The world wide 10 year market can easily hit Trillions of dollars..Thats right Trillions with a capital T!
When the Microbe industry takes off, you will wish you had a piece..
We are talking about a $.04 a share stock with BUGS...Anything could happen on the long haul, but personaly, I am willing to take the risk..
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Im with you dustoff, now lets blast-off!!!!!!!!!
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Miracle" Microbes Thrive at Earth's Extremes
John Roach for National Geographic News
September 17, 2004 For the past 30 years scientists have scoured the most inhospitable environments on Earth searching for life. Just about everywhere researchers look, they find it thriving in microscopic form.
These organisms, known as extremophiles, snuggle up to scalding hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean. They cling to ice in Antarctica. They burrow in the high deserts of Chile and wallow in salty lake beds of East Africa.
Scientists continue to search for—and find—extremophiles everywhere from volcanic cauldrons in Russia to alkaline waters in China's Inner Mongolia. In the process, researchers are also beginning to tease out the organisms' secrets to life.
"We know that we are only scratching the surface of what is out there. At the same time, many people are trying to decipher how these organisms function," said Kenneth Stedman, a biologist with the Center for Life in Extreme Environments at Portland State University in Oregon.
Earth's most extreme environments are thought to resemble those on distant planets. Discovering organisms that thrive in such conditions broadens our understanding of the limits to life on Earth. Organisms also provide clues on where to search for extraterrestrial life.
Learning how extremophiles thrive has led to a variety of innovations. Scientists have developed novel compounds for the development of new drugs and enzymes that make better laundry detergents, cleaner paper production, and hydrogen for fuel cells.
"Experimentally, we are coming of age," said Frank Robb, a molecular biologist at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute in Baltimore.
Robb is the chair of Extremophiles 2004: Fifth International Conference on Extremophiles, a five-day gathering in Cambridge, Maryland, that begins Sunday. He expects about 320 scientists from around the world to attend the meeting to discuss the latest advances in the field.
Conference
So what constitutes an extremophile? Other than the fact that all extremophiles are microbial, there is no common bond that defines an extremophile, according to Stedman, the Portland State University biologist and a conference co-chair. Rather, the differences that distinguish extremophiles from the more mundane mesophiles (organisms that live in "normal" climates and environmental conditions) are subtle.
By deciphering the genomes of extremophiles, scientists are now making their greatest advances in this field. For example, researchers have identified the subtle differences that allow the cell walls of certain microbes to hold up at temperatures above 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius).
Good morning, I think once we get news on Mexico contracts we will have more posters on this board, for now they are scattered on other boards. I liked the ceo interview and these facts.
The Mexico operations, under the guidance of Sub-Surface Waste Management continued to generate record-breaking revenues each quarter this fiscal year (up 82% in first 3 months, 129% in six months, and 334% in nine months compared to prior year).
SSWM is capitalizing on its patented technologies registered in Mexico with SEMARNAT, a Federal regulatory agency overseeing environmental compliance nationwide.
In the interview his last words were more good news coming soon.
By Katharine Mieszkowski and Mark Benjamin in Meraux, Louisiana
The United States Environmental Protection Agency is failing to protect the Gulf Coast's homebound citizens from Katrina's poisons.
REUTERS A woman removes crucifixes from the wall of a home in New Orleans destroyed by Katrina. "On behalf of Mayor C. Ray Nagin and the city of New Orleans, welcome home!" the mayor announced Sept. 25 in a public statement. "You are entering the city of New Orleans at your own risk. Standing water and soil may be seriously contaminated; avoid contact." Limit your exposure, the mayor continued, "to airborne mold and wear gloves, masks and other protective materials to protect yourself. You must supply your own protective equipment."
"I'll give you 10 bucks for your boots," says Donna Harney, a fourth-grade teacher, to a reporter wearing knee-high black waders. Harney is standing on the oil-caked driveway of her best friend's house on Jacob Drive in Meraux, just southeast of New Orleans. A headache-inducing stench fills the air. A faint waterline rings the house, just inches below the top of the front doors. A chocolate-brown line covers the bottom quarter of the house. That's the oil line.
It forms a bathtub ring around a row of 20 or so modest brick houses that stretch up and down the street. Most look salvageable from the outside, but that illusion is dispelled the moment you step inside. Behind every front door is a toxic junkyard, where the remains of each family's possessions, rearranged by floodwaters into garbled piles -- and infested by weeks of mold and rot -- are coated in a putrid mud, thick with crude.
"Oil is everywhere," says Harney with disgust. "It's encrusted on the vehicles. It's on the houses." It's also on Harney's blue-and-white sneakers. She says that every store within 100 miles is sold out of rubber boots. Driving to Meraux, Harney says, "I cried on my way in, I'm not ashamed to say."
