Research shows wildfire smoke may linger in homes long after initial blaze

by Colorado State University

CSU postdoctoral fellow Kathryn Mayer led an aerosol-measurement experiment that introduced wildfire smoke into the home. Credit: John Eisele/Colorado State University Photography

Newly published research on indoor air quality from Colorado State University shows wildfire smoke may linger in homes long after the initial blaze has been put out or winds have shifted.

The findings, published in Science Advances, show that wildfire smoke can attach to home surfaces like carpet, drapes or counters—extending the exposure for those inside and potentially causing health problems even after an initial cleaning activity by air purifiers. However, Professor Delphine Farmer said the research also shows that simple surface cleaning—like vacuuming, dusting or mopping—can reduce exposure and limit risk.

The research illustrates the hidden and persistent health threats many in the Western U.S. are facing given the increase in wildfires over the last decade, she said.

"This research shows that events like the Marshall Fire in Colorado, the wildfires in Canada and the recent fires in Hawaii present serious exposure potential—not just when they occur but well after," said Farmer, who is based in the Department of Chemistry at CSU. "This paper is a key initial step towards providing actionable and practical information on how to protect yourself and clean your home."

To better understand how smoke enters and then stays in buildings, researchers burned pine wood chips in a net zero energy residential testing facility operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland. That facility is frequently used to study how different systems impact the ways energy, water and air move through a single-family house. The detailed instrumentation available for that work was perfectly suited to this research, said Dustin Poppendieck, an environmental researcher at NIST who helped coordinate the project.

The Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF) is a unique laboratory at the National Institute of Standards (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md. Credit: John Eisele/Colorado State University Photography

Researchers at Colorado State University worked with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to test how wildfire smoke lingers on surfaces in homes like carpet despite initial cleaning activity. Their findings were published in Science Advances. Credit: John Eisele/Colorado State University Photography

"The NIST Net Zero House allowed the researchers to track the movement and transformation of chemicals in the air and onto surfaces in real time using instruments in ways that don't interfere with the behavior of the smoke," said Poppendieck.

Those smoke injection sessions occurred regularly over several days, and Farmer said the total amount applied was comparable or slightly under the particulate levels seen during the Canadian wildfires. The team then took careful measurements of air quality levels and surface conditions after opening exterior doors and windows, cleaning and use of the home's built-in air cleaning systems.

The CSU team was particularly interested in the gas-phase of compounds developing from the smoke, while other teams from the University of California San Diego, CU Boulder and the University of North Carolina Chapple Hill explored different phases and interactions across the home. The team then compared findings between states to confirm what was actually happening in the home after the burn.

Farmer said findings from this interdisciplinary research approach could also be applicable to other large air pollution events like the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, where the same principles of compounds sticking to surfaces are likely to occur.

Because there has not been a lot of similar indoor air research, the team leaned on previous findings from others around the effects of cigarette smoke to inform their approach. Farmer said burning nicotine causes specific compounds with well-known health concerns and that the comparison to their project findings was informative.

"Nicotine reacts on surfaces to create a particularly nasty set of compounds called nitrosamines, which is where the real concern from third-hand smoke that is left behind comes from," she said. "Whereas with wildfire smoke, we found there was a huge diversity of organic compounds that stick to surfaces, which then slowly bleed off."

The amount, persistence and variety of compounds from the wildfire smoke in each case could potentially change the recommended approaches for cleaning the indoor spaces. Farmer said that is an area of research the team hopes to explore in the future.

Researcher cleaning the house during testing. Credit: John Eisele/Colorado State University Photography

Delphine Farmer. Credit: John Eisele/Colorado State University Photography

For now, she said the team was able to show that the amount of smoke left on surfaces was proportional to the surface area that was cleaned. That means simple cleaning and specifically addressing large but little noticed spaces that may trap harmful compounds such as cabinets and HVAC systems could be beneficial right away.

"As we continue this research, we would like to know just how effective different cleaning approaches are and when residents should move from relatively simple steps like using commercial cleaning supplies for mopping to more drastic steps like replacing the drywall altogether," Farmer said.

Farmer's team was also recently funded to research how smog may enter and remain in the home in much the same way as wildfire smoke. That work will be particularly important in Colorado where ground-level ozone pollution is a continuing issue.

"In the future I want to explore how the economics of making a more energy efficient building play into these questions and help people understand the risks and potential solutions available to them," Farmer said. "CSU is well positioned to lead this kind of interdisciplinary work and address the practical implications because of the land-grant service mission that drives our university."

More information: Jienan Li et al, The persistence of smoke VOCs indoors: partitioning, surface cleaning, and air cleaning in a smoke-contaminated house, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh8263. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh8263


Journal information: Science Advances


Provided by Colorado State University


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What phytoplankton physiology has to do with global climate

by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Marine phytoplankton of the diatom group: The plant organisms that make up 

phytoplankton can only be seen under a microscope. 

