mount as millions of gallons of wastewater head towards Tampa Bay By Briona Arradondo Published 4 days ago
Waters watched closely for effects of dump
Briona Arradondo reports
PALMETTO, Fla. - As millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater flows into Tampa Bay, wildlife advocates say they’re worried about a chain reaction coming for marine life while fearing for their hard work to restore the bay’s quality. Tuesday, state officials updated on progress monitoring the impact on water quality.
"They’ve been testing actually the clams and the oysters and right now they don’t see any issues," said Nikki Fried, the Florida commissioner of agriculture and consumer services.
The state is draining wastewater from a reservoir holding fertilizer byproduct at Piney Point’s abandoned phosphate plant, piping it to Port Manatee on the southern shore of Tampa Bay. The water has phosphates and nitrogen in it, two things normally not in the water this time of year.
"When you put nitrogens and phosphates into the Tampa Bay estuary, you’re essentially fertilizing the bay. And the first organism that’s able to absorb those nutrients are algae," said Peter Clark, the president and founder of Tampa Bay Watch, an environmental education center and nonprofit.
What’s in the Piney Point wastewater?
The contaminated water pouring into Tampa Bay from the old Piney Point phosphate site could cause a lot of problems for the environment. Experts fear it will feed algae blooms that will choke out fish and could even be harmful to humans. Craig Patrick explains what we've seen elsewhere in Florida.
Clark said the algae then grows fast and covers the water, and a chain reaction follows that damages marine life, starting with seagrass.
"Seagrass is just like the grass on your lawn, it needs a certain amount of sunlight to grow. So when you shade it out with and algae bloom, it doesn’t allow the seagrass to grow and it eventually will die back," said Clark.
Fishing guides call seagrass a vital base to the ecosystem. It cleans the water, gives fish a place to breed, hatch, and more.
"All the birds, the fish, the manatees, and the manatees are having a hard enough time. When you start killing the seagrass off that these mammals are eating, you’ve got problems," explained Capt. Scott Moore of Moore Fishing.
From SkyFOX: Manatees and manta ray Check out what SkyFOX happened to spot in Tampa Bay on Tuesday, not far from the Cockroach Bay area: A mama and baby manatee, then a large ray.
Now, they're looking ahead to the rainy season this summer when even more nutrients seep into the bay. Environmentalists worry what’s there now will add up and make potential algae blooms worse.
"It’s important that we wait and see the quantity of nutrients that go into the bay how well Tampa Bay’s able to deal with that influx of nutrients and when the rainy season does come, how is that affected as well," added Clark.
There’s not a lot of chance for the contaminated water to flush out into the gulf, so environmentalists said it will linger in the bay. State leaders said they are looking at ways to take the nutrients out of the water.
Company that owns leaking Florida wastewater reservoir filed bankruptcy, sued by bank
FL governor pledges to make owner pay
DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH
During a tour of the former Piney Point phosphate mine on Sunday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged he would hold the property owner financially responsible for the mess.
EMPTY RHETORIC FAUX OUTRAGE
By: WFTS Staff Posted Apr 06, 2021
PALMETTO, Fla. — Late last week, officials in Florida discovered a small leak at a Florida wastewater reservoir that quickly prompted a state of emergency and mass evacuations in the area. While touring the former Piney Point phosphate mine on Sunday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged he would hold the property owner financially responsible for the mess.
But according to newly uncovered records, that might be a difficult task.
“Please allow me to begin with, this is very unfortunate. I am very sorry, and all steps and measures that I know of are being taken,” said HRK Holdings, LLC employee Jeff Barath last Thursday to Manatee County Commissioners.
He was called to the meeting last Thursday to explain how a small leak quickly became a major emergency, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of residents the next day.
The contaminated water stored on the site has been an issue since the phosphate mine shut down in 2001.
“The county didn’t permit this site, we didn’t create this mess, yet here we are,” Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge said.
DeSantis, who toured the site Sunday, has mobilized the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and other resources to help.
“Our administration is dedicated to full enforcement of any damages to our state’s resources and holding the company HRK accountable for this event. This is not acceptable. This is not something we will allow to persist,” DeSantis said.
Barath assured commissioners the company will make it right.
“This is my community, too. And we are doing everything possible to prevent a true catastrophe, which would be the failure of that stack system,” Barath said. But getting the company to come up with millions of dollars to pay for containment and clean-up could be a problem.
The company’s authorized representative is William F. Harley, III. of Massapequa, New York. He’s a hedge fund manager who recently became CEO of a medical marijuana venture. Prior to that, records show he owned multiple Hooters franchises and served as a director and major investor Frederick’s of Hollywood, which sells lingerie and adult novelties.
Harley signed off as the debtor on a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition for HRK Holdings, LLC. in 2012, just six years after the company was formed. It currently leases space to multiple companies that have operations near Port Manatee.
At the time of the bankruptcy filing, the company included an exhibit saying it needed money to repair and monitor the facility.
“If the materials are not properly monitored and maintained, or if a gypstack failure occurs, the materials may pose a risk to the environment in the future,” the document says,
During and after the bankruptcy case, HRK Holdings continued to borrow millions from a bank, but according to a foreclosure lawsuit filed in Manatee County Circuit Court last November, the company didn’t pay it back.
The phone number for HRK Holdings, LLC. in Manatee County is disconnected.