An umbrella of environmental laws, including the Superfund law, gives the Environmental Protection Agency considerable authority -- and in some cases the responsibility -- to ensure messes get cleaned up right. And the mess in southern Louisiana, as EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson himself admits, is "the largest natural disaster we've faced."
Salon.com This article has been provided by Salon.com as part of a special agreement with SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL. In return, our colleagues in San Francisco will publish selected articles from Der Spiegel on their Web site at: www.salon.com But Louisiana environmentalists, who for decades have battled oil companies and government agencies to improve the human and natural health of their polluted state, say EPA's tests are insufficient and its health warnings inadequate. "They read like 'Hints From Heloise,'" says Rick Hind, legislative director of the Greenpeace Toxics Campaign. National critics stress that EPA failed to comprehend the pollution that arose after the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11 and may be repeating the same mistakes in the Gulf Coast.
"That entire area has to be cleaned up before people move back in," says Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. "You could have tens of thousands of people getting seriously ill."
To describe the EPA's response to Katrina, "the two adjectives I would use are 'understaffed' and 'overwhelmed,'" says Oliver Houck, who runs the environment program at the Tulane University Law School. In past years, Houck says, federal and state agencies have been "primordial" in their failure to monitor pollution released from industrial facilities along "Cancer Alley," the swath of the Mississippi River that winds from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, dotted with 136 petrochemical plants and six refineries, all belching dense airborne toxins.
The oil spill in Meraux spouted from Murphy Oil Corp. Located in the working-class St. Bernard Parish, it's bordered by a farm of giant white circular tanks, where oil is stored for processing. During Katrina, one of the tanks ruptured, dumping raw crude into floodwaters, sewers and swimming pools. Murphy Oil says the spill is between 10,000 and 20,000 barrels. The U.S. Coast Guard puts it at 19,500 barrels, or 800,000 gallons. Today the oil and mud have dried and formed a cracked black layer of frosting on lawns and driveways.
Katrina caused at least 40 oil spills from Gulf Coast refineries and storage tanks, dumping more than 8 million gallons of crude into southern Louisiana towns, wetlands and shorelines. The Murphy spill is not the biggest. That honor goes to the one in Plaquemines Parish, where 3.7 million gallons of crude leaked from tanks.
The Exxon Valdez polluted Alaska's Prince William Sound with 11 million gallons of oil. But mopping up crude in the variegated Louisiana landscape will be far more difficult than it was in Alaska, where the oil was confined to one place. To date, according to the Coast Guard, 70,000 barrels of oil have dispersed into marshes and evaporated, while 55,000 barrels remain to be cleaned up. The fate of 2,000 underground tanks of petroleum products remains unknown.
Oil is not the only toxin that saturates Louisiana and threatens the health of residents returning to New Orleans and adjacent parishes. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality reports that muck covering the area is contaminated with human waste and bacteria, including E.coli, a fecal bacterium. It estimates that between 1,000 and 5,000 railroad cars have been damaged by Katrina, including some carrying chlorine or sulfuric acid. The EPA says water may be polluted by arsenic and lead from paint and the batteries of 350,000 submerged cars. Shattered homes and businesses are contaminated with asbestos and mold.
Currently, with the EPA at the helm, state and local crews are trolling Louisiana's streets and waterways in trucks and boats, conducting water, soil and air tests. The EPA is posting the results on its Web site, accompanied by guidelines for returning citizens. It advises them to wear gloves, goggles and respiratory protection. It tells them to open windows to avoid explosive gases and possible carbon monoxide poisoning. Remove and discard wet material that may have mold or bacteria, it says, and avoid mixing household cleaners that can produce toxic fumes.
But environmentalists and EPA staffers say that environmental agencies are not conducting adequate and comprehensive tests, meaning that people are returning to the Gulf Coast without sufficient information about health hazards. Ultimately, the decision to allow people to return to the Gulf Coast resides with state and local authorities like Mayor Nagin. On its Web site, the EPA defines its role as merely helping decision makers make an informed decision. EPA deputy administrator Marcus Peacock told a House panel Sept. 29 that the EPA was responsible for "preventing, minimizing or mitigating threats to public health, welfare, or the environment."
But critics say the agency should be more active in preventing people from returning to the Gulf Coast. "The EPA has not done a thorough assessment of the contamination of [St. Bernard] parish or any other parishes that have been contaminated," says Hugh Kaufman, an EPA senior policy analyst at the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. On Sept. 12, EPA Science Advisory Board member Richard Gilbert stated that the EPA's current plan of sampling 24 affected areas was "very limited in scope" and didn't address the full spectrum of contamination throughout the area. "I expect that questions will be asked about whether the data are applicable to non-sampled flooded parts of Louisiana that are close to chemical plants or other potential sources of pollution," he said.