Credit: Annegret Stuhr/GEOMAR

Phytoplankton, tiny photosynthetic organisms in the ocean, play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle and influence Earth's climate. A new study reveals how variations in the physiology of phytoplankton, particularly regarding nutrient uptake, can impact the chemical composition of the ocean and even the atmosphere. This suggests that changes in marine phytoplankton physiology can affect global climate.

Phytoplankton in the ocean are central to the global carbon cycle as they perform photosynthesis, capturing and transporting carbon (C) to the deep ocean. The growth of phytoplankton relies not only on carbon but also on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), which are crucial for their cellular functioning.

Phytoplankton stoichiometry defines the relative proportions of different elements such as C, N, and P in these organisms. Key connections exist between phytoplankton stoichiometry and climate through interdependencies between the oceanic carbon pump, nutrient cycling, food web dynamics, and responses to climate-related factors like atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and temperature.

In the 1930s, the American oceanographer Alfred C. Redfield made an important discovery: he found that the concentrations of the elements C, N, and P in the marine phytoplankton roughly follow a fixed ratio of approximately 106:16:1—the ratio now named after him, the Redfield ratio.

Surprisingly, Redfield's research also revealed that in the seawater samples he collected, the concentration of nitrate, a primary nitrogen nutrient source, was, on average, 16 times higher than the concentration of phosphate, a primary phosphorus nutrient source. The nitrogen-to-phosphorus (N:P) ratios in both phytoplankton and seawater are remarkably similar, indicating a strong connection between the particulate (phytoplankton) and dissolved (seawater) nutrient pools.

The question of whether the N:P ratio of the dissolved pool controls the ratio in particulate material, or vice versa, has long puzzled the marine science community. "It's a chicken-and-egg question," says Dr. Chia-Te Chien, a researcher in the Biogeochemical Modeling Research Unit at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, who is investigating the role of variable stoichiometry of phytoplankton in the marine biogeochemistry.

Together with his colleagues, he has now carried out a modeling study that examines the relationship between the ratios of nitrogen and phosphorus in dissolved inorganic and particulate organic matter in seawater. The study, now published in the journal Science Advances, emphasizes the importance of variable C:N:P ratios of phytoplankton for regulating dissolved oceanic nutrient ratios on a global scale and highlights marine oxygen levels as a critical regulator in the Earth system.

To investigate these relationships, the authors used a computer model of algal physiology coupled to an Earth system model, wherein phytoplankton dynamically optimize their C:N:P ratios in response to varying environmental conditions. In the computer model, they could alter the characteristics of phytoplankton and observe how this changed the nitrogen and phosphorus ratios in the water.

They carried out an ensemble of 400 simulations, which differ in the minimal nitrogen and phosphorus contents required by algae to stay alive. The model results reveal intricate feedback mechanisms involving changes in the nitrogen and phosphorus content of phytoplankton, oceanic oxygen levels, N2 fixation by nitrogen-fixing phytoplankton, and denitrification.

These model results challenge the commonly hypothesized strong link between phytoplankton and seawater nutrient ratios. Rather than attempting to uncover the reasons behind the resemblance in the currently observed ratios between phytoplankton and seawater, the results highlight that these ratios are not inherently similar. In other words, the similarity, as it is observed these days, is a specific state, and this state may be subject to change, at least on a time scale that is not covered by the many decades of ocean in situ observations.

Additionally, the analysis highlights the potentially substantial influence of phytoplankton subsistence nitrogen and phosphorus quotas on atmospheric CO2 levels on geological time scales. Traditionally, stoichiometric variations of the phytoplankton and within the marine ecosystem were considered to have a relatively minor impact on marine biogeochemistry and, consequently, atmospheric CO2 levels. This view could now be questioned, because this study points to the potential importance of a physiological detail for climate conditions on our planet.

The authors explain the significance of the findings, "Our results demonstrate that the concentration of atmospheric CO2 as well as the ocean and air temperature are remarkably sensitive to variations in elemental stoichiometry induced by changes in phytoplankton physiology." Understanding these connections could help scientists make more accurate predictions about how our planet's ecosystems and climate will evolve in the future.

More information: Chia-Te Chien et al, Effects of phytoplankton physiology on global ocean biogeochemistry and climate, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg1725

Journal information: Science Advances 

Provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres Newly developed macromolecular model of phytoplankton could have implications for climate research

 

How an ancient society in the Sahara Desert rose and fell with groundwater

by Emily Zawacki, Geological Society of America

Map location and satellite aerial imagery showing the region and landscape 

where ancient societies and Garamantes lived. 