This story was originally published by Adam Walser on WFTS in Tampa, Florida
ECOCIDE Piney Point: USF and Sarasota Dolphin Research Program to study environmental impact of crisis
PALMETTO – As the Piney Point environmental crisis has drawn national attention, ecological groups have raised alarms over the impact that the pumping of polluted water will have on Tampa Bay and its natural inhabitants.
A team of scientists at the University of South Florida College of Marine Sciences has responded by embarking on the first research cruise in Tampa Bay dedicated to studying the environmental impact of the leaking from a wastewater holding pond at Piney Point and the ensuing emergency dumping of tens of millions of gallons of polluted water into the bay.
The team will collect water samples, surface sediment and fish from Tampa Bay and Port Manatee. Researchers hope to answer how the changes in water chemistry affect marine life.
The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, a leading dolphin research organization, has maintained the world’s longest longitudinal study of dolphins in the wild.
Through research measures such as dolphin surveys and seasonal monitoring of dolphin prey fish, the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program helps scientists learn about dolphin biology, environmental impacts on their health and reproductive success, their social structure and the effects of human activities.
Applying some of the approaches the team uses with Sarasota Bay’s dolphins to the emerging situation in Tampa Bay, the state’s largest estuary, the organization will work to understand the effects the spill has had on local wildlife.
The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program is trying to identify: Which dolphins are being exposed to the highest concentrations of discharged waters (many are individually identifiable). How dolphin distributions may have changed in response to the discharges. Whether dolphins are having respiratory issues, exhibiting abnormal behavior or developing unusual skin conditions. If dolphins have left the area, where they went.
“Since the discharge began, we have seen many fewer dolphins in the area than we did in our earlier surveys, and they are mostly more than two miles from the discharge site. These findings are preliminary, and the situation is changing daily,” said Randall Wells, director of the program.
On Wednesday, a team of scientists at USF launched the the university’s Weatherbird II research vessel. The vessel previously monitored the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
The research team is being led by USF chemical oceanographer Kristen Buck and biological oceanographer Steve Murawski.
College of Marine Science Dean Tom Frazer said in a university news release that “rapid deployments like this one provide us with an unprecedented opportunity to get out there and provide the science necessary to inform an effective response, as well as any necessary mitigation efforts, so that we can safeguard our vulnerable coastal resources.”
The scope of the work by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program remains to be fully defined, temporally and geographically, and depends on how the spill develops.
In addition to providing essential baseline data for both the conservation of dolphins in the wild and their welfare in zoos, the program will continue to contribute to management actions that help mitigate negative influences humans can have on marine ecosystems.
The Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation has diverted existing funding to the organization to aid the Tampa Bay efforts and is attempting to raise more money.
“Dolphins have been long considered our water-based ecological sentinels – breathing the same air, swimming in the same waters and eating the same fish we do,” said Teri A Hansen, the president and CEO of the Barancik Foundation. “If we can identify what effects this crisis has on them, we can better understand what risks it poses for our own health and hope others lend their philanthropic support to this important work.”
Saturday, April 10, 2021
First images of cells exposed to COVID-19 vaccine reveal native-like Coronavirus spikes
New research has for the first time compared images of the protein spikes that develop on the surface of cells exposed to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the protein spike of the SARS-CoV-19 coronavirus. The images show that the spikes are highly similar to those of the virus and support the modified adenovirus used in the vaccine as a leading platform to combat COVID-19.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has a large number of spikes sticking out of its surface that it uses to attach to, and enter, cells in the human body. These spikes are coated in sugars, known as glycans, which disguise parts of the viral proteins to the human immune system.
The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca is an adenovirus-vectored vaccine, which involves taking a safe version of a virus and adding in the information from part of a pathogen, in this case the SAR-CoV-2 spike, in order to generate neutralising antibodies against that target.
In this new study, published in the journal ACS Central Science, scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton, worked together to characterise the SARS-CoV-2 spikes manufactured by the cells presented with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The Oxford work was led by Professors Teresa Lambe, Peijun Zhang and Sarah Gilbert and Professor Max Crispin led the work in Southampton.
CAPTION
Graphic depicting how the protein spikes form on the surface of cells presented with the vaccine.
CREDIT
University of Southampton
The Scientists exposed a range of cells in vitro to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Using an imaging technique known as cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) they took thousands of images which they then combined to build up a clear picture of the resulting protein spikes on the cells. Professor Peijun Zhang, of the University of Oxford and the Electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) at Diamond Light Source, who led the imaging work said, "CryoEM is an immensely powerful technique which enabled us to visualise the dense array of spikes that had been manufactured and presented on the surface of the cells".
Further chemical analysis of the glycans that coat the newly developed protein spikes revealed that they bear a high resemblance to those surrounding the SARS-CoV-2 spikes. This is an essential feature of the vaccine as it means that it can deliver close mimics of the coronavirus that are important in triggering the immune response needed to protect against COVID-19.
Professor Crispin said, "In this study we set out to see how closely the vaccine induced spikes resembled those of the infectious virus. We were really pleased to see a large amount of native-like spikes."
"This study will hopefully provide further understanding for the public, helping them see how the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine works. Many people may not realise how their cells become little factories manufacturing viral spikes that then trigger the immune response needed to fight off the disease. This may also provide reassurance that the vaccine is doing its job and generating the material that we need to present to our immune systems."
CAPTION
Artist imaging of protein spike on the surface of cells exposed to the vaccine.