Appearing Sept. 29 before a House subcommittee on the environment, Erik D. Olson, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said it was the EPA's moral and legal obligation to warn and protect the nation's citizens. Yet based on NRDC's research in the Gulf Coast, he said, he was concerned that EPA was both delaying its test results and doing a poor job of communicating the results to people who didn't have Internet access. "Unfortunately, EPA apparently has decided to 'punt' to local authorities the responsibility to protect citizens' health in the wake of the massive Katrina-related oil and hazardous chemical releases," he said.
Long-term risks from the pollutants now being found in and around New Orleans include cancer, birth defects, spontaneous abortions and asthma. The EPA has also underplayed the threat of mold. Health experts say trillions of mold spores, exacerbated by the late summer heat, could sicken a large population of children, people with asthma, older residents, and people with weakened immune systems, the New York Times reports.
Houck says some illnesses might not show up for years or may never be identified by health authorities. Katrina wiped out many impoverished communities in southern Louisiana, and often indigent people cannot afford to go to doctors. "They are going to get sick and they are not going to know why," Houck says.
Despite the destruction and health dangers, the EPA has not taken measures to prevent people from returning to southern Louisiana. And Nagin seems intent on bringing people back fast. "There is a huge tension between redevelopment as soon as possible and cleanup as well as possible," Houck says. Jean Kelly, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, says the agency would like to proceed with more caution, but allowing people to return to their homes "is not really our decision. We can advise the mayor, but it is his decision whether or not he wants to bring people back in. That is not something we have control over."
The EPA is sending mixed messages. It recently issued a press release stating that levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, are "slightly elevated" around Murphy's Oil USA. But the actual test results, buried in fine print, reveal that benzene levels are 45 times higher than the state standard. Some of the EPA data has confused Nagin himself. At a Sept. 19 press conference, Nagin said an EPA report to him on the danger of returning to some neighborhoods was confusing. "We also looked at the [EPA] report as it relates to flooded areas," Nagin said. "And it was a very clever attorney who wrote the report. So it basically bounced on both sides of the issue and didn't really tell you much."
While the mayor may be prematurely opening the gates to New Orleans to get business humming again, people are driving past the grime and gunk -- and health warnings -- for the simple reason that they want to see their homes again and save what they can. "In America, your home is your castle, and now it's a contaminated castle," says Darryl Malek-Wiley, Louisiana environmental justice organizer for the Sierra Club. "People deal with that in all sorts of different ways. Some go into denial." And some, like Harney, who uses roofing tiles that have flown off her friend's house as steppingstones across the sludge on the driveway, go into shock.
Harney looks disgusted as she steps through the front door. The duplex is rented by Edie Labarriere, a single mother and Harney's best friend, who lived here with her two sons, ages 12 and 9, before Katrina. Since the hurricane, the family has been living with Harney at her house in Harahan, La. Just now, the Labarrieres are on their way here to salvage what's left of their things.
From the outside, the duplex doesn't look too bad. A yellow X is spraypainted on each of the two front windows, indicating that it's been checked out by search-and-rescue. The number 0 on both X's indicate that no one's been found, dead or alive.
Inside, three wooden kitchen chairs are lodged at crazy angles. They are stuck in a tar pit of thick, black, rancid goo, which is peppered with random household items: a clothes hanger, stray pieces of paper, and what was once a maroon raincoat. There's nowhere to step that isn't black mire, which holds everything within its oily grasp.
In the backyard, the children's bikes sit encrusted in filth. "I guess we won't have to take their bicycles home," she sighs. A hammock, ripped from its tree, lies plastered to the backyard fence, which now leans into the neighbor's yard. Near the back door, the muck on the ground grows smoky gray, then a sickly green. "Ewww," she says. "I gotta go in there, people. God, this stuff stinks. Am I a good friend or am I a good friend?"
Soon after Katrina, St. Bernard Parish president Henry Rodriguez dubbed the area "another Love Canal." A few weeks later, says parish spokesman Steve Cannizaro, Rodriguez consulted with the EPA, "and they told us the area was not toxic, and we decided everyone has a right to see their home, and so we let them back in."
Many citizens and activists in St. Bernard Parish, also home to a ExxonMobil refinery, wanted to return home but didn't trust the EPA. In late September, 180 residents of the parish met at a Holiday Inn in Baton Rouge, seeking information about pollution in their neighborhood. Everyone was full of questions: "What is EPA doing?" "How big was the spill?" "What is Murphy going to do?" In fact, St. Bernard residents are so suspicious of the local oil companies that over a year ago they persuaded the parish to hire an independent environmental engineer.