Credit: NASA/Luca Pietranera

With its low quantities of rain and soaring high temperatures, the Sahara Desert is often regarded as one of the most extreme and least habitable environments on Earth. While the Sahara was periodically much greener in the distant past, an ancient society living in a climate very similar to today's found a way to harvest water in the seemingly dry Sahara—thriving until the water ran out.

New research that will be presented Monday, 16 Oct., at the Geological Society of America's GSA Connects 2023 meeting describes how a series of serendipitous environmental factors allowed an ancient Saharan civilization, the Garamantian Empire, to extract groundwater hidden in the subsurface, sustaining the society for nearly a millennia until the water was depleted.

"Societies rise and fall at the pleasure of the physical system, such that there are special features that let humanity grow up there," says Frank Schwartz, professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University and lead author of the research study.

Monsoon rains had transformed the Sahara into a comparatively lush environment between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, providing surface water resources and habitable environments for civilizations to thrive. When the monsoon rains stopped 5,000 years ago, the Sahara turned back into a desert, and civilizations retreated from the area—aside from an unusual outlier.

The Garamantes lived in the southwestern Libyan desert from 400 BCE to 400 CE under nearly the same hyper-arid conditions that exist there today and were the first urbanized society to become established in a desert that lacked a continuously flowing river. The surface water lakes and rivers of the "Green Sahara" times were long gone by the time the Garamantes arrived, but there was luckily water stored underground in a large sandstone aquifer—potentially one of the largest aquifers in the world, according to Schwartz.

Camel trade routes from Persia through the Sahara brought the Garamantes technology on how to harvest groundwater using foggara or qanats. This method involved digging a slightly inclined tunnel into a hillside, to just below the water table. Groundwater would then flow down the tunnel and into irrigation systems. The Garamantes dug a total of 750 km of underground tunnels and vertical access shafts to harvest groundwater, with the greatest construction activity occurring between 100 BCE and 100 CE.

Schwartz integrates prior archaeological research with hydrologic analyses to understand how the local topography, geology, and unique runoff and recharge conditions produced the ideal hydrogeologic conditions for the Garamantes to be able to extract groundwater.

Cross-section showing how a foggara or qanat works. An upward sloping tunnel is built 

into a hillside with vertical shafts until groundwater is reached.  

The groundwater then flows down the tunnel. 

Credit: Frank Schwartz

"Their qanats shouldn't have actually worked, because the ones in Persia have annual water recharge from snowmelt, and there was zero recharge here," says Schwartz.

The Garamantes had a significant streak of environmental luck, with the earlier wetter climate, appropriate topography, and unique groundwater settings, which made groundwater available with foggara technology. However, their luck ran out when groundwater levels fell below the foggara tunnels.

According to Schwartz, two trends are particularly concerning. First, extreme environments are becoming more prevalent around the world in countries like Iran. Second, it has become more common to use groundwater unsustainably.

"As you look at modern examples like the San Joaquin Valley, people are using the groundwater up at a faster rate than it's being replenished," says Schwartz. "California had a great wet winter this year, but that followed 20 years of drought. If the propensity for drier years continues, California will ultimately run into the same problem as the Garamantians. It can be expensive and ultimately impractical to replace depleted groundwater supplies."

With no new water to replenish the aquifer and no surface water available, lack of water led to the downfall of the Garamantian Empire. The Garamantes serve as a cautionary tale for the power of groundwater as a resource, and the danger of its overuse.

More information: Paper: gsa.confex.com/gsa/2023AM/meet … app.cgi/Paper/391971

Provided by Geological Society of America Effects of recharge process on groundwater nitrate concentration in an oasis of Tengger Desert hinterland

Turkey destroying NE Syria oil, power facilities: Kurds

Rouba El Husseini
Wed, October 11, 2023 

The Aliyan oil facility on the outskirts of Rumaylan in Syria's Kurdish-controlled northeastern Hasakeh province was damaged in the strikes (Delil SOULEIMAN)

Turkish bombardment has damaged more than half of Kurdish-held northeast Syria's power and oil infrastructure, dealing a blow to its energy-dependent economy, the Kurds' top commander said.

Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), also criticised Washington for failing to do more to prevent the strikes, during an interview with AFP in the northern city of Hasakeh.

On October 5, Turkey launched a bombing campaign in Syria's northeast after it said militants who were behind an attack in Ankara came from and were trained in Syria.


The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration has denied the claim, and says at least 44 people, including security personnel and civilians, have been killed in the attacks.

"More than half of oil and electricity facilities were damaged" as Turkey struck dozens of sites including power plants and gas infrastructure, Abdi said.

His forces spearheaded the battle to dislodge Islamic State group (IS) fighters from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.