But today, says Kenneth Ford, president of St. Bernard Citizens for Environmental Quality, the engineer is nowhere to be found. "We're disappointed," says Ford. "Without his scientific proof that the parish is not contaminated, no one should be allowed in right now."
Cannizaro replies that the parish is comfortable with the EPA's advice to allow people to return. What's more, he says, the parish of 68,000 residents "is one step away from being financially destroyed; businesses are flat on their ass." People need to return and start buying and building again. "You can't operate a government without taxes," he says.
Canvassing the parish in late September is a four-man crew from Greenpeace. They have spent weeks living in a Cruise America R.V. with an aluminum boat strapped on top, documenting the environmental destruction on the Gulf Coast. They have taped the letters "TV" on the windshield of their Jeep to make passing military and police security checkpoints easier. In weeks of surveying the damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Greenpeace guys attest that they've seen some hideous sights, like an offshore oil rig in the Gulf that's been ripped from its moorings and turned upside down, leaving a five-mile-long oil slick in its wake.
John Hocevar, a marine biologist for Greenpeace, says that 40 percent of the coastal wetlands in Mississippi have been so damaged they're no longer able to perform their ecological function as a natural water filter and habitat to birds and wildlife. In Port Arthur, Texas, they saw a refinery so damaged by Hurricane Rita that two of its storage tanks had imploded. But the neighborhood surrounding Murphy Oil is by far the worst that they've encountered.
"This community could have rebuilt but Murphy Oil killed it," says Mark Floegel, a toxics campaigner for Greenpeace. "It would have been bad. But the oil spill makes it so much worse."
Currently, the company is working with the Coast Guard and the EPA to mop up the spill. Dump trucks, steam shovels and hydraulic pumps scoop up contaminated soil around the tank and pump the oil into tankers. The workmen are dressed in heavy boots and yellow hazard pants. One tells the Greenpeace crew flatly: "Nobody here is going to answer any of your questions."
The Murphy spill was such a direct hit to the neighborhood that the company is already facing two class-action lawsuits brought by lawyers on behalf of St. Bernard residents. Another suit is being brought by the owners of the Paris Palms Shopping Center in Chalmette for the damages it suffered. In response, Murphy has announced that it will give $5 million to hurricane relief to the area through the United Way, the local school system and the parish itself.
The oil spill is clearly the final indignity after a brutal storm. But environmentalists fear that the real story isn't getting out.
"So far, from what we've seen, we don't really have any reason to believe that what we're being told is really the whole story," says Hocevar. "If you don't look, there's nothing to see," he continues. "We have an administration that has been cutting back on the EPA investigative enforcement." According to a 2004 report by the Environmental Integrity Project, the number of civil lawsuits filed by the federal government under the Bush administration dropped 75 percent from the number in the last three years of the Clinton reign. Eric Schaeffer, the former head of the EPA enforcement office, who oversaw the project, told the Los Angeles Times, "If you're a big energy company, you're basically on holiday from enforcement."
Greenpeace isn't conducting independent testing of the air or groundwater, but other groups are. Under normal circumstances, a small nonprofit, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, distributes air-sampling kits to residents who live near refineries and petrochemical plants so that they can independently monitor what's being spewed into the air around them. But post-Katrina, the group sent a professional sampling team from Dynamac Corp. into St. Bernard Parish to take 10 soil samples. The results are due soon. NRDC also plans to work with local environmental groups to conduct a battery of independent tests.
Senate Republicans, led by Environment and Public Works Committee chairman James Inhofe -- who has declared that global warming is a hoax -- have introduced a bill that would allow EPA to waive clean water and air laws during the cleanup. The EPA itself is drafting a plan that would allow the agency to waive state regulations on smog emissions or pollutants pouring out of coal plants. In response, Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said: "It's bad enough that big polluters want to exploit the tragedy to pollute more, but it's even worse that Washington Republicans want to help them do it."
A draft for the EPA plan states that for the agency to act there must be "an Act of God or another event that could not have reasonably been foreseen or prevented." "They call it an act of God," says Malek-Wiley of Louisiana's Sierra Club. "But I was just in St. Bernard Parish and it was heartbreaking to see that people's lives are now coated with a film of oil from Murphy. God didn't put the oil tanks in those people's backyards."
At a Sept. 14 press conference, EPA administrator Johnson defensively stated, "Everyone is looking to EPA for what are the results and are these done in a scientifically appropriate and sound way? We're doing that. We're not trying to be bureaucratic. We want to make sure the results are ones that we can all stand by."
Critics say they don't believe the EPA is trying to cover up the widespread destruction and health hazards in southern Louisiana. But they have little faith in the federal agency's ability to assess the grievous problems and be forthright with the public. As we know, it's not first time the EPA has faced this issue.
The collapse of the Twin Towers four years ago blanketed lower Manhattan in a dust of asbestos, lead, glass fibers and concrete. Within days, then-EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman was assuring New Yorkers that the air was safe and encouraged them to go back to work at Wall Street. "I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C., that their air is safe to breathe," Whitman said in an EPA press release a week after the towers fell.
But an EPA inspector general's report in August 2003 concluded that Whitman did not have sufficient data to support her calming tone. The report says the White House "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" about the environment at Ground Zero. Critics have long speculated that the White House wanted to get New York's financial motor, Wall Street, up and running again -- pollution be damned.
To date, nobody knows what the environmental impact has been on the thousands of people, including pregnant women, who lived and worked near Ground Zero. A study by the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York showed that nearly 80 percent of 9,000 first responders may have suffered some lung ailments and half still had those problems a year after the attacks. Several studies are under way on the possible long-term effects on pregnant women and infants living near Ground Zero.
Twelve Manhattan residents sued EPA last year alleging that the agency may have endangered the health of tens of thousands of workers and residents in lower Manhattan. That case is pending.
Pressure to open New Orleans, says Kaufman of EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, is as intense today as it was on Wall Street soon after Sept. 11. "The appearance of 'back-to-normal' gets local industry going, then real estate, and so on," he says. "It's the same issue today, except that the locations and contaminants are different, and people talk with a different accent."
A week after the attacks in New York, the EPA instructed citizens to use a wet rag or wet mop to clean their apartments, though in some cases the dust may have been contaminated by asbestos. On Sept. 14, 2005, the EPA instructed citizens returning to New Orleans to "wear gloves, goggles" and use "respiratory protection" when handling material that may contain asbestos, a known carcinogen.
The two messages are "eerily similar," New York Democrat Rep. Nadler wrote in a letter to President Bush on Sept. 21. "I am deeply concerned that many of the same mistakes made by EPA in response to 9/11 are being repeated on the Gulf Coast."
"This is a potential catastrophe," Nadler says today. "We don't want two catastrophes. We had maybe a thousand killed from the hurricane. You want another thousand killed because of the environment? Maybe five thousand?" Nadler wants to see the EPA conduct a more thorough environmental assessment of the city, rather than just through its spot samples. He also wants EPA to ensure that private companies are held liable for contamination.
That wish, according to environmentalists, shows few signs of coming true. Both the EPA and the Louisiana DEQ have signaled that they will rely on regulated industries to police themselves and tell the government if there has been some major spill. The EPA administrator during the Clinton administration, Carol M. Browner, once announced an initiative to crack down on illegal pollution along the Mississippi River because some companies could not be trusted. Browner at the time said there was an "unprecedented amount of illegal pollution in the Mississippi River drainage." Asked at the Sept. 14 press conference about leaks or damage from companies that line the drainage, or Cancer Alley -- Johnson said he was "not aware" of any problems. "The companies are going to do their own assessments, so we're all working very cooperatively to try to do an assessment."
Today, more than a month after Katrina's wrath, taking inventory of the wholesale environmental destruction remains premature -- for both the EPA and the activists. "We are still in the assessment stage in a lot of this," says Kelly of the Louisiana DEQ. "The problem is so monumental that nobody has dealt with anything like this before."
As she steps gingerly through the muck in the Labarrieres' backyard, Harney is cheered when she finds a crocheted picture that spells "Labarriere." The hanging is a gift she'd bought for the family and promised Edie's 9-year-old, Andrew, she'd try to recover. She carefully extracts the cream-colored crochet from its glass frame, thinks about trying to salvage the smudged pane, and decides against it. She folds up the crochet carefully and puts it in her pocket. Taking a long, panoramic look at the surrounding debris, her cheer vanishes. "You can't live in this place," she says. "You can't live down here."
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September 16, 2005 [UPDATE 9-16] Katrina's environmental and toxic legacy Katrina struck Gulf Coast counties with a heavy concentration of oil and chemical industry facilities. So, part of their legacy of hazardous waste has churned up, awash, and coming back to haunt us. Plus, toxic chemical storage that may have been spilled. (Other Katrina posts here.)
{9-16} Write EPA to better investigate and monitor the toxic waste disaster in New Orleans -- via OMB Watch. OMB also has a database of NOLA toxic chemical sites (thanks to long-time data guru Rick Puchulsky). The Sierra Club, besides handling right-wing attacks, has a fine post by Carl Pope.