The assault has left residents without power since Thursday, in a region already struggling to provide just 10 hours of electricity per day.

"The Unites States' position has been weak" in the face of the attacks, Abdi said.

"American forces limited their action to protecting their positions... but did nothing to stop" the onslaught, he said.

- 'Directly targeted' -

Ankara views the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) that dominate the SDF as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against Turkey for decades.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Wednesday to intensify strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq.

A branch of the PKK -- listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies -- claimed responsibility for the Ankara bombing, the first to hit the Turkish capital since 2016.

Abdi said Turkey "directly targeted infrastructure, services and resources" used by Kurdish authorities in order to cut off sources of income and "prevent the SDF from carrying on".

"They couldn't target the SDF directly, so funding sources were targeted," he said in Tuesday evening's interview.

Last Thursday, the United States shot down a Turkish drone deemed a threat to American forces in northeast Syria.

Hundreds of US personnel are stationed in the country's north and northeast as part of an international coalition fighting IS jihadists, alongside the SDF.

"Forces present in the region, be they Russia, American or the (international) coalition, must... keep these attacks from happening" and help rebuild damaged facilities, Abdi demanded.

- 'Lukewarm' -

Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from Syrian border areas, and it has maintained a military presence and proxies in parts of northern Syria.

Ankara has long condemned its NATO ally Washington's support for the SDF.

In March 2020, Turkey and the Syrian government's ally Russia agreed to establish a security corridor in the region, with joint Turkish-Russian patrols along designated Kurdish-held areas.

The SDF is the largest armed force in Syria after the country's army, and controls roughly a quarter of Syrian territory and most of its oil resources, largely located in the Arab-majority Deir Ezzor province.

In recent years, Kurdish authorities have held several unsuccessful rounds of talks with President Bashar al-Assad's government, which rejects their self-rule and accuses them of "separatism".

The two sides never cut ties but Abdi described their latest meetings as "lukewarm".

In September, days of clashes between Arab fighters, some of them formerly part of the SDF, and Kurdish-led forces in Deir Ezzor province left dozens dead.

Although security in the area has since improved, Deir Ezzor still suffers from a multitude of problems "that have yet to be resolved", Abdi said, citing administrative and service issues.

The SDF has denied any tensions with Arab tribes in the area, and has instead accused the Syrian government of supporting local fighters and sending reinforcements.


Intense shelling has displaced 70,000 people in northwest Syria, UN agencies warn

OMAR ALBAM
Thu, October 12, 2023 

- In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, a Syrian White Helmet civil defense worker runs at the site where a shell struck in the outskirts of the northern town of Jisr al-Shoughour, west of the city of Idlib, Syria, on Oct. 5, 2023. United Nations humanitarian officials sounded an alarm Thursday Oct. 12, 2023 over a humanitarian crisis in rebel-held northwestern Syria, warning that intense shelling by government forces displaced almost 70,000 people in recent weeks. 

(Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP, File) 

DANA, Syria (AP) — United Nations humanitarian officials sounded an alarm Thursday over a humanitarian crisis in rebel-held northwestern Syria, warning that intense shelling by government forces displaced almost 70,000 people in recent weeks.

The Syrian government, backed by Russia, pounded the country's northwest this month, especially after a drone attack targeted a military college graduation ceremony in the heart of the government-held city of Homs. At least 89 officers and civilians were killed, making it one of the deadliest attack in the war-town nation in years.

Humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations have reported Syrian and Russian strikes hitting hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure as Syria endures the 13th year of a conflict that has killed a half-million people.

“We’re at the most significant escalation of hostilities since 2019,” David Carden, the U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said after meeting with displaced Syrians living in temporary shelters “What they want above all is to return home to their homes, but right now they do not feel safe to do so.”

The vast majority of the 4.5 million people living in Idlib and northern Aleppo provinces rely on humanitarian aid to survive, and almost half live in displacement camps. Northwestern Syria is controlled by the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib province and by Turkish-backed groups in northern Aleppo province.

Shrinking budgets due to donor fatigue have humanitarian organizations struggling to respond to the growing needs in the impoverished enclave undergoing daily attacks.

Carden and other U.N. officials toured the encampments where millions of Syrians are staying. He was accompanied by Oliver Smith, senior operations coordinator the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and Rosa Crestani, the head of the World Health Organization office in Gaziantep, Turkey.

Crestani said WHO received 23 reports of strikes impacting health facilities, while others shut down fearing they would be hit, too.

“I really hope that the services can restart, and we really ask everyone to not target or not do indiscriminate shelling on civilians, or medical facilities or ambulances,” Crestani told The Associated Press after visiting Sham Hospital near the city of Sarmada.

___

Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb contributed from Beirut.