It's too early to estimate the environmental and toxic aspects of the hurricane's damage, but here is some news and links:
{9-16} Coast Guard reveals more on oil spills (HT EffectM). Indeed, the spills are now 2/3 the size of the Exxon Valdez, for which "a team of economists estimated the aggregate willingness to pay of U.S. households to prevent another oil spill of that size in Prince William Sound to have a lower bound of $2.8 billion and a mean of $7.19 billion. (HT Enviro Econ).
{9-16} "The Mother of All Toxic Cleanups" reports BusinessWeek. EPA Chief on their hard choices, including the reg waivers (AP). An interview with EPA whistle-blower Hugh Kaufman criticizing the agency. (HT EffectM)
{New} More environmental resources. CS Monitor on toxics cleanup. EPA's updates. Fascinating info/photos on environmental impacts via US Geological Survey.
{9-8 update} EPA reports that it tested "priority pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), total metals, pesticides, herbicides, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). ... Lead concentrations in water exceeded drinking water action levels. These levels are a concern if a child ingests large amounts of flood water. For the additional chemicals tested, we have yet to detect contaminant levels that would pose human health risks. ... EPA testing has focused on neighborhoods and not in heavily industrialized areas."
"Michael McDaniel, the Louisiana secretary of environmental quality, said it was "simply unfeasible" to attempt to filter the water before flowing it into the lake. The EPA granted the Army Corps of Engineers a waiver from treating floodwater before sending it into Lake Pontchartrain." Read interview. Any public input on this waiver?
{9-8 from Gristmill} "An article on CNN.com today quotes Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Mike McDaniel: "Everywhere we look there's [an oil] spill ... there's almost a solid sheen over the area right now." The story also describes destroyed sewage plants, natural gas leaks, and oozing vehicles of all shapes and sizes. It is, as McDaniel says, 'almost unimaginable'."
{News 9-2): Explosion at a chemical depot in New Orleans. Potentially huge oil spill into the Mississippi.
{News 9-6} Reports on the toxic brew and e-coli situation by CNN (E.g., Rodney Mallett, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, say there do not appear to be any choices other than to pump the water into Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, a key maritime spawning ground. "I don't see how we could treat all that water," Mallett said.") Reuters (Bass and Murphy oil spills, 25 damaged sewage treatment plants)
[New] Just received an email from a guy who both warned about (in 2002) and survived hurricane Katrina, New Orleans environmental reporter Mark Schliefman, sent me this email:
Bit too tired to go thru all the toxic potential involved here, but in general, you've got some 250,00 batches of household chemicals mixed with leaking gasoline and kerosene from underground tanks, cleaning fluid from dry cleaners, chemicals from a variety of businesses, etc. Then you've got a myriad of tanks containing who knows what that would have floated off their footings, breaking their connections and spewing their contents. (9-2-05)
New Orleans now 'hazardous waste site,' experts say by Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer (August 31, 2005) Thanks and hat tip to Confined space.
Dave Roberts at Gristmill put up many links on environmental damage and debate about Katrina. Likewise, Risk World on damage to oil and energy resources.
The finger-pointing has already begun. Nobody causes a hurricane. Of course, there's a history behind the limited preparedness of this heavily industrialized region. But who bears responsibility for the concentration of industrial toxicality in the poor counties of Louisiana and Mississippi? The responsibility is dispersed, like barrels of pollutants in a toxic stew.
Kaspit
{Update} Gov't portal for environmental info to help interpret the Katrina and New Orleans situation.
About the makings of a disaster like Katrina, Impact Analysis and Mark Schleifstein's work. About fingerpointing (e.g., Agonist) , for instance, The Commons blog. For a quick photo of media justice, Hungry Blues.
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Microbial Genomics and Ecology research in the Environmental Sciences Division, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) focuses on a diverse set of research areas including bioremediation. Information on these activities can be accessed from the Environmental Sciences Division home page and below.
Statement of Purpose Microbial Genomics and Ecology research in the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory focuses on microbial ecology and genomics of environmental organisms. The research is concerned with the basic science underlying bioremediation efforts, carbon cycling and sequestration, as well as other uses of biotechnology. The research couples molecular biology, DNA technology, genomics, and bioreporter techniques with traditional microbiological methods to investigate microbial communities and the processes by which microorganisms transform materials and energy. The goal of these investigations is to increase the understanding of microbial ecology, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and microbial degradation of hazardous contaminants; to demonstrate application of innovative microbial techniques and bioremediation approaches in solving the U. S. Department of Energy's (DOE) and the nation's sediment, soil, surface water, and ground water contamination problems; and to transfer new technology to industry. Much of the funding for the group is provided by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER), and by the DOE Office of Fossil Energy.
Research Directions: Evaluate the effectiveness of and factors controlling carbon seqeustration in terrestrial and aquatic systems Develop and apply molecular biological techniques, including microarrays, bioluminescence or fluorescence based bioreporters, DNA probes in environmental microbiology, and analysis of 16s rRNA, as tools for monitoring microbial processes in basic ecology, carbon sequestration, applied remediation, and identification of bacteria and their activities.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony V. Palumbo, Environmental Sciences Division, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6038 Phone: (865)576-8002, Fax: (865)576-8646, E-mail: palumboav*ornl.gov
Warnings and disclaimer Revised May 23, 2005
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$1/share: Did you know that BUGS was shipping product to the East Coast for dairy applications? And how about that rocket fuel cleanup contract in Southern California? It's getting mighty close! And how about 'several' Mexican contracts with some extremely nice numbers involved? And that is just the beginning. BUGS will be working in Mexico for many years to come. And don't forget the rest of Central and South America. Did you see the new website in English, Spanish, and Portuguese
------------------------------------------------- The above is from another board. Things are starting to heat up again..
I know I read like a pumper, but hey, I am really getting excited about making some serious dough on this stock!
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California Orange Grower Using BUGS to Increase Crop Yield Business Wire - October 10, 2005 11:14
CARLSBAD, Calif., Oct 10, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- U.S. Microbics, Inc. (OTCBB:BUGS), announced today that Bio-Con Microbes, Inc., a majority owned subsidiary specializing in agricultural products and services, has supplied Bi-Agra(TM), a proprietary blend of natural microbes, to a California orange grower to increase crop yield on low yielding areas. Preliminary projections suggest that the microbe treated area will out-produce other similar areas by ten percent or more and validate the product's use for much larger areas. These results are typical of past performances of the product on strawberries, tomatoes, sugar cane and other food products produced in the U.S. and Mexico.
Robert Brehm, CEO, shared his enthusiasm for the product by saying, "The Bi-Agra(TM) product line has shown extraordinary results over the past twenty years they have been used in the U.S. and Mexico. Many products such as strawberries, squash, tomatoes, and sugar cane have already shown dramatic yield improvements in both quantity and weight per acre and hectare with a reduction in water and fertilizer requirements. These improvements not only yield lower cost production for the grower, but safer, more natural fruit and vegetables for the consumer because of the reduction in chemical fertilizers needed."
Brehm added, "Our corporate strategy for the microbial technology is to use Sub-Surface Waste Management (OTCBB:SSWM), to clean up the soil and groundwater in developing nations which export food products to the U.S. and then have the growers use our Bi-Agra(TM) products to grow these products, better, faster, cheaper and safer for the consumers of the world. As SSWM gains traction in Mexico environmental clean-up projects and we start to commercially roll-out our Bio-Con products and services, BUGS' strategic plan for cleaning up the world's messes and feeding the masses will start to become a reality for our loyal shareholders and management team."
About U.S. Microbics Inc.
U.S. Microbics is a business development and holding company that acquires, develops and deploys innovative environmental technologies for soil, groundwater and carbon remediation, air pollution reduction, modular drinking water systems, and agriculture enhancement. For more information on the company or its Strategic Partner Program, contact Robert Brehm at 760-918-1860 x102 or visit the website at http://www.bugsatwork.com.
The information contained in this press release includes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements usually contain the words ``estimate,'' ``anticipate,'' ``believe,'' ``expect,'' or similar expressions that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the Company's status as a startup company with uncertain profitability, need for significant capital, uncertainty concerning market acceptance of its products, competition, limited service and manufacturing facilities, dependence on technological developments and protection of its intellectual property. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed herein. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are discussed more fully in the ``Risk Factors,'' ``Management's Discussion and Analysis or Plan of Operation'' and other sections of the Company's Form 10-KSB and other publicly available information regarding the Company on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company will provide you with copies of this information upon request.
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Winsted Holdings, Inc. Provides Financial Guidance and Corporate Updates Tuesday October 18, 8:45 am ET
NEWPORT BEACH, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Oct 18, 2005 -- Winsted Holdings (OTC BB:WHLI.OB - News), a Business Development Company (BDC), today announces financial guidance and other corporate updates. ADVERTISEMENT
For fiscal year 2005, Winsted Holdings is projecting approximately $1,500,000 in total revenue, an increase of $1,476,309 or 6200% from fiscal year 2004. In terms of per share figures, Winsted is expecting net revenue per share of $.0014 at the current capitalization of Winsted common stock. Revenue gains are attributed to the success of Winsted's MedSpa portfolio companies. Winsted will file its third quarter results for the period ending 9/30/2005 in mid-November, which will also reflect our recent 90% acquisition of GaeaCare Syndicate Partners, Inc.