Exxon’s $59.5 billion deal to buy a giant shale driller is telling us something about climate change and how fast the green transition will be

Will Daniel
Wed, October 11, 2023 

Aaron M. Sprecher—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Exxon Mobil has agreed to pay $59.5 billion for rival Pioneer Natural Resources in a deal that will secure the energy giant’s status as the fracking leader in the all-important Permian Basin—a region that stretches across West Texas and New Mexico and produces nearly 40% of all U.S. oil and 15% of all U.S. natural gas.

If the acquisition survives a federal antitrust review, it will be Exxon’s largest since it merged with Mobil in 1999. And some industry insiders argue the big move into West Texas shale is indicative of a changing outlook toward the green energy transition.

“It signifies that there’s a little bit more rationality coming into the energy transition. The fantasy world of having just renewables as electricity within 50 years or so is now clearly not going to happen,” Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors, an investment firm that focuses on energy and infrastructure investments, told Fortune. “It’s a recognition that these forms of energy are not going away anytime soon.”

If Hatfield’s take is correct, Exxon’s new view on the energy transition would contrast with the green goals of most Western nations as they try to combat climate change. EU nations have called for a move away from fossil fuels, agreeing to the European Green Deal last year, which seeks to make the continent carbon neutral by 2050 and reduce emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. And in April 2021, President Biden set a target for the U.S. to have “carbon-pollution-free power” by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

The administration even created the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for the Environmental Protection Agency through the Inflation Reduction Act last year, which is disbursing $27 billion in loans and grants to “catalyze investment in clean energy projects and tackle the climate crisis.”

Environmentalists were quick to rebuke Exxon’s acquisition of Pioneer on Wednesday. “This deal shows that Exxon is doubling down on fossil fuels and has no intention of moving towards clean energy,” Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media, told progressive nonprofit outlet Common Dreams. “Even after the hottest summer on record, Exxon is hell-bent on driving the thermostat even higher.”

For its part, Exxon announced its “ambition” to have net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in January 2022. But Infrastructure Capital’s Hatfield believes that Europe’s recent experience with surging natural gas prices after the war in Ukraine has helped convince U.S. energy giants—often called majors—that investing in fossil fuels is still worth doing in order to ensure American energy security, even if the world will eventually transition toward greener pastures.

Exxon’s comments when announcing the deal seem to back up that idea. The company emphasized in a Wednesday statement that the Pioneer acquisition represents “an opportunity for even greater U.S. energy security,” arguing it will help expand an important source of domestic oil and natural gas supply “benefiting the American economy and its consumers.”

Surging oil and natural gas prices enabled Exxon Mobil to capture the third spot on the 2022 Fortune 500 list, up from 6th the year prior. The energy giant’s revenue rose 45% last year to $413 billion, while its profits spiked 141% to $56 billion. The cash windfall left Exxon on the hunt for acquisitions to bolster its portfolio. To that end, it spent $5 billion on the pipeline operator Denbury in June.

Hatfield said Exxon has not only recognized “that the energy transition is going to take a lot longer than politicians had hoped,” but it’s also “de-risking” and “diversifying” its portfolio of oil and natural gas producing assets by acquiring pipeline operators and expanding into the Permian Basin.

As far as diversification, he noted that Pioneer owns land in a different part of the Permian than Exxon: The Texas-based shale giant owns 850,000 net acres in the Midland Basin, while Exxon owns 570,000 net acres mainly in the Delaware Basin.

“There’s really two very distinct basins. And they have different infrastructure needs,” Hatfield explained. “This diversifies their [Exxon’s] Permian exposure.”

The other major reason Exxon invested in Pioneer, according to Hatfield, is because the deal may help “de-risk” the company’s portfolio of oil producing assets. He noted that the offshore oil rigs that Exxon and other energy giants have historically relied on for a huge chunk of their crude production are expensive to build and operate, which means it takes a long time to generate a return on the initial investment.

In an era when governments worldwide are signaling that a green energy transition should happen sooner rather than later, making that type of long-term investment in offshore rigs may be hard to justify. Onshore, domestic oil production also presents fewer geopolitical risks. Israel, for example, ordered Chevron to shut down its offshore gas platform Monday as a safety precaution amid the ongoing conflict in the region.

“The lowest-risk way to get…hydrocarbons in the world is onshore in the U.S., because of political issues and because shale produces returns very rapidly,” Hatfield explained. “You drill a well and you get most of your money back in the first five years, if not faster. And so the majors are trying to de-risk their businesses by doing more onshore [in the] U.S.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Major Navigator CO2 pipeline project is on hold while the company reevaluates the route in 5 states

JOSH FUNK
Tue, October 10, 2023 

A sign reading "No CO2, no eminent domain" stands along a rural road east of Bismarck, N.D., on Aug. 15, 2023. One of the two biggest proposed carbon dioxide pipeline projects in the Midwest is being put on hold so the company can reevaluate the route. Navigator CO2 Ventures has withdrawn its application for a permit in Illinois. And it said in a statement Tuesday, Oct. 10 that it was putting all its permit applications on hold while it reassesses the project's route through South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois.

 (AP Photo/Jack Dura, file) 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Navigator CO2 Ventures announced Tuesday that it is putting on hold one of the two biggest proposed carbon dioxide pipeline projects in the Midwest so it can reassess the project.

The company withdrew its application for a key permit in Illinois and said it it was putting all its permit applications on hold. The decision comes after South Dakota regulators last month denied a permit.

The proposed 1,300-mile (2,092-kilometer) project would carry planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from more than 20 industrial plants across South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. The Illinois permit is crucial because that’s where the company planned to store the carbon dioxide underground.

“As is consistent with our recent filings in neighboring jurisdictions, Navigator will be taking time to reassess the route and application,” the company said in a statement.

Navigator said it is not abandoning the project. It plans to reapply for permits where appropriate after completing its evaluation.

Opponents cheered the news that the project is being put on hold, and promised to keep fighting when the company reapplies. Opponents had organized landowners who were concerned about the project.

“When you organize the families most at-risk of eminent domain, you can stop a pipeline," said Jane Kleeb with the Nebraska-based Bold Alliance that also fought against the ill-fated Keystone XL oil pipeline. “This is a core lesson we have learned over the years, as pipeline corporations try to bully hard-working Americans into giving up their land for corporate greed.”

Proposed pipelines in the region would use carbon capture technology that supporters believe would combat climate change. Opponents question its effectiveness at scale and the need for potentially huge investments over cheaper renewable energy sources. New federal tax incentives and billions of dollars from Congress toward carbon capture efforts have made such projects lucrative.

Summit Carbon Solutions is behind the biggest proposed carbon dioxide pipeline in the area. It is pressing forward with its plans despite regulatory setbacks in the Dakotas. North Dakota agreed to reconsider its denial of a permit for the $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile (3,220-kilometer) pipeline that would cross five states, and Summit is reapplying in South Dakota. A separate hearing on that project in Iowa started in August. And Minnesota regulators plan to conduct a detailed environmental review of the project.

The Summit pipeline would carry carbon dioxide emissions from more than 30 ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. The emissions would be buried in North Dakota.

Shadowy snitch takes starring role in bribery trial of veteran DEA agents

JOSHUA GOODMAN and JIM MUSTIAN
Updated Wed, October 11, 2023 

Photo shows Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Florida. Jorge Hernández is expected to play a key role in the October 2023 Manhattan federal trial of two veteran DEA agents charged in a $73,000 bribery conspiracy involving leaked information about ongoing drug investigations. 

(Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP, File) 

NEW YORK (AP) — In his two decades as a professional drug snitch, Jorge Hernández was a master of the double cross.

He lied to his handlers, threatened to unmask fellow informants and even admitted killing three people during his days as a cocaine runner. But time and again, he leveraged his extensive contacts in the narcotrafficking underworld to stay alive, avoid the inside of a jail cell and keep making money.

Now Hernández has turned the tables again, this time on the same U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that launched his lucrative career as the go-to fixer for traffickers, prosecutors and defense attorneys alike. And he’s delivered his most explosive trophy yet: two veteran DEA agents charged in a $73,000 bribery conspiracy involving leaked information about ongoing drug investigations.

Hernández, a beefy, bald-headed figure known by the Spanish nickname Boliche – bowling ball – made secret recordings for the FBI and is expected to play a key role this month in the Manhattan federal court trial of former DEA supervisors Manny Recio and John Costanzo Jr. It's a case that threatens to expose the seamy underbelly of the nation’s premier narcotics law enforcement agency, which has seen at least 18 agents charged or convicted of crimes since 2015, many for being too cozy with informants.

Not on trial but in the middle of it all is a fiercely competitive circle of high-priced Miami defense attorneys flippantly referred to as the “white powder bar.” Their stock in trade is not so much the finer points of law but in scrambling to sign up kingpin clients before the ink is dry on their indictments, negotiating surrender deals and converting them into government cooperators.

In such a world, informants like Hernández thrive by trading in the currency of information — who will be charged and when, said Steven Dudley, co-founder of Insight Crime, a research center focused on Latin America.

“He’s a linchpin in a corrupt system that is about making cases and making money,” Dudley said.

“When cases are made everyone wins,” he added. “The narcos get lower sentences and get to keep some proceeds, the prosecutors and agents get promotions, and the lawyers rake in the money. The only loser is Lady Justice.”