We currently have 5 MedSpa locations under construction, including our recently announced Omaha location. We feel each of these locations will near $50,000-100,000 in revenue each month under the successful model we've implemented at the Charlotte Laser Center. Additionally, we are negotiating with 12 other MedSpa franchisees in which Winsted would book a management and consulting fee of $58,500 each.
Going forward, we are excited to be in initial discussions to take a minority interest in a publicly traded company that we feel will be of value to Winsted and its shareholders. We also have several private acquisitions, in various stages of completion, that the company expects to announce in the coming months.
About GaeaCare Syndicate Partners, Inc.
GaeaCare Syndicate Partners, Inc., 90% owned by Winsted Holdings Inc. (OTC BB: WHLI), is a proactive environmental products and services corporation that intends to become a leading environmental cleanup, emergency response, and environmental remediation company by the use of new computer systems technology, sensor technology, communications technology, systems concepts and microbial environmental cleanup treatment to serve the Homeland Security and environmental industries. Sub-Surface Waste Management, Inc. (OTC BB:SSWM.OB - News), a U.S. Microbics company (OTC BB:BUGS.OB - News), is a 10% equity holder. For more information on GaeaCare visit http://www.ags-gaeacare.com/.
About MedSpa Solutions Inc.
MedSpa Solutions Inc. of Irvine, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Winsted Holdings Inc. (OTC BB:WHLI.OB - News). Medical Spas are fast becoming the facility of choice among women and men seeking rejuvenating skin care procedures. At MedSpa Solutions Inc., not only are our customers treated with the best that technology has to offer, they also get expert consultations from our skilled medical staff. Our trend-setting spa-like facilities, combined with our friendly staff, are all you need for the best skin care experience ever. Our facilities offer FDA-approved procedures like Botox, Laser Hair Removal, IPL-Skin Rejuvenation, Microdermabrasion, Chemical Peels, Collagen, and Leg Vein Treatment. We work only with the most advanced laser equipment to achieve your desired results. Our medical staff is one of our most valued assets, and they are trained in a culture of warmth, friendliness, and customer service. Everything at the spa is designed with your comfort and convenience in mind, even our business hours which are flexible to adjust to your needs. Making you look good and feel good is what we are here for!
The Company U.S. Microbics (ticker symbol: BUGS) has recently posted a profitable quarter. Company stated revenues for the next five years are expected to reach $100 million. Share price is just starting to move upwards. "Letters of Intent" by Fortune 500 Companies are "signed" and awaiting full production delivery of microbial-blend (bugs) from U.S. Microbics newly established California West Coast Fermentation Facility.
This Company has the ability to sell environmental assisting microbial product technology into just about any International business, qovernment, munincipalities, production facilities, agriculture, aqua-culture, oil fields, education, restaurants, golf course... facility. The Board of Advisor Directors read like a Who's Who of International Nobel Laureate prize winners. The technology is proprietary and covered by U.S. and foreign patents and the share float is small. Management seems to know where they are headed... volume is just starting to heat up as... is the share price and they appear to be meeting stated objectives. The microbial blend of "bugs" is being used to increase agricultural production output and diminish herbicides and pesticide use. This technology was also used to clean up the aftermath of the Gulf War oil spills..... The Company expects to reach a minimum $4 price level by September of this year. They are shareholder driven and are an S.E.C. fully reporting company. From their website:
"The Company mission is to profitably apply, develop, train, acquire, protect, license, and transfer XyclonyX technologies consisting of patents, knowledge, products, processes and people in the global environmental, agriculture, and natural resource marketplace.
The Company's objective is to establish itself as a leading provider of environmental technology and products to companies on a worldwide basis by licensing its superior technology, which meets governmental standards, is environmentally friendly, easy to manufacture and apply and yields high profit for its licensees.
U.S. Microbics (USMX), [OTCBB: BUGS] is building an environmental technology conglomerate which could have revenues over $100 Million in the next five years. Using the proprietary microbial technology, patents and unique culture collection developed over 30 years, acquired through its wholly-owned technology subsidiary, XyclonyX, USMX believes it can build the foundation for the international commercialization of this previously successful technology. USMX is restarting a known valuable technology, using proprietary products and only needs capital, people and product distribution. Unlike other companies who need to develop a product or technology and find a market and customers to sell it to, USMX already has products that have been developed, have sold for millions of dollars, use advanced technology unavailable to other companies, and have a proven world-wide market with applications ranging from oil field cleanup to increased food production in third world countries. With existing Letters of Intent for its products and services, USMX is truly on the verge of releasing and capitalizing on an enormous amount of technology for beneficial use that can touch the lives of every person on earth."
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