The case is just the latest embarrassment for the DEA, following the arrest of a standout agent in Colombia who laundered money for the cartels and spent lavishly on Tiffany jewels and VIP travel, and another accused of accepting $250,000 in bribes to protect the Mafia in Buffalo, New York.

Hernández's central role in the latest case emerged from an Associated Press review of hundreds of court records, some of which have never been revealed publicly, and interviews with 12 current and former law enforcement officials familiar with his career as a confidential informant, including several who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.

Lawyers for Recio and Costanzo have raised concerns in court papers about Hernández's criminal history, particularly the three people he admitted to killing prior to becoming an informant. But prosecutors insist he is reliable, pointing to bank records and wiretapped calls they say corroborate his testimony.

“Just because someone has committed crimes doesn’t mean that we immediately discount everything they say,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheb Swett told a judge earlier this year.

Neither the DEA nor the Justice Department responded to requests for comment. Hernández hung up when contacted by the AP.

“Call the Justice Department’s customer service line,” he later texted. “They have all the information you desire.”

Court records show the 56-year old Hernández began his criminal climb in the 1990s dispatching boatloads of cocaine for the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing group that later morphed into one of the world’s largest drug-trafficking organizations.

In 2000, after a warlord placed a hit on him, he fled to neighboring Venezuela, where he was arrested. After paying bribes to secure his release, he approached the DEA about becoming an informant.

By all accounts, Hernández proved an adept casemaker, developing a reputation for delivering results but also aggressive behavior toward friends and foes alike.

Agents grew so reliant on Hernández's network of more than 100 informants across Latin America and the Caribbean that they set him up with a phone and desk at the Tampa headquarters of Operation Panama Express, a federal anti-narcotics task force combining resources from the FBI, DEA, U.S. Coast Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

However, people familiar with Hernández's past say his luck ran out in 2008 when he was recorded threatening to expose federal informants as snitches unless they paid him to keep quiet. Court records show the DEA abruptly terminated his cooperation agreement and he returned to Venezuela.

But when one door closed, another opened. Despite being blackballed as an informant, Hernández continued to keep in close contact with the DEA and in 2016 met Costanzo, who was supervising agents in Miami investigating Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a suspected bag man for Venezuela’s socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro. At some point, Hernández was also receiving money transfers on Saab’s behalf from offshore accounts and banished from the case, people close to the probe said.

Shortly after, Hernández started cooperating with the FBI in New York, which had its own investigation into Saab. This time his payout wasn’t in cash — it was in seeking to avoid his own criminal exposure.

In 2017, Hernández connected Saab with Bruce Bagley, a University of Miami expert on narcotics trafficking. At Hernández’s urging, Bagley received $3 million from accounts controlled by Saab in the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland. He then transferred the money to Hernández, prosecutors have said, believing it would be forwarded to Saab’s U.S. attorneys, who were secretly negotiating a deal for Saab to turn on Maduro.

But the professor admitted keeping a 10% commission and in 2021 was sentenced to six months in prison for money laundering.

People familiar with the case told the AP that Hernández was also charged under seal in the same money laundering scheme, and that may have pushed him to keep cooperating.

Court papers show that in early 2019, at the FBI’s direction, Hernández recorded conversations with Recio as well as Miami attorney Luis Guerra in which they discussed recruiting targets of DEA investigations as clients using confidential information allegedly furnished by Costanzo. Recio had recently retired from DEA and was working as a private investigator with Guerra and another attorney, David Macey.

Recio is accused in the indictment of speaking hundreds of times on a burner phone he purchased for Costanzo to allegedly coordinate unlawful searches of criminal databases. In exchange, Recio allegedly directed purchases to Costanzo totaling $73,000, including plane tickets and a down payment on a condo. Prosecutors did not allege in the indictment that the lawyers were aware of those gifts but a court filing this month said they “belonged to the conspiracy.”

Also under scrutiny were conversations between Recio and Costanzo discussing confidential DEA plans in 2019 to arrest another potential client. César Peralta was a high-level trafficker in the Dominican Republic who was able to elude capture for more than four months despite a massive search involving 700 law enforcement officials, according to court documents and people familiar with the case.

The task of reaching out to drug suspects to steer them to the attorneys of choice was assigned to Hernández, who was allegedly promised a generous cut of any legal fees.

“Don’t tell anybody where that information comes from,” Guerra tells Hernández in one recorded conversation, according to court documents and the people familiar with the case. “Do it the way you always do it, brother. Using your magic.”

Court filings in the case said agents also allegedly tried to gain favor with Nicholas Palmeri, a senior DEA official who last year was quietly ousted for improper contacts with attorneys for narcotraffickers, including Macey. In April 2019, Macey allegedly spent nearly $2,000 on tickets for a Yankees-Red Sox game and dinner in Manhattan for Costanzo, Palmeri and himself.

“We about to own Mexico. Nic is in,” Costanzo texted Recio a few months later, when Palmeri was serving as regional director for the DEA in Mexico and Central America.

Prosecutors declined to say whether any attorneys have been or will be charged. Attorneys for Recio and Costanzo did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Macey and Guerra.

Costanzo, who was suspended by the DEA after being indicted, denied in a 2019 FBI interview that he ever took anything of value. But he acknowledged that he and other agents sometimes tipped off defense attorneys as part of their mission to encourage suspects to turn themselves in and cooperate.

“We’ve been doing this for years,” he said.

As for Hernández, he’s still involved in Miami’s legal community, running Hernández de Luque Brothers, billed on its website as a “new kind of consulting firm for a changing world."

"An integral part of our services is to work closely with our clients so that they can make the right decisions in selecting the right attorney.”

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

FDA warns of dangers in treating psychiatric disorders with ketamine

Tara Suter
Thu, October 12, 2023 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers about the dangers of using ketamine to treat psychiatric disorders.

“Ketamine is not FDA approved for the treatment of any psychiatric disorder,” the FDA said on its website Tuesday. “FDA is aware that compounded ketamine products have been marketed for a wide variety of psychiatric disorders … however, FDA has not determined that ketamine is safe and effective for such uses.”

Ketamine is the short name for ketamine hydrochloride, which is a Schedule 3 controlled substance, according to the FDA. The treatment is FDA-approved as an “intravenous or intramuscular injection solution for induction and maintenance of general anesthesia.”

“FDA understands that the ability to obtain such products through telemedicine platforms and compounders for at-home use may be attractive to some patients,” the FDA said on its website. “The lack of monitoring for adverse events, such as sedation and dissociation, by an onsite health care provider may put patients at risk.”

The FDA said it has identified safety concerns associated with compounded ketamine products, and the agency hasn’t outlined “safe or effective dosing of ketamine for any psychiatric indication” precisely because it hasn’t approved the drug for such uses.

“These factors may place the patient at risk for serious adverse events, misuse, and abuse,” the agency warned.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

The FDA Champions Rule To Make Chemical Relaxers Safer After Black Congresswomen Advocate For The Issue

Kui Mwai
Wed, October 11, 2023 

Chemical relaxers are a staple in the Black community, though the safety of their formulas has come into question in the last few years. Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, brought the issue to the Food and Drug Administration in March and pushed them to answer questions about the safety of chemical relaxers. Months after their pleas, the FDA is finally stepping up and addressing the issue.

According to The Root, the congresswomen said the FDA is proposing a new ban on dangerous chemicals found in chemical straighteners, including formaldehyde and other formaldehyde-releasing chemicals.

“The F.D.A.’s proposal to ban these harmful chemicals in hair straighteners and relaxers is a win for public health – especially the health of Black women who are disproportionately put at risk by these products as a result of systemic racism and anti-Black hair sentiment,” Pressley said in a statement obtained by The Root.

Brown is just as elated about the update.

“On behalf of women, especially Black women across the country, I applaud the F.D.A.’s new proposed rule banning formaldehyde and other harmful chemicals from hair straighteners,” Brown wrote.

In Pressley and Brown’s original letter, they explained the cultural history of chemical relaxers in the Black community, and how many Black women have felt pressure to use these products to straighter their hair as a means of adhering to Eurocentric beauty standards.

“As a result of anti-Black hair sentiment, Black women have been unfairly subjected to scrutiny and forced to navigate the extreme politicization of hair,” they wrote, The Root reported. “Hence, generations of Black women have adapted by straightening hair in an attempt to achieve social and economic advancement. Manufacturers of chemical straighteners have gained enormous profits, but recent findings unveil potentially significant negative health consequences associated with these products.”

Though the proposal has yet to be enacted, it marks an important step forward in the fight for safe products for Black users. Right now, there may be negative health consequences for many users of these products health. A 2020 Harvard study discovered that harmful chemicals were included in the formulation of 50% of hair products marketed specifically to Black women, which is a far cry from the 7% of products containing harmful chemicals that are marketed to non-Black women.

Last year, an individual National Institute of Health study found that frequent users of chemical straighteners (the study deemed frequent users as those who use chemical straightening products at least four times a year) were twice as likely to develop uterine cancer as people who did not use chemical relaxers.

“Regardless of how we wear our hair, we should be allowed to show up in the world without putting our health at risk,” Pressley said. “I applaud the F.D.A. for being responsive to our calls and advancing a rule that will help prevent manufacturers from making a profit at the expense of our health. The Administration should finalize this rule without delay.”